by Simone Elise
“Okay. Well, you did what you did.” I sat down beside her on the bed. No point trying to get a blood stain out of a white top. “You need to pull your shit together now.” I turned my head, locking my eyes with hers. “You went into meltdown mode. I get it. But ceasing your treatment, Hannah…that was fucking stupid.”
Immediately her eyes dropped. “I just needed a break.” Her words were honest and I got it—what she was facing was hard and scary and totally too much for any normal sixteen-year-old to deal with.
“Well, you have two options now. Tell them the truth or…”
Her eyes went back to mine. “Or?”
“Or you pull your shit together and move the fuck on. You have to deal with this, Hannah; it’s not something you can just turn your back on. Just like you can’t turn your back on your family.” No wonder they were all downstairs looking like they had done nothing but stress all week. “At the end of the day, you love your family, Hannah, so much so you won’t tell them how sick you are.”
She loved them that much that she couldn’t bear the thought of them suffering knowing she was sick.
She was silent, and I didn’t say anything because she needed to come to the conclusion herself.
“So what do I do?” She finally spoke and ran a hand through her hair. She looked exhausted.
“We have an appointment at one. After that we are going back to this illness not controlling your life but you controlling it.” I got up and went to her wardrobe. “You have never wanted your family to suffer but from all I saw downstairs, the four people you love the most are all worried sick and terrified what your next move is going to be.”
“Six.”
I turned around to look at Hannah. “Six what?”
“Six people I love the most have been suffering because of my actions over the last week.” She slightly smiled and got up. “Brad and you make the list too, you know.” She took the jeans from my hand.
I couldn’t stop the grin. “You know that boyfriend of yours was the dead giveaway that something was wrong with you.” I watched her eyes widen and my grin got bigger. “So you and Brad are a thing now?”
“Nope.” She took her top off and took the one I’d picked out. “We just have things to talk about.”
“Yeah, like when you’ll be losing your virginity to him.” I was only joking but her expression made me gasp and I whacked her immediately. “You bitch! You had sex with him and didn’t tell me!”
“Shut up!” she whisper-yelled at me. “My family do have ears and have currently been living at my bedroom door!”
I scoffed. “No wonder he didn’t give a fuck about my figures for the month.” I couldn’t believe it. Brad had crossed the line. My eyes lit up, looking at Hannah. “Does this mean he has stopped fighting the whole regretting it thing?”
She rolled her eyes and didn’t answer while putting on her jeans.
I gasped. “Does he know what your dad did?” I didn’t know Brad very well, but he lived up to the intimidating role as a Vice President. When he actually lets you see the real side to him then you know two things immediately: his love is hard to get unless you are an engine block and when he does love someone he protects them with his life.
“Dad has a bullet wound in his arm from one of Brad’s custom glock bullets. Does that answer your question?” Hannah gave me more than enough of an answer.
The drama of the event went quickly to my head. “Darn, I would love to be a fly on the wall when those two are alone together again.”
“I’m sure they’ve kissed and made up by now.”
“Nah, don’t think so. Reaper’s disappeared from the club eyes. Brad is running the show and keeping up the front that everything is fine. But it is sort of obvious it isn’t if you know your family.”
“What do you mean Dad’s disappeared from club eyes?” Hannah flung herself around, her eyes wide. “Has he left the club? What? Is Brad in charge? Why wouldn’t Dad be back at the club?”
“Woah, calm down, one question at a time,” I settled her. “Brad’s stepped up there, but as far as everyone knows, it’s temporary. And I think the reason your dad has taken a break is cause he punched his sixteen-year-old daughter who he loves the most and is scared to death if he leaves the house she is going to disappear.”
Hannah stared at me with wide eyes for a few more seconds. “God, if I wanted to go, I would have. Tatz was right there, offering to take me away.”
“Wait, you’ve seen Tatz?”
“Yeah, he was, well, he kind of was here when it happened. He sort of caused the problem by pointing out to Dad I wasn’t eating,” Hannah pouted. “Anyway, the point was, he gave me the opportunity to leave and I didn’t take it. I stayed.”
