“Funny how?” Eddie asked.
“I don’t know.” She sighed into the phone, making the line crackle. “Like I think he was trying to tell me something bad, or maybe…maybe, he was saying goodbye.” She started to cry then, sobbing into the phone. “Eddie, is he sick or something? Did the doctor’s give him more bad news?”
Eddie mentally replayed her encounter with him. Yes, that’s exactly what it had felt like. He’d given her the ring, told her how much she meant to him. Shit. He’d been saying goodbye to her, too, and she’d been too shocked and hurt to notice. She clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from swearing a blue streak. He fully intended to come clean with the club and by the sound of it, soon.
Dammit. The brothers might be persuaded to see the bigger picture, but he needed to go in there with more than a story. The question was, could she stand by while it happened? Maybe the ring she still hadn’t been able to take off her finger was an answer to that question.
“Kid, it’s okay,” she soothed. “And no, your dad isn’t sick.”
Eddie couldn’t tell Lexi what was going on, that was Captain’s place. Assuming he got out of this alive, he’d fill her in. And if he died, well, then she’d do nothing to tarnish his memory in Lex’s eyes, and she’d make damn sure the rest of the club followed her lead.
“Eddie, please tell me what’s going on!”
Eddie had to save him, if she could.
“Lex, I have to go. I’m going to handle this, I promise.” She crossed to the table by the door, and tucked her Colt in pocket of her hoodie.
“But what’s this all about?”
“Let me give you the short but not sweet version. Today, the past is coming to light. Things set in motion long before you were born.”
“Take me with you. I can help!” she pleaded.
“I can’t, honey. This is my fight, not yours. And I’m going to try like hell to win.” She grabbed her purse and checked the windows and doors, locking them.
Lex sighed into the phone. “Bring him back to me, Eddie.”
“I will,” she said, as she headed to the front door.
“Can you at least tell me where you’re going?” she asked.
She bit the inside her cheek. There was really only one card she could play. “To make a deal with the devil.”
Chapter Nineteen
For a long time, Captain stood staring at his brothers, trying to memorize their faces, live in this moment. They were all seated at the table, joking and laughing. He had a lot of love for the men in this room, they’d been through some terrible shit together.
After he spoke, they wouldn’t see him the same way– that’s if he was lucky enough to live. Once he did this, shit wouldn’t be the same. And this meeting would end with a trip to the desert. It’s what he deserved for his crime. Fuck. Not like he really had a choice anyway. He had to do this.
With a sigh, he smacked the gavel against the wood of the table. It made a sharp, hollow sound. A death knell. He usually started with old business, so he’d better get it out in the open.
He was about to introduce some really fucking old business.
“Brothers!” he said, to shut them up.
They turned to face him.
“This is going to go a bit different today. We won’t be standin’ on ceremony. It’s been gnawin’ at me for a few decades now, keepin’ me up at night, so I might as well get it all out in the open. I’ve been lyin’ to you. For years.”
The room got quiet. You could have heard a fuckin’ pin drop. They were usually a raucous crowd, that he had to shout over. And while he might be the president, no one had absolute control of a group of rowdy bikers.
Today, he held them in the fuckin’ palm of his hand.
“So, what the fuck. I'm callin’ it a day. Doin’ what I gotta do. I need to tell you somethin’ about the RICO case.” He glanced at Goat who watched him with a neutral expression. Shit, he really didn’t want to disappoint his mentor.
“Back in the day, before the case, I’m the one who tipped off the FBI. The feds were crawlin’ up our asses, looking for a reason to bust us, and I gave them one. I called the tip line and told them the location of a meet. We were runnin’ coke from Mexico to Las Vegas and we had a meet set with our distributor. They wouldn’t have been able to pin anything on us until I tipped them off.”
Another, long, tense silence. Captain forced himself to wait it out, and let it sink in.
“Why the fuck would you do that?” Duke finally asked.
He knew they’d ask him the question and he’d been thinking about it a lot in these past years. “There were a lot of reasons, but I wanted to protect the club.”
