by Tia Lewis
“You did, huh?” Drake glared at my brother, too. So did I. So did all of us. I couldn’t care the way I used to anymore. He had lied over and over, and it put us all in a shitty spot.
“I thought I could get it to go over. It’s a profitable deal. I didn’t know my President would be so stubborn.” He emphasized the word ‘President,' like it was a joke. I fought to keep myself under control.
Eagle nodded again. “You’re right. It is a profitable deal, and it’ll benefit everybody involved.” He looked at Drake. “Maybe I can convince you if Gunner can’t.”
“I don’t want you to waste your time,” Drake murmured. “Really. We’re not interested.”
One of Eagle’s guys spoke up. “All we’re asking is for you to be the contact with your connections. That’s it. They won’t do business with us, but we have the resources to run a good trade. All we need is them. Which means we need you. But just for that.”
“You really couldn’t make easier money than this,” Eagle added. “Just set it up. We’ll take on all the risk; you’ll collect part of the take.”
“If my connections wouldn’t do business with you, they won’t want to do business through us. If anything, that will destroy the relationship we have with them and end the whole thing before it begins. I’ve already thought this out, guys.”
Eagle nodded. “So don’t tell them it’s us you’re working with.”
Drake snorted. “Yeah. Because they won’t find out. Then we’ll have to deal with them—and the Mexican boys don’t fuck around when they’re pissed off.”
“What about the heat this will bring down on us from the police, too?” Creed asked. “You can’t guarantee our safety, and that’s the real problem here.”
“Safety?” Eagle looked around at his guys, and all of them laughed. “Did you patch into an MC because you wanna play it safe? Did I walk into the wrong clubhouse today?”
Drake held up a hand to keep Creed silent. “You know what he means. We’ve worked our asses off to keep ourselves clean. The cops were all over us for years, decades. We finally fell off their radar and can do business without worrying about them tearing it apart. You can’t guarantee that this won’t put us right back where we were before, and that’s a risk I can’t stomach. Not when the entire NYPD is looking for reasons to put you boys behind bars, permanently.”
Eagle smirked. “You can’t stomach a lot, can you? Maybe you shouldn’t be sitting at the head of the table.”
“That’s enough,” Creed said. He was half out of his chair by then. “You challenge my President; you challenge me.”
“And me,” Ace said. He stood.
“Me, too.” I made it a point to look anywhere but at my brother then. I couldn’t stand the sight of him. I looked down the table to where Eagle sat.
He nodded, and a slight smile spread across his face. “Fair enough. At least you still have loyalty here.” He stood up, and his guys did the same. “It’s a shame we couldn’t make a go of this. But hey, that’s life, right?” He looked at us all, one by one, and laughed softly. “You’ll see how much easier it would’ve been if you had just gone along with us.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Drake jumped up from his chair.
“It means safe is the last thing you’re gonna feel.” His eyes went narrow. “You think you’re safe now? Things are easy for you? Just wait.”
“Nobody comes into this clubhouse and threatens this club,” Drake said. Ace and Creed pulled back their leather vests—both of them were wearing holsters with Glocks inside. I did the same and showed off my Beretta.
“Oh, I’m impressed,” Eagle said as he rolled his eyes. “One word from me, and the twenty guys I have outside will come in, guns drawn. You think you can outsmart me?” The rest of the skinheads laughed.
“Bullshit. You don’t have twenty men out there,” I snarled. One move from Drake and we would open fire. I wished he would give us the OK. I really did. I wanted to blow that motherfucker’s head off, him and all his guys. They wouldn’t laugh at us again. But Drake stayed cool, and he didn’t take his eyes off Eagle. He was always smart enough to hold his temper when he needed to. Me? Not so much. My finger itched to pull the trigger. It wouldn’t be the first time I got somebody’s brains on my leather vest.
