Chapter 5
The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences, and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone.
~Gerda Lerner~
Eagle
September 6th, 1998
I sighed as I swung my legs over the side of my bed. Once again, I drank way too damn much last night. I’d celebrated Axe, Streak, Cas and Ghost being patched-in. If I had imbibed heavily afterwards so I didn’t have to look at Kenzie and Bane all night, that hadn’t hurt anyone but me.
I showered, got ready for the day, then made my way downstairs in search of some breakfast. I entered the kitchen, fixed me a plate, grabbed a cup of coffee and headed to the dining room. I wanted to eat and get out of here before Bane and Kenzie showed up. Kenzie was now out here every Friday and Saturday night unless Bane went to her house.
It had gotten to the point that I hoped he would go to her place all the damn time so I didn’t have to see her. Each time I saw them together, it was like a knife ripped a hole in my heart. My damn ticker had to be so full of holes I wasn’t sure how it was still working.
I know I shouldn’t still be feeling the way I was. However, knowing that and actually managing to do that was two different things. I knew deep down in my core that Kenzie and I could have been good together.
There was no convincing me that Bane hadn’t deliberately taken her from me. I know realistically if she wanted to be with me she would have been, but I had this feeling that he’d said something to her that night in July that had managed to put doubts in her mind about me. I’d felt it when she had hesitated to answer me.
It should have been water under the bridge by now, those were the key words, should have been. Instead, the damn bridge was still under water and I had a feeling it was going to be that way for a long time to come. My Brothers that I normally did things with knew something had gone down. They saw Bane kissing Kenzie after I had just been kissing her.
They knew I had stormed out after having spoken to them, they also knew that Bane had taken her home. They were treating Bane as persona non grata and I’m sure others were starting to notice how they were treating him and that I didn’t have anything to do with Bane anymore. To tell you the truth, I didn’t really give a fuck.
He’d killed whatever friendship we ever had between us when he deliberately did what he did and said whatever it was he said to get Kenzie to doubt me. I wanted no part of him now. After work, unless we had something going on in the club, I left every day and rode. I was having problems being around anyone.
It had gotten to the point that I was starting to wonder if I should turn in my cut and leave the club. I sure as fuck wasn’t happy here anymore. The hell of it was, I wasn’t sure I’d be happy anywhere right now. I only knew the wound wasn’t healing like it should. No matter what I did, nothing seemed to help.
For the first few weeks, I’d fucked the club girls until I couldn’t see straight. It’s a sad thing though when a man finally realizes that every time he stuck his dick in a woman, he was imagining it being another woman under him. It had finally gotten to the point where I didn’t even want to fuck anymore.
Now if I got off at all, it was in the shower when I jacked off imagining it was Kenzie touching me, stroking me, sucking on me. Afterwards I’d feel sick to my stomach because I realized I was thinking about another man’s woman when I was doing that. Only thing is, neither my heart nor my brain could accept that Kenzie was Bane’s woman.
As I entered the dining room, Brute motioned me over to where he was sitting. I grimaced when I saw that Bane and Kenzie were already sitting at the table. I started to sit somewhere else until I saw Blood watching me, so I sucked it up, made my way to the table, sat down, and started eating. I didn’t say anything to anyone.
“Going riding again today, Eagle?” Brute queried as he raised his coffee cup to his mouth.
“Probably so.”
“That sounds like a good idea, think I’ll join you,” he replied.
“Yeah, I could get into a ride,” Doom stated. “I’ve been in the dungeon too long and need some fresh air.” Doom called the computer room, his domain, the dungeon.
“Count me in,” Blood uttered.
“Me too,” Slaughter added.
I sighed. Mother fuck. I didn’t want anyone with me. I needed to be alone.
“Not wanting company, Brother?” Blood asked me.
I glanced at him to see him studying me. He was the lead Enforcer and Sgt at Arms for the club. It was his business to be aware of everything that was happening in the club. A man’s personal life wasn’t supposed to play into that unless it was hurting the club and I’d be damn if anyone said I was hurting the club.
