Page 58 of Bullet

As Raven cuts Donny down, I feel no satisfaction. The charges didn’t worry me. The club facing yet another unknown threat did. It isn’t just us here. There are women and children who could become collateral damage. There’s no relief over figuring this out and getting it dealt with, at least not yet. I’m sick with disgust and burning with rage.

It’s going to take a long fuck of a time before it settles.

“What were they doing with the blackmail money?” Raiden asks, stepping forward, cracking his knuckles menacingly.

“I don’t know,” Donny gasps out, and this time, he’s telling the truth.

“We’ll find out. They had better be paying it as restitution to those victims. If not, we’ll make damn sure that it gets redistributed.”

Tyrant claps a hand on Raven’s shoulder. “Take him upstairs. We’ll need him to start signing shit soon, and we don’t have cell reception down here. Harold will answer his calls, if anyone’s.” When Raven complies, he turns to Raiden. “We’ll find the victims and give them some money. Not that it will ever make what happened to them right, but having it might help them cover any medical costs, or pay for therapy for the years to come so they can get over this nightmare. It might help them relocate and start again somewhere else, where they don’t have to constantly be reminded of that night, if that’s what they need.”

Raiden nods. “I’ll get Wizard on it, figuring it out right away.”

There are no more words said. We clean up the basement in silence, each of us grabbing a few tools to put back in their places in the storage rooms upstairs, each of us sick at heart and lost in our thoughts.

***

Hours later, in the privacy of my room at the club, it hits me that I’m going to have to tell Lynette about this. I can leave out some details, but not many. She’ll put it together. I hate that it’s a burden she’ll have to bear. She’s strong because she’s had to be, but I know that underneath that façade, there’s a tender, good woman with a huge heart.

Can we lean on each other through this and heal together? Will she stay? Is what we have from Donny enough to keep our club and our families and loved ones safe? Will I ever be able toerase the images Donny’s words splashed across my brain like gore?

I wish I had answers for just one thing, but I don’t. I have no idea how long it will take to sort this out, but we will. We’ll do it as a club, because we have to. At least I have brothers to see me through this, my chosen family, but when I think about family, it’s not just the men here that I picture.

It’s Lynette and Willa too.

I don’t know if we’ll find happiness, or even get close. I don’t know if we’ll have another day together, let alone a future. I’ve lived most of my life that way, knowing full well that being a soldier means that any day might be your last, but I haven’t lived that life in years.

The pain up under my ribcage tells me I’m getting soft.

The air that rushes into my lungs, at last, says that a little softness is a good thing. It’s what makes us human, and when we lose that, we become like Donny and Harold Jacobs—men without souls.

Chapter 15

Lynette

“Is it weird that I feel like we’re coming back home now that we’re here?”

I get what Willa is saying. Pulling up to the little character house in Hart feels right in a way I wouldn’t have guessed it ever could. Going home to Seattle for the weekend was like stepping into a vacation home. We’d only been gone for just over three weeks, but the place had a closed-up smell and a deserted feel.

“I don’t think it’s weird at all.”

We were allowed to check on the house in Seattle because the Harold threat has been neutralized. The club abducted Donny and forced him to talk, which got Harold’s attention, as they’d planned.

Wizard and Raiden then asked for my help. I went under and didn’t surface for two days, but at the end of that time, I’d drafted several ironclad legal documents for the club, covering and protecting them from Harold. I’d never had to draft things like a confession before, but I did that too.

After everything was signed, the club let both of them go.

An hour after leaving the clubhouse, they were on a plane to Mexico.

The club didn’t like just letting them walk away, but short of putting them in the ground, what other option did Tyrant have?The paperwork they signed ensured they couldn’t come back and fuck with the club. Tyrant made it clear to Harold that the club was going to make restitution for Donny’s crimes, but that they’d do it anonymously. Harold and Donny were still on the hook for the amount they needed to pay, another reason they won’t be able to come back to the States for a very long time.

Though they’ll no doubt procure fake IDs down there, Wizard will be tracking their movements as far as he can. If they try to disappear off the club’s radar entirely, Tyrant has already promised he’ll hire as many PIs as it takes to track them down.

Though Harold and Donny are gone, there’s still not a sense of finality. The club is still vigilant and cautious, though I was able to talk Bullet into letting me drive to Seattle to check on the house alone.

I pull up into the driveway and park beside Willa’s pink wagon. As soon as I turn off the ignition, she gives me her sad puppy-dog eyes.

“What is it?” I sigh. “You can tell me without prepping me first. I thought we’d established that I’m not the big baddie you thought I was.”

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