Alex

My eyes pop open a little before five in the morning, right before dawn. I don't hear anyone moving around yet.

My club is abandoning me before I even get a chance to prove myself. I look over in my bed and see Laura sleeping soundly. Either way, I'm going to make sure she and the rest of my club is safe. These Rolling Cobra mother fuckers are going to figure out just who the fuck they are messing with. I quickly get dressed, even putting on body armor under my shirt and kutte. I grab the guns I do have and put them in my side holsters, one goes in my boot. I have a hunting knife in the other. We don't have much but I'll use what I have.

I lean down and kiss Laura softly on the forehead not wanting to wake her up, but her eyes slide open sleepily anyway.

"Make sure you come back to me, Papi." She caresses my face and I nod for her. I kiss her again but this time on her lips. Before we can get too deep into it a soft tap at my door has me turning around in frustration. Who the hell is knocking on my door at five in the morning?

I walk over and open the door to see Max and Ryder, fully dressed and armed at my doorway.

"Hey, we're ready to ride." Max says. My eyes slide over to Ryder and though he doesn't say a word he nods once in my direction.

"Who's we?" I ask and push through the two of them.

Everyone is in the main area looking exactly like Max and Ryder. I didn't think anyone would give up their patch, but I figured at least one or two of them would try to stand down from the fight.

I chuckle when I see Mick pulling the shotgun from behind the bar, "What do you think you doing old man?"

"Old man? Boy, I may not be able to ride anymore but I can hold a gun. Let someone come test this old man if they want. It's been a while since I've had to blow someone's head off."

"Well dammit" Clean says, "We blowing heads off? I'm not dressed for that. I got my getting bloody sweatshirt on. I need my exploding brains and gutting motherfuckers one. Gotta look the part you know." He smiles at me and I roll my eyes at his ridiculousness.

Wire comes to stand in front of me, all serious, all the time. "What's the plan, Prez? We just running through?" He doesn't ask to be an ass, he genuinely wants to know so he can be prepared. I look around at everyone waiting for my orders and realize that even if they thought I was doing the wrong thing there isn't one person here who'd let me do it on my own. The Wings of Diablo is more than just an MC, we're brothers. A bond thicker than the blood we spill and stronger than the metal on our bikes.

I set everyone up perfectly. Wire, Gin and Ryder infiltrated the Rolling Cobras clubhouse from the front, while Clean, Max, Larry and I came in from the back. Archer and Mick were both up and away ready to call out any stragglers or enemies coming up behind us. They were also to make sure that no one got away If I gave the word to kill everyone.

The Rolling Cobras never imagined we'd come straight for them so when we walk in guns raised most of them are lounging around with breakfast in their mouth.

"What the fuck, you're dead! Who the fuck do you think you are strolling in here like you fucking own the place?" Cleve the president of this Rolling Cobra barks at me. He doesn't make a move though.

"Don't you fucking do it." I hear Max hiss out from beside me and when I look to the side I see one of the assholes that ran me and Laura off the road. He's trying to move away from the confrontation.

My club has the entire Rolling Cobra clubhouse covered. There's nothing any of them can do to get away from what's coming to them.

"This is the fucking club that's been fucking with my livelihood. I'm disappointed. I was sure you'd be ready and armed when we got here. Gunning you down while your people shove fruit loops down their throats takes away from the excitement." I taunt Cleve walking closer to him but keeping his gaze. I don't bother to look around for a threat. If there is one, I know my brothers got my back.

Cleve looks down and sees the president tag on my kutte. "What the fuck is this? You take Prime's place, ? I should have known you assholes wouldn't be able to keep up your end of the bargain. Figures the minute Prime leaves you try to push your territory over here." Cleve sneers at me and I'm momentarily stunned.

"What the fuck are you talking about, you went back on the fucking agreement before Prime even left." Ryder spits out before I can recover.

Cleve looks to Ryder then to me, "You got your information mixed up, boy."

I pull my weapon and place it firmly under Cleve's chin. "Call me boy again. I fucking dare you. I don't know what kind of relationship you had with Prime but I'm not him. You won't disrespect me and if you continue to do so I'm going to make sure your club is cleaning your fucking brains off the ceiling from now until Christmas."

Cleve clenches his jaw, but he nods once. I take my gun down but don't put it away just in case he tries to get out of pocket again.

"I don't have any information mixed up. Your people tried to kill me." I say and if I wasn't standing right in front of him, I would never have imagined the look on his face. He's confused.

"You attacked first?"

"No, we didn't. You've been burying your drugs on our territory like we wouldn't fucking find it. When we confronted your people, they opened fire on us. Yesterday, four of your guys ran me off the road and into a fucking river. There's no reason for us not to fucking kill you right now." I cross my arms over my chest and wait for his response.

Cleve's a pale skinned Irish man. It's amazing to watch the way his face burns with color. He looks away from me for a second and I watch as the array of emotions etched on his features turn from confusion to disbelief to rage.

