At least Tate was Houston’s main problem. Had it been Vat, the problem would have been hers.
“Let’s clear out!” Houston gave the order, and everyone followed suit. The police would finally show up sooner rather than later. Vat and the Apache cleared the door, Houston and Cochise followed next, Fabio and Destiny on their tails, with Tate the last to back out the door.
They mounted up their bikes and headed out of the Prideland. Destiny exchanged glances with Fabio. This was shaping up to be more of a witch hunt than they thought. Two blocks from Cochise’s house, the Apache swung into a small park.
The Apache president gave a nod to her and her brother. “We will keep an ear to the ground. But our deal was Bastards find the problem and eliminate it. I expect to hold you to it.”
“And I expect to be kept in the loop if any information comes this way. I think both sides feel the need to keep a limit on the bodies dropping,” Destiny replied with a low growl.
The Apache gave a nod in reply, and the two roared away.
“Ready to face the wrath of the elders?” Houston asked.
“You don’t get the wrath. You and Tate are Nomads, they can’t really do anything to you. I piss off the elders, I get my transfer declined and Vat and Fabio ended up with shit details and the works.”
“Don’t worry about it, Double D,” Vat told her. “They all but told you to do whatever necessary to hunt the leak.”
“All but,” Destiny grumbled and fired up her bike, aiming it toward the hospital, Fabio right behind her.
27
Destiny pushed her way past the uniforms standing in the hall down the ICU wing. Fabio hung back, standing just outside the waiting room doors. She stopped short at the curtain clad entry way to Marissa’s room.
Her blood curdled at the thought of hospitals. Too many bad memories re-appeared at the ICU wing. Waking up to find her first kill had been ruled self-defense and that she had lost the baby. Waiting very impatiently to be dismissed when she came back from Afghanistan, ready to get into rehab and back to the unit she would never rejoin.
Trent sat by Marissa’s bedside, hands clasped around hers. He looked even more disheveled and worn than he had just a few hours before. His face was strained and blotchy. He had been crying. Crying for Marissa, the innocent Destiny had warned him about just the night before she was hit.
That made her feel even more uneasy. She wasn’t sure who all knew about her and Fabio’s late-night visit to Trent. It felt like a coincidence that Marissa be attacked the very night following an apparently unheeded warning. And Destiny didn’t believe in coincidence.
She knocked softly and Trent jerked himself back into the present and looked over at her. He gently laid Marissa’s hand back at her bedside and carefully stood and strode toward her.
She gave a nod and he followed her out of the room. The uniforms at the ICU doors had their backs to them but she preferred they or the hospital staff didn’t overhear. She strode toward the employee elevators down a back hallway before turning to face Trent.
“How is she?” Destiny asked.
“Surgery went fine, had to repair a slice in her intestine. She has over eighty stitches in her body, one blood transfusion, and they know she hit her head hard. They are waiting on scans now. Just a waiting game to see when she wakes. Doctors are optimistic, however. I called her parents, they live outside of San Antonio. They should be here soon.” He looked hopefully at her. “Did you find them? My men haven’t been able to find anything solid or useful.”
Destiny shook her head slowly. “Went to Cochise, it’s not them. He agreed to go with me, Fabio, and a few of our crew to the Pride turf. Woke up Abraham, and as far as he knows, it’s not any of them.”
“You believe him?”
“We went in pretty hot and heavy, so I believe him. Abraham doesn’t exactly have a good poker face. On the other hand, I don’t think that he is privy to all of the Pride’s decisions.”
“What about the Preacher?”
“I prefer not to go down that road. No matter what you think of me and this cut, we both know the chances are good the son of a bitch ordered my mother’s murder and so much more.”
“Then I am not sure Wes was half the man I gave him credit for.”
“There were a lot of things we didn’t know about Preacher until after Dad died. Besides, there is no need for bodies to keep hitting the floor,” Destiny growled. “I am trying to stop a war. I don’t think I can take it to the top of the Pride food chain without starting one myself. I wish to not test myself unless there are no other options left to try.”
