by Jade Kuzma
“Not a problem. Contact my secretary. I’m sure she’ll be able to squeeze you in. Speaking of which, I’m afraid that’s all the time I have to squeeze you into tonight. The guests are waiting for me. Kristen, if you’ll accompany me.”
James took my hand in his and escorted me back toward the ballroom. I turned around and stared at Sebastian while he looked back at me.
His smile was still as confident as ever. He was up to something. Whatever it was, I couldn’t let it distract me. I had my own problems with James to worry about.
Chapter 5
SEBASTIAN
It was the middle of the day. After an eventful night up in Golden Hills where all of the rich folks in Ivory spent their time, I was back in Old Town and around more comfortable surroundings.
I leaned back in my chair and looked at all of the men surrounding the table.
Hunter. A slick-talking hustler who made a living on the streets. It was easy to understand why he got into it with so many people. But deep down, I knew the man was as loyal as they came.
Aden. A man who’d been to the top and fallen all the way to the bottom. It didn’t matter that the guy was strong enough to punch a hole through a brick wall. He knew what it was like to have it all and lose it. You needed someone like that in the MC.
Ezra. All of the success he had in his life led him back to Ivory and to this club. No matter what he tried to do, nothing could stop him from denying his true calling. He was a Devil. But all of the shit he went through was what made him realize it.
Then there was Roman. The only founding member left when I tried to bring this damned MC back. A friend. A brother. A man I could count on for anything.
I wouldn’t want any other four men riding alongside me. The patch we wore was a bond that nothing could break.
It was the reason I was so hesitant. What I was about to tell them… It was the kind of shit that tested a man’s loyalty to his patch.
They were all eyeballing me, waiting for me to get on with it. Even Hunter wasn’t talking as much as he usually did. They knew this was important.
But the longer I waited, the more I realized that these men were capable of anything. Knowing what kind of men they were was enough to put a smile on my face.
I leaned forward across the table in the meeting room and pressed my palms down on it. I swallowed to clear my throat before making the announcement.
“We’re gonna rob James Emerson.”
The entire club was silent. Just blank, unblinking stares focused on me like they were waiting for me to finish what I was saying even though I was already done. I looked around and waited for a response but there was none. I guess they needed a few more seconds to process it.
I took a seat and leaned back before Hunter finally spoke up.
“James Emerson,” he said. “Ivory’s number one drug kingpin?”
“He’s the only drug kingpin in this town,” I replied. “It’s the reason he’s the one we’re targeting. He’s got all the money.”
“Shit…”
“What’s wrong?” Aden said to him. “You scared?”
“I’ve looked eye to eye with the worst men the city had to offer and lived to tell about it,” Hunter said. “I’m never been scared of any man. But Emerson…”
“You’re right to have your reservations,” I said. “Emerson didn’t get his reputation by reputation. You don’t get to his position without breaking a few rules.”
“He does more than that,” Ezra said. “I’ve heard stories about Emerson even up in the big city. He doesn’t hurt people. He’s ruthless. If you cross him, he’ll kill you and everybody you care about. If there was a way to bring you back to life, he’d spend his money on that just so he could kill you again.”
“Not surprising. I saw him last night in his fancy tuxedo but everybody knows that’s just a front for who he really is.”
I looked over at my VP, who’d been silent this whole time. He sat there with his arms crossed and waited for everybody to speak.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“Emerson is a big target,” he said. “If we go through with this, it’s a bigger heist than we’ve ever done. Maybe bigger than what the West Devils did back in the day. It’s a risk. Not one I’m afraid of but it’s a risk.”
“It is…”
I got up from my seat and started pacing back and forth. There was a part of me that was trying to convince myself to do this.
“If it was just us, I’d go through with it without hesitation,” I said. “Five riders. That’s more than enough to get any job done. And you’ve all got the skills and the talent to put this off. I know you’re not concerned about the risk. Things are different now though. You’ve all got someone special in your lives. There are children involved.”
Everybody at the table looked at one another. After all the shit they’d been through, they’d found what most men were looking for.
“I won’t hold it against you if you turn this down,” I said. “We can still ride together. Being a Devil is all about family. That’s your number one responsibility. But if you wanna take this risk, I can promise you that there’s something special waiting for you in the end.”
“Before I make any decisions, you mind explaining how any of this is gonna work?” Hunter said. “I doubt this will be a walk in the park.”
“It’s simple. Emerson’s facility is up and running. He controls all manufacturing in Ivory and distribution to all surrounding cities. All of the money is funneled from the dealers, to the suppliers, to the distributors, then to him, where he gets the biggest cut. We’re gonna take our cut.”
“And how much is our cut exactly?”
“I don’t have the exact numbers. But I remember listening in on the negotiations back when I was there with Burke. Emerson is getting the lion’s share of the profits. He gets one payment every two weeks.”
“Like a regular nine to five,” Aden said with a smirk.
