by Levine, Nina
I slowed.
And turned.
The tone of his voice had softened, as had the hard lines on his face.
My brows pulled together as I asked, “You spoke with her after I finished?” That made no sense, though, because he’d been in the office at that time.
He shook his head. “No.”
I walked back to where he stood. “I’m confused, King. How do you know what I said to her?”
His eyes bored into mine. “I stopped by to see you during her session.”
“But you didn’t come in.”
“You were laying down the law with her, and she needed to hear that, so I didn’t interrupt. Fuck knows she doesn’t listen to me when I tell her the same shit.”
“I’m hopeful she listened to me.”
“She did.”
I smiled. “Good. I’m glad.” I took a step back. “I’ll be over again tomorrow afternoon to see her.”
He nodded, but didn’t say anything further.
As I drove down the driveway to the gate, I peered in my rear-view mirror and found him watching me. God, he was a complex man. One minute, so rude and gruff, the next, not as hard and much more likable. I had to wonder how the people in his life put up with him. I wasn’t sure I could ever put up with a man like him.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
King
I rubbed the back of my neck as I listened to the shit pouring out of Bronze’s mouth. None of it was anything I wanted to hear.
I cut him off. “It’s fucking bullshit, Bronze. I want Nitro out of there, and I want you to find out what the fuck is going on with that now that Marx is dead.”
“I’m telling you, King, they’re not releasing him anytime soon. Ryland is gunning for you harder now than he ever was. He’s convinced you’re behind Marx’s death. And as for you getting in to see Nitro, forget it. They’re not letting anyone in to see him.”
Fuck.
Everything had turned to shit yesterday morning after Marx had been found dead in his cell. My visit with Nitro had been cancelled, as had Tatum’s for later in the week. The lawyer hadn’t been able to find out much, and then Billy had stuck his fucking nose in after Tatum involved him. I needed Nitro out of there fast.
“Why am I paying you, Bronze? If you can’t fucking do what I need done, I’m just sinking cash into a black fucking hole of no return. Get this shit sorted.”
I ended the call and slammed my phone down onto the desk. This day was going from bad to worse. After a failed lead on Romano’s whereabouts this morning and then one of my men being beaten up in his home, I could have done with some good news for once. The headache Lily managed to ease last night had come back full force.
“King, are you okay?”
I lifted my head to find Ivy standing in the office doorway, watching me with concern. Since her attitude towards me had thawed three days ago, she and I had engaged in a few conversations. I’d done my best to stay clear of her, but we ran into each other randomly, and she seemed to want to talk.
“Yeah. You?”
Her mouth pulled into a frown and she stepped into the office. “You don’t look okay.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face and blew out a long breath. Frustration over the whole fucking situation of her husband coming after my club caused me to lash out. “Yeah well, that’s because your husband is fucking with me. It’d make my life a whole lot fucking easier if you’d give me some helpful information about where the hell he is.”
The ice I’d managed to thaw days ago returned to her gaze. “I’ve told you everything I think would be helpful. Maybe you should just let me leave here and go find him for you.”
“You’re not leaving here until I know you’re safe, so don’t bring that up again,” I snapped, still unable to control my frustration.
“You make no sense half the time! Snapping and snarling all over the place, contradicting yourself. But then, that was always the case between us, so I shouldn’t expect any different.”
She thought I made no sense? If only she could have seen shit from my perspective, she would have understood the whiplash I’d felt over her actions. Fuck, it just reinforced that I’d made the right choice years ago. I decided to shift the conversation because we weren’t going to agree on this. “Are you feeling okay?” I’d checked in with Winter each day who kept an eye on her for me, so I knew she’d been recovering well.
The ice in her eyes frosted some more. “Did you seriously just ask me that?”
Jesus, we were going from bad to fucked-right-up. “Fuck, Ivy, did I seriously ask you what?”
“Were you implying that I wasn’t feeling well and that’s why I said you make no sense? Because I am feeling okay and that wasn’t—”
“When I ask you something, I’m not fucking hinting at something else.” I grabbed my phone and moved towards the door, crowding her. “We’re done here.”
She glared up at me. “Yeah, we are.”
I watched her as she walked away from me, wondering how the hell to best deal with this situation between us. The past was best kept there, and I would do that, but in the meantime, we had to co-exist under the same roof without these misunderstandings. But fuck, even when we were getting on, disagreeing with each other was our go-to move.
I exited the office as I continued to contemplate a solution; however, Axe met me on the way to the room we’d set up for surveillance, and interrupted all thoughts I had.
“I finally heard from my guy. Marx retracted everything before he died. They’ve got nothing on Nitro or the club as far as he’s concerned.”
“So they have no reason to continue holding him?”
“Not unless they have something else on him.” He paused for a beat. “There’s more, though, that isn’t good. They’re investigating Bronze for ties to the club. That’s why he hasn’t been able to access any information.”
Fuck.
“Have they got anything solid on him?”
“It appears so, but that’s not based on fact. It’s just the feel my guy got when he talked to his contact. I’ve asked him to keep searching.”
