Page 9 of Always Mine

Lash felt his wife at his back, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He should have known this was coming.Anthony had been too ...complicit the last year.He knew his son hated the association with Monster Dogs MC.He knew Anthony would opt for the shittiest jobs to get out of going, or at least he had the five years Simon had been out of Tabitha’s life.

He put his hand on top of his wife’s arm.The Monster Dogs MC had it coming.The club didn’t know the finer details the Billionaire Bikers MC had told him.

The Billionaire Bikers MC was a group of ten rich-as-fuck men with a lot of money, a lot of power, and a serious vendetta against all human traffickers in the world.Many years ago, they had approached not just him and Chaos Bleeds, but several other MCs, including the Trojans, Saints and Sinners, and Dirty Fuckers MC, but the details got lost.They wanted to give an opportunity to all those willing to help.As long as Lash could remember, the Skulls and Chaos Bleeds had faced enemy after enemy, had lost good men and women.His own wife had lost their first child, and that had sent her into a psych ward for a short time.The kids had been shot at.The clubs had nearly been wiped from existence, and against the odds, they had been able to bounce back.It hadn’t been easy.None of what they had done had been easy.It had been hard work.

Billionaire Bikers MC offered them a solution.They get out of the criminal life and work with them.Aligning with them allowed the law to get off their back.Their suspected criminal dealings would be over.They would instead help save women and children, even men.They stopped the kidnapping, selling, and distribution of trafficked human beings.It wasn’t an easy job, and each task came with risks.

All they had to do was stay out of trouble and not turn their back on the agreement they had made.Lash saw this as the lifeline it was.The club would not have survived without it.

He was done burying club members.He was done hearing his wife’s screams, and worrying about his children.He was through with it all.This was not cowardly.Deep down he knew Tiny would never have done it, but Tiny nearly got them all killed.Lash would not get them killed.He wanted them to live.

Fighting for innocent lives did not make them cowards.They were doing the right thing, and he had seen the power of the Billionaire Bikers MC.The damage real evil bastards could do.Selling children like they meant nothing.Pimping out women for sick games.Lash had seen it all.

There was some stuff he would never even tell his wife about.The Skulls still killed people, especially those that deserved to die.And the Monster Dogs MC was on the Billionaire Bikers MC radar.

When Ryan raped Tabitha, Lash had every intention of wiping that club from existence until the Billionaire Bikers MC told him what they knew.Monster Dogs MC was known within the trafficking world.The club moved from city to city, hunting down women, finding and kidnapping any and all that would bring in a good price.They paid people to find the best.Even going into schools and finding girls who didn’t have parents that cared.Stalking them, then taking them.They were a target of the Billionaire Bikers MC.

They needed the Skulls to form an alliance with them, an agreement that would not impact either club.Lash had to make the Skulls appear to be the guilty party, and he couldn’t allow Devil to know.He couldn’t allow anyone to know.

This secret was all on him.And he alone could figure out where they were going and what they were doing, saving as many lives as possible.But he also had to make sure some of them slipped through the cracks.He hated knowing there were women and girls hurting because he had to play it safe, but the Monsters Dogs MC were also part of something bigger.

Billionaire Bikers MC wanted to get to the center of it, wipe it out, and they were so close, only now that was gone.

There was currently only one surviving member of Monster Dogs MC, and Lash had him chained up in a secret location.No one knew he was alive.

Luke was the one and only son of the president himself.And so far, Luke was not talking.

“What are you going to do?”Angel asked, bringing him back to their room, where he held onto his wife’s arm.

“Keep it together, it is all I have to do.”

Whizz and Lacey were currently not talking.They were dealing with their daughter hanging on by a thread in a hospital room.

He’d taken his son’s patch, along with the young children who had come so close to earning their patches.Even the outsiders that had become friends with their kids.They had all been so close to earning everything, and now that was all gone.

For the first time since being in charge of the Skulls, he finally understood what Tiny felt.The man had once been in over his head, and Lash had thought he was incompetent, but right now Lash didn’t know what the next move should be.

****

“I’m not leaving,” Anthonysaid.

“You smell like fucking shit, and I don’t recall asking for your permission to leave,” Lash said.

Anthony looked up at his father.He had been inside Daisy’s room all night, and the moment Whizz and Lacey arrived he stepped out and took his stance on the floor outside.

He’d left long enough for a bathroom break.He didn’t know when the last time he ate was, or when he last drank.It didn’t matter.All that mattered was there was no change in Daisy.She hadn’t improved, but she also hadn’t gotten worse.

Anthony went to look back at the floor, and then he was suddenly hauled off.It had been a long time since he was thrown across his father’s shoulder.He was a grown man, not light by any means, and yet Lash without a word carried him as if he didn’t weigh anything.This was the man who had once snapped a man’s neck with his bare hands.

“Dad, put me down.”

There was no way he was going to wriggle.There was a chance the old man would throw him across the room if he pissed off his father, and he didn’t want that.He had no choice but to be carried out of the hospital like he was child.

Once they were outside, Lash shocked him even more by placing cuffs around his wrist.

“What the fuck?”Anthony asked.