by Sophia Gray
“What she saw was the man, the one who attacked her, stabbing another guy.” There were a few concerned mutters, and a few heads turned in Erica’s direction. She nodded to them, confirming the story.
“Who was it?” Joe turned from Erica back to me. “Who did she see?”
“That’s the thing,” I explained. “I got a look at the memory card this morning. I know this is gonna seem unbelievable, and…” My voice caught. I took a second to get myself back together. I had to be strong for them. I knew they would feel as hurt and betrayed as I did. “Trust me, I didn’t believe it at first, but it’s there in the pictures. The man he stabbed was Lance.”
At first, silence. More than one jaw dropped. Then, all at once, the room erupted. Voices, screaming questions. A few guys jumped to their feet.
“What the fuck are you saying?” I chose to answer that question and raised my voice over the others.
“What I’m saying is Lance didn’t die in the explosion. He was in on the double cross.”
It took a while for everyone to calm down after that. I did my best to hold them together, but it was pointless. I had just told them that one of their brothers went against them. Someone they mourned. One of the girls was crying in the back. I saw Erica comforting her.
“So is he dead now?” Axel asked.
“Yeah. He’s dead.”
“Good,” Frankie said, spitting on the floor. “Bastard. Got what he deserved.”
I looked around the room. Either I was looking at a bunch of really gifted actors, or they were all as surprised as I had been. Not one of them seemed like he was putting on an act. Nobody acted any more hurt or upset than anybody else. I had told myself before I got started that the one who was in on it would overdo it to make up for their guilt. Nobody did that. I was still at square one.
“Where do we go from here?” Chip asked. “I mean, how’s it all come together?”
“Randy called me a little while ago. The Wolves are guarding someone in one of their safe houses on the other side of town. It has to be the guy we’re looking for.”
“I wanna shake his hand,” Frankie growled. “He took care of that traitorous—“
“Now just hang on a sec,” I said, holding my hands up. Everybody was getting worked up again. “Listen, I know how you feel. That fit I took in there today? The holes in the walls? Now you know why I did that. I wanted to kill Lance all over again.” My eyes met Erica’s from across the room. “But somebody reminded me that he was only doing what he thought was right. That’s all anybody can do, what they think is right. From what Erica heard in the alley and the way it looks in the pictures, Lance knew what he did was wrong. He was standing up for himself and saying he couldn’t go through with it anymore. That’s why he died.” I let that sink in for a minute.
“That doesn’t make up for what he did. He got Rick and Jake killed.” Everybody else agreed.
“I know, and now he’s dead, too. That’s over. We can’t do anything about it. All that’s left is finding out why they died, and how to protect ourselves now. I don’t want this happening again. And whatever’s left between the Wolves and us…” My voice tightened as rage flowed through me. “That’s gotta end. I want this over. I’ll do what it takes.”
“What’s that gonna be?”
“I’m going to the safe house and I’m talking to this guy. I’ll need help getting in and covering my back.”
Almost everybody stood up to volunteer. I was proud of them, sticking together. Still, I was suspicious. I couldn’t take the wrong person. I might end up getting my crew and me killed.
“Randy’s already out there. I want Chip, Frankie, Axel, and Onyx with me.”
Everybody nodded and broke up to get their things together. Onyx came up to me. “Are you sure it’s a good idea for me to go?”
I was shocked. Onyx never let me down before. He wasn’t the type to punk out. “I want you there. I don’t trust anybody more than you.”
“I think it might be a good idea to stay and keep an eye on other people.” His eyes shifted to where Erica was still standing with the girls.
“You think so?” I looked at her, wondering. “You don’t think she’ll try to get out again, do you? Not after what happened today.”
“No, but think about it. What if they’re just trying to lure you away from the clubhouse—not just from her? What if they want to flush us out so they can come in and do whatever they want?”
“Shit.” I hadn’t thought of that. “This is why you’re my VP. You think of things like that. Okay, I’ll take Joe. You stay here with the others and keep a lookout. Post a few guys around the perimeter of the building to watch. I’ll do what I can to stay in contact with you.”
Onyx nodded and went over to Joe, I assumed to tell him he was going with me. Erica saw the chance and came over.
“You did a great job,” she said.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. What’s a good job at a time like this? Telling them one of their brothers betrayed them, got two of them killed.”
“Nobody lost it. You kept them under control. That’s a good job in my book.”
I wished I had as much confidence as she did, and again I thought what a good old lady she would make one day. She had a way of making me feel stronger than I was when I needed her the most.
“Do me a favor,” I said, pulling her close. “Try to stay here this time. I don’t wanna go to the trouble of getting into that safe house and have to leave to save you from something. Okay?”