Suddenly, my concern for Tatz went up. “It was last weekend, yeah, that it happened?”
“Yeah, why?” Hannah had finished putting on her shoes.
“Tatz is trying to move a motion through the club. It’s not important.” I lied, it sure as fuck was important to our club and it would affect Reaper, and now it would seem I had found the reason our go-with-the-flow Tatz was on a manhunt to end our friendship with the Satan’s Sons brotherhood.
“Layla, I know you well enough to know when you are lying.” She crossed her arms and I knew by her expression she wasn’t going to budge till I told her what was really going on with Tatz.
I sighed. “He is using your dad as going underground as a sign that the Satan’s Sons don’t respect the Deadly Dozen. He’s pushing for us to fracture our brotherhood peace with them.” Well, that summed up Tatz’s angle quickly.
Tatz knew the real reason Reaper was underground at the moment. And it had nothing to do with disrespect for the Deadly Dozen. But Tatz had another motive to end our peace with Satan’s Sons. He hated men that hit women. His dad used to beat his mum and he grew up with family violence. I’m guessing if he witnessed Reaper hitting Hannah, he would think it was a regular thing.
Tatz also knew Rex was heading toward a release from prison. Rex was the only man living who would willingly go up against Reaper. If Tatz approached Rex and filled his head up that Reaper hit women and I had been spending time near the Reaper himself, my blood father would take it upon himself to end a problem that wasn’t a problem.
I needed to talk to Tatz before he did any more damage with his move to split the brotherhood.
“You need to tell Dad.” Hannah words came out quick. “I can’t talk to him right now, but you have to warn him, tell him to take his position as president again.”
“I can’t tell him what I just told you!” I looked at Hannah like she couldn’t be serious. “There is such a thing as club loyalty, Hannah. My loyalty is with Cyrus and the Deadly Dozen. I’m not about to tell another club what the inner thinking of our club is like at the moment.”
Her eyes hardened on me. “So, you are going to make me talk to him then? You and I both know Tatz is only doing this because of me and we both know Dad is taking a break from the club because of me. So, this is all my fault.” She crossed her arms, “You want it to be my fault that two clubs have a fall out?”
“Hannah, I can’t just tell your dad what the club is thinking of doing. It doesn’t work like that.”
“Fine, I’ll tell him.” She may have said it, but I knew she couldn’t go through with it.
How had she managed to grow up in the club but not understand club boundaries? “Fine,” I snapped, her hardened look getting the best of me. “I will warn your dad. On one condition.” I was doing something that went against everything I wanted, so now it was her turn to do something she didn’t want.
“Fine.” She gave in, she knew I had her.
“You are having tea tonight.”
“Okay.”
“With your family.” Her mouth dropped open but I wasn’t finished. “Before you even think of backing out, I should let you know that I will be there and it will give you the perfect opportunit
y to break down some of those walls you have built up against them before your birthday tomorrow.” Now I had somewhat higher ground on her.
I saw her expression. Did she really think I had forgotten about her birthday?
“You know you are having a party.” I grinned at her displeased expression. “A full charter party and, like, the whole school is crashing the club. Even the Deadly Dozen are coming.” It had been the subject of talk since Eve put up the event on Facebook. “So, you ready to make your one o’clock appointment?”
I had never seen Hannah more pissed off. “Fine,” she gritted out and picked up her purse and phone. “But there is nothing you can blackmail me with to get me at that party.”
“God, Hannah, I’m cruel but I’m not the devil,” I joked with her while I pushed her slightly out of the door, seeing as she suddenly had become a granny and couldn’t move.
She was standing at the top of the stairs and it looked like I had to go first. I rolled my eyes and started to head down. She was three steps behind me. When I hit the foyer, I saw all the Wilsons’ faces masked with shock when Hannah stood next to me.
“Hannah’s feeling better,” I smiled at them. Literally, all their eyes were on Hannah. “In fact, the whole gastro and no eating thing has made her starving, so we were thinking of having a feast?”
