Buzz’s three punches came to my abs and kidney, twice. I felt it deeply as my body shifted, trying to get through the pain. The kidney hits were rough, but somehow I stayed upright. “I shouldn’t have been in there.” My voice never trembled. I was here to atone, and I would.
“Damn right you shouldn’t. Don’t do that shit again,” he barked before stepping back.
“Nox,” Cruz called as his youngest son stepped in front of me. “As a kid, for some reason I looked up to you, but you ended up shitting on everything I believed in.”
Nox changed it up with a stomp to the foot and an uppercut to the nose. Blood squirted everywhere as the bones in my nose cracked and broke. My eyes started to water as I fell down to one knee again.
I could still think so he hadn’t hit the bones into my brain, so that was a good thing, or I’d be dead right now. But it hurt like a sonuvabitch. “Sorry. I never knew.”
Nox said nothing but stepped back as I got to my feet again, wiping the water from my eyes. My fucking nose hurt like a bitch.
“Jacks,” Cruz called and all I could think was oh fuck. He had so much rage against me.
He stepped up, nailed me in the liver, put a knee to my chest and punched the side of my face all in the matter of seconds. His assault made me fall to both knees. Fuck, that hurt. Pain ricocheted inside my body, my organs not liking this shit one bit.
“That’s because you’re breathin’,” Jacks spat then stepped away. Guess enough was said with that one. And while I understood the issues between us, I wasn’t about to apologize for breathing.
It took me about a minute to steadily get to my feet, but I made it.
“Deke,” Cruz ordered. Did I forget to mention that Deke was a fighter and had tons of knockouts? I probably did. This wouldn’t be pretty, but I wanted to at least stay conscious.
“Of all the rage I have felt with people here, I walked away. More than anyone I kinda understood you, Micah. You shoulda walked the fuck away. You did not. You dug into shit you had no place to dig.”
Deke aimed for my temple, and I could see it in his eyes that he wanted to do it. Knock me out cold on the ground, but at the last minute he hit me in the jaw, then turned and put an elbow to the back of my neck.
I fell back to my knees, this time with one hand down to steady me. My eyes were burning, and blood was running out of everywhere, but I wouldn’t back down. I would get back up. So even with every agonizing breath, I made my way to my feet.
Each time standing up took me a little longer, but eventually I made it up. And I would keep rising over and over.
“Ryker,” Cruz called as Ryker stepped up.
“You brought another woman into this club and allowed her to call my woman a bitch. Fuck that shit.”
I saw his move before he made it, and I tried to brace myself. It didn’t work as his leg came out and knocked my shin so hard, I felt it move out from under me. When his fist connected with the underside of my jaw, I landed in the dirt on my back.
Ryker loomed over me. “Watch yourself,” he warned. It was true. Back in the day I’d brought Jacklyn, a woman who looked similar to Emery, to the clubhouse. She got into it with Austyn, and it didn’t end pretty.
Ravage men didn’t allow anything to touch their women, so I understood this. I may not have said the words, but it was as if I did.
Slowly, I turned to my side, starting to really feel the pain in my body. I forced my mind to drift away so the pain would subside enough for me to get back up, and I did.
“Rhys,” Cruz called.
This was it. He was probably going to kill me. Or close to it. Rhys had no room for bullshit. He stood tall, proud and firm in front of me as I met his eyes, all the while my breathing was starting to become a bit labored.
“The fact is, you knew the line in the sand, and you chose to cross it. Penance must be paid. Boy or man, doesn’t matter. Ravage will not be crossed, blood or not.”
Rhys was a big guy; that was the only way to describe him. He was also deadly. Extremely deadly. He moved fast with three hits, one after the other to my abs and each side, then one to my lips. I fell down hard on my hands and knees. That combination was brutal.
I’d rather them pull out my nails and be done with it rather than this.
My head swam, and my vision became blurry as I fought back the bile that wanted to rise.
Micah, get the fuck up now! No one has the power to hold you down, Marine!
I listened to that inner voice and did as I was told, unsteadily climbing to my feet to look Rhys in the eyes. He said nothing, but there was something behind his. Before I could read it, he backed away.
“Green,” Cruz announced next.
Green was one of Cooper’s friends who'd joined the MC.
“Ravage is everything. You threatened that. You pay,” he declared as a left hook hit my face. It was hard, but somehow even though I staggered, I was able to remain on my feet.
“Cooper,” Cruz called his oldest son to the center of the room. Cooper was the oldest of our entire generation. When I was younger, I thought he was the shit, but I was jealous as hell of him. He was the poster child for what a member of the Ravage MC was, and there was no way I could live up to that.
“As a kid, I pictured it, Micah. How all of us kids would man up, and this legacy of the Ravage MC would be ours to maintain. You crossed that; you fucking tainted it. This shit is a disappointment for everything you were raised to be. Don’t give a fuck how mad you were—you crossed family. That shit is not tolerated.”
Cooper didn’t wait to finish what he said, so some of the last part was jumbled up because he hit my ear, and it started ringing. Hand to my ear, I didn’t protect my ribs as he laid four savage hits to them.
The pain was so immense, I knew he had to have broken at least one, probably more. My knees hit the dirt as the pain coursed through every single part of me.
Seconds ticked by—hell, minutes could’ve ticked by before I was able to get my bearings and stand up once again.
“Raid,” Cruz noted next.
“You’re everything I was raised not to be.” One hit to the temple, and I staggered back. Someone behind me pushed me back into the center of the circle as I shook my head, trying to get the ringing to stop.
“Ax,” Cruz yelled.
“Thanks for the lessons in what not to do,” he scolded just as he did a right hook into my jaw. Fuck, I hoped it didn’t dislocate that fucker.
“Breaker,” Cruz said. Breaker was always the quiet one. He was there but in the shadows more than in your face. It also meant that when he did talk, it was something one had to take to heart. With every single inch of my body in pain, it took everything to open my swollen eyes and look at Breaker.
“A man must be broken from time to time to see what is right in front of his face. You took for granted everything that matters to all of us. Consider this the fire where you gotta burn to rise up like a Phoenix in the ashes to become what you should’ve been. I’m here to make you feel shit.”
Breaker killed me with his words; the hits only added to the torment inside of me. Three hits to the gut and I wanted to puke, but I held it in and somehow stayed upright.
Cruz came before me, the anger in his eyes burning bright. This was it. The one that was going to hurt worse than the others. He had a lot of built-up anger that needed to be burned.