Impulsive (The Houston Defiance MC Series Book 4)

by K E Osborn

  “River is meeting us there. So, this should run smoothly. Nothing to worry about,” Sunshine informs us.

  I’m glad she has so much faith in her brother and the syndicate, who not that long ago, tried to have her killed. Me, I’m a little more reserved, apprehensive if you will. But if we can pull this trade deal off, this could do huge things for Houston Defiance, so we have got to try and make it work.

  Kevlar pulls into the driveway of the warehouse, and there are guards awaiting our arrival. Sunshine waves at them like she knows them personally. She probably doesn’t, she’s just excited that her family business and the life she has chosen are finally merging together.

  We all slide out of the car as River steps over to us. How he’s the lowest of ranks at our club, merely a prospect, but the highest-ranking official here at the Slavers, still blows my mind.

  “It’s inside here, guys. We’re excited to have you come to approve the setup.”

  My eyes shift to Cherry as she waggles her brows at me. This whole thing lies on Cherry and my shoulders. We’re the masterminds, so if the setup isn’t right, we will pull the pin. No questions asked.

  We head inside. There are rows and rows of equipment set up in system format, just like we had at the pharmacy, only on a much grander scale. I side-eye Cherry as a slow smile creeps up her face, and she grips onto my hand. “Zero will go nuts over this,” she whispers to me.

  “As you can see, everything’s up, ready and rearing to go. We’re just waiting on stock. Actually, Cherry… Neon, this guy coming through now, I want you to meet. Yong-rae, he’s the scientist and the man running this operation. We’d like you to go over everything with him to make sure we’ve got it all correct.”

  He steps forward. His buzzcut hair makes him appear menacing, the eyebrow piercing doesn’t help the situation either. “We received your spreadsheets. Very thorough work. Thank you for providing them.”

  “I’ll go over everything you need,” Cherry chimes.

  “We shall talk business now I am here,” Yong-rae advises in his deep voice.

  “Do we need Zero here for that?” I peek over at Cherry.

  “Actually, it’s why he didn’t come. He said this is my baby, so he wants me to make all the decisions,” Cherry advises.

  My eyes shift to Kevlar. He shrugs.

  We can’t say shit to Cherry about this. We have to respect her as if what she says is coming from Zero himself. All I can do now is hope she’s telling the truth.

  “So, what do you want to do, Cherry?” I ask.

  She pulls out a folder, opening it to show a graph. “I think we should triple the amount of Snow White we produce. I predict with the space we have here and the men you have, you should be able to manage the load. We still have to give a share to the Bayou Militia as a courtesy, but Zero and I discussed it, and if we keep quiet about our production until we have a solid base, then we’ll expand the distribution to them when we’re sure the market out there is ripe for the taking. We don’t want to saturate it, giving a larger share to the Militia, then we encroach on each other’s turf and neither of us can end up selling. If we do that, we’ll be left with excess product and no income.”

  “And if we can’t sell the product on our own?” River asks.

  “Then we ship it to our other brother chapters across the country. It’s riskier than transporting the pills, but we got across the Mexican border with them before, so I’m sure traveling through the USA should be golden.”

  “You have a plan for everything,” River chimes.

  “I hope so.”

  “Do you have a plan if the Militia finds out we’re undercutting them? Remember what happened last time we had a war with them?” I ask.

  Everyone cringes.

  Our president and his Old Lady’s throats were slit in front of the club—in front of their children Zero, Prinie, and Koda. The hole it left in Defiance was endless and unrelenting.

  We can’t let that happen again.

  “We won’t let them find out, Neon.” Cherry’s enthusiasm is infectious.

  River and Yong-rae both nod.

  “As long as we all play it safe, we will be fine. Cherry, how about you walk me through this process? I studied your notes last night, it’s all fairly straightforward,” Yong-rae adds.

