But now, we didn’t have a choice. Our women were involved. Gemma and Sydney. Emery and Laiken. They were all involved with this no matter how much we tried to shelter them from it. Their safety was left in the palms of our hands, and every time we tried to divert it only brought down more head on our heads.
The only way to really pull this off now that the DEA was sticking around was to start doing things a little more legally. At least until they could get out of town and take The Devil Saints with them. The question was, could I convince the club to do that? Even if I brought the girls into the picture, I still didn’t have a unanimous vote. I could maybe sway Mac even though he didn’t have a woman he was taking care of, but Fox enjoyed the drug running. He was good at selling, and he got kickbacks for being so good at it. We all knew, but it was never talked about. It didn’t impact the money in our pockets, so we paid the man more money since he was better at it.
And his arguments alone told me he’d vote ‘no,’ and the whole idea would be trashed.
We had other streams of income. We had the bar, and if we opened it up to the public, instead of just club members and associates that could rake in some decent money. We’d have to stop serving minors in order to really make it work, but that wouldn’t be anything anyone would kick up a stink about. No one was thrilled that the bar served minors in the first place, but we let it slide because the bar was how we initially cleaned our drug-running money. It was our ‘payment’ to those in the club that worked it.
Turning our backs on shit like that.
If we off-loaded all the drugs we and find another source of income, we could make this work. If we stopped running the drugs, then the bar would be legal as fuck. We could pool our money and open another one in town, which could very well make up for the loss of profits we would see without the damn drugs. It would put space between the kids some of the guys were having and those activities, and it increased the chances that the DEA would look elsewhere when they couldn’t connect us to any drug-running.
It was the only shot I had, so I had to make sure I convinced them this shit was a good idea.
I knew Sydney would love the club to be safer. Both for Emery and for Hawk. There were too many times this past year where Hawk had lost his head and almost gotten caught, and Syd wasn’t happy about it at all. And with my sister hanging around Talon, she needed extra protection. I still had the ability to keep her away from this shit, and this was how I could do that. If Gemma was really going to choose Talon to spend her life with, then I needed to make this place safer for her. I needed to start accepting her decisions instead of getting her to conform back to mine.
If I wanted her safe, this was how it had to be done.
Everyone cool?” Mac asked.
“I’m good,” Fox said.
“Me, too,” Talon said.
“I’m still gathering my thoughts,” I said.
“Good, because I’m still ready to kill you,” Hawk said.
“You better shut that fucking mouth of yours before I shut it for you,” I said.
“Everyone needs to calm the fuck down!” Mac roared.
It had been a long time since we’d had a cool-down session like this. Usually, we could all get together, spit it out, then get back on our way. But tensions were running high, and that was partially my fault. I had to accept responsibility for that before I could expect anyone to go along with my plan.
“I’m sorry I raged on you, Fox,” I finally said.
“What?” Fox asked.
“I said… I’m sorry I knocked your pussy ass to the ground.”
I could see Fox’s eyes flaring up, but then Hawk stepped in.
“That’s as good of an apology as you’re getting from Snake,” he said. “Take it or leave it.”
“I just wanna know why the fuck Snake called ‘church,” Talon said. “Gemma’s not feeling well, and I need to get back to her.”
“What the fuck’s wrong with my sister?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you after church,” Talon said.
“I said I wanna fucking know now.”
“Snake, cool your jets. You’ve flexed your dick enough today. Now, tell us why you’ve called church, or conclude this bullshit so we can all get back to the lodge. I’m hungry,” Mac said.
“That’s never good,” Hawk said, mumbling.
I had to tell them everything. About Laiken. About my feelings. I would have to divulge our entire history. Talk to them about when we were dating. In order for them to be on my side, they had to know the whole fucking story. All the way up to this afternoon. And they would probably hate me for it. Curse me for fucking around with a cop. But I loved this woman, and I trusted her, and I knew she wouldn’t bring heat down onto until she had proof.
And I knew she didn’t have that.
“It’s gonna be a long session, okay? I just… need you guys to listen,” I said.
“Snake, you good?” Hawk asked. “You’re looking pale.”
“Should I get snacks for this lovefest?” Mac asked.
“No,” I said. “But you are gonna have to keep an unbiased mind about what I’m going to suggest.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Talon asked.
“It means I have an idea about how I’m gonna get what I want, get you what you guys want, and get the fucking DEA off our backs. But it takes a story and time to tell it,” I said.
“Fine,” Fox said. “What’s this story?”
“It starts with a woman named Laiken,” I said.
“It always does,” Hawk said.
“You get her pregnant or some shit?” Mac asked.
“No, you asshole. I fell in love with her.”
Chapter 26
Laiken
I walked out of Jace’s home and got back into my car. I could feel his dried come sticking to the side of my fucking leg. I couldn’t believe what was going on. I couldn’t believe what I had just found out about Jace. He was a fucking outlaw belonging to one of the gangs my police department was researching. What the hell had just happened? How the fuck had I not seen this any sooner?
