Sax (Savage Kings MC Book 9)

by Lane Hart

  My eyes nearly water when I hear keys jingling before the thick cell door swings out, revealing a lean man in a gray, three-piece suit with thick, dark hair that is either a damn good toupee or professionally styled. All I know is that he’s definitely not a fed. They can’t afford to dress like him. There are several agents standing guard behind him, though.

  Also, the front man looks vaguely familiar…

  “Who the hell are you?” I ask when I get to my feet. My throat is dry and scratching thanks to the dehydration.

  He smiles to show all of his perfect, white teeth while his fingers grip either side of his lapels like he’s posing for someone to take his photo. Finally, he says, “As a registered voter, you should be ashamed of yourself, Mr. Cole.”

  Oh great. He’s a politician. No, not just any politician. I’ve seen his face on television for years now.

  Holy shit!

  This dude is the fucking governor of North Carolina!

  He strolls into the room until he’s standing right in front of me, then holds out his hand. “Lawrence Washington.”

  Southern-bred hospitality takes over as I blink at him and I shake his hand.

  Once my brain catches up, I realize that this, him showing up here, is really bad.

  “Should I be honored that the governor is checking in on me? I doubt you’re here to ask me to vote for you in November. Incarcerated felons can’t exactly make it out to the polls.”

  “Well, if all goes as planned, you won’t be incarcerated in November,” he tells me. “Have a seat, Mr. Cole.” Then, over his shoulder, he says, “Can I get a chair in here and maybe a meal and beverage for our guest?”

  Guest? What, like we’re having a tea party or some shit? I’m a fucking prisoner.

  “What is this about?” I ask him, my patience wearing thin. Although, if he comes through on this food and beverage request, he could possibly be my new best friend.

  “Let’s get something in your stomach before we get down to business,” he says. “Negotiations are always more likely to succeed after a decent meal.”

  “Negotiations?” I repeat, but the politician remains tight lipped as he stands with his hands clasped behind his back and waits for his requests to be met.

  A suit carries in a food tray, and the smell of a big, juicy cheeseburger hits me before I see it. I snatch it up and sink my teeth into it a second later.

  “Mmm. God, that’s good,” I moan as I chew, savoring the flavor even though it’s room temperature at best.

  “I’m not god, but I have my sights set on the presidency,” the governor says while I eat like a starving animal. I suppose it would be polite to slow down and listen, but I really don’t give two shits what he thinks. I’m too hungry to care. And thirsty. Fuck, I’m thirsty. That’s when I spot the enormous white fast food lidded cup with a straw. I don’t care if it’s pink lemonade in that bitch, I reach for it and guzzle it down.

  “Sweet tea. Nice,” I say when I pause long enough to taste it. The beverage is so cool and refreshing that I almost forget I’ve been locked in a prison cell. Almost.

  “Have a seat, and let’s talk while you eat,” Washington says, his hand gesturing to the uncomfortable cot just as one of the other guys brings in a gray metal folding chair and opens it for him.

  By the time he lowers his ass to sit down, I’ve finished my burger, half my tea, and have grabbed the fries from the tray, eating them one at a time as I grip them with my teeth since I refuse to give up the cup.

  “That’ll be all for now,” the governor tells the men, and they all leave us, shutting the door behind them. The clanking slam of it reminds me that just because he fed me doesn’t mean I get to leave anytime soon. Although, he did say something about not being incarcerated in November if I cooperate…

  No, fuck that. It can’t be that easy unless he wants me to cough up some criminal details to lock up my brothers in the Savage Kings. That won’t ever happen.

  “So, let’s hear your spiel,” I tell him, followed by a long, disgusting burp orchestrated just to annoy him. “I appreciate the grub, but I can save you some time if you want. My answer will be no to whatever you ask.”

  “Don’t you want to hear it first?”

  Picking up another fry with my teeth, I chew it up and then finally sit down on the cot like he wanted. Once I swallow, I say, “I just want to know what charges you’ve got me locked up for.”

