Page 183 of Timeless

Rev taught me that life wasn’t about love, or people. It was about control. When he sentenced, he expected me to step up. I might have got a lot shit wrong in my personal life. But when it came to the club, I always did right. I always saw the bigger picture. I fostered a home for outlaws. Gave them a family, that didn’t need blood. We had loyalty.

I wasn’t just their king. I was the shepherd. Even when I was in prison, I still guided them. But if I was to use my father’s words. I controlled them still.

Rev’s eyes were still on me, and while the men where standing behind me. I knew deep down, that Rev could apply just a little bit of pressure and their loyalty would break. As bikers, are outlaws first. Outlaws look after number one. If Rev threatened their ability to earn money, or worse, took their freedom—well. I already knew where they would stand.

So I had two options. One. Fight him, with bikers who were loyal to his cause before my own. Thus, they will turn. Or I do what he wants and walk.

“Son,” Rev said with a slight smile on his face. “I walk a free man,” His grin still on place as he looked at me.

To the naked eye. We looked friendly. To the trained eye. We were moments away from pulling a gun on each other or throwing each other to the ground and finishing this with our fists like the men we are.

Rev’s eyes flickered over the bikers. “While I say I am free, I see a lot of men here, who aren’t.”

And here we go. His anarchy speech. He was ready to turn the boys. But I wasn’t giving him the opportunity. I realized something earlier tonight. When Amber was nearly hyperventilating in my arms. That this club was the cancer of our relationship. It slowly chewed away at the bones of mine and hers love, just like bone cancer.

I wanted my son to know a life, with choice. Under these club colors, he would never get to experience that.

What was the point of this life within this club, if its costs me the one thing that keeps me breathing? Amber wasn’t the love of my life. She was my life. She was my oxygen. Without her I suffocated. So right now, as Rev made some attempt to claim back his club. I wasn’t interested in fighting him for it.

“Rev,” I said and I calmly looked at him.

Earlier tonight, I was going to ask Amber to stand my side as I ruled this chaos of a club. But then hearing Rev was out, I realized. I wasn’t asking Amber to help me rule. I was going to be pledging with her, to stand by the blinded one eyed decisions I make in Rev’s clubs best interest. Cause that’s who owned this club at the end of the day. It was Rev’s. And right now, I’m ready to trade back the devil his empty promises for my soul.

My eyes were still on him, I had his attention. Maybe because I wasn’t reacting how he had trained me too.

“You want me gone,” I said and I saw his eyes narrowed. If he was me, right now. He would have set this up as trap. But I hadn’t done that. So as his eyes flickered around to see if a snipper was on him. “And I want to be gone.”

Shock spread across nearly everyone’s face. Even his.

“I ain’t going to war with you, for a club.” I felt like the vest that I had worn since I was fourteen, tighten around me. Fuck, it felt like the cut was burning my skin, through my t-shirt. “I know better you.” My eyes were still on him. “I know you’ll drive me to the point of reacting. I know you Rev. Cause you trained me to think like you.” I took a few steps towards him. “You want my patch, you want my birth right back. Well, Father.” I called him that mockingly. “You can have it.” I hissed.

I shrugged my vest off, as men behind me gasped like girls. My eyes dropped to my vest. He said to me that I would be king. He told me, every day while I was young. That this club, that this birth right, was my destiny. But all he did was shape me into a soulless beast. A blinded boy. And it was Amber who shaped me into a man.

I dropped the vest onto the fire that was burning at his side.

He might have monarchy. But I’ve got my soul. And if there was one thing known, that can be counted on. It was kings never die. . . I turned my back on him, the club and the expected life I was to live.

The future I had planned went up in flames with my vest. And so the legacy I was to leave behind, burnt—just a story that was never to be told. Instead, I walked a free man, in a direction, that I had never planned on going—if I hadn’t been pushed.

Chapter 27

Amber

I sat nervously on the edge of the couch. A cigarette burning between my fingers. Hours ticked by and no news from the boys. All I knew for certain was Jax was going to see Rev. That little fact had sent my anxiety up to levels I could barely keep a grip on.

The sound of distant roaring engines had me getting up. It was late, after two a.m. Jax wasn’t going to let the night end, without him seeing his father. I had thought when Troy told him, that Jax would want to see Rev first thing. But it wasn’t like that. It was as if something had hit Jax. . . like a realization or something.

I couldn’t explain it.

The engines got closer and I butted my cigarette out. Okay. Everything was fine. I took a deep breath just as I heard the front door. And then heavy boots followed up the hall.

“Darlin’, why are you still up?” Jax is actually surprised to see me standing in the lounge room. “You okay?” he looked at me like I was the one being abnormal.

I blinked. Fuck. He was calm. I wasn’t expecting that, after he saw his father.

Troy, Cole and Tyler walked in slowly behind him. Now their faces, was what I was expecting. Pissed off, angry.

“Look, I’m going to shower and head to bed. It’s been a long night.” Jax is speaking, but I feel like it isn’t the Jax I know. He’s calm, collected and not angry—which is the main thing throwing me.

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