The clubhouse felt different when we walked in. Usually the place buzzed with noise, music, laughter, bottles clinking, someone yelling over a pool game. Tonight it felt tight. Quiet in that dangerous way that meant everyone already knew something was wrong. Word traveled fast in the club. Tank looked up from the bar when we came in.
"What the hell happened?" he asked.
Kong rubbed the back of his neck. "Long story."
Click didn't slow down. "Get the brothers. We're calling church."
Thirty seconds later, Iron, the president, called church. He already knew what happened. Of course Shapeakeare called him on the way home.
Tank's eyebrows lifted slightly, but he nodded and headed for the hallway. Within minutes patched members started filing into the back room. Chairs scraped across the floor as the brothers took their seats around the battered table.
At the head sat the President. He leaned back in his chair, arms folded, studying us like he was already trying to read the problem before anyone spoke. Click dropped into a chair. I stayed standing. The room went silent.
The Prez's voice was calm when he finally spoke.
"Someone wants to explain why my club just got thrown out of a diner at gunpoint?"
Kong snorted. "You're gonna love this one."
Click leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table.
"We found Eden."
The room froze. Every single brother in that room knew that name. Iron's head snapped up.
"Bullshit."
"I wish it was," Click said quietly.
My chest tightened just hearing her name out loud again. The Prez's gaze moved to me.
"Cash?"
I swallowed.
"She's alive and not well." The words still didn't feel real.
Three years of thinking she disappeared… and suddenly she's standing in a diner pouring coffee. Murmurs rippled around the table.
Tank frowned. "Then why the hell didn't she come home?"
"That's the problem," Click said.
The room quieted again. Click's jaw tightened. He was about to tell them how confused we were.
"She thinks we tried to kill her." The silence that followed was heavier than anything that had come before. The Prez's chair creaked as he slowly leaned forward.
"I'm gonna need you to repeat that."
Click didn't look away.
"She looked at us like we were the men who attacked her."
My fists clenched.
"I was unaware of her attack." Iron grunted. He protects his own.
"Neither was I." Click pointed out.
"She's wrong," I snapped.
The Prez held up a hand before the room could explode.
"What men?"
Click looked around the table.
"She said we sent them."
A few brothers started cursing under their breath. Tank shook his head slowly.
"She knows our rules."
And everyone in the room did know them. One of the biggest. You don't harm an old lady. And Eden had been more than that. She'd been my old lady. Which made her…
The Prez said it out loud.
"She's part of the club family."
Click nodded once.
"Exactly."
The Prez's eyes hardened.
"Which means if someone laid a hand on her, we handle it."
He looked straight at me.
"Start from the beginning."
I took a breath and told them everything. I told him about the night at the clubhouse and the stripper. Waking up the next morning and the hangover. I explained how nothing was wrong with the apartment except for the broken glass and the blood. He knew the rest with what happened to Click.
Then there was dinner today at the diner. I could not get her to scream. She ran like we were monsters. By the time I finished, the room had gone deadly quiet. Tank spoke first.
"You're telling me someone attacked her… and made her believe we ordered it?"
Click nodded slowly.
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
The Prez leaned back again, thinking.Finally he said the words every man in the room was already thinking.
"That means someone is setting up this club. Specifically you and Click." I said
A low rumble of anger spread through the brothers. The Prez's gaze moved around the table.
"We will find out who. And why."
He looked at me again.
"And if anyone touched that girl…" His voice dropped into something cold. "…they're going to wish they hadn't."
But the question that haunted the room was one no one said out loud. If the club didn't attack Eden…
Then who the hell did?