  “Serious ones I’m afraid,” he replies, resting his palms on his thighs. “Federal, of course. You’re a smart man with a few years of college under your belt. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupted Organizations Act, also known as the acronym RICO.”

  “What about it?” I ask, refusing to give him any details.

  “You and every single one of your MC buddies are in hot water for a multitude of organized crimes.”

  “Like what? Right now it just sounds like you’re full of shit and are trying to use me as part of your fishing expedition.”

  “Oh, there’s no need for me to try and fish for information. I have plenty of specifics, if that’s what you want from me,” he says as he pulls his cell phone from inside his suit jacket. “Conspiracy, to start with.”

  “Conspiracy?” I repeat. “I’ve got a squeaky-clean record. Our attorney can get most of us off with a slap on the wrist for any of your little marijuana charges.”

  “Marijuana, right,” the governor says. “No one gives a shit about you all growing and distributing weed.”

  “Oh really? Because that whole DEA arrest earlier where I was thrown in here makes me think someone gives a shit.”

  “I had to bring you in, and those federal agents were willing to help me,” Washington says with a shrug. Leaning forward, he lowers his voice and says, “The thing is, the feds don’t know about the Savage Kings MC’s conspiracy to commit the murders of twenty Russian nationals yet.”

  Oh shit.

  “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” I bluff.

  “Well,” he says with a sigh while punching keys on his phone. “Maybe this little video taken outside the Escapades strip club in Greensboro will refresh your memory.”

  I’m still in shock from hearing him cough up those very specific details about our slaughter a few weeks ago when he flips his phone around to show me the screen. Then, I watch a silent video of myself and all the other Kings minus Reece and Cooper, who stayed here in town while Cynthia was recovering, marching into the club.

  “Let me give you the spoilers since it’s a long video,” the governor says. “About an hour or so after you all go inside, the Russian mob boss Boris Kozlov and nineteen of his men walk in, but only the Savage Kings and Anthony Russo, or Ivan Rivers, as you probably know him, come out.”

  “Guess the Russians really liked the strippers and stayed overnight,” I lie.

  “Oh no, they didn’t stay overnight,” Washington replies. He turns the phone’s screen around; and then when he shows it to me again, it’s a video of several men carrying black garbage bags from the back of the building and throwing them into the back of a food truck. The video is mostly green tinted with night vision or some shit, but it’s still clear.

  How? How the fuck did he get a video of all of this? Eddie and Cedric checked for cameras on nearby buildings, and Ivan assured us that there were none in the alley. It doesn’t make sense!

  “I bet you’re wondering how we obtained such an interesting video,” the governor says, reading my mind as he locks the phone’s screen and puts it away in his suit jacket. “Drones.”

  “Drones?” I repeat.

  “Technology is simply amazing, isn’t it?” he asks. “Those little cameras can fly right above, say, a convoy of Harleys, without detection.”

  “All you have is a video of dudes going to a strip club. The only thing you could do with that as ‘evidence’ is piss off a couple of wives,” I mutter.

  “But you see, we also followed the food truck to the
landfill, which would be strange enough on its own, and were able to find a few of those black garbage bags.”

  Son of a motherfucker!

  Whispering, he asks, “You know what we found in those trash bags? The severed body parts of a bunch of dead Russian men.”

  The burger, fries and tea I scarfed down start to turn heavy in my stomach. In fact, I’m not sure I can keep them down much longer.

  “Great! Now it looks like you’re ready to hear my proposition,” Governor Washington says as he leans back in his chair. “I’m willing to make the evidence I just showed you disappear before the feds get their hands on it and call in a few favors to get them to drop the marijuana trafficking charges against you and your MC buddies if you agree to do one little thing for me,” he says. “Do you really want to spend the rest of your life behind bars? Do you want your ‘brothers’ to all spend their lives in prison? That would be a shame since some of them have small children and babies on the way…”

  Jesus Christ.

