by KJ Dahlen
All three men shook their heads. “Two of them wore a different cut than ours.”
Gunner looked at Cobra then back at Cobra's VP and asked. “Who’s cut?”
“Satan’s Warriors.”
Gunner shook his head and rubbed his hands over his face. “Fucking hell,” He swore. Looking at Gypsy he asked, “What did they do to Boomer and Blacky?”
“They lowered their bodies to the floor. Boomer was happy to be down and asked them to cut his hands free. One of them grabbed him by the hair and pulled this huge fucking machete from behind him and cut his fuckin head off. Then the other did the same to Blacky.” Gypsy shook his head. “Never seen anything so fucked up as that before.”
Player took a step forward. “They even took the heads with them.”
Cobra looked at his man and nodded. “So whoever sent them wanted proof of death.”
“You know these guys?” Gunner asked.
“Yeah, I know them,” Cobra admitted. “We’ve had a run in or two with them back home. They come out of New Roads, Louisiana. They’re a dirty bunch.”
“What about the third man?” Jett wanted to know.
Thor tipped his head to the side, “Well now, that’s just the thing ain’t it? He stayed back out of the moonlight. But I got a good enough look at him to read his cut. He wore a Savaged Souls cut. I couldn’t see his face to know which one he was.”
“The hell.” Gunner growled.
“Dad, he could be one more of Blacky’s men?” Dana suggested. “He claimed there were four. Arizona was one, Scorpion was another one, but there are still two more.”
“She’s got a point Gunner,” Cobra agreed.
“I might know of one of them,” a soft voice called out from the doorway to the hall.
Everyone turned to see Becky standing there with Patriot.
Gunner and Cobra could see that she was trembling and Patriot was holding her up. She was clinging to him almost as if her life depended on it.
Gunner saw the look of fear in her eyes. “Darlin’, you all right?” he asked her softly.
She leaned into Patriot’s embrace and nodded. “As much as I just want to forget what happened to me, I know I can’t. I won’t say I’m sorry Blacky is dead but I would have wanted him to suffer at least a little bit more than he did.”
“What more do you know about Blacky and these traitors?” Cobra asked.
Patriot helped her over to the nearest chair and sat down with her in his lap.
Everyone gathered around to hear what she had to say.
Becky held tight to Patriot’s hand and began her revelation, “I know Blacky was a cold, heartless man, if you can call him a man. He saw himself as a big man but he was really just a scumbag. He kept me separate from the other girls for a reason. I think he knew who my dad was and he wanted me around to show Dad he could do whatever he wanted to me and there was nothing Dad could do about it.” She shook her head. “I’m sure he would have killed me or sold me sooner if he knew my father wouldn’t give a shit about me. He could never find my dad and that pissed him off royally. He made me feel it every single time he opened that door. Over the three months he held me, I learned the hard way to take notice of what was going on around me. I’d never been treated like that before so it took me a few weeks to adjust but I did. I learned to block out the pain and pay attention. He had visitors all the time.”
“What kind of visitors?” Gunner asked.
“Well, there were two men that came and went many times while Blacky held me. I also heard a lot but couldn’t always see what was going on. I heard the name Scorpion and Arizona, but I also heard them talk about Gunner and Dana .I heard the name Grizzly a few times too.”
“Are you sure it was Grizzly?” Gunner demanded as he clenched his hands into fists.
When she nodded, Gunner let loose a roar of rage and flipped a table over with a few mugs on it. “That fucking bastard!” he shouted.
“Who is Grizzly Dad?” Winona asked.
Gunner snapped his head toward her and bit out angrily, “He’s one of the men that’s been on a three week run checking out someone for club business. You haven’t met him yet but he’s due back tomorrow.” He ran his fingers over the back of his head. “Now I find out he’s one of Blacky’s men. Fucking hell, how many more people have I trusted with my life only to find them to be worthless pieces of shit, looking to kill us all?”
