Tattered & Torn
Page 19
“Time to bite back,” I mused.
“Yep.”
“What ‘cha got?” I asked.
“Found their meth-cook operation. Seems they really do have a death wish spreading that poison around,” Reaver had a gleam in his eyes I’d seen only once before, and truthfully, I never wanted to see again. I mean shit, I was no fucking saint. I’d killed people over there, and Sparks had what was coming to him in a bad way for what he did to my girl. Sparks was a son of a bitch and had deserved to die, bottom line, it was as simple as that. So why did I have to keep reminding myself of that fact? Because the way that man had died was pretty much too horrible for words. Reaver enjoyed what he did to Sparks way more than anyone should enjoy killing. It made me sick to think about it so I simply shoved it aside. Put it into that little box of horrors right alongside the shit that probably kept Trigger up at night too and I locked those things down tight.
Reaver was a split personality if I ever saw one. In the light of day, with his son, with his wife and with his brothers, he was a good and just man. Right there beside you and willing to do anything, including die, for his people. That darker half of him though. It was the worst, most nightmarish thing I had ever seen and I’d seen some seriously fucked up shit before. Reaver was looking me over and it must have showed on my face because he suddenly looked frustrated and uncomfortable.
“Sorry man,” I shook it off and he nodded solemnly.
“Anyways, the guys sent me out here to make sure you were up to speed before we filled you in about all that. You know we weren’t always legit and Trig told you about the runs we used to do, trying to fix the other chapters and get The Sacred Hearts across the board on the right side of the law?” he asked. I nodded and slid my gaze sideways to the three at the table.
“Don’t look at us man. We wanted out of the drugs and the guns. Blue did six years hard time because of that shit,” Duracell said, Blue nodded. “I had no interest in doing hard time and that shit got my brother dead. My real brother, flesh and blood. I went Nomad to fucking bail on that scene, see if they could clean up their fucking act but most of them went down in a massacre seven months later when their drug shipments stopped making it to their destinations,” he ran the magazine home on his handgun and pulled back the slide, tucking what appeared to be a very nice Hi Point C9 into a holster under his jacket and cut. He leaned back into his chair, tipping the front legs up off the floor.
“Not something I wanted to be a part of. Blue here got out of the state Pen and we were still members in good standing, just with no chapter to call home, the rest of ours was fucking dead or still in prison. I saw what that shit did to my brothers. The greed, some of them getting hooked, going to prison, getting themselves dead. Not fucking worth it man and I don’t want my new home to turn into a fucking cesspool of that shit either. I’m a Sacred Heart’s man. A real one. I’m in it to win it here with my brothers.”
Interesting. He disagreed with his brothers but had stayed true to his colors, to his oath. He’d gone nomad and ridden, he hadn’t turned rat but hadn’t participated in the drugs either. Blue had gone to prison for this club, yet he remained true as well. I could see why Dragon had gone out of his way to recruit these two back into the mother chapter.
“I come from the North East chapter. Most of them went down in a RICO case. I was in New Zealand, my granddad had died. I get back and the whole chapter is shut down. I knew what was what but tried to stay out of it for the most part. Kept my head down. Did what my Pres. asked me to do when he asked me to do it, but I was barely a patched member when I went back home. Got in touch with Dragon and he said to come here, that’s my story,” he shrugged and tucked his completed weapon into the front of his waistband and pulled his tee shirt over it.
“Apparently shit’s been falling apart all over the place,” I commented dryly. Reaver gave me a hard look and I took it for what it was, that some of these outlying chapters may have had a little help going down the drain when they were resistant to getting on board with the mother chapter’s morals relocation program. Dragon was one smart and seriously crafty motherfucker. I wouldn’t put a god damned thing past him.
“Anyways, if we’re done trading campfire stories and braiding each other’s hair?” Reaver said and was met with a round of chuckles.
