Desolation Road

by Feehan, Christine

  Czar looked around the table, his gaze touching on Alena, one of the only two fully patched female members. “You need to be very careful of the relationship you have with Pierce, Alena. Always remember, he’s a Diamondback. Just as you’re fully loyal to Torpedo Ink, he’s loyal to them. You always, always have to watch your back and protect your identity and your life at all times.”

  She nodded. “I’m aware.”

  “You’re still doing it—looking for that adrenaline rush. Maybe all of us are. We lived so long in crisis, on the edge, we think we need that intensity of staying there, balancing right there on that edge, to feel like we’re alive, but we have to find a way to stop. All of us do.”

  Absinthe looked down at his hands. Every member of Torpedo Ink was so fucked up. They’d been that way since they were children. Czar had been made responsible for them at the age of ten years old. He’d been their parent, their instructor, their savior, all rolled into one. He was still that. He’d been a child raising other children in the worst possible environment, doing his best to keep them alive and keep them human. He was their moral compass back then, and was still leading them now.

  “I’m aware, Czar,” Alena admitted. “He’s an addiction. A thrill.” She sighed. “Okay, more than that to me, although I know better. And I know nothing can come of it. I’m ultra-careful. I promise. I never go near his other club members.”

  “Keep it that way. Don’t let him lure you near them. And you never slip away from your guards. You understand me?”

  “Ice has made that very, very clear, Czar,” Alena said, indicating her older birth brother.

  Absinthe glanced at Ice. Ice and Storm, Alena’s twin brothers, watched over her even more closely than the other members of the club did. Ice’s face was set in stone. He didn’t like the relationship any more than the rest of them did.

  Czar took Alena at her word. That was one thing about the club members—they didn’t lie to one another. They had a code and they followed it to the letter. It was how they survived and how they lived. They were changing, trying to evolve, trying out a new way of living, but they kept to their original code. Anyone joining Torpedo Ink was expected to live by that same code, and if they betrayed it, the penalty was death. They had to live that way from the time they were children because they knew if they didn’t, they wouldn’t survive; they’d lost too many others to the other side.

  “Essentially, the Diamondbacks want us to remove the managers of all three clubs permanently, both the night and day managers, and burn the clubs to the ground. Once Code establishes that Venomous did in fact encroach deliberately and are bringing in drugs, I have no problem with the request, although I don’t want this done where there can be any blowback to us, so we plan carefully, and where we can’t be seen by anyone,” Czar continued.

  That meant not wearing their colors or allowing the Diamondbacks to know when they were going in to fulfill the contract on the off chance—and in Absinthe’s opinion it was a big one—that they were being set up.

  “The fires are a different matter altogether. I want to know who owns the buildings. If there is insurance, and can we make certain no one else can get hurt? That’s a pretty big order,” Czar added. “We don’t torch the building with anyone in it.”

  Alena dropped her hands into her lap, twisting her fingers together. Absinthe instantly covered her hands with one of his for comfort beneath the table. He didn’t look at her.

  Czar turned his attention to Code. “I want this researched very, very carefully. Take your time. If the Venomous club doesn’t actually own the buildings, we don’t take them down. We don’t drag civilians into this. We can’t afford to make a mistake.”

  “Diamondbacks could be setting us up,” Steele, the vice president, commented. He always presented a good counterpoint and he was nearly always the calming influence. “All they need is good video of one of us and they think they’ll have us in their pocket. A little blackmail and they think we’ll do whatever they want.”

  “A little blackmail and we wipe them out one by one,” Reaper corrected.

  “True,” Steele agreed, “and they’d never see it coming, or know where it’s coming from, but the video would still be out there, and we all know how difficult it is to get that shit back. And they have no idea we’d react that way. They don’t know us.”

  “I’ve got eyes on the Diamondbacks,” Code said. “The moment Plank asked us to go after his wife and get her back and then he got a little weird on us …”

  “Weird?” Keys asked.

  “I stayed with them until they could get their own doctor, remember?” Steele reminded. “I think Plank would have liked to wipe us all out.”

