Chapter 3

Max

I sit in my seat at church, located to the left of Austin. The long oval red oak table proudly presents the emblem of our club. The death symbol holding his usual scythe along with a shield. Under the emblem are the words Nightmare Warriors MC in black bold letters. We have only been in church a few moments and are still waiting on a few brothers to join us, but judging my Austin's nervous behavior, I can tell something is defiantly wrong. The thought worries me. This club doesn't need any more bullshit.

"That everyone?" Austin calls out and all the brothers looks around to make sure no one is missing.

On average there are at least twenty members in this chapter, but we recently lost two members that decided to go nomad. Burner and Loyal are now somewhere in the Nevada area.

"Alright let's get started." He begins once everyone confirms they are here. "Got a call from Timmons a few hours ago. Dipp was arrested yesterday."

The whole club begins to immediately look around for our large cranky member. Dipp is an old timer. Came in a few years after my dad started the club. He is one of the ones that took a while to adjust to the new ways we were doing things but eventually understood us not wanting to be in the drug business anymore. Last year, after everything happened to Candice, confirmed it for the six foot four, three-hundred-pound bastard.

Dipp is one of those guys that never needs anything. He is fine having a woman on her knees in front of him, a whiskey in one hand, and a beer in the other. He hardly comes out to any of the club functions unless it has to do with kids. For some reason that is the only thing the asshole cares for more than himself. Don't know much about his past, but know he lost his little girl to cancer years ago.

"What were the charges?" Chance calls out. Ever the series one.

Chance was patched in a couple of years ago. I had just gotten out and was in a bad way. Austin brought Chance in and something told me the man came with a past that could lead to shit stirring in the club. Once I brought it to Austin's attention he told me he already checked out his background and Chance was safe. I didn't believe him, my brother had a way of lying that only I knew about, but I trusted him. I always would.

"Possession of ecstasy." Austin answers dragging me from my thoughts.

"What the fuck? What the hell did he have on him? Dipp doesn't do drugs." I yell out.

Despite Dipp's name, he never even touched drugs in his life. The man doesn't put anything in his body beside liquor and that could kill him. He got his name for how gullible he is. We once told him that the tooth fairy was real but instead of leaving cash, she tries to steal more of your teeth. Fucker carried a gun with him to bed for a month.

"Exactly. He doesn't, and even if he did, we have never sold fuckin' ecstasy. Too many kids using that shit to ever cover ourselves. So I want to know why the fuck Dipp would mess with that shit, or."

"Someone set him up." Shane finishes his thoughts.

"Hasn't our club already been through this?" I say crossing my arms.

"Yep. Apparently we aren't allowed to rest for more than five minutes." Austin says rubbing his face with his hands. "So I called this meeting because of Dipp being released tomorrow. I need someone to go and pick him up, and when they do. I want ears and eyes out. Whoever set his ass up, will most likely be watchin'." A few brothers nod their heads in agreement.

"So, who wants to pick him up?"

The room remains silent and I almost laugh at the way everyone around me looks like a kid at a dentist office. I don't necessarily blame them. Not only do you have to go inside a jail to pick someone up, but to listen to that oaf complain for an hour about how he was set up, something we already figured out, will be annoying on its own.

"Don't everyone jump up at once." I joke then look over at Austin to see if he wants me to take this one. We have always had a way with communicating without actual words. Mom hated it, and now Candice, Austin's old lady, does too.

Austin shakes his head at me, then looks over to Miles. "Miles, you and Dom take this one. Torque you go with them too. See if you see anything out of ordinary but do not make a fuckin' scene and don't let Dipp. He's already going to be coming out there ranting and raving and the last thing we need is someone getting the jump on us. Get him, then get gone. Message me as soon as he gets here. No one talk to him without me."

With the nod of a few heads and a yes sir from Miles. The meeting is adjourned. Austin indicates for me to wait for him after all the brothers leave and I nod my head. I know he is my president but something tells me my brother is the one I am about to hear from. Things have been different for me since last year. I thought I was handling my PTSD well, until I nearly strangled his girlfriend.