“Test me. Go ahead. I hope you don’t mind this place burning to the ground with you in it.” He looked from one of us to the other, ending with Drake. “No? No takers? I didn’t think so.”
“Get the hell out of here.” We followed them to the door. They all laughed softly as they walked out. Sure enough, there were skinheads everywhere out there. They must’ve ridden up while we were in the conference room.
“Son of a bitch,” Creed whispered. He looked at Drake. “What the fuck are we gonna do with that?”
“We’re gonna let them know we’re still the club we’ve always been.” He turned around to look at my brother. Funny how he looked scared all of a sudden. “Do you still think this was a good idea?” he snarled.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen, Drake. I really didn’t. I just wanted—”
“You just wanted to save yourself. I know. You don’t have to tell me.” He pushed his way past Gunner and went to his office.
“What are you gonna do?” Gunner looked at us as we followed Drake.
“You’re the least of my worries right now,” Drake muttered. “I have bigger things to think about. Like whether we should tip off our guys downtown about the skinheads getting mixed up with us.”
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to let Tommy know,” Creed muttered. “Just in case he gets word the skinheads were here tonight. And you know he will. I mean, like two-dozen of them riding away at once? They don’t come to Queens every day.”
“Right. Let me call him.” Drake glanced at me as he picked up the phone. “Deal with this.”
“Right.” I pulled Gunner from the office and dragged him into Drake’s room down the hall.
“What’s this about now?” he asked. “You gonna try to smack me around like Daddy did?”
“Call him that one more fucking time and I’ll rip your head off.” I slammed the door hard enough to knock a mirror off the wall. It shattered on the floor. I took my brother by the collar and threw him into the wall. “What the hell is wrong with you? You’re in serious shit here, and you keep pissing all over everybody. You should be apologizing and trying to make things right!”
“I don’t have to apologize for shit! I did what I had to do!” He shoved me, and I shoved back.
“You were selfish!” I laughed bitterly. “Damn it. All this time, I was proud of you. You know that? I was proud that you didn’t rat. You kept your mouth shut. We were safe—you looked out for us. And now I find out you fucked us over anyway. Do you know how that makes me feel?”
His face hardened, and when he took a swing at me, I was too surprised to duck out of the way fast enough. He caught my chin and sent me reeling back. “How it makes you feel?” He took my shoulders and slammed my head against the wall so hard I saw stars. “How do you think it makes me feel to see my brother take sides against me? Huh? How do you think I feel about that?” He landed a few punches to my stomach, and I doubled over. His knee connected with my nose—he didn’t break it, but blood spurted out onto the floor.
I threw myself into him. He hit the dresser, scattering the things that were on top, then fell onto the floor. I kicked him in the ribs while I screamed with blood running down my face. “You betrayed us! You fucking coward! Look what you did!”
“Stop! Stop! Enough!” He was in a ball on the floor, covering his head with his hands. “Enough, Diesel!”
“I’m…so…fucking…disappointed in you,” I panted. “I’m so…ashamed.”
He looked up at me. I could see the pain in his eyes. “I can’t believe you’d say that to me.”
“I can’t believe you made me say it.” I spat blood on the floor to go with the rest of it. “You’re the sorriest piece of
shit I ever saw. I swear if we don’t make it out of this…”
“We will,” he said. “I know we will. Eagle’s all talk. He doesn’t want a war.”
“You don’t know him,” I whispered.
“I’ve been talking with him since I got out,” he babbled. I closed my eyes and heard him groan. “I mean, not like that. I’m not, like, working with him. I just wanted to—”
“You just wanted to do the right thing and make sure the deal was all set. Yeah, yeah. Tell me another lie.”
“I mean it! I didn’t wanna go on the word of my contacts on the inside.” He sat up against the dresser and winced when he touched his side. “I think you broke my ribs.”
“Good.”