  “We have it down to an art form. Now you guys can do the same but on a larger scale. I can’t wait to see what improvements you are able to make.” Cherry loops her arm with Yong-rae, who is completely uncomfortable with her friendly gesture, as she starts walking off with him.

  Sunshine moves forward taking River into a tight embrace. “It’s so good to see you in your element, especially now it’s not as our enemy,” Sunshine gushes.

  “I’m glad I was able to turn this place around.”

  “I’m happy I get to have you in my life again.”

  “Me, too. And thanks, Kevlar, for taking such great care of my sister,” River adds.

  “Always. She means everything to me and the kids.”

  I spin on my heels, leaving them to their family bonding session, then walk over to one of the table setups I helped design. I love seeing it exactly how I planned. I have to admit, a sense of pride swarms through me that Cherry’s and my side hustle is coming to fruition and into something on a much grander scale. Who would have thought my best friend’s woman and me could turn a small-time drug lab into this? This will be incredible for the club if we get it to work right. But more importantly, keep the Slavers on our side and not hustle us out of shit like they have tried in the past.

  After spending a few hours at the warehouse doing a trial run and seeing how River’s team works, Cherry and I were happy with how things are going to progress, and we left.

  Driving through the club gates, Cherry is glowing.

  “I’m happy with how that went,” she states.

  “Yeah, honestly, this was a great idea. Zero’s going to be impressed,” I reply.

  Sunshine, Kevlar, Cherry, and I all head straight to the clubhouse. Zero’s waiting when we enter, and he pulls Cherry to him, kissing her briefly in greeting.

  I move to walk past them.

  “So, how’d it go?” he asks, halting my escape.

  “Went how we expected.”

  Zero’s eyes meet mine, then he plants a kiss on Cherry’s forehead. “I’ll see you in our room.”

  Cherry hesitates, but nods, walking off as he steps up to me. Sunshine and Kevlar quickly scurry off noticing Zero obviously means business.

  “You have an issue with what we’re doing to the Slavers?”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Because you’re always thinking logically… except for when it comes to Oakley.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I’m not picking a fight, Neon. Fucking relax. Just saying you’re always the first to point out a flaw, but with Oakley, you can’t see the thorns for the roses.”

  “Again, I’m not following.”

  “She’s trouble with a capital T. She’s gonna hurt you or the club. I just haven’t figured out which yet.”

  “If you dislike her this much, why are you letting her stay?”

  “For you. I know you like her, but I don’t want to see you hurt or fucking worse… in jail or dead. You’ve seen what she did to Rage—”

  “But he was an asshole to her.”

  “Still, she pulled the wool over his eyes and their club.” I open my mouth to reply, but I’m stopped. “I know, I know, before you say it… they are dense bastards. I just wanna make fucking sure she doesn’t do it to you, too.”

  I nod, not really sure what else to say.

  I don’t know Oakley well enough to lay down and defend her.

  But I do feel like the woman I’m getting to know won’t harm me.

  However, isn’t that how all good con women work?

  NEON

  A Week Later

  I’m working away on some shit for Zero in my den w
hen my computer pings with an alert. I’m confused because normally pings only come through when I tell them to, so I’m all too aware this is someone hacking into my servers. Instantly, I get to work, trying to track where it came from before even reading the message, but the IP address is bouncing so fucking fast, I can’t trace it even with the fucking brilliant software I have.

  Whoever this is, knows what they’re doing.

  I make sure to pull the message from my main server’s drive and load it onto one of my stand-alone computers that aren’t affiliated with the rest of my important software. Then I scan the message for viruses—it’s all clear, so I open it.

  And wait.

  Continue waiting.

  Then wait some more for some sort of shit to happen.

  For catastrophic system failure to corrupt the computer, but there’s nothing, other than a simple message.

  Zero, I want to meet. You can bring two of your most trusted with you. Any more, I will RAYNE chaos down on your club.

  30 minutes

  9231 Jensen Drive, Houston

  Anxiety wreaks havoc inside me, then I push it to the side, forwarding the message to my hand-held device. Quickly standing, I race out of my den to find Zero. He’s playing pool with Koda, so I hurry over, interrupting them. “Pres, I got something you need to see.”

