Page 74 of Freak
Mel didn’t want that. Kellen was a nuisance, and he was trying to shield his shitty nephews from paying for what they’d done to Abigail, but Mel hated the notion of trussing him up for Montana, leaving him to the likes of Rhett and Gravy to deal with. Kellen needed correction—Mel thought he needed excommunication, in fact—but not whatever Gravy would do to him. He was a Missouri patch, so Missouri should deliver his consequences.
Also, no one had suggested that Maniac hadn’t said something worthy of a punch—being a dick was his brand, after all. Everybody everywhere, even Montana, assumed Maniac had started it.
Kellen began to speak, and his mind was on the question of culpability, too.
“If we’re throwin’ blame around,” Kellen said, with an emphasis misplaced in this downbeat room, “Mel’s the one who really started it. Back in the clubhouse, when he scrapped with Mane. And Cox, too, sticking him right after.” Raising his voice over the sudden clamor of resistance, he added, “They’re the ones turned everything wrong!”
Fuck it, Mel thought.Let Montana have him.But he didn’t bother putting it into words.
Badger lifted his head and locked his eyes on Kellen. He stared fiercely, silently, until Kell dropped his gaze to the floor. Even then, Badger glared and remained silent. Mel couldn’t decide if the president was too angry or too overwhelmed to speak. Maybe both.
“That is bullshit, Kell,” Dom said when the pushback settled. “And you know it. What happened in the clubhouse was normal shit. What happened at the bonfire was massive fuckery. You’re always looking to squirrel out of paying for shit you do.”
Isaac had been staring at Kellen, too. At Dom’s comment, he shifted his gaze to Len and said, quietly, “Len. Tell ‘em. It’s time.”
After a brief eyeball chat with Isaac, Len nodded, glanced at Mel, and focused on Kellen. Mel understood that Len had told Isaac about their little chat at Marie’s a few days earlier.
He thus wasn’t surprised when Len calmly said, “It was Knox and Jalen and a couple of their buddies who fucked up Abigail’s place in the summer. Did it just for the sport of meanness. Kell found out and tried to keep it on the downlow. When Mel and I pried it out of him, he threatened to turn rat if we didn’t back off.”
The silence that overtook the hospital chapel was almost noisy with the buzz of rage. Kellen’s eyes showed a fear borne of complete understanding. The only sin greater than killing a brother was betraying the club itself. Kellen had done the first and shown a willingness to do the second.
Everybody saw exactly when the full realization landed on him, because Kellen broke for the door. Nolan grabbed him by the nape of his kutte with one hand, and by his shoulder brace with the other, and threw him to the floor beside Mel’s wheelchair. Kellen wailed and grabbed his injured shoulder. When he tried to struggle to his feet, Nolan kicked his leg out from under him. Kellen landed on his brace and yelped with the pain.
“Stay.Down,” Nolan snarled, and Kellen stayed down.
“Vote it now,” Tommy said from the first pew. “He’ll ... make ... trouble ... if we wait.”
With a heavy, heartsick sigh, Badger nodded and said, “Vote to excommunicate Kellen Frey. Show of hands.”
Every hand went up but Kellen’s. Not one patch hesitated.
“So voted,” Badger said.
Nolan immediately crouched to rip the kutte off Kellen’s back, further roughing up his dislocated shoulder. “Ink’s next, motherfucker,” he barked.
But when he yanked Kellen up to his feet and started to pull him to the door, Badge called, “Hold up. We need a vote on what to do with him.”
“End him,” Len said, staring straight at Kellen, whose eyes popped wide.
“Hedidn’tactually rat us out, though,” Bart said. “He threatened to, which is fucked, absolutely, but is itkillingfucked? I say we exile him from Signal Bend. The whole state, maybe.”
“We don’t know if he’s ratted us out already or not,” Badger said. “We do know he’s willing to. Maybe he’s already got something in the works.”
“No! I wouldn’t,” Kellen said, trying to sound strong but missing by a fair margin. “It was just talk. Stupid talk. I’d never hurt the club. Even now. The ex—...” He stopped and swallowed. “Excommunication, I understand. I didn’t do it on purpose, but I understand. You gotta give Montana something or the Horde ends up fighting itself. I’ll take that hit. But I’dneverhurt the club.”
Badger glared hard at him. “What do you call all this, then?”
Kellen stared, his eyes glittering with not-yet shed tears, but he had no answer.
“Give him to Montana,” Isaac said. “We don’t want him, they want his head. Get rid of the trouble inside our Keep and settle the trouble with another charter. Two birds, one rat bastard.”
Montana would make his death slow and horrific. Mel still didn’t like it, but he didn’t speak up against it. Fucker had tried to turn this mess on him. He had ample reason not to stand up for Kellen Frey.
“No,” Kellen whimpered. “C’mon. Please.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Nolan said and punched his bad shoulder. Kellen dropped to his knees and began to cry.
Over that weak mewling, quiet took over again as the patches mulled their choices.
