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I don’t even know where to begin with that sentence. The first thing that comes to mind is, maybe it’s because you’re tapping club ass every chance you get, but it’s really none of my business and I can’t think of many things I give a shit less about.
Z and Murphy must be having similar thoughts because none of them say anything either.
“Listen, the reason I wanted to talk to you without the girls around, is your boy, Loco.”
“We talk club business in the war room. Not at the breakfast table,” Murphy says, dead calm.
Sway raises an eyebrow and I’m waitin’ for him to say something about younger brothers knowing their place, but he seems to think better of it. Young or not, Murphy’s an officer of this club and Sway’s in our house.
“Well, can we go sit at the table then?”
“You need us to round up the rest of the guys?”
He looks the three of us over. “Nah, you can relay the information.”
Once we’re at the table, he spreads his hands. “I think I talked to Rock about this when he visited, but we’ve been having trouble with some gang punks moving into our territory.”
“Yeah. Rock mentioned it,” I say.
“So your boy, Loco, we’ve been selling him the weapons he wanted, and he’s been helping us with some pushback.”
“Good.” What’s his point?
“He’s been a big help. So thanks for that.”
If only he knew we almost didn’t vote in favor of making that introduction.
“I know you guys want to stay out of guns.”
“True.”
“That still the case without Rock here?”
None of us hesitate. “Yes.”
“Okay.” He pauses for a second, and I pray like fuck he’s not thinking up a way to try and convince us. “I get it,” he finally says. He pushes back his chair and stands. “Unless you need some extra help around here, I’m gonna round up my boys and head home.”
“We’re good, thanks,” I answer.
“Thanks for the hospitality. Let me know if Rock needs anything.”
The three of us walk him out and watch him head upstairs for a second before Z follows. “Gonna pick Hope up at her door, so she’s not runnin’ into him again,” he explains.
“Good plan.”
“You should’ve let me beat his ass. Coulda found a nice hole in the woods to drop his carcass in,” Murphy grumbles.
“We don’t need anyone else sniffing around here. Better he get the fuck out.”
“Fine. Thank fuck he ain’t our prez.”
“Amen to that.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
The club’s crackling with the need for vengeance Saturday night. I got confirmation from the Wolf Knights’ SAA that if Rock’s getting shit in lock-up, it’s coming from Izzard. Not that what he did to Hope wasn’t enough of a reason, but it’s nice to know we’re taking care of two issues with one beatdown.
Everyone’s at the clubhouse. We put our ad for Swan’s “services” on Craigslist a few days ago. Fresh meat in the Capital Region? Izzard was all over that shit maybe an hour after Z arranged the ad.
I think Hope and Trinity realize something’s up. Neither of them question us about all the activity in the house though. Hope just seems to be relieved Sway and his crew are gone. Trinity knows better than to ask about club stuff.
It’s not a surprise that Hope ends up going downstairs to visit with Sparky. Realizing how hard he’s been taking Rock’s absence, she’s made sure to check in on him regularly.
Trinity shakes her head as she watches Hope disappear through the basement door. “The stoner and the attorney. They’re adorable,” she says with an affectionate smile. Between Trinity making sure Sparky eats and Hope checking on his mental health, at least I know our bud-growing brother’s being taken care of.
It’s good that Hope’s downstairs when Dex and Swan join us in the living room. Swan’s decked out in skimpy hooker-wear and Dex has to be sporting the ugliest pimp suit I’ve ever laid eyes on.
“What the fuck, bro?”
“Gotta look the part,” he explains.
Shaking my head, I usher the guys into the war room for one final review of the plan. They’re solid and I’m confident this will get done quick and clean.
Clean for us. Not Izzard.
“Dude’s a deranged fuck,” Z assures us. He had the pleasure of texting with Izzard to set up the “date.”
“Must be bad if you’re disgusted,” Dex snarks.
Z throws up his middle finger.
“Everyone’s clear on their role?” I ask to get us on track.
After they settle down, we break.
I stop Murphy with a hand to his chest before he walks out. “How’d it go yesterday?”
“Grinder? Okay, I guess. He was upset.”
“So he hadn’t heard yet?”
“No. Thank fuck.” He lifts his chin and all humor drains from him. “You mind if I’m the one to visit Rock and tell him about it on Monday?”
“No. Go ahead. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you. Figure out a way to let him know we got this situation covered too.”
He holds his fist up and we tap knuckles. “You got it, bro. Thanks.”
“Watch your back tonight. Do me proud, little fucker.”
He breaks into a grin and slaps my shoulder on the way out.
The need to pummel something makes my hands twitch after the guys leave. My broken leg already caused enough downtime this year. I’m pissed I can’t go on this adventure and take care of business for my club.
“Are you okay?” Trinity asks after the guys leave. The brothers not on Mission Izzard are waiting at the clubhouse in case anything goes wrong. No party atmosphere tonight. More like a wake.
“Yeah.”
“You know you can trust me if you ever want to get stuff off your chest?” Trinity asks in a quiet voice. My hands cover hers, drawing her attention up.
