RMCB 07_Bound by Consequences

by Ryan Michele

  “Yes, sir,” I answered, this time knowing by his chin dipping down just a touch that it was my turn to speak.

  “There is not a single thing that I can say that changes anything that has been done. But you all deserve answers. Being a kid, I only saw the bad stuff when it came to the Ravage MC. The main thing was my mom and how she’d cry at night. Then when I did come here, I was the outsider looking in, never really part of anything, but I didn’t put the effort in to change that either. When I came back from school, I hadn’t fully grown yet. I thought I had and wanted a life with Emery.”

  Jacks growled, but I kept my focus on Cruz, my hands on my thighs and boots to the ground.

  “In trying to figure out my way with her, the anger from before came. I was losing her for good this time. I wanted to hurt the club, but what it came down to was finding out about Crow and Cruz. When I first came across the information, I thought I was being set up. Someone planted the information. Only the more I dug into it, the more facts I ran across, making shit far too real. By the time I confirmed everything, I was in a dark place. My headspace wasn’t healthy, and frankly I didn’t know what to do with the details. I didn’t tell my father or any of you because I didn’t know how. But I also knew you needed the information. I went to the Marines and delivered the envelope to my father for you. There wasn’t much to find. When I started I did so maliciously, but the more it settled in that Crow was your son, the more it ate at me in a different way. I knew this wasn’t the time or place for me, and I needed space to sort myself out. I joined the Marines to have that space, but I didn’t want to leave you with a kid, grown or not, flapping in the wind. I did what I did so you had the information. I didn’t spread that shit far and wide, and I didn’t continue looking into anything on anyone.”

  Cruz clicked his tongue. “You seemed to have forgot that to get the evidence, such as the DNA samples, you had to hack into a lot of shit for it.”

  “Yes I did. I wanted it confirmed before I gave the information to you,” I responded.

  “And what are we supposed to do with all of this? You wanted to hurt the club? Do we just let it go and wash it away?” Cruz asked.

  “No, sir. I did wrong, and I suffer those consequences.”

  Jacks spoke, “He’s either high as a fuckin’ kite or the stupidest motherfucker we’ve had in here.”

  I didn’t respond. Training. Only answer the questions asked. Give no more, no less.

  “I’d vote dumb.” Nox chuckled. He wasn’t totally wrong either.

  “Every man here will settle the score with you,” Cruz announced. “You will not fight back. If you do, it starts all over again and will only be worse. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, sir,” I answered, wondering for the first time what my father was thinking about all of this.

  Cruz nodded behind me, and I felt the chair move out from under my ass. Quick reflexes had me standing tall. Cruz was a big man and not just in size, in his rank as well. His word was everything, and I had a feeling his payback would be the worst.

  “Pops,” Cruz called as he stepped back, and Pops came up in front of me. The man had graying hair and wrinkles around his eyes. He’d once been the president of the club, but about four years ago he was shot at a party I attended. He was the father of this group, and everyone respected him.

  “Saw potential in you, boy, from early on.” His words hit me harder than I thought possible. Never had I thought he’d seen anything positive in me. “Always smart, too fuckin’ smart. But you didn’t live up to the potential which was disappointin’. Maybe this’ll knock some sense into ya.”

  The right hook came hard and fast. My first instinct was to lean back out of the way, but I stood firm while he connected with my jaw. For an old guy, he had a fierce punch.

  My neck arched, lip cut open, but I turned back to Pops and faced him. “Sorry I didn’t meet the potential you saw in me. I didn’t see it in myself.”

  Pops slapped me on the shoulder and stepped back.

  “GT,” Cruz called as I swiped my lip with the back of my hand; not that it did any good.

  Face to face, the man stared me down, that angry tic in his temple going to town. “You never deserved my Emery. Never. You fucked with her head and hurt her. You brought other girls around to make her feel bad about herself. You never treated her right. No man treats my baby girl that way.”

