Authors: Jenika Snow
“It doesn’t matter anyway because when we find them
we’ll make them pray loud for mercy.”
There was a chorus of murmured agreements.
“You end up talking to Jagger? I know you went to
Steel Corner last night, but weren’t gone too long, so I wasn’t sure what the
hell was up with that,” Malice said, and he was furiously chewing on the end of
a toothpick.
“They’re in when we need them. Jagger said when we
know the details to hit him up and his boys will be up with guns blazing.”
Jagger was the President of The Grizzly MC, which
was stationed in Steel Corner, the next town over. The clubs had helped each
other over the last few months, and had gotten pretty tight with one another.
Having them as back-up would be a lot of muscle.
“The Fairview chapter is also coming in, and should
be here in the next few hours. I spoke with Marx, and he’s bringing several of
his guys,” Lucien said and leaned back in his chair again. “With The Grizzlies,
our boys from Utah, and us, I think we can take on these fuckers, but I want us
to be smart about this.”
“I’m not sweet talking with them, man,” Rock said,
and although the other man played it off like he was easygoing, the biker could
be a cruel asshole.
“No one is talking about anything with them. Once we
know if they are holed up in that warehouse, the layout of it all, and any
other information we can get, we are going in to take them out, and worry about
the consequences later.” Lucien picked up his cell, looked at it again, and set
it back down.
“What the fuck’s going on with your phone?” Kink
asked and pointed to the cell in question. “You’ve been eye-fucking that thing
since you took it out of your cut.”
Lucien gave him a nasty glare, but it wasn’t
threatening, just more annoyed. “I got a call early this morning.” He stayed
silent for a second, and then ran his hand over his short dark hair. “Cain called
me. He is getting out tomorrow.”
“Well fuck.” It seemed everyone said that at the
same time, and then they were clapping each other on the back. But the excitement
that one of the Brothers was getting out of prison was short lived.
“This is, bad, bad timing for him to be getting
out,” Kink said.
Lucien nodded. “Yeah, I’m thrilled he is getting
released, but right now we need to keep our head in the game. We don’t need
Cain getting into more shit when he just got out, and I know if he realizes
what’s going on, he’ll want to join in with a gun in each hand.”
“The man is one crazy fucker, but this club is his
life, even more so after…” Tuck stopped speaking, and Kink looked at him. There
was a hushed, uncomfortable silence that filled the room.
Cain had been locked up for the last nine years for
attempted murder after he caught the sick motherfucker trying to rape his
sixteen-year-old daughter. The only reason the asshole was even still alive was
because a neighbor had called the cops, and they had come before Cain could
finish him off.
“Well, if Cain wants in on something,
ain’t
no one
going to stop him,”
Tuck said, and they all agreed. “You know he has to be itching for a little
action since being locked up that long, so let’s hope we get this straightened
out before he is released. I’d rather celebrate with him, than have Cain
jumping in on this right away.”
Kink leaned back in his seat, rubbed his face with
his hands, and didn’t think things could get even more complicated. Yeah, they
needed all the manpower they could get, but they didn’t want Cain getting
implicated on this, especially since he would just be released.
“Well, let’s deal with this one thing at a time, and
take out these fuckers. Then we can focus on getting this club back to normal.”
Lucien sounded tense, and exhausted, but hell, they all felt that way.
It was only a half hour later since Malcolm left the
meeting room, but he was knocking the door.
“Yeah?”
Lucien called out, and Malcolm pushed the door open. He stood in the entryway,
holding his laptop to his chest.
“I got the info you needed, even dug up an old floor
plan of the warehouse, and found out a piece of information you will be pretty
interested to know.” Malcolm walked in when Lucien gestured him forward. He set
the laptop down, and turned the screen so they could see it. “The lease was
only on a monthly basis, so that shows that they aren’t serious about staying
here, not in that location at least.” Malcolm then brought up all the
information they needed. “And here is the floor plan. It’s pretty
self-explanatory with the entrances and exits here,” Malcolm pointed to two
areas on the floor plan. “But this is what I thought you guys would find really
screwed up.” Malcolm brought up another document.
Kink scanned the items that were printed on the
screen. “Those are fucking ingredients for a bomb.” Kink pulled the computer
closer: C4, nitrogen fertilizer, and a whole slew of other harmless household
items, but put systematically together could make a pretty big bomb.
Lucien pulled the computer back toward him, and Kink
heard the sound of the computer edge cracking because Lucien held it so tight.
He pushed it back toward Malcolm, and leaned back in the seat. He was clenching
and unclenching his hand on the top of the table, and the sound of Lucien
gritting his teeth came from him like a shot from a gun.
“And you can see from the date printed on these
emails,” Malcolm pulled up several emails. “The only way for them to have
access to these types of material, mainly the C4, is they have to have some
kind of connection. This isn’t run of the mill stuff that they can pick up at
their local garden supply store. But also they have the blueprints of the cabin
on your club’s property that took the hit.”
Kink stared hard at Malcolm.
“And you were
able to find all this out right now?” Rock asked.
Malcolm nodded. “Yeah, I mean I stayed up all night
getting most of it, but the invoice of materials is what I was working on out
there. It took time since they had buried it pretty hard, but there isn’t
anything on the internet I can’t break through.”
“And that’s why we called on you, Malcolm,” Lucien
said. “You know your stuff. Now, can you give us minute? Maybe head to one of
the back rooms and crash for a bit if you want?”
“Yeah, you look like shit, man,” Malice said, but
there was no amusement in the Sergeant at Arms’ voice.