A few minutes later, all the brothers are out, and Austin walks over to me while crossing his arms. I almost smirk at his stance but think better of it. He has a lot going on in his head right now.

"You look like dad." I say pointing at his body.

"That a compliment?"

"Fuck no. I hated when he did the dad stance before telling me to make sure I wrap it up before soaking it in."

Austin laughs and sits down next to me, arms still crossed. "Fuck, I forgot all about dad doing that. Remember his random train of thoughts. Like never leave glass plates out when an enemy is coming over?"

This time I join him in l the laugh and when we catch our breaths I lean my neck back and look at the ceiling.

"I fuckin' miss him."

"Me too."

"He would be ashamed of us right about now. We haven't been out to see him in some time."

"Yeah, I know. Mom mentioned it the other day too."

"You saw mom without me?" I jerk my neck back up and stare daggers at him. I fuckin' hate when he sees mom without me. She always make him those cookies with the Hershey's kisses in the middle and tells him to bring some home for me but the fucker never does.

"Candice wanted to see her. And before you start bitchin', no I did not save you any cookies."

"Fuck you." I chuckle when I hear him laugh. It's been a while since I was able to do this with my brother. Guilt immediately reaches me and I quiet my laugh down and look at the ground. I shouldn't be laughing and having a good time when I am responsible for so much.

"How is she?"

"Mom?"

"Candy."

Austin looks back over to me and for a second, his face morphs into sympathy. I know my brother knows something is up with me, same with my mom, but Candice is the only person I have ever been able to tell what I was diagnosed with and I intend on keeping it that way.

"She's good man. Nightmares are gone since moving in with me and she feels comfortable at work again. I still have eyes on her but she's as free as she needs to be."

After Candice was kidnapped by her then coworker and nearly beaten to death by one of our backstabbing members, which I killed, she seemed to be coping well. Austin and she were broken and took a while to find themselves back to each other, but as soon as they did, she began having nightmares and flashbacks. I recognized the symptoms and told her she most likely began having them because she was surrounded by the memories. Whether it was being here at the clubhouse or around the brothers. Everything about the Nightmare Warriors reminded her of what she could have lost.

It was the reason I couldn't be with Shawna.

It wasn't the only one.

"Good."

"She's worried about you."

"Tell her I'm fine."

"We're all worried about you Max."

I roll my eyes and stand up to look down at my brother. We are about the same height but other than that, there is no similarities between us. Shawna used to always says he saw it, it was in our facial expressions. Both very much like dad.

"I'm fine Aus. Don't worry about me."

"Then why haven't you been around lately?" I narrow my eyes on him and puff up my chest.

"Same reason you haven't. Club is good, but sometimes I want some peace and quiet when I rest my eyes. Now back the hell off."

"Fine. But I am letting you know right now Max. I need you on this. Shit's about to hit the fan with this club and I need you in. One hundred present in, and I can't have you debating if you can do this. You're my VP."

"Don't you think I fuckin' know that Austin? I was the one that killed Psych, remember? I was the one that put a goddamn bullet in his head. So, don't you dare act like I am not here for my brothers."

Austin stands up as well and we stare each other down. As much as we used to do this when we were younger, to the point where my father would have to tear us apart, this time is different. I don't like fighting because I can't necessarily control my instincts anymore. My training could easily kick in, and we we're taught to only stop fighting once the enemy is no longer breathing.

"Fine, Max. I'll let it go for now. But you know I'm not some stupid fuck. I can tell something has been up with you lately, and I will not let you go through it alone."

Austin heads towards the door but before he closes it behind him he stops and speaks.

"I won't lose you Max. I can't."

The door closes behind him and I take a few moments to myself to calm my breathing down. Between the nightmares being back and everything that went down in the last few months, everything has been feeling off. I'm no idiot, after I was diagnosed, I was told to avoid anything that could potential set me off until the psychiatrist deemed me fit enough to be around everything. Problem was, by then I knew I wasn't going to stick around for some shrink to evaluate me every couple of weeks.

I went through something, I would ger over it eventually. Except I never really did.