“That’s right. But he makes a little more than your average schmuck working a blue-collar job. We hit one of the nights he gets his payment, we’re looking at a million easy.”
They all widened their eyes at me. I knew that’d get their attention.
“Split?” Ezra said.
“Each,” I replied.
Hunter whistled and reeled back in his seat.
“A million dollars a piece?” he said. “You serious?”
“Emerson has a monopoly on the drug trade in Ivory. I’ve seen his mansion for myself. The guy has more money than he knows what to do with. We pull this off, we put ourselves in the same position.”
“Tempting,” Ezra added. “But I doubt Emerson will just let us waltz to wherever this money is and let us take it from him. And even if we do, he’s gonna notice it’s missing. He’ll come looking. If I was him, I’d put every dollar I had into finding the motherfuckers who crossed me. From the sound of things, he’s got a lot of money.”
“That’s the risk.”
I looked down at the table and thought about it for a moment. I had to choose my words carefully. These men were my brothers more than anything else. I wouldn’t throw their lives away.
“You have families,” I said. “You’ve got people you care about, people who depend on you. You live good, honest lives. There’s no reason to change it. But there’s a chance it could be better. We pull this off, we’ll all be living better. The Devils won’t have to pull another job.”
“I think we know what’s at stake,” Roman said. “We rob Emerson and take the risk. Or we move on with our lives. Put it to a vote. Yay or nay?”
“Faye’s back in school now,” Hunter said. “If she were here now, she’d be telling me not to do this. I won’t forget that, even if she’s a million miles away…”
He looked at me, a familiar-looking smirk on his lips.
“…But she knows I have to be who I have to be. I’m in.”
“Danica would give me shit, too,” Aden said. “I told h
er that I was rich once. I didn’t need the money to be happy. But it’d be nice if she got to know what it was like to have that kind of money. I want her to have the experience she deserves. I say yay.”
“Ezra?” I said as I looked at him. “What does the club treasurer have to say about all of this?”
He leaned forward against the table, scratching his chin with his thumb. The guy was the most clean-cut member of the Devils. Slick hair. Groomed goatee. Even in a leather kutte, he could’ve passed for the businessman that was inside of him.
“I’m already making good money,” he said. “Lacey is more incredible than I could’ve imagined. People from all over are coming just to see what she has to offer. I’ve never been more proud. I don’t need the money.”
“I understand—”
“But she knows what kind of man I am. I wasn’t completely honest with her from the start but I am now. I’m a Devil. I always have been. I wouldn’t let any of you ride without me. I’m a yes.”
I nodded in appreciation then turned toward the last man.
“President abstains from voting,” I said to Roman. “Vote’s already decided but I still wanna hear what you’ve got to say.”
There was a funny look in his eyes. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that Roman was upset with me. He looked me up and down before nodding.
“Just like you said. Vote’s already decided. Let’s do it, Seabass.”
“All right,” I said as I clapped my hands together. “We’ve got a week before Emerson’s next payment comes in. We start planning. We set this thing up and it goes off without a hitch, we’ll all be a lot richer and nobody else will know a damn thing about it.”
I snapped my fingers to end the meeting and everybody shuffled back into the clubhouse. Roman was the last to leave. He stood there and kept eyeballing me so much that I finally had to say something.
“What’s wrong?” I said.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t gimme that shit. Tell me what’s on your mind.”
“You really wanna do this, huh? You really wanna hit the man in Ivory?”
“I wouldn’t have brought it up otherwise.”
“Why? Why do you wanna get at Emerson? Tell me it’s the money.”
Roman was staring hard at me. I was never threatened by him because I’d known him my whole life. Nothing ever came between us.
“It’s the money,” I said.
“…Okay…”
He gave me a nod before stepping back into the clubhouse with the rest of them.
What was that?
I shook my head and forgot all about what I just spoke with Roman about.
It was an ordinary day inside Hades. Friends of the club were hanging out and having a drink. Shit wasn’t as crazy at it got at night, so it was the perfect place to relax.
I hadn’t even started to relax when the front entrance opened up. An old man in a uniform walked in, his chest out and his head held high. His face was wrinkled, his hair was disappearing by the second, and his stomach was getting the best of him these days. But you couldn’t have a prouder man to serve Ivory than Sheriff Sutton.
“Sheriff,” I said. “What brings you here?”
“Cain. Just the man I needed to speak to.”
“Is something up?”
“Nothing major. Just wanted to tell you I got a noise complaint the other night.”
“A noise complaint? We’re the only fucking building in Old Town. Who the hell is complaining about the noise?”
“Maybe the noise was loud enough that the people in the rest of Ivory could hear it. Might want to address that.”
“Don’t worry. I run a tight ship. Nothing happens in my bar.”
“Yeah, I bet.”
Sutton looked around the bar. He took particular attention to the club members, who were all gathered at a booth in the corner.
“Devils these days,” he said. “There are a lot more of you.”
“Lot of good people in Ivory. Wasn’t hard to find some men worthy of the patch.”