"Who shot at you over the drugs?" He asks me.

"Don't fuck with me, these are your men. You know who you sent." I snap back at him.

"That's the damn problem I didn't fucking send anyone. As far as I know, the agreement I made with Prime is still intact. If you wouldn't mind pointing out who came for you?" He gestures to his club and it takes me a second to figure out he's serious.

Instead of walking into a club full of people that want to kill us, we walked into a club full of members that are going against each other.

"Him, that one, this one…" I turn to Wire, "can you remember any others, you were closer."

"That one in the corner, everyone else is dead." He says clearly.

Cleve nods his head, "Vance!" He calls out, and the one in the back slowly moves forward. "Don't fucking make me wait! Get your ass over here!" Cleve yells at the man. He finally gets in front of Cleve and lifts his jaw like he's ready for his punishment.

"Let me have your weapon." Cleve orders and Vance hands him his gun right away.

I take a step back thinking that he might turn it on me, but he doesn't. Instead, Cleve continues to talk to Vance.

"You told me that the drop was light because there was an accident. You told me that you got all you could and the rest was lost to us. How is it that you have" He turns to me and asks," How much did you have on your property?"

"A couple kilos." I answer.

Cleve's eyes go wide before he turns back to his patch brother, "How the fuck do you have a couple of kilos to hide anywhere? Did you steal from your brothers? Did you steal from me?"

Vance doesn't say anything.

"Vance, did you skim product from us?" Cleve's voice is calm and even.

"Cleve, I did but I can pay it—" A loud bang echo's through the space cutting Vance's words off.

I watch in muted shock as Vance blinks a few times and blood dribbles out of the gunshot wound in the center of his head. A second later he falls straight back and lands with a thud.

"Oh shit." Clean says and stares at the dead man who just fell to the ground.

"You three get the fuck up here," Cleve says and the ones I pointed out a moment ago walk slow in our direction. "These the ones that tried to run you off the road?"

"Yeah." I reply.

Cleve nods before turning back to the three of them. "Give me your kuttes."

The three of them argue and fight, giving every excuse they can as to why they shouldn't be removed from the club, but Cleve isn't having it.

"This is my fucking club. I give the damn orders and if you can't abide by them, you don't fucking belong here. You're lucky this man is still fucking alive because if I would've found out that it was because of you assholes that something happened to him you'd be going the same was as Vance. Now give me your fucking kutte and be grateful I'm not putting a bullet between your eyes." He stares them down and one by one they take their vests off and toss them on the ground.

"Bast, mark these motherfuckers." Cleve calls out and the VP of the Rolling Cobras, Bast walks up with a piece of electronic equipment in his hand. It's red hot. He walks up to each of them, while another of the club holds the men, he presses the red-hot metal to their face and when he pulls back the letter T in a circle is branded fight below their eyes. Finally, he shoots the three of them in their right knee to make sure they can no longer ride. A thorough punishment.

", Prime was a good president. He knew that peace should be our fucking end goal. Our shit doesn't have anything to do with you and vice versa. I don't want no problems with the Wings. Is this punishment enough to get back on neutral ground?"

I look back to Max who nods his head. Ryder and Wire do the same.

"Fine, agreed." I put my hand out and Cleve shakes it, I don't release him, "But I think we need to sit down and discuss the changes coming our way. Like you said Prime was a good president. He's not here anymore. I'm Prez now and what the Wings of Diablo used to be isn't what we are now."

"I see that." Cleve looks behind me. "I wonder if you'd be more open to an arrangement than your predecessor was. I have a pipeline open on some gun running but we can't do it as it's a conflict of interest with our drug supplier. It's good money and easy."

"I'm not going to let the guns just float around the town." I answer quickly, if people outside of my hometown want to fuck up their community that's on them but not here.

"No, I don't shit where I sleep either. It's over the state lines. You think your boys can handle it?"

I look back at them and I swear I see Ryder bouncing with glee. I look back to Cleve and gesture for Max to come with me

"Let's talk specifics, but I think we can work something out." I clap Cleve's shoulder and he smiles in return. The crisis is averted. "Wire, tell everyone to stand down. Archer is to stay on watch just in case."

"Heard." Wire says and hustles off to do what I say. The rest of the Wings lower their weapons and start to file out.

"Damn . You wear that patch well. Prime couldn't have picked a better successor. You got more fight in your than half my fucking club put together." Cleve says as he ushers us into a small room with a table.

"It's easy when there's something great to fight for. The Wings of Diablo is greater than Prime or me or any of my riders alone. The Wings of Diablo MC is a family and one that I will die to protect. One I will die to see thrive. I'll be a Wing until I die and even then, I'm going to be riding through fucking hell with my patch on my back."

"Shit, talk about fucking inspirational. I can't wait to see this shit play out." Cleve says.

I look down at my kutte and realize this right here is the true start of my Presidency. I can't wait to see how it plays out either. Bad or good, at least I know it's going to be a wild ride.

THE END