He tipped his head back and closed his eyes. “You don’t know what it’s like in there, brother, and I’m glad you don’t. Once you see what happens to guys inside—I mean the sort of shit you hear about in movies, on TV, but in real life—you’ll do anything to keep yourself safe. Some of them are animals, you know? Like they forgot how to be human. They do things to other people that I can’t even say out loud; it’s so disgusting. I accidentally walked in on one guy getting used like a toilet by like five other guys. I mean they were pissing and shitting in his mouth as they held him down.”
“Oh, fuck me,” I groaned with my head in my hands.
“That’s not even the worst. But you get what I’m saying. I was just one guy. There weren’t any of us in with me. Just me. By myself. I didn’t have any allies when I first got there. Jack tried to work something out for me with the Vipers, but that fell through. There were Cobras in there, too, and they knew we firebombed their warehouse. So I had that to worry about. I mean, it was coming at me from all sides. I had to find somebody to take care of me and keep me alive.”
“So you chose the skinheads? I don’t get it.”
“They were the most powerful group I could find in there. I was already familiar with them, so that helped. It was all so crazy. I panicked.”
“I want to help you.” I looked up at him. “I really do. But I don’t see how anymore.”
He shrugged. “Maybe there’s no way to help me. Maybe I made it, so there’s just no way. I have to take what’s coming to me after this.”
“You know what that could mean. This is a betrayal. If Devil’s Den comes for us because of something you did…” I trailed off because I didn’t know how to say what was coming next. My brother had gone off on his own to make a deal with a rival club. He had spoken for his President and put us all in danger. There weren’t any situations where that was okay. Not even in prison.
“I know. They’ll kill me. I get it.” He looked at the floor. “I get it.”
14
Violet
I got in on Thursday morning, and it was like all hell had broken loose. I hadn’t seen things like that since we were at war with the Cobras.
“What’s going on?” I asked, looking around. Drake was shouting instructions from his office. Harris and Buzz were carrying armfuls of rifles in from the stockpile shed out back. My eyes went wide when I saw them. The lights were on in the kitchen, and I saw Nicole running back and forth in there. I went in.
She turned and saw me standing there with my jaw hanging open. Somebody had been shopping. The metal prep tables running down the middle of the room were full of food, mostly non-perishable stuff. The freezer chest was open and just about ready to burst with meat, loaves of bread, frozen vegetables. Even gallons of milk.
“What is happening? Tell me we’re not going into lockdown.”
She shrugged. “Nobody knows. Not even Drake.” She gave me the rundown of what happened with the skinheads during the meeting, and how they had threatened us. My blood ran cold.
“Where’s Diesel?” He was all I could think of just then.
“Around here somewhere. The police were already here today. He might’ve gone down to the station to talk to them, or maybe not. I don’t even know.” She ran her hands through her hair. “I’m losing my mind.”
“Hey, hey. It’ll be all right.” I put my hands on her shoulders. One of us had to be calm.
She looked at me with wide, fearful eyes. “I peed on a stick this morning.”
“Oh, my God. Are you?”
She nodded. “Perfect timing, right? We’ve been trying for months to give Bobby a brother or sister, and now it happens.”
I couldn’t help but be excited for her, though. I hugged her tight, and we both cried a little. “Does he know?”
“No. I didn’t want to say anything to make things harder for him right now. He has enough to worry about.”
“Funny how we always end up protecting the men, when they’re the ones who think they’re protecting us.” I gave her another hug. “Okay. My first order is that you sit the hell down and let me put these things away. I want you to breathe and drink tea and put your feet up. I mean it.”
“Okay.” She sat, and I could tell she was glad to be able to do it. I would do whatever it took to make sure her baby was safe. I would never forgive myself, and Drake wouldn’t forgive me, either.
“Do you know how far along you are?” I asked as I started putting things away in the pantry.
“Not far. I probably shouldn’t have taken the test so soon, but with all the partying around here lately and the stress and everything…”
“You didn’t want to take chances. I understand. So maybe four weeks?”
