Page 6 of Healing Souls

Nerds clears his throat, breaking up the rising tension in the room as everyone simmers. “I am going to head back to the club if you don’t need me for anything else. I’d like to dive into this more and see what else I can dig up. Maybe I’ll be able to track down who actually helped them clear Harley’s files, and then we can try to get answers out of them.”

Rage sighs. “Yeah, you’re good to go for now. Let me know the second you find anything. And please get some rest too. Don’t work yourself to death. We will need you at your best.”

Nerds nods and bids farewell to everyone before stepping out.

“So, what’s the plan for the prospect? We should deal with that. It’s not like we can just leave him down there forever,” Noah retorts with a pointed look at Rage.

“He can stay right where he fucking is,” Rage growls.

Running a hand through his hair, Sugar blows out a tentative breath. “Rage, you have to look at this as the club president right now. Not as an overprotective and scared father.”

I don’t comment, but now that I have seen with my own eyes that Harley is okay and understanding what happened, I get why he did it. It doesn’t mean I’m less pissed. But I do understand. He did the right thing by club standards, but I don’t think Rage is going to see that right now.

I glance at my brother, who of course is already staring at me and cocks a brow when he sees me looking back at him. Letting out a grunt, I pull my phone out, needing a break from talking right now, and text Noah.

Me:Let Rage go down and see him. Hear what Daniel has to say. That might help a little. But we know better than anyone how blind you can become to the truth when all you want is someone to pay for what happened. Even if it was no one’s fault.

Noah reads my text and then lets out a whistle to get everyone’s attention because Rage and Sugar have come to a stand-off about what to do.

“Alright, listen up, fuckers. Rage, you have to cool it, man. The club needs you to be our president still. Let’s all go down and talk to Daniel. Give him a chance to explain his thought process. Rage, you will have to just listen to him. Give him a chance like you would anyone else. You are letting yourliteralrage rule you right now. I don’t even think this is fully about Daniel,” Noah says, his eyes softening as he watches his president’s shoulders drop with defeat.

He stares at the entrance to the hall, and like always, Grayson seems to immediately know where his train of thought goes.

“Ry can stay with her,” he assures Rage. “I doubt we can even get him to leave her right now, anyway. He already got his pound of flesh, and he won’t stay calm enough to be down there. I’ll stay too and text you right away if anything changes with Harley.”

Grayson, always the voice of reason. Always the one to help calm people down. He’s the best at taming Ryker, but his soothing voice and naturally relaxed demeanor really helps everyone.

Rage agrees with him and then he, Sugar, and Noah all get up to go. I stand too, not planning on staying here. Noah glances at me. “You coming with us?” I nod. He turns to look at Rage, who gives a head tilt. “Alright.”

We all head out Rage’s front door and walk back up towards the main building. As we get close to the side of the building, we veer off into the woods where a short path is. It leads back to a small shed that houses random outdoor tools for maintaining the property. Behind it is a cellar door that leads down to our cells. The same ones Ryker was just in not that long ago. From what Noah has told us, the cells don’t get used as often, but they still need them sometimes.

Stone is standing outside the door and nods at us before opening it up, heading down first. As soon as we reach the bottom of the steps, I spot Daniel sitting on the floor of a cell.

The anger I thought had calmed within me skyrockets. No matter the reasoning, he still shot Harley. No one should fucking shoot her.

I shove past everyone else that came down ahead of me and go straight to his cell. But of course, it’s locked. I stand there staring him down, and he gives me a tiny smirk; the fucker has always been cocky. I doubt anyone else even notices it, but I do. And I don’t like it.

Noah walks up to me and puts his hand on my shoulder, applying pressure so I will take a few steps back. I don’t think I want to kill him now. I just want some of the anger inside of me to dissipate, and I know that would happen if I just got a few good hits in to the cocky ass prospect. Especially knowing he’s going to think he’s the shit now for having saved our prez.

Rage steps up in front of the cell. “Want to tell me why the hell you thought it was okay to shoot a young girl?” he says in a deadly tone that even sends chills down my spine.

I’ll give Daniel credit; he has balls of steel to not cower at Rage’s tone, but also something seems off about it to me. Anyone in his position would be terrified, and he doesn’t even look fazed.

Blade lets out a huff and rolls his eyes as he watches Rage, but he doesn’t say anything. Which is surprising. My brother loves to give his opinion on fucking everything. Which means they are just letting Rage do this in the hopes it knocks some sense into him. As much as I see their point, I want Rage to lose his shit on the prospect just once. It’s not like they’re going to let me do it.

“She was aiming a gun at you, Prez. What the fuck did you want me to do? Watch you get shot?” Daniel scoffs.

Sugar speaks up then, “No, of course fuckin’ not. But you could have given it some more time, kid. Let Rage try to handle it.” His voice is calm as he looks between Rage and Daniel. Trying to keep the peace.

“So, then why am I locked up? I get it. I should’ve followed everyone else. I was worried about our prez. But this is just some chick. I don’t get what the problem is.” He shrugs like it’s not a big deal, and it sets me off.

“Thatchick,” I sneer, “is Harley. You knew about her. Everyone in the fucking club did.”

Daniel glares at me. “You’re mad about some piece of ass? Are you kidding me? You care more about pussy than my prez’s life? Oh, that’s right, you aren’t even a part of this club. What the fuck are you even doing down here?”

I take a step forward and seethe, “Unlock it.” Noah shakes his head.

He snaps, “I’ve got this handled. You don’t need to put more bad shit on your shoulders. Go sit with Ryker and Grayson.” I go to tell him no, but Rage glowers at me. “It’s a command. Go. Now.”

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