I stabbed at my phone, dialling Bronze. When he picked up, I cut straight to the point. “Sara sends her regards.” Our code to let him know he was compromised.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “Twenty minutes.”
I ended the call and glanced at Axe. “I’ve gotta take care of this. I’ll be back in an hour or so. Let Hyde know.”
“Will do,” he said as I left him to return to my office.
Moving fast, I opened the safe and grabbed out the package I’d hoped never to need. I placed my phone in the safe and grabbed out my burner that wouldn’t signal my location to anyone. I then quickly made my way out to my bike and headed to the meeting point Bronze and I had designated years ago. It pissed me off that I had to let him go. But there was no way I’d leave him out in the cold with his dick swinging in the wind. Not after everything he’d done for me.
* * *
I’d started working with Bronze seven years ago after his wife, Sara, had been killed in a hit-and-run accident. I liked to deliver justice to those who killed that way, and I had, but not before I’d used what I’d learnt about the driver for my benefit. I’d known Bronze for about two years when his wife died. He’d investigated the club a few times and for some reason that was still unknown to me, he’d gone easy on me each time. So when I went looking for a cop to add to my payroll, Bronze had been my first choice. His wife’s death made it possible for me to convince him to say yes. I’d offered up the name of the killer and my assistance when he took vengeance, in exchange for his agreement to work with me.
“What the fuck’s going on, King?” he asked as he slid into the booth at the back of the noisy, out-of-the-way café where we’d started our working relationship all those years ago.
“You’re being investigated for ties to the club. I don’t have hard facts yet, but I don’t doubt it’s true. It also accounts for why you can’t ge
t any information at the moment.”
He dropped his head into his hand and swore before looking up at me again. “So this is it then?”
I nodded. “Yeah.” Sliding the package I’d brought with me across the table, I said, “Here’s the agreed cash, burner, ID and list of contacts you can use to disappear.”
“I have to see Hailee—”
“No,” I said forcefully. “You need to walk out of here, get on a fucking train and get the fuck out of Sydney. And you need to never come back. They’ll fucking crucify you if they can prove the shit we’ve done over the years.”
“How the fuck can they prove any of that shit? Have any of your guys talked?”
I clenched my jaw, hating every fucking minute of this. “We have a rat, but I don’t know who yet. We’re working on that.”
“So you find him and you take care of him.”
“Fuck, Bronze, you of all people know it’s not that fucking easy. Sure, I can take care of him, but the damage has been done. You’re a target, and they won’t stop coming for you just because their source is dead. They’ll find someone else. They’ll investigate the hell out of you until they can pin something on you.” I leant forward. “You need to leave now, and you need to leave fast.”
His face morphed into a canvas of anger and bitterness. “I should never have—”
I stood, done with this conversation. “There’s no fucking point looking back. That shit can’t ever be changed. I’ll make sure Devil takes care of Hailee. And I’ll take care of Matty.”
I walked out of that café with a new, fiercer determination to find the motherfuckers who were intent on bringing down my club. And whoever was behind Bronze being targeted would die at my own hands. Slowly and fucking painfully.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
King
“We’ve found the guy who beat Mace up,” Hyde said after I arrived back at the clubhouse and filled him in on Bronze. It was the best fucking thing I’d heard all day.
“Let’s go then.”
“Who do you wanna take?”
“Just you and me.” I had enough fury burning through me to take on ten of these cunts. Hyde and I could manage one on our own.
He swiped his phone off the desk and stood. Stretching his neck from side to side, he said, “I’m gonna fucking enjoy this.”
Adrenaline surged in my veins. “You and me both, brother.”
Forty minutes later, I kicked down the back door of the house where our target supposedly lived. Storming into the place, I followed the sound of a man’s voice in one of the bedrooms. Hyde followed me, his violent mood matching mine.
We found the motherfucker sitting on his bed, talking on the phone with his back to the door. Our approach was quiet enough that he didn’t hear us coming. The fucker was talking loud enough to not hear much else regardless of how noisy we were.
I moved close to the guy, hooked my arm around his neck and squeezed the fuck out of him while Hyde ripped his phone away and crushed it beneath his boot.
The guy tried to fight me off, clawing at my arms and taking swings at me, but I was so fucking jacked up and ready for this, that nothing would stop me. Stepping back, I dragged him off the bed and then twisted him to face me so I could slam him up against the wall. My fists took over at that point, and I channelled every ounce of fury coursing through me into punch after punch. By the time he slumped to the floor, blood splatter covered me and a good patch of the wall behind him.
Hyde rummaged through the guy’s belongings while I stood staring down at the asshole. He glanced across at me and said, “You gonna take it easy for a moment? We still need to talk to him.”
Crouching, I ignored Hyde and lifted the asshole’s chin. “Alan, open your fucking eyes.”
He leant to the side and spat some blood from his mouth before cracking one eye open. “Go fuck yourself.”
