The Rampage MC #4: Max and Briony

Chapter 5 (Max): All I Had

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

After Wendie left my house, I spent the next two days walking around in my home naked, trying to let the torn skin heal somewhat, trying to clean up the mess left by Gene being shot.

The police had declared the dead body in my house an obvious case of justifiable homicide given the state of Briony beaten to shit and Gene's fists the clear cause.

So, I'd spent the last two days cleaning the blood and other disgusting shit off my wood floors and walls, trying hard not to think that some of it was most likely Briony's blood. I felt sick at the thought, sick that she'd been hurt because of me, because I'd determined that my house on the MC compound was safer than Wendie being stranded on the side of a dark road.

I'd put the front door that Gene had kicked in back on the hinges as best I could, but until I could get to the home improvement store, the reinforced doorframe and lopsided door would have to do. Stupid things to focus on, but I had to have something to occupy my mind. Otherwise, I'd head over to Briony's apartment and try to get her to talk to me. Every day since she'd been home, I'd sent her something: a bouquet of wildflowers (I don't like those formal flowers like roses and lilies, Max), an assortment of Crumbl Cookies, the Chanel Mademoiselle perfume she favored, and an Uber Eats gift card that should feed her for two months. I didn't sign my name to any of it so she couldn't send it back to me.

On the third day, I threw on some loose-fitting clothes and got on my bike. The guard at the gate let me through without question, but also without acknowledgment, other than to open the gate. Being demoted to prospect was a very different experience than coming into the club as a prospect. It was a total shit show and the brothers made your life three times as hard as it was for regular prospects. I didn't care. I'd take whatever they threw at me -- and that might be quite literally -- and deserve it all and more for hurting Briony.

Despite the intense pain of riding my motorcycle, I relished the feel of being on my bike -- maybe for the last time for a year. Once I began prospecting in a few days, I wouldn't be allowed off the compound without Beard's express permission. Rides on the bike would be few and far between, probably denied completely even if I was given a task to complete off the grounds. Demoted prospects were rarely allowed on their bikes and were forced to take a cage if they needed to go somewhere.

So, no matter how much sitting on my bike with the unhealed cuts hurt, I was determined to enjoy the wind in my face for the two-hour drive. And in what seemed like no time at all, I was pulling up to the Lords of Mayhem's gates. If I thought our MC was well protected, this place was a fortress, especially since it was out in the middle of nowhere. The closest town over five thousand people was a beach community, Harbor's Edge, about an hour away and that wasn't exactly a thriving metropolis. The Lords were surrounded by rural towns and villages, and probably liked the small-town isolation.

"You lost?" the prospect on the gate asked. The guy looked like he would just as soon kill you as look at you. Since Beard had taken my cut and hadn't replaced it with the prospect cut yet, I just looked like some random guy showing up on his Harley.

"Tell Orion that Shotgun's here to see him from the Rampage MC."

The prospect phoned Orion, I assumed, turned his back to me, then faced me once again.

"Go on through," he said as the gates swung open.

Less than five minutes later, I was standing in the president's office in front of Orion and Butcher, both men as big as I was.

"I came here to apologize and to set things straight," I started right in. "I'm the reason Briony was left alone. I'm the reason she got hurt. I made the decision to leave her unprotected at my house while I went to help another person. I left the person I was assigned to protect, who it was my job to protect, alone and without protection. I didn't do my job, I left my assignment, and, as a result, Briony was very badly hurt. I'd ask that you not let the decision I made reflect on the Rampage. I was a brother, yes; but I made a personal decision that resulted in Briony being beaten. Had I made the right decision, the one that would have kept me with Briony to protect her, the one that would have accurately reflected on the Rampage, I wouldn't be here right now because nothing would have happened to her. I'm asking that you let the decision I made reflect entirely on me and not on the club. I let down Beard and my entire MC, I let down you and the Lords, I hurt our reputation as a club, but most of all, worst of all, I hurt Briony because of my actions."

Orion pulled his gun on me so fast it was pointed at my face before I realized what he'd done.

"I'd love to kill you on the spot. You got Briony hurt, which upset my ol' lady, and we had to cut our vacation short to come back. She got worried when Bri wouldn't answer and had me send a prospect to check on her, which is when we found out everything went to shit. I wasn't happy."

"Quite the ripple effect from one bad decision," Butcher put in mildly. He had the deepest voice I'd ever heard in my life and not a flicker of emotion on his face. Butcher was surrounded by a darkness like no other man I'd ever met. "Lift your shirt."

I did and his face remained blank while he looked at the two chain marks.

"How many total?"

"Eight."

"Three to the front and five to the back?"

"Yes."

"Chain?"

"Yes."

"I've seen his work before. He's good."

"He is."

"Give me one reason why Orion shouldn't drop you right here."

"There isn't one."

Orion cocked his gun.

"I got twenty men in the clubhouse right now," Butcher said. "Plus Orion and me."

I waited.

"You want me to not hold your club responsible for what one of its members did."

"Yes."

"Seems like I should get something for a concession like that."

Again I waited, having a feeling I knew what was coming.

"You know exactly what the fuck I'm going to say."

"I do."

"Then let's get started," he said, giving me a smile that was unlike any smile I'd ever seen before.

Orion put his gun away, and the three of us walked out to the common area.

And we got started.

Fifteen minutes later, I staggered to my bike, bloody, beaten, a bit broken, one of my eyes so swollen I couldn't see out of it. They'd left one eye free on Butcher's orders so I could drive home.

"Don't want this piece of shit who walked away from his responsibilities to have to stay in my clubhouse," Butcher had said. He'd nailed me in the kidney so hard I was sure I'd be pissing blood for a week.

Although I'd been in fights before, I'd never taken twenty-two punches all at once.

I wonder how many punches Briony took?

I groaned as I threw my leg over my bike seat, knowing the only thing keeping me upright and conscious at this point was sheer determination.

It was all I had.

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA