“Jesus Christ,” I hiss.
“Yeah. Never expected to walk into my house one night after work to find all her shit gone, and a fucking letter telling me she was so sorry she couldn’t help me make a family and that I deserve better than a broken woman like her.” Shaking his head, Knight goes on to say, “I don’t give a shit about having kids, man. If it were only her and me for the rest of our lives, I’d be the happiest man on the fucking planet because I’d have her. Not saying a few rug rats wouldn’t have been nice, but we could’ve adopted, fostered, or something like that. It doesn’t matter to me if a kid shares my blood or not, if we were raising it, it’d be hers and mine. Lena had it in her head, I was born to be a Dad, so I figure her leaving was her way to make that a possibility. What she didn’t take into account was that I don’t want another woman; I want her. However our family comes, even if that just ends up being her and me, that’s all I need.”
Like I said, Knight makes the rest of us look bad with how utterly he loves his wife. I can’t imagine how he’s feeling right now, and I don’t want to because I know I’d feel the same if Avery left me and we aren’t even together. At least, not yet.
“I’ll call my guy after we’re done here. Trust me, if he can’t find her, no one can. Give me a few days, and I’m sure I’ll have something for you, brother. Otherwise, is there anything else we can do? I can spare a few of the boys if you need feet on the ground,” Boss suggests.
But I know the answer before Knight says a word. He doesn’t want anything, he just wants his wife home safe and sound. Something he confirms when he states,
“No, but I appreciate it, Boss. All I need is my wife.”
The conversation ceases when the door behind Knight opens and in comes Nix, Worm, and a guy I haven’t seen before. He isn’t a huge guy, maybe six-foot-one and two hundred or so pounds, but from one look I can see he’s dangerous. The scar running across this throat from ear-to-ear tells me he’s been into bad shit in the past and probably if he’s hooked up with Hells Riders still is.
I don’t know what Boss’ end game is with this meeting, other than to feel Nix out, but from the set of these three men’s faces, I think they’ve got other ideas. Fuck!
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
~ Fury ~
“Don’t hate me because I’m a biker. Hate me because I’m the man taking home the girl you’ve been fantasizing about all night.”
- someecards
“Gotta say, I didn’t see that coming,” Boss grunts as he takes a seat in Knight’s chair.
Knight offered us the use of his office, vacating it to give us privacy as soon as he saw the look on Boss’ face after we finished the meet with Nix and his boys. I can’t say I blame him, either. Boss on a good day can scare the shit out of some of the toughest men, but today he took that to a whole new level.
“Do you believe him?” Diesel clips out.
Considering how to answer, Boss runs his hands through his hair.
“My gut instinct says, yes.”
Diesel’s eyes go hard, which in turn has me shifting closer to the edge of my chair so that I can contain him if I have to.
“Are you fucking kidding me? You get what that piece of shit put my woman through for years?”
“We’re not talking about your woman now, brother,” I state calmly. “What he shared in there has nothing to do with, Camille. And, I’ve got to say, I agree with Boss on this one. Nix is an asshole, sure, but he’s got no reason to lie about this shit. None.”
“He’s got every fucking reason to lie,” he roars in response. “It’s what he does.”
“Yeah, and I’d buy that if he’d come to us about anything else. But this? No. Nix knows we’ll check his story out. There’s no way if he was lying he wouldn’t get caught. You know it, and I know it,” Boss reasons.
“There is if he wants to take the heat off his club while he destroys fucking evidence we could have used to connect him to it,” Diesel returns shortly.
I entertained that theory myself for all of about two point five seconds before dismissing it. But, in the end, that explanation just doesn’t make sense. There isn’t any heat on him, other than us keeping tabs on him that is. I’d get it if the cops were breathing down his neck, but they aren’t. So, like I said, it doesn’t fit.
Boss shakes his head, obviously frustrated and tries again.
“You need to take a step back and look at the big picture, brother. I understand where you’re coming from. Fuck if I were in your shoes I’d be feeling the same as you too. But, while you’re sitting there thinking about all the shit that happened to your woman in the past and what he did to her, that isn’t getting us any closer to finding the motherfuckers who hurt two of our women and killed one of them.”
“Are you saying what happened to Cami doesn’t mean shit in the grand scheme of things? That because it’s in the past she should just let it go and move on? Because let me tell you, brother, I don’t think that’s ever gonna happen. Nix fucked her up. His brothers took turns fucking her up. What am I supposed to go home and tell my woman? Sorry about your past with your brother, but we’re gonna overlook that because he’s got information on women who are more important to the club got hurt,” Diesel fumes.
Now, that pisses me the fuck off.
Vengeance has never, and would never value one woman’s life more than another’s, and if this was just about finding the fuckers who kidnapped and tortured Avery, Beth, and Bec that would be one thing. But it’s not. This is about a hell of a lot more than that, and Diesel knows it.
When we sat down with Nix, all of us assumed this would be a straightforward meeting to go over ground we’d already discussed. It wasn’t. Nothing could have prepared us for the information Nix was willing to give us. Moreover, he was giving it with no ulterior motive. He didn’t want a marker, and he wasn’t using it as leverage to get the extra territory he’s been adamant about obtaining.
