“They raped and killed my sister. I saw what they did to my sister, mother, and father. I don’t know what she’s dealing with. I was shot in the gut and almost died. I didn’t get out of shit just because of my father,” he said. Butch didn’t know why he was explaining himself, only that he needed for them to know he didn’t get out of anything. Gonzalez had ruined his life as much as everyone else’s. The only difference was the fact he got sent far away from the rest of the survivors. He didn’t know why, but he had. Growing up away from them, he’d found his way to The Skulls.
“Sorry to hear that,” Dalton said. “She’ll come around. Lacey, she doesn’t always like what needs to happen to fix shit. We’re going to get our revenge if she likes it or not.”
“Have you got anything to tell us?” Danny asked, changing the subject.
He hated this. Giving them information behind The Skulls’ back was an act of betrayal. Chaos Bleeds and his own crew wanted to take Gonzalez out. “Are you sure you don’t want to come to The Skulls? They’ll work with you. We all want this f**ker dead. You wouldn’t be alone in all of this.”
“No, this is between the Savage Brothers and Gonzalez. You can help us or get out of the way. We don’t really care. We’re going to kill Gonzalez either way.”
Butch dropped his hands. “Fine. Gonzalez is currently in Piston County organizing girls to transport. I don’t know the date or when. He’s not leaving any time soon.”
“Will he turn up for your wedding?” Danny asked.
Tensing, Butch looked at the two men facing him. They were hurting inside. He saw it easily, and he recognized the pain. They hadn’t recovered from what happened all those years ago. They weren’t going to let it go no matter what.
“I don’t know.”
Were they going to cause problems for them? Butch didn’t know. He didn’t know anything right now about these men.
“Let us know when Gonzalez is in town. We want to take him out, and you owe us. Your father would agree that it’s down to us to take out the bastard,” Danny said.
“It doesn’t have to be this way. The Skulls are a fantastic club, and Tiny’s a brilliant president—”
Butch was cut off by Dalton’s laugh.
“You’re insane if you think we’re going to trust another club. The only thing we want from you is Gonzalez. You give us him, and we’re all even.” Dalton turned to the other man. “I’m going to go and check on Lacey. Get this f**ker out of here.”
When it was only him and Danny, Butch let out a breath. “I guess they blame me for something.”
“No, they don’t. We’re used to not relying on anyone but ourselves.” Danny led the way down the long corridor toward the front door. Putting his hood up, Butch exited the door. “Let us know when Gonzalez comes back to Fort Wills. We want our shot at him.”
Butch nodded his head. The door closed in his face.
Staring up and down the street Butch checked to make sure no one followed him and walked back toward the clubhouse.
You’re going to get yourself killed.
Right at that moment the only people he cared about were Cheryl and Matthew. Providing they were taken care of, and he had Alex’s assurance that they would be, he really didn’t care about what happened to him.
He threw the hooded jacket in the trash before entering the front of the compound. Passing Lash and Nash, he accepted their congratulations on joining the fold.
“Where you goin’?” Lash asked, slurring his words. “It’s a party, and we saw you slip outside.”
“I’ve got my woman to get to.” The men had been partying with the Chaos Bleeds crew. Butch hadn’t been the center of attention the moment the guys started betting on who could shoot better at pool. Once they all went inside to play with each other, knowing he was crap at pool, he saw an opening to slip out of the party to visit the Savage Brothers. After seeing them, he didn’t feel he could be part of any celebrations. He was betraying them, and it was killing him inside.
Taking the digs the men threw his way, Butch laughed it off, charging into the clubhouse. He didn’t see Cheryl waiting around for him. Passing the men and women, Butch made his way toward the staircase.
He didn’t stop until he got to his door. Without knocking, he opened it and found Cheryl sitting up in bed munching on some chips, watching the television.
“Hey, baby,” she said, smiling.
Without another word, he climbed to the bed, took hold of her face and slammed his lips down on hers. She tasted of salt and vinegar from the chips she was eating. He didn’t care. Sliding his tongue along her lips then inside her mouth, he consumed her, trying to get rid of the erratic thoughts he was having.
“What’s going on?” she asked when he pulled away.
“I need to talk to you.”
“You’re sweating. Where have you been?” She placed a hand on his head, frowning as she stepped out of the blanket. “What’s going on?”
“I’ve f**ked up and done something terrible.”
“What could you have done?”
Licking his suddenly dry lips he stared into her eyes and told her the truth. He told her about his chance meeting with Danny from the Savage Brothers along with the plan Alex had. “Alex wants me to pretend to hate the club, Cheryl. All Gonzalez needs to believe is that I’ve been blackmailed into coming back. He doesn’t know that I wanted to come back. We’re using his assumptions against him. I’m going to get information from Gonzalez so that we can take out others around him, reducing the threat to The Skulls and Chaos Bleeds.”
“Butch, is this why you’ve been quiet?”
“That’s not all, baby.” He stroked her cheek, wishing he wasn’t about to tell her the truth of the Savage Brothers. “My old club is back, Cheryl. There were survivors, young survivors. They’re back and want revenge on Gonzalez. They want me to feed them information.”
“What the hell have you gotten yourself into?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t—I don’t know what to do.”
“You’ve got to tell Alex the truth.”
“If I do that after this time I don’t know what Alex and the club are going to think. Fuck, they need me, Cheryl.” He ran fingers through his hair, trying to think of a way out of the mess he created.