Chapter Twenty-Seven

AXYL

Seeing her in that room, so pale and fragile, was a sight more heartbreaking than anything I’d ever witnessed. This was the woman I loved, the woman I’d give my life for, lying in a hospital bed, looking so unlike herself.

My strong, vibrant, and stubborn-as-hell woman was now confined to a hospital bed, her life reduced to the rhythmic beeping of the monitors.

I moved a chair closer to her bed and sat down, taking her hand in mine. It was warm. I’d expected it to be cold after the blood transfusion, but what did I know? I wasn’t a doctor.

“Hey, baby. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me. I should have been there.” My head dropped to the bed, resting on our entwined hands. I prayed for her to wake up soon. I needed to see her beautiful eyes.

Hours passed. Waiting, just waiting. I hated the waiting game. Westyn, Reaper, Griller, and our parents were the only ones here. We’d sent the rest of the guys back to the club to handle things while we were here.

We needed them to keep an eye on the prospects until we could get there and find out what the hell had been so important that they’d neglected to keep Aliana safe.

Whatever it was, it had better be a damn good reason, or there would be hell to pay.

“We’re going to take the boys to our house. They need to sleep and get something to eat.” My mom spoke, but I didn’t take my eyes off Aliana. “She’s a fighter, sweetie. She’ll wake up soon.

“Just take care of yourself. We’ve got the boys.” With that, she and my dad left the room, taking my sons with them.

“I’m going to head out too, brother. I’ve got some prospects to take care of.” Westyn followed them out, leaving just Robert, Elaine, Reaper, and me.

I settled into the chair, closing my eyes against the stress of the day. I didn’t know how long we’d have to wait, but I was prepared to be there every step of the way.

Walking into the clubhouse after leaving my sister in the hospital, again, I was consumed by rage.

So much rage that I wanted to break something until it was all out of my system, but I couldn’t afford to do that because I was the fucking president.

When I entered the club, the doors banged open and slammed shut. “Prospects! Here. NOW!” They scrambled from the kitchen and lined up in front of me.

They didn’t meet my gaze, which was probably for the best. If they had, they’d see the pure fury in my eyes. “Care to fucking enlighten me as to what was so goddamn important that you had to distract Ink from being able to protect my sister?

“She’s in the fucking hospital from hemorrhaging and giving birth a fucking month early! You better have a good fucking excuse because if you don’t, you’ll have more than just me to deal with.”

“Prez, I tried to break it up before I went to get Ink. They wouldn’t stop and it just escalated.” Diego was the first to speak. He’d done what he was supposed to in that situation.

He never should have been put in that situation, but sometimes, you just can’t stop fights from happening between your brothers.

“I’m going to tell you each something that all of us were told by our fathers when my sister was younger. When she was born, some of us were two and some of us were younger, so we couldn’t understand a talk that serious.

“So, our fathers decided to wait until we were older to tell us this. By this time, more girls were born into our family, meaning more of them for us to protect.

“I remember sitting in that room with all our fathers as they explained to us that Aliana is a biker princess. Since my father is the president or king, and my mother is his ol’ lady, that makes her his queen.

“That would make me the biker prince and my sister the biker princess.

“Anyways, we stood there while our dads preached to us about how the women we care about, and the ones that we want to stay in our lives, should be treated with nothing but love and affection, but there are times when you’ll have to put your foot down.

“We were all told that day that the daughters of the club are the ones that we need to protect with our lives.

“Now, we’re all ranging from ten to thirteen years old, so you can guess we were all jumping up and down over the fact that we essentially got our first job and an important one at that.

“Ever since that day, we’ve been protecting them to the best of our ability.”

“Even when she ran away?” Trey interrupted my story.

“You shouldn’t have done that kid.” My dad said, entering the room. “You never interrupt your president when he’s talking. I remember that day very well.

“We were going to tell you that when she was born, but like you said, you were too young to understand. Anyways, proceed son.” With that, he and my mom walked toward one of the booths.

My dad pulled my mom into his lap and wrapped his arms around her waist. I longed for that kind of love in my life.

“If you have something to say, you can keep your fucking mouth shut until I finish what I’m saying because honestly, just looking at your face makes me want to break every single bone in it.”

“You are one of the reasons my sister is where she is, the reason she could have lost her children. The reason why your VP could have ~LOST~ his ol’ lady. Do you think he’s going to be kind when they get home from the hospital?