  Before he finished the last word, his fist connected with my gut, just as his other hit me in the face, having me go down to one knee. It took me a few to shake it off, then I stood tall. “You’re right. She deserves better and got better than I could have given her.”

  GT shook his head and stepped back.

  “Buzz,” Cruz announced. When I breathed out, blood went to the ground.

  “You, little fucker, were too fuckin’ good at tech. You broke my code. No one fuckin’ breaks my code and pokes around in shit they don’t need to know. No one.”

  Buzz’s three punches came to my abs and kidney, twice. I felt it deeply as my body shifted, trying to get through the pain. The kidney hits were rough, but somehow I stayed upright. “I shouldn’t have been in there.” My voice never trembled. I was here to atone, and I would.

  “Damn right you shouldn’t. Don’t do that shit again,” he barked before stepping back.

  “Nox,” Cruz called as his youngest son stepped in front of me. “As a kid, for some reason I looked up to you, but you ended up shitting on everything I believed in.”

  Nox changed it up with a stomp to the foot and an uppercut to the nose. Blood squirted everywhere as the bones in my nose cracked and broke. My eyes started to water as I fell down to one knee again.

  I could still think so he hadn’t hit the bones into my brain, so that was a good thing, or I’d be dead right now. But it hurt like a sonuvabitch. “Sorry. I never knew.”

  Nox said nothing but stepped back as I got to my feet again, wiping the water from my eyes. My fucking nose hurt like a bitch.

  “Jacks,” Cruz called and all I could think was oh fuck. He had so much rage against me.

  He stepped up, nailed me in the liver, put a knee to my chest and punched the side of my face all in the matter of seconds. His assault made me fall to both knees. Fuck, that hurt. Pain ricocheted inside my body, my organs not liking this shit one bit.

  “That’s because you’re breathin’,” Jacks spat then stepped away. Guess enough was said with that one. And while I understood the issues between us, I wasn’t about to apologize for breathing.

  It took me about a minute to steadily get to my feet, but I made it.

  “Deke,” Cruz ordered. Did I forget to mention that Deke was a fighter and had tons of knockouts? I probably did. This wouldn’t be pretty, but I wanted to at least stay conscious.

  “Of all the rage I have felt with people here, I walked away. More than anyone I kinda understood you, Micah. You shoulda walked the fuck away. You did not. You dug into shit you had no place to dig.”

  Deke aimed for my temple, and I could see it in his eyes that he wanted to do it. Knock me out cold on the ground, but at the last minute he hit me in the jaw, then turned and put an elbow to the back of my neck.

  I fell back to my knees, this time with one hand down to steady me. My eyes were burning, and blood was running out of everywhere, but I wouldn’t back down. I would get back up. So even with every agonizing breath, I made my way to my feet.

  Each time standing up took me a little longer, but eventually I made it up. And I would keep rising over and over.

  “Ryker,” Cruz called as Ryker stepped up.

  “You brought another woman into this club and allowed her to call my woman a bitch. Fuck that shit.”

  I saw his move before he made it, and I tried to brace myself. It didn’t work as his leg came out and knocked my shin so hard, I felt it move out from under me. When his fist connected with the underside of my jaw, I landed in the dirt on my back.

  Ryker loomed over me. “Watch yours
elf,” he warned. It was true. Back in the day I’d brought Jacklyn, a woman who looked similar to Emery, to the clubhouse. She got into it with Austyn, and it didn’t end pretty.

  Ravage men didn’t allow anything to touch their women, so I understood this. I may not have said the words, but it was as if I did.

  Slowly, I turned to my side, starting to really feel the pain in my body. I forced my mind to drift away so the pain would subside enough for me to get back up, and I did.

  “Rhys,” Cruz called.

  This was it. He was probably going to kill me. Or close to it. Rhys had no room for bullshit. He stood tall, proud and firm in front of me as I met his eyes, all the while my breathing was starting to become a bit labored.

  “The fact is, you knew the line in the sand, and you chose to cross it. Penance must be paid. Boy or man, doesn’t matter. Ravage will not be crossed, blood or not.”

