Page 75 of His Flawed Ride
“Take your men and live another day. As much as I want to end this right now, we’re on sacred ground of our loved ones and I won’t have your blood seeping into their graves.”
Hopper tuts. “There’s no room for sentiment in this fight, Jackson. You may as well save me the job of putting you all to ground and do it yourself if that’s the case.”
“Fuck you. The Lost Souls will destroy you and everyone you’ve ever fuckin’ loved. Leave now or you’ll be the second president I’ve shot dead…”
Police sirens disturb the resting place of Willow’s Peak. Most brothers keep their heads turned to their enemy but many eyes flick to the three cop cars coming toward us before settling back on their targets.
The sheriff climbs out of her cruiser but stays behind her door. “If you’re not a Lost Soul, I suggest you lay your weapons down and put your hands up.”
Hogs look to Hopper and wait for his command. Leo keeps his gun on Hopper and none of the Lost Souls drop theirs.
“I will not ask a second time,” the sheriff hollers as her deputies use their cruisers as shields and aim their guns in our direction. I hope they have orders to only shoot the enemy, or Leo won’t be paying her next month.
Hopper gives the nod, and they start to put down their guns, but they don’t lay them on the ground. They back away and slowly they head for their bikes. Lost Souls keep our guns up, just in case, and wait for Leo to lower his.
“Come on now, Jackson, you’ve had a lucky break with your sheriff showing up. Take the luck and I won’t have to blow your brains out over your graves.”
Leo lowers his gun. “This ain’t over.”
Hopper loses his amusement. “You’re fuckin’ right it ain’t.”
He strolls over to his bike. He lights a cigarette before starting his engine and with a cold smirk for Leo, he rides out of the cemetery with his club following him out.
Without a care for the sheriff, Slade storms over to Leo. “What the fuck, Leo. We should’ve killed him and every one of them motherfuckers while we had the chance!”
“And we will, so back off!”
“You saw what he did to my sister and then you let him roll up at her funeral? I don’t understand you.”
Leo steps closer to him and leans into his face. “You don’t need to understand me, Slade. You need to fuckin’ listen.”
“She was family.”
“She wasyourfamily.”
Slade sucks in his breath and the brothers move in closer. “Fuck you. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve nearly died for your family. I expected little in return.”
The heavy step from the sheriff is the only thing to make Slade back off. “Care to explain why you were on the verge of reenacting an old western movie in the middle of the day?”
“No,” Leo grunts then signals for us to leave.
I always know when tension in the club is bad because I can feel it when we all ride together. Slade’s glare bores into Leo’s back as he rides up front of our formation. Slade is not going to let this go.
I ignore my brothers when we ride into the club. I climb off of my bike and go to jog over to the main house when Leo calls for us to get our asses in the back room. Annie will have to wait. Brothers file into the bar and then take their seats in the back room. Once the door is closed, Leo slams the gavel down and I glance across to Slade, who sits with his head down and his focus on a ridge in the table.
“Today shouldn’t have gone down like that. Regardless of personal feelings for Lily…”
“Don’t fuckin’ say her name. Just tell us what Hopper said that made him look like he walked all over you,” Slade spits out.
Mason and Myles widen their eyes at each other and I wish I had grabbed a beer on the way in.
Leo’s jaw ticks and he runs his teeth over his bottom lip. “If that’s what anyone thinks, they can shove their guns up their ass and pull the trigger. I allowed him to talk so I could get a better gauge on him. Until now I didn’t have a clue who Hopper was and what he was about, after today, I do.”
He drags his narrowed eyes away from Slade and tells the rest of us, “He’s a fuckin’ lunatic. He went from discussingterritory to Lily to other shit that had no relevance to us. It’s like he’s on drugs but he wasn’t. He’s unpredictable and has balls the size of boulders.”
“What did he have to say about territory?” Cas asks.
“That he’s branching out, which we already knew. He wanted to make a deal that if we forgave and forgot about Ricky and his boys picking up Myles and Aspen, that we could work together.”
