by Harley Wylde
That was the damn truth. Every single ol’ lady at every single club we called friend or family had arrived with a shit ton of trouble following, except maybe Isabella. Then again, she’d been part of a deal brokered between Torch and her dad, Casper VanHorne. Yep, we definitely didn’t do anything the normal way when it came to our women. Why bother starting now?
I sent a text to Demon, Grizzly, and Slash. I figured they could chew my ass out now, but still get everyone gathered at the clubhouse. Even though Wire hadn’t told me what he’d discovered, I knew it had to be bad if he’d come all this way with his family in tow. Any other time, he’d have just picked up the phone. Of course, there was always the possibility that Lavender had used it as an excuse just to come visit. She might not have been convinced I really had found someone and needed to see for herself.
The only one to respond was Demon. The Pres and VP are dealing with an issue. Church in 10.
I showed Wire the message and he gave a nod, then yelled out for Lavender to hurry the fuck up. If I didn’t know he worshiped the ground she walked on, I’d have thought he was being an asshole to her. Lavender was just as crazy about him, for whatever reason. It was clear the two were meant for each other, both badasses in their own right, but I didn’t know how she put up with him. I had no doubt if they’d have been at home and he’d done that, she likely would have smacked him on the back of the head, but she wouldn’t disrespect him like that in front of others.
They worked together, even if at first glance they seemed like an odd pair. Even pregnant, Lavender was wearing her jeans, mint-colored Converse, and a Dark Crystal shirt. With her plastic-framed glasses perched on her nose, and her hair pulled back in some sort of messy knot, she looked every inch the geek. Wire was just as bad as her, except he kept that side hidden. He looked like any other biker, and I knew he was a force to be reckoned with both behind a keyboard and in person. Anyone who went after his brothers or his family was going to be fucked-up when he was finished.
Elena and Lavender came back into the room and Wire handed Atlas to his wife. I crooked a finger at Elena and she came close enough that I could pull her against me. Reaching up, I smoothed her hair back from her face and gave her a quick kiss.
“I have something to take care of and Wire is going with me. Think you can keep Lavender and Atlas company?”
She tipped her head to the side. “Are you in trouble? Or am I?”
“Wire looked into a few things for me, but we need to discuss it with the club. Not sure how long we’ll be over at the clubhouse, but I’ll send a Prospect this way. He’ll stay outside, but you can let him know if you need anything.”
She ran her fingers over my beard. “I’ll be fine.”
I winked at her, gave her one last kiss, then headed out with Wire on my heels. I stared at the large SUV in my driveway, knowing it had to be Lavender’s because Wire wouldn’t have let her walk from the front of the compound, and realized that Elena’s car wasn’t here and must still be at the clubhouse. I’d have to make sure it was moved at some point, but right now, I kind of liked knowing she didn’t have easy access to make an escape. She seemed content enough to stay where she was, but I hadn’t officially claimed her yet. Until I had, I wasn’t taking any chances.
I led the way to the clubhouse on my bike and parked right out front near the steps. There was a small car toward the end of the building and I knew it had to be Elena’s. I’d never seen it before and she certainly hadn’t walked here. Wire pulled up next to me and we headed inside. One of the newer prospects, Dax, was behind the bar. I motioned him over and he jumped the bar to rush over. Sometimes these guys were more like eager puppies, which amused the shit out of me.
“I need you to go to my house, but stay outside. Wire’s woman and kid are there, and my woman is there too.”
His eyes went wide, but he gave a jerky nod. “I’ll go right now.”
He took off at a run out of the clubhouse and I just shook my head before heading to the back. Almost everyone was already in Church, so I took my usual seat and Wire leaned against the wall. Even though we had guests often enough, there were only enough chairs for the patched members. When we added to our ranks, we’d bring in more seats as needed. While guests were honored in some ways, having a seat at the table during Church was a respect thing. If you weren’t patched in, you weren’t sitting at our table.
