by Amity Cross
I flushed as I felt the entire roster of Fortitude MC turn and stare.
Chaser swallowed hard before he continued. “After I came to Fortitude, I forgot about the revenge I wanted for my wife. I forgot what it felt like to have someone care. I relished the kill. I liked not being able to feel the pain anymore. I was broken…until Sloane put me back together. So who am I? FBI? Assassin? Biker? Fucked if I know.” He shook his head. “But what I do know is how to fight, so that’s what I’m going to do. Now I fight for Sloane. I fight for Fortitude. And I fight, not only for my forever but yours. The Hollow Men are going down. Rocket and the renegades are going down. And I’m going to make King suffer for what he did to my wife and for what he’s threatened to do to Sloane. He’s going choke on his own blood just like Madison did.”
The room was silent for so long I couldn’t tell which way things were going to fall. The mention of the law had put everyone on edge, but the fire in Chaser’s eyes when he vowed the ultimate revenge was chilling. I knew what he was capable of, but these men didn’t. He’d kept himself apart for years, hiding his true nature, but now it was all coming out.
“We’ve tried to do it on our own, but we failed. That’s why I’m asking,” he went on. “We can’t take these sons of bitches down without you.”
The bikers glanced at each other as if they were deliberating telepathically. There was so much I still didn’t understand about biker code of conduct. Fortitude was a democracy now, but that didn’t mean they would help us because Gasket said so.
Please, please, please… I crossed my fingers and my toes.
“Then let him choke,” Hopper said, rising to his feet. “No one threatens a member of Fortitude and gets away with it.”
“Let him choke,” Spike said, adding his voice.
“Let the motherfucker choke!” Ratchet shouted.
One by one, the men of Fortitude MC stood, adding their consent, thumping their feet on the ground. I slipped my hand into Chaser’s as I rose.
“You’ve got a way with words,” I murmured into his ear.
He grunted and leaned into me.
“This is the job to end all jobs,” Gasket said. “The Hollow Men and their Hollow Riders are our enemies. They threaten not only our lives but the lives of those we love. That shit doesn’t fly in my club.”
“I’ll say,” Ratchet drawled.
“So how are we going to take down these assholes?” Watts asked. “They’re out of our league. This is mafia shit, man.”
“We’ve got an ex-FBI agent on our crew,” Hopper said, glancing at Chaser. “He’s got the training, right?”
Chaser nodded. “When I was undercover, one of my objectives was to obtain access to a server that held the Hollow Men’s operational data,” he explained. “It was always going to be a long shot, but by working my way up the ranks, they would’ve eventually trusted me, and then all I had to do was wait for my chance.”
“Computer shit?” Spike asked. “None of us know anything about servers or data.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Chaser said. “I’ll take care of it. I knew the encryption key was always held by King, and the passwords changed every thirty minutes, but I wasn’t able to confirm the rotation.”
“That was a long time ago,” Gasket said. “What makes you sure it’s still the same?”
King held an access key? I racked my brain, trying to remember everything I could about him from that interrogation room. His power had almost overwhelmed me, but I’d been lucid enough to study his appearance and stature.
“Wait,” I said. “What does this key look like?”
“It could be anything,” Chaser said. “With the advances in technology, it could be concealed in anything.”
“So it’s not an actual key?”
“No. It could be anything with a chip inside.”
Watts rolled his eyes. “That’s useful.”
“Wait…” I held up my hand a tilted my head to the side.
I closed my eyes and brought his image to mind. If he weren’t a psychopathic evil mastermind, then he would be considered handsome. I bet he used his looks and money to lure unsuspecting women into his den of nightmares all the time. Women looking for the fairy-tale ending that was never coming. The thought made my skin crawl.
If King kept the key close, it had to be on his person at all times. A ring? A cufflink? A glint of silver under his shirt. I looked up at Chaser and knew that if I was right, we were screwed. What else was new about this story?
“He had a chain around his neck…something silver under his shirt…” I said. “It could be it.”
“You saw the guy?” Ratchet asked, his mouth falling open in surprise.
I nodded. “I saw the guy all right. He threatened to have me convicted of murder if I didn’t hand over Chaser. I’m currently a fugitive from justice.”
“Uh…” Ratchet made a face.
“It was self-defense,” Chaser snapped.
I shrugged. “What he said.”
“That’s useless,” Gasket said.
“Not entirely,” Chaser countered. “Back then, it was, but now we want to kill the son of a bitch. If we can take the evidence and deliver it to the authorities, then we have the chance to take out the entire operation.”
“If King is gone, someone else will take his place,” Gasket said. “Then we’ll be stuck in an endless war.”
“So it’s not just a drive-by we’re planning?” Spike groaned and rubbed his temples.
“No, it’s a full-scale dismantle job,” Hopper said. “Strip the shell, disconnect the battery, remove the wires and filters, drain the coolant and oil, then take out the engine.”
I shot a look at Chaser, my lips curving into a grin. Good analogy.
“Once we start, we can’t stop,” Gasket said. “There’s only one way to finish this for good, and it’s a crap shot, but we have no other option but to dive into shark-infested waters and go for broke.”