“By ratting them out?” Ryker asked. “Ratting my dad out.”
Captain glanced at Goat. “We were into some bad shit at the time – coke, guns, whatever paid well.”
“Yeah, but you know what you signed up for,” Axel said quietly. “If you had a beef with how they earned, you shouldn’t have prospected for the Horsemen.”
Captain nodded. “I know. But I didn’t know how deep this rabbit hole went until I got involved.”
Shepherd’s face was neutral, more curious than tetchy. “We all know the club wasn’t what it is today. But why didn’t you try to change it from the inside?”
Shep had the unique ability to not be judgmental and he appreciated that. If he had any hope of surviving this shit storm, Shepherd was it.
“At the time, I couldn’t think of a better way to solve the problem. The brothers in the club weren’t like any of you. Most of them had drug habits. They wanted to line their pockets. We killed people, extorted people, dealt drugs in neighborhoods.”
In their old clubhouse, they used to do lines of blow, the brothers would pass out with needles in their arms. They played fuckin’ Russian roulette with their lives.
“Fuck you,” Ryker growled. “Yeah, my dad had his troubles, but he was basically a good guy.”
“I stand by what I said,” Captain said quietly. “Except for Goat. Goat was the only solid member, but he went to jail shortly after I arrived. I couldn’t have changed the club if I wanted to. And there was something else.” He doubted they’d believe him, but he’d throw it out there, let them make of it what they would. “Joker was getting ready to sell out the club.”
Ryker shot to his feet. “You’re a fuckin’ liar. My Dad would never betray the club.”
Shepherd grabbed the gavel and smacked against the table. “Everyone cool down. We’re going to hear him out, before we decide what to do.”
With a glare, Ryker sat back down.
Captain continued his story. “Joker was screwing Loretta Beauregard. Apparently, her dad signed off on their relationship as long as Joker renounced his club. He had to make one hell of an exit, too. To prove his loyalty to the Raptors, he had to serve up some of the Horsemen brothers.”
It would’ve been a bloodbath. Captain figured turning them into the FBI might mean some of them would live. He knew they’d try to fight, but he hadn’t counted on how high the body count would be. Or that Viper would sign on as an informant, which had essentially gutted the club.
Ryker snorted. “So sayeth the rat.”
Axel frowned. “Hang on. What did Loretta look like? Was she a tall woman? With long straight black hair?”
Both Captain and Goat nodded.
“Fuck. I saw her with dad.” Axel turned to Ryker. “I think you were too young to remember, but dad was supposed to watch us this one time, after we got back from story hour at the library.” He pursed his lips. “I can’t remember where mom was, but dad wasn’t there. We were at the library for an hour or so and when dad finally showed up, he had this girl with him. She dropped us off at the house in this awesome white corvette. I kept thinkin’ how pretty she was and what a cool car she drove. Dad made me promise not to tell mom, said he had been working on a surprise for her.”
“Dad was fucking her?” Ryker asked, jaw clenched.
> Axel nodded. “From watching them interact? Yeah. I didn’t put it together until now.” He glanced at Captain. “That wouldn’t have gone down well with the Beauregards either. His wife steppin’ out on him.”
“Yeah, and Buckley Beauregard killed her in a jealous rage, after finding out she’d been fucking Joker,” Goat said. “I don’t think Buckley ever found out about the Raptors’ plan. Or he would’ve cut them down like dogs.”
“Did the Raptors retaliate?” Axel asked. “Loretta was his kid.”
Captain shook his head. “Too scared to, I expect. The Raptors and the Dixie Mafia would’ve gone to war,” he explained.
“That still doesn’t excuse what you did,” Duke said. “You turned your back on your club, went to the feds behind their back.”
“And we only have Axel’s word for it who was a kid at the time,” Ryker said. “Do you have proof?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I happened to overhear a conversation one night. We were all at the clubhouse and everyone was passed out, except me. Joker phoned his honey. And I was drunk, but not that drunk. I heard him whispering to her, tellin’ her he was setting up a bogus run for the guys, but I don’t have any hard evidence.”
