Page 7 of Cage's Downfall

“Ain’t gonna lie to you brother.” Wild looked at me from the end of the table. “Us boys have talked since Jacob left.”

My teeth ground together. The fact that my own son walked from this was enough to tell me that the table would be in his favor and not mine.

“Don’t want him pledging with them. Neither should you,” Wild added.

“Jacob won’t pledge to the Severed Sons. He is loyal to us.”

Lit blew out a mouthful of smoke. “We need him back Prez.”

“He’ll come back.”

“Not talking about Jacob,” Lit locked eyes with me. “I’m talking about the madman that destroyed our supplement. The man whose name puts fear in our enemies eyes. He shouldn’t be an enemy. Going up against him is a fucking mistake.”

Cage. It all came back to Cage fucking Hurley.

“He has the power to wipe us out. We need him back on our side of the table,” Vod grunted. “Fucking mistake taking the patch off him. He’s a serial killer with a grudge against us. We need to make this right.”

“A sit down,” Wild spoke up. “A sit down with him and we offer him his own Chapter and family security of a club he wants to be in.”

I scoffed, hating every second of this.

“Can’t have him and the Severed Sons as an enemy.” Wild heard my scoff. “You need to pull it in, reel in the man’s heartstrings. He left the Severed Sons for us once. Let’s pray he can do it again.”

“And if he doesn’t?” I looked around the table. “I offer him a Chapter, my daughter. What if the kid wants war?”

Wild grunted. “He ain’t no fucking kid. The man killed our supplier. The man is a serial killer with no purpose but the need for power. When you gonna see it Hawk, Cage is the mother fucking future of this club.”

“Or…” Lit added, “he makes or breaks our future by wiping out the club. He already took our nomads. He won’t stop. Men fear him. I would rather be with him than against him.”

“Fuck Lit your making it sound like you’ll patch over!” I grunted and he looked at me dead serious. He had fucking considered it! I looked around the table. Vod, Wild, even the damn prospect, had clearly thought about it.

“You know what they say, when the devil comes knocking you give him ya soul, so you can keep living,” Lit said standing up. “Make the man an offer to come back Hawk. Before he kills us and buries the club.”

The room emptied and I looked at Wild for some advice, but his eyes just told me what I didn’t want to know. Cage was going to be The Vultures death or future. And it was up to me to pick which one. Did I let the club die by his hands, or did I let him revive it.

CAGE

When you want something to change you have to be the one to turn that ‘want’ into action. This lifestyle was painful, it would cripple you, it would tighten its noosearound your neck strangling you. But something happened to me along the way, I learned to love the pain. I learned that my story was to be told through blacks, blues and as soon as one wound healed- another would slice open.

Teaching me to learn to love the pain.

When I was young, my father taught me- manipulate the results to work in your favor. My father was the king of manipulation. He believed in if it hurts, keep going cause it means it’s shaping you as a man.

Because when you get close to that goal, you’ll be the man you need to be to claim it as yours.

I blew out a mouthful of smoke. My eyes landing on Hawk. A sit down he wanted. I knew it had something to do with the shipment I had stolen from his docks but what did the bastard expect?

He kept doing drive bys at Severed Sons houses. We didn’t have a clubhouse yet. The nomads from Vulture’s had pledged to me. But Hawk didn’t know that where I go, the ex Vulture’s members went.

While they were wearing Severed Sons colors their loyalty was to me, not the patch.

In some ways, that is what every president wants. Members that follow them, not the club.

I got it by chance. Now I had the taste of the power, I wanted more.

Couldn’t help but think that Hawk’s visit aligned with Autumn getting out and Jacob stepping down. He knew that I saw Jacob’s potential. I wouldn’t put him on the side lines like Hawk had done.

“Let’s cut the bullshit,” Wild grunted. “We have an offer, and want you to hear us out.” He scanned the ex Vulture’s members. “We aren’t here judging ya for siding with Cage.”

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