by Zoey Parker
“Boomer, you are a motherfucking lifesaver,” I exclaimed. “I cannot believe you brought all this. Thank you so much.”
“Yeah, well, um, that's not all I brought, Rafe,” Boomer said uneasily.
Before I could answer, both doors on the passenger's side opened, and Bard and Nic got out. They walked over to me, Bard's steely eyes fixed on mine and Nic shaking his head sadly. Bard stopped just a few inches in front of me and looked me up and down.
“Bard,” I said. “It's, uh, well, it's pretty goddamn good to see you, actually.” I gestured toward Jewel, trying to pretend Bard's flat gray eyes weren't scaring the hell out of me. I'd rarely seen him look at any Reaper that way, and whenever he had, it hadn't ended well. “This is Jewel. She...”
“Close your mouth. Now.” Bard's tone was as cold and hard as a glacier. My mouth snapped shut.
“Jesus, Rafe,” Nic said quietly, looking at Jewel, my wounded arm, and the bullet-shredded Saab parked in front of the house. “Jesus motherfucking Christ, what the fuck have you done?”
“Boomer filled me in on everything today,” Bard continued, his iron eyes drilling into mine. “He should have demonstrated his loyalty by telling me from the beginning, but he knows that now. Don't you, Boomer?”
I snuck a glance over at Boomer. Since so much of his face was covered with scar tissue from his time with the bomb disposal unit in Iraq, I hadn't noticed at first that he was sporting some nasty-looking bruises. I also saw that the Sergeant-at-Arms patch had been ripped off his cut, leaving only a few curled threads behind.
Fuck, I thought. Not only did my bullshit get Boomer in trouble, it cost him his fucking Sergeant patch.
The thought had barely crossed my mind when Bard's hand grabbed me by the chin, turning my face back to his. “Don't look at Boomer, Rafe. Look at me. I'm the one talking to you now.”
I looked at Bard. I was at least a head taller than he was and a hundred pounds heavier, but I'd seen him in action too many times to think that made any difference at all. Besides, when the president of an MC owes another member a beating, that member wouldn't dare raise his hands to the president in return or else it'd cost him his membership patch. Maybe even his life, too, depending on how pissed the president was.
And Bard looked fucking livid.
“Your arm appears to be damaged,” Bard said through clenched teeth. “I would imagine it's from a bullet. Do you have any other injuries I should know about?”
“Concussion,” I mumbled.
“A concussion,” Bard repeated slowly, nodding. “Okay. So not the head, then.”
I was about to ask what he meant when a heavy pain barreled through my midsection like a battering ram. All the breath left my body in a single gust and when I tried to get it back, all I could do was wheeze and gag breathlessly.
Bard's second punch came in lower, and just slow enough for me to see it as a blur before it connected with my right side, just under my ribs. I felt pure agony blossoming in my torso, a chain reaction of pain buzzing from one organ to the next until all of them felt like they were on fire.
My legs turned to rubber and I fell to my knees. As I did, I heard Jewel's frantic footsteps as she ran to stand between me and Bard. I opened my mouth to tell her to stay out of it, but all that came out was a long, gurgling whine.
Man, that guy could really hit.
“Leave him alone!” Jewel yelled. “You sadistic asshole, you're hurting him!”
Bard's voice was still low and even, but his eyes kept blazing with a fury I'd never seen there before. “Not nearly as much as he's managed to hurt the other Reapers.”
He looked at me again. “Over fifty men, Rafe. Some of them with wives and families to look out for. All of them your brothers, men you were sworn to protect and defend with your life, if necessary. All of them looking over their shoulders for gangsters again, checking under their beds and in their closets every night because they don't want to end up like Growler. All because you couldn't be trusted to control yourself.”
I clutched my side. Even though Bard had been careful to avoid breaking any ribs, every breath still felt like broken glass. “You...said I could...” I croaked.
“Did I?” Bard asked, his voice raising dangerously. “Did I say you could drag Boomer into this? Did I say you could go around shooting up diners like a rabid moron and turn half the highway into a scene from an action movie? Did I say you could grab some woman, a civilian, and hold her hostage while you wage some kind of selfish one-man war? Did I say you could use the Hidey-Hole and get Chucky killed?”
“I'm not a hostage,” Jewel said.
“Lady, whatever you are, now's a good time for you to be quiet,” said Boomer.
Bard crouched down next to me and reached for me. Before I could figure out why, his hand was on my shoulder, his thumb pressed deep into a nerve on the side of my neck. My whole body suddenly felt like electricity was running through it, and I let out a yowl of pain.
“Is that what I said to you, Rafe, when I welcomed you home?” Bard hissed. “Is that what Nic said? Or did we say you could go off and handle your business, as long as it was quick and quiet and you left the Reapers out of it?”
I couldn't move. Every muscle was clenched and cramping. I'd seen Reapers get executed when they'd betrayed the MC, but I'd never dreamed I'd have to worry about that someday, even while I was asking Boomer for help over the past few days.