I walk out of the room, content enough with the ten minutes I took for myself and head straight to the kitchen. Downing a bottle of water, I nearly choke when Miles walks in the room with a half naked sweetbutt attached to his arm.

"Max. Hey man, was thinking of having a party tonight. Think Austin would be pissed?"

The girl on his arm eyes me then seductively licks her lips and winks. It's been a while since I've had a girl. After breaking up with Shawna, I was too angered and pissed to do anything but after a few weeks, I tried. Only thing is, I couldn't get her out of my head. Every time the blonde went near me or my junk, my mind kept placing Shawna in the room somewhere, and her face was so pained, that I threw the damn girl off told her to get out.

"Nah, he's probably going home to Candice anyways. What are you celebrating?" I say then chuckle when the girl begins licking his ear.

Oh I can fuck with this so bad.

"Oh, it's my birthday. Finally turning twenty-one." He says trying his best not to lose concentration on our conversation as the busty brunette begins sliding her hand in his pants.

"Oh yeah? Boy I remember when I was twenty-one. Time of my life really. Your parents or sister or brother going to come around this year?"

This time Miles looks at the girl who has now gone down on her two knees and is licking his fingers. She lifts her manicured hand and begins popping his button on his jeans and pulling his zipper down.

"Umwhat?"

"Miles, your VP is having a conversation with you. You might want to show some fuckin' respect and listen." Honest to God, the kid actually straightens up and begins pushing the girl off his junk.

"Sorry, Max. It won't happen again."

"What the hell Miles?" The girl gets up and storms off while he stands there with his jeans half way down his ass.

I never said I was a good guy.

"That's fucked up?" I chuckle when Shane comes in the room shaking his head.

"You did that on purpose?" Miles yells out then runs over to retrieve his hopeful conquest for the night, nearly tripping because of his pants still half way down.

"Remember when your pops did that to me." I look over to my friend, the man that has known Austin and I since we were in diapers and give him an earnest look.

Shane and Austin came in the club around the same time and as soon as I turned eighteen, I was right behind them. Shane's father was my dad's road captain and right after his death the position went to Bone. Shane didn't always love the club, and there are times, I think he wonders what else there is out there for him, but this is his family, and I think he knows that we always will be, no matter what his future holds.

"Yeah, I heard about that. Dad always thought it was the most brutal test of loyalty. He once told me that they would get the prospect strippers, get them to practically have sex, then call an emergency meeting."

Shane and I chuckle and begin reminiscing about old times. With both our father's gone because of club life, it brought us closer, not just as brothers, but as friends. It wasn't easy not to go after the man responsible for Shane's father's death. But it became a little easier when I went on tour with his son.

"Speaking of sex and strippers. Have you gotten laid since Lyla?" Shane rolls his eyes, then heads to the bar to get his usual whiskey.

Ever since I got back, alcohol has been my crutch. The first time I drank, I got so low I went in search for my high. I found Shawna at a bar I knew she was working at. I didn't ask her why she was working there, or how she had time since I knew she taught at the studio full time. Instead, I got plastered, made a show of telling everyone that went in her vicinity that she broke my heart, and broke everything in there. Obviously they fired her, but that didn't stop me from finding her next place of work.

This last time she had to call Austin to come and get me before I made mincemeat out of the man that decided it was okay to grab her and seat her on his lap. I may hate Shawna, but I wasn't going to let someone be disrespectful to her.

And yes, I saw the irony in that statement.

"Just sayin'." I joke with Shane, who has been completely sullen since breaking up with Candice's coworker Lyla. Although he says it was all her, I can only imagine how much of a dick Shane was that caused the break up. The woman is an eleven on the Richter scale.

"You're one to talk fucker." He had me there. Shane and I are one in the same when it comes to women. It hasn't been since Shawna for me, which is now going on two years but I don't have the urge either. I can always beat one off in the shower worst case scenario.

"Ever think of just calling her up?" He's talking of course about Shawna. Shane was fond of Shawna, always looked at her like a little sister. When we split it hit everyone, not just the two of us.

"Every day."

"And will you ever?"

"No." I say then head back to my bike. Time to go home.