by Zoey Parker
Support and suspicion. I wondered what that meant, exactly. I wondered if it meant our business was eventually going to come under additional scrutiny because Brawn was a member of The Twisted Ghosts. I was in a new world, full of its own rules and complications.
Thank God I had a helpful guide.
Chapter 22
Brawn
“Okay, do we have time to go over the gritty stuff?” I asked after she sent her email to Amanda.
“There’s gritty stuff? Oh, of course there is,” she said.
“You didn’t think this was going to be easy, did you?” I asked her, laughing. “You’re talking about trying to take down a man who has connections with people who can make you disappear without a question. Yes, there will be gritty stuff.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Something’s different.”
“Probably. Let’s get down to business, then.” I knew what she meant, but we didn’t have time to get sidetracked to talk about our feelings. I was beginning to understand her feelings even if she’d been reluctant to open up about them.
But we had work to do. I drank the last of the bourbon in my glass and set it down.
“What are you thinking?” she asked. From her tone, I couldn’t tell if she was asking about my idea for a plan or my feelings. I went with the plan.
“You organize things with the law enforcement officer you talk to later tonight. Tell them to be ready. I would recommend using your phone to either record the conversation or as an open line so the officer can hear what’s going on.”
“An open line?” she asked.
“Yeah, call the officer and put the phone on speaker. Then, have him mute his end so you can’t hear him but he can hear everything that goes on in the room perfectly. He’ll be able to record it, too, so you’re good there. If he’s unwilling to do that, then you can at least use the phone as a voice recorder. There’s an app for that factory-installed in most phones. If you don’t have it, download a free one,” I explained to her, pulling up my phone to show her the recorder.
“Okay.” She looked like a deer caught in the headlights while she listened to me.
I put a hand on her knee and gently stroked her leg. “You’ll be fine,” I said, forcing myself not to think about her body while we talked.
She nodded. “What about you guys?”
“I’ll have to talk to Shift or James, but we need to be around. I’d prefer to have some guys without their kuttes on the jobsite, looking like workers. I know we can blend in, but I also know your father watches like a hawk,” I said, thinking out loud.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll keep him busy. You guys show up after I do. No bikes. He’ll know,” Maria said quickly, and I could hear in her tone how eager she was to contribute.
“Great. Yeah, we can all ride out in a pickup, like the work truck I kept.” I grinned. “I can bring that baby out of retirement and use it to get a few guys in there. We don’t want too many, but we need to be ready in case anything goes wrong.”
“Goes wrong?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Don’t let this scare you. You’ve come too far already to get scared by anything that’s left ahead of you, okay?” I put my hands on her shoulders and turned her so she was facing me. “Okay?”
“Yeah, okay. Besides, you’ll be there.”
“Damn right, we will be. Our old ladies have embraced you, whether you realize it or not, and everyone thinks you’re my old lady anyway,” I said, putting on a dismissive tone. I didn’t want to get into that discussion anyway.
She blushed and smiled. “If they say so,” she said.
“Right,” I laughed. “Look, if your dad tries anything stupid, or if any of his connections show up to try anything stupid, we’ll be there. We’ll be packing; we always are. We’ll handle it before the police have a chance to respond. And we’ll get you out of harm’s way. Got it?”
She nodded vigorously but didn’t say anything as the smile left her face, replaced by worry.
“Look at me, Maria. I need to know you understand what I’m telling you. If anything goes sideways, we’ll be there to back you up,” I said again, driving it home.
“I got it,” she said finally.
“Good. Now, the main reason I want to be there is so when they come to get your dad, we can swoop in and grab you. I want you to get out of the way as quickly as you can when they storm the jobsite. Get away from your dad and away from the cops. We’ll grab you and head out quietly,” I explained.
She laughed. “Always trying to kidnap me.”
“I’m hoping one day, when I try to whisk you away, it actually works. So far I keep having to take you back, like I have to do tonight,” I joked. There was no need to be too serious about it. It was going to be a breeze.
“Speaking of which—” She turned and closed her laptop. “I need to get back before my father gets home.”
I started to reach out to her face, but decided against it. I didn’t want to complicate things even more than they already were. We needed to work on simplifying shit, not making it worse all the damn time.
“Look, it might be best if I call you a cab,” I said. “That way I’m not riding back over to your dad’s and risking causing more drama than it’s worth.”
Her expression faltered. Her shoulders slumped, briefly. She composed herself again almost immediately and put a smile back on her face. “I get it. Not a bad idea.” She pulled her backpack on over her shoulders. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” She said it as a question.
“You know it. Call me when you’re on your way so we know when to be there,” I told her. “If there are any problems between now and then, let me know.”
