Soul of a Rebel: Rebel Aces MC Part 2 Read online

  “And he’s been riding for years,” Jekyll added.

  “Exactly. We’ve had him at parties.” Hyde shrugged. “I’d talk to him about it.”

  “I’d second Austin.” I sluggishly moved back to my seat. “Well,” I looked at the twins, “third.”

  Ward eyed me cautiously, then nodded again. “Austin is a solid choice. Tank, talk to him later and see if he’d even be interested. Next church, we’ll vote on it.”

  After asking if anyone else had anything, which was met with head shakes and murmurs of no, he dismissed us with a bang of the gavel.

  “You heading back to the hospital?” Ward asked me while everyone filed out of the room.

  I nodded, rubbing my hand over my face. “Yup.”

  Like that was even a question.

  After double-checking stuff at the clubhouse, the two of us took off for the hospital as if we were on autopilot. Part of me felt guilty—a small part—for not being concerned about club business outside of church, but my head wasn’t in it. It couldn’t be. Not while Lana was still in a coma, with her future and well-being up in the air.

  We got back to the room without issue to find Crow, Mary, Leah, and Silver occupying various seats. Leah still sat next to Lana, clutching her hand.

  I walked immediately to the other side of the bed.

  Ward stepped over to his old lady and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. “How are you feeling, baby,” he murmured, his arms wrapped around her.

  “All right.” She leaned back into her man and looked over at me. There was a sad smile on her face as I took Lana’s hand and squeezed it gently to let her know I was there.

  I couldn’t lie. I was happy as fuck for my best friend and his woman, but it killed me a little inside to see how good they were together. Especially at that moment.

  I was fucking human. I couldn’t help but be jealous.

  It wasn’t a hidden fact that I had wanted to make Lana mine for years, and she had fought me tooth and nail over it. Every time I felt like we had made progress, we would take ten steps back to a fucked-up square one. It didn’t seem to matter how many times we ended up in bed together. Or the moments we shared with one another where we bared our souls and threw caution to the wind. Lana’s walls were reinforced, concrete surrounding steel—at least, that’s how it felt sometimes. Her attitude toward me could change from day to day. Despite knowing, deep down, that she felt the same way as I did, the stubborn woman wouldn’t give in to what we both clearly wanted.

  But fuck if I was going to let it continue after all this got settled.

  No. Once she was awake and recovered, I would make this woman mine. For good.

  She just needed to wake up. Or else, I didn’t think I would survive.

  CHAPTER TWO

  JOKER

  I woke suddenly, jerked my head off my arms, and winced at the crick in my neck. Where the hell was I? My eyes adjusted to the bright white room and focused on the hospital bed where I had just been resting my upper half, and the harsh reality set in.

  I must have fallen asleep, hunched over, sitting in a hard, uncomfortable chair next to Lana’s bed. My gaze settled on her, and my stomach lurched. She was still lying there.

  Too still. Too pale. Too lifeless.

  My heart—what was left of my mangled, black heart—throbbed in my chest. I had been dreaming of her. I almost smiled—almost—as I recalled what a lively, brazen, hilarious badass she’d been when we first met. At fourteen, Lana had been one of a kind. There was no one like her. And the years hadn’t changed that one bit.

  From the first day I had met her back in high school, when she had practically thrust herself into my life, I’d been completely taken with the most vibrant, outgoing girl I had ever met. She hadn’t balked when I wouldn’t tell her my real first name—hell, she’d even come up with the nickname Master Tate instead because I went by my last name. And Lana had pushed me to be better. She forged a document to get me free lunch when my sperm donor refused to send me with anything. Made me sit with her during breaks. Forced me to make friendships when I was an angry, bitter kid who just wanted to be left alone.

  Hell, she got me excited to go to school.

  Lana had never made me feel like an idiot or the pathetic poor kid who no one liked. She had liked me. With her, I felt I belonged somewhere. And as the years have gone by, it became more and more clear that where I belonged was where she was.

