Page 44 of Crush's Fall

“Motherfucking piece of shit gods. What good are they if—”

“Okay!” Pinky blurted, then her hand was over Crush’s mouth, and she was giving them a fake smile. “Thanks for the backup.”

Crush mumbled, “I will fuck you up for that, Pinks.”

Pinky just rolled her eyes.

“Anyway,” Axle cut in, probably to keep Crush from killing all of them. She felt like doing just that. Her emotions were out of control, and she wasn’t sure exactly what sparked it, but enough was going on in her life that there was a laundry list of things it could be. While she mentally dealt with that, Axle continued, “We appreciate your help in all of this. If you need anything from us, give Crush or me a call. But please understand that we have a lot of deep shit we’re dealing with right now and could use some privacy in that.”

Lira inclined her head, sadness in her eyes. “As are we. Understood.”

Crush swatted Pinky’s hand away and shot her a glare. Without another word, Axle and Crush led their clubs off of the field and back to their bikes.

It was one thing to let the champions help in a crisis, but the Howlers and the Claws closed ranks when it came to dealing with death in the family. It would be handled and processed in the privacy of their ranks. Their dead deserved the respect, and they would get it, even Riles.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Crush

Thetwodaysafterthe war were a whirlwind of emotion and activity for not only Crush, but every member of her club family. On top of helping the injured and making sure everyone had everything they needed, they were hit with losses causing grief that wouldn’t soon fade.

Axle’s sister-in-law, Georgia was probably the hardest loss to take, because she wasn’t a member of one of the clubs and hadn’t taken any part in the feud between them and the Hell’s Dogs. She was an innocent bystander, who just happened to be connected to Axle, and the Hell’s Dogs took her out in an attempt to incite the Howlers and the Claws into battle. It worked. Her death made it impossible to resolve anything without bloodshed, and a lot of it.

Crush couldn’t imagine the pain that Georgia’s mate, Emerson, was in. Having to watch as his mate was blown up and not being able to do anything to stop it had to be the toughest thing a person could go through. He and Georgia had only been married for weeks. They were young, not even out of their teen years, and had just started planning a life together.

She knew Axle was worried about Emerson, too. It wasn’t unknown for the surviving mate to take their own life to avoid feeling the excruciating pain of having to live without their other half. Everyone in both clubs and the Ol’ Ladies were not only keeping an eye on him but were also keeping him close.

On top of that, they lost Dragon’s dad, Griff, a member of the retired chapter. Crush knew Griff went out in a way he would have wanted to go — protecting his son — but that didn’t make the loss easier to take, especially for Dragon and his sister, Darlin’.

They also lost three Tiger’s Claw MC members — Ivy, Lace, and Lash. Crush was taking those losses, especially Ivy and Lash’s, as a personal failure. Her mind circled around to the same stuff it had been telling her since the day of the war. She wasn’t there in battle to save them. Having been injected with that fucking anti-shifting drug, she was held back at the compound to keep her club sisters from being distracted during battle. She couldn’t help but wonder if she would have been the difference to save them had she been fighting. She didn’t bother mentioning that to her club sisters or Axle, because she knew how they would respond. They would have told her there was nothing she could have done, and it wasn’t her fault, but that was just platitudes.

While still grieving, Crush and Axle had to meet with the mayor of Warden’s Pass to address the questions and concerns the town no doubt had after finding out about the existence of shifters. They decided it was best to keep the meeting as private as possible, so Axle arranged the meeting to happen at Milhawk Investigations. Hawkin was nice enough to allow them the use of one of his conference rooms for the meeting, no doubt in an effort to stave off any more conflict in the town that would happen if a plan wasn’t formed and executed quickly.

During the talk, they agreed to a town hall gathering at the high school, where Axle would address the town about shifters and explain how they weren’t a danger to the community. It grated on Crush’s nerves that they would have to explain it after shifters had been a part of the community of Warden’s Pass for decades and had never been a problem. If she managed to endure the town hall without taking the head off any of the citizens of the town, she would consider that a win.

When Crush and Axle returned to the compound, they gathered the able-bodied members in the clubhouse and went over what happened during the meeting with the mayor and the plan for the town hall meeting at the high school.

The Howlers and the Claws were a united front on how they wanted to handle addressing it with the community. To the rest of the world, they would always be a united front. If there were disagreements, they handled them internally and didn’t let that leak to the outside world.

After the explanations, Crush walked over and pulled a box out from behind the bar. It took a lot of money to get the package overnighted, but it was necessary, in her opinion.

Kisy didn’t have to go head-to-head with their kidnappers. She didn’t have to put her neck out there for Crush and Pixie, but she did it without a moment’s hesitation. In Crush’s opinion, Kisy showed more loyalty to the clubs and strength in one day than most prospects do in a year.

As she opened the box, Crush said, “There is someone in this room who went above and beyond what is expected of someone who is not patched into the clubs. She put herself in danger to protect us and our family.” Crush turned and looked over at Kisy. “The point of prospecting is to prove you can be trusted. It’s to prove you will put the club above yourself. It’s to prove you would do anything to protect the club and our family. You’ve already done that. So give me your prospect cut.”

Looking a bit confused, Kisy stood and made her way across the room to where Crush was standing. She removed the prospect cut she received the day before and handed it over.

Crush laid it on the bar and reached into the box. She pulled out a new leather cut with the Tiger’s Claw MC colors on the back and a member patch on the front and handed it to Kisy. “YourKisypatch is on order, but I didn’t want to make you wait for your cut since you have more than earned it. If you still want to be in the Claws, put that cut on.”

Kisy turned and looked at Dragon, and he gave her a slight nod. Crush wasn’t sure how Dragon would react to her patching Kisy in, but she was happy to see that he was approving. He may not be completely happy about it, but it was obvious he would agree to anything that made Kisy happy. He was a man of worth, even if he was able to scare the shit out of the devil.

With a giant grin on Kisy’s face and tears in her eyes, she slid that cut on her shoulders. The second the leather settled, the room erupted into cheers and Dragon scooped her up in his arms. He pressed his lips to hers as he slowly twirled her around in a move that was so unlike him that Kisy broke the kiss to laugh.

Lucifer

Leaning against the entryway for the cafeteria from the main room of the clubhouse, Lucifer watched as Crush gave the cut to Kisy. While the rest of the people in the room had their attention on Kisy and Dragon, his gaze stayed locked on Crush.

The smile that grew on her face was stunning, but it was a veil over the sorrow he knew she was feeling. She didn’t have to voice it for him to know that she was experiencing not only grief but also guilt, especially for the loss of Ivy and Lash. The members of her club were sisters to her, and she was their leader, their protector. She would feel a great sadness and responsibility for their suffering.

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