TORTURE ME_ The Bandits MC(149)

Upstairs wasn’t too bad. There were a few of the guys’ old ladies still a little jumpy from the ambush. One of the couches had been pushed up to the windows, where someone had tried to hide behind it. I saw the blood, where I assumed he’d taken a fatal hit and collapsed. There were chips in the brick walls where bullets had rained in like hail. One of the dart boards was toast. The TV was toast. Those were just things, though. Things could be replaced. They were going to pay dearly for the five guys they took from us, and for trying to use Julia as leverage.



“It’s okay, ladies,” I called out to the women cowering at the tables in the back of the bar. “They’re gone!”



Meanwhile, members of the MC swept and cleaned up. One guy pulled the couch down from the window. I could see him out of the corner of my eye, but I couldn’t tell who it was. I saw the couch clearly, though. It was riddled with holes from where it had taken quite a few shots before letting a couple get through to the guy who’d been hiding behind it.



Ricky came back with a knife, some bandages and gauze, and alcohol. He cut my jeans open around the wound in my leg and took a look at it. I winced as he wiped the blood away to get a better look at my leg.



“It looks like it went straight through, brother.” He reached a gloved hand around the back of my leg, and I winced again as he found the exit wound.



“That’s not too bad,” he continued. “At least I don’t have to dig that shit out, right?” He chuckled.



“Yeah, just get me cleaned up and bandaged, Ricky. Damn,” I snapped.



“On it.”



A few minutes later, with my leg wrapped up and taped together, I sat up and looked at him. He was getting his things back together to take behind the bar.



“How the hell did this happen?” I asked him.



“You already know the answer to that,” he said, giving me a straight-forward, no-nonsense look. “It’s pretty obvious that Dimitri told Ivan where we were.”



“No, that’s not what I mean.” I shook my head. “Besides, Ivan already knows where HQ is. I’m surprised he took this long to ambush us. No, how did we get to a point where our rivals are strong enough to come at us like this? How did we get to the point where we aren’t really on top anymore? Do you think I let this happen? Is it because of bad leadership?”



Ricky cocked an eyebrow. “I know better than to answer a question like that, Gage, but if you think that’s the case, brother, do something about it. This is your MC as much as it is anybody’s. If you feel like we need to make changes, now’s the time.”



I thought about his words for a minute. “Yeah, I think you’re right. We need to hold an emergency meeting with everyone who’s here. We don’t need to bring anyone else to HQ today, and we need to make sure our women get out of here safely.”



“Hey, Gage, Ricky, you guys need to come see this.” It was Jorell, standing at the window, looking down.



“More bad news,” I groaned as I got up from the couch and walked over to see what he was looking at.



I hobbled over to stand next to him. Our bikes had been trashed by Ivan’s men before they left.



“Yeah, emergency meeting. Now. Here in the clubhouse, so everyone can be part of it.”





Chapter 26





We met around the bar on the second floor. I stood against the bar and looked around at the men staring back at me, waiting to hear something positive from their president.



“It’s good to see those of us who made it. We lost a few guys today,” I started. “We lost Angelo Wilkes, a long-time member of the organization. He’d been a King of Hell for decades, before some of us were even born. One hell of a man. He was a mentor to me, and I know he reached out to a few of you standing here before me. I’m sad to see him go.”



A few faces turned to the floor. A few faces, like Chase’s and Jaurez’s, stared at me with hard eyes ready to retaliate for what happened to us.



“We lost Cliff Ross today, a prospect. He was a promising young man who had proven his loyalty to the MC a few times already before throwing himself in the line of fire today in an effort to defend us. We lost Clyde Edgars, another long-time member who’d turned down several offers of promotion within the ranks so he could help you guys work on your bikes and just ride.”



Clyde’s name got a few smiles and laughs out of the guys.



“Yeah,” I joined in with a little laugh of my own, “I think we all have funny memories of Clyde telling us ridiculous stories while working on our motorcycles or on someone’s car. We lost Terrell McCoy and Johnny Britton as well, both of whom were getting their colors soon.” I glanced over at Ricky. “Ricky, we need to deliver their colors to their families.”