Page 18 of Deserter

She jolted up at the tone in my voice and covered her body with her hands. “No one. It’s nothing.”

I pressed my hand against her ribs, and she winced. “Nothing? You’ve got broken bones.”

“Fine. It’s my man, okay? He keeps me in line when I forget my place.” She said all of it as if it was perfectly normal and I realized that she was worse off than Ma had been.

“You say the word and I can make your man disappear permanently.” I didn’t say it because I wanted to make her mine. Betsy had proven that she could be taught, which meant she’d fit in nicely at the club.

She grabbed my hand and brought it down to cup her pussy. “I just want you to make me forget his name.”

Chapter Five

Grey: 1982

It took six months to organize the all-chapter biker gathering. We would’ve gotten it done sooner, but shit had hit the fan in a big way.

Wolverine, along with five other brothers, were indicted on counts of possessing firearms and dynamite and it looked as though his source was right; the feds were going to try to tack on conspiracy to commit as well.

Because Wolverine had been unable to leave well enough alone, I was given more responsibility within the club and promoted to SGT at Arms before they hauled him in.

Dragon took over as acting Pres and rival clubs took it as an invitation to step on our toes.

The Bandits invited members of our Colorado chapter to party at their clubhouse. The guys went, seeing it as an olive branch after decades of fighting. The assholes tried to disarm them at the door and our brothers rightfully refused, seeing it as an insult and a trap.

It pushed back our all-chapter gathering, but we rode up to handle it. We knew that if we didn’t send a strong message early on, then what the Bandits had done would just be the beginning. So, we air-conditioned their clubhouse and took out their president.

It was enough for the rest of their club to back down.

The ATF investigated, but never formally charged. The way I saw it, we took out the trash for them.

To make matters more complicated, a few of the older bikers within our own club had trouble with my recent promotion. It took spilling blood in the clubhouse to remind them of why Wolverine had moved me up.

I made the hard decisions and put myself on the front line when needed. Initially, I did it, thinking that Wolverine would be released, and I could go back to being an enforcer. Now? I found I liked the power.

And it was a good thing too. It appeared as if the feds were going to drag out his trial as long as possible. They’d been busy scrounging up people to testify against the club; wanting to ensure that when the trial date finally rolled around, they had enough to lock my brothers up for life.

As soon as I found out who their key witness was, we’d be shutting that shit down too. Nobody rolled over on Silent Phoenix and lived to tell about it.

Tonight wasn’t about that though. Tonight was about welcoming brothers from all over the country and partying before we rode into town tomorrow to send a message. The police chief would do well to remember that Silent Phoenix had the numbers to take over the entire region.

Slim walked up with a grin. “Beer?”

I took one from him and we clinked the bottles together. “I saw your old man earlier, but I haven’t seen your wife and kid, Slim. You run off and leave them at home tonight?”

“Like I could talk Lou out of coming to a gathering. She’s been itching for one for a while now, I think being cooped up at home with a toddler is getting to her,” he said with an easy laugh.

Their son, David, had just turned two and was hell on wheels. At the last gathering, I’d watched him hold his breath until he passed out when Lou refused to give him sweets.

“He’s strong-willed, just like another asshole I know.”

“Is that so? I didn’t realize he took after his Uncle Grey.”

That earned him a soft blow to the arm. We stood, shoulder to shoulder, while the rock music we grew up with blasted through the large speakers and bikers from every one of our chapters united for one purpose.

“This is good, Grey. My old man said Wolverine himself couldn’t have predicted a gathering of this size. They’ll be shittin’ their pants when we roll in.”

I nodded. It was a start.

Wolverine had kept his club running on the fringes of society, but I had plans to change that as soon as he was back. We made more than enough in running guns and drugs to start putting down roots within the city. That wasn’t even getting into what we made from the strip club and massage parlor.

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