Vicious Cycle (Vicious Cycle #1)(85)

Once it was unanimously decided that we put off any official club business, the meeting was adjourned. After the others filed out, Rev and Bishop stayed behind with me. “Although I’m glad as hell you’re alive, I could kill you for putting us through what you did,” Bishop said.

I laughed. “I know, brother. If there had been any other way, I swear to you, I would have taken it. But it was the best way to get an edge on Sigel.”

“How do you think we should handle the issue of the cut?” Rev asked.

Creasing my brows, I asked, “What cut?”

Rev and Bishop exchanged a glance. “Didn’t Alex tell you about Sigel demanding she bring him Andy’s cut?” Rev asked.

I inhaled a sharp breath. “No, she didn’t.”

“That’s why he came to see her at the school. He wants her—and only her—to bring it to him,” Rev replied.

When I didn’t respond, Bishop said, “We weren’t ever going to let her go into it alone, man. Don’t think that just because you were gone, we would have sacrificed her. We’ve been racking our brains about how to wire up that f*cking cut to explode on Sigel.”

At that moment, I couldn’t think about or focus on anything other than the fact that Alex had lied to me. Rising out of my chair, I shook my head. “I need to go to talk to Alex. Figure out what the f*ck is going on.”

Rev’s expression turned cautionary. “Don’t be hard on her. I’m sure she just didn’t want to worry or upset you right after she got you back.” With a pointed look, he added, “She’s been to hell and back, brother.”

“I understand.” It wasn’t like I was going to storm back to my room and throw shit around until Alex came clean with me. I just wanted to know every single detail about what had happened in her meeting with Sigel. I hoped she hadn’t left anything else out.

What happened next was something I would have never, ever imagined. The kind of knock-you-on-your-ass shock. Life threw me one hell of a f*cking curveball, and the woman I loved was the very one to pitch it.

After trying my best to comfort Kim, I felt terrible that I had to leave her with some of the other club women so that I could go get ready for Parents Night. Although my principal had assured me that it would be all right for me to miss it, I wanted to go. Even before Deacon’s resurrection, I had planned to be there for my students and their parents.

A quick shower later, I stood in front of Deacon’s chest of drawers, putting on my underwear. The shrill ring of my phone caught me off guard, causing me to jump. But when I glanced down at the ID, a stone-cold dread rocketed through me. With trembling hands, I picked up the phone. “H-hello?” I croaked.

“Miss Evans, your time is up. I want the cut. Tonight.”

“Okay.”

“I assume that means you got it.”

“Yes, I did.”

At my hesitation, Sigel asked, “Then what is the problem?”

“The only thing is it’s Parents Night at my school. I’ve promised my principal I would be there.”

“That won’t be a problem at all.”

“It won’t?”

“No. In fact, I think it works better than any plan I had in mind. I had already anticipated meeting you somewhere there was a crowd—somewhere your Raiders brothers couldn’t try retaliation without incriminating themselves. A school full of parents and children is positively brilliant.”

His voice made my skin crawl. “You promise that no one will get hurt?”

“Miss Evans, it hurts me that you doubt my sincerity. Besides, like the Raiders, I don’t want to do anything that would bring attention to me from the authorities. I would think shooting up a school would rank pretty high on the list of having the police and ATF on my ass.”

“If you say so.”

“Go on and perform like a good show pony. I’ll call you with the location within the school to meet me.”

He ended the call. As I pulled the phone from my ear, I stared down at it. Although I’d known this day was coming and coming soon, nothing compared to actually having the wolf outside the door. When you devise a plan, it always seems good in theory. Sure, you might experience some what-ifs, but in your mind, it gets executed flawlessly.

Yesterday when I asked Rev and Bishop to teach me how to use a knife, I’d had ulterior motives. While I wanted to learn how to protect myself, my real motive was much darker. On the way back to the compound, a sinister thought from the dark side of my psyche began to push and shove its way into the front of my mind.

I had stood before a mental scale of justice and weighed Sigel’s sins. He had taken two of the most important people in my life away. He had almost killed my brother. At that time, I’d thought he had killed the man I loved, but instead, he had killed the president of his club.

As long as Sigel breathed, he would be a threat to Willow, Charlie, and to me. Now that Deacon wasn’t out of the picture, as Sigel thought, he would finally have the showdown that they had been building toward. I didn’t want to face that reality again so soon after having him back. I wanted to save Willow from the fate of being an orphan.

Sigel had to die.

And I was going to kill him.

Tonight I would continue to be Willow’s protector and then my parents’ avenger by taking justice into my own hands.