“Okay.” She didn’t fight me or talk back, though I knew she was dying to. It was her way. She didn’t like others telling her what to do any more than I did. I kissed her, short and sweet—anything else might have been hard to stop, and there were other things to think about.
I went into the office, calling the guys in who were going with me. We put together a plan, then went back to the lounge to leave.
“You’re going now?” Erica asked, putting her hands on my shoulders and squeezing. “Are you sure about this?”
I grinned. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
She shivered and shook her head. “I don’t know. I have a bad feeling. What if they’re just luring you in?”
“That’s why I’m not going alone. We have plenty of fire power. It’ll be all right.” She didn’t believe me, though I had to give her credit for trying to act like she did. “Remember: I’ve been doing this for a long time. It’s not my first rodeo. Just the first one you’ve been here for.” I kissed her forehead—again, I didn’t want to get too close to her, or else I wouldn’t be able to stop. She didn’t look convinced, but she nodded like she understood.
“Come back safe to me, okay?”
“I’ll do that if you make me a promise.”
“Anything.”
“Stay here this time.” I grinned and hugged her, then left. I couldn’t hang around anymore, or else I’d be tempted to stay. I didn’t tell her I had the same bad feeling she did, and that I wanted more than anything to be able to stay and protect her.
But that was why I was going. I had to do this to make us all safe in the long run.
Chapter Nineteen
The night was dark, the sky inky black. Not a star, no moon, just heavy black clouds hanging low overhead. The air was damp and a little chilly. It matched my mood.
The first thing we had to do was meet up with Ralph. I had told him to wait for us around a mile away from the clubhouse—not far from where I first found Erica.
Ralph was a good guy to have on my side in a tough spot like this. He was always the one I put on the streets when I needed information since he had a wide network of friends he’d pump for information. He was our connection to the grapevine.
“I didn’t dare get too close,” he told us as we circled our bikes, “but the last time one of my buddies went past, there were still three guards out there. Wolves, of course.”
“These buddies of yours. You trust them?” I asked.
&n
bsp; “With my life,” he replied, no hesitation.
“Good enough.” I looked around. “Ralph, Joe, and Chip have the fastest bikes. You create the diversion and lead the guards away. Frankie and Axel stay with me, keep an eye out for when the guards come back. I want them led as far out as you can get them—not toward our clubhouse, or else they’ll turn around right away. Lead them into town if you have to, just get them away from here. Buy me as much time as you can.”
I felt the energy of the men around me like electricity. They were all ready for a fight, dying for one. “Be safe,” I added.
Frankie snorted. “Since when do you tell us to be safe?”
“Since I know you’re out for blood right now,” I snarled. “I don’t want anybody taking risks. I know you can outrun anybody. Just don’t go further than that if you don’t have to. That’s all I’m saying.” I was starting to have doubts about him. He was too quick to question me lately. I welcomed questions. I didn’t want to work with a bunch of mindless drones. But his questions had a nasty feeling to them, like he was saying more than just what came from his mouth. Was he the one? It would all come down to the job in front of him. He could have my back, or he could turn on me.
I heard the sounds of their motors fading away. All that was left was one guard. “We’ll take care of him,” Axel growled. He and Frankie drew their guns and rode straight up to him.
“Can only shoot one of us at a time,” Frankie called out. “So if you’re smart, you won’t shoot either.”
“I’ll blow your head off!” Axel roared. Then I heard what sounded like a pile of laundry falling on the ground, and I rode out. The last Wolf was on the ground, blood trickling down the side of his head.
Axel turned to me and shrugged. “That was easy.”
Too easy, I thought. I had a bad feeling, even worse than the one I had before we left the clubhouse. “Okay. You stay here. Watch for any movement inside, call out if you see anything. Frankie, come with me.” The two of us crept around to the back of the house. Frankie pulled a screwdriver from his back pocket and jimmied the lock.
“I like to be prepared,” he whispered when he saw me looking at him in surprise. I had to hold back a laugh, even with all the tension.
The house was small, just as shabby on the inside as it was on the outside. Threadbare carpet, wallpaper with water stains running down thanks to a leaky ceiling—the plumbing had to be busted. It reeked of cigarettes, booze and body odor. And lots of takeout food. The tiny kitchen table was covered in Chinese containers, stacked up on pizza boxes. My stomach turned when I saw a cockroach crawling from one of the containers, skittering across the top of the pile.
I glanced back at Frankie, who looked nauseated.
There was a loud noise coming from the next room. The TV. I pointed to the doorway, and Frankie nodded. I walked over to it, my gun still drawn, and peered out at the living room.
He was sitting on the couch, watching TV. Just like at the Wolves warehouse, I got the feeling someone expected me. I turned back to Frankie. “He’s alone,” I murmured.” We left the kitchen, coming up behind him. Even when I cleared my throat and pressed the muzzle of the gun to the back of the guy’s head, he didn’t flinch.
