Wrench

18 - A story from the past

Wrench

I left Elie in that dark room. I walked away from her like she was nothing to me, but not before I told her how I’d be there when Shepard killed her. If by some miracle he didn’t, and they let her go, she needed to stay the hell away from me, or I’d kill her myself. Then I pushed her to the fuckin.g ground like a dog and watched her cry.

I hate this shi.t!

Why did she have to do this?

Why use me?

All right, I get why. She wanted information.

Me?

I’m the stupid cunt who gave it to her. She had a way of prying stuff out of me, and because she acted so damn innocently, I gave it to her — everything she needed to set Hammer up.

Why did I become such a fool?

No one has ever been able to manipulate me so easily!

When it comes to women, there is no choice between them and this club. Snakes Henchmen are my family. I was born into this club, and I’ll die with it. It’s in my blood. I was a little boy in this clubhouse. I learned how to be the man I am now from the men belonging to this patch.

You think one slip of a woman, no, girl, is going to turn me fuckin.g soft?

Not a chance.

Okay, she had me there for a short while, but there ain’t nobody could get me to turn my back on this patch, this way of life. It flows through my veins; I live it, breathe it, fight for it, bleed for it, and I’ll damn well fuckin.g die for it.

The way Elie begged me to help her, not let them kill her, should have torn me the fuc.k up.

She’s my girl, right?

Locked in the dimly lit room-type prison cell, waiting to die.

I should have wanted to do everything in my power to get her out of there, right?

I should have, but I’m too angry to care what happens to her. I don’t even give a shi.t that the Prez has called Church at half six in the morning. I’ll sit here and listen to them banging on and on about what we should do about the girl who tried to cripple one of our own, but I don’t care a shi.t!

“You can’t let this kinda thing go unpunished, Prez.”

Blah, blah, blah. That’s all I hear right now. If I hear it at all. I’m fuckin.g numb all over, trying to push Elie’s pleading voice out of my head.

“The decision about where we go from here, Ghost, is Hammer’s. I understand you're angry. I am, too. However, the fact remains this is a very young, very confused young woman, who did, in the end, try to fix what she’d done.”

“And that’s an excuse?”

“There is no excuse, Tank. No one is saying that.”

“Good. That little bitc.h tried to hire my wife to fuc.k up my brother!”

I may have told Elie a little too much about Nova’s involvement with The Exorcist. I didn’t mention that Nova is said person. But I should never have said anything at all. If I hadn’t, Elie never would have got the damn idea in her head in the first place. God, but she was just so easy to talk to. It was as if she’d cast a spell on me, and I couldn’t stop talking.

“And she fuckin’ tried to take it back!”

“Why the fuc.k are you even here, Stryker? We all know you’re gonna try and get the little bitc.h outta this.”

“Why, you fuckin’ cunt!” Stryker’s on his feet, gun pointed at Roman. Roman’s in the same stance. Prez is yelling at both of them to put their fuckin’ guns away. Muttering, agreements, too much talking all at once.

My head is about to explode. I need to get out of here. I need to ride my bike until I can’t ride anymore.

How could one woman, one barely a woman, do this to me?

“Shut up!” The gavel comes crashing down against wood so hard and with so much force that everyone is instantly silent. I’m sure the Prez has tingles shooting through his arm because of it. “You fucker.s listen up and listen good. I know what she’s done. I know what she tried to undo. Let’s not forget this is a nineteen-year-old girl!”

“One with murder on her mind. One who used my son to get what she wanted.” My dad says.

“If your son hadn't been so stupid as to give her the information...” The bang of the gavel has my head ringing. I know how stupid I’ve been. I know I played a part in this, but I don’t need Red to point out how dumb I’ve been.

“I’m gonna tell y’all a story.”

“A story? Prez, we’re supposed to be...”

“A story, Roman, and you’re all gonna listen. Do I make myself understood?”

A collective of Aye’s rings out, and the Prez sits back and takes a deep breath.

“I’m going to admit something to you younger members. A handful of you older members already know, including BlackJack, Roman, Red, Ace, Jett, and Hammer. Tank, I’m sure Jett confided in you when you were kids.”

“Dad, if you’re about to tell them what I think you are, you don’t need to do this.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Jett. We’re a family, and family leans on each other. I’m done trying to hide this from everyone. I never should’ve in the first place. However, I made a promise to a terrified little girl.”

The smell of cigarette smoke is driving me nuts. I don’t smoke myself, and I don’t give a shi.t who cakes their lungs in nicotine, but when you have four or five smoking at once, it’s too much. Red just smirks. He knows how much it pisses me off when he blows his damn smoke at me!

“As you all know by now, Jett’s mother left me and took off with my baby girl. Shacked up with Butch, the then President of Devils Hornets. What I’ve never told you was that before that happened, when my father, Apollo, was Prez here, back when I was VP, my brother decided he was done playing second fiddle to me.”

“Your brother? Like, as in, same parents?”

“Yes, Red. Although we had different mothers. My mother and father separated when I was a mere baby, but I always had both of ’em in my life. Momma stayed good friends with my daddy. However, he got with someone else and had a kid with her.

“Ronnie, my brother, and I were close as kids. Our mothers were great friends, if you can believe that, and they wanted us to have a relationship. Anyway, Marsha, Ronnie’s mother, was killed when he was three. Got caught up in a shoot-out with this club and one they were at war with at the time.

“My momma was there for both my dad and Ronnie. I always knew she loved my old man. As everyone here knows, my dad loved my mom; she was his best friend; they just hit a snag in the road for a while. They split up and met other people, though they never stopped loving one another.

“One day, Dad told Mom that he’d never stopped loving her, that she was always the one he was in love with. They were remarried six months after Marsha died. Mom took Ronnie on as her own. We grew up, and both of us became part of this magnificent club,”

Magnificent doesn’t even cover what this club is. We’re everything a family should be. We’re also crazy fuckin’ killers. Don’t be fooled by what we say. Many truths are lies.

“My brother became restless and started killin’ at will. Killin’ when killin’ wasn’t needed. We don’t kill the innocent, but my brother didn’t care. I started noticing changes in him. He was harder, meaner, and didn’t care about anything. Idio.t wasn’t even careful. I’m sure you remember how he was, Blackjack?”

“Aye, I do, Shepard, I do.” My father has been with Shepard and this club for more years than my brother and I have been alive, and they have been through hell and back together.

“Ronnie decided this wasn’t the club for him, so he joined a rival club after almost blowing this place to smithereens. Every man in this room knows or knows of my half-brother.”

“Oh?” Every eye in the room moves from Hawk back to Shepard like damn robots.

“My brother joined Devils Roadkill. Went against everything my father had ever raised us to believe in.” Of all the... Goddammit! “Ronnie became Bulldog.”

“The fuckin’ President?!” I’d yell like my brother is if I could find the fight inside to do so.

“The very same, Hawk. However, before he was President, he was a mean bastard who killed anyone he felt like, he raped women just because he liked to hear them scream,”

I knew this about that bastard already, but knowing that Bulldog is our President’s brother is mind-boggling.

How could Apollo have made two very different men?

Bulldog cares for nothing and no one. Shepard cares for everything and everyone. He’s not a pushover, and he’ll kill if he has to. But just like now with Elie, he’s trying to find a way where everyone can forgive her so he doesn’t have to hurt her or Coral by doing so. Because that’s just the man he is.

However, if Hammer decides he wants Elie dead, Shepard will kill her, no questions asked.

Bulldog?

He wouldn’t have even called Church; he’d have just shot the bitc.h after raping her like she was nothing to him. I don’t even want to think about that right now, or ever, actually.