Page 72 of Cougar

My blood runs cold. Fuck. This. Shit. It’s time I resolve this, once and for fucking all.

He had Mallory, which means he shot them. He’s the reason Storm is brain-dead, and our family will be pulling the plug. Storm is more than my VP. He’s the man who helped me come to terms with who I am and accepted me, hands down, with no questions asked, while I struggled with who I am. With who I love.

I print the screenshots I took. I then grab the truck keys and haul ass down to the club’s bar on Main Street. While we’ve been dealing with everything in our lives, our staff have kept everything running. I couldn’t be more thankful for the loyal souls we still have around us.

I head in and see him sitting at the bar. He’s always here. While I guessed at his whereabouts, I was positive this was where he’d be. Old habits die hard, I guess. I come up beside him and don’t bother to sit down. I need him to come with me, but not let him know I’m on to him.

“Oh, Knuckles, you scared me. What’s going on?” He asks, taking a pull from his beer, not meeting my eye.

“Shits gone down. We need all hands on this. Since I was in town, I said I’d swing by and grab you while making sure we’re good here before we head out. Cowboy called a meeting with the family, MC, and ranch hands.” I say, my face is set in stone. No expressions are showing.

I have to work hard to keep the fire out of my eyes.

“Oh, shit. What the fuck happened to you? Are you okay?”

I shake my head at him, “I am going to need to pull all the wires and re-work the whole system. I’m sure Cowboy is going to talk to all of us about a plan of action. I just hope he doesn’t drop my ass for all of this. He already got his frustration out on me once tonight when I said the cameras were down.” I wince, trying to explain away the bruises I have.

“Shit.”

“Ya, but I get it,”

I tell him.

“Better you than me,” he laughs, trying to bring some humor. “Is everyone else okay?” I’ll give it to him. He’s playing this off as if he actually cares and doesn’t know what he did. “Do you need to go to the big house or something?” he asks, standing up, dusting off his hands on his pants.

“No, everyone is not okay. Someone tried to kill Judge and Storm,” I say, and his eyes bug out of his head. “We’re heading to the barn since Cowboy wants everyone to come in. You can ride with me. We need to work out help for everyone. They are going to need round-the-clock help.” I explain, holding my arm out and guiding him out the door of the bar.

“What do you mean? What happened?” His acting chops are top-notch. He pretends he doesn’t know, really fucking well.

“Not here. Get in the truck, and I’ll explain.” Without another word, he gets into the truck, and I pull out in a flash, taking us out of town. I know how I want this to go down. I know I may get taken to the ring again for it, but I don’t care. I have the proof. It’s all I need. Am I taking a kill away from my brothers? Yeah, probably. Do I care? Not one bit. I am going to do this my way before I sleep for the next three years. Pray this was all a bad dream. He waits until we hit the outskirts of town before talking again.

“So,” he coughs, “is whatever is going on why he snapped at you over the cameras?” I nod and he replies, “Prez is off the rails.”

“I mean, his dad and uncle were almost killed, and we don’t know who did it. I understand someone needed to be the punching bag.” I shrug. I take a quick glance at him and see his face is still schooled, but his body language is telling me another story. His hands are running up and down his thighs, and his foot is bouncing with pent-up nerves.

“None of the cameras were working. I don’t know what happened for sure. But Elvira walked into Cowboy’s and found them in a bloody pile. She called 9-1-1, and they got there just in time, I guess.” I say, giving him the facts, I have.

“The cameras have been glitching everywhere. What is going on?” he asks, seeming to relax a little.

“I don’t fucking know,” I say, letting a little anger get through. But in the right place. I don’t say anything else as I punch in my code and pull up to the barn. All the bikes are here. It looks like my ruse seems plausible.

We get out of the truck, I signal for him to go first, he slides open the barn door, and all conversations stop. All eyes are on us as we walk into the barn. Before anyone can say anything, I take out my gun from my cut and pull the trigger. Effectively blowing the back of his head clean off his body. He drops, and no one says anything. Their jaws are hanging open as I pull the papers I printed from my back pocket and throw them out over his body. All the proof that Bigfoot wasn’t working alone. He had our prospect on his team the whole time.

I don’t wait for them to react. I turn and leave. I head to the hospital so I can say goodbye. I’m quick. I cry. I thanked him for seeing the real me even when I couldn’t. I kiss his forehead, and with one last look, I walk away from my VP.

Once home, I glance at Whit’s door before locking myself inside. I wrap myself up in my blankets with all my cats and close my eyes. My family is now safe, but at what expense to me?

Thirty One

Cougar

The past forty-eight hours, probably more, I don’t even know, have been something else. We were able to push back the time for pulling the plug on Storm for another day. The original time limit that Elvira put on it wasn’t fair to any of us who love him. Cowboy and she had a huge fight about it. He had told her that he didn’t want to keep him on the machines forever. He only wanted to keep him on them for another couple of days so everyone had the chance to say goodbye. We aren’t the only ones affected by this. His bike shop employees, the ranch hands, and people in town. He’s been an important part of this place for a while. Thankfully, she agreed to a week. That’s it.

But I don’t know if the fight Cowboy had is anything compared to Knuckles walking in with our prospect, blowing his brains out, and leaving. I force my jaw shut as I look at Prez and all of my brothers.

“What the fuck? I mean, what the actual fuck!” Turd shouts out.

“There’s gotta be a reason, right? There has to be,” Zombie chimes in.

---