The junction was here.
Pete’s tree was where they planned to build whatever monstrosity they wanted to build.
And this was another strike of the sword in the battle we hadn’t even realized we were a part of until it was too late.
Chapter Thirty-Four
DREW
I was getting goddamn sick and tired of every nice moment I tried to create being ruined by some fucker who had no clue how to stop themselves from pissing me off.
Owen was a rat, the Mayor was corrupt, and the one thing I held close to my heart, besides Ayda and the club, was about to be ripped out from right under me so they could… what? Turn those green fields I loved so much into more gray asphalt that held no meaning.
Over my dead body.
And I meant it. Over my dead body is where they’d have to roll to touch a single blade of motherfucking grass out here.
Ayda had tried to calm me, but the tension and the pressure of the last few weeks and months were building, rolling and creating a huge thunderstorm in my mind that had the potential to be catastrophic. It tore at my gut every day. There were only two people who’d ever been able to get me through those kinds of emotions, and both of them were dead.
It was time for me to step up and lead the way Pete and Harry believed that I could.
Without any shame.
Only action.
The next morning, I told Slater and Jedd to gather every man they could find into The Hut. I wanted them all in there together, no exceptions. My VP and Sarge had asked me what the hell was going on, but a sly smile and shake of the head had convinced them it was nothing serious.
“Ayda pregnant?” Slater joked.
“Guess you’ll find out later,” was all I said in response.
Ayda was in the bathroom when I stepped back inside it, tugging down the edges of my cut and pulling the hood of my hoodie out of the back, so it hung loose. When she turned to look at me, standing there in only her underwear, her eyes wide and her face carrying an edge of uncertainty I was convinced she was trying to hide from me, I leaned down to kiss her on the cheek.
“Another day, another battle,” I whispered against her ear before I pulled away again.
Reaching out, Ayda’s hand found mine and tugged. I barely moved, but she managed to get herself closer to me, one palm on my chest as she blinked up at me. “This is more than a simple battle. This is a war. What do you need from me today?”
“What do you want me to need from you today?”
“I’m behind you Drew, a hundred and ten percent. If you need me, that’s where you’re going to find me. Simple as that.”
I blew out a long, tired breath and offered her a comforting smile. “The whole town knows where you stand, Ayda,” I reassured her. “Every man in this building knows where you stand. More importantly, I know where you stand. But I need you to do something for me here in The Hut while I’ve got every man riding out with me, and I need you to know that you’re the only one I trust to do it.”
Ayda glanced up at me, her eyes intent. “And what’s that?”
“I need you to be the one to go through Harry’s room… alone.”
Breaking eye contact, her eyes fell to her hand covering my heart. Her breathing moved her chest but never changed as she considered what I was asking her to do. “It’s the only time the Hut will ever be that empty,” she admitted without looking up.
“You’re the only one who can look through his things without anyone else knowing. I need to find something. Something that Harry kept close to him. Something he wanted us to find in plain sight. Something that gives us facts about Owen—without Owen being in this damn building. Something I can shove in that bastard’s face right before I tear the skin off his back.”
“You want me to find the files he had on Owen.” She glanced up at me again, resolution clear in her blue eyes. “I can do that. I don’t like not being there with you today, but this is important, and it’s the only opportunity to get in there.”
“I knew you’d understand.”
“What are you going to tell the guys, about my not going?”
“They won’t ask. They’ll be too engrossed in me telling them what we’re doing today. You’ll have the whole place to yourself.”
“Works for me. I’ll get dressed and be right out.” She smiled, but it didn’t meet her eyes. She didn’t like what I was asking her to do. Staying behind clearly bothered her, but she’d promised to do anything, and she was sticking by that, even if it meant watching us all ride out without her.
“I love you.”
“I love you right back.” She kissed my neck and pushed me playfully.
I stumbled back, a huff of laughter falling free before I reached for her waist, grabbed her and pulled her to me for a hungry kiss that said everything words could never say.
I loved her.
I was sorry I was asking her to do this.
She better stay safe.
I loved her a bit more.
When I pulled away, I cradled her cheeks in my hands, and I winked at her. Not needing to say anything else, I turned and left, my smile slowly slipping away with every footstep I took away from her. The loving fiancé side of me had to remain inside that room with her. Out here, walking through The Hut, I had to be Drew Tucker—The one everyone thought they knew.
The men had gathered inside, the noise rising as I walked into the bar, stopped and looked around at everyone there. Men of old, young, and new congregated around like they were at a damn wedding. Each had a smile on their face and were laughing and joking with one another. I scanned the room, seeing Slater, Jedd, Kenny, Deeks, Moose… Owen.
Owen was there with his greasy hair slicked back, his eyes narrowed and his corruptive smirk firmly in place. He had a face you wanted to smack with a shovel just to rearrange it into something less sleazy and irritating. As I looked at him wearing the patch on his skin and back, I tried to see how the hell he’d gotten so embedded into the club. The guy had a habit of being in the right place at the wrong time, and the thought of all the shit he’d spilled to our enemies made my skin ripple with a need to kill.
The fucker needed to die and die fast. I knew deep inside my soul that I’d make that happen one way or another without implicating any of my brothers or my future with Ayda.
