Soulless (Lawless #2)(14)

Munch put his arm around his shoulder. “We’ll get that motherf*cker, I promise.”

Stone continued through the tears. “He told me that what he wanted was for his soldiers to be soldiers and not fall in love with the ‘cum-dumpsters’ every single brother in this place had sprayed his shit on a hundred times. I asked him why he was doing this. I didn’t understand. He was my Prez. A f*cking king to me. The Bastards took me in off the street and gave me something to believe in. I wouldn’t have ever crossed him, no matter what. Even when you left and I thought he was wrong, I stayed by his side. Not because I thought he was right, but because you taught me not to question my Prez, so I didn’t.”

“Skip to the end,” I said. I hated that I had to wait for what I already knew was coming.

“‘Because whores aren’t your family,’ Chop said. ‘Your brothers are your only family. Whores are f*cking disposable.’ I didn’t even realize he had a gun in his lap until he held it to her head ‘See? I just came down her f*cking throat’ he said, ‘and this whore thanks me by bleeding on me.’ Then he pulled the f*cking trigger.”

“Fuck!” I said. Now I stood up and started pacing.

“That’s not all,” Wolf said. Leaving Stone and Munch on the bench as he walked over to me and lowered his voice like he didn’t want to upset Stone any further.

“How is that not all of it? That cocksucker killed Stone’s old lady right in front of him to teach him some sort of sick lesson about his views on family?”

“Not even close to all of it.”

“Just f*cking tell me already,” I said, thinking about how Chop roughed up Ti made my own stomach start to churn. It could have been her. He could have killed her.

“He didn’t just kill Em,” Wolf said, looking back at Stone who was face down between his elbows.

“He killed another one?” I asked, wondering why the f*ck Chop would kill two BBBs.

Wolf shook his head. “No, brother…he killed them all.”

“Holy Fuck,” I said, taking a seat on the bench. Wolf sat next to me.

“We took off our cuts and burnt the f*ck out of our skin because a Prez, a real Prez, wouldn’t do that kind of shit. He wouldn’t kill people you love,” Wolf said, looking me square in the eye so I could see he was telling the truth. “And I get it now. Why you left. ’Cause he asked you to chose between the club and people you think of as family and that shit ain’t right.” He shook his head. “It ain’t f*cking right.”

“Executed,” Munch piped in. “In the court yard, one by f*cking one. We tried to stop him. He shot a prospect in the leg and told us to mind our own f*cking business while he took care of his.”

“Why the f*ck would he kill BBBs?” I asked, thinking of the innocent f*cking girls whose only crime was wanting to be part of a world they shouldn’t have wanted to be a part of.

“We got no clue. All we know is that he called them all out into the courtyard and put a gun to their heads. He kept yelling at them, asking them where she was, and when they would ask who he was talking about or tell them that they didn’t know, he’d lay them out and kick their bleeding bodies into the pool.”

I held my face in my hands. “He didn’t stop until they were all gone,” Wolf said, lighting another cigarette with the one in his hand.

“It happened so f*cking quick. One minute he was fine and the next minute he was murdering all the club whores. When he was done, he walked around muttering and then locked himself in his office. When he came back out, he acted like nothing had happened. He told the prospects to clean up the mess and he played a game of pool. It was real f*cking bazaar,” Munch said.

“He killed my old lady,” Stone wailed.

I pulled on my beard and glanced over to Stone. “Chop’s been trying to go after my old lady since before she was even mine,” I admitted. “I can’t tell you I know how you feel brother, but I can tell you how it feels to be afraid of that happening every f*cking second of the day.” Remembering the bloodied mess Gus had dropped off at King’s doorstep that was Ti made me grit my teeth until I thought they’d crack.

“First of all, I’m shocked as shit that you, of all f*cking people, have an old lady, but we’ll talk about that shit when we have less pressing matters beating on our f*cking doorstep,” Wolf said, with a small smile that reminded me of how close we used to be. The familiarity of us sitting at a table, no matter how shitty the subject was we were discussing, was a welcome feeling.

“There are nine of us. Nine who burnt off our tats the night after the BBB thing. The three of us, Gus, Chump, and a few of the others. When Chop gave the orders to come here and take you out, it was the perfect opportunity,” Munch said, looking around to make sure no one was listening. There was only one guard and he was by the gate on the other side of the yard where they had come in. Well out of earshot.

“Opportunity for what?” I asked, still unsure of why they would follow Chop’s orders to come to County if they were no longer Bastards.

“Chop wants to go to war with you,” Munch stated. He held out his open hands and stretched his arms out to his sides. “You’re gonna need an army.”

Stone looked up from his arm for the first time. “We’re your army.”