I got into my car and headed back to the police station. I took the long way around, taking some time to clear my head. For the first time in my entire life, I was lost. I was lost on what to think, I was lost on what to say, and I was lost on what to do. Memories of the old Jace came crashing back to me, and I smiled as I drove around town. I found myself driving by our old hotspots. Like where the diner used to be or the park we used to make out at.
I drove by the alley where I first had sex with him. The place where I had first become addicted to him. I drove by the movie theater he took me to whenever I wanted to go out on a date, and I parked in the spot his bike always took up. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, not caring who the hell looked inside. I was consumed with thoughts of him. How he used to smile at me and how gentle his voice used to sound in my ear.
I love the memories I had of Jace. They weren't tainted with the information I now had on him. I could still look at him through the lens of a younger me and see the man I have fallen in love with. The young boy who was still blossoming in his life. I recounted our steps, the places we went to around town and the darkened rocks we would sit on whenever he would take me on bike rides towards the desert. I looked for any signs. Any clues that could have pointed me towards the life he had been leading at that point. I remembered all the times I ever made love to him and tried to see if I could smell him out. Smell the leather on his skin or the drugs on his fingers or the smell of musky cologne as he rode with a group of men from coast to coast.
But there was nothing. There were no warning signs that he was a part of a gang trapped within the confines of my memory.
I was angry at myself. I was better than this. I knew that I could sniff out criminals better than this. I could put pieces together better than this. But the truth of the matter was, my captain had no pieces. The DEA had no pieces. They had drugs that routed back to a
cartel that funneled similar drugs into the country. They had pictures, they had probable cause, but they had no proof. The only proof they had was the truckload of drugs found outside The Devil Saints compound... and no arrests had been made. DEA Special Agent Monaco could say whatever the fuck it was she wanted.
There was something very, very wrong with this entire situation.
The Devil Saints should have been arrested on the spot. The moment those drugs were found outside of their compound, every single person present should have been arrested. The DEA still could have conducted their investigation into the cartel once they found that the drugs in the back of the truck were cut similar to the shit being shipped into the country. But no arrests had been made.
Why the fuck not?
One thing I knew about criminal organizations was that the best ones who indulged in the seediest operations could afford to hire the best lawyers. That was where I needed to start. I needed to start by figuring out who the hell represented The Devil Saints. I needed to dig into their past. If Jace was right about how shady they were and if my captain was right about how disgusting they were, then there was a good chance cases had been brought against them before. There was a reason the DEA was going so hard for them. Hell, The Iron Souls had no charges brought against them before the DEA descended into their lives, and they made them a national witch hunt.
I had to get into work and start going through The Devil Saints’ file.
I pulled away from the movie theater and headed straight for work. My mind was centered, and I had a task at hand. I pulled up behind the police station and entered through the back, making my way towards the evidence locker. I knew the most recent files on The Devil Saints were already upstairs, but I wanted everything on them. I wanted everything the police department had on this club. All of the paperwork, all of the evidence, and all of the recordings.
After chatting a little while with my new friend who understood the intricacies of makeup, I left the evidence locker with three boxes in my hand. I expected there to be a lot more, but I would take anything I could get. I stuck to the back hallways and walked up the stairs instead of taking the elevator, and I was able to slip into my office without my captain seeing me. The last thing I wanted to do was try to lie to him about where I had been.
I was not ready to even think about the fact that I had just had intimate sexual relations with an outlaw where we both declared our love for one another.
Love.
Jace had told me he loved me.
I shut the thought from my head and got to work. I had to do my job. I could not take the time right now to justify being in love with a criminal. If The Devil Saints were doing what Jace said they were doing, then he was right. They were the ones that needed to be taken out first. So, I started going through their files. I arranged everything in the three boxes by date, then I started with the earliest documents. I scanned every piece of paper and went over every picture, taking notes as I went along. Notes of Presidential changes and names of people who kept popping up in documents. Court cases that were brought against them and people who had conveniently gone missing. I read through newspaper articles and magazine articles that talked about events the police department tried to connect to this club. Prostitution rings and illegal strip clubs. Drug running and gun slinging. Unsolved murders and body parts that were found in rivers close to their compound.
All shit that couldn't be proven, but all shit that smelled like The Devil Saints. ------
But there was one name that kept popping up. One name that continued to be jotted down in my notes.
Carmichael.
The first Carmichael mentioned was Derek. A small town boy born on the outskirts of Las Vegas who grew up and established one of the first private law firms that serviced the mobsters who took over the city. Or so it was rumored. He never employed another lawyer to help him, and he never outsourced his work. He became a very rich man very quickly, and then he had a son.
Mason Carmichael.