“I was here back when the West Devils were riding around. I remember what kind of trouble they caused.”
“Lucky for you we’re not West Devils anymore. We’re just the Devils, Sheriff.”
I gave him a grin but he wasn’t in the smiling mood. There was a look of skepticism in his eyes but not much else.
“You up to anything, Cain?” he said.
“Not at all.”
“Right… You have a good day.”
Sutton wandered back out of the clubhouse. Even if he tried getting involved, I knew there was nothing he could do.
With Sutton gone, I could turn my focus to what was important. It was time to get this shit started.
Chapter 6
KRISTEN
I heaped a couple of spoonfuls of sugar into my coffee and stirred it around. Just enough milk turned it into the caramel color I always looked for. I felt some of the stress leaving me when I took a sip. But with everything I was dealing with, it’d take more than a cup of coffee to calm me down.
“Where the hell is he?”
I muttered to myself then looked back down at my phone. No missed phone calls. For a second, I thought that I’d gotten the wrong address.
“Hello.”
The waitress’s sudden voice nearly made me jump out of my seat. I jerked my head and saw the cheery smile on her face. I wished I could be in as good of a mood as she was this morning.
“Can I get you something to eat?” she asked.
“Not right now. I’m… I’m still waiting.”
“You take your time.”
The diner was busy enough that I could get lost in the crowd. That didn’t stop me from constantly peeking out the window to make sure that nobody was checking in on me. I didn’t find it as annoying as I did before. At this point, it became a habit of mine more than anything else.
“Kristen.”
Like he’d appeared out of thin air, the man standing next to me nearly made me jump out of my seat again.
“Jesus,” I grumbled. “Do you always have to sneak up on me like that?”
“I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
He took a seat across the table from me.
“Were you followed?” he asked.
“No, I wasn’t followed. If I was, I wouldn’t know it.”
“If you were followed—”
“You don’t have to remind me of how serious this is. I know what’s at stake. Frankly, Emerson could follow me and be right here and there’s nothing I could do about it. If he does show up, you just keep playing your part. He thinks I’m having breakfast with a client now.”
“I’ve always been a client of yours, Kristen.”
He never smiled much. There was only a hint of it on his lips. Always serious. Always focused.
“You know, you could lighten up a little,” I said. “These meetings always make me nervous.”
“I don’t know what else you want me to do for you.”
“No, no, of course not,” I sighed. “Just keep doing what you need to do, Whitaker.”
The waitress returned and greeted the man in front of me with that same cheery smile of hers.
“Just a cup of coffee,” Whitaker said. “Black.”
I stared at Whitaker as he looked off into the distance. He kept searching his surroundings like he was paranoid that somebody was watching him.
I’d known him for a long time now. Longer than I wanted to know him. Face always serious. Eyes sunken in like he didn’t get much sleep even though he was always on alert. His head was shaved clean like he did it every morning. I didn’t imagine he was going bald because he didn’t look that old. Then again, I didn’t know much more about Whitaker.
He straightened up in his seat and fixed the tie on his suit. He looked like every other man in Ivory on his way to the office. If James showed up, Whitaker would’ve been convincing enough to look like a client.
“Will you stop
looking around?” I said. “If Emerson wants to spy on me, he’s spying on me. I got a booth in the corner of the restaurant for a reason.”
“I’m only double-checking for your sake.”
“My sake… Maybe I can just meet you in the back alley and we can talk there.”
“That would only make things more suspicious.”
I sighed a deep breath and took another gulp of coffee. Just the right combination of sweet and bitter, it made me forget about all of the crap I had to deal with now. But only for just a second.
“Well?” I said as I shrugged. “What is it you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Emerson is ramping up production.”
“How do you know this?”
“There’s an increase in the amount of activity in the city. More cases of drug overdoses in the hospitals. More violent crime on the streets. The police even managed to seize one of the houses where some of the product was being stored.”
“Good. Maybe now the police can do their job.”
“The house that was seized belonged to a small-time dealer. There’s no doubt Emerson was his supplier but there isn’t enough evidence for a conviction. That’s how Emerson does these things. The ones under him take all of the risk and take all of the blame. Emerson himself reaps all of the rewards.”
“Well, if you really plan on locking Emerson up, his reward will be a life behind bars. Why are you telling me something I already know?”
Whitaker leaned forward in his seat. His voice was always low and intimidating. You knew how serious he was just from his tone.
“I need to make a move on Emerson,” he said. “I’m getting pressure from the higher-ups and they want me to get more evidence so they can finally put the ring he’s got running in Ivory to rest. The big deal he has going on with all of the other dealers must be put to an end.”
“And you just now realized this? What do you think I’ve been doing for the past year?”
“You need to work harder, Kristen—”
“Look…”
I clenched my jaw and stared hard back at Whitaker.
“…I’ve been spending time with Emerson for nearly a year now. I’ve gotten as close to him as I can get.”