“Sorry, babe.” he says, apologetically.
My brows hit my hairline, and I turn back to face the room, ignoring the smirks coming from my family.
“Everyone here?” Marx says in a slightly less booming voice.
“Everyone except Mama Debs and the kids,” Remy says, settling on Wire’s knee at the coffee table, their laptops open.
“Roman will come by this evening after Dima arrives. He’s alluded to a lead that they’re following as we speak,” Ana adds.
A few of the brothers shift in their seats. I know that Roman isn’t terribly popular, and his brother-in-law is a little on the creepy side, but they’ve always been there to help out, and as faras I’m concerned, Roman is a lot less evil and conniving than the men I grew up with.
“Let’s get this shit started.”
Chapter 5
Marx
Istand behind Lovely, hands gripped on the wheelchair handles like a lifeline. When Switch had the nerve to shoulder bump me and tell me to“Sort your shit out, there are brothers here who would treat Lovely like the diamond she is,”I almost lost it. The only thing that reined in my temper was that Switch is the only reason Lovely is safe here, and not exposed in the hospital.
“I’ve got Nitro on video call, so I’m sharing my screen,” Chewy says to nobody in particular.
She can share her screen all she wants, I have no real clue what that means. I just need to know what the fuck we’re dealing with and how to wipe out the threats.
“Nitro? Can you hear us?” she says, pressing buttons here and there, even pointing the remote at the TV and fucking around with it. “Are you on mute? I think you might be on mute…. Yeah, turn mute off.”
“Hello?” Nitro’s voice booms over the TV, causing us all to jump. Well, all of us except Flack, but I’m certain he has to be some level of deaf.
While this whole fucking thing is going on Mad Dog smirks at me from across the room. His gaze flicking to Bee and Lovely, then to me and back again. I slowly raise my middle finger, discreetly, so he gets the picture. I have no idea why people are giving me looks. Lovely is a beautiful woman, and Switch is right, any of the brothers would be lucky to have her. But she’s mine. As soon as I figure out how the fuck to woo her or whatever it is you do to get women to like you. I let out a long breath because shit, I have no idea how to date. My whole adult life I’ve had pussy on tap, first from being a marine and then Pres of an MC. I’ve put very little effort into getting and keeping a woman. Now I have one that I have actual feelings for and instead of grabbing her with both hands and loving her, I flapped my fucking gums to keep her at arms length and hurt her. Now anything I say will have her laughing in my damn face. Add to that our clubhouse being attacked and I’m really being DP’ed by the dildo of life right now. Unlubed.
“Good, we can hear each other. Let’s get this show on the road,” Chewy says in such a cheerful voice that it almost makes this feel as if it’s an everyday family meeting, and not Church.
Chewy looks toward me, with a nod, and I thump my fist on the wall behind me, bringing Church to order. “As you can see, Church is going to be a little different today. Ladies, it’s an honor to have you join us. Without you some of us wouldn’t be here today,” I stare at Nitro on the screen, he has dark smudges under his eyes and his hair is sticking up on end, then my gaze flicks to the woman sitting in front of me, her dark head bent as she snuggles into Bee. “Thank you. All of you. Your fast thinking saved lives.”
“Hear, hear!” Mad Dog yells out, the men cheering along, stomping, clapping and generally giving the women the thanks they deserve.
“As for my brothers, both MC, and Tombs,” I clear my throat of the emotion lodged there. “There is nobody else I’d want at my back. We stood shoulder to shoulder, defending our home. Some of us came out of there a little worse for the wear,” snickers can be heard as Rhodie and Tank rib Rider, “But we’re all here, in one piece, and I don’t know about you, but I feel like a little payback is on the cards. No one fucks with our family and gets away with it.”
My ears ring with the roar that goes out, not just from the MC, but from the Tombs and the Landrys as well.
Tucking my lip, I let out my trademark whistle, calling the room to order once more. “Chewy, tell me you know who the fuck had the balls to attack us?”
“Of course I do. But maybe we want to call Moss in,” she answers, her eyes on her screen.
“Ah, babe, why would we do that?” Rhodie asks, his worried gaze flicking to me, then back to his Ol Lady.
“Because it was Sheriff Kelson who attacked us.”
You can hear a pin drop, and then the room erupts. There are gasps, yelling, and Violet is letting rip with an impressive amount of Spanish. Although that makes sense. If I found out my brother’s boss was a bad guy, I’d be livid as well.
I wait until everyone starts to calm before turning to Chewy. “Explain!”
“We picked him up on the cameras,” Wire answers instead, tapping at something on his keyboard and then looking toward the big screen TV.
The grainy images clearly show Kelson and at least two other men aiming automatic weapons at us before an image of one of them with a small rocket launcher appears.
“What in the fuck is going on?” Savage asks under his breath.
“Why is the Sheriff targeting us?” Lovely wonders out loud.