“You have a theory then?”
“Not entirely.” She aimlessly played with her hair. “I don’t have any names, if that is what you are asking.”
“You think it’s someone who wears a Bastard cut.”
“I don’t think, but I… I don’t know anymore.”
“This have anything to do with that missing person out of Fort Worth? Rumor had it he was prospecting for you. I took the assumption he was to be found in some shallow grave.”
“Kyle was riding to Mardi Gras last we saw him. We looked too, assume he just doesn’t want to be found. You know our type,” she dryly recited what they had told the police when the patch reported him missing two weeks later when his sister started calling looking for him.
“Will you keep digging?” Trent asked hopefully.
“Long as you keep me informed of what you find. This is connected to the upcoming war I am trying to stop. It works if both sides keep the other in the loop.”
“That means you tell me everything?”
“Everything you need to know. The patch will keep Marissa in our prayers. Stay by her side, Trent. The outlaws and the lawmen are working on this, you don’t need to.” She turned to walk away.
“I thought you weren’t outlaws.”
“I like to speed sometimes.” She grinned and disappeared around the corner before letting her optimistic facial expression fall. She glared at the uniforms as she strode by, Fabio falling into step next to her.
“You don’t look happy.”
“Not in the least. Houston head back to Aunt Kristy’s?”
“I believe so. He was planning on getting his bags, grabbing breakfast, and heading for the clubhouse.”
“Call Aunt Kristy, not Houston. The three of us need to meet up at your house. Head straight for your place. I will come in behind you a few minutes after. Ditch your cell after you talk to Aunt Kristy.”
Destiny headed for the door and removed her battery from her phone and tossed all of it in the garbage can and got her bike heading the opposite way of Fabio’s. She swung across town to a self-storage and drove to aisle three, storage unit 15. She pulled a key from her inner cut, just one of two. Houston had the match.
She unlocked it hastily and pushed the door up and open. Along with a few boxes of storage of her parents, Austin and their childhood things, sat four bikes. The siblings had seen to it that they were kept in full running order. Austin had re-built Wes’ to perfect condition. Austin’s sat behind their father’s, along with Houston’s retired bike and her very first one.
The one she purchased the night she gave it all to Fabio. It was just a 2002 FXDX Dyna Super Glide, nothing super special. It had been an excellent first bike, one she learned so much on in such a short time, in between turning sixteen and enlisting just weeks after eighteen. Hell, she wasn’t even old enough to have a real motorcycle license, just a damn restricted one, months after getting her real one she was getting her ass handed to her at boot camp.
But it still felt good to see the old bike again and run her hands over the warn leather seat, but now wasn’t a time for sentiment.
Houston had installed a high-tech signal scrambler in the ceiling of the unit. No bug trackers of any sort would work here, and with the time crunch, it was easier to trade out her bikes than to thoroughly search her current ride.
She quickly fired up her old ride
and pulled it out and pushed her old bike in and quickly locked up. Right now she trusted next to no one. It wasn’t a feeling she enjoyed, trust was something that went hand in hand and was generally implied with a brotherhood like the Bastards.
***
Ten minutes later she pulled into Fabio’s drive and let herself into the back. Fabio re-holstered the gun he had pulled in her direction as she walked into the kitchen.
“You give directions like this and you waltz in and expect me not to be guns ready?” Fabio retorted in response to her pissy glare.
“You should have looked out the window when you heard the bike.”
“I was in the back room.” He tossed a bag on the table. “Didn’t have the time.”
“What you got?”
“You really think after everything we have been through that I don’t keep extra supplies?” he asked as he tossed out cell phones from it. “I don’t get all my backup burners from the club.”
They heard the roar of a bike pull up and they both went for their guns and looked behind the kitchen curtains. “Houston.”
Ten seconds later her brother came storming in from the back.