“I will.” She leaned forward and kissed me lightly on my cheek before turning and walking toward my door.
I stayed where I was and pulled out my phone to call for a cab to come pick her up. I watched her walk away as I told him where to get her and where to take her. I waited a few minutes and walked outside behind her as she got in the cab. I walked up to the driver side door and tapped on the window. When the driver let it down, I slipped him a couple of bills.
“You weren’t here,” I said in a low voice.
“Yes, sir. Thank you.”
“Thanks,” I said and tapped the top of the car to send him off. I looked into the backseat when the car passed me, making eye contact with Maria. She looked confused, but I had my reasons for sending her away the way I did.
If Lucas Kelly knew Maria had come to my house, it would have blown the entire operation. He would have figured out that she was spying on him. He would have known I was planning on mobilizing The Twisted Ghosts against him. He would have known he had been found out, and that wouldn’t have ended well for anyone.
I pulled my phone back out as I walked inside.
“Hey, brother, what’s up?” Shift asked, happy to hear from me. I could hear the thumping bass of his strip joint in the background.
“I need some help, brother. We’ve got some information to help us take down Lucas Kelly.”
“You’re calling for help? Is everything okay?” he asked, concerned.
I laughed. “Okay, yeah, I’m calling for help. And I’m calling before shit goes sideways, okay? Funny.”
“Hey, I don’t mean any offense, man, but you’re the last person to call for help. What’s going on?”
“Maria has found some connections to Carlisle and a few other mob guys.”
“Carlisle? Damn, I thought we forced him into retirement.”
“Well, he’s still retired from gambling. He’s using real estate now to help him launder money, and he’s using a lot of it. He owns several office parks in the area, and guess who built all of them,” I said, trying to build the suspense.
“You did,” my brother replied. He laughed hard at me. “You built those damn buildings for Lucas Kelly, and the whole time, he was working for guys like Carlisle. Oh, man, this is good stuff. I’m crying over here.”
“It’s real
ly not that funny, Shift,” I insisted.
“The whole time, you were telling me you thought he was in deep with these guys, and you were right, little brother. So, she’s figured out who he’s working for. I’m sure that’s where a lot of his money is coming from, too.”
“Oh yeah, definitely, but she can’t find any definite proof. Anyway, tomorrow, she’s going in and she’s going to try to get her dad to confess on tape. She’s going to try to have a cop listening the whole time,” I explained.
“And you want some guys on site just in case shit goes sideways.”
“You got it, brother.”
“Hell yeah. I know the drill. No kuttes. Normal clothes. Packing. Blend in. Man, it’s like the good old days. I just hope we get some action while we’re there. Don’t want to get all dressed up with no one to punch in the face.”
And that was where I differed from most of the guys in the MC. I didn’t mind a fight if it found me, but I wasn’t looking to start one just for shits and giggles. I didn’t see the point of it. It wasn’t fun. It didn’t feel good. But to guys like my brother, that kind of action was like a drug.
“It’s likely to happen, Shift. I think he’s got a few mob guys on payroll watching the jobsite. So if they figure out we’re there, they’re liable to start something,” I told him.
“Excellent. I’ll call James and Mark to let them know. Head on over to the clubhouse to get everything together, man. We got you and your old lady’s back.” I could hear the smile on his face in his voice.
“She’s not my old lady, Shift.”
“Bullshit. Look, don’t be afraid of it, brother. If you don’t tie her down, you’re going to lose her. She’s too smart to hang around if it’s not going to do anything for her. Don’t forget, I’ve met her. She’s too good for you, bro,” he joked.
“Whatever. Just call the guys and let them know I’m on the way.” I hung up the phone. He didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. Too good for me. Too smart to hang around. Shift could talk some shit when he wanted to.
I took my bike out to get my work truck from the place where I’d hidden it. I put the bike in the back so I could leave it at the clubhouse when we left for the jobsite in the morning. I drove to the clubhouse and pulled in to find James and Shank waiting for me.
“Brawn,” James said, embracing me. “Been a while, brother.”
Shank just nodded and stood there with his arms crossed, trying his best to be intimidating, but he was one of the guys I felt had no business being there. We weren’t all cut out to be The Twisted Ghosts, but he was our president’s son, so what could we do?
“Did Shift talk to you?” I asked as we walked inside.
“Yeah, and we put the word out. I’ve got a few guys coming by tonight who’ll be ready to help you in the morning. I figure we can grill out this evening and hang around the clubhouse tonight so everyone’s ready to go first thing. Sound good?” James asked with a crooked smile on his face.
I laughed. “Man, you don’t give a shit what we do as long as we can turn it into some kind of party, huh?” I asked him.
