Collecting his breath, Tack goes on to call out, “No one here is gonna admit to being the traitor, Leo!”
I look around, taking in the brothers staring my way. “My goal has always been to make this club stronger and that’s what’s been happening, so, if you want to get back to earning...”
“It was me!”
Silence hangs heavily on all our shoulders. Brothers look around and to my left, a path clears and a brother from the Mercy chapter steps forward. He’s older than most of us, his straggly beard a mix of black and grey. His tattoos are faded and stretched with age and the scar running across his forehead has faded with time. His belly overhangs the top of his belt and as Holly would point out, he looks like he needs a bath. My feet move before I make a conscious decision to go to him. I stop when I’m close enough to smell his breath. Cigarettes, beer, and a rotten tooth.
“Are you saying Slade, Dex, and Shane are dead because of you?”
He nods once and drops his eyes to the floor. Using the tip of my gun, I place it under his chin and lift his face up.
“You have sixty seconds to fuckin’ explain.”
“Money ain’t been great since my boy got sick. Every time I dented the medical bills, more came through the door. It was treatment after treatment, but nothing worked. Then I found this new procedure, but it cost fifty grand.”
I work hard to keep myself in control. It's becoming difficult to see past the violent mist descending.
“Fifty thousand dollars?”
He nods.
“Are you telling me we lost men, that you turned on us, for fifty fuckin’ grand?”
“It was for my kid! To save his life!”
“You go to Tack and tell him you needed money, that your kid needed help?”
“Yeah, but he couldn’t help me. Brennon wasmyson, he was my responsibility.”
The rage builds and I take deep breaths before it takes over me completely.
“The pain you’ve caused our club, the disloyalty you shown our patch, the death you’ve laid at our door, for fifty thousand dollars, you know what has to happen.”
The fear drops from him and a kind of peace that he no longer has to keep the secret washes over him.
“I was prepared for this to happen when I first approached Hopper. Turns out, it was for nothing. My kid died the day after I took the money.”
There’s no room for sentiment. No one should lose a kid, but if Tack couldn’t help him, he should have reached out to me. Pressing the gun to the middle of his forehead, I tell him, “No need to miss him any longer, I'm gonna send you to him.”
Squeezing the trigger, blood spatters my face and his body hits the floor.
“We’re not voting?” Creep grunts.
I turn slowly in a full circle. “Were any of you planning on voting against ending the life of a fuckin’ traitor?”
No one speaks and I wear his blood across my face for them all to see. They saw no hesitation or debate from me. There is one task left to deal with.
Walking over to Tack, he holds his chin a little higher but wariness blurs his eyes.
Putting my gun on the bar, I take out my hunting knife and grab onto Tack’s cut. He tries and fails to shrug me off.
“I warned your chapter what would happen if you fucked this club up again.” I slice off his president’s patch. “Because of you, brothers lost their lives over fifty grand. There's no coming back from that.”
“Because of me?” he spits out.
“Yeah, your chapter, your responsibility. You bear the blame.”
Pocketing the patch, I put my knife away. Turning to everyone, I clear my throat.
