as the rest of us; just on a different level. She and Rora hadn’t been nearly as close these past few years as they’d been in the previous ones. They were childhood friends up until one day Bella up and left without truly any rhyme or reason other than she needed to be upstate where her family had moved to. It crushed Aurora, although she understood. A part of me always wondered if Bella had a streak of jealousy at Aurora’s happiness and new life. The air around us is thick and tension-filled and honestly, if I have any chance at relaxing tonight, I’m gonna need her to do so as well. It’s nine o’clock at night and she’s still pacing around my house cleaning for fuck’s sake. “Yeah, I think you could use one,” I stoically suggest, as I turn away and grab another glass and pour her one.
Walking up to me, she lays the rag down on the counter beside me and picks up the liquor I’ve just poured her. Taking my own glass back into my hand, she raises her own before a befuddled, yet saddened look paints her face. “Oh, Rogue, I’m sorry. That was tacky of me,” she admits, lowering her glass, “what in the world do we have to be celebrating about? I am so terribly sorry, Rogue,” she continues, but I stop her.
“Do not be sorry, Bella. None of us know what to do or what is right anymore at this moment. But what I do know is that Rora’s life and everything she was and did, is damn worthy of clinking our glasses together for. I don’t think she’d disagree one bit.” Hell, I’m not sure if it’s truly the right or wrong thing to do necessarily either, but I feel as though I’m correct in my assessment that my woman would want us to have at least one night of rest and find one moment of peace at least; although I have to admit to myself that I do feel the tiniest bit of guilt creeping in. I want to numb it; I need to numb it.
“Okay, then,” she agrees, as she lifts her glass back into the air. “To Aurora, the best and most loyal friend I’ve ever known or had.” As I raise my glass, I watch as a lone tear slides down her cheek and I feel my own eyes begin to well up.
Chapter Eight
Rogue
Nearly two months have passed since I laid Aurora to rest. Within twenty-four hours of her burial, I issued a church meeting where we all agreed that an immediate club lockdown was necessary, which lasted all of a month. It was during this time that we were able to utilize all of our resources to find our betrayer, and we did… Marx. It made no sense at first and shocked us all to the core. Of course, as our investigation continued, we learned that this was a strategic and methodical power grab on his part and he’s working with some serious scumbags. Street thugs if you will. Sure, his backing and following are known and have some street credibility, but he failed at taking me out and that was a fatal mistake on his part. And while it momentarily crippled this club as a whole, his ultimate plan failed and now he’s on the run; but not without the occasional torment that he throws our way via untraceable taunting voice messages. We’re keeping the pressure on him and his cronies, which only has them constantly running. I will find him, and I will have his head on a pike for not only taking my woman away from me, but also from the lives of my brothers and the unborn children.
The days and nights are seamless as they mostly run together when I’m not drowning myself and efforts into finding Marx. Bella is still around helping me with Harmony who has gradually started showing signs of coming around somewhat. We decided after a month of lockdown and finding out who we were up against that while we needed to be cautious at all times, we also needed to get back to some sort of normalcy and schedule; especially those of us with families. We got knocked down, but we must not show our enemy that we can’t get back up even as hard as it is; and as this club's leader, my brothers look to me for guidance and security. Although I teeter between feeling