  Bowing my head, I pressed her hand to my forehead. She was one of a kind, a breath of fresh air in this fucked up world. She couldn’t fucking leave me. And when she woke up, she couldn’t be damaged. She had to be just as I remembered her—the Lana I knew so well. And the girl I fucking loved so much.

  I stared down at her face again. It was hard, but I forced myself to look. She was still my Lana, my Harley. While I gazed at her peaceful face, I imagined what she always looked like. Those caramel eyes that sparkled when she told a joke, or darkened when she was turned on. That smile—fuck, what I wouldn’t give to see that smile again—that just about lit up any room she was in. The beautiful, rosy tint that appeared on her cheeks during sex, or when she was pissed off—for some reason, the fact that it happened in both situations turned me on way more than it should. Her nose would crinkle when I told a bad joke. Her eyebrows, the most expressive feature on her face, that constantly gave away what she was thinking. Hell, all of her expressions gave her away. If her mouth didn’t say it, her face sure as hell would.

  Footsteps on the linoleum behind me snapped me out of my thoughts. Ward, Crow, and Mary entered the room carrying bags of food. Leah was fast asleep in the cot they had set up on the other side of the room, since so many of us insisted on staying at night.

  Ward nodded to me as he walked over to his woman. Crow took a seat by the window, and Mary approached.

  “We brought food back. I don’t know the last time you ate, so you should have something.” Leaning down, the older woman pressed a kiss to my hair, which had to be matted and smell like shit by now.

  I just gave her a nod, forcing a small smile, which she returned. Mary Gibson was the only mother figure I ever had, and she was one of the only reasons I wasn’t in jail or worse, dead. When I became friends with Lana and Leah, then later Ward, I hadn’t expected the family who had taken the twins and Eddie in to bring me into their fold, too. But that was the Gibsons—specifically, Mary. Crow seemed to follow along with his wife, but that family had done so much for people who hadn’t been born into their bloodline. We all certainly owed our lives to them.

  “Thanks, Mare,” I mumbled as she set a few wrapped burgers and fries on the rolling tray next to me along with a soda. The smell of the McDonald’s hit my nose. Fuck, I was hungry. I sat back and dug into a Double Quarter Pounder.

  Quiet fell over the room except for chewing and rustling wrappers and the low murmur and beeping of the machines. We all finished our food quickly. I scarfed mine down, but the ladies in the room were a little slower and, uh, human like.

  “Boys,” Crow’s deep rumble of a voice cut through the silence. We focused on him, and he stood, tipping his head toward the door. “A word? Club business.”

  For years, Crow had been my president. Even with Ward now in charge, it still was instinctual to follow the older man’s orders. Clearly, it was for both Ward and me because we followed him out and into the hall, where we tucked into an alcove away from any wandering eyes or prying ears.

  Without hesitation, Crow cut right to the chase. “I’m coming back, full time.” He spoke matter-of-factly, assuring us there was no question to this statement. He was serious.

  “What? Dad, no,” Ward protested—either not hearing or not caring about the finality of his father’s words. “You retired for a reason—health reasons. This is the worst time for you to come back.”

  The taller, broader man shook his head, crossing his arms. “It’s exactly the time you need me. I’m not looking to take over. I’m not even looking to go on runs,
but you need numbers. You need guys that are experienced from dealing with Los Chingados the first time around.”

  That statement caught my attention, and I raised an eyebrow. “Who else is looking to come back?”

  “Dozer, Jack-Jack, and Eagle.”

  Ward let out a breath. This was kind of a big deal—four guys coming out of retirement. Eagle was Tank’s dad, and the other two had been former officers for years with Crow. The guys were in their fifties and sixties now and had been around since the chapter started. It would be an asset having them back, but I could almost read Ward’s mind. In his eyes, having four old timers returning mere months into his presidency would look like he couldn’t handle the club.