“Sorry, finish telling me what you were going to tell me,” I said and couldn’t suppress my smile. Reave could be funny as Hell.
“Right, so working on us has obviously taken a back seat when we got problems much closer to home. We know the Suicide Kings are cooking, we know where that cook operation is and we want to send a message, if its war they want its war they got and we don’t take it laying down. You finished eating?”
I pushed my plate to the center of the table.
“Yep.”
“Cool, let’s go play,” Reaver got up and I followed suit. I glanced toward the kitchen and Reaver smiled. I followed him into the chapel and the other three followed us in, it was fucking crowded with the five of us, Trig, Dragon and Dray all piled in the curtained off fishbowl.
Reaver pushed through us and said, “I know I’m pretty boys, but hands off the goods.” He took up post by Trig and I got a look at the contents of the table. It was a topographical map of part of the region.
“How we get this intel?” I asked.
“Combination of Data monitoring their communications and we got a man on the inside,” Dragon grunted. I felt my eyebrows go up. A man on the inside. No idea how we pulled that off but again, Dragon was a crafty bastard.
“So what do you need me to do?” I asked.
“You got your tow truck out there?” Dray asked.
“No, my pickup,” I frowned. I didn’t much like the idea of bringing my business into things. Dragon read my look plainly.
“Not asking you to use it for this, we got one, old as dirt but reliable, no markings just need someone practiced in operating it. You drive stick?” he asked.
“I drive anything on two, four or more wheels. Piece of cake,” I commented.
“Good, you ride with me to the rendezvous point,” Trig said, “It’s up to you and me to keep these happy bastards occupied,” there was a light tapping at the fishbowl’s door. Dray stalked over and whipped a curtain aside revealing a man in his forties, graying hair cut short, wearing a dirty SHMC cut over a worn and scaly looking leather jacket.
“Lucky!” Reaver crowed. I’d heard of Lucky but hadn’t seen him. Dray opened the door and Lucky came in, hands shoved deep into his fraying jeans pockets. He was around my height, a smaller dude and pretty unassuming. Up close I put him closer to fifty rather than in his early forties. He gave Dragon and Dray a grin and laugh lines bracketed his mouth and crow’s feet fanned out from his light blue eyes.
“Somebody call for a demolitions expert?” he asked and Dragon and Dray grinned a matched set of wolfish smiles.
“Glad you could make it brother,” Dragon put out a hand and they clasped forearms and pulled each other in to a bone crunching back slapping hug.
“So what needs blowed up?” he asked and cast his eyes to the map sprawled across the table.
“So this is what we’re thinkin’…” Dragon started in and we all listened, rapt.
The plan was an eye for an eye on a bit grander of a scale. It was my job to tow Grizzly’s big boat of a car from out front of his house with Trig, Reaver and Lucky. If all went according to plan, our other boys would raid the farmhouse, pull anyone inside out of there and have ‘em phone home. When the cavalry started to amass, they’d run into our little road block and pop goes the weasel. We were supposed to drop the car out in front of the Suicide Kings’ club house driveway which had only one way in or out with the chain link fence they had surrounding it. Once we dropped it we were to GTFO so Lucky could blow it.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, or in this case, the Suicide King’s cook house which was out at an abandoned farmhouse, the real eye for an eye shit would be going down
. It would be getting blown up in retribution for Open Road Ink.
The whole thing was supposed to prove that one, we had bigger balls than they did and two, that if they wanted to fuck with us they were fucking with the wrong dudes because we didn’t back down and we protected what was ours. The fact that we were blowing up Griz’s car for the road block was purely because we were dicks and it entertained us… well, it entertained Reaver, he thought it was hysterical and that part had been his idea.
It was going to be Dragon, Dray, and Duracell taking out the farmhouse with Zeb and Blue on back up. Apparently Duracell knew how to blow shit up too, he was a demolition’s expert when it came to construction or some shit. Lucky’s explosives expertise is how he came by his road name. He apparently just liked to blow shit up, doing it as often as possible. He was just plain lucky he hadn’t blown himself sky high in the process.