  Zero places his cue down with a huff. “You looking like that with your device in hand is never a good thing, Neon. What the fuck is going on?”

  With the message on the screen, I simply hand him the device. His eyes frantically scan it. The moment he reads his Old Lady’s name, his muscles tense, his breathing hitches.

  “They spelled Rayne as in Cherry’s name.” I caught that, too. “You think this is a direct threat to her?”

  “Dunno, man, but we need to find out. This shit screams Militia to me.”

  Zero rubs the back of his neck. “You think this is a trap?”

  “Maybe… we could go, but have backup on hand if needed?”

  “You, me, and Wraith are going. But I want men lying in wait like you suggested.”

  “Got it… pres. I know it goes against every fucking thing we stand for, but you want to wear a vest for this?”

  Zero grimaces. “If this is the Militia, and they’re not happy with us producing in mass, a vest ain’t gonna do shit. Their bullet is going straight between my eyes.”

  He’s right.

  But I hate the idea of us stepping into this with open arms and underprepared. “I hear you.”

  “I’ll tell the boys to mount up and kiss my Old Lady a goodbye. You better go say goodbye to Oakley. We don’t know what we’re walking into.”

  Dipping my chin, I turn to find Oakley as Zero makes his way for the brothers. I find her outside soaking up the Houston sun. She’s beautiful. I stop for a second to admire her. Her eyes fling open, and she glances up at me with a smirk. “It’s rude to stare, you know?”

  “Not staring… admiring.”

  She snorts, sitting up higher in the chair. “You okay? You look… pensive.”

  “About to ride out, not sure who we’re going to meet. It could be dangerous.”

  “You get some sort of message?”

  I narrow my eyes on her. “You know something about that?”

  “Not really, but Rage used to get messages a lot. Generally, the brothers would come back from something like this bloody.”

  “We’re hoping to avoid that.”

  “Do you know who it is? Could it be Rage?”

  I shake my head. “They mentioned Cherry specifically, so we think it might be a local we have been dealing with.”

  “You in the shit?”

  “High probability.” I let out a small laugh.

  She grimaces, stands, and walks over. “Then I hope you have a good ride, and the meeting turns out to be advantageous rather than something else.” She leans in gently, placing her lips to mine. Any fears or concerns Zero placed in my head evaporate as her lips touch mine. The kiss is short and sweet, just enough to tide me over until I get back—if I get back.

  I pull away. “Stay with Cherry while we’re gone, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  With one last gentle kiss, I turn to head back to get ready to ride off with my brothers.

  Zero, Wraith, and I take off, riding in formation. We have protection not far behind us, but they’re far enough away not to cause any sort of suspicion. Honestly, they are so remote from us right now that if shit hits the fan, they’re too far away to help us in time.

  But at least they will cause vengeance if shit does go down.

  We pull up at the destination, the old, abandoned Granada Theater Complex. This place has been out of action for a few years now and frankly, I haven’t even looked twice at this run-down piece of crap. But I guess if you’re going to meet someone to do some shady shit, an abandoned building is as good a place as any. The rest of our brothers park down the road, ready for a signal. All I have to do is press the button on my watch, and it will alert Texas, then in come the cavalry.

  Everything in my being hopes it doesn’t turn to that.

  Wraith, Zero, and I slowly enter the theater. It’s dark, ominous, but strangely “God Bless America” is playing from inside the main amphitheater. Wraith slowly opens the theater door, and I pop around first, gun drawn. There are rows and rows of seats leading up to the stage, where a single stool stands with what looks like an old-school Boombox blasting the patriotic tune.

  My eyes shift to Zero, his to me, and as a threesome we make our way down the aisle toward the stage.