*****
“So, you’ve got us here, what is it you want, Nix?” Boss opened by saying.
Boss, Diesel, myself, Nix, Worm, and Signal – who we know is Hells Riders new Information Officer, but we’d never met – were seated on chairs brought in by Knight’s boys just a few minutes ago. All of us were guarded, no one more so than, Signal.
Signal isn’t what I would have imagined their IO would look like. He’s more suited to the position of Enforcer or SAA if you were to go on his build alone, but after studying him for the last five minutes, I saw something deeper working behind his eyes. More sinister. Cunning, even.
Nix looked between his boys, then leaned forward, placing his hands flat on the table in front of him. It was a good move. A clever one. He was showing us he wasn’t armed, trying to put us at ease. Which it somewhat did.
“Gonna have to ask you to give me the benefit of the doubt for this conversation, Boss. I’m gonna ask you some questions you’re not gonna want to answer, but you’ve got my word there’s a point to them.” At Boss’ nod, he goes on to ask, “How much do you know about, Rebel Warriors? Specifically, the new chapter they’re starting in Wyoming?”
Boss narrowed his eyes, crossed his arms over his chest and answered,
“Heard word about it, but seeing as it’s not going to impact us any, I haven’t made it my business to see where they’re at with it. Why?”
“So, I take it you didn’t know, Dray was gonna be heading up that chapter then?”
That’s news to me, which means it’s news to Boss too.
Dray, is the Rebel Warriors MC president, in Inglewood California. Or, at least, he was last time I checked. We might be allies with other clubs, Rebel Warriors included, but that doesn’t mean we get monthly newsletters on their comings and goings. All it means is, if shit goes down they’ll take our back and vice versa.
“Where are you going with this, Nix?” Boss questions impatiently. “Not my business if their Prez is patching into a new chapter. We’re friendly, but I don’t keep tabs on them.”
Nix kicks back in his chair, nodding to Signal, who hands him a folder.
“I’m sure your woman’s told you she used to ink Dray back in the days she was working in L.A.” Boss nods, confirming his statement to which he says, “What you probably don’t know is, Dray had a thing for her. Still does.”
Boss jerks in his chair, which has me sitting up straighter, commenting,
“If I were you, I’d get to the fucking point.”
“I was,” Nix growls. “We got wind he was moving some of his boys out this way, starting up a new chapter and decided it was in our best interests to look into it. Competition in our business isn’t a fucking good thing, and Rebel Warriors are known to take transport runs to supplement club income. They aren’t as cashed up as Vengeance, so I knew it was only a matter of time before they’d reach out and make contact with some of the major players. The Vasquez Cartel being one of them.”
“Still not seeing how this has anything to do with us,” Boss interjects sharply.
“You fucking wouldn’t,” Nix returns just as sharply, losing some of the calm he’d been holding on to. “You taking Vengeance out of the game opened the doors for other clubs to get in on the action your clubs’ been controlling for decades. I get why you did it, even respect you for it, but it opened the floodgates for a bidding war of sorts.”
“And?” Diesel snorts. “That’s not our fucking problem.”
Nix flashes Diesel a smirk.
“You’re right, it’s not. Your problem’s a hell of a lot worse. Dray initiated talks with Oscar Vasquez a year or so ago. Oscar was in the market for new security for his northbound transports and wasn’t all that fired up to deal with us considering our relationship with you and your boys. We had words, he wasn’t down with what I was offering and decided it was in his best interests to look elsewhere. It’s no secret how much green he’s offering for those runs, so needless to say, I kept my ear to the ground wanting to find out who took them over.”
Pausing for a few beats, Nix looks to Signal, who hands him a second folder seemingly out of thin air.
“Took a while, but eventually, all the pieces started coming together. It’s no coincidence Dray moved out this way. And, for what it’s worth, I wish I’d got my hands on this information sooner. You don’t like me, and I sure as fuck don’t like you, but no matter what you’ve heard about me,” he says, looking directly at Diesel, “I’m not a fucking monster.”
Sliding the two files across the table, Nix gestures for Boss to open them. Scanning the contents, Boss’ expression darkens, and after he’s halfway through the second of the two, his head snaps up and he roars,
“Tell me this is a fucking joke!”
“It’s not,” Nix replies, oddly sympathetic. “I personally confirmed all the intel in both those files.”
“You want to share with the group?” Diesel quips.
“Markham didn’t approach us, we approached him,” he states, causing my body to string tight.
I’m unaware whether or not Nix has a death wish, but admitting that to two men whose women had been harmed at that bastards’ hands isn’t a smart move. In fact, it’s fucking down right suicidal. Sensing my growing rage, Boss grips my shoulder sending me a look that says ‘calm the fuck down and listen first.’