I'd been so focused on keeping Jewel safe and bringing down Jester that I hadn't really considered the consequences. I'd been so desperate to keep us from getting killed by the Mancusos that I hadn't even thought about the possibility of being killed by my own MC for disobeying a direct order and putting them all at risk.
Each time a death sentence was carried out on a Reaper, he had to remove his cut first as a ceremonial gesture.
With a sinking feeling, I realized that I already wasn't wearing mine.
“We did everything we could for you when you were framed,” Bard said. He was pressing on the nerve in my neck so hard that his thumb was buried in my skin up to the first knuckle. “We paid for your lawyer. We took care of Rosie. We made sure your account was always full of money and that there were plenty of minutes on your phone card. We bribed and threatened as many guards as we could to keep you safe in there, so Jester's men couldn't all come at you at once and finish you off. And in return, all we asked was for you to think of someone other than yourself, and you couldn't even do that.”
I heard a gun cocking behind Bard. His eyebrows raised and he released the nerve in my neck, standing up slowly and turning around.
Jewel was pointing her gun at him.
“Get away from Rafe right now,” Jewel said. “I don't want to kill anyone, but I've already done it once today and I swear I'll do it again right here if you don't back off.”
Nic already had his gun drawn and pointed at Jewel, but Bard raised a hand, and Nic lowered the weapon. Boomer just watched, his eyes wide.
Bard eyed Jewel calmly. “You won't be doing any killing with the safety on, I'm afraid.”
Jewel squeezed the trigger, sending a bullet over Bard's left shoulder. This time, she didn't even flinch at the sound of the gunshot. I was impressed.
“Nice try,” Jewel said. “First thing I checked.”
Bard actually chuckled at that, nodding appreciatively. “Well played.”
“Put...the gun...down,” I gasped. My muscles were starting to loosen again, but the pain still lurked in every corner of my body.
Jewel glanced at me, confused. “But he's...”
“It's...all right,” I said. “He's right. About all of it. And what happens next is up to him.”
Jewel looked at me uncertainly, then lowered her gun.
I pulled myself to my feet, feeling the ground spin under me as I met Bard's gaze. “But if I'm gonna go, I'll go standing up like a man, and I'll go with your promise that nothing happens to her.”
“Oh, for Christ's sake, Rafe,” Nic
said softly. There was pity in his voice. “Come on. You know we wouldn't hurt her.”
“I know we're not in the habit of carrying out executions in front of witnesses,” I said, “which means it doesn't matter what the fuck else I think I know. I need your word.”
“No one's getting executed tonight,” Bard said. “We wouldn't have brought you what you asked for if we were going to kill you. And now that you've dragged the Reapers into this disaster, we have no choice but to be in it all the way, for better or worse. But I'm deeply disappointed in you, Rafe. And you should know that if you're a Reaper for another hundred years, you'll never have another chance at wearing the VP patch.”
I sighed, lowering my head. “I understand. And thank you.”
“Don't thank us,” Nic said. “You didn't leave us much of a choice here, man. You know that. Now let's get inside and see what's on this memory stick you're so excited about.”
Chapter 31
Rafe
While Nic and Boomer turned on the laptop and plugged in the memory key, Bard opened the first aid kit and examined the holes in my arm.
“You did a good job dressing these wounds,” Bard said to Jewel as he dabbed them with disinfectant and taped gauze over them. “Have you had any medical training?”
“Not really,” Jewel answered. “I just did what seemed to make the most sense, which was keeping the bleeding to a minimum with the bandages and making sure they weren't tight enough to cut off the circulation.”
“That's smarter than a lot of people would've been,” Bard said. “They'd have tried a tourniquet because that's what movies told them to do, and Rafe might have ended up losing the arm.”
“Where's Giggles?” I asked Bard. Giggles was the Reapers' humorless resident medic, a former nurse who'd become hooked on pills and joined the MC after losing his license.
Bard scowled at me. “I sent him up to Madison,” he said. “After I found out what happened to the Reapers up there because of your bad judgment, I figured it was the least I could do for them by way of apology. You're stuck with me. You're welcome.”
I closed my eyes and nodded. I'd been a shithead. I knew I had all this coming and more.
“Okay, we've got it,” Nic said, pointing at the screen. “Not sure what it is, though.”
We all crowded around the small computer screen. The memory stick only had one file stored on it, labeled “FOT/DB.”
“Well, DB usually stands for database, at least among accountants,” Jewel offered. “But I don't know about the FOT.”
“Family of Thorns, I'll bet,” Boomer said. “Holy shit. If this is what I think it is...”
“Open it,” Bard said.
Boomer double-clicked on the file. A list of over two dozen Italian names appeared on the screen, including Angelo's and Jester's.
“There's Billy Finucci,” Boomer said, pointing to the name. “He's with the Mancusos, too. An' there's Jimmy the Fish, he's a bag man for the Russo family. An' look, here's Tommy Esposito an' Donnie Buono. They both work as torpedoes for the Rizzos. Jesus, there are even a couple of Bonaccorsos on this list.”