Shep surveyed the room, but everyone had gone quiet. “Is there anything else you’d like to say?” he asked.
He shook his head. There was nothing else to say. He’d finally told the truth, and regardless of the consequences, it felt damn good to lay the burden down.
“Okay then. We have a decision to make. Will Captain meet the Pale Rider?”
Occasionally, a member had to be held accountable. More often than not, the situation called for an ass whuppin’, but from time to time somethin’ more severe was in order. The Pale Rider patch was given to a brother who took care of the club’s wet work. Right now, Duke and Captain were the only ones who had Pale Rider patches.
“I’ll take him outside,” Ryker volunteered. “I don’t need to deliberate,I’ve already made up my mind.”
Captain had no doubts about Ryker’s vote. The kid had been itching to fuck him up and now he had the perfect excuse. Not that he didn’t deserve the beat down, but he’d rather get it because of what he’d done, not because Ryker was pissed at him.
“That’s a fuckin’ bad idea,” Shep said.
“Yeah, no shit,” Captain muttered under his breath.
“I’ll keep my hands to myself,” Ryker promised.
“Fine. See that you do,” Shep said, giving him a hard look. “If I see a mark on him, we’ll have words.”
Duke withdrew a couple of zip ties from the pocket of his cut, and tossed them to Ryker. “Here, use these.” His eyes were blank, evidently getting prepared for what he’d have to do. “You might need them.”
Ryker bound his wrists and then marched him outside the door, before sitting him down a steel bench against the wall. Captain couldn’t overhear what was going on inside, but he doubted this vote would go his way. The story was just too thin.
Well the next time he betrayed his club for the right reasons, he’d get some fucking documentation.
Ryker stood over him, arms crossed over his massive chest, a muscle working in his jaw.
“You should get back in there, son,” Captain said. “You gotta vote.”
“I don’t think you’re in any position to be givin’ me an order,” Ryker said. “I know you fed us the story about your brothers being sacrificed to the Raptors and the bad direction the club was headed in. But we both know, part of you ratting out the club was for my mom. You wanted her and you needed to get my dad out of the way.”
Shit. He’d be lyin’ if he said that the thought didn’t cross his mind all those years ago. Yes, he’d wanted to stop running drugs and guns and no, he didn’t want them to die in a Raptor ambush, but he didn’t exactly hate the idea of Joker going away for twenty-five to life.
Not that he’d had a shot in hell with her at the time.
“You know how I feel about Eddie,” he said. “But it wasn’t ever going to go anywhere.”
“Until now. Tell me the truth,” he said. “Was my dad an asshole? A junkie?”
Captain knew better than to answer that question. He was fucked either way. “He’s your dad and I am not gonna run him down in front of you.”
Ryker sat down next to him, and stretched his legs out. “Look, I spent the better part of my childhood bein’ pissed at the man. He left my mom all alone. She had to raise us, feed us, and put a roof over our head without any help from him until he died in a jail.”
Captain sighed. “Yeah, I’m bettin’ a Raptor got him, but they didn’t exactly call out Sherlock Holmes to handle his case. They wrapped it up in a week. A guard got a slap on the wrist for not watching the prisoners more carefully. And that’s about it.”
He nodded. “I figured. But, tell me. What was he like? I don’t have many memories. Mostly just seein’ him in this dingy visitor’s room at the prison. And no, I’m not going to punch you. You got a one-time free pass to talk shit about him with no consequences. I need to know.”
Captain sighed. “Shit, kid. He liked his bourbon, but he wasn’t a junkie. Let’s put it this way, I never saw him snortin’ any of the merchandise up his nose. He also had a rep as a pussy hound.”
His lips twisted. “Like I used to be. So, he fucked around on mom.”
“I saw him with a hellion now and then. Nothin’ serious. Not until the Beauregard woman. And yeah, if you want my opinion, he was an asshole. Any man who’d screw over a woman like Eddie is a dick in my opinion.”