  His father seemed to understand it, as well, and he didn’t waste time assuring his son. “I know how it looks, son, but this has nothing to do with your leadership. You’ve got assholes coming at you from all sides. We’re just here to help protect our club, our families.”

  Without him coming out and saying it, I could also see what Crow was thinking. The fight with Los Chingados was a fight that had started with him. They’d harmed two girls he considered his daughters. He had been there the night of the murders. Gunned down a number of their men. Killed the son of their leader. There was no way he was going to sit idly by and let younger men take care of it.

  That wasn’t what Crow was like. He was a family man, took care of his own. And even beyond that.

  “Fine,” Ward acquiesced, “not that you were going to take no for an answer. We gotta vote on it, though.”

  Crow nodded once, firmly. “I know how it works. I wouldn’t want special treatment. You let me know what the brothers say.” He turned and scrutinized me for a moment then softened somewhat. “You doin’ okay, Joke?”

  For a moment, I was silent. I could have lied, sure, but Crow had always managed to get the truth out of me. When he met me over a decade ago, he had seen right through my act and knew I was just a scared, broken kid with nowhere else to go. I couldn’t lie to him, so I didn’t bother. “Nope. Doin’ pretty shitty, actually.”

  He didn’t seem surprised. Crow nodded and reached out to clasp me hard on the shoulder. “She’ll pull through. This ain’t gonna take her down.” He looked to Ward. “Neither of them. Our girls are fighters.”

  With that, he stepped past us and headed back into the room.

  What he said hit me like a runaway freight train. They were fighters. Lana was the toughest chick I knew, despite everything she’d gone through. She was going to kick this brain trauma’s ass and wake up swinging, ready to take down the people who had put her in that hospital bed.

  And I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she wouldn’t take no for an answer when we inevitably had to tell her to let us handle it.

  “You think we’re doing the right thing?” Ward’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Bringing all those guys into this mess?”

  Normally, a president didn’t voice his doubts much, and Ward wasn’t one to question himself, but I understood what was going through his head. He was taking the weight of this shitstorm on himself, and after all, this was the first big situation he had to handle as our leader.

  “We need them,” I answered simply. “We need numbers. They know what’s going on, know what they’re getting into. We’re being upfront with them all.”

  Ward nodded, rubbing his beard in thought. “I just…fuck. All these new families to worry about…”

  “You can’t think about that, man. It’s the life we all chose. We’ll protect ‘em like we always do.”

  That was the right thing to say, wasn’t it? But at the same time, even I doubted my words. We were supposed to protect Leah and Lana—especially the two of us—but look where they were. I was still beating myself up for letting Lana get hurt, and I knew Ward was doing the same for both her and Leah.

  “Yeah,” he finally said, dragging the word out. “You gotta get some rest, brother.” When I opened my mouth to protest, he held his hand up. “I’m gonna take Leah home to shower and rest in a real bed, if she can sleep more. Take the cot. You’re not gonna do anyone any favors running on empty for as long as you’ve been.”

  The asshole knew me well enough to know I hadn’t slept more than a few hours in days. “Fine.” I reached into the back pocket of my jeans, pulled out my pack of cigarettes, and plucked one, sticking it in my mouth. “I gotta smoke first, then I’ll sleep.”

  Ward nodded. “Catch you later, brother. We’ll be back in a few hours.”

  Once outside, I lit up and stood off to the side, against the wall, where no one could bother me. I needed fresh air and a moment away from the incessant noises from the machines reminding me of Lana’s condition. But it wasn’t exactly a moment’s peace—my mind made sure of that. It never shut up, and all I could think about was how long it was going to take her to wake up. The probability of there being long lasting brain damage. How close she had come to losing too much oxygen to the brain. How close we had come to losing her.

  Where were Ortiz and his sister, and how long would it take for me to get my hands on them? If they had been so intent on causing permanent damage, why hadn’t they just finished the job?

  All these questions made it feel like a fucking fifty-pound weight perched on my shoulders, practically causing me to hunch over. We had no fucking answers before; now it was even worse.