“Hell yeah. What’s the point of all of this if we can’t enjoy it, brother?” He clapped a hand on my back and wandered off, leaving me with the members playing pool downstairs.
James was like a father to most of the guys in the MC. He’d been around and he’d seen some pretty dark shit, but he hadn’t let it get to him. He was an inspiration. He’d be the first to tell anyone who asked that anything we did was just to preserve our lifestyle and make sure other people after us had the chance to live life as freely as we did.
Chapter 23
Maria
“Are you on your way to work?” Brawn croaked into the phone when I called him the next morning. He half-mumbled his words. I imagined he was sitting in bed with his face still buried in his soft pillow and eyes still closed. He’d probably only barely managed to grab the phone and hold it up to his ear.
“Yes, I am. I need you and your boys to be ready to go,” I said, sounding a little bossier than I intended, but it wasn’t going to work if we weren’t all on the same page.
“We’re ready. I just need some coffee and we’re good to go.” His voice was starting to clear up.
I knew he was standing up. I imagined his body as he stretched. I could see the muscles in his chest and arms. I could see his tattoos, the way his boxers caught on his hips. “Okay. Make sure you’re there, because when this is over, I’m going to need to spend some time alone with you,” I said, shaking off the images in my head.
“Oh really,” he said with a slight chuckle in his voice. He knew what I was getting at.
“Yeah, so make sure we get out of this the way we planned, okay? We both need to be intact.” I realized it was the most direct thing I’d said to him about our physical relationship, but I didn’t care. We’d earned the chance to talk openly about it. I knew I had. I was putting everything on the line to get my dad out of the picture— our picture.
“I’m on it. I’ll get the guys and we’ll start heading over there to meet you,” he said, his voice completely cleared up.
“I’m about five minutes out,” I told him.
“We’ll wait about ten minutes, then. If anything changes, let me know. I won’t be on the bike, so I’ll be able to get to my phone,” he said.
“Got it. Talk to you soon, babe.” I hung up before he could say anything else. I groaned as I pulled in and my father wasn’t there. It wasn’t uncommon for him to show up late, now that he had been depending on me to run the office. It also wasn’t unlike him to have other “business” to tend to.
I got out of the car and went into the office. I started a couple of pots of coffee on the coffee makers. I logged in to the work computer and checked my email to see if there was any news to explain why he hadn’t shown up yet. I got out my phone and texted both Brawn and Detective Lance, the man Amanda had put me in contact with.
Hold on. He’s not here yet. Will let you know ETA when I have it.
Neither one said anything back. I didn’t expect them to, either. They were both busy preparing to storm my father’s jobsite. I put the phone on the desk and exhaled, drumming on my knees with my palms.
I looked around at the mess of paperwork I’d left after digging through everything looking for information connecting my father to the mob. To me, every stray piece of paper looked like evidence that someone had been snooping, and it was pretty obvious, I thought, who that person had been.
I had sorted some of the paperwork into a few stacks on one of the desks, so I figured I could continue doing that while I waited to hear something from my father about his whereabouts.
“I guess if you want a plan to work, everyone has to be in on it,” I joked to myself, as if I could have told my father he needed to show up on time.
Workers started showing up. A couple of them came in and filled up their thermoses with coffee from the office, prompting me to start making more. Making sure my father’s employees didn’t start a riot in the morning was probably the hardest part of my job. Once they were working, they were fine. It was getting them out there and in good humor that was rough.
Still, I waited to hear from him. Finally, once everyone was on the jobsite, I grabbed my phone and texted.
Call me if you’re not coming in or if you’re going to be much later. I need to talk to you.
“Because that doesn’t sound suspicious,” I said to myself as I put the phone back down.
Any word?
I grabbed the phone again and replied to the detective.
Nothing yet. Waiting on him to call me.
Keep me posted.
Detective Collins had called me late the night before, after Amanda had emailed me his information so it wouldn’t be a surprise when he reached out to me. His demeanor had been a mixture of eager excitement and cautious suspicion. He sounded like he was ready to take my father down, but he also questioned me from the start.
“Maria?” he had asked when I answered the phone.
“Detective Collins?” I’d replied, confirming my identity by asking for his.
“Great. I hear you’re ready to talk about your father,” he’d said.
“I am.”
“Okay, before we start with the questions, do you mind if I ask why?”
I had wondered immediately if my father hadn’t already reached this man before Amanda did, but Amanda had already assured me she worked with people who couldn’t be bought. She had told me she’d made sure of it. Her job depended on working with legit cops and legal teams. It had seemed like such an odd thing to say when she regularly represented people like Brawn and Shift, bikers who belonged to organizations like The Twisted Ghosts and often found themselves on the wrong side of the law.