  Suddenly, a spotlight shines on the middle of the stage. The three of us halt. We raise our guns higher, scanning all around the theater for any signs or signals of who or what we are dealing with. Then, the sound of high heels begins to click-clack across the floor. We turn to the stage, a woman dressed in an all-white business suit with a cravat and her blonde wavy hair to her shoulders strides out. She’s incredibly professional-looking—whoever the fuck she is.

  “Defiance! Glad to see you’re as good-looking in person as you are in your photos.”

  Maybe not so professional.

  “You seem to know us, but I’m coming up short on who you are and why you called us here?” Zero questions.

  She presses stop on the music, the theater suddenly turning silent. “I’m disappointed you’re unaware of who you’re talking to.”

  “You’re obviously not that important, sweetheart. Otherwise, we’d know you, aaand… we don’t,” Wraith quips.

  “Maybe because I was in someone else’s shadow all this time.”

  “Quit with the cryptics, lady. We ain’t got all damn day!” Zero grunts.

  “Perhaps you might show me some respect when I tell you my name.”

  “Well, stop stallin’, sister. Spit it out…” Wraith chuckles.

  Trying to appear more imposing, she folds her arms over her chest. “Constance Squires.”

  My head snaps to Zero. He tries to remain stoic, but there’s a noticeable increase in his breathing.

  “Oh… there it is, a hint of fear in your eyes. That right there…” she points, “… is exactly what I was after. Thank you, Zero, for making my night.”

  “What are you to him?” Zero spits through his teeth.

  “Oh, you mean to… the Baron? To the man you murdered in cold blood, not to mention his son, too? Geez, Zero, way to target one family.”

  “Answer. My. Question, Connie!” Zero yells through gritted teeth.

  She lets out a contented laugh. “Oh boy, I do love how tense you are right now. That tickles my nipples.”

  “Constance!”

  “Fine! The Baron always said out of all the many ex-wives he had, he always regretted our marriage ending the most.”

  “You’re an ex-wife?”

  “Damn, boy, weren’t you listening? I was his final wife. We split because of monetary differences. But there was always love there. Tilman was my big ol’ teddy bear.
Then you lot up and happened. I always told Tilly your club would be the end of him. I was damn well right!”

  “So, what do you want from us, Connie?” Zero asks. “I can’t bring back the dead.”

  She scoffs. “Well, an apology would be nice, but, then again, if the Baron didn’t die, then he wouldn’t have left his fortune to me...” She smiles so fucking wide I wonder if her face is going to split in half. “I now own everything he had, plus everything I already had, so honestly, I’m wealthier than I could ever possibly have imagined. Tilman dying was exactly what I needed to gain rank, power, and persuasion in this town. I think I’ll call myself…” her eyes narrow in on us, “… the Baroness. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

  Well fuck! We may have won the battle with the Baron, only to create a whole new war with the Baroness.

  “I’m not calling you that,” Zero jabs.

  She glares at him, a fierce fire in her eyes. “Oh, but you will, because if you don’t, the first thing I do will be to send inspectors around to your little ol’ lady’s pharmacy. You know, the one the Baron helped you obtain. They will shut it down quicker than you can wrap your breakfast taco on a Tuesday morning.”

  Both Wraith and I snap our heads to Zero to see how he wants to play this.

  His top lip curls as she continues, “If that’s not enough to entice you, I can always have my contacts down at the precinct put in some evidence, whether it be truthful or not, on officer Ethan Rudd’s involvement with the club and his impact with his brother… Kevlar, you call him, right? I’m sure the chief would love to know another Rudd brother is turning to the dark side.”

  Zero scowls. “Ethan’s a loyal cop. He’s straight down the line. Tried to bust my ass one too many times. Honestly, he’s a thorn in the club’s side, but he is Kevlar’s brother. Just because one brother is a cop and the other a biker doesn’t automatically mean the cop is crooked.”

  “The fact you’re going in so hard to bat for Ethan so freely suggests otherwise, pres. But your little secret is safe with me. So is your pharmacy. All you have to do is one… little… thing.”