“I know. Thank you.” I think over what I’m willing to share with Trinity. Specific club business? No. How I feel about the decisions I’m being forced to make while Rock’s away?
Yeah.
“This is important, and I’m just pissed I can’t be out there with them.” There. Nice and vague.
She doesn’t huff, or ask for any more details. “If you decided not to go, I know you had a good reason. That’s doing your part for the club too,” she says softly.
She gets it. More importantly, she gets me. “Thank you, angel.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Haven’t seen Lizard in a few days now, and I have a sneaking suspicion I know why. Murphy stopping in to visit Monday morning reinforces that belief.
The one tolerable guard, JT, leads Murphy into the visitation room. My hands are free for this visit, so I can give Murphy a hug.
“Miss you, prez,” he grumbles as we sit.
“Same. You doing okay?”
“Yeah. Went to see Grinder the other day. Let him know what was up.”
“Aw, fuck. Why’d you have to upset the old guy?”
Murphy shrugs, but I appreciate the courtesy he still shows my one-time mentor.
“He okay?”
Murphy brightens. “Yeah. He’s getting moved to Pine Correctional at the end of the month.”
“No shit. I knew he applied. Never figured it’d actually happen. That’s good, I’ll be able to visit him more often.” I stop and think about how absurd that sounds. “You know if I don’t end up in a cell next to him,” I joke.
Murphy doesn’t appreciate my humor.
“At Wrath’s request, I gave him an update on this situation and his advice was to put your focus on the months ahead. Everything else will be waiting for you when you beat this bullshit. Ya know?”
He’s being cryptic on purpose, but I think I get what he’s saying. Izzard won’t be a problem for at least a few months, but he’s still alive for me to handle when I get out.
“You all agree on
this?”
He slams his fist into his open palm. “Oh, yeah.”
Hmmm…guess my sergeant-at-arms has decided to pick and choose which orders he’ll follow. I’m not mad though. Wrath’s in a better position to gather information. If the club voted to take action on Lizard, they had a good reason and I trust their judgment.
“Everyone okay?”
“Yeah. We just miss you.”
“Heidi staying out of trouble?”
Murphy snorts and shakes his head. “Let’s not go there.”
“Hope staying out of trouble?”
That makes Murphy laugh even harder. “She’s doin’ real good. We’re lucky to have her.”
“Good.” I know Hope’s a loyal woman, but this situation would be tough for anyone to handle.
“She’s militant about planning your wedding, and I don’t think she’s going to accept being in here as an excuse.”
I have to force my laughter. “Tryin’, bro.”
“I know you are.”
We’re only able to talk for a few more minutes, because the jail shuts down for a head count every day at this time. Murphy shakes my hand when we get up.
“I’ll be home soon, Murph.”
“You better be.”
“Guys, I think I have something.”
Wrath and Z tip their heads up. Wrath waves me inside the office and has me sit in Rock’s chair. Sitting here gives me some small measure of comfort.
“Tony said when he spoke to the DA, he slipped up and said “she” when taking about the witness. Does that help us?”
Wrath and Z glance at each other before answering. “Not yet. Vipers got lots of women doing their dirty work for them. Could be anyone.”
“What about that one, Gabriella, you said was working at the club?”
“We let her go.”
I chew on my bottom lip. “Shit. Well, what about some of the other girls? They might have information.” I’m grasping at straws but I can’t help it.
“We’re not exactly talking about it down at CB,” Z answers.
“Guys, it’s been all over the news. Everyone must know.”
“Yeah, that Rock’s been arrested. Not that we suspect the Vipers are involved.”
Wrath narrows his eyes and studies me for a bit before asking his question. “What do you want, Hope?”
“Let me question some of the girls. They might know something from working with Gabriella.”
“No,” Wrath says.
“Hell, fucking no,” Z echoes.
“We have to figure out who this witness is.”
“It could be Gabriella.”
“You think so? Tony said she’s being kept at a safehouse.”
The information seems to jolt him. “Fuck, Hope. Why didn’t you say that first?”
I hate feeling like I did something wrong. How am I supposed to know which piece of cryptic information is the nugget of gold they’re waiting for? “Why? Do you know every safehouse in the tri-county area?” I snap back.
Z and Wrath grin at each other and I have the urge to kick both of them in the shins.
“Was it an official safehouse like the police were hiding her or private?” Z questions.
I struggle to remember the way Tony worded it. “I don’t know. He just said a safe house.”
“That’s good, Hope. Thank you.”
“He’s supposed to sniff out a name for me and call back tomorrow. Can we wait that long?”
Wrath gives me a sympathetic pat on the leg. “I don’t think we have a choice.”
Hope doesn’t understand what a great lead she’s given us. And it’s not her place to. Z and I start making our phone calls right after she leaves.
Loco, GSC’s leader and our biggest customer, chuckles at my request. “You think I got knowledge on where they’re hidin’ some Viper mama?”
I don’t know how Rock puts up with this prick. “Or someone in your crew.”
“Yeah, I got a guy. I’ll see what I can find out. It might take me a day or two though. They ain’t gonna be real forthcoming with that type of information.”
No shit.