Trembling Becky continued, “There was another man as well but I never heard his name or saw him clearly. It was late one night and Blacky and him were talking when they stopped in front of the door that led to my cell. I could see them standing there glaring at me. One of my eyes had swollen almost shut, so I couldn’t see him well enough to see his face.” She paused and wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. “I remember he had blazing green eyes when Blacky opened the door for him to look at me. I heard his gravelly voice when he swore at Blacky.” She shuddered in revulsion, “I’ll never forget that voice.” Swallowing hard she continued, “I don’t know if he belonged to an MC or if he could have been cartel but his eyes scared me.”
“That could be Blacky’s fourth man.” Cobra snarled. “But who the hell is he?”
“I...” Becky rubbed at her temples. “I-I remember s-something else. I don’t think he is one of yours.”
“What does that mean?” Gunner asked.
“The same night they were arguing about the price or something. Blacky wanted more money from this guy and the other man kept telling him that the deal would stand as agreed on. Blacky said something about how he didn’t care. If he was going to betray his MC, the price was going to have to be high enough to make it worth his while and that if the man wanted into a good deal he should be prepared to pay a higher price. The other guy was not happy at all.”
“How long ago was this?” Gunner wanted to know. He looked around the room.
More of his men were awake now and they were all listening.
“Maybe a month ago?” Becky shrugged. “I had no way of knowing what the day was let alone how long I had even been there. One day just sort of blended into another after a while.”
“Well shit, boss.” Gypsy growled. “How many times did that bastard sell us out?”
“We may never know,” Gunner admitted grimly. “Members of the Satan’s Warriors took his and Boomer’s heads this morning.” He exhaled hard. “We may have figured out another brother working for Blacky though.”
“Who?” Tramper asked.
“Grizzly.”
“Ahh, FUCK!” All the men swore.
Tramper looked over at Becky and asked, “Are you sure?”
Becky shook her head. “All I know is that I heard the name mentioned. I didn’t hear the context of the conversation but I know I heard that name mentioned.”
Gypsy looked over at Gunner. “Maybe there’s another reason his name was mentioned. I never would have taken Griz for a traitor.”
“He most likely is not,” Annie announced as she and Harry joined them.
“What the hell does that mean?” Gunner stared at her.
Annie stopped in front of him and looked him in the eye as she said, “We’ve been investigating the whole lot of you. That’s why we’ve been huddled up with our computers the last few days. We found that Scorpion was suspect and it didn’t take much to figure that out. Endo, we found was the kid all grown up, searching out the people who let his dad and brother get murdered. He was not a traitor, just a user of your club and business. Grizzly’s name might have been mentioned but we did not find any evidence he’s your traitor either.”
“How can you be so sure?” Cobra wanted to know.
Harry spoke up then, “Grizzly’s real name is John Crowly and he’s a U.S. Marshal, a highly decorated U.S. Marshal.”
Just then, the front door opened and Grizzly walked in the clubhouse. He looked weary after being on the road for three weeks and he carried a duffle bag in his hand.
“Well speak of the fucki
ng devil,” Boone grumbled.
Everyone turned to stare at him.
The big guy stopped dead in his tracks as they all looked at him. Then he looked to Gunner and asked, “What is all this boss?”
“A U.S. Marshal?” Gunner growled. “Really?”
Grizzly looked at each of the brothers then back to Gunner and he let out a sigh. “Yeah, I’m a Marshal but before you condemn me, I suggest you listen to what I have to say.” He dropped his duffle bag on the floor and walked over to pour himself a cup of coffee.
The men in the room watched him closely and the tension could be cut with a knife... A huge knife.
Sitting down on a chair, he turned it so he could face them. “My real name is John Crowly and yes I’m a U.S. Marshal. Have been for about ten years, give a year or so. My boss, Jason Carter was worried about rumors he heard coming from this area about a human trafficking ring operating here. He sent me in because I looked more like a biker than the rest of his men. I found you guys doing bounty hunting and so I checked you all out. I found you guys were running a legit business but I stayed anyway. Then I found Blacky wasn’t legit but he hid his illegal activities well. I’ve been gathering the evidence I needed to bust him for a couple of years now. I wanted there to be no escape for him.” He took a sip of his coffee.