  Reaper nodded. “He thought he’d set us up to get rid of us when we brought her back to him. He was leery then, still thinking we might have had something to do with her kidnapping in the first place. Pierce talked him out of it. Told him our club might be useful to him.”

  “Plank was still nervous,” Steele said. “In the end, I think he just wanted us to fade away.”

  Czar shook his head. “We’ve added another chapter with twenty-five members. That’s not fading away. And now there’s the problem of Tawny.”

  There was a small silence. Absinthe shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Tawny had been one of the women who hung around the club, ready and willing to party all the time. She was up for anything, anytime, with any of them. She made it clear her goal was to be with all of them, including Czar, who made it equally clear he was off-limits.

  It wasn’t that they looked down on Tawny because she was so promiscuous. Hell, they partied hard when they wanted to. It was because Tawny had no loyalty at all. She lied to everyone and caused as much trouble as she could among other women who came to the parties. She tried to undermine friendships. She wanted to climb over the top of people, and if she was angry with anyone, she talked as much shit about them as possible—truth or lies, it didn’t matter.

  She had committed one too many sins, although they all had to take some responsibility in her last fiasco, but they were all relieved when she was told to leave. She’d gone straight to the Diamondbacks. All of them knew she would run her mouth about them, but she didn’t really know anything about their club. It wouldn’t stop her from making up stories though.

  “So now we all know we have an enemy in the Diamondback camp. Tawny has managed to become best friends with a woman by the name of Theresa,” Code said. “Theresa just happens to be the old lady of one of the members, a man by the name of Terry Partridge. His road name is Judge. I think you all remember how Tawny can suddenly be best friends with someone if it benefits her.”

  “How do you find out all this stuff, Code?” Transporter asked.

  “I monitor all correspondence between them. Tawny has a lot to say to Theresa, in particular about all of us. Now she has her sights set pretty high in the Diamondback club.”

  Czar looked around the table. “You should all remember Tawny and her scheming ways. She was hoping to be Reaper’s old lady, and when that didn’t pan out, I think Savage was her next target.”

  Savage lifted an eyebrow. “Yeah, she was all over me until I had her a couple of times and then she decided I wasn’t the one for her.” He shrugged. “Said she liked my kind of sex. I laid it out for her, spelled it out plain as day. She didn’t like it after all.”

  “Your sex is extreme, Savage, even for someone like Tawny,” Czar said. “I imagine you scared the shit out of her on purpose. You don’t ever want anyone more than once anyway.”

  Savage didn’t reply but he exchanged a look with Maestro that Absinthe couldn’t interpret. Savage was brutal. And scary. And dangerous. Tawny shouldn’t have tried lying to him. With a man like Savage, that was just plain stupid—especially when it came to sex.

  Ice nudged Storm. “I’m pretty certain we were her favorites. She was all over us. We weren’t rough.”

  “She was all over every single one of you and no doubt she�
��s all over every one of the Diamondbacks,” Czar said. “The point is, she’s got the ear of one of Plank’s close friends through his old lady.”

  Code nodded. He didn’t look at Alena, but Absinthe did as Code continued. “Tawny has convinced Theresa, who in turn has convinced her husband, that Alena is not only using Pierce so she can spy on the Diamondbacks, but that her mission is to kill Plank. Supposedly, Alena wants to prove to Czar that she’s every bit as good as one of the men in our club.”

  The fact that Code didn’t look at Alena told Absinthe he’d already revealed the contents of the emails to her. He had her back. They all did. She and Lana were the only two female survivors of the school of horrors they’d grown up in, and all of them watched over them.

  “Theresa has enlisted the aid of her husband in helping her get Pierce to see that Tawny is the one for him. She’s whispering to all the club members how dangerous Alena is and how they need to watch out for her to protect their president,” Code continued.

  “And then they turn around and ask us to do their dirty work for them,” Mechanic said. “What a crock of shit. It’s probably a setup, just like Czar said. Or they’re after Alena, trying to throw some heat her way.”

