Page 31 of Embracing the Consequences

Marcos only nodded, his eyes on Axel, Blaze, and Phoenix. Those three would end up casting the deciding votes. Right now, though, he couldn’t get a read on the three of them. Blaze was looking more than a little stunned.

“Vince Carmichael has been meeting with Buckley monthly. You’ve probably seen him around over the years. Most of us called him the suit,” Marcos explained.

“Fuck,” Phoenix cursed.

“So the suit has been using our club to get revenge on your old man?” Axel asked, laying out everything in layman’s terms.

“Well, yeah, basically. If you want to simplify it like that, Buckley has started a war against the Knights on behalf of Vince Carmichael. He’s even struck a deal with Las Serpientes.”

“Motherfucker,” Axel growled, anger radiating off his form.

Marcos briefly remembered Axel’s having a younger brother who was killed by Las Serpientes when the two of them had still been in high school. It was part of the reason that Axel had joined up to begin with.

“You know this for sure?” Jerry Langford, Stone’s father, asked.

“I heard them myself.” Marcos sighed, meeting his gaze.

“Fucking hell.” Jerry sighed and ran a hand over his buzzed gray hair.

“My sister is dating Mayhem, Rockstar, and Devil,” Marcos also added, feeling the need for total transparency.

Axel raised an eyebrow at that. “You’re OK with that?” Marcos vaguely remembered Axel, Phoenix, and Blaze dating a girl together for a while.

Marcos rubbed a hand over his skull trimmed hair. “I’m coming around to it,” he admitted. “Mostly because she’s my baby sister.”

“And he’s your half brother?” Axel shot back, raising an eyebrow.

Marcos chuckled and shook his head. “I’m still coming around on that one too,” he admitted.

“So what are you asking us, son?” Bear asked, bringing the conversation back to business.

Marcos met his gaze. “I’m asking this club to consider a truce with the Ravager Knights. We hand over Buckley to Mayhem, let them dish out the justice they deserve for the deaths of King Taylor and Rachet, and end the war Buckley started without a vote.”

A heavy silence rang out around the room as the men froze in their chairs to digest Marcos’s proposal. As the silence continued, Marcos shifted in his chair and looked around.

Heavy stares met his gaze. It was a hard choice. A brotherhood was fractured, their president had betrayed them. These were unprecedented times for their club. The Devil’s Psychos had never gone through an upheaval as great as this one before, and their brotherhood was shaken to its core.

“A truce?” Blaze asked, his voice low.

“Yes.” Marcos nodded. “No more war. Let it all go.”

“And you’re OK with that?” Blaze asked Nickle, who sat across the table from him.

Nickle nodded. “I am actually. Buckley forced me to spy on the Knights that night, said he’d kill my old lady if I didn’t do what he said.”

Hisses of rage rippled around the table.

“The Knights, by rights, should have killed me for spying on them. It’s nothing short of what any of us would have done,” Nickle explained. “They showed mercy, let me live.”

“Fucking hell,” Jerry muttered, shaking his head.

“Buckley’s been unstable for too long. He’s been acting like a dictator for too long,” Stone said.

“Agreed.” Marcos nodded.

“I want to hear it from him,” Bear said.

Marcos nodded and shrugged a shoulder. “Let’s go ask him.”

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