Page 44 of Freak
Chapter Thirteen
Now Mel thought hishead was going to explode right off his shoulders. He was so angry his heart pounded, his hands shook—fuck, even his vision was wonky; enough rage really could make you see red. And oh, he had enough rage. Angry at Maniac, at the whole Montana charter, at his own charter, at himself, and worst of all, now he was angry at Abigail.
He’d hurt her? How in the fuck had he hurt her? By defending her? That was some serious bullshit.
Okay, so she didn’t take offense at Maniac’s bitch’s nastiness. She could be as Gandhi as she wanted, that was great, admirable even, but how in the ever-loving FUCK was he wrong for taking offense on her behalf? How could that possibly havehurther?
What a fucking mess. He had no clue how to sort it out, but there was no fucking way he was going to apologize for defending her.
Yanking the clubhouse door open so hard it slammed back against the wall, he stepped into the Hall—and found himself in an even bigger mess.
He’d been gone like five minutes, but in that time, a war had happened. Chairs were busted, tables upended. Food and liquid was smeared everywhere. The chess game was wrecked—and maybe the chess table itself. Again.
Men sat on the floor, leaned against the bar, slumped in the sofas, bleeding, bruised, and disheveled. A battalion of women moved through the carnage, tending to wounds or trying to clean up. The men who’d either been uninjured or had shaken it off were collecting broken furniture. Isaac and Showdown, neither looking too banged up, crouched in the corner, gathering the remnants of their game.
Mel had been in enough brawls to be impressed at the damage but not especially surprised. When a brawl got started, a handful of men could tear a room apart in about a minute. Two MC charters was a sight more than a handful of men.
Good thing SoCal wasn’t here yet.
Off to the side, between the hallway to the kitchen and storage rooms and the hallway to Badger’s office and the warehouse, Badger, Double A, Rhett, and Gravy stood in an angry cluster. Rhett was growling something at Badger, and when he shoved his pointed finger in Badger’s chest, Badger knocked it away and stepped in, going chest-to-chest with the Montana president.
Double A grabbed his president’s shoulder, holding him back. Gravy did not do the same with his president. Dub tossed an angry look at Gravy and then saw Mel watching. He made a karate-chop wave of his free hand, summoning him over.
Mel headed that direction, but there wasn’t an ice cube’s chance in hell he was taking responsibility for whatever had happened while he wasin the fucking parking lot. His thing with Maniac had beenoverwhen he’d left.
In general he was a laid-back guy, but today he was a rage monster. Both Badge and Dub gaped at him when he charged right up to them. “I don’t know what the fuck happened here, but it ain’t on me,” he barked as he came up on the snarling knot of presidents and veeps. “My shit with Maniac was done when I left.” Saying that name made him realize he hadn’t seen that crazy fucker in the debris. “Where is that fucker, anyway?”
“He’s back in a bunk,” Badger answered. “Tash is with him. Cox fuckin’ cut him.”
“And I want his goddamn head for it,” Rhett snarled at Badger, clearly not for the first time.
Now Mel had an idea about how the brawl had gotten started. If anybody was going to start slashing, Cox was fairly high on the list of likely doers, but not without a good reason. He was a hothead, but he aimed true, no matter how hot he got.
“If Cox cut him, Maniac deserved it.”
At Mel’s statement, Gravy turned on him and grabbed him by the kutte. “You watch your fuckin’ mouth, boy,” the ugly asshole gritted.
Mel yanked Gravy’s hand free. “Don’t you fuckin’ touch me, you piece of shit.”
Double A goggled at him, clearly shocked by Mel’s shiny new personality transplant. Under his rage, Mel was pretty shocked himself.
Gravy cocked a fist, and Mel stepped in, daring him to go for it. And he meant it, too; in this moment, he wanted nothing in the world like he wanted to pull apart the mismatched pieces of the old asshole’s face.
“FUCK!” Badger yelled, loud enough to catch the attention of the whole Hall. “WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING HERE?”
The room went quiet. Even Rhett and Gravy backed off a little.
Into that sliver of relative peace, Mel asked, “Where’s Cox?” If an altercation between him and Maniac got this mess going, why wasn’t he getting pulled into this tribunal instead of Mel?
“He’s hurt, isn’t he?” he added, putting the equation together.
Double A nodded. “He got dogpiled after Maniac went down, so yeah, he took some lumps. Not bad, but enough to need some tending. Autumn’s cleaning him up.”
