“I wasn’t going to kill a guy that was lured to a room because Mol—” My jaw snaps shut when his eyes narrow further. “I dealt with the guy how I saw fit.”
“And look where it got us.” Lynch’s eyes stay on me a moment longer before roaming down the table to Chains. “Where is the guy?”
“Scattered on the farm.” Chains is referencing the ten acres of land the MC owns on the opposite side of town. Heavily wooded, the area is hard to traverse, so it’s less likely people will go wandering and find something they shouldn’t.
“How’s the girl?” Lynch asks, turning his attention to our road captain.
Hornet shrugs. “Couldn’t tell you. Ask your brother. He took her from me before I could even get her inside the clubhouse last night.”
Lynch, confused, looks around the table as if he’s just now realizing TJ isn’t with us. Before he can open his mouth, the church door swings open, and one pissed off enforcer barrels into the room.
“Sit,” Lynch snaps when TJ beelines in my direction.
My shoulders sag in relief when he actually listens and falls into his chair.
“Where is she?”
“Who?” TJ asks.
“You know who I’m talking about. Where’s the girl?”
“Not here,” he mutters.
“TJ, I swear to God if you don’t give me a straight fucking answer, I’ll string you up myself.”
TJ swallows, pulling his knife from his belt. I don’t know if he’s readying himself to use it on his older brother, or if it’s a means to calm himself.
I’m grateful to see the blade is clean, but inwardly wonder just how long it’s going to stay that way.
“TJ?” No one misses the warning in Lynch’s voice.
“She’s fine,” he finally answers. “I took her home.”
“Home?” Hornet questions. “She wasn’t even conscious when you took her from me. How do you know where she lives?”
TJ doesn’t respond right away, and I can see him working on an answer, some lie that will get everyone off his back.
“Her phone synced up to the Tahoe. Her GPS had her apartment flagged.” The lie is good enough for everyone else, but no one says a word until he’s done cutting a line across his palm. “I didn’t fucking hurt her.”
He flinches, and I don’t know if it’s from the pain he’s inflicted on himself, or if the thought of making her bleed is abhorrent to him.
“All issues are to go through Chains from now until Briar gets his head out of his ass.”
“Prez—”
He silences me with a quick slash of his hand.
“I’m all ears if you want to explain what’s more important than helping your brothers when they need you.”
Strained silence fills the room. Even confessing my love for his sister, professing to care for her for the rest of her life wouldn’t be enough to keep him from ripping my throat out in front of everyone. With the sneer on TJ’s face, I imagine he’ll be right there beside him, lending a helping hand.
When I don’t spill my guts, he continues. “I want the clubhouse on lockdown until further notice. Our members, prospects, and the regular whores are the only ones allowed through the gate. I don’t know what the fallout is going to be, but we have one girl beat to fuck and probably heading to the police as soon as she’s able, and a guy someone is going to miss eventually. We can only pray he didn’t tell anyone where he was going last night.”
“And if the girl talks?” Hornet asks, the only one of us brave enough to voice the question even though we’re all thinking it.
No one is worth bringing the club down, and he wouldn’t blink an eye to silence her if it looked like she was going to bring trouble on us.
“She isn’t going to the fucking police,” TJ assures us with an edge to his voice that begs anyone to disagree.
“How can you be so sure?” Lynch asks.
“I’ll kill her myself if I think she’s even considering it.”
That shuts everyone up about the subject.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Lynch says before turning his attention to Boston. “How did it go in Baltimore?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know that the guys over there are going to be able to move their eight kilos.”
“I was afraid of that.” Lynch’s eyes find mine again. “We may have to shift some of the product to Detroit. Parker assured me he could move more.”
“Speaking of that overeager bastard,” Boston interrupts. “He’s been feeling us out. I can tell he wants to join us here. I don’t think he’s satisfied with the oversight he’s been allowed in Detroit.”
“He’d rather be at the clubhouse than running shit in Michigan?” Ronan speaks up for the first time since we convened.
“I can’t tell if he wants a challenge or a break. The kid is actually pretty hard to read,” Boston answers, looking at Lynch rather than Ronan.