Trig and Reave were my cover while I did my tow magic and while Lucky set the car up for explosion. The whole thing felt pretty fucking cracker jacked together and sort of on the fly. I looked to my old CO and his best friend.
“Were you guys drunk when you thought this up?” they traded looks and the big man shrugged.
“Maybe,” Reaver said with his cheerful psycho grin. I rolled my eyes.
“Girls learn nothing of this,” Trigger said and Dray snorted,
“Everett would have my nuts in a vice,” Dragon slapped his son on the back after he said this and laughed.
“Anybody gonna pussy out on akind of yer women, best do it now,” he commented dryly.
“Fuck no. I’m gonna do this for my woman,” I said grinning.
“Bullshit!” Zeb coughed behind his hand, “You’re going to do this one for you mate. You did what you could for your lady already I reckon,” I nodded.
“Yeah, okay you got me there,” I said with a feral grin. “You know this is stupid right?” I asked.
“Boy, how do you think we got the badass reputation we did? Half the time we planned shit it went sideways in the middle. We plan, we go do and the rest is just balls to the wall.” Dragon shook his head.
“Pretty much. Reckless and stupid and we get lucky,” Lucky agreed, “God damn it’s good to be home!” he cried.
“We going to spend all night standing around talking about it or are we going to do this shit?” Dray asked.
“You in a big fucking hurry there Veep?” Duracell asked.
“Unlike you, I’d like to get back here and fuck my girl at some point tonight,” Dray intoned but his expression was serious as his dark eyes roved the map like he was committing it to memory.
“Let’s stop standing around with our cocks in our fists circle jerking it out and get to it,” Blue said wearily and we all turned. Blue was like a silent fucking Bob, he just about never spoke. Duracell slapped him on the back of his cut.
“Best go make peace with your little women and make sure it’s okay that we go out and play. Ain’t no one holding my fucking leash,” the ginger said with a wink.
“No one holding ours either,” Trig said with a peaceful little smile and we traded looks. I knew how he felt on this one. We piled out of the chapel. Shelly, who was tiptoeing from the kitchen through the archway leading to the back and presumably where the other girls were at, froze.
“Runt,” Reaver grunted and Shelly’s shoulders dropped like she’d been caught. Reaver crooked a finger at her and she gave him a look that was like ‘really?’ and shuffled over to her cousin.
“I don’t know, I don’t want to know and just please be careful,” she said and hugged him but her eyes were on me and pleading.
“C’mere Princess,” I said and she came to me and folded into my arms like she was meant to be there. “Be back before you know it, Baby,” I said softly and she sighed.
“Lucky, you blow up my Ol’ Man, I’m kicking you in the balls,” she said over my shoulder and Lucky laughed.
“Good to see you too Shells,” he said and sounded amused.
“Go on, go do whatever you’re going to do and just be careful,” she kissed me and wandered into the back. I watched her go.
“Well fuck, who knew Shelly had it in her to be an Old Lady? Didn’t think anyone was gonna tame that one,” Lucky said.
“Watch it,” Reaver and I chorused in unison and we looked at each other, everyone busted up laughing.
“Let’s roll,” Dragon said when we got our shit together, and we moved for the club’s front door.
Chapter 21
Shelly…
Fuck Reaver and Dragon and Trigger and Dray and everyone else! I got around the corner where they couldn’t see me and scrubbed my face with my hands. I was a club whore before I was an Ol’ Lady and I’d heard some really fucking wild stories in my time. They were going out to go do something stupid. I could see it, I could feel it and hell I could even smell it but that was before any of them got attached and that was before Ghost.
Karma sucked balls. I used to sit around the club in whoever’s lap and think to myself how I was glad I wasn’t an Ol’ Lady and that I only had Reaver to worry about and I didn’t really have to worry about him. My cousin was slicker ‘n owl shit. He knew how to take care of business and himself… Now they were going out enmasse to do God knows what and for the first time freaking ever my food was sitting like a rock in the pit of my stomach and I was friggin’ worried.
