Property Of Drex #2 (Death Chasers MC #2) (21 page)

Chapter 35

DREX

“The feds are still not factoring in,” Snake says, scratching out a piece of the theory on the white board. “Even if Sarah—
AJ
—is the leak, why not tell them everything? She fucking knew everything.” His jaw clenches shut, but he tries to act like the mention of her name isn’t acid on his tongue.

“Sarah isn’t the leak,” Eve states firmly, reminding every man in the room that she’s at my side. Yeah, it’s definitely a first.

Sledge’s lips twitch, Rush is annoyed with her being in here, and Snake gives her zero attention, pretending as though she didn’t just speak.

“Let’s pause this conversation since it’s not going anywhere,” Axle says while leaning up and putting his elbows on the table. “The guys want to know what our goal is. We had several more show up today after dropping their cuts at Herrin’s feet. They drove out here and asked to join us, but what the fuck are they joining? What’s the plan, Drex?”

Why do I have to have the plan?

“My bad. I got into the moment and said we were starting a new club,” Dash confesses unapologetically.

“I don’t have any plans. I’m out. No Death Dealers,” I tell them.

“Got that part,” Axle grumbles. “Perfectly fine with that. Just need to know if we’re forming our own club now or if I should tell the guys they need to go elsewhere for protection.”

“Does having a new club make you safer than just wearing your T-shirts while hanging out?” Eve quips, then slinks back when several of them give her a glare.

I toss my arm around her shoulders, trying not to laugh at her. Fucking day. Fucking week. Fucking life.

It’d be great if I could just disappear with her, but I owe it to the guys who’ve had my back to stick around until the heat has cleared.

“It creates unity, organization, and a sense of less chaos,” I explain, kissing the top of her head. “We should pick a name, iron out the details, resume business as normal, and deal with any backlash from our business associates as it comes. The guys need to know they can count on us, and I vote Sledge as Prez.”

Sledge coughs and strangles like he just swallowed his own tongue before shaking his head vehemently. “Fuck that. I don’t want to be P. That’s all you. These guys won’t listen to anyone but you right now. You stood up to Herrin, cold-cocked him, and then told Hershel to fuck off. That’s you, kid. Step up.”

Everyone at the table nods like they agree, and I groan. No way do I want to be President. It used to be my only goal in life, but now…

My eyes fall on Eve, who is nervously chewing on her thumbnail and staring at the table, probably dreading the answer I have to give.

“Glad that’s settled,” Axle says with a smirk, even though I haven’t answered. “Give us a name, P. It’s not going to be easy starting a new club in the limits of an existing club we’ve all just gone up against. So make it a badass name.”

Eve looks over at me, then over to Axle. “The Reapers,” she says quietly.

I snort, but everyone else slowly has a grin crawling up. I’m fairly positive that my girl from the burbs just tried to name our club. “It’ll go with your Death Dealer reaper tats that you already have, and it’ll piss off the Death Dealers when you turn it into your logo instead, only better. Like the reaper tattoo on Drex’s back,” Eve goes on. “It’s better than the DD logo. And it suits all of you.”

“We’ll talk about it more later. I need a drink and something to eat before we head over to have that chat with our next client.”

“You’re leaving?” Eve asks, grimacing when her voice cracks.

Did I seriously forget to tell her? I’m an ass.

“Yeah. We were supposed to have a big order we were going to start this week, but we need to make sure the Hemmers Family still want to do business with us, considering the circumstances. Best to do these things in person. It makes it harder for them to change their minds.”

I brush my lips over hers and pull her to me as some of the others start to exit.

“Don’t worry, Eve. Dash will be here, along with numerous others. This place is locked down tight right now. Stay in the room until I get back, though.”

She sighs but nods like she understands. She’s going to lose every ounce of tan if I continue to keep her locked up in here like I want to. Not to mention go bat-shit crazy with cabin fever or some shit.

“After we get some things sorted, you and me are getting away for a weekend.”

“Just the two of us?” she asks, grinning up at me.

“Yeah. Just the two of us.”

Her smile grows and she stands on her tiptoes before tugging at the front of my shirt. I bend over again, kissing her until her tongue starts to drive me crazy. Reluctantly, I pull back, adjust my hard cock in front of her, and then start leading her out again.

The last thing I want to do right now is leave her behind, but I sure as fuck can’t take her where I’m going.

“Dash,” I call as Eve heads up the stairs to my room. He jogs over, and as soon as he reaches me, I glance back as Eve ducks inside the room and shuts the door behind her.

“What’s up?”

I turn back to face him, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling in my stomach. It’s paranoia. I know it is, but it’s still nagging me.

