The Rampage MC #4: Max and Briony

Chapter 30 (Briony): Possible Murder

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

After Max and I had made plans for the weekend and he left, my night was about to get busy. The first knock I figured was Max coming back because he'd forgotten something since he'd left my place just five minutes earlier.

Instead of Max, however, it was Chain's hulking form in front of my door.

"Can I come in, Bri?"

"Sure," I said, and stepped back.

"Genny said I needed to come apologize to you today when I told her what I said to you."

"Coming in just under the deadline. Three hours until midnight," I noted. "But there's no need to apologize. You were just telling me what you thought."

"That's what I said, but Genevieve reminded me that I don't do so great talking to people. I tend to just say shit and not worry about how it lands."

I knew first-hand that was true.

"Thing is, Bri, I been thinking about it all day. Genny was right. She always is. I could have been less of a shit to you, but I wasn't."

I didn't respond because I could see that Chain wasn't done. He was searching for words, extremely uncomfortable.

"Right after Genny and our children, the Rampage is what I care about most, what I'm loyal to. Got my role there and do what I need to do for my club. Sometimes, what I have to do is hard as hell, but I do it because it's the right thing to do for the club. Doesn't mean I enjoy it, just that I do it. We got rules for a reason, and I enforce them."

He rubbed the back of his neck in agitation.

"What I did to Max." 

He stopped, leaving his sentence incomplete. His eyes met mine and they were stormy, agonized. Chain swallowed several times as he nodded, as if trying to talk himself into continuing.

"What I did to Max was one of the two hardest things I've ever done for the club. Didn't like it, and every jerk of his body, every sound he made while I was doing it...I felt it." His voice was a whisper by those last three words. "Not like Max felt it, but it tore me apart inside, and I didn't feel good about myself."

"I'm listening," I said quietly to encourage him to continue because it was apparent he had a lot more to get off his chest.

"I started prospecting for the club just before Beard found Max, and he was like our little brother. Good kid. Lost. Looking for his place in life. He grew up, became a brother and then he became one of my closest friends."

Pain can be a dull ache, but listening to this...this was the kind of pain that was sharp and jagged and sliced you deep, making you bleed.

"And then I fucking delivered his punishment, and while I was...doing what I did to him, I kept seeing Max as a fifteen-year-old kid. Scared as shit he was going to get thrown out of the clubhouse, happy as fuck he was in a safe place, doing everything he could find to do so he'd have a family."

 Chain looked at me again, and there were tears in his eyes. 

"I walked out of there that night, pissed at Max for choosing the chains, pissed at Max for fucking up by leaving you alone to get hurt, pissed that the club couldn't back down from his punishment and pissed at myself for delivering it. I knew what the next year would be like for Max, and we'd have to enforce every last rule."

Chain closed his eyes and pressed the heels of his palms to them. He gave a ragged breath that on anyone else would be a sob, and then he took some time to calm himself.