  Not only would the guys be miserable if they got arrested and convicted on these murders, their women would be devastated. And their kids – War’s son, Torin’s boy and girl, Miles’ kid on the way – they’ll be raised fatherless, which would destroy their families. If there’s anything I can do to prevent that, I have to, right? Not just to save my own ass, but everyone I know and care about.

  “You see, Mr. Cole, I don’t actually want to throw you and your MC guys in prison for the rest of your lives. You took out the trash, literally, stopping one of the main sources of heroin from coming into my state, and saving tax payers tons of money since law enforcement and the court system didn’t have to get involved. But I’m not opposed to making the call to the US Attorney and turning over my evidence either. Either way is a win for me,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders.

  “What the fuck do you want?” I ask since we both know he’s got me by the balls.

  “It’s simple really. I just need someone like you to watch out for my daughter.”

  “I’m not a babysitter,” I tell him.

  “Isobel is not a baby. She’s twenty-eight.”

  Brows drawn together because I’m completely lost, I ask, “Then why do you need me to watch out for a grown ass woman?”

  “Because she shouldn’t be on her own in the world without protection,” he says.

  “Then hire a bodyguard.”

  “You think I haven’t tried?” he huffs. “She refuses to let me keep a man on her. And to top it all off, she keeps losing the guards I covertly assign to her, constantly staying on the move. I just need you to try and slow her down.”

  “I don’t understand,” I confess.

  “You’ll meet her in a bar, buy her a drink, and go from there,” he says with a wave of his hand.

  When he stays silent after that statement, a bark of laughter escapes me. “Are you asking me to fuck your daughter? God, you’re certifiably insane! How the hell did you ever get elected?”

  “Because I do what needs to be done to keep the people in my state safe,” he growls, face reddening as he loses his temper for the first time in our conversation. “I won’t do any less for Isobel!”

  “You’re serious,” I remark in disbelief. “All I have to do to get my ass and my brothers out of life sentences is screw your little girl? That’s got to be the strangest request ever made by a fucking father,” I tell him with a disgusted shake of my head.

  “I need Isobel to settle down, to put down roots before time runs out.”

  “Time? What time is running out?” I ask before it hits me. “Ohhh! You mean you need your daughter to be grounded where you can keep an eye on her, so she won’t fuck up your re-election campaign. That’s fucking low, man.”

  “My daughter has been going through a rough patch, that’s all,” he says defensively. “I know what’s best for her, and I can take care of her if she’ll just stop living her life like it’s one big party.”

  “And I’m somehow supposed to be the man to make her stop partying and help you and your public image?”

  “Isobel has always preferred men of your…caliber.”

  “You mean she’s a good girl who loves bad boys, huh?” I ask with a grin.

  “You’re not all bad though, are you, Saxon? How exactly did you become a member of the Savage Kings?” he questions me.

  “I prospected for a year just like everyone else.”

  “No, I think it was a little something more than that.” He stares me down, waiting for me to break. He can wait forever because I’ve never told anyone what I did, and I never will.

  When I refuse to respond, Washington says, “Have you forgotten? It has been twelve years or so, but you told DEA Agent Green that the Emerald Isle Savage Kings MC members were responsible for your girlfriend’s death, and that you were going to prove it.”

  Swallowing around the boulder that’s suddenly lodged in my throat at the mention of April, I tell him, “I was wrong.” How the hell does he know all of this shit?

  “Maybe so, but do the Savage Kings know you started out in their organization as a confidential informant for the feds? I wonder what they would say when they find out…”

  “Yeah, well, I wonder what your voters would fucking say about you trying to blackmail me!”

  “Nice try, Mr. Cole, but you would have to air out all your dirty laundry to blow the whistle on me. Are you willing to risk losing everything, including your life, to try and take me down? Your word over mine?”

  “I’m probably dead either way, right? The Kings will kill me if you tell them or if they find out I agreed to work for you.”