“Call me if anything seems even a little bit off.”

“Yeah. Sure. I’ll be right down here though. We’re going to play a game of poker and maybe call some girls over.”

I dig my phone out as it buzzes, rolling my eyes when I see it’s a message from Rush telling me to hurry the hell up.

“Is Drake here?” I ask Dash.

“Nah. He’s back at work with a few armed guards. He wasn’t ever the real target, and his arms aren’t broken, so he wanted to get back to work.”

I nod, feeling that knot of unease double in size with every passing second. “Seriously, call me if anything seems out of place.”

Dash shrugs before nodding. “Nothing’s going down, D. Your girl can’t be touched, and I’m sure you’re not letting her out when you’re not here. Go. We got this. Hurry back so you can stop worrying.”

I glance back one last time, and start to head up to check on her, even though it just sounds fucking ridiculous to even think about. My phone buzzing again prompts me to head out instead, but I can’t handle the feeling of dread crawling over me.

Instead of thinking about it, I dial her like I’m not right downstairs on my way toward the garage.

“Miss me already?” she asks softly, causing me to smile despite the bad feeling that won’t ebb.

“Yeah. Just wanted to remind you to stay locked up. I shouldn’t be too long. If I am, I’ll have Dash send up some food.”

“That sounds good,” she says slowly.

“You okay?” I ask, pausing and looking back at the door.

“Of course. Just tired. Long day. I may take a nap.”

I turn and duck into the garage, flipping Rush off as he revs his engine, making hearing her a little harder.

“I wish I could take that nap with you. Call me if you need me.”

“Sure thing. And, Drex?”

“Yeah?” I ask, settling onto my own ride.

“I love you.”

Pretty sure it feels like someone has just kicked me in the stomach, but I swallow down whatever chaotic feelings those surprising words are stirring.

“Bye,” she says before hanging up when the silence drones on.

“Get your ass in fucking gear. The last thing we need to do is be late,” Rush snaps.

I slowly put away the dead phone, and try to wrap my head around what she just said. I’ll have to deal with that later. It’s not a good idea to be distracted right now.

Fuck.

Chapter 36

EVE

I slowly lower the phone as the barrel of the gun stares me in the face. Well, not the actual barrel, since there’s something else on it… A silencer?

They say your life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die. That’s not true. Everything goes fast and slow at the same time, and you feel like your stomach is twisted around a pole.

He takes the phone from my hand, drops it to the ground, and crushes it under his heavy boot.

“Good girl,” the guy says, peeking out the crack in the door after we hear the roar of the engines zooming out of the garage.

At least I got to say what I’ve been holding back. I wish I hadn’t held back now. The lone tear that rolls down my cheek isn’t for my own life. It’s for the redhead on the carpet who is slowly bleeding out, dying right in front of my eyes.

Colleen wasn’t nice to me when I got here, but she definitely redeemed herself when I was in the hospital. Her eyes meet mine with tears running as she stays paralyzed in place, frozen in death’s embrace as she tries to silently apologize.

She had to have let him in, probably at gunpoint. The Death Dealer tat on his left bicep lets me know what this is about.

I could scream. I could have told Drex what was going on—or tried to. I could do anything other than stand here, and there’s no doubt in my mind someone would kill this man. He’s outnumbered.

But how many would die in my place before he went down? My life isn’t worth risking someone else’s. Colleen is already going to die because of me.

He shoves the gun against my cheek, and I tense so tightly that my teeth start to hurt as he peers out the crack in the door again. He leans back and pulls out his own phone, and I watch as he glances down at Colleen.

“Hey, it’s me. Drex is gone, the girl is with me, but I had to shoot the redhead who runs the salon. She made a grab for my gun.”

Colleen’s eyes water more, and she starts to gurgle her own blood, doing something with her hand under the bed that I can’t see. I start to go to her side, but a cry of pain escapes me when the gun drops and digs into the flesh between my neck and chin, pressing up until it feels like I’m choking.

“Yeah. Not here. Can’t I just kill her up here like Herrin wants?”

He glares over at me like he’s expecting me to say something in protest, but I don’t give him the satisfaction of making another sound.

“Yeah. I get it. He’s your brother and you want some revenge. Just don’t tell Herrin I went along with this. Give me a distraction so I can get her out the door without anyone seeing.”

He hangs up the phone and glances over at Colleen. “Sorry, Red. Wrong place wrong time.”

She laughs. She freaking laughs while choking on blood, and I watch as she brings her phone out from under the bed and winks at me. The guy doesn’t notice, but I do. He’s busy staring out the crack while driving that gun into my skin more, forcing me up on my tiptoes as my head angles back against the wall.

