Page 69 of Ruckus

“Because he’s your fuckin’ leader,” I yell, starting to lose my patience. I’m done fuckin’ talkin’ I want blood on my hands.

“AaronWrathAdams.” He laughs as if he just realized who I am. “ Theprinceof Long Beach. Your father was your leader, too, right? Should we punish you for his sins, cause I hear he got quite the rap sheet?” I got no words to throw back at him, just enough anger and hate to beat the life out of his 7ft body a hundred times over.

“Like I said, your trouble is with Ronnie, not with us.”

“We’d want more than just Ronnie,” Raze shocks me when it sounds as if he’s about to make a deal. “I want the driver, the shooter, and I want you to leave here. Go back to Sacramento. Quit with this vision you got, because it ain’t ever gonna happen.”

I stare at Raze as if he’s crazy, we came here to kill. Not to fuckin’ talk terms and conditions.

“Have I got your word on that.” Tank steps closer to the gate, and puts his hand through the railing, and when Raze starts moving forward, Ruckus steps into his role as Sergeant and moves up to the gate beside him.

“You got my word.” Raze shakes his hand and I shake my head in frustration.

Tank heads back toward the storage container, sliding the metal to open it, and when he steps inside I look around to the others and make sure they’re on their guard. He could have twenty armed men in there for all we know. I hear muffled cries echo from inside, and Tank returns, gripping two gagged and tied men in each of his hands, they’re eyes squint tight when the sunlight hurts their eyes.

“Ronnie Wilkins.” He shoves the decrepit old man up against the railings, “And his shooter.” Then tosses the other, making them rattle. “Take ‘em.” He shrugs like it ain’t a big deal.

“How long they been like this?” Raze looks as shocked by the sight of the Reapers’ president as I am. “And how did you know what I’d want?”

“Because, it’s exactly what I’d want if I were you. We ain't so different, Raze, we both had leaders who tried to be dictators. If my brothers had voted to have the girl killed, and your guy shot, they’d be out here facing the consequences. This…” Tank kicks his ex-president in the back. “…We did take a vote on. I knew soon that you’d be coming, we gave him a second chance after the girl and we weren’t gonna regret giving him another. Take what I’m offering Raze, no one has to die here today. It’s the last you’ll see of us, I can promise you that. I never liked the beach anyway.” He sniggers.

“And the driver!” Vike shouts out. “He’s part of this deal too, where is he?”

Tank drops his head and closes his eyes.

“Kid.” He looks a little hesitant as he turns his head toward the boy.

“No… No. Please. Tank, I…” The kid shakes his head and starts to panic, and when he refuses to step forward, Tank grabs his arm and throws him at the gate too.

“Take ‘em, and we’ll be outta here by tomorrow mornin’. Let this be the end of it.” Tank unbolts the gate, opening it enough to allow Raze and Ruck to drag the men that are bound out

“Sorry, kid.” I hear Tank speak to the boy when Raze grabs him by the arm too.

The gate quickly shuts behind them and he looks defeated as he steps out of sight.

“What the fuck, Raze?” I shake my head at my prez as he heads back toward me, dragging Ronnie and forcefully pushing the terrified boy forward.

“You got what you wanted.” He dumps Ronnie in front of my bike and I look down at the piece of shit that killed my sister.

“That prick was right, in what he said. The club has shown what they thought of their leaders' decisions.” He looks down at Ronnie, reminding me that his own men did this to him and I nod my understanding before I crouch down to the fucker’s eye level.

“Look me in the eye and tell me you did it.” I pull the gag down over his chin so he can confess that he killed an innocent girl. There's still a tiny spark of hope inside me, that Willow could still be alive. That my father just wanted to hurt me one last time before I ended him.

I hear something feral come from behind me and Tawk comes outta nowhere, fists flying, attacking the man who supposedly took her from us.

“You killed her, you killed her.” He punches him again, and despite being helpless, the old man laughs at him.

“No, her father killed her, when he decided to leave her with me.” I grab Tawk and rip him back, before pressing my boot into the old man's throat.

“Grunt.” I look over to the cage and wait for Josh to rush his way over to me. “Load him into the cage, take him to the warehouse, me and Tawk will meet you there.” I hold Tawk back so the new kid can do as I requested. “We take our time, we make him suffer.” I remind him, as calmly as my voice will allow.

“Now… That's exactly what I did to your sweet baby sister.” Ronnie finds his voice again and I reach my limit. Instinct has me taking out my gun and pulling the trigger in one fast movement that not even I could predict. Josh, screams, dropping Ronnie’s body from his hand and frantically rubbing the bastard’s blood and brains off his face. The kid Raze still has hold of starts to cry, and Tawk drops to his knees, clutching at the dirt with his fists.

“Wrath.” Ruck approaches me cautiously, and I let the gun slip outta my hand so I can clutch my stomach and try and make the pain go away.

“I gotcha,” Ruck whispers, holding me up as I grip his arm and scream.

“She’s dead, she’s really fuckin’ dead.” I look up at him, and when he nods his head back at me, with eyes full of pity, I don’t care how many of my brothers are here to witness it. I break.

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