Demon banged the gavel on the table and I realized Griz and Slash wouldn’t be joining us, nor would several members it seemed. It seemed Slash was helping track down Lilian. I hoped he’d already gotten everything situated for Wire and Lavender. I didn’t know where they were, and it wasn’t my place to ask. I scanned the room and realized Dragon was one of the guys missing. I hoped Grizzly wasn’t working the poor guy over. There was no fucking way he’d forced himself on Lilian, which meant she had to have consented. I still didn’t see how he’d gotten that damn close to her, but she must have liked him more than the rest of us. The woman still jumped whenever I got too close.
“As you can see, Grizzly, Slash, and several others aren’t here today,” Demon said. “Dragon got Lilian pregnant, but before Griz could talk to her, she packed her shit and left.”
Whoa. I hadn’t seen that one coming. No wonder we were a little light on brothers today. I’d be willing to bet the Pres had them all out searching for his daughter. This was seriously fucked-up.
“So that’s who she was waiting for,” Dingo said.
“What?” Demon narrowed his eyes. “What the fuck do you know about it?”
Dingo lifted a hand to calm the Sergeant-at-Arms. “Nothing really. One of the nights I was at the clubhouse I saw her lurking in the shadows outside. Told her to get home, but she said she was waiting for someone. She mentioned Dragon, but said she just needed some advice. Didn’t think it was my place to do anything more than warn her away from the clubhouse, and it seemed harmless enough.”
Demon cursed. “You’ll need to tell the Pres that you saw her here. Maybe he’ll go easier on Dragon. He was fucking pissed as hell.”
“Dragon’s not in the basement, right?” Wolf asked. The thought had crossed my mind too. “Because there’s no damn way he took her against her will. That’s just not the kind of guy he is.”
“No. He’s off searching for Lilian. It seems he about lost his shit when he heard she was pregnant and missing.” Demon shook his head. “Not sure what’s going to happen there, but for right now, I’m in charge. Outlaw has been sitting on some information that he’d like to share with us. Griz is pissed about that too, by the way, so expect an ass-chewing later.”
I hadn’t expected anything less. I glanced at Wire, not really knowing yet what he’d discovered, but he wasn’t volunteering info. I told them what I knew so far about Elena, why she’d come to our gates, and the people she’d left behind. When I got to the part about Garrison West really being Bastard from the Savage Raptors, the temp in the room dropped about ten degrees. Demon went so still that I worried he’d turned to stone.
“Bastard is still alive?” he asked quietly.
“It looks that way. I honestly have no idea who he is. I sent everything I had to Wizard and he identified him, then he conferred with Wire. I haven’t heard what’s been discovered since then,” I said.
Demon ran a hand through his hair. “Bastard wasn’t just a patched member of Savage Raptors. He was related to the Sergeant-at-Arms. When General stripped the colors off Bastard’s skin, he was doing it to his brother. Not just a brother through the club, but one he shared a father with. It gutted the club when they found out he’d betrayed them. And now this…”
Wire pushed off from the wall and moved closer to the table, but he didn’t sit. He hadn’t brought a laptop in with him, or any files. I didn’t know if he had anything concrete, or if he’d just stored everything in his head.
“Wizard hit a wall and asked me to look into this shit. And what I found is disturbing. Bastard isn’t just sending money through the
church back to his brother’s club. He’s laundering funds that are going through his business. It didn’t take much for me to follow the trail right back to the Savage Raptors, and since I know Attila would never own a fucking brothel, much less multiple ones, then I think he has another rat in his house,” Wire said. “I also peeked into the Raptor accounts and the funds coming from guns and drugs don’t match what’s been sent from the church. Whatever funds are being deposited into the Raptor’s main account is all legit business. So someone is running a side scheme for that too. That money isn’t going into the club funds. It’s being routed in a way that makes it look like the club is in on it, which is clever considering how fucking stupid Bastard was back in the day. Makes me curious who his partner is.”
“What brothels?” Demon asked.