I hope she didn’t call Drex. He could get killed. Or the others could get killed. Maybe they’ll just get here in time to save her life.

The bullet wound is in her side, and she moves her hand down to hold pressure on it.

Something happens somewhere, because the chairs scrape loudly across the ground below, and the sound of hurried footsteps drive away. The guy with a gun grabs my hair and starts dragging me out the door, rushing down the stairs so fast that I almost fall down.

He slings the door open, still dragging me with him, but now that the gun isn’t under my chin, I start fighting, clawing at his hand while screaming.

“Bitch,” he growls, clamping a hand over my mouth just as my knee comes up and collides with his balls.

He loses his hold on me as he stumbles backwards, and I dive for the door, only to feel my hair being ripped back again as my back lands into a hard body and my feet come off the ground. Someone has lifted me, and another disgusting hand comes over my mouth.

I try to bite into the flesh, even manage to draw blood, but all I hear is a sadistic laugh as I struggle in vain.

“She’s feisty. No wonder Drex has lost his fucking mind. Girl is probably damn good in bed.”

I don’t know the voice, but it isn’t the same guy who was holding a gun on me, considering he’s hobbling toward the SUV that is parked just down the street from the warehouse. Something loud crashes from behind the warehouse, letting me know the guys are being played and misdirected.

The guy holding me tosses me into the open door in the backseat, and I immediately try to push out on the other side, but the door doesn’t open.

A rumble of laughter spreads through the backseat just as the engine starts, and I turn to see a semi-familiar face. He almost looks like—

“You’re not as pretty as I was expecting, given all the fuss,” the asshole says as the SUV zooms out of the alley.

He’s big and tall, but it’s his eyes that have haunted me, even though they’re not exactly the same.

“Where are we doing this?” the driver I kneed in the balls asks.

“Let’s head to the club. I’ll fuck her in the backseat while you play the lookout, and then we’ll tie her fucking body up on the flagpole. It’ll make a bigger statement than leaving her dead in Drex’s bed like Herrin wanted.”

My eyes land on his gun, but it’s holstered to his side. The chances of me stealing it at the moment are slim.

“Don’t even think about it, bitch,” he taunts, actually giving me a dark, menacing smile.

My eyes jerk away, and I start searching for my next plan. Just as we turn on a back alley road, the SUV jerks to a halt. My entire body slams against the driver’s seat as the driver curses.

“The fuck is this shit?” the guy beside me snaps.

I look out the front windshield as a girl with long blonde hair smiles and waves at us, sitting on top of her car’s hood like she’s just chilling in the creepy alleyway with her car blocking the passage.

Oh shit. That’s Sarah…

“Is that Snake’s girl?” the guy beside me barks.

He throws the door open, just as the driver sucks in a breath. “Lester, no! She’s a—”

His words die in his throat when Lester’s body drops to the ground, despite the fact I never heard a sound. Sarah blows the end of her gun that has a silencer on the end of it as well, and she winks at me through the windshield before motioning with her head for me to move.

I scramble across the backseat, but before I can reach the door, I hear the sound of glass splitting and several grunts come from the driver. I look over to see blood oozing from his chest where four bullet holes are, and I climb out of the vehicle through the open door Lester left behind.

By the time I round the front, Sarah is already pulling the driver out of the front seat and putting his body next to Lester’s.

“Hey, Eve,” she says cheerily. “Don’t worry about, Colleen. I’m sure she’ll be fine. I sent the paramedics straight there after I got off the phone with her. I’m sure the guys will hate having to deal with the cops over that, but it is what it is. She’ll be fine though. No one wants someone with DD tat to die on their table, so they’ll work extra hard to save her. Or I’ll make them regret not saving her,” she prattles on, acting as though birds are singing and braiding her hair as she struts back to her car and pulls out a camera, snapping pictures of the dead bodies that are now near my feet.

“You killed them,” I whisper, searching for anyone who might have seen.

“They would have killed you,” she chirps while putting the camera back in her car and skipping—yes, skipping—back toward me like we’re two friends meeting for brunch.

“I can’t believe you shot them in broad daylight,” I go on, looking away from the sight I can’t stomach any longer.

She frowns while glancing down, but I don’t follow her gaze. I’ve seen enough blood.

“Yeah, I should have asked questions first. Guess I got trigger happy, considering what they did to my girl and what they planned to do to you. At least I didn’t get stabby.” She smiles like she just said the most brilliant thing ever. “The blood spray is ridiculous when I get stabby and that looks like a new shirt you have on. Hot Topic?”

I don’t know her at all. I just thought I did.

