Of course, I hadn’t been recently ’cause I was with Kate. And no one expected my ass in that seat at a time like that. Especially since, for once, things were fucking quiet at the club. Gun shipments were going smoothly. New business ventures were cruising along. No new, bloodthirsty enemies to speak of. All of the shit we talked about at church was mostly logistical. Who did what runs. Who was guarding the warehouse, assembling guns, overlooking distribution. Who wanted to do protection detail or the more sinister contracts that came in. Hades and I mostly handled killing for hire. We didn’t make a habit of doing it, that wasn’t what the club was about. But we collected favors. And it was always handy, having evidence that a powerful figure paid to have someone tortured or killed.
“Macy took Kate out to the house this morning,” Hansen commented as we walked in.
His tone was even, unjudgmental, but it was also pointed. Also acknowledging that I wasn’t there. Wasn’t with my woman when she discovered her new home.
Hers.
Something spasmed in my chest. Burned like a thousand sons of bitches. I tried to imagine Kate’s face as she took in the small house. With flowers and all kinds of other shit that bitches like. Eclectic. Cozy. Warm. Safe. Enough shit to make it feel homey but also enough space to fill with whatever she wanted.
No one had ever given her that before. And I wasn’t there to see the look on her face. I wasn’t there with her.
Yet another fucking way I’d failed.
“I was busy,” I grunted.
Hansen squinted at me, probably thinking I’d been up to my elbows in Preston’s blood during the occasion.
I fucking wished.
The room was getting’ fuller with brothers, so I found my spot beside Hades. He lifted his chin in greeting.
The air was heavy in the room, all faces were grave. I had claimed Kate as my Old Lady, and when someone hurt our women, they hurt us. Add to that, my brothers had come to like Kate. It was impossible not to. She was kind, soft, fucking funny. She cared genuinely and deeply about everyone, took time to talk to everyone, get to know them. She cooked some badass food, the kind of food you could taste the love in. The kind of food most of us hadn’t even known existed. So them seeing what was done to her had hit everyone hard.
We’d all seen some dark shit. Done even darker shit. Our stomachs were strong when it came to death and violence.
But when it came to hurting women? No. Each of the men at this table who had a woman had gone through shit to get them. Hades’s Old Lady, Freya, had the shit beaten out of her in a parking lot then was fuckin’ kidnapped by her ex’s father. While she was pregnant. Then she’d almost died giving birth to their kid.
Fucker was intense by nature, but when it came to Freya and his kid, he was something else. Same with Hansen and Jagger.
“She doesn’t want me to kill him,” I announced as soon as everyone had sat down. My fists were clenched on the table, and I was barely able to sit still due to the rage coursing through my body.
Hansen blinked at my announcement. Surprise flashed on the faces of my brothers. Each of them had considered Preston’s death a forgone conclusion. You laid hands on what was ours, you died. It was that simple. The manner of death related directly to just how bad things were.
Kate looking how she did, almost fucking dying, they had all known the manner of death would be long and ugly. And I knew each of them was happy with that.
“She hasn’t got the stomach for it?” Jagger guessed.
I shook my head. “She doesn’t want to do that to her kid.” Even though I was majorly pissed at her, I couldn’t help but feel proud of what she was doing for her daughter. I saw in her eyes the hatred she had for that man. What he’d taken from her. She was not plagued by the morality of killing. I had a hunch she’d slit his throat in a heartbeat if it wasn’t for her daughter.
It would haunt her. Him walking this earth. I knew her, understood her well enough now to get that. But she’d live with it for her daughter.
And as much as I didn’t want Kate’s kid to hurt, I couldn’t watch my woman go through that. I couldn’t just let him go.
“Kill him anyway,” Hades put in, his face blank. “Kid will be better off without him.”
“I don’t disagree,” I responded through gritted teeth. “But she said she’ll leave if I end him.” I looked to my president. “And she means it.”
“Fuck,” he muttered in understanding. Somethin’ moved in his eyes, something like an empathetic fear. Each of the men here who had Old Ladies loved them fiercely, would walk to the ends of the earth for them. Breakups were not a thing. It was death or nothing. Of course, we wouldn’t hold a woman against her will. If she wanted to leave her man she could, but it would irrevocably ruin them.
In my gut, I knew I’d never breathe easily again if Kate walked away from me. I didn’t think I had a chance at happiness, at anything but fucking and killing, until her.
“Yeah,” I cracked my knuckles, really needing to kill something.
“Okay,” Hansen replied. “We need to get Wire from the Amber chapter on the phone. Get him to dig up any and all dirt we have on this fucker. Without a doubt, there is shit he doesn’t want coming out. Then we get Kate the best divorce lawyer in the country. Get them to draft up a very generous settlement with stipulations that he can’t be within the same fuckin’ state as her. He doesn’t leave this compound until he’s signed it.”
That’s why he was president. Because he could think rationally, even with shit swirling.
He’d already managed to gather a boatload of info on the fuck. We’d figured out how he’d even found Kate here. He had enough contacts to get a track on her phone, then he’d hired some P.I. to tail her for a couple of days, found out she was at the club. Then he’d managed to book in at the garage side of the club, making his way in the front fucking door of the clubhouse ’cause the prospect who was supposed to be on watch was texting his fuckin’ girlfriend.