The assembled bikers muttered among one another, but at least no one got up and left. Several men looked shaken up by the prospect but didn’t lose their cool.
“What’s the plan?” Watts asked. “Where do you want us?”
“Mayhem detail,” Chaser said, his eyes shining with mischief I’d never seen before. Man, it was hot.
“Hell, yeah,” Spike said, fist pumping the air.
“We need a crew to engage the Hollow Riders,” Gasket said. “And four teams to create chaos in the Halcyon.”
“The casino?” Hopper asked. “In Las Vegas? That place is going to be tighter than a virgin’s—”
“Yeah,” I said, jabbing a finger at him. “It’s going to be tight, you might get arrested, but we need a distraction to get inside.”
Gasket narrowed his eyes.
“Chaser and I are going after King and his server of death,” I declared. “You guys are going to strip the engine for us.”
“You’re going into that hole?” Stewie asked, looking shocked. He hadn’t said a word until now, which showed how much he cared. It was sweet, really, but unnecessary.
I nodded. “Like Spike said earlier, I’m not a girl, I’m a fucking woman. I want to see that son of a bitch choke.”
The mood in the room lightened, but there was still heaviness on all our shoulders. A lot of blood was going to be shed in the coming days, and they were going forward with it, knowing they might never come home. There was no payment, no spoils to plunder, so why were they still here? Chaser said it earlier. Under Gasket’s presidency, Fortitude had become a true family, and family did shit because they cared…no matter the risk.
“Right,” Gasket boomed, rising to his feet. “Get your shit together and your head in the fight. We ride in two days.”
“Two days?” I asked Chaser. “Why the extra time?”
“I’ve got something to do first,” he replied.
“Like?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
Once all the bikers had dispers
ed, Gasket approached Chaser. “I knew, but I…” He shook his head. “Thanks.”
“For?” Chaser tilted his head to the side.
“Telling the truth. About who you are.”
Chaser looked slightly uncomfortable as the older biker grasped his shoulders, but luckily, there wasn’t a hug involved. I wasn’t sure Chaser could handle it.
I watched the two men’s bromance ignite, and I hoped to God the plan would work. For all our sakes.
Chapter 21
Chaser
After everything that had happened, I never thought I would be back here.
Sitting in a car I’d borrowed off one of the Fortitude guys, I watched the comings and goings of the quiet suburban street. Our whole plan hinged on what happened here. If I couldn’t pull this off, then what we were about to do would have all been for nothing. Revenge wasn’t sweet when there was another asshole waiting in the wings for their chance to take over. That was how the wheel kept rolling, and we kept running.
Holden was nothing but an office monkey, a washed-up agent with a shattered knee and a family to keep. He wasn’t on the front lines anymore, but he was my only way into the system.
Gambling with the people who hung me out to dry wasn’t my idea of a good time, but they were the ones who pulled the strings. King had his fingers in one of the top law enforcement agencies in the country. That had to piss off someone enough to want to cut the umbilical cord. Someone had to be a good guy in all that red tape. Someone who still believed in protecting the innocent.
But we weren’t that innocent, were we? I shook my head and focused on the street ahead. Holden would be back soon. I’d called for him at the field office, impersonating a clerk from another site, and they’d told me he’d just left for the day. Either he’d gone to a dive bar and was drowning his sorrows or he was on his way back to spend time with his precious family in his perfect white picket fence life. The life I should’ve had with Madison.
That was another time, another place. I couldn’t go back, so it was no use thinking about it. I had Sloane now. Sloane was real.
Movement across the street drew my attention. I watched Holden cross the street and approach my position, hands in his pockets. Reaching into the compartment on the driver’s side door, I pulled out my gun and set it on my lap.
Holden slid into the passenger seat and sighed, closing the door behind him. “You’re not exactly discreet, you know.”
“I wanted you to see me,” I replied, thankful he hadn’t drawn a weapon.
“And you know I can’t help you.” He eyed the gun on my lap but didn’t say anything.
“Yeah, I know. You’re just a desk guy these days.” I rolled my eyes. “Don’t patronize me, Holden. It isn’t becoming of you.”
“Then let’s cut to the chase. What do you want, Mason?”
“I’m going in,” I replied. “I’m going to finish the job I set out to do when I first went undercover.”
“You think you can take down the Hollow Men?” Holden scoffed and shook his head. “You’re insane.”
“I can, and I will.”
“So?” He stared at me. “What do you want for it?”
“Sloane and I are exonerated in exchange for King and access to his servers. The FBI will have everything they need to dismantle the Hollow Men and put away a lot of people for a very long time.” I looked at my one time partner. Life had taken us on separate journeys, and I hardly recognized him anymore. The brash, young FBI agent who’d partnered with me was gone, and a ragged and jaded man sat in his place. “This will make your career, Holden. You always were the hero type.”
“Is that all? Exoneration? You don’t want back in?”
“Why would I want back into an organization that hung me out to dry? All I want is freedom for Sloane and for me. We get what we want, you get what you want, and we disappear. End of story.”
