Page 134 of Steel

“Then why don’t you fucking tell me what it is, Steel, because where I’m sitting, it looks like you’ve been keeping secrets from the club. Secrets that have gotten some of our people killed.” Wraith reaches out to take the picture that Jagger’s looking at and slides it across the table to me. “Want to tell me what the fuck Bailee Sterling is doing hiding out in my goddamn strip club, and why you look fucking cozy with her, brother?”

His words vibrate with anger, giving me a glimpse at the rage he’s holding back. The breakfast I ate with my girls sours in my stomach as pain licks up the back of my throat. During all of this with Bailee, I’ve tried hard to not think of the consequences of my actions and how my brothers were going to react when they found out what I’ve been hiding. Knew they’d not take it well. Knew there was a chance I’d walk away without them. When it wasn’t right in my face, it was easier to accept, easier to say the consequences didn’t matter.

But glancing around the table and seeing the betrayal, anger, and pain on my brothers’ faces, I realize it does matter to me.

Can’t regret keeping my woman safe, but it’ll kill me to have to give this life up.

I drop my eyes to the picture in front of me.

Why didn’t I think someone would be manning the security cameras? Hell, why didn’t I realize someone would be paying attention to them at all? Maybe I wanted them to? Maybe I wanted them to know what was going on until I was ready to bring it to them.

I study the picture, and the amount of emotion that pops off the scene at me somehow surprises me. Know what I feel for her, know what she feels for me, but somehow, seeing it is different. It’s real, it’s raw, and it looks fucking painful for both of us.

“What does Bailee have to do with what’s going on at Sinful Saloon?” Wraith asks.

The time for playing on my own is over. It’s past time for them to come aboard.

“Bailee caught Killer and a couple of his members on camera committin’ murder. She barely got away, was shot in the thigh and shoulder as she was escapin’. She called me and did a rush job explainin’, but I met her and patched her up myself. Sendin’ her to the hospital would’ve been a surefire way for her to get dead.”

“Why didn’t you send her to the police? Fuck, why didn’t you come to us with it?” Wraith questions, his frustration and anger still evident in his voice.

I can’t believe he’s actually asking me that. The police part anyway.

“You know damn well why I didn’t send her to the fuckin’ police. The department in Shipton is dirty as fuck. Killer has every single one of them on his payroll. As for why I didn’t bring it to you, we have enough shit goin’ on right now. Our focus ishelpin’ Crow find these motherfuckers who are also targetin’ our people. I had it handled. Least, I thought I did. Somehow, they fuckin’ found out where she was. Now, we’re all fixin’ to pay for my goddamn fuck-up. Long as Bailee and Lyric are safe, I don’t give a fuck how we handle this.”

“What’s our rules, Steel?”

They’re so fucking ingrained in me that I could recite the motherfuckers in my sleep, backwards and forwards. “Never betray the club and protect each other at all costs. Never broke either, Pres. I protected everyone the best way I knew how. Didn’t betray anyone either, so don’t pull that bullshit on me. You know damn fuckin’ well I’m loyal to this club. Just because I made a decision you don’t agree with doesn’t mean I’m not.”

Wraith’s palms smack the table, but I don’t even flinch. His wrath is well-earned. “You got some of our people hurt and one of them killed. Women who thought they were safe with us.”

Anger and guilt wrestle inside me, causing me to jump to my feet when I can’t fight them off.

I place my palms on the table so I can lean across it toward Wraith. My lips pull back from my teeth, and I can feel the vessels in my face constricting. “And that’s something I have to live with. Me, Wraith, not you. Their blood, her death, it’s all on my hands. Do what you gotta do to punish me for not comin’ to you, but know that whatever you do isn’t goin’ to hold a candle to the way I punish myself.”

My lungs contract, tightening then loosening, over and over until I can’t get air in to breathe properly. It all collides and explodes inside me. The anger, the hate, the guilt.

Need to get the fuck out of here.

I snap upright and turn, intending to walk the fuck out, but I only make it a few steps before Wraith barks at me.

“Sit the fuck back down!”

My fists clench as I fight through the emotions battling for supreme. Ever since Bailee walked back into my life, it’s been harder to lock them down as I normally would. This time, I put up the fight of my life against them until I come out the winner and they’re shoved into that steel vault in my brain.

I drop back into my chair and stare at the seething man across from me.

“She’s got this footage?” he asks, leaning back and folding his arms across his chest.

“She said she’s got it somewhere safe. Won’t tell me where it’s at.”

“You’re gonna need to bring her in. We’re already involved in this mess, and I need to know what the fuck we’re up against with the Night Skulls. They’re not a fucking cookie cutter club. These motherfuckers make us, Hades Hellions, and Twisted Kings look fucking tame. It’s going to get messy, and it’s going to get fucking bloody. If we’re going to war, we need to be prepared. We need to see those pictures,” he tells me.

The last thing this club needs is to go to fucking war. The more Old Ladies and kids we bring on board, the more vulnerable our club gets because it means we have weaknesses that can be exploited. Means we have to work harder at protecting them. Thought that’s what I was doing with Bailee, but I’m beginning to wonder if I wasn’t wrong in my assumption.

“I’ll do my best to get her in here.”

Wraith growls. “There is no doing your best, Steel. You will bring her in. No harm will come to her, you know that, but if I have to go get her, I won’t be nice about it.”

---