  Where were the rest of those pieces of shit hiding? When would they strike next? And who would be their next victim?

  I was the sergeant at arms. I was responsible for the security and safety of the members and their families. All of this—all of it—landed on me.

  I wouldn’t rest until this threat, and every single other one, was taken out.

  It just had to start with the two people who had nearly taken the love of my life from me.

  CHAPTER THREE

  JOKER

  It had been two days since the incident, and we weren’t any closer to finding the assholes responsible than we were yesterday. It was getting to me. Bad.

  Even though he still looked exhausted, Ward started church five minutes early, wasting no time in getting right to things. Every single one of us was early, so there really wasn’t much use in waiting to start anyway.

  “I spoke with Crow yesterday. He wants to patch back in, full time. So do Eagle, Jack-Jack, and Dozer. All four are still capable of riding and carrying out the duties of the club. As current retired members, they are aware of what is going on and are prepared to take on everything that the club is currently involved in. If we vote in favor of patching back in, they will give this month’s dues, report to every full church, and be put into watch rotations immediately. Understood?”

  After we all murmured our understanding, Ward started the vote.

  It was unanimous. Ward banged his gavel and was on to the next business matter. “How are we with any of the other prospective patch-ins?”

  “Yeti is currently on his way in from Montana. He’s looking to settle back in the area, so it’s likely he’ll be permanent. For now, at least,” Tank added. “Spoke with Vegas already, and Snake is willing to send over five patches and one prospect. He’s supposed to email me the info by tonight so we can go over it.”

  Bear leaned forward. “Also talked to Damage, and he and Ariel are looking to move back as long as she can get a job at the hospital.”

  “That’s good,” Ward nodded. “We’ll have in-house medical back. That’ll make things a hell of a lot easier.”

  I grunted my agreement. I had been silent the entire time, taking it all in, but I didn’t have anything to add. At least this time, I was more aware, but I was basically useless to my club. It only made it worse that I was completely powerless and hopeless when it came to Lana. She was still lying there in that hospital room, and I wasn’t with her. This couldn’t be over fast enough.

  “Craig Brighton’s background check came back completely clean, every time,” Jekyll said. “Both he and Austin are interested i
n prospecting.”

  Hyde nodded. “And my brother and I are willing to sponsor each of them.”

  Under different circumstances, I’d have stepped up to sponsor Austin, but I just wasn’t at all up to the task. As it was, I felt bad enough that I hadn’t spoken to him about prospecting before this, but I knew he’d be in good hands.

  “Perfect. Now, we vote.” Austin received a unanimous vote in favor, and though a few did express concern over Brighton due to how short of a time he had been around the club, he ended up being voted in as well.

  Ward smacked his palm against the table. “Excellent. Joke, we’ll need two cuts with patches.”

  I nodded. “Hopefully we’ve got one big enough for Brighton’s huge ass.”

  The guys laughed. At least I could still manage some jokes.

  If anything important was said in the rest of the meeting, I hadn’t heard it. I’d just get the Cliffnotes from Ward later if I missed anything I needed to know. My mind, it just wasn’t in it. I hadn’t been this unfocused in years; I wanted to kick my own ass for it, but I couldn’t help myself. Physically, I was here, but the rest of me was back in that hospital room.

  There were a few different conversations going on as we filed out of the room. Desperate for a smoke, I headed toward the front doors for one before I left.

  They opened suddenly, and our prospect Nicky rushed through.

  “Shit, where’s the fire?” I muttered, but he just ran past me, stopping in front of Ward.

  “Pres, a Detective Tate is at the gate, and he wants to speak with you?”

  I froze. The entire room did the same. Complete silence took hold as Nicky looked around frantically, trying to figure out what was going on. “Pres?”

  Before Ward had a chance to reply, I was on the move. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!”

  “Joke!” My name was called from behind me, various brothers warning me to slow down, but I didn’t stop.