Page 47 of Biker's Collar: Property of Scrap

It’s finally time to tell the truth. Looking around the room, nothing feels more difficult than confessing my fathers shame to this room filled with people who grew up looking up to him. Even my mother doesn’t know the truth. She has never met Oske for more than a split second and assumed that Oske was Ethan’s girlfriend.

Everyone here is a brother to me… or a sister-in-law. I trust them. But that doesn’t stop the shame from coursing through my veins. It should be my father’s shame, but it feels like mine. I have done everything in my power to cover this up, but with the Midnight SS encroaching on the land… we have no choice but to defend ourselves. Technically, Oske’s portion of the land is the most at risk of Midnight SS incursion based on our recent discoveries.

Their human trafficking trail runs straight through the Creek land. They stole women – tons of women – and Oske wrongfully assumed we were the ones responsible at first – long before she trusted my father. She changed her mind when the crazy ass cops blew up the Rebel Barbarians club house. She saw reason after that. Unfortunately, my father’s death helped.

Oske tried to tell me the truth from the beginning, but it was so hard to believe that my father could have been involved insomething so fucked up. She has proof. Lots of proof. And that crazy Indian woman has been trying to stalk and hunt bikers for years since her own escape from the religious nuts who trade human bodies with the bikers. My father stuck her and her family in the middle of a war that they could never win on their own. He must have known the club would need to intervene.

Maybe this is what he was always preparing us for…

Hundreds of acres of the land border her reservation and over fifty acres on the reservation can only belong to registered members of Oske’s Creek tribe.

If we don’t defend her side as much as ours – we both lose the land.

“My father tricked Oske’s mother into an illegal marriage and fathered a pair of twin boys who have since fucked off and are currently roaming around the country,” I say, the story weighing heavily on my chest. It doesn’t help that Juliette leans forward with her eyes fixed on me widely like she’s watching a soap opera.

This had better not end up in one of her paintings.

“How the fuck is that our problem?” Ruger says.

“You can leave the club if you have a problem with how I run it,” I snap at him. The last thing I need right now is an attitude from Ruger Blackwood. He might be family, but he’s a loose cannon.

I can’t handle him with the same ease that Doc Blackwood could. My voice vibrates with angry tension as I try to draw Ruger’s excessively independent mind into some kind of understanding. “Oske has put you up in her trailer while you kick the shit out of a pregnant woman. We have all given you plenty of room to be an unhinged piece of redneck trash.Question me one more fucking time, and I’ll drag your ass outside and remind you that the only reason I’m not in prison is because I haven’t been caught.”

My heart races, even more fury boiling just beneath the surface as Ruger barely seems affected by my frustration – which he can clearly observe.

“So people can’t ask questions?” Ruger grumbles. Gideon throws him a sharp, disapproving look. That shuts everyone up again.

“It’s our problem. These people know that some of the land belongs to club members and they also know that Oske’s brothers are roaming around the country. If we don’t get rid of the Midnight SS… they’re going to hurt them and they’re going to take more control. We can’t have that.”

“We’ve done a good job so far,” Deacon says eagerly. “Who else do we need to take out?”

I glance at Tamiya, whowasinvited to this meeting. She might not be the licensed private investigator, but she’s the only one I can trust involved with that entire nosy woman organization.

“I have a list,” she says. “The remaining Midnight SS bikers. I don’t know what you want to do with it.”

“I can’t assassinate anyone,” Ryder says calmly. “Joslin wants me to start attending a new church with her.”

Hunter snickers from the back of the room. “Careful. You might turn to ash in the doorway.”

“Hunter, be nice,” Juliette hisses.

“You won’t be necessary,” Tamiya says, handing me the list for review. I memorized the names on this piece of paper before themeeting, but it helps to have them handy so I can pass the list around. I nod and pass the paper back to Gideon on my left.

Those are the names.

“Ryder, I won’t assign you an assassination, but I need you and Joslin to take the time and do some research about Oske’s brothers. She has no clue where they are.”

“Great.”

“Your job will be shutting the fuck up and staying out of trouble,” I tell Ruger flatly as the list makes its way around the room.

“I can’t kill anybody else,” Ruger says. “I got my hands full.”

Again. We’re quiet.

“What the fuck do you mean by ‘anyone else’?” Gideon asks.

Tanner and Ruger exchange glances. Heat rushes around my neck. I told these fucking idiots to keep this to themselves untilafterthe meeting. But Ruger has the IQ of a goddamn armadillo. If I could rip his throat out with my glare, I would.

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