Unlawfully Yours (Lawless MC #1)

34

It’s been a couple of days since my bust-up with Venom, and since then he’s largely kept out of my way. After I kicked him out, me and the rest of the guys talked in great length as to how to play this, how to prove Venom was the one who killed Levins and prove that he’s been playing us all along.

As I sit here at the head of the table, my guys sat around me, waiting for me to speak. Each and every one of them know how this is going to go down, all except for Venom. I can only hope he bites.

“What’s this about, Prez?” Kill asks.

I sit back in my seat. “Allie told me that Sheriff Walker’s superiors are closing in on MCs. Got it in their heads that all the violence and shit these past couple of months is down to us and The Cobras. They’re looking into us, watching us closely. We need to keep our heads down and stay out of trouble. We don’t want to give them any reason to go after us.” It’s not a complete lie, there are parts that are true, but Venom doesn’t have to know that.

“But it’s The Cobras that have been doing all that shit, right? We’re not the ones shooting up kids in the fucking street!” he protests, putting on his best Oscar-worthy performance.

“I know that, but they don’t. I know each and every one of you stay on the right side of the law. We’re not one-percenters like The Cobras, and I never want to be. We just need to make sure we keep it that way. They’re also looking deeper into Brad Levins’ death. What was originally thought an accident is now a murder investigation.”

“The fuck?” Jett asks.

“A witness has come forward in regards to his death,” I lie.

“A witness? Who?” Venom asks, his face not giving anything away.

“Allie won’t tell me who it is, obviously , but Cru managed to hack into the police database. Took a bit of time but we got there. We have an address.” I slide a photo of a random house onto the table along with the address.

No one lives there, in fact it was a house the cops raided about a year ago and it’s been unoccupied ever since. Thanks to Allie, she managed to gain access to the property so that our plan could work.

“I say we head over there and find out what they know,” I add.

“Do they think it was us?” Alex asks.

“I don’t think so, but given we interrogated him beforehand, I don’t want any fingers pointing in our direction. This way, we find out what this supposed witness saw.”

“I vote yay,” Venom says. “Last thing we need are the cops biting us on the ass, especially for some shit we didn’t even do.”

This fucking guy… He’s got some gall for sure.

“Agreed.” I give him a tight-lipped smile before turning back to the rest of the guys. “We go in tomorrow night. I want Jett, Kill and Venom with me. Are we all in agreement?”

“Yay,” they all say in unison, their voices echoing around the room.

“It’s settled then.”

Everyone rises from their seats, heading for the door.

“Prez?” Venom starts, hanging back while the others filter out. “I want to apologise for all the shit just lately. And I’m sorry for failing you with The Cobras. Guess Grimes is smarter than we thought.”

“Yeah, I guess he is.” And so am I.

“Are we good?” Fuck, he has a nerve, and I’m on my last one when it comes to this prick.

No, we’re not fucking good. We’re so far from good.

“Yeah, we’re good,” I lie.

I’ve been sat here in the lone chair in the centre of the room since before the sun went down, the walls of the abandoned house around me are cold and bare as shadows wrap around the room. The air is thick and damp, the sickly smell of mould stinging my nose.

I’ve been here for hours, wondering where the hell everything went to shit. Was it something I did? Did I drive him to do this?

I think back to the first time I met him. A scrawny kid, fresh out of juvie with no place to go. I couldn’t just ignore him, had it been me in his position, I’d have wanted someone to cut me a break, which I did. I was my dad’s VP at the time and I vouched for him. Now, I’m wondering whether I made the right decision all those years ago.

My heart is a heavy drumbeat in my ears as I wait for Venom to show his face, a gun dangling from my hand ready to defend myself should I need to.

He’ll come.

He won’t risk having a witness run their mouth for fear of being exposed for murdering Levins. No witness, no investigation.

He’ll want to silence them before anyone has chance to question them further, like we had planned for tomorrow night, though the whole thing was bullshit. There is no witness and this is certainly not their house, it’s all a part of my plan.

He knows the address because I set it up that way. A trap to lure him in so I can find out once and for all where his loyalty truly lies, even though a part of me already knows the answer.

