Willa
In the light ofday, the clubhouse is worse than I thought. Shattered glass is embedded in the couches. The walls are dotted with holes. Two patch bunnies are washing blood off the patio, and any tension between them and the old ladies has temporarily ceased in light of what happened.
Everyone helps clean, mostly in silence. Setting aside any differences to take care of the club. It’s moments like this that I see the family here. The pain that bleeds at the loss of two of their own. I didn’t know Wick or Mayhem personally, but I saw them die. Dean mentioned that Mayhem was a second to the ranked brothers and that Wick was new to the club but showed strong promise. They were a part of the Twisted Kings, and now they’re gone.
Wren, the redhead I was wary of when I first arrived at the clubhouse, walks by, offering a small but genuinesmile. The blonde at her side, who I now know as Reina, doesn’t look at me. But she doesn’t glare either.
Patch bunnies, old ladies, prospects, and members work for two full days cleaning up the mess at the clubhouse, barely seeing a glimpse of the ranked members.
The first day, they disappeared for the entire afternoon into a building at the back of the property. When they returned, they were soaking wet and covered in blood. No one asked why that was, even though we all had our eyes on them as they made their way through the clubhouse.
Tempe was the first to move when they paused at the center of the room. She walked up to Steel and wrapped her arms around him, not caring what covered his clothes. He embraced her, and they stood like that for a long moment. No one moved, even as the first tears started to fall from Tempe’s eyes.
Her hug was like a symbol of what we all felt.
Loss, grief.
Defeat.
And Steel stood in front of all his men—his whole club—accepting that bit of comfort.
There was a moment of silence then. For the club. For the brothers who had died.
Dean stood near me while Legacy shifted closer to Reagan, but we didn’t touch or speak. No one said a word while Steel and Tempe stood at the center.
It was a strange, quiet moment of mourning. And as Tempe’s tears fell, so did mine. At the first sound of hersobbing, others followed. There was no more holding back.
I’d experienced loss before and buried it down. But here the club was, accepting that pain together. They werefeelingit.
Facing it.
Not hiding from it.
We all mourned, and when Tempe finally stopped crying, Steel faced the room, slowly scanning his brothers’ faces with his hand latched in hers. It almost looked like he was going to give a speech, but he remained silent. There was nothing else to say.
Sometimes, words aren’t enough; there’s only action. So he stood as a pillar for his club, chin held high for them.
Vengeance blazing in his eyes.
When he finally walked away, Luna and Reagan surrounded Tempe. They disappeared into the kitchen while I stayed with Aimee to continue cleaning.
Dean’s hand brushed mine as he walked past, following the rest of the members into church. They were in that room for a couple of hours before they left in a chorus of engines coming to life.
None of the guys came home that night, and I knew better than to ask questions. I stayed up most of the night talking to Luna and Aimee in the bar at the front of the clubhouse. It was untouched by the attack—by the death that so recently happened here.
The next day was the funeral, and I stood near the back. Part of me wondered if I should even be there when Ididn’t know the members who were being lowered into the ground.
For Dean, I stayed.
The guys were out late that night as well, but when Dean finally came to bed sometime this morning, the tension in his shoulders had loosened slightly.
The circles around his eyes were dark with exhaustion, but there was peace in his gaze.
He climbed into bed, and instead of sleeping, he spent hours between my legs. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other. It was like he needed the reminder that I was still here. A reminder that we’re still living.
Two days of hard work, and the clubhouse is finally almost clean. The back wall will need to be fully repaired, but the glass has been cleared and the curtains replaced. A new slider was installed this morning, and the old furniture has been swapped for new couches and chairs. Anything salvageable was kept, but the rest has been thrown out.
Tempe and Reagan aren’t here today since the kids are out of school, but Luna is in the kitchen helping the patch bunnies make lunch, while Aimee and I continue to work.