It was now that I needed one of them to switch out of shock. I looked at Abby, Tyson, Eve, and then Reaper. Had they not heard one word I had said?
“So, a feast tonight?” I questioned them, hoping one of them would snap out of their zombie-all-eyes-on-Hannah mode.
“Um, sure.” Tyson surprisingly was the one to answer and his eyes were off me and onto Hannah. “What should we get? Like anything you particularly want?”
I wanted to smile because he sounded so nervous, like I had just handed him a loaded gun with no safety on it.
“Um, I think the birthday girls can decide what we eat.” My eyes went to Hannah. “In fact, Hannah, why don’t you go and do a list with your mum and sister for tonight while I talk to your dad and brother.”
She knew right now I was doing what she wanted. Giving her dad a heads up on a problem he wasn’t aware of right now. It went against my loyalty to the club but at the same time I knew it was in both clubs’ interests if they started in a brotherhood peace.
“Hannah doesn’t have to; I can guess and Eve usually knows what she likes as well,” Abby said after a minute had passed and Hannah hadn’t budged.
I looked back at Hannah. The period of silence she had with her family was about to be broken; if not, I was going back on my end of the deal.
“No,” Hannah finally spoke and looked up at her family. “Eve will have us eating ice cream and chocolate chips for every course.”
I smiled; finally, she speaks!
I don’t think I’d ever seen a group of people look as delighted as the Wilson family looked just by hearing Hannah speak. Even Reaper had a smile on his face but the hurt and pain of what he had done was clear in his eyes which were locked on Hannah’s badly bruising jaw and cheek—hell, even down her neck was bruised.
Eve was quick to grab Hannah’s arm and was firing questions about what she wanted to eat, and how Eve thought she had turned into a corpus in the bedroom. Abby gave me the biggest smile; she didn’t need to say thank you, as it was clear by the expression she gave me. Then she turned and followed the girls.
Suddenly, what I had to do next hit me, putting a really bad taste in my mouth.
“If this is about Hannah…” Tyson started but I put my hand up for him to stop.
“Nothing to do with Hannah. Well, it is but isn’t at the same time.” I worded that really badly. I sighed. “It’s about Tatz.” I felt like a traitor just saying his name to them. “I just want to say that for the record this goes against all my beliefs and my loyalty to the club.” I pointed at them. I did not want anyone thinking I was a club traitor.
Tyson frowned but by Reaper’s expression he realized I was about to share something that was for the Deadly Dozen’s ears only.
“Tatz is pushing a move to end the brotherhood peace.” I hated myself for saying it—God, it was like I’d stabbed Cyrus in the back. My eyes went to Reaper. “He is using your disappearance as an excuse to say that you don’t respect them. We all know he knows the real reason why you aren’t at the club right now.” I thought I had to get that out there. “Regardless, they are voting this weekend on whether to end the peace.”
We all knew two biker clubs not at peace didn’t fit in any town together, no matter how big that town was.
“So I suggest, Reaper, that you put in some face time with Cyrus. He has a level of respect for you. But with Brad’s lack of effort in last week’s meeting and Tatz’s words of you not respecting the club—well, those are the two reasons he’s letting Tatz call a vote on the brotherhood move.”
Now I wished that was all I had to say on the subject but it wasn’t. I may have told them what the club’s view was but now it was time to share with them why Tatz was acting like this.
“Tatz obviously saw what you did to Hannah. He had a rough upbringing. He would be thinking that what you did to Hannah was normal and happens regularly.” I saw Reaper’s mouth go to open. So I was quick to add. “We all know it’s not. Hannah pushed you on purpose and you snapped. It was her fault, too, but Tatz doesn’t know that and I didn’t know Tatz had this angle on his reason to end the brotherhood.”
Now that I did, I could tell Tatz that what he had seen wasn’t normal behavior. I let the silence fall between the three of us. Reaper’s expression was unreadable.
“So, how much damage has Tatz badmouthing us caused?” Tyson asked and I heard the way he spat out the word ‘Tatz’.
