Wild Like the Wind (Page 64)

But I was stuck on what she’d said.

Black had told me about standing the gauntlet years ago when Chew had slept with Crank’s ex-wife and Crank had demanded a vote from the brothers, wanting Chew to stand the gauntlet.

The brothers did not vote this to happen seeing as first, Crank was a fucking asshole and most of the brothers hated him and were making maneuvers to get his ass out. And second, because Crank doing that to Chew proved what a fucking asshole he was (well, some of it) because he shouldn’t call for anything that extreme to make a brother pay penance for sleeping with a woman Crank himself scraped off.

As in, legally.

He’d been the one who had dumped her and filed for divorce. Not only that, he talked trash about her any time she was brought up in a way you’d think he’d hated her, so Black nor I ever got why he’d gone balls to the wall about Chew fucking her.

“Keely?” Bev called.

My dazed eyes went to her.

Shoulders slumped, she slid into her seat.

“You hadn’t thought of that?” she asked.

“I knew that they wouldn’t be . . . wouldn’t be happy and that Hound would face that displeasure, but . . . the gauntlet?”

Bev sucked in her lips and bit them.

I didn’t know if they’d ever made anyone stand the gauntlet. It wouldn’t be something they put out there if that decision was made. That would be brothers only. It could have happened when the Club was sliding toward the hellmouth that was Crank and fighting desperately to pull themselves clear before they went into freefall. Everything was insanity back then.

But I did know what the gauntlet was.

They didn’t run it, oh no.

They stood it, or to my way of thinking, they were forced to stand it so they could be forced to withstand it.

In other words, if a brother did something that the other brothers felt he deserved to pay penance for, they didn’t pile shit on him for days, weeks, months, making him eat it until they felt he’d paid their price.

They got shit done and quick.

This was by tying that brother’s dominant hand behind his back and making him fight every single brother for a round of five minutes. There was no break for the brother doing atonement in between. Once that five minutes was done, the next brother came right in. If he went down, they pulled him up. If he became unconscious, they threw water on him until he was sentient, or at least standing, and then they went at him again.

Once the last brother threw the last punch, it was done. Amends were considered made. And all was forgiven, if not forgotten.

“They wouldn’t do that to Hound,” I said quietly.

Bev made no reply.

“Not Hound. They wouldn’t do that to Hound.”

She finally said something.

It was, “Girl.”

And that was it.

That meant she thought they’d do it.

To Hound.

“I couldn’t bear it if they did that to Hound. Not Hound. Not at all. But definitely not because of me,” I told her.

She leaned across the table toward me.

“Don’t,” she hissed.

“Beverly—”

“He’ll do it, he’d stand through it, and he won’t give a shit,” she declared.

He would.

He’d do it and he wouldn’t give that first shit.

For me.

My voice was getting higher. “I don’t care! They can’t do that to Hound because Hound is Hound.”

“And Black was Black,” she said gently.

“So?” I snapped. “They can’t see past that to see Hound’s happy? I’m happy? It has not one fucking thing to do with them, and they can’t act like they’re having a little tizzy for a day or two and then get over it?”

Her lips ticked up but she said, “Not sure any of those men have ‘a little tizzy’ in them. More like the different levels of the wrath of hellfire when they get pissed.”

“Well, they can just get over it,” I bit out.

“Keely—”

“They fucking can,” I sneered. “I swear to Christ, Bev, if they put my man through that for doing nothing but falling in love with me, I’m done with the Club. Hound will stay in it. Dutch and Jag will patch in. But I’ll be out.”

“Keely,” she whispered, blue eyes big and horrified.

“And I’ll tell each and every one of them just that if they even think about making him stand the gauntlet.”

“You need to stay out of this and you know it, babe,” she advised gravely. “It’ll be a brother thing.”

“Excuse me? The man I pick to drive his cock in me is a brother thing?” I asked sarcastically. “I don’t fucking think so.”

“Keely, you know how it is.”

“I know how it’s not going to be and that is the fact they are not going to make my man stand the gauntlet for falling in love with me. Not after all he’s given to the Club. Not after what he gave to Black. Not after how he took care of my boys. Not after all he did for me. No way. No fucking way.”

With that, on a slash of my hand, I grabbed my champagne flute, almost committing the sacrilege of spilling some Sofia, before I put it to my mouth and swallowed the whole damn thing.

When I put it down, Bev was already up, going to the fridge to get the bottle.

She filled my glass and set the bottle on the table, her gaze on me.

“You know I got your back, babe,” she said softly. “You also know that doesn’t mean dick.”

“Thanks, Beverly. And you’d be surprised. Those men love you. And it seems to me from what Hound’s been telling me, they might live their lives and do their thing and they don’t give a shit what anyone thinks but they do care what the brothers think, and from what I’ve heard, they now also care what their women think. And you’re still considered Boz’s so you have more loyalty from that Club than you think.”

She looked like she’d fallen into a weird trance.

So I called, “Beverly.”

She snapped out of it and came back into the room, her eyes clear, so clear, they were almost sharp and . . .

Fuck.

Dancing.

She swiped up her glass and lifted it toward me. “You’re right, sister. Love is in the air and fuck it. They don’t think snatch has a say? They don’t think our feelings matter? Whatever. We’ll just keep on keepin’ on, and in the end, be happy.”

I ignored the earlier look in her eyes, lifted my recharged glass and again we clinked.

She gulped hers all down.

I only drank half of mine.

She put her glass to the table, grabbed the bottle, started her refill and said, “Gotta keep up with my girl.”

I shot her a smile that I hoped wasn’t shaky and replied, “Abso-fucking-lutely.”

In the end, we got trashed.

So in the end, I had to call Hound to pick me up.

Also in the end, I nearly burst into tears when Hound showed at Bev’s door and she threw her arms around him, shoved her face in his chest and shouted, “You and Keely! This makes me so happy!” then dissolved into sobs.

I managed not to burst into tears when Hound’s arms slowly wound around her, he looked over the top of her head and raised his brows, giving me a “Please kill me” look.

It was then I had to stop myself from laughing.

Needless to say, getting in Hound’s truck with Hound, the first time I’d ever been in his truck with him alone, the first time I’d ever ridden beside him without the boys with us, and it coming to me I’d never been on the back of his bike and couldn’t until we told the brothers, I started to dive into my head.