I didn’t look at Butch when I spoke. But he damn well knew that everything I said was directed at him.
“The darkness came to a head in the last couple of years as the club founder fell ill and eventually died. New leadership came in, leadership that corroded the club culture, ruined it, and mutated it. My father...”
I had to step away from the podium to avoid swearing too harshly.
“My father tried his damndest to keep the club as it was,” I said, my voice shaky once more. “But against the combined forces of selfishness, malevolence, and corruption, he stood no chance. However, now, standing here before you all, with the support of a club that has a strong, morally virtuous culture, I know that my father’s legacy lives on through us. I know that we will fight against evil. There are enough people in this room who looked at the darkness of their old culture, said that it was enough, and walked away to a better one.”
I didn’t stare at him, but I could see in my peripheral vision how intently Cole watched me. I didn’t think that I had ever seen him look at me with such... intensity. I wasn’t sure if it was fire or concern, but his eyes weren’t going to stop me here.
Not when my father’s murderers were in gunshot range.
“And now, my friends in the Gray Reapers, it is time to ask yourself—are we going to let this evil spread like cancer? Or are we going to stomp it out wherever we see it?”
“Austin,” the priest whispered in a low voice.
I need to tone it down? Fine.
But I’m not done yet.
“Let me close with this command to all of us,” I said. “My father fought for what he thought was right. Unfortunately, evil emerged triumphant over him, and his life was lost. But it’s up to us to punish the evil that pretends to be right. You know what that evil is. We must not let my father’s death be in vain.”
I stepped aside from the lectern and blankly stared out over the first five rows, the ones occupied with people who deserved to be at this funeral. The shock spread across their faces was a stark contrast to the emotion that was shown right at the beginning of my speech.
Good.
They needed to be aware—and if they weren’t Gray Reapers, they needed to know what kind of a reputation the Black Reapers actually had.
As far as the Black Reapers in the back went, I didn’t look at them. They knew how I felt about them. If they had an issue, they could come to us—unarmed.
I took a seat next to Cole. Cole kept glancing at me, but I didn’t look at him. I stared ahead, trying to corral some measure of my anger before I went to the back and started a fistfight in a cathedral.
Fortunately, the priest wasted no time continuing the rest of the funeral. We went through the various rites and readings, and all went well for the next twenty minutes or so. I never indulged the temptation to turn around and look at what the Black Reapers were up to, though they stayed on my mind an awful lot.
Just what the hell were they thinking, coming to here? If they wanted to lay him to rest, couldn’t they have visited after the funeral, when none of us were around? Why the hell did they think it would be a good idea to come to the actual funeral?
Especially Butch.
My God. He murdered my father himself! I said the Black Reapers killed my father, but Butch pulled the trigger. And he was showing up now?
Un-fucking-believable.
The anger didn’t subside. It only grew. And when the priest invited me to begin carrying the casket to the grave, I bit my lip to avoid screaming upon seeing the Black Reapers.
But when I turned toward the back, Lane, Axle, and Butch weren’t there. They had wisely left.
* * *
The priest gave his final prayers to my father. I kissed his forehead one more time, wiping the few tears that had formed before anyone else could see them. A couple of people laid his body down into the grave.
And just like that, my father was gone forever.
It was just me in this world. I had no immediate family members left. I had no siblings. I didn’t give a shit about my aunts and their kids, most especially since I hadn’t talked to any of them in at least ten years, maybe longer—and they hadn’t talked to me at this funeral.
I also had no love interests. Oh, sure, I could get laid easily, being a biker all but guaranteed that was an option. But in times like these, it sure as hell would have been nice to have a woman by my side.
It sure would have been nice to know that I wasn’t alone.
I turned around to see that only Gray Reapers remained. I walked over to them, my head held high, my breaths slow and steady.
