forward. He and Ethan stood behind her, with Zeke and Rafe at the back of the room. There were a few of the Diamond Kings outside, waiting to be called in should things get rowdy. And they would be hauling away the traitor, too. No one else could stomach the sort of punishment that suited the crime, but even Brett wouldn’t be satisfied unless consequences were properly doled out.
“We won’t ask you to change who you are,” Rocky told them. “We only ask that you uphold our morals. From what we’ve been told, you’re right there with us anyway.”
Kent cleared his throat, standing up. “So, if this goes through, what’s your role in everything going forward?” he asked Brett. “I mean, you’ve done a great job here, and I don’t think you deserve to be pushed aside.”
“Is that really how you feel, Kent?” she asked, venom seeping from between her teeth. “Because it’s my understanding that you’re the reason my brother is dead, and that we’re broke. You’re the reason that all of this happened to us.” She stepped forward with her hands on her hips, loathing him in that moment. “You stood up for me, made me think Dennis was the problem here, when all along you were the sellout.”
Kent scoffed, the rest of the club tensing and several of them looking shocked and appalled. “You’re not serious.”
“Absolutely fucking serious,” she spat. “The Dirty Shadows tried to buy out the club, and when Martin turned them down, you went behind his back and forged his signature on the contract, taking the money.”
Dennis was on his feet. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Ethan stepped up and put a hand out to stop him. “I’ll tell you what he was thinking. He was thinking that four hundred G’s would go a long way at the race track. Looks like his mother’s house was just paid off, and he bought a new bike, too.”
“And Martin is dead because he got money from loan sharks to pay it back, trying to avoid a crisis,” Brett added. “You betrayed your president, my brother, and got him killed trying to fix what you fucked up.”
“Is that true?” Dennis asked, the rest of the group restless and waiting for confirmation.
Kent looked trapped, and Brett couldn’t find a molecule within her being to care how he felt. “Now, just a minute. I was trying to save the club. Martin turned down an opportunity to grow, to have money.”
“And you blew every penny of it!” Ethan shouted.
“Your president made that decision for a reason,” Brett told him in a deceptively quiet voice. She was on the verge of exploding and could barely contain her rage. “The Dirty Shadows are known for all sorts of bad business, and he didn’t want any of you involved in that bullshit. You now owe six different loan sharks, all of whom are out for blood.”
His eyes widened. “You can’t put all that on me.”
“Like hell!” Dennis exploded and went for his throat. Ethan grabbed him, and the rest of the Devil’s Flames stepped between the Silver Suns and Kent, as the Diamond Kings came in. Dylan wore a predatory, sadistic smile, and for the first time, Brett understood that lust for blood. She could almost taste the copper in her mouth, so hungry was she for vengeance. But that was Dylan’s place, which was why he’d been called in.
“Seems like you’ve got a dilemma, brother,” Dylan said, getting in Kent’s face as two of his men restrained him. He struggled for a moment, but Brett watched the sweat or sheer terror break out on his forehead as he stilled. “Now, there are a couple of ways we can handle this, but whatever way you cut it, there’s going to be pain.”
“Come on, man, there’s got to be a way to work this out,” Kent gasped, panic in his voice now.
“Oh, of course. But I just footed your bill to those loan sharks, which included a fifty percent interest charge. So, by my calculation, you owe me over half a million dollars. I intend to take some of that in flesh and some in labor. How much of each depends on just how high your pain tolerance is.”
Brett winced internally but didn’t object. When Dylan had offered to take the debt as a show of alliance, and then work Kent to the bone rather than actually killing him, Brett had been on board. The partnership with the Devil’s Flames brought about a lot