Ryker blew out a breath. “Fuck.”
They sat there in silence.
“Okay, then. Thanks for tellin’ me.” He stood up and then glanced at Captain. “What do you think would have happened if you hadn’t leaked the meet to the feds?”
About this, Captain had no doubt. “I think the graveyards in Hell would be overflowing with Horsemen graves.”
Ryker watched him for a while, evidently mulling over what he said. “I think you might be right. Then, he paused a long, moment. “But I still don’t like you.”
Captain laughed. “No shit.”
“But then again, I don’t think anyone is good enough for her. Me and Axel, we’ve been the men in her life for a long time and we look out for her. It ain’t personal, I just don’t want her to get hurt.”
On that, they were agreed.
“If you survive this vote and that’s a big, fuckin’ if, it’s cool with me if you see her.”
He sighed. Under different circumstances, he’d be buying Ryker a drink right about now. “I appreciate it, but I told her all of this yesterday and she hates my ass.”
Ryker clapped Captain on the shoulder. “Yeah, well, you kinda deserve it.” They stared at one another for a moment, a wordless understanding between them before he walked back in the boardroom.
Loving Eddie was something they both had in common. Maybe it could be the beginning of a solid friendship, assuming she forgave him, and assuming Captain survived the night.
***
Twenty minutes after she’d left the house, Eddie found herself standing in front of the hearth in Byron’s office. All but one of his guards were gone tonight “on an errand”, which she bet involved guns, blood, and death. But it worked for her. There were less men standing between her and the door if things went south.
And with Byron, you could never tell what might happen.
He’d lit a fire and the logs cracked and popped. Flames danced over them. It looked a bit like hellfire. Strangely fitting, she supposed. He lounged in his leather chair, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“What an unexpected pleasure. Have you come to a decision?”
No time for preliminaries. “Yes, but first I need your help and the situation is urgent.”
His eyes twinkled with amusement. “Well, perhaps you’re not familiar with this particular notion, bein’ a vigilante type and all, but since y’all have cast
me as the villain, I don’t do favors. For anyone.”
She steeled her nerve. “You’ll do this one, for me.”
He studied her. Good, he seemed intrigued, not pissed off. Her ability to be tactful was completely gone. “Okay, I’ll bite. Tell me more.”
“I need you to share your mother’s diary with the Horsemen.”
“Why the fuck would I do that?”
Damn. Of course, he was going to be a nosy bastard. “It’s important. So you can verify Captain’s story about Joker.”
He chuckled. “I see. Let me guess, your new beau had somethin’ to do with the RICO investigation. He found out Joker and Loretta were defecting and leaving behind a trail of Horsemen bodies?”
She stared at him. “You read it in the diary?” Smart and smug, talk about a bad combination.
“Yeah, her diary was very thorough. Is Captain pouring his heart out to the club right now? Tellin’ them he couldn’t keep his fool mouth shut?”
She nodded stiffly.
“Well, isn’t this a twist? You need me to save your honey from the biker boys, don’t you?” He laughed, triumphant about her defeat. What a dick.
Honestly, they didn’t have time for a chat right now. “Yes, and the sooner the better. So, if you don’t mind?” She gestured to the door. “Let’s do this.”
She could practically hear the cold calculations going on behind his serene blue eyes. Then, in the distance, Eddie thought she heard a gunshot. What the hell? Was someone shootin’ up the place?
Beauregard stared at the monitor on his desk, eyes widening a moment. Did he have a camera feed? He shook his head, before he spoke again. “I’m afraid I can’t help you. Captain has no value to me. Either way, he won’t be the president after tonight.”
That had occurred to her as well. If they let him live, they certainly wouldn’t leave him in charge. “Yes, but he has value to me.” She sighed. “And, if you help me save him, I will do you a favor. If you want a partnership, I’ll push for it. I can make it happen.”
It was a bad scenario, the club working with the Dixie Mafia, but it was better than Captain’s death. She’d worry about their partnership another time.
Devil May Care (Four Horsemen MC Book 4) Page 20