More worried than you could imagine knowing Lucky was headed out there with them. He wasn’t crazy like my big cousin, if anything his variety of crazy was even scarier because if something went wrong and Lucky ran out of luck there wouldn’t be enough pieces left to put in a Ziploc baggie.
“Hey Shelly, didn’t know you were here! Wait, what’s wrong?” I groaned inwardly and brought my hands down from my face. Everett stood a few paces away but blessedly she was by herself. I found myself thanking my lucky stars it was Everett and not Ashton or Hayden. Everett was made of sterner stuff, like me and Chandra, so I could say something and not have her dissolve into a puddle of girl-goo.
“Boys went out,” I muttered. She raised an eyebrow like she wasn’t impressed.
“Doing something stupid?” she hazarded. She didn’t know Lucky like I did and I wasn’t going to be the one to fill her in.
“Oh yeah,” I said and pushed off from the wall. She rolled her eyes. Better to let her think they were up to their usual shenanigans and that the shit wasn’t about to get real wherever they were off to.
“Probably be a few hours then?” she asked, searching my face.
“Yeah probably,” I agreed.
“Come on. We’re binge watching Once Upon A Time,” I pushed off the wall and went with her, back further into the depths of the club house towards the media room.
It was dark inside, mostly because the walls were painted black and all the furniture was too. The big black leather couch was something like a ten seater and curved around. There were several sections of it that footrests popped out recliner style and there were also a couple of those too, recliners I mean. There were pillows in the club’s colors of red, white and blue here and there, mostly on the floor in front of the biggest big screen TV Ashton’s money could buy. The system also boasted surround sound and the room had been unofficially declared an Ol’ Lady safe haven when the boys were doing club business the women were to have no part of. Mostly because the women were tired of being sent to their men’s rooms like errant children. It was Ashton’s gift to the Ol’ Ladies as much as it was to the men of The Sacred Hearts. A gift to the club as a whole.
Personally I thought the media room makeover was fantabulous. The side walls boasted big black bookshelves that were heavy enough the men had bolted them down so they couldn’t fall. These shelves were slowly filling up with books on one side and DVD’s and Blu-ray discs on the other. Hell, even some PlayStation and X-Box discs were working their way into the mix. Sure enough someone had brought and hooked up their gaming consoles to the big screen. I rolled my eyes. Boys.
I loved Disney like a brother from another mother and cuddled in gratefully, wishing wistfully that it were Ghost that held me fast. But no. My man had gone off less than a day after becoming my man to go do something stupid, something stupid that likely involved explosives and the Suicide Kings. Dis kissed the top of my head.
“Don’t worry about it. They’ll be fine,” he murmured and I frowned. It was the wrong thing to say because Ashton and Hayden’s heads popped up like Meer Kats sensing danger.
“Who will be fine? Where did they go?” Hayden demanded, her green eyes piercing even in the dark.
“Boys went to take care of some business that’s none of yours,” Grinder said unhappily from the other end of the couch, adding a belated, “Don’t worry about it.”
Ashton’s eyes widened. “Did Ethan go?” she asked.
“Trig, Ghost, Reave, Dragon, Dray, Duracell, Lucky, Blue and Zeb all went,” I said. Ashton looked like she was ready to cry. Probably because Trig had slipped out without saying ‘goodbye’, or ‘I love you’ or some shit. Which I couldn’t be one to talk, it had stung that Ghost had simply told me he’d be back before I knew it. It felt like a promise he potentially couldn’t keep.
It was about this point I realized that not only did I love him, that I could finally admit to myself how deep those feelings ran and all I wanted was for him to come home safely so that we could figure things out. I wanted a life with Ghost. To start to build something lasting, and now he was out there…