“What took you so long?” he asked, laughing. I looked at Frankie, whose face was a mask of hatred.
“Check the upstairs,” I muttered, and Frankie took off. While he was checking for others, I turned off the TV. “Keep your hands where I can see them,” I ordered. He left them on his lap, one on each leg.
“It’s clean,” Frankie called out, bounding down the stairs. I motioned to the man on the couch with my gun, which Frankie knew meant I wanted him frisked. I stared into the guy’s good eye, the one I hadn’t punched him in, while Frankie made sure he wasn’t armed.
“He’s clean,” Frankie said.
“Gun’s on the end table,” the Wolf said, like he was giving us tomorrow’s weather forecast. “You can take it. Whatever. I won’t be able to use it. I can’t aim for shit right now with one good eye.”
He was so relaxed, like none of this mattered. Was he waiting to die? I couldn’t understand the way any of these guys thought. Like they were resigned to whatever happened. They would do literally anything for their club. I never wanted my members to be that way. Loyalty was one thing, but not when taken to extremes.
“Wait outside with Axel,” I murmured to Frankie.
“You sure?” He looked skeptical.
“I’ll be okay in here,” I said.
Frankie looked once more at me, then at the man on the couch. He left.
“Alone at last,” I said. “How’s the face?”
“How’s it look?”
“I’d say it was an improvement but, let’s be serious, you didn’t start out with too much.”
He snickered. “We can’t all be pretty boys like you.” No, we couldn’t, but with a broken nose, busted mouth, one eye swollen shut and stitches along one cheekbone, he was a farther cry than most.
I smiled at him. “What’s your name?”
“What do you care?”
“Because I like to know the names of the people whose asses I kick.”
His eyes flashed angrily at me—at least, the one that wasn’t swollen shut. “Harrison,” he spat.
“Okay, Harrison.” I took a chair from the kitchenette and turned it backward. I sat on it, my arms around the back. I was still pointing the gun at him. “Here’s what you’re gonna do if you want to keep your miserable life. You’re gonna tell me what I wanna know. Otherwise, I blow your fucking brains out.”
“Yeah, right. You could have done it last night, but you didn’t. Why would you do it now?”
“Because now I know who you killed last night before you chased the girl.”
His good eye widened. “Bullshit.”
“No, not bullshit. She took pictures, remember?”
“Yeah, but the camera was broken. It fell on the ground. I saw it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ever hear of a memory card? That’s where the pictures go, dumbass.”
“No! She told me the pictures were gone.”
“Yeah, she told you that. Why wouldn’t she? You had a fucking knife, which you just killed somebody with.” Then another thought occurred to me. “If you believed the pictures were gone, why the fuck were you standing over her with the knife in your hand when I found you? There was no fucking reason to hurt her, then.”
“No witnesses, man. That was what they told me before I went to meet with Lance.”
My stomach turned. That sounded like something Alexander would say, even if the witness were a woman or a kid.
“Well, surprise. We saw the pictures. You’re in them. So is Lance.” I saw him catch his breath like he was waiting for me to say something else. Then he relaxed.
“So? Now you know your man was going behind your back.” He sneered with his broken mouth. “How’s it feel, knowing he did that?”
I clenched my jaw and willed myself to keep cool. He wanted me to lose it, even if I ended up blowing his brains out in the end. It didn’t matter, as long as he had the satisfaction of seeing me fall apart.
“Whatever. I thought he was dead already. Now he’s definitely dead, and we can stop mourning him. So what?”
Harrison laughed. “You’re so full of shit.” He settled back into the couch cushions, though he still kept his hands visible. “You know it’s the biggest insult possible when a member of your club turns on you. He might as well have shit on your chest.”
I wouldn’t let him do it to me. He couldn’t get into my head. “But he knew he was doing the wrong thing in the end, didn’t he? That’s why you stuck him.”
“Eh, he was gonna go no matter what.” He looked around the tiny, dingy little house. “He lived here, you know. This is where he was hiding out from you. You had no idea. Did you go to the funeral? I bet you did.”
Fucker. It took everything I had inside to keep myself under control. “What deal did
you offer him?” I asked. “I’m tired of hearing your voice, so let’s get down to it. What was it all about?”
“What do you think?” He laughed bitterly. “Come on. You’re supposed to be so smart, aren’t you? All the books you read. Could have been a college boy if your old man didn’t get his dumb ass killed. Might have gotten a scholarship and been a doctor or some shit. Right?”
How the hell did he know so much about me? The question must have been plain on my face because he answered it. “My boss makes it a point to know things about people. You might be book smart, but he knows everything about his enemies. It’s why he’s a better leader than you are. Book smarts only get you so far.”