Page 1 of Ruckus

‘Bound not by blood but loyalty.

We live, we ride,

and we die by our own laws’

Five Years Ago

“What took you so long?” Dev asks as I take the barstool beside him.

“You know how much I hate collecting,” I take the envelopes from inside my cut and slam them on the bar. “Especially when I get sent out with that asshole.” I glance over my shoulder at Sinner. He knows we’re talking about him, and he flashes Dev a wicked smile revealing the blood around his teeth as he strolls to the other end of the bar where the whores are gathered.

“Looks like ya did good.” Vike picks up the envelopes and flicks through the cash. “‘Bout time something went into the pot rather than came out of it.”

“The pot should be fuckin’ overflowin’ with the amount of work Cliff’s been taking on,” I remind him.

Cliff left town on a run with the same select few members. He keeps his circle tight, just Mac, Rex, and Damon seem to be in the fucking know as to what goes on around here. There was no meeting before they left, the rest of us don’t even know where the fuck they’ve gone. Aaron warned me about his father before he left, and in the years that he’s been gone, Cliff has only gotten worse. He doesn’t even try to hide or deny the fact that it’s become us and them.

And all the brothers that are here tonight instead of on the road with our president know that Davy's death last month was no tragic accident, it was a warning to anyone looking at standing up to our leader.

“Where did all the mess come from?” Dev tips his chin over to Sinner, who ain’t had the courtesy to wash the blood from his hands and torso. “Someone try holding back on ya? I’ll bet it was Errol, he makes a fortune outta them whores, yet he never wants to pay up.” Vike shakes his head and laughs.

“Errol was good. He knows he’d never be able to run that place without club protection. But there is a bar man from that new joint on the boardwalk who's short of a finger.” I raise my eyebrows.

“That fucker shouldn't have pointed it in my face.” Sinner obviously hears me and feels the need to defend himself, before getting back to the girls’ attention and knocking back the shot Polly just poured for him.

“He was showing us the way to his boss's office,” I growl through my teeth, trying to keep my calm.

“Did he bite the damn thing off?” Saul grimaces.

“Nah, the blood around his mouth came from the security guard’s ear he gnawed on at our last stop.” I give Dev a deadpan look, because I hold him completely responsible for the fact that the whack job’s here with us. No one can argue, Sinner’s a lia-fuckin’-bility, and for the past few hours I’ve felt much more like his babysitter than his club brother. “Shit could have gone south real quick in that bar.” I wait for Sinner to wrap his arm around one of the new girls and lead her off to trouble before I give my next suggestion.

“Surely there's something we can do to put him back in the fuckin’ cage.” I watch him pin the girl to the wall by her throat and fill her mouth with his tongue, staining her lips red with the blood of his latest victim.

“If there is, I still haven’t figured it out.” Dev shrugs.

I like Sinner's other personality, Saint, everyone here does. He’s a team player, he’s trustworthy and, thankfully, he is the guy we get most of the time. But Sinner has to take over occasionally and with each time it happens, I swear he’s getting worse.

“Well someone needs to do something to get a handle on him.” I nod my appreciation to Polly when she hands me a beer.

“That's your first mistake,” Dev laughs. “There ain’t no one capable of getting a handle on Sinner.” It irritates the shit out of me when people around here act like he ain’t a problem, and while I’m on the subject of irritation, I hear a laugh come from the other side of the room that goes right through my bones.

I don’t have to look to know who it belongs to, yet I still turn my head, and when I see her sitting right in the center of a huge group of men I ain’t ever seen before, lapping up their attention, I hear myself growl.

“How long has Daddy’s little princess been here?” I spark up a smoke, keeping my stare fixed on my best friend's little sister. I made a promise to Aaron to take care of his sisters after he left, and I swear, Freya Adams was put on this Earth purposely to test me.

“All afternoon.” Dev seems unbothered by the fact she’s treating our clubhouse like some kind of fuckin’ frat house, and when her eyes eventually lock with mine and catch me watching her, she smirks at me before drinking from the bottle of vodka in her hand.

I don’t know what the hell’s gotten into her lately, but she’s really been acting up. Drinking and strange men are not a good combination.

She doesn’t even flinch once she swallows, just wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and winks at me as if she knows that she’s scraping on my final nerve.

“Who are they?” I toke back hard on my cigarette while I wait for an answer from one of my brothers, but I refuse to look away. I want her to see how pissed I am that she’s here. She knows it ain’t the place for her.

“Some stunt act from that traveling show that's pitched up in town, didn’t ya see all them dirt bikes parked on the other side of the gates?” Vike takes a break from counting the cash I’ve been collecting. “I should get this locked up in the safe.” He taps the huge wad on the bar before heading toward Cliff’s office.

I can’t help wondering how much of that money me, and the brothers who ain’t in Cliff’s favor, will see.

Still, I keep my attention on Freya and the group of guys she’s brought to our clubhouse. There are five of ‘em in total, all of ’em hanging on every little word she speaks, and giving her their full attention just like she commands. One of them looks more confident than the others, he’s leaning in far too close when he speaks to her, and he’s fuckin’ touching. Maybe riding through rings of fire ain’t enough of a buzz for him. The man must have some kind of death wish, touching the president's daughter like that.

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