“They cater to certain needs. From what I found, there are five, and they’re easily pulling in a few hundred grand a month. Whoever is getting the funds to Bastard, they’re also sending money out through several other contacts. The biggest red flag is that the money never enters the Savage Raptors’ accounts. Not from the brothels, guns, or drugs. Even worse, they aren’t dealing in marijuana like the club typically does. We’re talking cocaine and meth. The money is being sent into offshore accounts under a false name. Terry Simpson,” Wire said. “I haven’t been able to figure out who he is yet, but I do know how he’s operating.”
Dingo whistled. “Damn. That’s a lot of cash to keep out of the club’s hands, and I know that crew would never own a brothel, not even if the women volunteered to work there. They would personally tear them down if they knew they existed.”
“Worse than that,” Steel said. “I’m older than a lot of you, and I was around when that shit went down with Bastard. He didn’t ask to leave, he was thrown out. They didn’t label him a traitor lightly. He was caught with underage girls, pimping them out like what Trotter was doing here, except not a single member of his stable was over the age of sixteen. Sick fucker.”
Something about all this was bothering me. It was that skin-crawling sensation I got when the pieces of the puzzle didn’t quite fit but I knew they should, if the puzzle was a life and death matter anyway. Bad enough that I had no idea how those two managed to run something like this without the Raptors figuring it out, but maybe they’d had help. It had saved my ass more than once. Brothels. Bastard. The dead wife… I looked at Wire. “What did you find on Bastard’s wife?”
“He faked her death. She’s definitely dead now, but she wasn’t then. Even worse, she wasn’t the first. He’s legally, and illegally, married a dozen women in the last twelve years. He fakes their deaths and sends them to his accomplice at the Savage Raptors, who then puts them to work in the brothels or uses them as drug mules. Best part is that as the grieving widower, he gets any life insurance money. He’s been clever and seems to have multiple identities, addresses, and never uses the same insurance company. I didn’t think he had it in him, but he’s gotten smarter since he had his colors stripped.”
“Why the fuck couldn’t it just be something easy?” Dagger asked. “Anyone else sick of this shit? Why do people have to be so fucking awful? Anyone who preys on women and kids should be neutered, then tossed into general population at the worst prisons in the country.”
I didn’t think any of us would disagree with that.
“He wanted to marry Elena,” I said. “Do you think he’d have sent her to his accomplice too? Or did he actually want her for a wife?”
Wire ran a hand through his hair. “She was going to be a mule. I’m pretty sure anyway. With her being a Latina, they may have hoped she could get across the border and back without raising too many eyebrows, especially if she maintained her connection to the church and her foster parents.”
“She’d have never gone for it,” I said. I didn’t have any doubt about that. If she’d balked, she might have ended up dead or worse. Whatever had told her to run, I was glad she’d listened to that inner voice. It may have very well saved her damn life.
I wasn’t sure how much of this I should tell her, or what Demon would allow me to say. This was a club matter now, and club business didn’t get discussed with the women. Sometimes I had to wonder if they were really safer not knowing, or if we were just fooling ourselves. If we got involved in this shit right now, and Lilian was still out there on her own, it could end badly if the wrong people found her. I didn’t know who we’d piss off if we did more than just hand off information.
Since Elena was here and had brought it to our attention, it was possible that Demon would want to stay hands on. I hoped I was wrong, though. The last thing I wanted was to bring trouble to our doorstep now that I had a woman to think about. Assuming no one denied my claim on her. With Griz gone, I didn’t know if I could get a vote or not.
“She’s mine,” I said. “Elena. I’m claiming her.”
Demon eased back in his chair and stared me down. I didn’t blink, didn’t flinch. Finally, he cracked a smile and gave a nod. “All right. I don’t think anyone in this club would deny you the woman you want. No vote needed.”
“You don’t need to run it by Griz? He was going to look into who drugged her. If she hadn’t come home with me, we would have never known about all this other stuff. And I still don’t know who roofied her drink.”
“You mean no one told him?” Dagger asked.
