Havoc

18 - Time for the initiation

Havoc

Tank shifts in his seat, drawing the eye of every man.

“All of y’all with women know how they fight us on being shadowed.” The older members all laugh and nod their heads at Tank. “They want privacy, don’t want us treating them as though they were weak. Ain’t no woman belonging to us weak, especially having been trained in self-defense by Nova. But the sad fact of the matter is, they are women and easily attacked. They ain’t built like men, and any man could easily come along and take them by surprise.”

I hate to admit it, but Tank is right. Most women aren’t as physically strong as men.

Mentally?

Ninety percent of women are much stronger than any man alive. I would never take away anything these women here have achieved over the years. But just like anyone else, bad things can happen that are out of their control.

Whatever us men can do to stop those things from happening, we’ll do it. I’ve lived through too many situations where women have gotten hurt. Cindy, Willow, Brooke, Elie, my mother, just to mention a few. Each time, it was hard, but I couldn’t imagine how hard it was for the men who loved those women.

I never want to go through something so awful that it might mean I lose Wynter. Every man and his dog can profess to love his woman more than any man on earth. But the fact remains, each person feels the same about the one they love.

Through all the shi.t that’s happened, each man had one thing in common, the support of this club. Hawk’s right, all I need to do is put my trust in them, and Wynter will be fine. There’s nothing the Snakes can’t do when we’re on the same page.

“I have jobs for all of you, and I’ll hand them out at the end of the meeting. You know the rules when it comes to our women. Wynter is one of us in more ways than one. Just one of you falters when it comes to her safety, and I will personally gut you like a damn fish. Is that understood?”

“Prez,” Everyone says in unison.

“Now,” Jett cracks his knuckles. “Phoenix,”

“What about her?” Stryker asks.

“Tank and I have been talking, and we think it’s time for Phoenix to take the initiation test.”

I wince where I sit. Initiations into this club range from taking a beating and getting up and walking away, theft, even disposing of perverts, and there are worse things Jett and Tank put you through. Jett likes to push you to the limits to make sure you’re right for the Snakes.

I don’t have a clue what Phoenix will have to endure, but I remember my initiation very well. Jett had me torch a drug dealers house while he slept. I killed someone on my President’s orders just to join Snakes Henchmen. Not my finest hour, but I got through it the way I knew my President expected.

“You really believe she’s ready, Prez?”

“If anybody was born ready, it’s Phoenix, BlackJack.”

A lot of muttering goes on, and people agreeing with Jett.

“You’re not gonna hurt her, though, right?”

Jett raises an eyebrow in BlackJack’s direction. “She’ll be treated the same as everyone else. You know as well as everyone else in this room that Phoenix wouldn’t want to be shown special treatment.”

“He’s right, Dad,” Wrench points out. “Phoenix came into this world fighting, and she’s lived every day the same way. She works hard every day to prove she’s just as good as the rest of us. If we start treating her with kid gloves, she’ll slaughter the lot of us.”

Wrench isn’t wrong. Phoenix already thinks we’re too easy on her because she’s a woman. God knows what she’ll do if she thinks Jett has handed out an easy initiation. If I know anything about Phoenix, it’s that she’ll be expecting the worst and hoping for it.

“I remember when Phoenix was three,” Roman chuckles. “And she walked into this room like she owned the place, nosey to see who was here. She pretty much told Shepard to mind his own business, and she’d do what she wanted.”

“She always did have a mouth on her.” Gunner laughs, causing others to follow suit.

I must admit that Phoenix has always been the one woman everyone knew would become a member. We don’t have female members as a rule. When this club first started, it was stated that women wouldn’t be allowed to join. Sexist, I know, but that’s how men thought back in the day.

That rule held steady until Phoenix came to Jett last year and demanded to be allowed to join. Hell, she’d been saying from the moment she could talk that she’d be a member one day. Shepard used to laugh because he thought it was cute, just the words of a small girl, wanting to be like her daddy and brothers. Everyone thought she’d grow out of it, but she didn’t.

It wasn’t just the ramblings of a little girl, and Phoenix did want to be a member. Phoenix pointed out to Jett that Shepard had promised that one day, it would happen. When Jett became President, he also held that promise.

What could Jett say other than yes?

I have to admit that Phoenix has been loyal, and she’s held her own just like every other person that joins. Her nephews, Blade and Axel are members, real names Gabe and Mark, Hawk and Stryker’s eldest sons are members, Blade having been patched in just a couple of months ago. This didn’t please Phoenix, and she wanted to know why he’d been patched before her. After all, she’d done just as much work as Blade. Jett pointed out it was merely to do with age and the fact Blade was able to become a Prospect months before Phoenix.

We’re never going to find a more loyal and fiercer woman than Phoenix. She was born into this club, like many of the others. Phoenix knows the rules inside and out and would put her life on the line for any of us. At the age of eighteen, she has more guts than most men twice her age.

Yes, it’s time she became a fully patched member.

“She came in this room,” Jett laughs. “And told a complete stranger at the time, all about her big brothers, her cousins, and her daddy. Do you remember her asking Grinder his real name?”

Grinder is Roman’s father-in-law, President of the Wild Wolves of Texas.

BlackJack laughs loudly while slamming his hand down on the table. “I do! He told her, and I couldn’t believe it. She swore to keep it a secret, and to this day, she’s never told anyone.”

There’s some chatter about Phoenix and the things she used to get up to. We each laugh in places and some of us are shocked to learn things we didn’t know. However, I need to get back to Wynter, she’s been alone long enough, and these men need to set about finding the fucker.s looking for my wife.

“Right! Get out and await further instructions. Blade, send Tex in,”

“Prez,”

I have a feeling poor Tex is in for a hard day.