Needing to get him out of my sight, I looked to the other side of the room where Rubin was perched on the end of one of the leather sofas, his hands between his legs as he twisted his fingers together nervously.
“Drew?” Slater called out, and just like that everyone’s attention turned to me standing at the end of the hall watching each and every one of them.
The room fell silent apart from the creaking of leather and the turning of boots.
I looked into the eyes of all my men, including Owen, finding it a fucking miracle that I was able to keep my face serene as I stared into the depths of his betrayal.
“Brothers, thanks for being here,” I said quietly.
“Anything for you, Drew,” Deeks called out.
I nodded in response, pushing my hands into the depths of my jeans pockets and rocking back on my feet.
“Everything okay?” Kenny asked, his zigzag brows creased in confusion.
“Sure.”
“Then why we here?”
My eyes found Rubin’s, who was looking at me like I was his new hero. There was worry and expectation in his stare—a pressure to be something and do something good for him while he was around. For some fucked up reason, I found myself wanting to be that something for him.
“We’re here because I want us all to ride out together today.” I held Rubin’s gaze, letting him know that included him, too. “For Harry,” I added, blinking slowly before I looked away and out to the rest of the room.
“For Harry?” Jedd asked quietly.
“When was the last time we acted like a family?” I asked.
The men all looked at each other, the question unanswered as they
tried to seek some kind of response from the man next to them.
“Apart from Harry’s funeral, when was the last time we acted like a motorcycle club instead of like we were all heartbroken bastards smelling of oil and smoke?”
“You’ve had a lot on your mind, Tuck—”
“No more.” I shook my head, cutting Deeks and his genuine concern off. “Today, we ride out together.” The pause I made was intentional as I found Owen’s eyes and smiled as warmly as I could. “All of us. Today, we remember who we are and where we truly belong. We’re The Hounds of Babylon, and shit, do we love to ride.”
Silence filled the room, each man looking at me with nothing but loyalty in their eyes. Even the guy who I knew was filled with deceit stared at me like he loved me, acting the good act, living the perfect lie before he raised his chin and parted his lips.
“Ain’t someone missing?” Owen asked roughly.
“Who?”
“Eric?”
The small smile curled the edges of my mouth as I stared my enemy in the eye and acted like his friend. “He lost his right to ride with us as a family when he chose to walk away from us like a stranger. Today, it’s just about everyone in this room. Let us worry about Eric tomorrow.”
* * *
Rubin hadn’t been lying. A small stand had been erected near the edge of the town’s park, the banners of our Mayor surrounding it to celebrate his ugly ass face. The smirk on my face grew as my knuckles twisted around the bars of my bike. All of my men were behind me, a pyramid formation slowly rolling back into Babylon after over an hour out on the roads. The thunderous roar of the engines dulled to a low rumble with several grunts as we swerved into space and parked our bikes.
Glancing over my shoulder, I grinned as I looked back at all the confused faces of my men. Slater and Jedd were the only two to be staring at me without any emotion. The fuckers knew I’d been up to something, and now we were where we were with The Mayor only a short distance away, they were slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together on their own.
“What’s going on?” Kenny asked, reaching up to remove his dark shades from his face.
Climbing off the bike, I kept my shades on and stood tall in front of my brothers.
I chucked my chin and gestured to the event going on behind me. “Follow me.”
And just like that, every one of them rose from their bikes, readjusted their cuts with pride, and began to step forward. An army of men with heart, souls of loyalty, all wrapped up to look like the bad guys of this sweet, little, picture-book town.
Injustice worked like that. People thought the bad guys were the loudest, the dirtiest, and the ones who cursed and killed. They had no fucking clue. Those guys were the pure ones—the rare ones. The men you could count on to die by your side or to save you, they were the ones who were good. The real evil bastards were the ones who acted like angels to the world and then sinned in dark, seedy corners, manipulating every fucker to believe they were something they most definitely were not. Their loyalty was a disposable mask, hiding their deception. The minute they got found out, they scurried away like vermin.
The truly dangerous guys never really looked bad, they looked decent, and that’s why they got away with so much shit before someone found them out.
That all ended today.
I watched Owen as he stepped forward, not giving anything away or looking even the least bit uncomfortable. He was good at being bad. I could give him that. He was good at hiding his shit and letting people like me see what they wanted to see.
Man, I wanted to stick my fingers into the flesh of his throat, squeeze the oxygen out of him and watch him turn blue as my hands became cold from the death that was taking over him. I imagined cutting him open, tossing his heart into the forest for the wolves of the night to gnaw on until the sun rose the next day. I could daydream for hours about smelling his blood on my skin.
His betrayal made me thirsty for his death.
Turning away before I gave myself away, I led the men across the park, our boots hitting the grass and waiting for everyone up ahead to realize we weren’t there just to ride through Babylon. We were there to defend it.
It didn’t take long for The Mayor to look up at us with wide eyes and an open mouth, his surprise evident for just a second before he schooled his face, switching on the sleazy charm that matched Owen’s perfectly.
