He rubbed his eyes. “I f**ked up, Cheryl.”
“How? You’re part of The Skulls. You’ve proven your worth. Why could anything be going wrong?”
Staring into her eyes, he knew in his heart he couldn’t keep the truth from her anymore.
“I took a job from Gonzalez, and now I can’t see a way out.” He did it all for Alex, but it didn’t stop him feel any less dirty.
She frowned. “What?”
“I had to prove to Gonzalez that I was against The Skulls. I was given the job of desecrating Patricia’s grave.” She gasped even before he finished. The disappointment was clear in her eyes.
“You wouldn’t.”
“I didn’t have a choice. Alex doesn’t know yet. I’ve got to tell him the truth, and to be honest, I don’t want to. He was so f**king pissed.” He rubbed at his eyes. If he’d not been asked to try and get into Gonzalez’s graces, he wouldn’t have to deal with this. You also wouldn’t know that Gonzalez intended to start another raid on the club. It was hard to be happy about the small bit of information he knew when he’d done something awful.
“Wait. You’re working for Alex to become a spy for him against Gonzalez, and he doesn’t even know you were the one responsible for doing what you did? He knows you have to do stuff like this.”
He nodded. “I didn’t get a chance to tell him. There was nothing I could do. It’s not going to stop him from being pissed.”
“I can’t deal with this. None of this makes sense. You’ve got to tell Tiny the truth about Alex, Gonzalez, the Savage Brothers. You’ve got to tell him everything. You could be killed for this. You could be killed if you’re found out.”
Butch shrugged. “I’ve got the guarantee that you’ll live.”
“No, I don’t accept that. It’s not right, nor is it fair.” She pulled away and started to pace in front of him. “You can’t risk your life for me or for Matthew. This is hurting you, Butch.”
“You don’t have a choice. This is something I did, and you’re just going to have to accept it.”
He stood up.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to tell Alex I’m the one who had to disturb his sister’s resting place.” He put a hand on the door. “And I finally got something out of Gonzalez. I guess it’s a little tit for tat.”
“Don’t do this, Butch. If you loved me, you’d back off and stop this.”
Her words cut to his heart.
Glancing over at her, he shook his head. “It’s because I love you that I’m doing this. Baby, I can’t back out now. I’ve already done what needed to be done. There’s no backing out until Gonzalez is dead.”
Closing the door behind him, he walked toward the main part of the club. With both The Skulls and Chaos Bleeds crews in residence, the clubhouse was back to being livable. Gonzalez had paid a bunch of cops to come and trash the place while he’d been out of the club. He found Alex at the bar drinking.
“I need a word,” he said, noticing the way Devil was watching them.
Alex turned to him. His eyes were red-rimmed, but no tears were present.
“Do you really want me to talk now? I’ve had to deal with a lot of shit today. I’m not in the best moods to be talking or chatting.” Alex downed a shot of brown liquid.
It hadn’t taken Tiny long to get the alcohol back in.
Closing his eyes, Butch blew out a breath. “It’s today that I need to talk to you about and something else.”
Alex stared at him then nodded his head. “Fine.”
Another shot was downed, and they moved outside.
Glancing around the compound Butch made sure they were all clear before talking. “Gonzalez ordered me to prove myself.”
“So. It’s what we want.”
“He told me to do that to Patricia’s grave today. I was the one who desecrated her stone.”
At his words, Alex stared at him silently.
The fist landed in his gut as Alex lashed out. The other went in his face. Collapsing to the floor, Butch coughed as the pain traveled through his body.
“I know why you did it, but you touched my sister. Warn me before you do shit like that.” Alex’s fists were tight to his side. The anger emanated from him, and he looked ready to strike once again.
“I tried. You weren’t answering your cell.” Coughing, Butch curled up. The agony from the beating of being voted back in mingled with the punches from Alex, and the pain intensified.
“Fine. You better get us something on Gonzalez, as otherwise I’ll f**king kill you myself. There are limits, and he crossed the line with touching my dead sister’s memory.”
“I did get something.” Butch got to his feet, trying to ignore the pain.
Alex glared. “Then spit it out. I’ve not got all day.”
“There’s a guy on the force in Fort Wills. Andrew Bolton. He’s looking to organize another raid on the club.”
“What else?”
“Gonzalez wants to create a rift between Devil and Tiny, hoping they’ll kill each other before something else happens.”
“If we take out Andrew, Gonzalez will know we’re onto him.”
“Then we make sure Andrew meets an accidental death, say a fire, or a car accident,” Butch said, already planning the next step.
“Good work. I’ll make sure to deal with Andrew. Let me know the next time you get a hit like that. I don’t want to have to be getting a call.”
Alex stormed back inside the clubhouse. Butch was no longer in doubt. If The Skulls found out about his helping the Savage Brothers MC then he was dead no matter what.
Chapter Four
Several days later the sun was shining outside, and the heat was gracing them with its presence for the first time in what felt like weeks. Eva, Lexie, and the men were arranging the tables outside to welcome Gash into the fold. Nash, Steven, and Whizz were going to get Gash from the prison.
Glancing over the door, Eva saw Angel standing on a chair with Lash holding onto her waist as she started to pin up the welcome home sign.
“It’s looking good.” Eva held her thumbs up for the couple to know she was talking to them. All the kids were inside the play area Tiny had built in the compound. Tate was looking over them. She wasn’t too traumatized by what happened, and Murphy kept a close eye on her.
“Right, we’ve just got the food to bring out when it’s ready,” Lexie said.