“What the hell is going on? Why did you flip bikes and why did I have to ditch my cell?”
“Night before last after you left, I may have convinced Fabio to do some pot stirring with me. We visited Trent and I warned him that chances of Marissa being a target would be high as a means to get to him.”
“And that is all true,” Houston replied, arms crossed.
“True, but for it to be escalated this quickly? For her to be attacked the very next night?” Fabio added.
“Coincidence?” Destiny growled.
“No such thing,” her big brother replied.
“I trust anyone wearing this patch with my life. But push comes to war, it’s only you two that I can truly trust,” Destiny said by way of explanation.
“Not Dad or Alec?”
“Your dad would go to Uncle Alec in a heartbeat. Alec is his all-trusting. However, Alec won’t keep this close enough to him as we can. This is his club, as traitorous as it feels that we mole hunt out one of our own. Alec won’t believe in this the way we do. Not until we have utter proof. Alec has to protect this club as a whole, that is his job as patch president. Our job is to stop a war.”
“And you think that we are being followed?” Houston questioned.
“I think it is too big a risk not to prepare for.”
“I’m with the D. We’re on a witch hunt,” Fabio added.
“And do you two have a plan?”
“Set a trap in the right ears and toss the deck, see what kind of hand lands for us,” Destiny stated.
“But whose ears do we whisper to?” Houston asked.
Destiny looked to Fabio. “We’re not exactly sure yet.”
“I would take an educated guess and say you have a suspect in Drew though.”
“Gut feeling. But that gut says there is more than one person in on this,” Destiny said, standing her ground on her Drew questions. “And if there is two people involved? Who would Drew trust?”
“A brother,” Houston said.
“Or a lover,” Fabio added.
“Drew’s private but I’m pretty damn nosy.” D just grinned.
***
“How well do you know this Dez?” Houston asked as they rolled their bikes backwards into a parking spot off of Main Street in Loraine an hour later.
“Well enough.”
“Can you trust him?” Fabio asked.
“Dez is a she and don’t ask how I know her. Dez is trustworthy for the right price. She can keep a secret and I am told she leaves no trace behind.”
“That the crappy apartment?” Houston nodded to the rickety door they were going to and put his hand on his Glock.
“Step off the fire power. Dez can be a little gun shy.” Destiny rapped on the door. “Dez! Its Double D, open up!”
The door opened just a touch, showing not one, but two chains that were still attached to the door and a small female-faced shape with a nose ring, and a touch of purple hair that poked though the gap behind a Berta 9.
“Who is with you?”
“My brother Houston and my second, Fabio,” Destiny replied and she could almost feel Fabio’s scowl from behind her at being called her second. She grinned just a touch.
Dez closed the door to unlock the chains.
“Thought she was gun shy?” Houston muttered.
“Gun shy of other gun owners,” she answered as their hostess opened the door just enough to let them in.
The three of them pushed through and Dez immediately shut the door behind them, throwing all the locks.
“Who did you piss off now?” Dallas asked the woman. She stood just at five-foot-four at the best. Her hair was jawbone-length purple and black and her skin was pale enough to show her reclusiveness, but even with that, she was cute in the geeky way she enjoyed.
“Ex-boyfriend.” Dez sighed as she headed toward her computer desks. Six screens showed a mix of code running on black screens.
“We do favors in the asshole ex-boyfriend variety,” Houston offered.
“Nah, it’s my fault really. Probably shouldn’t have slept with his sister but you know how it goes.” Dez just shrugged. “I’m more interested in who you pissed off, or who you are trying to piss on.”
Destiny pulled out a piece of paper with Drew’s information. Everything they knew about him. Dez rubbed her fingers on her right hand together and held it open in the universal ‘give me’ sign.
Destiny rolled her eyes and motioned to Fabio. “This better be worth it,” he said and pulled the envelope with three grand out and tossed it over to Dez. She opened it up and did a quick count and turned to her computer.
“What do you need to know?”