“Just wanted to take a solo ride,” I murmured and shrugged.
“Sometimes you need your Brothers with you,” he said.
I nodded grimly.
“Think Kenzie and I’ll join you,” Bane spoke up.
Like fucking hell I would voluntarily go on a ride with him. That shit was going to have to be mandatory. I stood up abruptly and walked into the kitchen. I raked my leftovers off my plate, rinsed it off, then dropped it into the dishwater. I strode through the kitchen and dining room on my way back to my bedroom. I grabbed my keys, my wallet, my sunglasses, my helmet and started back down the stairs.
As I hit the bottom of the steps, Blood was walking out of the dining room.
“Don’t go anywhere yet, Eagle,” he muttered as he passed me and walked down the hall toward Dog’s office.
Dammit. Why couldn’t I have been a minute faster? I thought about leaving anyway but knew that would get my ass chewed out worse than what was probably going to happen.
I made my way to the bar, walked behind it and grabbed a beer. At this point, I didn’t give a fuck that it was only ten a.m. I needed a damn beer, possibly more than one.
~*~
Blood
I rapped my knuckles on the wall besides Dog’s door and stepped in the doorway. Dog glanced toward me, his focus had been on the conversation he was having with Viper.
At first I had only planned to bring this up with Dog. Eagle and Bane were Dog’s second cousins and I’d thought to treat it like a blood family matter. Seeing Viper made me realize that this shit was affecting more than just the two of them. It was interfering with a Brother wanting to be around his other Brothers. Somehow we needed to get a handle on this. I walked in and closed the door behind me.
Dog and Viper both raised a brow at that.
“Problem?” Dog asked, studying my face. He was trying to decide how bad what I was about to say to him was.
“Could be,” I replied as I took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Dog’s desk.
“Talk to us.”
“Have y’all noticed how Eagle has been acting lately?” I asked them.
“Noticed he’s even quieter than usual,” Viper’s low voice rumbled out.
“I could tell that yesterday he didn’t look very happy to see Bane with his woman at breakfast. Is there a problem between them, you think?” Dog questioned me.
I sighed.
“I didn’t say anything about this because I thought it would work itself out. Now, I’m not so sure. Back in July a bunch of us were at The Watering Hole and the girl Bane is seeing came in along with some friends. Guys, Eagle is the one who approached the girl first. They danced and things were pretty hot and heavy out on the dance floor. The girl appeared to be totally into Eagle.
“Bane acted odd about it. He got up from the table like a man possessed. I told him to leave them alone and he told me to fuck off. He broke up the dancing and Eagle went to the restroom while Bane brought the girl back to the table where her girlfriends were now sitting with us.
“While Eagle was gone, Bane was whispering to the girl. I couldn’t hear what was said, but she didn’t act very happy about what she was hearing. When Eagle stepped back into the bar area, Bane picked the girl up, put her in his lap and start
ed kissing her.
“Eagle approached Bane and words were spoken. Eagle left and minutes later Bane left with the girl.
“The next morning I heard something out in the hallway down from my bedroom. I opened the door to see Eagle and Bane talking heatedly. Bane was on the floor, he got up, said something and Eagle knocked him out and spit on him. Eagle glanced briefly at me as he went down the stairs and left. Since then, they don’t talk at all. Eagle hates being around Bane. Doesn’t want to have anything to do with him.
“This morning, Eagle was going on a ride and some of us said we’d go along with him. He didn’t look happy at that, but when Bane said he and his woman would go too, Eagle got up and walked out. He was about to leave when I told him to wait.”
~*~
Mad Dog
“Christ. This girl was with Eagle first?”
“Yeah, Prez.”
“It looked hot and heavy?” Viper asked.
“Yeah. You could see they were totally into each other. Hell, I thought Eagle was going to take her right there on the dance floor. They were that into each other. Never seen Eagle act like that about a woman before.”
“You think Bane deliberately did something to stop that?”
