Page 100 of Golden Atonement

The gathering room was quiet as brothers and wives sat waiting for Max to begin. Phantom, Matrix, and Player worked diligently to set up the television. It wasn’t often he held club meetings. The last club meeting was regarding Jessica and Savage, when the entire club learned that Roxy, Moonshine’s wife, was King, Gunner, and Pyro’s aunt on their father’s side.

Talk about a shocker.

With Jason sitting next to me, several of the brothers glared at the young man, who hadn’t said a single word since Max called the meeting.

I watched Player click the remote, turning the television on and the Tennessee Chapter appeared, women included.

It was good seeing them all again. Only one was missing, and when I saw her husband sitting quietly, my heart went out to him.

I made a mental note to call Jess and see what I could do.

“What the hell is he doing here, Reaper?” Ink snarled when no one said a word. “He sided with Chaos. He’s a traitor.”

“Not a traitor,” Jason growled.

“I was fucking there!” Ink roared, jumping to his feet. “You calling me a liar?”

Max shook his head. “Ink, sit down.”

When Ink finally sat, Max looked at me and I nodded when he turned to look at the men and women sitting around, waiting for him to say something, anything.

“When I took the Golden Chair back, I promised all of you that there would be no more secrets, no more lies. Well, now it’s time for me to atone for my sins. Only a few of you will remember. The rest weren’t around or hadn’t joined the club yet. You all know I took over the club after my Pops died.”

Bullseye shifted in his seat. This was going to be a touchy subject for him, considering everything that had happened.

“Shortly after James Doherty died, Ghost and four other club brothers took off and didn’t return for five years. When Ghost came back, he brought back information about how to bring down theSociety, but that wasn’t all he brought back. Within the files was something else... a ghost file of sorts.”

“Reaper, I went over all those files, I didn’t see a ghost file.” Phantom sat up, looking confused.

“That’s because it wasn’t with what I gave you. Ghost gave it to me personally since it was in an envelope with my name on it. I saw Pops’ handwriting and thought it was a private message meant just for me. Only, when I opened the envelope, all that was in there was a thumb drive.”

“Another fucking thumb drive?” Savage groaned, shaking his head.

Max nodded. “When I plugged it in, there was nothing. Just a blinking cursor. I thought it had been wiped, that there was nothing on it, so I gave it to Sypher, thinking the kid could use it for school or something. However, it didn’t take Sypher long to realize something was off with the thumb drive.”

“Of course he did,” Trout piped up. “Brat is good at finding anything suspicious. What did he find?”

“Files. Lots of files.”

“Regarding?”

“Everything. It was a treasure trove of information that Pops gathered over the years, from the creation of the club to allies, enemies, even the decision to have me kidnapped. More importantly, information not just about this club. There are files that contain details of the very inception of every underworld organization, from the Mafia, TRIAD to the IRA. I’m talking about thousands of files on everyone, including us. When I was going over our club files, that’s when I realized what Pops had actually done. Because of him, I had everything I needed and then some, enough to ensure that our club and, more importantly, all of us stayed safe. But that wasn’t all I learned.”

Several brothers fidgeted while a few actually sat up, paying closer attention.

Looking at Bullseye, the man glared at Max. “Don’t you fucking say it.”

Max simply straightened his shoulders and said, “Pops was innocent.”

“MOTHERFUCKER!” Bullseye roared, jumping from his chair that flew across the room. “You told me he was guilty! Complicit with the rest of them! I believed you!”

“Oh shit,” I vaguely heard Savage mutter while most of the California Chapter hung their heads.

Getting to my feet, I walked over to Max, wrapping myself around him. This would not be easy for all of them to hear. Good men had died because of all this shit, and Max would suffer the brunt of all their anger. But for Dylan, this would be a hard pill to swallow because he was the one who actually killed James Doherty.

Bullseye had killed his own father on Reaper’s order.

“When?” Bullseye growled as he brushed off Phantom when she tried to console him.

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