“There wasn’t,” Gunner informed him. “He’s dead. He was found out and faced a tribunal. He got a death sentence but managed to escape. He was then caught and again, after he kidnapped Dana. He faced death but it wasn’t us that killed him. He was beheaded by another club this morning, along with his dad.”
Grizzly nodded. “Let me guess, Satan’s Warriors killed them?”
“How the hell did you know it was them?” Cobra asked.
“One of the reasons I headed back early was the rumor that Blacky was moving his base of operations to New Roads, Louisiana. That’s Satan’s Warriors territory. A perfect location for moving people, I might add. Close to the river and all. All he had to do was have the girls and the Warriors would take them down river to a waiting boat. Both Blacky and the Warriors would make a great deal of money.”
“If you knew all this, why didn’t you clue us in?” Boone wanted to know.
Grizzly shook his head. “Boss man wanted to catch everyone. We still had a couple of men to identify before we could move in.”
Cobra snorted. “Jason Carter, hell if that man wasn’t always a pain in the ass. He’s wanted to bust my ass for a long time now, but never could because I haven’t broken any laws.”
Grizzly nodded as he looked over at the other man. “Yeah, he thinks the same about you.” Looking over at Gunner he said, “He knew the moment Cobra and the Lost Sons got here. He’s got eyes other than mine on the lot of you. He wanted to wait and see if Cobra and his men joined Blacky or just what they were here to do.”
“Who else is fucking here spying on us?” Cobra demanded.
Gunner spoke up before Griz could say anything, “Cobra isn’t the problem here bucko, you are.”
Grizzly got to his feet and stared at Gunner. “I know you think I betrayed you and the club but I didn’t. Your business is growing and your rep is growing too. You and these guys are doing a legit job, the Marshals would have checked you out regardless. Yes, I was sent here to check you guys out but that’s not why I stayed.”
“So not the point here.” Gunner glared at him. “You used your position to spy on our club.”
“You can call it that but my only reports were on Blacky’s activities. He was the only man we were after and no one needed to know the rest of what I found,” Grizzly explained. “Jason asked about the rest of it but I told him there was nothing to tell. He asked me to stay to get Blacky’s connections. We got most of them and now, Jason can move in and bust them.” He paused then added, “So you said they took his and Boomer’s heads? Well, if we can catch them with the evidence, we’ll have them for murder as well, which holds a stiffer penalty. Will you allow me to make a call? We’ve been wanting to get the Warrior’s on something big.”
Gunner glared at his man.
Nodding, Cobra suggested, “Let him make the call, and we’ll see what happens. At the very least, you’ll find out if he’s telling the truth or not.”
Gunner nodded. “Make the call. But this doesn’t excuse what you did.” Then he remembered something his man had said. “So why did you stay?”
“I stayed because for the most part, you guys are doing something good here. I felt like I found a good home. My boss is not happy with me because I don’t like the fucking red tape he insists on putting in front of me. He wanted to nail you guys just because you were tied to Blacky. He wanted the whole bunch of you for his crimes. He got really pissed when I went over his head to convince his boss that you guys were not tied in with what Blacky was doing. I had to fight like hell to clear you guys but I stood up for this MC.” Shaking his head Grizzly added, “Lucky for me, I had the evidence to prove my point. Jason was called on his bullshit and warned by the Attorney General and he’s not happy at all about it.”
“Make the call you need to make, catch these animals with their fucking proof,” Gunner grumbled. “Then you need to explain everything.”
Chapter Fifteen
Patriot pulled Becky’s shivering body closer to his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and just held her until she stopped shaking. She was beginning to mean something to him and he wanted to explore where this could be going.