“We didn’t do that until we got word he was communicating with Rebel Warriors regularly. Figured it was smarter to keep our enemies closer, so we retained his services so we could keep eyes and ears on him. Turns out, Markham wasn’t as clever as he thought he was. Not to mention, he had the added problem of the gambling debts he was racking up from here to Tennessee. High stakes poker. Large buy-ins. By the time we got him on our radar he was eighty thousand in the hole, and Daddy had cut him off, refusing to bail him out. According to our sources, Daddy had forked out over a quarter mill to clear his past debts and wasn’t willing to piss away any more of his cash to help out his kid who wasn’t gonna be curtailing his addiction anytime soon.”
“So, what you’re saying is, Vasquez was working with Rebel Warriors, and you were only keeping tabs on Markham because he was involved with them and you wanted to know why?” I summarize.
“That’s about the size of it,” Nix grins.
“I’m still struggling to see what the fuck any of that has to do with us,” Diesel rumbles.
The two men at Nix’s side have been surprisingly quiet, but at my VP’s words, Signal finally opens his mouth to growl,
“Fuck me. I don’t know how you made it to VP, but whoever gave you that patch might wanna rethink their decision.”
Boss’ hand flies out, clamping down on Diesel’s arm as he goes to stand. Not only is it a mark of extreme disrespect to call into question a members’ position within the club, but seeing as our relationship with Hells Riders is on the violent side of tentative at best, the insult is even more offensive coming from one of them.
Without waiting to see if Diesel gets control of himself, Signal continues saying,
“You might wanna stick your head in the sand about this shit because of your woman, but I suggest you listen to my Prez. He doesn’t have to fucking be here, and if it were up to me, we’d have kept this shit to ourselves. We don’t owe you anything, so look at this as the gift it fucking is.”
“Signal,” Nix growls. “Enough.”
“No,” he snaps back, ignoring the warning glare his brother’s shooting him. “I’ve spent years listening to the bullshit your sister’s spread around without having the first clue what’s fact and what’s fiction. This shit stops now.” Turning to Diesel, he snarls, “My Prez didn’t lay a hand on your woman. She was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong fucking people. As soon as Nix found her, he took her to the hospital, got her help, and put bullets in the heads of every single fucking man who touched her. It wasn’t her fault she trusted those motherfuckers, they were members of a club she’d been raised in, but I will say; that trust was misplaced. They had it out for Nix, wanted his patch, and thought the easiest way to get it was to use the only thing he cared about against him hoping to break him. That’s the truth whether you’re willing to accept it or not.”
Clenching his hands, Diesel doesn’t say a word, but he doesn’t need to. His uncertainty is written all over his face.
“I’d never hurt Cami. I’ve loved that kid since the day she was born, and every one since. Just thinking about what they did to her fucking kills me, but worse is that she thinks I’m capable of hurting her like that. She hasn’t talked to me since that shit happened, aside from that night at Hounds, and everyone knows that wasn’t a good scene. It shouldn’t have happened, none of it. It doesn’t excuse it, but none of you were there to see what went down before we got there, and I’m not explaining it. All you need to know is that there’s more to it than you think. There’s a fuck ton of history there. Not why we’re here, though,” he states, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck.
“Why don’t we get back to why we are then?” Boss offers.
Nix nods his agreement, as does Worm and begrudgingly Signal too.
“I could go into all the details, but there’s no point seeing as what’s in those files will fill in the blanks. Dray approached Vasquez and offered his club up for the runs Vengeance was making for half the percentage, in return for use of his warehouse, some of his men, and an alibi if he needed it. Markham didn’t get involved until Dray found out Beth was with you,” Nix says, gesturing to Boss. “The way he saw it, his window of opportunity closed the second she got on the back of your bike and he wanted to make you pay for that. The other women were collateral damage.”
The atmosphere in the room goes wired when Boss asks,
“You want to explain why Avery and Bec got the worst of it then?”
“Dray wasn’t gonna lay a hand on your woman, Boss. He knew what’d happen to him if he did. That aside, Beth could identify him. She knew him. Had a relationship with him, albeit a working one. I figure that’s wher
e Markham and his bitch came in. Your ex-cunt had a vendetta against you, and Markham had his reasons to go after Beth. It wouldn’t have taken much convincing to get them to do his dirty work, and Dray knew it. Avery and Bec, well, like I said; were collateral damage. If they weren’t in the car with Beth, I’ve got no doubt no harm would’ve come to them. Dray didn’t have a beef with them, especially not Avery. He didn’t even know who she was until afterward. She didn’t say a word about her Dad and Devil’s Spawn. Didn’t say a word about being his woman either,” he states, looking at me. “By the time he found out who she was, Dray was scrambling to do damage control, framing us in the process. I don’t give a fuck what you think about me, but I wanna make it clear. My club doesn’t hurt women. The bastards’ who touched my sister may have been members, but if I’d had the first inkling they took pleasure in beating women, I’d have fucking gutted them sooner. Those girls, the ones that went missing, we didn’t have shit to do with what happened to them either. Not saying what the girl, Jennifer, the one who survived what was done to her was lying. She saw men wearing cuts, remembers being cornered by guys on motorcycles before she blacked out, but that doesn’t automatically mean because it wasn’t you, it was us. It was easy enough for people to add two plus two and make ten, though.”
Vengeance MC Box Set - Volume 1: Call Me...Vengeance ~ Fury ~ Jonas Page 50