Page 19 of What Lies Within

Two votes for yes, one for no. Either the aging man to my right will leave it a hung jury, meaning we cast a new vote on who the deciding member should be, or he'll make it so that my fucking lungs don’t feel as though they have holes punched all through them.

A deep breath rises in the man's chest as he fixes his gaze on the table between us. "Chances are you won't remember," he starts, "but a long time ago, when you were just a wee nipper, we had a member by the name of Lucky."

“Yeah, I remember,” Tyke grumbles.

He’s already one step ahead of me. The name strikes a chord, but I can't reiterate facts about the guy.

"He passed about five or so years after your father let you boys start hangin' around the club," Turnip continues, glancing at Tyke. "Great guy. Do anything for you, give you the shirt off your back, and all that."

“You got a point to this?” Tyke snarls.

"Official cause of death was a road accident, but that ain't all there was to it. See, he'd started seein' a girl he knew in high school. But although separated, she was still married. Her old man got wind of them, and I can tell you now that there was a certain gray truck in the body shop not two days after Lucky got hit."

“Fucker wasn’t so lucky after all,” Rigs says with due respect.

“No. He wasn’t. My point is,” Turnip stresses, turning to me and Tyke, "issues around women have a way of turnin' ugly. Fast. Lucky's ain't the only story I could tell you of a man burned by love—if that's even what you feel toward our guest. But you're both grown men," he says pointedly. "You knowwhat you're doin' and understand the consequences." He looks toward Minion and gives him a tip of his head. "That's why I'm voting Aye."

It feels like a trap.

"For fuck's sake." Minion jets from the seat, pacing to the wall and back. "I'm fuckin' making a promise," he bites, finger pointed our way. "You two fuck that woman up any more than she already is, I catch awhiffof you hurtin’ her through negligence or selfishness, and it’ll be my position up for replacement.”

Tyke leans back, cut touching my hands and jolting me to stand tall. I snort a disbelieving laugh and shake my head. “You wouldn’t do that.”

“Fuckin’ oath, I would.” His upper lip twitches. “Abuse, of any kind, is a hard no. I couldn’t consciously align myself with men who’d do that.”

“You fuckin’ watch your words.” Tyke rises from the seat, pacing toward the man. “Don’t you fuckin’ dare accuse me of knowingly abusin’ a woman.”

“That’s the point,” Minion utters, meeting Tyke chest-to-chest. “I don’t think you’d even realize you did it.”

8

RAE

"You okay?" Jamie leans against the doorframe, arms folded over her oversized T-shirt.

I nod. “You can come in if you want.”

She pushes off the timber, her lanky limbs carrying her toward where I lie in the center of the bed, a pillow cradled on my chest. "Figured you might be up here to escape the witch." She settles on the edge of the bed, hands pressed between her knees. "Can't blame you if you were."

"She spat at my feet when I walked past her just now." I wipe the side of my finger beneath my eye, sure it's clear how much of an epic fuck-up I am. "They still here?"

Jamie nods once. "They'll be gone soon, though. Tyke's talkin' with Marco, and then I'd say he'll take the woman home before she starts any more fights downstairs."

"People don't like her, huh?"

A small smile curls on one side of her mouth. "Not if they can help it."

“What did she do?”

Jamie chews her lip, staring at the floor. "I only heard a bit of it, but she wasn't loyal when she was here. Slept around, you know what I mean?"

“Yeah.” I clutch the pillow in a death grip. Is that what these people think of me? Am I just another slut whoring herself out to their men? “The club really honors loyalty as a trait, huh?”

"Ain't that what they found places like this on?" she muses. "Knowing you can trust your brother?"

I study the girl before me. We haven’t had much opportunity to talk before now. I’d seen her around, helping the prospects or talking with her father, but she's not the kind of girl who willingly places herself as the center of attention. Perhaps that's why she dresses the way she does, hiding her body like that.

It doesn’t take much of an imagination to know that she’s a knockout underneath all that loose cotton.

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