When she first came to them, he took one look at her beaten body and shuddered. How could anyone survive what she had? Over time, he got to know her better he saw her bravery and pure stubbornness. She just plain refused to let Blacky kill her spirit and it was that same spirit that she held onto even now.
Her bruises had faded as her injuries healed over the time she’d been there. She was almost back to normal ‒ well as normal as a person could be ‒ who’d been through what she had.
He still listened to her cry out at night when she thought she was alone in the dark. Many nights, he would lay with her to calm her fears and she clung to him. But he always wanted more. He knew he might never get more than what he had right now. For the time being, she was using him as a shield against the harshness of the rest of the world and that was fine with him. He was big enough for her to hide behind and he was enjoying the fact that she could do that but he knew in his heart...he wanted more than what she was giving him.
He would never force himself on her and he hoped she knew this too. He had a gut feeling there was still danger out there and he prayed the club could protect her from it.
After a long silence in the room, Gunner turned back to Annie and asked, “Did you figure out who might be the other two men willing to work with Blacky?”
She smiled. “We have an idea but nothing we can prove beyond a shadow of doubt and we won’t accuse any man until we know for sure.”
Cobra nodded. “That shows integrity on your part, anyway.”
“We did find something interesting however,” Harry spoke up.
“And what would that be?” Gypsy asked. “As if we can take any more good news today.”
“We found Blacky’s second bank account under a false name and that account has a balance filled with many zeros behind a double digit number. Most of the payments are from one source.”
“Who?” Gunner growled.
“Stanley Granite a.k.a. Nightcrawler, president of Satan’s Warriors. They’ve been doing business for well over a year now.”
Gunner ran his fingers through his hair again in frustration. “Well, fuck a duck. Blacky was double crossing the Warriors, the Russians, the cartel and us, who else did he fuck over?”
“Holy hell boss,” Boone whispered over loudly. “Blacky got off lightly for what he did, not only to us but to everyone else as well.”
“And as usual, we’re left to mop up his fucking mess.” Gunner snarled. “Dying was too good for him.”
“We still need to find the
third man at the warehouse from this morning,” Dana reminded them. “He might even be one of our own.”
“Or someone else Blacky tried to cheat.” Cobra shrugged. “This bastard was bad news all the way around it seems.”
Grizzly paused then stared at Gunner. “I might have an idea who the third man is.”
Gunner glared at him. “Who and what do you know?”
“One of my jobs here was to connect Blacky’s dots, find out who he was associated with and report them to Jason, so he could follow up. One of the leads I gave Jason was a man named Carl Womack. He’s big in city government. The mayor of Waco’s right hand man. As such, he knows what everyone is doing and he’s got his fingers in a lot of pies in the state.”
“If that’s true then Blacky made a shitload of contacts. We may never know who all he owed,” Gunner grumbled.
“He was wearing a cut, a Savaged Soul cut.” Gypsy stated. “Where would he get one of those if he wasn’t a member?”
“That’s a good question.” Gunner nodded as he glanced over at Boone. “Could he have a fake cut?”
“That’s one possibility.” Boone shrugged. “But if I had to guess I would say he took it off the body of a real member.”
Gunner looked back over at Grizzly. “What can you tell us about this man Carl Womack?”
“He thinks he’s slick, but the bastard is just sleazy. He came over here once a month to collect payment from Blacky but I guess he won’t be doing that anymore. The Attorney General wanted everything I had so I gave it to him. He was working directly with Jason on this case but we found Jason hadn’t told him about any of the evidence I gathered for him. The Attorney General was interested in what I had to tell him and he wasn’t surprised by Jason’s behavior. He’d known all along that Jason had a grudge and was looking for a reason to bust you guys. You were showing him up with the number of people you were bringing in. You could find the very people he couldn’t locate. Not only that but you were making contacts he couldn’t dream of making.”
“So he’s still a threat to us?” Gunner asked.