“I guess so.” She put her hands on her belly. “I want this more than anything.”
“I know you do. You deserve it, too.” I made it a point to keep my voice low, quiet, soothing. Meanwhile, I was a wreck inside. I couldn’t stop worrying about Diesel. Where was he? I just wanted to see him, touch him, know he was okay.
I put the kettle on for tea. “Well, we have enough food for weeks and weeks,” I said. “That’s helpful.”
“Yeah, Harris and Buzz went a little crazy today.”
“At least they got what we need.”
“Because of the list you made up way back when. Remember? When we were locked down?”
“Oh, right. In case it ever happened again.”
She smiled as I handed her a cup of tea. “This club would fall apart if it wasn’t for you.” I smiled back, even as I thought it might be falling apart either way. The noise everywhere was almost unbearable.
“I guess I should make sure we have enough clean linens to get us through,” I said with a shrug. “Duty calls.”
“Let me help you.”
“Under no circumstances.”
She frowned. “I can’t just sit here. He’s going to wonder why. Besides, I won’t let you and Tamara do all the work.”
“You can come upstairs and help me fold towels, then.” As we went, I asked, “Where is Tam, anyway?”
“Picking up Christopher. Creed wants him here. I mean, so does she, even though she thinks he might be safer with friends for a little while. You should’ve heard them fighting about it.”
“I bet they did.” We went from room to room, dropping off towels and clean sheets for whoever would be staying there. I noticed all the doors were open except one, and I nodded toward it. Nicole held a finger to her lips and waited until we got to the other end of the hall to explain.
“Gunner,” she whispered.
“He’s in there?”
“Locked in.”
I gasped. “Why?”
“Why do you think? Nobody wants to run the risk of him getting out and making more trouble. Drake decided it was easier to keep him locked in.”
“Wow.” How did Diesel feel about that? It was driving me crazy, not being able to tell him.
“I’m sorry, I should’ve warned you about all this. I should’ve called. You could’ve packed a bag.” Nicole shook her head. “So stupid.”
“You have enough on your mind. And hey, I have clothes here, remember.” We went to the little room I always stayed in overnight. “See?” I opened the closet to show her w
hat I kept there. Jeans, t-shirts, sweaters, pajamas.
She smiled. “Always prepared. You’re like a girl scout.”
There was even more noise downstairs, and I heard Diesel’s voice in the middle of it. My feet carried me down the hall and down the stairs before I thought about what I was doing. When I saw him, I gasped.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” he said, holding a bundled-up rag to his head. The rag used to be white, I guessed, but his blood had turned it bright red.
“What happened?” I asked over the turmoil. Creed opened the first-aid kit and washed his hands while Harris guided Diesel to the couch. He couldn’t see through the blood in one eye. I knelt in front of him.
“I don’t know how I made it here,” he said. He was still out of breath, gasping for air.
“Take it easy.” Drake stood next to me. “You’re safe now.”
He nodded, then looked up at Drake through his good eye. “They caught me.”
I felt sick. “Skinheads?” Drake asked.
“Yeah. On my way back from the station. I was at a red light—they must’ve been following me. Four of ‘em—they surrounded me. I couldn’t get out of it. They led me on for blocks. Through red lights, everything. One of them threw a bottle at my head. And you see what happened.”
“Holy shit,” I whispered. My voice was thick with tears. He could’ve been killed, easy. What if he had lost control and hit a car? What if he had hit another person, a pedestrian maybe? It would’ve been so easy for him to never come back to me.
“And you’re sure it was them? I just have to make sure you’re sure.” Drake was doing a good job of keeping himself calm, I decided. His hands were level with my eyes, and they were in tight fists, but he didn’t lash out.
“I had plenty of time to see who they were. Swastika tattoos, the whole deal. I even recognized two of them from last night. They looked right at me.”
“Okay. We’re in lockdown.” He looked at Ace. “Call everybody who’s not here yet and get them here.”