  “I am afraid of that,” Czar admitted. “Have you been careful, Alena, when you’re around Pierce? You haven’t allowed him to see your gifts? Any of your abilities? You haven’t told him about your childhood or how you were raised? The fact that you know more ways to kill him than he could ever have been taught with all his military training? Even hinted at it?”

  “Of course I didn’t allow him to see or suspect any of that,” Alena snapped indignantly. “I’m no amateur, Czar, and I wouldn’t get so wrapped up in him that I would forget who my loyalties belong with. He wanted to know what happened to Fred from the Venomous club on the last run we went to when the man keeled over at the table, but I told him I didn’t know, that I had no idea why he died or how.” She looked at Absinthe. “It’s true. I don’t know how you actually melt someone’s brain any more than I know how I can burn the world down if I get pissed enough.” Her tone suggested she was getting that pissed right then.

  Absinthe shrugged. He rubbed his thumb along the top of her hand to soothe her. “We were all born with gifts. Probably everyone, everywhere, is. We needed ours and we worked until we could use them. Now we’re stuck with them.” He shrugged again, trying to make it all seem casual, trying to tell Alena he believed in her, that they all did.

  Alena gave him a faint smile of appreciation and then turned her attention back to their president. “Don’t worry, Czar. I follow protocol at all times. When I leave the safety of the clubhouse, I wear prints, and I never deviate from our scripts.”

  Czar nodded his approval. “Just know this is hanging over your head like a sword. Tawny is an enemy and she’s capable of creating a force in that club against us and you in particular. She wants what you have. She wants to best you, Alena.” He looked around the table. “She wants to best all of us. Once she gets Plank’s ear, he’ll likely grow even more uneasy than he already is.”

  “Pierce knows what I am,” Ice confessed without one iota of remorse in his voice. His glacier-blue eyes met Czar’s eyes across the table. “In Vegas. He came to see Alena. I didn’t want him to think he could pull anything on her and get away with it. I let him see me. He knew I’d come after him and I’d kill him.”

  “He saw us that first time he met us when they came to talk about Plank’s wife being taken,” Reaper said. “It was in his eyes then. He knew what he was up against trying to protect his president. He might not realize Alena is every bit as lethal as we are, but if that’s the case, he’s more of an idiot than I’ve given him credit for.”

  “I think we should take the fucking job if Code says it’s legit. Venomous club is becoming a pain in the ass,” Transporter said.

  Mechanic nodded his head. “I agree. I say we pull it off without letting the Diamondbacks see how we did it and they’ll be all the more confused about us. Give them something to think about other than the gossip Tawny is spreading around about Alena.”

  “Vote on it then,” Czar said.

  Absinthe knew before he tapped his own yes on the table that they would go after the six managers of the clubs. One didn’t invade another club’s territory. It was against the code of every club, not just theirs.

  Czar turned to Code. “The first part of the request is a go provided the information given to us is correct. The second is a go only if the Venomous club owns the buildings.”

  Code nodded. “I’ll have that information to you along with everything I can get on the movements of our targets as soon as possible.”

  “Be thorough. If it takes extra time, I’d rather know we’re not hitting at civilians,” Czar reiterated. “If we decide it’s a go, team one will take this one, both jobs. Alena, you’ll need to make certain you’re not seen at all anywhere near Sacramento. That goes for all of you. No bikes. No colors. We slip in and slip out. Mechanic, you’ll disrupt all electrical systems anywhere near the clubs. Code, I’ll need the blueprints and layouts, the latest you can get me. You know the drill. All information as quickly as possible. No possible trace as usual. We’ll meet again as soon as Code gives us the information we need. At that time, we’ll determine whether or not we’ll do this job.”

  Czar led team one. Absinthe was on the first team with Reaper, Savage, Ice, Storm, Mechanic, Transporter and Alena. They had always worked together from the time they were very small children. Steele headed up team two with the rest of Torpedo Ink. Sometimes both teams worked a job, and others, they had to cross over, but for the most part, one team was on standby in case the other needed help.

