AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But I’d make a really good one. Why don’t any of the brothers see that?”
I turned, looked down at her sad face, and tried to explain the situation in a way that wouldn’t leave her feeling worse than she already did. “I know you’ve been through a lot. It’s understandable that you’re looking for the kind of peace and security a property cut can bring. But when you immediately run from one brother to another when you get rejected, it doesn’t make any of us feel very special. You’re making us feel like an answer to a problem rather than a human being. I never got the feeling that you were the least bit interested in me until you got turned down by six or seven other guys. You know that ain’t the way into a man’s heart, right?”
Her face took on a stubborn expression. “It’s not like that. I’ve always liked all the brothers here. You’re all good men. Any woman would be grateful to be chosen. I’m just putting myself out there because if I don’t ask, I’ll never know.”
“I understand what you’re saying, but you being up at all hours and jumping at every chance to get with one of us just drives home the idea that any dick will do for you. Ain’t no brother here wants that. I suggest you slow down, take your time, and figure out who it is you really want.”
I turned and walked away. In my heart of hearts, I wanted her to take my words as the wisdom she sorely needed to move forward, because sometimes Evie just didn’t know when to quit. I grabbed my coffee and headed for Storm’s office. At this point, I wasn’t sure whether I was leaving to get away from Evie or in the hopes that Storm would be up. I was pretty sure he would be, because the man’s favorite expression was, ‘let’s get moving, we’re burning daylight.’
Sure enough, Storm was at his desk with a cup, eyes glued to the screen of his laptop. He gestured for me to come in when he saw me at the door.
“I’m glad you’re up early, Mason.”
“Yeah, I know you hate burning daylight.”
My club president shot me an irritated look. “Don’t start with that shit. Every fucker in this club loves to give me a hard time about that, but there’s nothing wrong with getting an early start on the day.”
“You ain’t wrong about that, boss. So, what’s the plan?”
Storm leaned back in his seat, and after a pensive moment, he replied, “Out of the dozen men who jumped you, only four survived. Hacker has tracked down identifying information on three of them so far. We know where they live, who their families are, and most of their personal information.”
I raised one eyebrow. “Clearly, we’re not gonna resort to going after people’s families, so how does that factor into the discussion?”
“I’m not completely sure that it does,” he replied. “I’m not above using threats to their family as leverage.”
“I don’t think they would be quite stupid enough to believe we would go after their wives, kids, and grannies.”
“Mobsters threaten people’s families all the time. Sometimes they even follow through. They wear nice suits and see themselves as smart, worldly, and sophisticated. They see us as a bunch of thugs on bikes with a limited understanding of how their world operates. They probably think we’re one step away from animals, and attacking children might be within the scope of what we consider justifiable.”
“So, are you thinking we start with the three we might be able to leverage easily or the one we know nothing about?”
“No, we can save him for last. Maybe by then Hacker will have dug up some useful intel on him, or the other two will have leaked useful information about who he is.”
I took a sip of coffee. “We waiting on the others to get here or are we getting started on our own, boss?”
Storm downed the rest of his coffee and stood up. “We might as well go ahead and get started. The others can join in when they get here.”
I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wanted to say we were burning daylight. The words were itching on the end of his tongue. It was funny watching him stop himself from saying that.
When we went downstairs to the holding cells, Rob was standing guard. He stepped out to greet us. “How’s Corey doing? Have you heard anything from Javelin?”
Storm answered, “Yeah, he texted me at five this morning to say his surgery went well and he was resting. They reconstructed his shoulder and warned that although the recovery might be prolonged, he should get full use back.”
“Thank God for that,” Rob replied. “It would kill him if he had to give up prospecting for the Slayers.”
“That would never happen,” Storm stated flatly. “If Corey couldn’t ride, we’d have a sidecar made for him, just like Hacker’s. The Dark Slayers never leave a man behind. It’s one of the founding rules of our brotherhood.”
“Yes, sir,” Rob answered quickly. “I’ll be sure to remember that.”
Storm asked, “How did the prisoners hold up overnight?”
“The medics patched them all up. Three of them were pretty tight lipped but the fourth one spent the better part of the night screaming about how we should let him go or else. That we didn’t know who we were dealing with and there would be repercussions for imprisoning him in our hobby riders club.”
Storm grinned. “Let me guess, that’s the fucker we haven’t identified yet, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“We’re definitely saving him for last. Maybe hearing his fellow mobsters screaming in pain will drive home the fact that he’s not in charge of shit now.”
