“I grew up here among a lot of you and I know you frown upon the fact that I left for so many years. All I can say is that there is a whole big world out there, folks, and I didn’t understand living here in such a closed community rather than exploring it. I joined the military. I went to college and when I returned, I was treated like an outcast, so I made myself one. Nothing more, nothing less. In all honesty, I’d have been content to remain such if things hadn’t happened in my life that change my thoughts about it.”
He paused, taking a sip from the bottle of water that sat beside him on a table, and then continued.
“Marriage, children, the death of my father . . . They all have made me realize just how important family is to me. I would have loved for that to include my brother, but he had other ideas. He wanted to use the people of this pack to form a large drug trafficking organization.”
There were gasps from many of the ones gathered. They began to whisper again, and he held up his hand to quiet them.
“I remained silent about it in hopes of flushing out the ones who were knowingly supporting him in his efforts and was able to do that with some of them, but events have taken a nasty turn, so I’ve had to go this route instead. Yesterday, one of our pack members assaulted my wife and she was forced to defend herself. This was brought about by a certain set of rumors being fed into our pack by an outside source, my brother Marshall.”
There were more whispers and some people seemed to shuffle a bit, either out of physical discomfort or guilt. Leslie tried to keep her gaze neutral, looking more over their heads so she saw them as a group rather than any individual reactions. Tucker calmed them down once more and then went on.
“I’m here to tell you, right now, I am the new Alpha of this pack. If you find that unacceptable, you are welcome to pack your bags and leave like those members I exiled earlier. I won’t stop you, but you will not be welcomed back. I am giving you this one chance to leave without any harm coming to you for any actions you might have taken up to this point. Those of you who choose to remain are expected to act in the best interest of this pack. Anyone found crossing me, the pack, or the club, after today, will be dealt with swiftly and conclusively. I will not tolerate my brother leaving his shit behind him now that he has gone.”
There was nothing now, just silence. Not one person was whispering, commenting or moving about. It was as if they were all frozen in place.
“So, that’s it. This is the last we will talk about this. I expect anyone not on board to pack their bags and leave by the end of the week. Any questions?”
No one said anything and he nodded his approval.
“All right then. On to other news. I’ve gotten word from our builders this morning that mine and Leslie’s house will be finished by the end of the month, well ahead of schedule, so we will be much closer and spending a lot more time with you. I’ve got some great things planned for us that we’ll all talk about later. In the meantime, I hope to see you all still here with me this time next week and well beyond.”
With this, a loud cheer went up, along with thunderous applause. Tucker turned the power off on the mic he had been using and walked toward Leslie, giving her a huge kiss in front of everyone. The applause grew even louder and began dying off as they walked toward the clubhouse. He led her inside his office and closed the door.
“How do you think that went?”
“Seemed to go fine. We’ll see what happens this week, if anyone leaves or if we have any further problems.”
“I suppose we will,” he replied.
She could tell he was still agitated by something.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. I just have the feeling that I’m missing something, that there is more I should be aware of or digging into.”
“Has someone said something more?”
“No. It’s just a feeling. I can’t put my finger on it. Perhaps just paranoia, you know?”
She nodded, sitting down in a nearby chair to tinker around on her tablet while he tended to a few things on the phone and went through some mail. He seemed a bit less out of sorts when they left and the days that followed revealed no ill intent from any of the remaining members, though one family did go missing in the night, moving out while no one was watching, it seemed. Past that, everything seemed perfectly normal. Tucker seemed to finally dismiss his concerns as nothing more than a fear of the unknown.