“Need anything?” I asked, and she shook her head.
“I’m just plating up sandwiches. Nanci and Daisy-Duke already offered help. I’ve got this Veep,” Meadow said, and I nodded.
“Good to see you,” I greeted Drake, Rage MC’s President, and his VP, Ace.
“Likewise, how’s things going?” Drake inquired.
“Great—for the town, anyway,” I replied.
“Hear you’ve had trouble,” Ace stated.
I snorted. “Ain’t one of us always having drama? How’s Rage?”
“Rage is quiet apart from the hellions. I swear to God…” Drake broke off and made a strangling motion. “If Dante didn’t look like me, I’d have to question his parentage. That little shit’s never beaten Eddie once, yet he doesn’t stop trying. Eddie gets him every time.”
“Heard that!” Phoenix called.
“Well, he doesn’t have our brains,” Drake retorted.
“Dante certainly doesn’t have mine, yours, however…” Phoe let the sentence drop, and Drake growled.
“Hey, turn the news on,” Razor ordered, bursting into the clubhouse.
“What’s up?” Inglorious asked.
“Don’t know, but it’s all over the media. President Winslow is giving a statement in a few minutes. Live TV is being interrupted across the board,” Razor said.
I grabbed the controller and flicked the TV on, and turned it to the news channel. A reporter talking about what this potential announcement could be before flicking to the White House.
“Good afternoon, everyone. Please take your seats and refrain from calling out questions until I’ve finished.” Winslow said. Behind him stood the VP, Andrew Wainwright, the former congressman for South Dakota.
“Andrew?” Phoe murmured and moved closer to the TV. She was close to the man.
“We have an announcement to make. Just over eighteen months ago, the impossible happened. Americans fought Americans.”
Drake and Inglorious straightened, and Razor slumped in a chair. I turned and saw Rory standing by the bar.
“Find Chill now and bring him here,” I ordered. He nodded and took off.
“At the time, my friend and Vice-President, Andrew, contacted the then President of the United States, warning him what was happening. Senator Antony Parker-Jones and several other high-ranking officials supported these claims from Rapid City and its surrounding towns. Their warnings were ignored, even when backed by evidence in the form of pictures, video footage, and voice recordings. The former president shoved his head up his ass and refused to accept reality.”
I smiled mirthlessly as Andrew coughed and Winslow glanced over his shoulder.
“Forgive an old soldier’s bluntness. I was never one for flowery language. We are taught when we serve to communicate plainly so misunderstandings can’t happen. And this is how I’ll speak to you always, calmly and clearly. Reports for months were ignored, and the former president claimed it was a motorbike gang war and that the local law enforcement could handle it. He didn’t wish to know or understand. He wouldn’t accept that a person had grown so lustful for power that he planned to attack and claim an American city and kill anyone in his way. The man we know as Fury.
“Our former president didn’t do his due diligence, didn’t check reports, and didn’t speak to those begging him for help. The fool ignored eyewitness accounts. Basically, Rapid City was left to hang. Even I was ordered to stand down and not provide support. Had I not disobeyed a direct order, Rapid City would be under anarchy right now, and we’d be fighting to regain the city.
“Since I took office six months ago, we have been steadily wading through the paperwork and files. Evidence has been collected, checked, verified, and recorded. Amongst this was a map taken from the Venomous Fangs’ main clubhouse. On it were indicators of where bodies were buried. Two weeks ago, I authorised teams to go to three of the sites to see if they led to anything.”
Winslow stopped talking, and horror crossed his face. My blood ran cold, and my gut twisted. Shit, this was going to be bad. This would change the lives of those standing around me again.
“There were marked gravesites, alright. Mass graves. The first held the remains of thirty-three men—all wearing cuts belonging to a motorbike club that no longer exists. The secondgravesite, close to them, contained the bodies of twenty-five women and eighteen children.”
Gasps rang out across the press room.
“The third site unearthed twelve men. Every male and female body excavated had been tortured, and the women also sexually assaulted. The children had been killed with a bullet to the back of the head. These are three sites of the many markings on the map recovered, which encompass the entire country. This has led to today’s events.
“As of an hour ago, arrests were made, including the former President, Vice-President, director of the FBI, Homeland Security, and other officials. Their charges are numerous and include treason, obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, conspiracy to murder, aiding and abetting, and others. More arrests are happening as we speak.