“Whatever you can find. We need to know who he would go to if he needed someone he could really trust. Someone outside of this cut, possibly,” Destiny told her.
“Not another rat?” Dez picked up her glasses and slid them up her nose. Fabio and Houston exchanged glances. “Three in almost as many years. Y’all are Bastards, I know, but you would think you would be a touch more picky about who you ran tight with. Personally, I trust no one. Easier that way.”
“Bank records are pretty straightforward as in there isn’t much shit. But we both know that, we all are more cash and carry type. Credit is still halfway decent, owns no land. Nothing special. No family to speak of, has a sister and a brother-in-law back home, that’s about it.” Dez typed some more on her keyboard.
“No Twitter or Instagram. Inactive on Facebook forever, I can look up some old Myspace if you want? Oh…. Tinder, let’s see what kind of kinky shit he likes in the swipe and hump world.”
“Keep digging,” Houston growled, obviously not impressed.
“Geez, give me a second, you oozing mass of testosterone. Got more information than you could ever get knocking heads.”
“Phone call lists, text messages, e-mails, both phones. Downloading now. One number shows up quite frequently. Registered to a… holy hell, boys.” Dez punched on a few more keys.
“Dez?” Destiny asked, fear and suspicion raging inside of her.
“How well did you know Kyle’s family?”
“Kyle Wellington?” Destiny dared to whisper. The patch that Trent had asked about just this morning. They had tried their hardest to convince people Kyle had just disappeared on his own. Truth was, she had put him down from over four hundred yards away.
“Why?” Houston finally asked after a moment’s silence.
“Kyle Wellington’s father has another child. A daughter, Bianca Martinez. The cause of his and Mrs. Wellington’s divorce. Appears Bianca’s mother was a club whore of the Apache. They ended up with an address in Prideland. Appears Bianca’s mother may have shacked up with a low level Pride after she was thrown out of the Apache fold when Bianca was born.”
“How did we miss this when we look
ed into Kyle?” Destiny asked.
“We looked for Pride connection. Bianca’s mother died eight years ago when Bianca was sixteen. Court documents show Bianca’s uncle on her mother’s side, tied to the Apache, took legal responsibility. He’s doing hard time for sexual assault in Oklahoma now. There was no direct link from Kyle to the Pride. But if Kyle had started to connect with his sister?”
“She’s looking for revenge.” Fabio sighed.
“And Drew wants you out of the picture, and what a perfect solution if you can set up the person who killed his new girl’s half-brother,” Houston added.
“Someone wants me dead.” Destiny shrugged. “What else is new?”
“You have to take this seriously, Dallas!” Fabio roared.
“I am! It’s just another threat and I will neutralize it,” Destiny shot back.
“We will. That’s what we do, we are family. We find a way to make it go quietly,” Houston’s voice was firm and solid. “Kyle had to go. You did what had to be done. For the protection of not just this club but all the innocents who would have died in a war Kyle and, apparently, his nut job sister Bianca, were trying to start.”
“Bianca wants what any sibling would want. What we wanted when Austin died.” Dallas stared at the computer screen directly in front of Dez. “Can you get a full report? Copies of every text, everything?”
“Go have a smoke, I’ll have it downloaded to a zip drive for you when you’re done. You can read through the mushy lovey-dovey shit later.”
28
Destiny sat down at Trent’s kitchen table and lit a cigarette. He would be here any second and he would have a fit when he caught her smoking in here. She had convinced the boys to hang back and let her talk to Trent. Fabio didn’t like it but her brother seemed to trust her at least and he hauled his friend off with him.
She flicked an ash into an empty beer can and stared at the clock. There was no easy way to do what had to be done. A Bastard was dead because of Drew and Bianca, indirectly, but still because of them. Marissa had been attacked brutally and like the Bastards, the cops would protect their own. Glance the other direction, if only for a moment.
The Devils Bastards MC: Destiny Dallas Callaghan Page 20