In all honesty, I don’t want him to come here tonight. I want to sit here all night and not be confronted by someone who was once my friend, someone who has betrayed me. I want to be wrong about him, but I have a bad feeling in my gut that I’ll be proven right.

Jett and Killian are waiting in the back room should things take an unexpected turn and Venom doesn’t come alone. But I’ve made it clear that what transpires here tonight is between him and me.

An engine rumbles somewhere nearby, and I stiffen. There hasn’t been a single car to drive past in over two hours and the noise has me on high alert. The distinct sound of gravel crunching underfoot grows closer and I raise my chin, my heart thumping heavily in my chest.

I watch as the door opens a fraction, letting out a faint squeak as a tall figure steps inside the house. His face is hidden by the shadows, just as I am and it’s clear from where he’s standing, he can’t see me at all.

He stands to survey the room, finding it totally empty.

“Hello, Venom.” My voice cuts through the silence and he startles.

“The fuck!” His gun flicks to me as he searches through the darkness until I come into view, rising from my seat. “Prez?”

“Expecting to find someone different? Yeah, as you probably guessed, there is no witness, and this is the only proof I needed to confirm what I already knew.”

“And what’s that?”

“Brad Levins. You killed him.”

“Prez, I—”

“You and I both know who your Prez is, and it’s certainly not me. It hasn’t been me for a while, has it?”

He lowers his gun. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t do that. Don’t insult my intelligence. How long have you been a part of their crew?”

There’s a long pause, his face faltering as he thinks on his reply. He shuts his eyes and exhales. “A while.”

And there it is…

My stomach sinks. I can’t even bring myself to be angry right now. All I feel is disappointment.

This is what Grimes meant that day outside the hospital, about some day finding a knife sticking out of my back, I just didn’t expect it to be one of my closest friends to be the one who put it there.

How could he do this? Why?

I flip the safety back on my gun and tuck it back into the waistband of my pants. “When did it happen? At what point did you choose Tobias fucking Grimes over a man you’ve known since you were eighteen years old?”

“I don’t know what you want me to say. The club is crumbling, man. Tobias is closing in on Lawless, on Stillwater… I chose to jump ship before it sank.” He shrugs as if it means nothing.

“You chose to abandon your club! Your fucking family!” I launch myself at him, my move taking him by surprise. His gun clatters to the floor as I shove him hard against the wall with a grunt, his leather kutte wrapped in my fists. “I gave you everything! I gave you a home. A job. A fucking seat at my side!”

“What would you have me do? Wait around to be slaughtered?”

“You stand by your family and fight for your club. Who the fuck even are you?” I shove off him, creating distance between us. “I fucking ordered you not to kill Brad Levins and you did it anyway.”

“Your orders don’t mean shit. You’re not cut out to be the leader of an MC, you never have. You care too much, you have too much to lose and it makes you weak.”

“Did you… Did you know they were going to try to kill my son?”

His silence is an answer in itself.

“You piece of shit!” My fist collides with the side of his face, knocking him off balance momentarily before he hits me back.

My head cracks to the side and as he draws his fist back to hit me again, I block the blow, landing my own in his gut and another to his face. He collapses to his knees where I deal him blow after blow, hitting him over and over again.

“Myles, hey! Enough, man. Enough .” Jett pulls me off of Venom, Kill also appearing at his side.

Kill drags Venom to his feet, pinning him to the wall, a string of blood hanging from his mouth, his left eye slowly swelling shut.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out you put your hands on my woman?”

“He touched Allie?” Kill’s head snaps to me.

“Tried to strangle her when she saw him at Grimes’ club.”

“That’s my one regret,” Venom mumbles. “I regret not finishing the little bitch off.”

A fist collides with his already bloody and swollen face, but it’s not by my hand. “Allie’s a good woman, and one I will defend with my life if I have to,” Kill says proudly. “As for you, you piece of shit, I don’t doubt you fit in well with those slimy assholes. Venom by name, venom by nature, and all that.”

“So, you’re choosing her over me?” he asks, his eyes darting between the three of us. “Over one of your brothers? You don’t even know her!”

“And seems even after all these years, I still don’t know you at all, Venom,” I say. “You chose them over your own brothers. I should kill you for what you’ve done.”