The small crowd of people in front of him turned in their seats to look at us as we came to a stop behind the last row. With my men gathered around me, I folded my arms over my chest, stood with my legs apart, and simply raised my chin and set my own smug smirk free.
Nobody behind me said a damn thing. They knew better than that.
I watched as The Mayor leaned to the side and whispered something in one of his men’s ears, his hands working some papers that were propped on the stand in front of him, just for something to do. A nervous man’s energy poured into mindless tasks that way sometimes. He was trying to buy himself time.
It was at that very moment that I noticed a familiar face standing to the left of Mayor Walsh.
A face that was looking at me like she was ready to eat me alive if I’d let her get within an inch of me.
Winnie.
ATFuckingF.
I raised a brow at her and tilted my head to one side, simply watching her as she watched me, a silent standoff happening before she reached for her phone, brought it up in front of her and started tapping away on the screen.
Interesting.
Mayor Walsh coughed, bringing his hand up to nudge the perfectly positioned tie he was wearing, knocking it off center.
Even more interesting.
“Drew?” Jedd said in a whisper beside me. “Are you about to do something really fucking stupid?”
“Let’s see, shall we?”
“Fuck.”
“Do me a favor, Jedd?”
“What?” he said through a sigh.
“Don’t let anyone here out of your sight. No one leaves the pack.”
Jedd didn’t respond. There were no further questions, but I felt him tense beside me. He knew something was going on, and he suddenly knew it was big.
“So, with the proposed plans in place—” The Mayor began through a croaky voice.
“Mayor Walsh!” I called out roughly, my arms still folded in front of me.
He looked up slowly, his irritation written over his face.
“Hi.” I beamed, raising a weak hand to wiggle my leather glove-clad fingers.
“Mr. Tucker,” he all but growled.
“Sorry.” I gestured to the event going on around us, and I shook my head, my smile turning upside down. “Do you mind starting over? We missed the first part of this little speech of yours.”
The Mayor’s mouth pressed into a thin line as he glared at me.
That’s right, snake. I’m right here. Come and get me.
“All this will be a matter of public record soon enough, Mr. Tucker. I’m sure you and your… men… can catch up with it then.”
I curled my lip and reached up to remove my shades, making sure he saw the look in my eyes as I played this fucker like the greasy puppet he was. “Me and my men? What, exactly, does that mean?” I tucked my shades into the top of my cut, letting both my hands fall by my sides.
Mayor Walsh glanced at the man next to him before he looked down at Winnie. She hadn’t taken her eyes off me once. I could feel her stare burning into my skin, studying me like a little science project she couldn’t quite understand.
“Either take a seat, Tucker or leave,” Mayor Walsh called out, failing to hide his irritation.
“I’ll take my chances standing. Me and my men are citizens of Babylon. Over the last few months, more than ever, the welfare and safety of our fellow townsfolk is a major concern of ours.”
“A concern of yours?” he scoffed in response, raising his brow. “You? The very men who are the concerns of this town? The ones who treat it and its residents like sub chara
cters in some crazy world they’ve created that brings criminals, dishonesty, violence, and even death to our streets?”
“Why don’t you tell us how you really feel, Mayor?” I smirked.
His nostrils twitched—his top lip, too—as he fought to remain professional.
“Probably best you don’t do that in front of these people, though, right? We wouldn’t want them seeing a side of you they couldn’t even imagine exists.”
The man next to Mayor Walsh leaned forward, whispering something and reaching for a radio that was attached to the waistband of his trousers, but the Mayor simply held a hand up in his face, never looking away from me, and the man stepped down again, quietly removing himself and his opinions from the situation.
“Ah,” I sighed happily, spinning on the heels of my boots and turning to look at all my brothers behind me. “I don’t think our Mayor thinks too highly of us, boys.”
“Shame,” Slater muttered, his amusement clear.
Jedd was stony-faced, watching the Mayor like he had a target on his forehead already. Which, he kind of did.
Deeks looked calm, Kenny confused. Rubin was at the back, and I wasn’t even sure Walsh had seen him yet. As much as I hated to do this to the kid, I knew when to play my hand and when to hold it back. Now was the time to play.
Stepping through my men, I began to call back to the small crowd. “Nobody cares about this town more than I do, Mayor, I can assure you of that. Every single one of these men would die to save Babylon’s honor. They’d lay down their lives if someone tried to hurt this place. We don’t just ride motorcycles, do we, brothers?”
They responded in low grunts of no, their heads shaking as they looked up at the enemy.
“We are so much more than bikes, repos, buying and selling gold, and keeping our own little slice of Heaven away from the main streets of this place, Mayor Walsh.” I spun back around, now at the end of a line that the men had parted to create in my honor. To my left was Rubin. To my right was Owen. Both of them hidden behind other brothers as I stared up at Mayor Walsh and waited to strike. “We love our town. We wear it on our leather, and we wear it on our skin. We’re not The Hounds of Navarro or The Hounds of Silver City. We are The Hounds of Babylon. We’re the eyes in the shadows, protecting the borders we love so much. We protect the land that belongs to all of us. We keep it safe when others sleep, but we do it silently, without causing anyone in this town any harm.”
WITHOUT SHAME: Babylon MC Book 4 Page 28