“You better fucking hope you have a damn good reason for risking my sister and nieces because there are a fuck ton of men in this room right now that will do anything for that girl and you just made us fail at protecting like we were supposed to do.”

“Sorry, prez.” Trey lowered his eyes to the ground. That’s exactly what I thought, there was no good reason they put my sister and nieces in jeopardy.

“Like I was saying, our job was to look out for her, to keep her safe. We did that until she left for college. She took off without telling anyone but our mom and her best friend where she was headed.

“We searched for her for years, asked my mom and Reaper, but she knew how to disappear, having grown up around a bunch of bikers. They just told us she was safe. Even Snoopy couldn’t track her down.

“We later discovered that Alex had one of his guys handle that. Anyway, we did our best to protect her. Some of us even took bullets doing it. Your VP got shot more than any of us.

“My mom kept tabs on her through Hannah, so we knew she was safe. But we didn’t know what was going on because, let’s be honest, Ali doesn’t let anything slip that she doesn’t want to.

“That all changed today when two of our prospects started fighting over something I’m about to find out.

“Do you know what happens when something happens to the princess?” I look into each of their eyes and see Trey and Jack gulp.

“Diego, step forward.” He moves closer to me and I slap my hand on his shoulder. “Care to share what happened today?”

“I was cleaning the bar—it was my turn today—when I heard things breaking in the storage room. I went back there to find these two shoving each other. Arguing about one of the club girls.

“Turns out, one of the idiots got her pregnant and they were arguing about who the father was. When in reality, it could be anyone.” He mutters the last part and I have to agree.

We don’t know what the club girls do in their free time, and I can’t imagine one of them getting pregnant by a prospect since they hold no power in the club.

“Thank you. We’ll vote on patching you in later. You’ve done well in the time you’ve been prospecting for us. You helped with Lana, and you helped Trigger today with Aliana.

“You can go grab a drink, but stay close so you can hear the rest.” He walks away, and I see the other two shooting him glares. I return theirs with one of my own.

“Did you know that Reaper is one of her best friends? Has been since they were born. They’ve been inseparable for as long as I can remember. Do you know how he got his name? No? Well, I’ll tell you.

“Aliana was sixteen, and she was going on her first date. In fact, that was the day she first shot your vice president. The guy slipped her a date rape drug before he tried to take advantage of her.

“He and his buddies thought it was a good idea, but they didn’t know Reaper was there. He had a bad feeling about the guy, and we never ignore his instincts.

“So, there was my sister, in the park, surrounded by four guys. Do you know how hard it is to come up with a story about four of the best football players getting their asses kicked?

“He didn’t just beat them though…he reaped them. He made sure each of them suffered for what they tried to do to her. The moral of the story is, if you mess with Aliana, you have two choices.

“One, you die, or two, you take a beating from each of us since you made us fail our job, and if you survive, you keep your patch but prospect longer. Was a piece of ass worth it?”

“No prez.” They both say at the same time.

“Who was she?”

“Briana.” That explains it. I let out a dry laugh and turn back toward them.

“You do realize, she’s been pulling that same stunt since she got here. She’s done it to every man in this room. Trying to climb the ladder. I’m surprised to hear that she tried it with a prospect.

“Any particular reason why that is?” They don’t answer, and I just continue. “Well, I need your decisions. Do you want to be reaped? Or do you want the beating?

“Think carefully, boys, because you don’t get to change your mind later.” Before they answer, my phone rings.

“Hello?”

“She’s awake,” Axyl says, and I feel the breath leave my body.

“I’ll let everyone know. I’m getting a decision out of the prospects, then we’ll head that way. Oh, and if you’re okay with it, I’d like to patch in Diego. Get Reaper’s vote too.” There’s a pause before he responds.

“Reaper’s okay with it, and so am I. The beating or taking on Reaper. Reaper did say he’s in the mood for a little reaping fun. I’ll see you soon.”

I hang up and let everyone know that she’s awake before turning back to the two prospects in front of me.

“Well? I don’t have all day.”

“We want to live, so we’ll take the longer prospecting and the beating.”

“Well, I’ll be damned. You have balls. Go clean up. I’ve got a sister and nieces to go see now that I’m done with this crap.” They hurry off, and we head out the door.