Blood grimaced and muttered, “Yeah, Dog. I do.”
“Shit,” I growled as I reached back and grabbed a few beers out of the mini fridge. I handed one to Viper and one to Blood. I opened the bottle and took a long drink. Fuck, I’d never even heard of any Brother in the club having a problem with another.
“Bane has always fucking pushed Eagle’s buttons at times. I don’t know why the hell he does that either. They’ve been best friends since they were babies. What the fuck is going on with them?”
I sighed.
“Call Eagle in here.”
Blood lifted his chin, stood up and went to the door. He stepped out of it and made a motion to who I’m assuming was Eagle. Soon my younger cousin was walking in the room.
“You wanted to see me, Prez?”
“Yeah, Eagle, have a seat.”
I watched as Eagle clenched his jaw tight as he glanced at Viper then me, but he did what I told him to.
“What’s going on with you and Bane?” I asked studying his face. I knew both men well. They were my second cousins and I’d been around them since they were born.
“Not one damn thing, Prez,” Eagle uttered. He was fucking uptight as hell.
“You’ve been quieter than normal, Brother,” Viper spoke up.
I nodded in agreement with Viper. “I noticed yesterday morning you didn’t look too happy seeing Bane and his woman together.”
I watched his body tighten up. Yeah, there was a problem. I didn’t have a fucking clue what to do about it either. This was the first time that I can remember that we’d ever had any contention between any of the Brothers, much less ones that were best friends and family.
“Don’t have a problem, Prez, Vip.”
“Eagle, tell us what happened.”
“Nothing, Prez. Not one damn thing happened.”
“You knocked out Bane in the hallway a couple months ago. It’s been noticed that if Bane’s in the room, you leave. You don’t talk to him, you don’t look at him. You basically act like he doesn’t exist. He’s your best friend, Eagle. Something happened.”
“That motherfucker is not my best friend,” he snapped.
Hell. This was worse than I thought. Those boys had always been as close as two peas in a pod since they were in diapers. While I know Bane would piss Eagle off every once in a while, this was so much more than that.
“So much for nothing being wrong, Eagle,” I said as I looked at him hard, trying to get a read on what was going on in his head. He had his hands clenched into fists, his body was rigid and I know I could hear him gritting his teeth.
“Anything else, Prez, Vip?”
“You’re not fucking going anywhere until we get this resolved,” I growled.
The muscles in his jaw were twitching. He barely had a hold of his emotions. We didn’t fucking need any unrest between Brothers.
“Do I need to get him in here and we all talk?”
“You get that fucker in here and I’m gone.”
“Not if I say your ass isn’t leaving.”
“I can fucking put this cut on your desk and walk out and you can’t stop me.”
I jerked my head back and Viper and Blood drew in deep breaths. Jesus Christ. Hearing that come out of Eagle floored me. He’d wanted to be a Brother since he was big enough to walk. That had been his only dream when he was a kid and he’d worked his ass off to become a member.
When Sarge had handed him his cut, I swear there hasn’t been a man since who has had a bigger grin on his face than Eagle had on the day he patched-in.
“C’mon on, Brother. Talk to us. If you can’t talk to me as your Prez, or Viper as your VP, talk to me as your family, and that’s what we are Eagle. We’re family.”
He sighed and rubbed his hands over his head. I did the same thing when I’m stressed. Hell, maybe we get that from Mom’s side of the family. My mom and his grandma were sisters.
“It’s fucking stupid. Yet I can’t get past it.”
He took a deep breath.
“I’m sure Blood’s already told you.”
“We want to hear it from you,” Viper declared as he raised his bottle to take a drink of beer.
“Can I get one of those, Dog?” he asked, stalling.
After handing him a beer, I looked at Eagle expectantly.
He chugged half his bottle down, then began, “Back in July, a group of us were at the bar when Kenzie and her friends came in. As soon as she walked through the door I swear to God every nerve cell in my fucking body came alive.
