Page 142 of Beautifully Wounded

“What about our inside men?” I ask, no longer able to keep my mouth shut. “We pay those fuckers on the force a lot offucking coin. Have they looked at the case file for Abbey? Do they have any intel as to why Officer Allen and his posse stepped foot on our turf?”

Smitty shakes his head. “The file for Abbey is locked. They can’t access it.”

I fucking frown. “Bull-fucking-shit they can’t. What about their hacker?”

“Too risky.” Smitty shrugs and I feel like smashing up this entire room.

“Why the fuck would her case be locked? This doesn’t make sense.”

“He’s right, that doesn’t make sense.” JD snarls, and I know he’s thinking about his sister again.

Her case was locked, and the people behind the brutality she suffered were pigs. This feels all too fucking familiar.

“I think the real problem here is that this shit was brought to our fucking front door in the first place.” Spud thumps his fist on the table across from me. “There was no order to rescue the girl, Ringo. You not only kidnapped her, but used our club brothers and a fucking sister to help you, and snuck her in here.”

Anger washes through me at his fucking tone, but I know I did the wrong fucking thing, so I keep my mouth shut.

“What? You’ve never used club resources for personal use before?” JD snaps at our VP. “I’m pretty fucking sure you did basically the same thing with your sister-in-law.”

“Fuck you, JD! I paid for my infraction.” Spud slams both fists on the table this time, his glare lethally directed at JD.

“And so will, Ringo. That’s not even a fucking question. You and everyone here knows he won’t even try to get out of it, yet you fucking did, didn’t you, coward!”

The second Spud flies up from his seat on one side of the table, and JD follows next to me, I stand and slam my fists to the table.

“ENOUGH!”

As my two feuding club brothers breathe heavily in anger, they turn their glares to me.

“JD is right, I will take whatever punishment our President deems fucking fit,” I glare at our VP before turning it to my best mate, “and other past infractions by my brothers isn’t fucking relevant and should stay in the past.” I grit my teeth, fighting for calm.

Slowly, both JD and Spud lower back to their seats, while Smitty remains in place, relaxed back in his chair, taking another drag of his smoke.

“So what’s it going to be, Prez?” I ask Smitty, still standing, my knuckles resting on the tabletop.

“Club beating. Public,” he says easily, like he decided my fate long ago.

I grit my teeth. “Come on, man, I don’t want Abbey to see that.”

“Punishment for lying about bringing in an unapproved outsider without revealing her real identity is a public beating.” Spud interjects before Smitty nods in agreement.

“Perhaps she needs to witness it, so she understands what’s at stake. This is how we live. She’s in our world now.”

Grinding my teeth, I give my President a nod, not liking this one fucking bit.

I don’t care about getting a beating. I can take it. But the thought of her in distress because of it doesn’t fucking sit well with me.

“Church is over,” Smitty calls, picking up the gavel and slamming it to the table’s surface while standing. “Out to the courtyard for a good old-fashioned flogging.”

The men hoot, and I can’t help but smirk at that.

There are a lot of men in this room who have met my fist from their own punishments, and today, they get to repay the favour.

“Fuck man. I bet it’s times like this you wish you were a drinker.” JD slaps me on my back, and I chuckle. “Nah, there’s nothing like feeling every fucking bit of life. How else will I know I’m truly alive?”

JD scoffs. “Man, you’re going to wish you weren’t soon.”

He bumps my shoulder with his, and we file out behind the others, instantly feeling the hum of energy in the courtyard as the men spread themselves out in a huge circle.

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