Once Malcolm left the meeting room, the guys went
over the rest of the information Malcolm had given to them. The room grew
tense, and long, grueling minutes passed by, ones that were filled with anger,
violence, and the need to exact revenge.
Lucien kept tapping his finger on the table, and
everyone focused their attention on him. “The evidence is pretty self
explanatory,” Lucien said through his teeth. “The dates on the receipts were
only days before the bombing, and they even had a floor plan of the cabin on
our property that got bombed.” The anger in the room increased. “Tonight we go
in, infiltrate their fucking cult asses, and take every last one of them down,”
Lucien said in a low, deadly and calculating voice.
“Any
objections?”
The room stayed silent.
“Good, now spend time with your loved ones, have
something to drink to wind down, because as it is you all are about ready to
bust. Come nightfall those bastards will find out what it means to mess with
The Brothers of Menace.”
****
Nightfall was just in a few hours, and the guys were
spending time with their families, and preparing for heading out to the
warehouse as soon as night was upon them. Lucien sat on the couch pressed against
the wall and stared at his mom and her husband, who spoke with Molly. Malice
and Adrianna were playing trucks with Dakota, and Lucien could see the love the
hardened biker had for his old lady and his son. To think that all of this crap
kept happening to them, their families put in danger, and for what? Lucien
loved the MC, but sometimes he did think about all of the people he cared about
being put in harm’s way because of them.
Tuck was sitting on the other couch across the room
with his son and daughter, and the other guys were relaxing and enjoying this
moment of peace before all hell broke loose. Kink had gone to the back rooms
with Cookie, and Lucien could only assume why the brother had wanted to have
some alone time with his woman. Kink might not have outright claimed Cookie as
his old lady to the club, but he’d have to be fucking blind—all the members in
fact—not to see the man had it bad for the redhead. Even after he had the talk
with him, one that seemed ages ago now, Kink had been acting different. It
might only be a small, subtle change, but it was a change all the same. There
was still this tightness to the other man, a dangerous anger that could very
well tear the club in two. Hell, Kink had gotten into shit with two men, one of
them Malice and the other Pierce, and all because he wasn’t dealing with what
was going on in his life. But Lucien couldn’t really relate to what Kink was
going through. He didn’t have any kids, didn’t have to deal with a crazy ex,
and sure as hell didn’t have a woman that was tying him in knots.
On the heels of that thought he glanced at Callie,
knowing that it was wrong to even be looking at her. But he was not able to
forget about the traitorous shit he had done behind Kink’s back. He might not
have touched her, wouldn’t even think about it given she wasn’t even eighteen
yet, but he had thought about her in ways he shouldn’t have. He still felt like
he had betrayed Kink because he hadn’t even told his VP about Callie being
drunk, and Lucien taking her back to his house to sleep it off. Lucien might
not have touched her, but fuck, any man would be livid knowing a grown ass man
had kept something like that secret, and had a high school graduate sleeping in
his spare bed.
Callie looked over at him, but he hoped she was
still pissed from this morning. He had sat down, told her that it had been a
big fucking mistake taking her to his house and keeping this from Kink. She may
have nodded, maybe have said that eventually she’d tell her dad, but that she
wanted to do it on her own terms, but he could tell she was uncomfortable.
Hell, he was, too. He had to look into his VP’s face, knowing what he had done
was wrong, but still not say anything. Lucien knew that he should be the one to
tell Kink, but when Callie had all but pleaded that she be the one, he had
backed down. Lucien never backed down, but with Callie he was finding out that
he could be a totally different man, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
Callie pushed away from the wall she was leaning against, said something to
Tuck’s
daughter, Lila, and made her way toward him.
“Fuck,” he gritted out softly and glanced around the
room. Anyone that could see would be able to tell there was something up
between them, especially since Callie seemed so different around him now.
Lucien could really go for a beer right now, but he wanted to keep a level head
for tonight, and whatever Callie was about to say to him. If he was smart he’d
avoid her, but if that didn’t send up a bunch of red fucking flags to everyone,
he didn’t know what would. Also, he didn’t
want
to avoid her, and that pissed him off even more. But he didn’t get up, and
instead he leaned back on the couch. She stopped beside him, but didn’t say
anything right away. Instead she glanced around, probably seeing if anyone else
was watching this awkward exchange. Everyone was busy with other things, thank
fuck, because he didn’t need a confrontation right now.
“Hi,” she said softly, and sat down on the edge of
the couch.
He nodded and shifted so he could see her. He had
known this young woman nearly her whole life, and had watched her grow up into
the beautiful woman she was today, but that didn’t give him a right to even
think about wanting something with her even if she was older. Even if Callie
had been ten years older, she was the daughter of
a Brother of Menace member, and that meant she was off limits to
any of the other guys.
“Can we talk?” she asked in this almost timid voice.
He didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable around him,
but things had definitely changed. Things were dangerous now, and not just
because of everything going on with the club.
“What’s up, Callie?” He grabbed a cigarette from
inside of his cut, knowing he should quit, but feeling on edge because of
tonight and everything that had happened thus far.
She glanced down at her hands in her lap. She was
twisting them together furiously.
“You don’t have to be nervous, Callie.” He put the
cigarette between his lips, lit the end, and leaned back on the couch, and
stared at her.
“Well, you know I do, and I’m surprised you are able
to stay as calm as you are.” She looked at him and smiled, and it seemed
awkward as hell. “So,” she cleared her throat. “I said thank you, but I want
you to know I really appreciate all you did for me in bailing me out, and
letting me be the one to tell my dad.”
“You’re Kink’s daughter and a member of this club
family, Callie. Any member of this club would have done the same.” He turned
his head and exhaled. “But he needs to know, Callie. When do you plan on
telling him?”