Chapter Six - Grim
1152 Words
The first gunshot hit the clubhouse window.
The second buried itself in the wooden porch post inches from my head.
I shoved Eve behind me and dragged her towards the front doors as every brother in
the yard exploded into motion.
"Get down!" Cal roared.
Glass rained over the porch. Dani grabbed one of the prospects by the back of his
coat and hauled him behind a stack of oil drums before another shot tore through the
air.
The black SUVs didn't move.
They just sat outside the open gates.
Watching.
That bothered me more than the shooting.
If they wanted a war, they would've come through the gate already. They had the
numbers. They had the surprise.
Instead, they were waiting.
Waiting for something.
Or someone.
I looked over my shoulder.
Eve.
Her face had gone pale, but she wasn't screaming or panicking. She stood frozen
with one hand clutching the envelope against her chest and the other wrapped
around the silver pendant hanging from her neck.
She looked... lost.
Not guilty.
Not dangerous.
Just scared.
"Dani!" I shouted.
My sister looked up from behind the barrels.
"Get her inside!"
Dani didn't argue. She ran to Eve, grabbed her hand, and pulled her towards the
clubhouse entrance.
Eve stumbled once, nearly dropping the letter, but she caught herself.
The envelope.
I had given it back to her.
I didn't even remember making the decision.
One second I had it.
The next, I'd shoved it into her hands and told her to run.
Trust gets you killed.
The old lesson echoed through my head.
So why had I trusted her?
A motorcycle engine roared to life somewhere behind me.
I turned to see Hawk, one of our road captains, racing towards the front gate. He
skidded to a stop sideways, blocking the entrance with his bike.
"You want in?" he yelled towards the SUVS. "Then come through me."
The driver of the first SUV didn't react.
He simply stared past Hawk.
Past the clubhouse.
Past all of us.
Straight at Eve.
A chill crawled up my spine.
The guy hadn't been lying.
He hadn't come for the club.
He'd come for her.
"Shut the gates!" Cal barked.
The prospects sprinted forward, grabbing the heavy iron barriers and dragging them
closed. The old hinges groaned in protest as the metal slammed together with a
deafening clang.
For a moment, everything stopped.
The engines outside went silent.
The gunfire ended.
The only sound was the rain.
I backed towards the clubhouse, never taking my eyes off the SUVs.
The driver's window slowly rolled up.
Then, one by one, the vehicles turned around.
No threats.
No final shots.
They simply drove away.
Nobody moved for several seconds.
Finally, Hawk lowered the pistol he'd been holding.
"What the hell was that?"
No one answered.
Because nobody knew.
The clubhouse was quieter than I'd ever heard it.
The brothers gathered around the common room, speaking in low voices while
someone boarded up the shattered front windows. The smell of fresh coffee mixed
with sawdust and gunpowder.
I stood near the fireplace, watching Eve from across the room.
Dani had wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and sat her down at one of the
old wooden tables.
She looked exhausted.
She still hadn't let go of the envelope.
Silas sat in his chair across from her, a thick wool blanket over his knees. The attack
had taken whatever little strength he had left, but he refused to go upstairs and rest.
He kept looking at Eve.
At the pendant.
At the envelope.
Like he was trying to make sure she was real.
I walked over.
The second I did, the conversation stopped.
Eve looked down at the table.
Dani folded her arms.
Silas just stared at me.
"What?" I asked.
Dani stood up.
"You owe her an apology."
I almost laughed.
"For what?"
She blinked at me.
"For treating her like a criminal."
I looked at Eve.
She didn't say anything.
Didn't defend herself.
Didn't ask me for anything.
She just sat there with red eyes and rain-soaked hair, looking like she'd rather be
anywhere else.
"I was protecting the club."
"No," Dani snapped. "You were making assumptions."
I looked at my father.
"You knew who she was."
Silas didn't answer.
"You looked at her and knew."
Still nothing.
Anger started building in my chest.
"I've spent six months trying to help you keep this club together while you've been
sick. I've asked questions, and you've shut me out every time. Then she walks in
carrying a letter, and suddenly everybody acts like the world's ending."
He leaned back in his chair, studying me.
"You think this is about the club?"
"What else would it be?"
His eyes drifted to Eve.
"It's about a promise."
I frowned.
"What promise?"
"The one I made twenty years ago."
The room fell silent.
Eve finally looked up.
"You knew my mother."
It wasn't a question.
Silas closed his eyes.
"Yes."
My gaze shifted between them.
"You know who my family is?"
"Yes."
"You know why she's here?"
"Yes."
I took a step forward.
"Then tell us."
Silas opened his eyes again.
The old man looked older than he had that morning.
"Telling the truth has a price, son."
I slammed my hand down on the table.
"And people shooting at our gates doesn't?"
The sound echoed through the room.
Eve flinched.
I immediately regretted it.
I took a breath and forced myself to calm down.
"Dad... who are those people?"
Silas looked at the envelope.
"The same people who have been hurting her since the day she was born."
Every muscle in my body tensed.
I looked at Eve.
She stared at him like she couldn't breathe.
"What do you mean?" she whispered.
Silas reached for the letter.
"Because what's written in that envelope..." he said quietly, "...is something very
powerful people believed was lost forever."
I looked at the old paper in Eve's hands.
A single letter.
One piece of paper.
Could it really be worth killing for?
A loud crash echoed from the back hallway.
Every head in the room turned.
Cal came running through the doorway, his face pale.
"Silas."
The old man pushed himself up in his chair.
"What is it?"
Cal swallowed hard before speaking.
"I checked the security cameras."
"And?"
"The SUVs never drove away."
The room went completely still.
Cal looked directly at me.
"They parked in the woods about a half a mile from here."
He took a shaky breath.
"And... somebody opened the back service gate for them."
Nobody spoke.
Nobody moved.
I slowly looked around the room at the men I'd known my entire life.
The men I called family.
Then I looked at my father.
"There's a traitor inside Iron Crown."
The expression on Silas face told me something I never thought I'd see.
He wasn't surprised.
He already knew.
- Writer