“Told me what?”
“We found out who’s drugging the girls,” Demon said. “They got sloppy. We don’t have her on camera, but one of the regulars from town bragged to her friends that she was taking out the competition. Thought she’d snag herself a spot as an ol’ lady. Not sure how she figured that would work, unless she thought docile was a turnoff.”
“And is she in the basement?” Wolf asked.
“What is your fascination with the basement?” Wire asked. “If you’re so fixated on it, go down there.”
Demon, Dagger, and Steel all burst out laughing. I realized Wire hadn’t seen that addition to the clubhouse and had no idea that’s where we interrogated people, but it still earned him a glare from Wolf. Couldn’t blame him for wondering where the woman was because I wanted to know the same thing. She could have gotten Elena hurt. What if we hadn’t noticed and she’d tried to drive herself out of here?
“She’ll be handled,” Demon said. “And since it seems she harmed the property of a brother, her punishment will be severe. I’ll take care of it.”
“I’ll need a property cut,” I said.
“I’ll have Magda make one. Give her a few days. She’s getting up there and her hands don’t work as well as they used to. Until then, I’ll make sure everyone knows that Elena is yours. No one will fuck with her, and she’ll be protected.” Demon slammed the gavel on the table. “Now everyone get the fuck out of here. I have shit to do.”
I stood and Wire followed me from the room, but he hesitated outside the door. When Demon came out, he went to speak with him. I kept my distance. If Demon wanted me to hear what they were discussing, he’d let me know. After a few minutes, it didn’t seem like Wire was going to wrap it up anytime soon so I decided to leave him to his discussion. It wasn’t like he didn’t know how to get to my damn house. I took my bike through the compound and pulled up in front of the small home I’d be sharing with Elena from now on. The Prospect was standing near the front door and I dismissed him before going inside.
The sound of laughter drew me to the living room and I smiled at the sight of Elena holding Atlas. Maybe one day we’d have a kid of our own. Even if my dick worked, I’d been told I had a low sperm count during one of my many tests after the incident years ago. Probably something I needed to discuss with her. If she wanted kids, I’d try my damnedest to give them to her, but it probably wouldn’t happen overnight. Not unless we were really fucking lucky.
“You’re home,” Elena said, smiling widely.
“Yeah.” I glanced at Lavender. “Your man hung back to talk to Demon.”
Lavender took
Atlas from Elena. “It’s nice enough outside I think the little man would probably like some playtime. We’ll be out front if you need us, but I have a feeling the two of you need to discuss a few things.”
She leaned against me as she went past and I gave her a brief hug. Elena twirled her hair around her fingers, her expressive eyes belying her nervousness. I wasn’t sure how much to tell her, but I needed to make sure she knew she was mine without question. The rest… I’d tell her what I could.
Chapter Seven
Elena
Wire, Lavender, and the adorable Atlas had left to rest, saying it was time for the little boy’s nap, which left me alone with Outlaw. I was still processing what he’d told me, but it was so hard to believe. I didn’t know how the Garrison West who had charmed everyone at church, and even around town, could be the same man he called Bastard, a traitor from another club. It was just… baffling.
“Why would my foster parents help him?” I asked.
“That’s the million-dollar question. If Wire knows, he didn’t share it with me. I’m glad you left when you did. If you’d stayed and ended up with that guy, he’d have made you disappear and turned you into a drug mule or worse.”
I’d talked a bit with Lavender while he’d been gone. She’d explained the way the club worked a bit better than Outlaw had, or maybe it was more that she’d been able to tell me how it worked from a woman’s perspective. Anyone could see that she was happy with Wire, and their son was adorable. I could also tell she thought the world of Outlaw, and she swore that he was one of the best guys she knew.
I’d already come to terms with him claiming me, but hearing all the good things she had to say about him made me feel better about my decision. No, I didn’t know her, and she could have been lying, but I didn’t know why she’d bother. The affection she held for Outlaw was clear, and didn’t seem faked or forced.