  “Second part of this business is the drugs,” Czar continued. “We’ve got a line on the drugs moving into Sacramento through the Diamondbacks and now the Venomous club. Code uncovered a single pipeline both clubs are using that seems to originate from Mexico, but it isn’t coming from there. He’s been tracing that pipeline back to the source and, surprisingly, the drugs are coming in from Canada, not Mexico like it first appears.”

  “What does that mean?” Steele asked.

  “Someone has deliberately made it seem as if the drugs have come in from Mexico,” Code said. “But when I continued with the trace, the trail stopped dead. I had to go back and found a single thread, picked it up there and found the origins are in Canada.”

  Czar drummed his fingers on the table. “There’s a possibility that the Ghosts are involved in this. There’s one name that continues to come up. Louis Levasseur seems to be bringing in everything. Fentanyl, meth, heroin, cocaine. Code is looking into him. His name is new on our list so we don’t have much on him.”

  “This is a huge job. I’ve asked my friend Cat to help out,” Code said.

  “We don’t want to put an innocent in danger,” Czar cautioned, frowning. “These people are extremely dangerous. They play for keeps and they’re aware someone is looking for them.”

  “She’s careful,” Code said. “I told her not to take any chances, not to use her own equipment and to make absolutely certain her location can’t be traced. She has orders to break off if they even start to trace her. She knows what she’s doing.”

  “Any chance this man has anything to do with the Ghosts we’ve run into before? Didn’t they have some origins in Canada?” Keys asked.

  “They seem to be spreading their poison everywhere,” Reaper said. His woman, Anya, had been targeted by the Ghosts.

  “I have a bad feeling about the assassins the Ghosts are mixed up with,” Absinthe said. He was reluctant to bring it up because his “feelings” hit on the mark every time now and Czar was aware of it. He didn’t want another “gift” revealed. To him, those talents he’d developed as a child had become curses he couldn’t shake, no matter how hard he tried. Still, they were in dangerous territory and his club needed all the advantages they could get.

  Czar turned those piercing, assessing
, all-seeing eyes of his on him. It felt a little as if the president of his club could get right through flesh and bone and see into one’s soul. Absinthe didn’t want anyone doing that, especially not the man he admired most in the world.

  “What kind of ‘feeling,’ Absinthe?”

  In spite of the fact that Czar probably knew whatever Absinthe was going to couch in terms of speculation, his voice was mild, simply an inquiry.

  “We’ve talked about it before, but the assassins the Ghost club hire to intimidate the rival clubs by killing their women, the way the assassins work, is too reminiscent of the way we were trained. We’ve seen their work. We briefly considered that they might have been trained in the same schools as we were and then we dismissed it. I think we should consider it a very real possibility. We patched in twenty-five members of a club made up of members from a school Gavriil attended. He vouched for those men because he knew them. We got to know them, but just briefly. Now we’ve got another club, members of two schools made up of men who were trained just as we were. They want to be patched over like the others, to be part of our club.”

  Steele leaned in close, his eyes shrewd. “What are you saying?”

  “We have to get to know those wanting to join. We’re not just going to take them on faith. We have to invite them here, to our clubhouse. We’ve got to let them near our women. These men are trained assassins, just like us. They were trained in the schools in Russia, and like us, they have banded together. I believe that the assassins the Ghosts hire also are from these same schools, displaced children set free when Sorbacov was killed. I think the man running the largest pedophile ring we know of, the one we know only as the Russian, set them up here in the United States to do his work for him.”

  Once Absinthe had stated the possibility aloud, it made even more sense. There wasn’t a lot any of those trained in Sorbacov’s schools could do other than continue to kill. They didn’t know any other way of life. Where could they go? There was so much blood on their hands. They’d started so young. Some had a taste for it, a liking. Others just didn’t know how to stop. Some, like the members of Torpedo Ink, had no idea how to live in society. Absinthe figured those working for the Russian hiring out as assassins for the Ghosts and possibly others had a liking for killing.