“Go ahead, but we both know you’re not man enough to do it.”

I take out my gun, flip off the safety and aim it directly between his eyes, the tip of my gun pressed against his forehead. “Don’t tempt me.”

“Do it. Go on. Fucking do it,” he dares, pinning me with his eyes.

My finger tightens on the trigger, my hand shaking as I squeeze the cool metal of the gun in my hand.

Every fibre of my body is screaming at me to pull the trigger, to end this once and for all.

But I can’t. I won’t.

I drop my hand at the very last second. “No. Because I’m nothing like you. I’m not a murderer and I won’t be reduced to your level, Venom.”

Killian spins him around to face the wall, tearing off his kutte, followed by his shirt before shoving him down into the chair. He pulls out the tattoo gun he brought with him in case we were forced to do this. He settles himself beside Venom, dipping the tip of the gun into the pot of black ink. The buzz of the tattoo gun fills the space as Kill brings it to Venom’s chest.

Venom’s face is unreadable as Kill begins blacking out the patch inked into his skin, leaving no sign that he was ever a part of my club other than the black square that covers the area where it used to be.

I watch as the last corner of the Lawless patch disappears from his skin and a sadness settles in my stomach. I remember when he got that tattoo. I was there. He’d just been patched in and the smile on his face as he watched the artist add the finishing touches to the skull on his chest was ear to ear.

How the fuck did it come to this? All those years of friendship gone in the blink of an eye. As much as I’m angry at his betrayal, it’s never easy losing a friend. A brother .

Kill switches off the gun and sits back. “All done.”

I cross the small space between Venom and I. “As of now, you are no longer a member of Lawless. I want you out of my town within the hour and if I ever see you in Stillwater Falls again, I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger. Now, get out of my sight.”

He rises from the chair, pulling his shirt back over his head, leaving his kutte behind. He says nothing as he heads for the door, Jett, Kill and I watching his back as he disappears out the door.

The rest of the guys are still at the club house when the three of us return. Rita emerges from the kitchen with Allie, the two of them laughing like they’ve known each other for years and fuck, the sight of her here is enough to quell the anger still pumping through my veins.

Her eyes connect with mine and she offers me a smile that fades when she notices what’s in Kill’s hand.

“Prez?” Jack prompts.

Kill tosses Venom’s kutte onto the bar.

“Venom is no longer one of us,” I say. “He’s decided to abandon us for The Cobras. As I suspected, he was the one who murdered Brad Levins.”

“You let him walk?” Alex asks.

“I’m no murderer and I won’t become someone I don’t recognise just to settle a score. But his time will come, I’m sure of it.”

I reach across the bar for a knife before slicing off the Sergeant-at-Arms patch on the front of the leather, tearing through the stitching until it comes off in my hand.

I turn to Killian. “Kill, you have proven yourself ten-fold and there’s no one I think more deserving of this.” I place the patch that once belonged to Venom down in front of him. “This is now yours, if you want it.”

Kill stares down at the patch. “Prez… I—”

“Don’t clam up on me now, you’ve never had a problem with talking before.”

He chuckles. “No one’s ever left me speechless before.”

“I know how much you love the guys and the club, and I know that like me, you have its best interests at heart.” I turn to the men that fill the room. “Each and every one of you is deserving of this title, but I think we can all agree that Kill should have it.”

“Don’t let it go to your head, Kill. It’s big enough already,” Jack jokes.

“Fuck off,” he replies, the room filled with laughter.

“So? Do you accept?” I ask him.

He pulls me in for a hug, something totally out of character for Kill and it catches me off guard for a second. “Thank you, Prez. I love you, man. I know a man’s word probably means shit to you what with Venom doing what he did, the traitorous bastard. But I won’t let you down, I give you my word.”

“You’re a good man, Kill. I know you won’t let me down.”

I turn my attention to the woman across the room, my heart skipping a beat when her eyes collide with mine.

I love that she’s here, that she feels comfortable to be around my guys, and in my clubhouse. It means everything.

Her face breaks out into a smile and with just that one beautiful smile, in spite of everything that has happened today, I know everything is going to be okay. As long as the woman I love is by my side.