For once, Loco’s no bullshit when we meet. Maybe he just doesn’t find me as charming to deal with as Rock.
“This is the address,” he says as he hands over a piece of paper.
“They got their safehouse bumped up against Empire?” It’s in the outer fringe of our territory, but still pretty fucking bold.
“Yeah, that’s why I had trouble tracking it down.” He stares at me for a second. “You gonna hurt her?”
“Who?”
“The witness.”
“Fuck no.”
He holds out his hands in a mock calm-down gesture. “All right. I know our two crews don’t always see eye-to-eye, but the shit them fuckin’ Vipers are into makes my stomach turn.”
At least we agree on something. “Anything else you can tell me?”
“They’ll have at least two men on the place. And dogs.”
Great.
“Thanks, man.”
“Anything for you guys. I wanna see Rock beat this shit.” He holds up his hands and pastes a phony smile on his face. “Not that you’re not a pleasure to deal with, Wrath.”
Once we’re back in the war room, Z and I talk over the plan before we bring it to the rest of the club. First, we call Murphy and Teller to the table.
“Murphy, I want you to stay here and protect the girls.” Fucking annoys me. But I trust Murphy. He won’t let anything happen to them.
“You got it.” Christ, I’m so shocked he didn’t throw a bitch fit about staying behind, it takes me a second to continue.
“Teller, your small, stealthy size will come in handy.”
“I’m six foot for fuck’s sake. I ain’t that small, ya cocksucker.”
Z snickers and shakes his head. “You in or not, dick?”
“Of course I am.”
“Good.”
“We should take one more. I vote Dex.”
“Yeah. Bricks can stay here and monitor the cameras.”
The rest of the guys get called in so we can explain the situation and give everyone their assignments. No one argues.
After the room clears out we discuss how we plan to handle it.
“Loco said they got dogs.”
“Great. I don’t want to be killin’ puppies,” Z grumbles.
“I don’t either, but I don’t feel like gettin’ bit. You want to bring some hamburger, be my guest.” I don’t doubt Z will do exactly that.
“We bringing the girl back here?” Teller asks.
“No choice. She needs to recant her story. At the very least, we have to keep her out of sight until trial. When they can’t produce her, they’ll have to cut Rock loose. But if we can get her to go in and recant it will be better.”
Murphy’s face scrunches up. “How the fuck we gonna do that?”
“We don’t know they got her there willingly, bro,” Z reminds us. “She might be thrilled.”
“True. Hope said she’ll take care of the legal side since Glassman can’t be the one to bring her in to recant,” I agree.
We haven’t had time to do a proper assessment of the house so Murphy’s next question isn’t unwarranted. “Tonight’s the best night?”
“Yeah. They’ve been moving her around and Loco wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be at this spot.”
Now it’s time to get to the important stuff and the irony is I wish Rock was here for this part. “This is a small neighborhood. Houses are tight together.”
“Suppressors?” Z asks.
“Sparrows, .22, and the CCI mini-mac ammo. We’ll wet them on site.”
“You don’t want the CCI quiet?” Teller asks.
“No. It won’t cycle and if shit goes bad quick, I’d rather risk a few decibels of noise than the few seconds it takes to manually cycle the ammo.”
Teller nods, still looking a little unsure. But he’s not the one who’s spent ho
urs at the range testing these combinations out. I am, so he’ll follow my orders. Rock’s spent a lot of time going through those tests with me, so he’d probably take more time to explain than I feel like doing.
“Bring whatever backup you want. If we need it, then sound’s gonna be the least of our worries.”
I have to give Trinity some explanation before we leave. Hope knows we plan to find the witness, she just doesn’t know we’re doing it tonight.
“I’ll call you when we’re on our way back, angel.”
“Okay.” She reaches up and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Please be careful.”
I catch her in my arms for a longer kiss. “Hey. Nothing I want more than to come home to my girl.”
Her lips pull into a soft smile. “Good.”
Even though it’s outside King’s territory, we know the area well. The fact that Vipers feel comfortable stashing the witness responsible for our president being in jail this close to our turf pisses me the fuck off. It’s one giant middle finger pointed in our direction.
We park the two vehicles on the street behind the address we were given. Z and Dex get out of their truck and jog over to mine, sliding in the back seat.
“Teller, you’re the least scary, so you come with me to find the girl. Dex and Z keep watch. There should only be two guys guarding the place, but you never know.”
Z hands out the Sparrow suppressors, then passes around a small spray bottle. “Five sprays,” he reminds everyone. Once that’s done, we thread the Sparrows onto Walther P22 handguns. Not my first choice of weapon, but for this situation, it’s our best option.
I’m already sweating like a motherfucker and we haven’t even stepped outside. The long sleeve plain cotton shirt and black tactical pants aren’t helping matters. Fucking summer humidity is brutal even at night.
“I want to be in and out in ten minutes. No telling how often they check in.”
When we’ve each got our weapons ready, we step outside. Z and Dex jog down the alley opposite of the one Teller and I take.
Climbing the chain-link surrounding the backyard without making a ton of racket will be impossible. There’re also a shit-ton of thick bushes growing into the fence. “Fuck.”