“Can you guarantee you’ll succeed? Plenty of agents have tried, and all have wound up dead or in witness protection. Or dead in witness protection for that matter. As I see it, you’ve got a less than one percent chance of pulling this off.”
“Then it’s no skin off your nose if we fail, right? No harm, no foul. But if we succeed, we all win big. That’s a fucking good deal.”
“Win or die.” Holden shook his head. “You’ve got balls, Mason.”
I nodded. Yeah, big brass ones. We were betting everything on one roll of the dice.
“I can present your offer, but—”
“There’s no buts. This is going down. Either the FBI is on board or it isn’t.”
Holden sighed. “Exoneration? Sure.”
“I want it in writing and signed by the director by sunup.”
“And if I can’t get it?”
“Then you get nothing, and we disappear.” It was a bluff, but without the signed letter, Sloane and I would get nothing. I couldn’t let Holden know how badly we needed this deal. He had to believe we had a contingency. “This isn’t a game, Holden. It’s in or out. If the FBI doesn’t want to help us, then there are plenty of other interested parties who’d love to control an organization of this scale. Foreign, domestic…”
“All right, all right!” Holden sighed and ran his hand over his face. “Let me see what I can do.”
“Good.”
“I assume this will be the last time I see you?”
“Yeah. No offense, but I’m running on a schedule. I don’t need the system fucking it up.”
“None taken. I don’t want to particularly see you, either. You’re one dark son of a bitch, you know that? What’s the protocol then?”
“Leave the letter with the concierge at the MGM Grand,” I said. “Address the envelope to the guests of room 415. If you miss the deadline, I’ll know. If you cross me, I’ll know. If anything gets in my way, the FBI gets nothing.”
“You’re tempting fate, man,” he said with a shake of his head.
“Goodbye, Holden,” I drawled.
He opened the door and climbed out, striding away from the car. It was so easy for him. Leaving his past to rot. I would be lying if I said I trusted the guy, but when I’d known him, he’d been on the side of the law. I hoped that was still the case.
Once Holden was gone, I sent a text to Watts. It’s done.
A few moments later, I received a reply. I’ll be in touch.
Turning the key in the ignition, I started the car and headed out of Las Vegas, my eyes on my rear. Nothing followed me. It seemed my little rendezvous had gone undetected, and it felt good that something had gone right for once in my sorry life.
Making my way to the interstate, I crawled through peak-hour traffic, starting the four-hour drive back to Los Angeles…and Sloane.
Chapter 22
Sloane
Tomorrow night.
I stared at my reflection in my bathroom mirror and held up the pair of scissors I’d found in the drawer. One way or another, in twenty-four hours, everything was going to change.
Betty was gone. Sloane was gone. So who was I now? I was Sloane, Mark II.
Grasping my hair, I sliced off a long lock with the scissors. It fell to the floor, and I glanced down. I already felt lighter.
I kept cutting, a wave of passion overcoming me. More hair came off, and I stared at my changing reflection with unmasked determination. Once I was done, I fluffed up my new do and grunted. That would do.
Opening the box of bleach I got one of the guys to get me from the beauty supply, I mixed up the powder and developer and slapped it on my head. Immediately, my scalp began to tingle. I covered all my hair with the mixture and watched my dark locks begin to lighten.
“Sloane?”
“I’m in the bathroom,” I called out, resisting the urge to scratch my scalp.
“What’s that smell?” Chaser appeared in the doorway, and his eyebrows rose. He glanced at the hair on the floor, and then to the bleach on my head. “What are you doing?”
“Coloring my hair. I wanted to see
if blonde’s had more fun.”
“Do they?”
“Don’t know yet. I’m still a work in progress.” I shook the next box of dye. “I’ve gotta tone yet.”
“Why?”
“Well, when you bleach hair, it turns this gross yellow color, and you put blue or purple tones on it to counteract the gold.”
Chaser smiled and shook his head. “I meant, why did you cut your hair?”
“I wanted to evolve.”
“Fair enough.”
I narrowed my eyes. “How did it go?”
“I did what I could,” he replied. “Now we wait.”
I nodded. Watts was in Las Vegas, holed up in a fancy hotel waiting for a letter that may or may not be our ticket to freedom. Mainly my exoneration from King’s threats, but Chaser was tied up in it, too. My fate was his fate because that was how true love worked.
“Are you sure they’ll come through?” I asked. “They don’t seem like a trustworthy bunch”
“I insinuated we’d sell the information to the highest bidder and be granted asylum by a foreign power, so yeah, they’ll come through.”
I snorted at the irony and tossed the empty dye box into the plastic bag I was using for the trash.
“How are things here?” Chaser asked, leaning against the doorframe.
“Gasket has delegated men to each team,” I replied. “Bones, Hopper, Stewie, Ringer, and Davis are on mayhem duty at the Halcyon. The rest are going with Gasket to confront Rocket. Seems like the ‘Hollow Riders’ have taken up residence in a certain diner.” I air quoted the renegades shitty new name and curled my lip in distaste.