Outlaw Revenge (Back Down Devil MC #1)(13)

Down the hall and to the left, there was a steel door. Nate opened the door and Gaige walked in. The musky scent of cigarettes and weed filtered throughout the air. Each member had a beer and a shot glass in front of them. Handguns were placed on the table, facing the middle of the table where the ashes of the founding member of Back Down Devil MC sat. All the guns were pointed to the urn as a symbol of protection. To honor the club. To honor the purpose. To honor each other.

As Gaige walked along the table, he patted shoulders and shook hands with the crew that sat at the table. At the head of the table sat the president, Miller. He had the gavel as long as Gaige could remember. He was secretive yet loud. He could be a father figure and a dictator at the same time. His connections were deep and spanned many years, which is how the MC had a lot of the relationships it had.

Gaige hugged Miller and then took his seat directly to the left of Miller.

Next to Gaige sat Griffin. He was the brains and money behind the MC. An accountant who was caught stealing and then busted for insider trading, Griffin came to the table wearing a tie and traded it in for the open road and a leather cut to match. Then there was Landon. The opposite to the head of the table sat Nate and Shay. The last three seats were for Erik, Jace, and Blaine. The only empty seat was Blaine’s.

Gaige lit a fresh smoke and deferred to Miller.

“Where’s Blaine?”

“Three knuckles deep in *,” Nate said.

The table broke out in laughter.

“He gave me his proxy vote,” Gaige said.

“Fuck,” Miller said and shook his head. “He’s lucky he’s f*cked enough in the head that we need him.”

“Hear, hear,” Shay called out and lifted his shot glass.

“Yeah,” Miller said. “Lift ‘em.”

Everyone at the table lifted their shot glass. Gaige lifted his beer bottle.

“I’m not going to say shit,” Miller said. “Let’s drink and let’s figure this out.”

Everyone drank and the shot glasses slammed against the table. Everyone kept smoking, staring at Miller, waiting for the next orders to come.

“What happened out there?” Miller asked.

He didn’t need to look at Gaige for Gaige to know the question was meant for him.

Gaige said, “I sent a message. My call to do it.”

“Message?” Miller said. “Thought the message would be the dead bodies they’d find in the morning.”

“Vultures ripping their eyes out, right?” Jace asked. His eyes were icy.

Gaige stared back at Jace. “I did what I had to do.”

“Which was what?” Miller asked.

“Three showed up,” Gaige said. “We took care of two and I sent one back with a clear message.”

“He did the right thing,” Nate said. “Eight Under has been sneaking around our backs for a while now. They needed the message.”

Miller made a fist and slammed it on the table. “And that f*cking message came back to us. With bullets. At a f*cking fight. You realize the heat I’m going to take for this? You want to step into that circle, Nate, and swing your big dick around, that’s fine. But bullets?”

“They need to be reminded of who we are again,” Gaige said.

“So the dead bodies weren’t the message?” Jace asked. “Did you… actually do anything to them?”

“Fuck you,” Gaige said.

“Come on,” Jace said. “Come on over and talk.”

Gaige slapped his beer bottle at Jace. The bottle spilled and Jace grabbed it. He smashed it off the table and held it toward Gaige, who grabbed his gun and pointed it at Jace.

“Jesus Christ,” Shay yelled.

“Cut the f*cking shit,” Miller bellowed.

Gaige held his gun out until Jace dropped the broken bottle. Gaige put his gun down and shook his head.

“They almost took out Blaine, myself, and Nate,” Gaige said. “They had automatic weapons. They went right into the circle, shot the two fighting, and then looked for us. This was a blatant attack on Back Down Devil. There’s no f*cking way that the guy we messed up was able to go back to his shithole club and have them send guys out for us.”

“So this was an attack before they knew of our attack?” Miller asked.

“Sounds right to me,” Nate said. “They want to rattle us. Shake us up.”

“They’re moving then,” Griffin said. “It’s a diversion. They want us to look at this while they do something else.”

“Then we spread wide,” Miller said. “We stop this before it becomes something.”

“It might already have become something,” Nate said. He looked at Gaige and nodded.

All eyes were on Gaige.

“What now?” Miller asked.

“Blaine had two women with him,” Gaige said.

“Shit,” Shay said.

“One of them was shot and killed,” Gaige said.

“Fuck,” Miller said. “The other?”

“She’s in my room,” Gaige said.

The table starting whistling and clapping.

“Whoa!” Landon called out. “Soothing the friend…”

“Hey,” Gaige called out. “Fuck off. All of you. Fuck off.”