“I actually had the thought that I was seeing my future walk into the room. When she sat down at a table, her eyes caught mine and neither of us could look away. I went over and asked her to dance and, Christ, when she put her hand in mine I felt like I had been electrocuted. Sparks flew through my body a million miles an hour and I’m pretty damn certain it was the same for her.
“We started dancing and the next thing I know, we're kissing. Only it wasn’t just a kiss. It was a mating of our lips, our mouths, and our souls. She felt it just as much as I did. I know she did. Hell, the entire world just disappeared and it didn’t reappear until Bane came over and interrupted us.
“The fucker did it on purpose. I just don’t know why he did, other than he wanted to take her from me. Yet I don’t think that was it. It was almost like he was jealous of us.
“He told me that we needed to cool it down that we were practically fucking on the floor. Gotta tell you, the way I was feeling there’s a damn good possibility that might have happened. I was twisted in damn knots. He pointed to Kenzie’s friends and told her that we should join them. She asked me if that’s what I wanted to do and I told her it was up to her.
“She said that would be okay as long as we danced again in a little while. I went to the restroom then grabbed a beer. When I started to walk back to the table, Bane was kissing Kenzie.
“I approached them and asked her if he was who she wanted and she was hesitant. I have this gut feeling that while I was in the john, Bane said something to her to make her doubt me. What, I don’t know. She looked at me nervously before she looked back at Bane, then she told me she didn’t know. Bane was smirking at me the entire time.
“I asked her if she liked his kisses better and she said no. Still, she was acting differently. It was obvious to a blind man that something happened while I was taking a piss and I’m fairly certain Bane said something negative about me. I finally decided fuck it and left.
“The next morning the fucker came to my door and woke me up. He asked where I had gone last night and I told him to leave. He smarted off and said if he knew I’d wanted her that bad he’d have given her to me. Fucking given her to me, Dog, like she was some damn piece of meat.
“Then the fucker sa
id he would have shared her with me. I saw red and knocked the little shit out. I took a shower and got ready to leave. When I stepped out the door of my room, he was just coming round.
“He mouthed about me hitting him. The fucker then had the nerve to ask why I had done it. I told him in no uncertain terms why I had done it. He muttered that I had only met her twenty minutes earlier.
“He fucking taunted me. He’d told me he could take her from me. Then the bastard bragged about fucking her, that it was his cock she had rode all night.
“I lost it again, knocked him out and left. I haven’t talked to him since July and I’m not going to either. If y’all tell me I have to, that we have to work this out, then, Dog, Vip. I’m out. I’m gone. What he did is unforgivable to me. I will not play nice to him nor will I bow down to him.
“I promise you he’s only still with her because he knows how much it’s eating me up. What I can’t get is why? I have never done a damn thing to him other than stand beside him and be there for him since we were kids. But no more. I’ll stand behind him as a Brother but, by God, I will not be his friend.”
“Holy hell, what a clusterfuck,” I swore. “Don’t want to hear you saying another thing about leaving the club again, Eagle. If anything, Bane is the one who did wrong. Can’t say I blame you, Brother. I would be madder than hell if someone did that to me too.”
I took a deep breath, let it out, and looked at the man sitting in front of me. This had fucking tore him up. I knew how he was feeling. Everything he said about how this girl made him feel was how Ava made me feel. I couldn’t fault the man in his fury.
I glanced at Viper and he lifted his chin to me. He knew what I was about to say.
“Alright, Brother. Unless it’s absolutely necessary, we won’t ask you to do anything with him. If something happens and it concerns the club, you may have to suck it up and deal for that time. Otherwise, we’re not going to kick a man when he’s down. You know that, Eagle.”
“I know, Dog, Vip. I appreciate it too.”
I could hear the hurt in his voice. This had affected him more than anyone knew. I felt for my young cousin and I was fucking madder than hell at Bane. That little shit was going to be doing some damn grunt work. It was too late for me to put a stop to what happened. That ship had already sailed.
Bane (Angel's Rebellion MC: #7) Page 5