Blue Fire

Chapter Eleven - Coming Toghether

CATCHER

"Order," Stark called for some reason. He always took on this role in this room, in that seat at the head of a heavy wooden table that fit about twenty of us at a time. His chair was huge, a big black leather monstrosity that Run had left behind when he kicked it and Stark made Prez.

It was October, Try had been dead for a month now and we were still fucked up over it. We were, Stark wasn't. He believed that the retaliation had already been met considering we'd taken out four of theirs and they'd gotten one of ours.

Most heavily disagreed. So, we were at a stalemate.

"We're done on this topic. The time for retribution will come, Harts will breathe dirt and nothing else before long and we hafta have patience. If we do anything now, we'll open ourselves up for more of the same, and I don't want to lose any more of our brothers. None. So, no. Not yet, but eventually."

"He was a brother," Pile roughed out and everyone else stilled. Pile never spoke at these things unless he felt strongly about something, as in, extremely strongly.

"Pile, Try was a prospect at the time he kicked it, we would have patched him but we hadn't, that means he was still a prospect in their eyes, we want to keep it that way so they won't think they got one of us."

Wrong thing to say.

Pile shot up out of his seat and pointed a meaty finger at Stark before he roared, "HE WAS ONE OF US!"

Rough, Rilo and Heat shot up to calm him down but I stayed seated, because he had a point and Stark was being a dick about this. I wanted blood. I wanted revenge and I wanted those motherfuckers to never even think about fucking with us and ours again. That was Wilder, that was who we were.

"Pile, brother, calm." Stark had no effect on him but the three men who had risen to control the beast did. Pile sat and Stark sighed.

"Look, I'm in a bind. My goal is to get us to a place where we earn profit and we are safe. Our families are safe. Us hitting them now would fuck that up. Try will get revenge, I will see to that myself if I have to. He was one of us, he was a brother through and through... He was loyal to us, hard-working, believed in what we are... The pain of losing him weighs on me just as fuckin' much as it weighs on you. But I have to protect all of us. As much as I want to go the fuck out there and get him what he deserves, I have to think of everyone."

He had a point, a point which Pile seemed to get because he calmed down enough to not be somewhat restrained.

Stark was a smart man. A man who knew how to take a breath and think his way through shit without bruiting through it first. That was why he was in that seat. His shoulders were heavy with the club and its business, a lot of what burned laid on my shoulders too, but I had nothing else to care about anymore, this was my life, whereas his was cut down the middle between kids and a wife, home and family, and this club. The entirety of it.

He was a smart one, but he was a tired one.

"Last thing before you can all fuck off and do whatever," Stark said and sighed again before sitting straighter in his chair and rubbing at his bandana in a way that told me he was nervous.

About point five seconds later I would know why.

"The girl."

I tensed. Pile tensed. Green stiffened and leaned forwards, ready to jump across the table at any moment. Shift put his feet down from the table, Pile started emanating something that was dangerous and Rilo frowned, which in itself was enough of a sign he wasn't fucking pleased to have all of us worried.