Mason's name appeared a great deal in the documents, and it didn't shock me when I figured out that he had taken over his father's practice. The law firm on the outskirts of Vegas continue to pump in massive amounts of money without ever hiring another lawyer onto its payroll, and that’s when pieces started falling into place. Mason Carmichael made a name for himself in Vegas by ‘defending those who couldn't defend themselves,’ and soon branched out in the criminal world.
He always appeared in court with someone who was known to be associated with the mob, but there were a few times where he appeared with the heads of the gang as well.
Mason eventually went on to marry a dancer from one of the strip clubs. They had a happy life, and Mason continued to dabble in court proceedings with the mobsters as well as with random gang members. He was trying to expand on his father’s business model, but then I came across his obituary.
A sudden death that left his wife and his son without him.
Guess the mob didn’t enjoy him branching out.
Now his son, Daniel Carmichael, owned the law firm. It was in a different place now, but it was the same one. Rebranded with a different name, but still, the same sleazy Carmichael that was running it. Daniel’s name was peppered throughout the recent literature on The Devil Saints and was even in news articles giving quotes for the club on their behalf.
He was not only their lawyer, but he was also their fucking public relations representative.
That was who I need to focus on. This Daniel Carmichael. His family apparently had a long history of helping criminals, so it made sense that he was helping The Devil Saints. A little bit of digging and a trip to the courthouse for public records helped me to find that the business he was running was still his grandfather's. Rebranded under a different name-- probably so he could get away from the mob-- but still the same old business model.
But Daniel Carmichael was intelligent.
He wasn’t a regular person, so to speak. A graduate from Harvard Law School, he was in the Top 10% of his class. He was a part of MENSA, the ultimate party club for those with a high I.Q. He all but aced his SAT’s as well as his LSAT and his bar exam, and he was known in the community as the man to go to whenever you needed answers.
I had no idea what the fuck that meant, but I knew it wasn't good.
His name was on each and every court document The Devil Saints had on them spanning back two decades. This man was lining his pockets with money by getting The Devil Saints off on things that should have landed their asses in jail for years. He was profiting off their disgusting acts by keeping them in the clear when they should have been paying for their sins.
This was how The Devil Saints needed to be taken down. They needed to have Daniel Carmichael out of the picture.
Then they would be all on their own.
Chapter 27
Snake
“You what?” Mac asked.
“Snake? In love? That can’t be real,” Fox said.
“Not my fault you don’t have any creativity,” I said.
“Okay, okay, okay. Just… settle down. If Snake says he’s in love with someone, then let’s hear him out. I’m more interested in knowing how this ties in with whatever information he’s got,” Talon said.
“Thank you,” I said.
“I never thought I’d see the day where he thanked the dude banging his sister,” Hawk said with a laugh.
“I’m gonna kill you if you don’t shut up,” I said, and Hawk quickly threw up his hands in apology.
“Do we need more breaths? Or do we need chloroform?” Mac asked. “Snake. Start your damn story.”
“When I was being patched as a prospect and all that shit a few years back, I started dating someone. A woman named Laiken.”
“We never heard of her,” Fox said.
“Because I didn’t bring her around,” I said.
“Why not?” Talon asked.
“Because I wanted to keep her safe. Away from this life. Unlike you wit
h my sister,” I said.
“Get off it, Snake. Talon and your sister are in love. Find a way to deal with that,” Hawk said.
“Yes, Hawk. And hold onto that point as well as your budding family for when I progress with this story. Now, she was just a hookup. At least in the beginning. But… she grew on me. Substantially.”
“She made him grow, too,” Fox said with a laugh.
“Fox? Shut the fuck up,” Mac said.
The entire room fell silent before all of their eyes turned back to me.
“I fell in love with Laiken, and she was perfect you guys. Thick curves and a sassy attitude. Could drink my ass underneath a table. Loved her beer and chicken wings and never once fucking asked me about my bullshit family. She knew what to stay away from, and she knew what I enjoyed.”
“Sounds like your perfect woman,” Hawk said.
“She was. She still is. That’s why I’m here,” I said.
“Keep with the story. Feed us the whole picture,” Mac said.
“When I was patched, I started sneaking out. Those early morning things and the biker rallies on the weekends. I wasn’t telling her where I was going because I knew she would want to come. Be a part of it. Until I figured out she wanted to become a cop one day.”
“Fucking. Hell,” Fox said.
“Just listen to me, okay?” I asked. “Then, it turned into a hiding game to keep her safe and to keep my nose out of the fucking grinder.”
“We would’ve never let you in. Snake, are you fucking serious? Is this woman back?” Mac asked.
“She is. I saw her this afternoon.”
“And by saw her… you mean…?”
“Yes, Mac. I fucked her,” I said.
“Is she a cop?” Hawk asked.
“With the Henderson Police Department, yes,” I said.
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