Page 68 of Ruckus

“If it’s the girl I’m thinking of, I saw her a few times. My dad said he was taking care of her for a friend. We had a few conversations but she never told me who she was.”

“Do you know how many members there are at San Diego?” Peyton changes the subject, she’s been looking worried ever since the guys left and despite Ruckus being a cheating scumbag I know how she feels. I can’t let myself imagine what he and brother are doing right now.

“Seven, maybe eight. Dad never told me of his plans, but I knew he wanted to make it work out here. He sent his best guy from Sacramento out here to get things up and running, and he’s put a lot of his own money into it,” she explains.

“And how did you end up here?” I ask.

“When Dad said he was setting up a new charter that would put the Souls out of business, I knew it would be close to Saul. I asked if we could get our own place and make a new start away from Sacramento. He didn’t need much convincing.” She smiles while her eyes fill with tears.

“He looks like Saul, don’t you think?” Alicia carries her nephew toward me so she can show him off, and I nod and manage a smile. He is kinda cute, and it’s great to see her beenthusiastic about something. “I really needed this today. I was so mad at Raze when I realized what he was doing, but now, having them here… I can kind of understand how Iris feels.Do you think we can convince them to stay?” she whispers, and when I look past her toward Lettie, who already looks so at home with the other girls, I smile.

“I think we can do that, let's face it, she’s got a lot of choice.” I feel a heavy weight in my chest when I realize that Eden is right, me and Lettie Wilkins are the same. She will stay here because she’s been betrayed by her father, and without Saul she faces an uncertain future, and I will leave, because the ghosts of my past just won’t stay buried.

We line our bikes up outside the scrapyard that we know the Reapers are using as a compound and we rev our engines loud until someone’s brave enough to come to the gate.

It’s just a boy who shows his face, and his eyes nearly pop out his head when he sees how many of us are here.

“Go tell ya prez to open his gates,” Raze tells him, as we take out our weapons and get ready. The place is locked up like a fortress, there’s no way of storming in, but we knew that before we got here, and we will smoke those fuckers out if we have to.

Raze promised me that we’ll take Ronnie alive, I want him to suffer the price of what he did to my sister for days and nights. I want him to beg me to put an end to his rotten, waste of a life. It’s given the new kid a reason to tag along on his first field trip. He’s driving the cage, and this will be one of many tests he’ll be faced with before he gets to call himself a Soul.

The boy on the other side of the gates races off and I look over to Ruck while we wait. For me this has been a long time coming. Usually Ruck is the loudest of us all in these kinda situations. Always full of energy, ready to cause aruckus. It’s how he got his name, but there's something off with him today, he ain’t right.

I know we buried Saul earlier, but this is the kinda grief therapy we all need.

“Tank says he’ll speak with ya, but only on civil terms. No guns.” The boy returns. “Well, tellTank,we ain’t got nothin’civil to say,” Raze calls back at him.

“He wants you to know it’s Ronnie who ya got ya trouble with. Not the men here.”

“What men?” Raze laughs.

“I don’t consider those who hide behind a kid as men?” He makes sure his voice is loud enough to be heard. “Right now, I got trouble with any fucker wearing a Reaper cut.” The boy nervously glances sideways toward one of the rusty storage containers and when the 7ft brute steps out from behind it with his chest all puffed out he stands the boy down with a flick of his chin.

“Get a load of this guy,” Ruck laughs under his breath, as the guy lifts his shades on top of his head and spits the gum he’s chewing at the ground.

“What’s your plan, Raze?” he asks, standing alone.

“My plan is to kill every one of you,” Raze gives it to him straight.

“There anyway I can convince you to make a deal?” He steps closer to the gate and if he’s putting on the act of not being afraid, I’ll give him his dues, it’s a fuckin’ good one.

“There ain’t no negotiations on the lives you took,” Raze tells him.

“Come on, Raze, you’ve taken a few yourself, we had a fuckin’ massacre not so long back, then there was JW. Even if I killed half the men behind you, we still wouldn’t be even,” he points out, and I can see Jessie getting impatient from the corner of my eye. I know how he fuckin’ feels.

“We both know you haven’t got the manpower for that. All I’ve seen so far is a boy.” Raze laughs.

“Ronnie’s been making a lot of decisions solo lately. We never agreed to have your guy killed.”

“That guy’s got a name,” Vike speaks up, looking as thirsty for it as I am.

“Was it fuckin’ stupid? ‘Cause it ought to have been. Ronnie was never gonna let him get away with puttin’ rotten seed in his daughter.”

Vike gets off his saddle and starts marching toward the gate, and when Dev and Ruck both move in to hold him back, I stare at the wise assed fucker, on the other side of the gate and decide I need to ask a few questions of my own.

“And what about my sister, my dad gave her to you for protection and you…” My voice gives out on me, because I can’t even think about what they might have done to her. “We ain’t leaving here without some kinda justice, so you go back to your boys and you tell ‘em to come out and fight.”

“What if I give you Ronnie.” Tank looks as if he just laid a royal flush out on the table, and Raze does his best not to look surprised by it. “Killing the girl and shooting your boy, was all on him. No club vote was taken, so why should the men behind this gate suffer for it?”

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