“Don’t ask her that, Tyson. She has already told us more than she should have.” Reaper finally spoke and uncrossed his arms. “What you did for Hannah, getting her out of the room…”
“Not a big deal.” I cut him off. Reaper wasn’t the type of guy that said the words ‘thank you’, so I wasn’t expecting him to say them now. My eyes went to Tyson. While Reaper wasn’t expecting me to reply, I felt like I had to give them more of a heads up. This time it wasn’t because of Hannah—this time it was because I didn’t want Tyson going in blind.
“Enough damage has been done for Cyrus to call the meeting. Then, if the vote passes as a yes, a state meeting will be held to decide if the split from Satan’s Son is a state issue or just a town issue. Then, as you know, if it is a state issue, a country vote is called and then a national one.” I knew they knew the order of how these things worked, but they had to know how serious Tatz was about ending the peace.
“Told you to stay in the club’s eyes,” Tyson snapped at his father. “Now we have all this shit to deal with. After what I did the other week with them you know shit can turn bad if they turn to a warring club.” Tyson was letting his fury out on his dad. “When you want to fuck up, Dad, then you definitely make sure to do it from every possible angle!”
I didn’t need to know what he did the other week because I knew he was the Sergeant of Arms. He dealt with punishments. That was Tyson’s job. So it normally involved violence and blood.
“I think Hannah’s health comes before the club.” I spoke before Reaper ended up shouting back at his son. Both pair of eyes went to me. “Hannah isn’t well. You all know that now. But as for her disappearing, I can assure you that won’t be happening. So I think it’s best that things go back to normal till she finishes punishing herself.”
“Punishing herself?” Tyson repeated the words back to me, his hand going in Reaper’s direction. “He is the fuckhead that hit her in the first place. We all knew if Dad ever hit Hannah she was gone. You can’t stand here and say she won’t disappear and we all fucking know that’s the only thing she has been thinking about while being locked up in her room!”
I took a step toward Tyson. “Hannah baited and coaxed your fat
her to a breaking point. Any man tested as he was would have snapped. Even you. Like I said, Hannah is punishing herself because she knows she is the reason she has that bruise on her face and is in a world of pain.” Was it unbelievable for Tyson to think maybe his dad wasn’t all to blame? “She won’t be disappearing because your dad broke his promise. He hit her because she asked for it. Simple. So if the promise isn’t broken, there is no reason for her to leave.”
Tyson’s expression dropped.
“Layla, it isn’t as black and white as that,” Reaper said and I could hear his own self-hate for what he’d done in that one sentence.
“I think you should focus on the core reason it happened in the first place.” My eyes went to Reaper. “Hannah isn’t well.” That was the reason of the fight. “That’s the core issue.” Just as I got those words out, our small gathering got larger when the girls returned.
I heard Eve telling her every detail of the party she was hosting. I even heard Hannah’s few disgusted remarks back to the ideas her twin was putting in place.
“Okay, you good to go, Hannah?” I asked, stepping away from Tyson and Reaper. As far as I was concerned, I’d held up my end of the bargain with Hannah. If anything, I overdid what was expected of me.
“Yep.” She came to a stop at Tyson’s side. “Can I have a word with Tyson for a second?”
I didn’t know why she would want to have a word with him. I personally didn’t want to have any more words with him. He clearly was blinded with what had happened between Hannah and their Dad.
Tyson was looking at her, completely stunned, when Hannah linked her hand with his and dragged him out the front door.
Great. Leaving me with three Wilsons who wouldn’t have got much sleep and were all sick to the stomach worrying about Hannah.
“Layla, I don’t know what you said to her, but thank you,” Eve said as soon as the front door shut. Like her dad, it didn’t seem right for Eve to be saying the words ‘thank you.’
“You have no idea how worried we were, Layla. For you to get Hannah out of the bedroom and speaking to us is a huge deal,” Abby added and took a step toward me. “It’s even more of a big deal because we know you know the situation.”