  Rhys was a big guy; that was the only way to describe him. He was also deadly. Extremely deadly. He moved fast with three hits, one after the other to my abs and each side, then one to my lips. I fell down hard on my hands and knees. That combination was brutal.

  I’d rather them pull out my nails and be done with it rather than this.

  My head swam, and my vision became blurry as I fought back the bile that wanted to rise.

  Micah, get the fuck up now! No one has the power to hold you down, Marine!

  I listened to that inner voice and did as I was told, unsteadily climbing to my feet to look Rhys in the eyes. He said nothing, but there was something behind his. Before I could read it, he backed away.

  “Green,” Cruz announced next.

  Green was one of Cooper’s friends who'd joined the MC.

  “Ravage is everything. You threatened that. You pay,” he declared as a left hook hit my face. It was hard, but somehow even though I staggered, I was able to remain on my feet.

  “Cooper,” Cruz called his oldest son to the center of the room. Cooper was the oldest of our entire generation. When I was younger, I thought he was the shit, but I was jealous as hell of him. He was the poster child for what a member of the Ravage MC was, and there was no way I could live up to that.

  “As a kid, I pictured it, Micah. How all of us kids would man up, and this legacy of the Ravage MC would be ours to maintain. You crossed that; you fucking tainted it. This shit is a disappointment for everything you were raised to be. Don’t give a fuck how mad you were—you crossed family. That shit is not tolerated.”

  Cooper didn’t wait to finish what he said, so some of the last part was jumbled up because he hit my ear, and it started ringing. Hand to my ear, I didn’t protect my ribs as he laid four savage hits to them.

  The pain was so immense, I knew he had to have broken at least one, probably more. My knees hit the dirt as the pain coursed through every single part of me.

  Seconds ticked by—hell, minutes could’ve ticked by before I was able to get my bearings and stand up once again.

  “Raid,” Cruz noted next.

  “You’re everything I was raised not to be.” One hit to the temple, and I staggered back. Someone behind me pushed me back into the center of the circle as I shook my head, trying to get the ringing to stop.

  “Ax,” Cruz yelled.

  “Thanks for the lessons in what not to do,” he scolded just as he did a right hook into my jaw. Fuck, I hoped it didn’t dislocate that fucker.

  “Breaker,” Cruz said. Breaker was always the quiet one. He was there but in the shadows more than in your face. It also meant that when he did talk, it was something one had to take to heart. With every single inch of my body in pain, it took everything to open my swollen eyes and look at Breaker.

  “A man must be broken from time to time to see what is right in front of his face. You took for granted everything that matters to all of us. Consider this the fire where you gotta burn to rise up like a Phoenix in the ashes to become what you should’ve been. I’m here to make you feel shit.”

  Breaker killed me with his words; the hits only added to the torment inside of me. Three hits to the gut and I wanted to puke, but I held it in and somehow stayed upright.

  Cruz came before me, the anger in his eyes burning bright. This was it. The one that was going to hurt worse than the others. He had a lot of built-up anger that needed to be burned.

  Each one of the men had their own reasons for hating me. But Cruz found out about a son, and nothing could top that.

  “I’ve already said what I had to say.”

  The punches came fast and hard. Each one more pummeling than the next. Hits to the face, torso, chest and back of my neck had me falling to my knees. The knee to the face threw my body backward and into the dirt.

  The boot to the chest had me sucking in a breath to breathe. I couldn’t move. Physically couldn’t do anything but close my eyes. Pain was all around me, but most of all in my heart. The guys were right on everything they said. Hell, some shit I didn’t even know they felt.

  Cruz must’ve been done because my father filled my blurry vision as he stood over me with his hand out. It was hard. It was painful, but I took his hand as he helped me rise from the ground.

  “The past is gone. We will move forward and create our legacy. Ravage for life.”

  The men around us made noises of agreement, but I truly couldn’t hear what they were saying. Standing on my feet was taking every bit of energy I had.

  “Let’s call Doc and get you fixed up,” my father drawled, and I wondered if this was for real a new start for me and the Ravage MC.