“If the crime families got their hands on this info, they'd know who among them belonged to the Thorns,” Nic said. “And every person on this list, including Jester, would end up in a hole in the ground. These Italians aren't big on divided loyalties in their ranks.”
“So we've got it?” Jewel asked. “We've got what it takes to blackmail Jester into leaving us alone?”
The other Reapers turned to look at me. Bard's lips were pressed into a thin line, but I could tell what he wanted to ask: Since when did I care about Jester “leaving me alone?” Since when did I care about anything but killing the bastard for what he'd done to me? I wasn't ready to tell her that had been my plan all along.
But the database had given me an idea.
“This is enough to get us in the door, at least,” I said. “I can use this memory stick as leverage to get Jester to meet with me. If he knows it's someplace safe and I can use it against him, he might be willing to settle this with me one on one, instead of siccing the whole Family of Thorns on me.”
“Yeah, but how are you supposed to arrange all this?” Nic asked. “I mean, we don't know where the Thorns hang out, and it's not like we can pick up the phone and call 1-800-THORN-ME or something. Staying hidden is kind of their main thing.”
I turned to Bard. I knew I was taking a huge risk bringing this up, but I didn't see any other option. “Boomer mentioned you were pretty cozy with Chicago's top cop.”
Bard shot Boomer a withering look. “Oh, he 'mentioned' that, did he? How forthcoming of him. Did he also happen to mention that my relationship with Superintendent Grady is personal and not to be exploited for MC business, let alone the business of a careless rogue member?”
“Hey, you want me to make this right?” I snapped. “This is how I can make it right. I can handle my shit and make sure there's no blowback from Thorns, Mancusos, or anyone else. But to do that, I need to know what your pal knows about the Thorns.”
Nic sighed. “I hate to admit it, Bard, but he's got a point. If we don't make a move on this fast, the gangsters really will start beating our doors down, and we'll be right back where we were a year ago.”
Bard considered this for a long moment, then squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed is temples. “Fine. I'll go outside and make the call.” He got up and left, slamming the kitchen door behind him.
Nic looked at me with heavy eyes. “Just so you know, Rafe, this shit almost went a whole other way. It took a lot for us to talk Bard into helping you out. Don't abuse that.”
“I won't,” I said. “I'm doing my best here, Nic.”
A few minutes later, Bard came back in. “There isn't much about the Thorns in the law enforcement databases, except for rumors of a yacht docked in Belmont Harbor. Some people say they conduct business there sometimes.”
“What's the name of the yacht?” I asked.
“Don't know,” Bard said.
“Do we know if it's usually got Thorn members on it?”
“No idea. This was literally everything Grady had on them, Rafe. And he was not happy to be asked.”
I got the point. “Thank you, Bard,” I said. “At least it's something for us to go on.”
Bard looked at his watch. “It's getting late,” he said. “And it's been a long day for all of us. Plus you'll probably need a few more hours' sleep to shake off that concussion before we get to work on this. We've got some sleeping bags in the trunk. We’ll bring them out so we can all get some rest.”
“As long as we can get an early start tomorrow,” Boomer said. “I managed to get a side gig with the city's Events Department, helping them rig the fireworks for tomorrow.”
“Why, what's tomorrow?” Jewel asked.
Boomer blinked at her for a moment, confused. “It's, uh, the Fourth of July. You didn't know that?”
I glanced at my burner, and saw that the date on the screen was indeed July 4th. Holy shit, I thought. We've been running around so much these past few days, we both forgot there was a holiday coming up.
Bard and Nic went out to get the sleeping bags. “Since when do you pick up extra jobs working for the city, Boomer?” I asked.
“Since I got my fuckin' Sergeant patch yanked off earlier today, Rafe,” Boomer said tersely. “My share in the MC's profits just took a goddamn dive an' I got child support to pay. Not that I expect you to give a shit.”
“Fuck, man, I get it, okay? I fucked up! I fucked up real bad! How many fucking times do you want me to say I'm sorry?” I asked. “Fifty? A hundred? Give me a fucking number and I'll do it, or else drop it and let me try to fix it!”
“You're giving me attitude over this?” Boomer snarled. “You wanna act like you're the victim, here? Jesus, really? Where do you get your fuckin' balls, man?”
“He's right,” Jewel said. “You should give him a break, all of you.”
“Oh, really, lady?” Boomer y
elled. “And pardon me all to hell, but just who in the sunny blue fuck are you to tell me what I should do?”
“I'm the one who'd be dead if Rafe hadn't stepped in and saved my life,” she replied steadily. “He didn't have to stick around and protect me, but he did, and he's risked his life for me a bunch of times since then because he's a good person. And even if he screwed up as badly as you say he did, he's still doing his best in a terrible situation and he doesn't need to be put down by all of you.”
Boomer turned to me, sneering. “Really? Is that what you told her? That all this Jester stuff was some heroic gesture to keep her safe? That it wasn't all about you and your personal bullshit? God, you really are an asshole.”