“We should probably go before people see the two dead guys,” she points out, smirking when I scramble toward her Audi. “I’m sure the guys have already freaked out and called Drex,” she goes on with her back to me, doing something to the front end of the abandoned SUV before skipping back toward the driver’s seat of her car.

“If you don’t mind, though,” she continues while shutting the door and squealing tires in reverse, driving us down the alley backwards without looking, “I’d like to show you something before turning you back over to him.”

I’m too busy trying not to taste my stomach in my throat to do anything other than nod.

She jerks the wheel and the car slings to the side, leaving the passenger side facing the alleyway once we hit the street, and she hands me a key fob.

“Lock the doors for me, please,” she says, confusing the shit out of me. I press the lock button like a grateful—

The loud explosion rattles the car, and jars me out of my own thoughts as I stare down the alleyway in horror at the SUV that just blew up. My eyes go down to the key fob, then back to the SUV, to the bodies that are also on fire now, burning much too fast for a normal sort of explosion. I think. Hell, I don’t know anything about explosions.

Sarah bursts out laughing before squealing away from the chaos, and I turn to gawk at her as she drives like a bat out of hell down the street.

“Was that me?” I whisper hoarsely.

“Yeah. It was. Felt good, huh?”

I drop the key fob like it’s on fire, and she laughs a little harder.

“Relax, Eve. They were already dead. The last thing you needed was any prints or hair fibers to be found, since you were just in there. By the way, that was Lester, Jessie’s brother. You remember Jessie? The rapist who Drex put in the hospital? Well, Jessie died two days ago. I can only imagine what Lester wanted to do to you as punishment. You can tell me thank you at any time.”

I swallow the bile in my mouth before choking out, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she says proudly, beaming as she continues to drive like a hellion, taking us out of town. “Now you can do me a favor. Tell me all about Marshall Hicks.”

My head snaps in her direction at the sound of my uncle’s name. “Why?”

“No questions right now. Just answers, please.”

“He’s my uncle. My dad’s half-brother—same mother, different dads. Why the hell are you asking about him?”

She cuts another curve, taking us into another small town, and she zooms down the street.

“Because I had a friend of mine digging into your family. Sorry. It was when you seemed so out of the loop about your father. I wanted to find out what else he hid, considering the Death Dealers never knew about you, yet Benny and Ben did know. My friend is a hacker like no other, and he found the hidden trail that linked Aaron to his family. By the way, do you know how badass your father was to be able to bury that shit and make it seem like he was a completely different Aaron Marks?”

“Sarah,” I groan. “My uncle? Why are you asking about him?”

“Oh. Right. Sorry. It struck me as odd that he was a rich lawyer living in Dallas, when you and your family were hurting for cash. Until I realized he isn’t living in Dallas. He lives just outside of Halo. Guess who employs Marshall Hicks under the table.”

I’m too busy trying to stave off an inevitable migraine to try and guess anything.

“Sarah, please have mercy on me.”

“Your uncle is part of a team of ten lawyers working for the Death Dealers. And I think he set your father up with the accounting job just so he could set him up to take the fall for stealing that money. Then I think the bastard killed your father and had Ben plant the seed in your head that it was Herrin or Drex. Obviously it didn’t work out as Ben intended, but it gives us probable cause to believe your father was legit murdered.”

Definitely not fighting off that migraine now.

“And I thought I was the conspiracy theorist. Are you sure?”

“Marshall is a slow kill kind of guy from what I’ve gathered. He would definitely be behind a plan as elaborate as infiltrating the Hell Breathers, using
your
connection to them. He’d have heard some whispered rumors of what the boys do with the vehicles, but not the details. He’d know about Cecil, since they’ve had to have numerous talks with anyone working for the boys during an investigation—and there have been many. Marshall is one of the desk jockeys. Not one of the pavement-pounders who comes to the boys. It’d be smart to stay off grid if you’re trying to fuck them over, but stay close enough
to
fuck them over. And now the feds make sense.”

“None of this makes sense. My uncle killed my father?” I’m too stunned to even try to process my feelings.

“That part is still conjecture. I’m talking about the feds make sense.”

“How?”

“Because when the feds would lock in on a case and finally have evidence enough to go to court, the criminals in question usually have no choice but to trust their lawyers with all the details they can manage to share, so their lawyers can best defend them. Not to mention they get to read over the probing information the prosecution has gathered as well. See? It’s brilliant. He failed at his attempt to simply take the money and pin it on a patsy. That wouldn’t work twice, so he decided to steal the money-making formula and form his own empire, since it’s shady but not as risky as drugs, guns, or gambling.”