I nodded. “Church. Now!” I threw the doors open and my brothers all followed me inside. Those who weren’t there had already been called and would be on their way in. I slammed my gavel on the table as my men took their seats. I felt like an army sergeant ready to lead my men into battle. I would fight to get Chelsea back and these men, my brothers, my soldiers were ready to follow me. There were no apprehensive looks, no one was running scared or stood to question me. We were a family. That was the bottom line and family sticks together no matter fucking what.

“I fucked up when I thought that I could protect Chelsea by pushing her away,” I told them, my eyes scanning the room. “Chelsea may have come to us as a club girl. But for me she was always Old Lady material, I was just too fucking stubborn to admit it.”

My brothers sat silently as I bared myself to them. These men saw me for who I was. When my father was killed they voted for me to stand in his place, their belief in me completely astounding. They believed in me and I wasn’t about to let them down.

“She’s it for me, boys,” I told them, standing and placing both my palms on the table. My head hung. “I spent this whole time pushing her away and trying to keep her out of danger when I could’ve been spending that time with her.”

“She’s coming back, Op,” Leo said, standing and slamming his hands down on the wooden surface. “We’ll get her back.”

I heard a chorus of agreement around the room as each of my brothers stood to their feet.

This was family.

My club had my back at all times. They would ride to hell with me and I would do the same for them. The brotherhood we had was something that was hard to explain to outsiders. Some saw us as gangs or delinquents on a power trip. But we were more than that. We were a family—a stronger family than you would even get through blood relatives.

It was our loyalty to each other that made us so strong. These men didn’t have to follow me, they didn’t have to take my orders or put their lives at risk because I told them to.

They chose to back me—that was their choice.

And every day I was thankful for the trust and respect that they held for me.

We may be outlaws—criminals, we may beat the shit out of each other from time to time, we may fight and argue, and at some point we may break. But I knew that when it mattered when push came to shove and one of us was in crisis—We stood together.

We stood as one.

We were strong—fucking unbreakable.

“Then let’s get her back.”

Since Anthony’s visit to the club, I’d made sure that we had some sort of eyes on him. Better to be on the offensive than the defensive. He was staying in Huntsville, a city not far from Athens. He had himself up in a swank hotel, but according to Wrench his people would come and go, but he himself had not left much.

It made me curious. He had come that day, making subtle threats to the club because of his missing son, but he had been here for going on two weeks and had yet to make a move.

“Maybe he does actually believe his son is missing,” Slider suggested after he came in and caught up on what was going on.

“He can’t be that stupid,” Camo said rolling his eyes.

“He’s not stupid, he’s being smart,” Kev said, speaking up for the first time. “He doesn’t want to start a war. He knows that once he makes a move it could bring a complete shit storm down on him. The Brothers by Blood isn’t just some small club that he can push around. We have a solid amount of backing behind us, not just from our brothers but from other clubs that will stand beside us. He’s being smart, getting the facts first. Finding out who we are, what we have behind us.”

“Then why all the attacks on our people? Why blow up Chelsea’s car and kill an innocent girl just because she works for us,” Blizzard countered.

Kev nodded in agreement. “That’s the part that doesn’t make sense. That’s not him, it’s not who he is.”

“Only one way to find out what’s really going on,” I said, pushing to my feet once again. “I think it’s time we made a visit of our own.”

The faces around me were stoney and serious, but we all knew what needed to be done. I took a handful of brothers with me to Huntsville, the rest hung behind, waiting for further orders. I didn’t know where they’d taken Chelsea, and if she was still in Athens, I wanted a group of my men close by just in case. It spread us a little thinner than I would have liked, but this was more than just a show of power. We were running out of time and if she were still in the area they would be able to get there a lot faster.

I almost laughed at the lack of security that Anthony DePalma had. There were no men stationed in the lobby of the hotel and we were able to walk straight in without causing a fuss. He was either incredibly cocky and didn’t think we would walk right into his den, or he was letting us in and we were in for a fight that could cost us our lives.

I slammed my hands on the sparkling marble counter, the young girl behind it nearly jumping out of her skin. “Anthony DePalma’s room, what's the number?” I growled. Her eyes looked around frantically and I knew I needed to get this done because I had no doubt that someone had already called the police.

“I...uh...I can’t...”

Slider slipped around the side of the desk and flashed the woman his trademark smile. “Hi there, darling. I’m just gonna shuffle you to the side here for a minute.” He pulled on her chair and it slowly rolled away from the desk. She didn’t even fight it, her mouth just hung open as she watch Slider tap on the computer keys.

He scoffed and pushed the stunned girl back into her place behind the computer. “Penthouse, of course. Where else would he stay?”

I didn’t even pause, heading straight for the elevator. Blizzard, Wrench, Slider, Ham and Leo all climbed in beside me. It was a tight squeeze, almost fucking comical.

“Going up,” Slider announced, his smile wide but I could see the tension in my brother’s face. We were preparing ourselves for a fight. The elevator dinged and the doors opened, Leo pulled his gun from its holster inside his cut and leaned out the door.

“Two guards at the end of the hallway outside double doors. They’re lounging.” I nodded and my brothers all pulled out their pieces. Leo held up three fingers, then two, and one, and we all stepped out of the elevator together, a wall of force. It took a second for the two men to look up at us, both of them jumping back in surprise and their hands moving for the weapons that I could see tucked into their waistbands.

“Don’t fucking touch it,” Leo growled, he stepped forward in front of us. This was his job, he was the man who made sure situations were safe, that we were covered. I let him take the lead, knowing that his experience with this outweighed mine, and having complete faith that he’d know what the right approach was. The two men looked at each other before slowly raising their hands in the air.

“Open the doors,” I snapped as I got closer, my gun still raised and aimed directly at one of their heads. There was no wounding, there was only shoot to kill. These guys were ruthless, trained to do the exact same.

One reached into his pocket slowly and pulled a keycard. He swiped it through the door lock and when it beeped he also entered a code into the panel beside it. Obviously Anthony wasn’t as stupid as I thought when it came to security measures. I watched the numbers he placed in, burning them into the back of my mind for future reference.

The doors were pushed open and I motioned with my gun for them to walk through ahead of us. The large suite we walked into was open plan. There were several people in the space and it didn’t take me long to clock Anthony DePalma sitting at the sparkling dining table, a newspaper in his hands and reading glasses propped up on his nose.