  10

  Micah

  Six days and my body still ached all over. They got me good. Doc said I had a broken nose, dislocated shoulder, that he snapped back in place, and two cracked ribs. Not to mention my face looked like I’d been hit a thousand times. Oh, wait, I had been.

  It was so much better than it was the day after Doc fixed me all up, then sent me home to recover. For those past six days, I didn’t do much at all besides allow my body to heal. It had a lot of work to do.

  Some of the damage would take a while to heal.

  My mother came over on day two and fussed over me, saying my father made her stay away until then. She tried to baby me, but that wasn’t my style. All I needed was pain killers and rest, and I’d be fine.

  Here on day six, I felt so much better than day one.

  It was why I was at the clubhouse cleaning. Pain shot through me when I tried to bend down to pick up the mop bucket, courtesy of the liver and kidney shots. But I didn’t let it show.

  Instead, I followed whatever order I was told to do. There were no complaints; I just did it. That included the disgusting bathrooms. If I had to sit on those toilets to shit, I’d probably catch something. They were all cleaned now, so no worries there.

  Cleaning didn’t bother me. On base, we had to keep our shit tight, and we all had jobs. Cleaning made me feel normal and not like a man in the middle of the desert on some secret mission.

  Coming out of the bathroom, my eyes caught on something red. I did a double take and swore I saw Cyrus, the woman I’d slept with a few years ago. That night got me through so many more long ones in the dessert. I had never before, nor after, had such an intense connection in a brief encounter. The sex was phenomenal, but this was something I couldn’t explain and still felt to this day.

  Was that Cyrus or a figment of my imagination?

  I needed to know. I tried to chase, but suddenly, Deke and Nox were there holding me back.

  “I need to see her.”

  “Don’t give a fuck.”

  I watched as the woman with the red hair flew out the door. Fucking hell. What was she doing here?

  Dryerson slapped me on the shoulder, grabbing my attention. “The brunette is mine,” he said as he stared out onto the dance floor where several men and women were grinding and sweating. My gaze landed on her instantly.

  Hands in the air, smile on her face, curves for days as she danced like that floor was ther
e just for her pleasure. The flip of hair and sway of her ass drew every man on the floor to her. I watched as two men from different angles tried to dance up on her, but she was skilled at maneuvering herself away from them, not giving them an inch.

  The woman had moves, that was for damn sure.

  My lips tipped as men and women alike attempted to interact with her, but the only person she gave the time of day to was a blonde woman who appeared to be with her. That dismissal of those around her made her a temptation that every single person in this bar wanted to conquer.

  Dryerson had game, but this one wasn’t going to happen. For two reasons. One, she’d catch on to him right away and would dismiss him because she wasn’t easy. She liked a challenge too. It was in her eyes. Second, she would be mine tonight. There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind about it. I fucking loved a good challenge, and she was too hot to pass up.

  “Go for it,” I said, taking a long pull off my beer as Dryerson smiled and took off to the dance floor, weaving through the people to make it to the women.

  “Fuck, they’re hot,” Malcom said, seeing the two women as Dryerson reached them, dancing to his own beat.

  The blonde saw him immediately, and a wide smile grew across her face. Dryerson had his eyes locked in on the brunette, though. Unfortunately for him, the blonde stepped between him and the brunette, grinding her body on Dryerson, and in a millisecond, he wasn’t thinking of the brunette, who had maneuvered away from him. His attention was swept away pretty damn quick by the blonde, and he was all in. This was not uncommon. When it came to women, his attention span was that of a gnat.

  “Damn!” Malcom and T-Boe said at the same time through laughter, and I joined them. “Fucker got burned.”

  “Doesn’t mean he won’t tap it after,” Camden announced, and he spoke the truth, except when it came to this one. I felt it. It was in her presence, aura, whatever in the fuck you wanted to call it, but she didn’t want him. Hell, didn’t appear like anyone had caught her eye even a little bit. Or she didn’t want anyone. That would change.