I hold on to her desperately, fiercely, as if my past will come back and take her away from me.
Wanting to bare my soul to her, no, needing to bare my heart to her I confess, “The only time I feel peace is when I’m with you.”
Oak
“You’re twenty minutes late.” Sticks voice as hard as steel and yet as calm as the sea is what I hear first as I enter the doors to Church.
My eyes take in account of everyone, even Crow, who sits beside Snake with hardened green eyes that hold back the fury I know he wants to unleash upon me.
“Crow,” I greet him through clenched teeth.
His eyes as hard as stone narrow on me. He nods his head slightly and greets me in a calm yet deadly tone, “Oak.”
“If I wanted tension I’d rather it be sexual,” quips Snake who is leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest and his feet on the table. Sticks gives him a disapproving look but he ignores it.
“You were twenty minutes late,” he repeats and I wait for him to reprimand me before we begin.
Arriving late to church and holding up everyone is a blatant sign of disrespect. I’ve never done it before. Never would have dared to. Especially being The Vice President. My brothers have to follow my command. And if they see me disrespecting The President and not following club rules it gives them the right to.
But I don’t feel an ounce of regret. I would do it all over again if it meant having Grace in my arms that much longer.
Grace has me wrapped around her finger.
“Don’t let it happen again. You understand?”
I nod my head. “I understand.”
He nods his head back and only then do I take my rightful seat as Vice President.
“Sheriff Crow has news for us on the feds. And from what I’ve been vaguely told before he gives the intel to us all, not all of it is good and not all of it is bad.” Sticks then nods his head at Crow for him to share his intel.
Crow’s eyes fleet over all of us before they land on Snake. “You’re in the clear with The Crowned Devil’s MC. And therefore so is Alice. Due to the statement I had her give when it happened and the injuries you suffered along with medical documentation and continuous physical therapy the FBI have ruled what happened as self defense. Thanks to Pax wiping the surveillance footage and somehow wiping it from existence,” he looks over at Pax who wears an incredibly smug expression, “they can’t charge you for shit with any member involved in that MC.”
Snake’s smile widens until it stretches from ear to ear. His smile looks maniacal but from the light that reaches his eyes he’s experiencing pure glee.
Sometimes you can’t find justice in the court of law.
Something Crow struggles to understand.
He believes in the law yet it has let so many people down.
But Crow is righteous and he does what is always right. He does the good thing because it’s the right thing to do, not because he has to.
It makes me wonder how in the hell did he survive overseas.
But maybe that’s why he didn’t reenlist after doing three tours. Perhaps he was fighting a war that didn’t line up with his morale. Maybe the killing got to him more than it got to me.Maybe seeing his brothers die because they were a product of war made no sense to him.
Maybe Crow’s righteousness led him to believe that what he thought he was fighting for he wasn’t fighting for at all.
“And the bad news?” I cut straight to the point and I can’t hide the roughness in my voice.
“Two years ago there is surveillance footage of you, Dex, Snake and Pax leaving a warehouse in New York that was called in due to the infrastructure being burnt down. The fire investigator on the case was quick to declare the fire of no arson and that it was the faulty wires in the warehouse that caused the fire.” He gives us all pointed looks that tells us he knows the real truth. Thankfully the fire investigator could be bought off, and we paid him with money we barely had at the time to not let it blow back on us. “But there were human remains inside. And those humans were part of an organized crime led by Talon. The FBI had their eyes on The Moreno Family at the time but Talon was a little fish they were hoping who would squeal on the great shark. Talon would have immunity if he could strike a deal with Moreno with him being wired. Alas, it never happened because Haven killed him. That took the attention off The Moreno Family and brought it upon the people responsible for killing Talon. Which leads back to all of you. Since gaining that surveillance video that have enough to suspect you but not enough to charge you.”
“Then what’s the bad news?” Pax asks with his brows furrowed. “Because all I’m hearing is hearsay. If they don’t have actual evidence we’re good.”
“Unless they charge you for conspiracy of murder and charge all of you under the RICCO Act.”
I shake my head. “They would have already done that if that were the cards they were going to play. They either have something else or are waiting for our next move.”