  “Then they never have to know. You have my word,” he says, holding out his palm for me to shake like we’ve made an agreement.

  I’m fucked upside down and sideways and the asshole knows it. Goddamn him to hell.

  Blowing out a heavy exhale, I refuse to shake his hand, but I do ask, “What does she look like?”

  “My daughter? Oh, Isobel is beautiful, just like her mother was,” he responds before he retrieves his phone again and then shows me her photo.

  She’s so petite she looks much younger than twenty-eight. Maybe that’s just because in the picture she’s crouching down, surrounded by a bunch of Little Orphan Annie kids in tattered clothes and covered in dirt like they’re homeless or something. Despite their circumstances, they’re all hugging her tightly like she’s some sort of heaven-sent angel. And no wonder.

  The governor lied about his daughter.

  She’s not beautiful.

  She’s so fucking gorgeous that she practically emits an ethereal glow.

  “Isobel is a pediatric nurse. That picture was taken last year when she was vaccinating kids for polo in Mozambique.”

  Wow, she’s the picture-perfect daughter for a politician, saving under-privileged kids and shit.

  “I’m pretty sure that I’m not this woman’s type,” I tell the governor.

  “She’s not currently working in the nursing field or saving children.”

  “Then what is she doing?

  “Drinking in bars and going home with a man in a different city every night.”

  “Wow. How did she go from a baby nurse to a slut overnight?” I ask, and his fist socks me right in the mouth a half a second later. Not that I didn’t have it coming, but still, I’m surprised that the cool, calm politician snapped.

  “You will treat my daughter with respect, or I’ll kill you myself!” he threatens me as I run my tongue over my teeth to make sure they’re all there. Thankfully, none are missing, but I’m pretty sure there’s a cut on my lip.

  “Respect her or fuck her? Pretty hard to do both,” I respond.

  “Your job is to figure it out from now until the election in November. I want her to return to nursing and to let me back into her life. Convince her of both of those things if you want to keep your life and your brothers to retain their freedom,” he says before he straightens his suit jacket and starts
towards the door. After he pounds his fist on it wordlessly three times, he turns back to me and says, “Oh, and one more thing. Other than the two of us, there’s only one other person who will know what you’re doing with Isobel. I insist we keep it that way.”

  “Oh yeah? Who else knows?” I ask while I reach up to wipe a drop of blood from my lips with my fingertips as I let his demands sink in.

  “Ian Long.”

  My entire body freezes.

  Fuck. Having a Savage King in the know is not good.

  “Ian turned you down, didn’t he? Is that why he’s not out of prison yet? He was supposed to be released months ago, but then there was some sort of ‘altercation’!”

  “I didn’t have enough dirt on him,” Washington responds. “All I could offer Long was an early release and to keep one of his secrets from the MC. He refused by spitting on me,” he says with his lip curled in disgust. “One of the guards saw it, so the warden threw him in solitary and put it down as an assault, which cost him his good behavior time.”

  Shit. Has Ian told anyone in the MC yet? I need to see him ASAP to find out.

  “If I do this, I want you to let Ian out,” I say to the governor. “He deserves it, and it would give me a bargaining chip to make sure he doesn’t tell any of our brothers.”

  “Here’s another bargaining chip free of charge,” he replies. “According to one of the prison guards, Ian’s been paying him off for unauthorized, private conjugal visits on the regular. It wasn’t enough blackmail for him to give in to my request, but it’s not something he probably wants his MC brothers to know.”

  “So what? Why would the MC give a shit if he’s getting some ass in prison?” I ask with my brow furrowed. The poor guy has been locked up for almost five years. The dude deserves to get his dick wet every once in a while.

  “Well,” the governor drawls. “For one, the conjugals have all been with a man. And secondly, he also happens to be a member of the Savage Kings.”

  My jaw drops in surprise because of what he’s implying. And without any further information I’m pretty sure I know exactly which King has been visiting Ian during that private time.