My fury roared to life again, and I grabbed his shirt with both hands, dragged him up and shoved him across the room into another wall. “Who the fuck sent you to beat one of my guys up?” I demanded as I stalked to where he lay sprawled on the carpet.
Groaning as he tried to sit, he muttered, “He was yours? Fucking deserved it.”
Before I had a chance to react, Hyde stormed across the room and kicked him in the stomach. “Yeah, motherfucker, he was ours.” He bent and reefed the guy up to a sitting position. “Now, who the fuck are you working for?”
Alan tried to smile, but his face was so battered he hardly managed it. But I heard it in his voice when he said, “You can fucking kill me if you want, I’ll never tell you.”
“Careful what you wish for,” Hyde snarled.
“Sit him against the wall,” I said as I reached into my back pocket for the pliers I’d brought with me. It was either them or the knife, and today I was in the mood for a little teeth pulling.
Alan did his best not to show fear as I crouched in front of him again, but it flickered in his eyes. I held up the pliers. “How much do you like your teeth, Alan?”
“Fuck you,” he said, before spitting in my face.
I saw red.
It fucking blinded me.
My taste for blood roared stronger than it had in a long time.
Hyde gripped Alan’s jaw and held his mouth open, while I took hold of his front tooth with the pliers. “You want to keep this tooth, start fucking talking.”
His face flashed with horror. “Fuck, man! I don’t know who it was! I swear.”
I didn’t hesitate—I ripped his tooth out, the crunch of it satisfying as fuck, while he writhed on the floor, trying to escape Hyde’s hold.
“Oh fuck, fuck, man… fucking hell!” Alan chanted his words as if they would make everything better. Nothing would make it better for him now, because even when he gave me what I wanted, I had no intention of leaving this house until he had suffered for what he’d done.
Grasping another tooth with the pliers, I demanded, “You like this tooth, motherfucker?”
He tried to fight Hyde and turn his head away, but failed. He was a mess of blood and fear, and I figured I almost had him where I needed him.
Turned out I was a lot closer to that than I realised. He mumbled something I could barely make out, so I let go of his tooth and said, “What?”
His chest heaved with what appeared to be relief when Hyde also let him go. “It was Tony Romano. He paid me.”
I dumped the pliers on the floor so I could pull him up. Sitting him in the armchair next to the bed, I barked, “Now is the time to keep talking. Otherwise, I swear to fucking God, I’ll yank every last fucking tooth from that mouth of yours.”
He only hesitated for a moment before spewing the information out. He couldn’t get it out fast enough. Romano’s men had hired him and one of his mates to take out as many of our club members as they could in the next week. His goal at Mace’s this morning had been to kill him, but Mace’s neighbour had interrupted him before he could finish the job. Unfortunately they had no way of contacting Romano’s men to set up a meet that we could intercept. The deal had been for them to wait to be contacted again. We discovered too late that their houses had been bugged so Romano’s men could keep watch of them. That meant they now knew we’d found these guys. They were useless to us.
Hyde’s face turned thunderous as he shoved a pen and piece of paper at Alan. “Write your friend’s name and address down. And make sure it’s the right fucking address.”
Alan scribbled the information as Hyde pulled rope from the bag he’d brought with him. We tied the asshole up, ensuring there was no way in hell he’d be able to escape. Grabbing the paper with the address on it, I looked down at Alan and said, “Sit tight. We’ll be back once we’ve paid your friend a visit.” I failed to mention the fact that neither of them would live to see another day. That information would be my gift to him when I returned.
* * *
“King, you crazy motherfucker! It seems you’ve finally gone and pissed someone off enough for them
to come at you,” Nash Walker said later that afternoon when he and some of the Brisbane chapter arrived.
I threw some of the whisky sitting in front of me down my throat. Hyde and I had spent the last hour in here drinking after taking care of the two assholes sent by Romano. The buzz filling my veins was exactly what I fucking needed.
Scott Cole joined us, and I motioned for Kree to pour a round of drinks for everyone. “Heard you and Hyde got your hands a little dirty this afternoon,” he said.
I drained my glass. “Not fucking dirty enough as far as I’m concerned.”
The bar filled up as Griff, J, and Havoc eventually found their way inside, and my men returned from a long day out dealing with club business.
It had been eight days since Jen and her baby had been murdered. Between keeping the club running, ensuring the safety of our families, and chasing our fucking tails trying to find Romano, we’d hardly drawn breath. All of us were wound so fucking tight that we were close to breaking point. Cole and his boys arriving gave us a breather from the stress.
As the sounds of laughter and loud, alcohol-fuelled discussions filled the bar, Axe motioned for me to follow him and Zane outside. The rain that had fallen all day had subsided, but thunder continued to roll through the sky, with the occasional flash of lightning.
“I just heard back from my guy, and he was right that the cops have stuff on Bronze. They’ve been watching him for a few months and also have a source who’s been feeding them information. You think he’d turn on you for them?” Axe said.
I shook my head. “No. He’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“We’d always agreed that if shit came to this, I’d set him up with cash, a new identity, and a network to help him disappear. I did that today. He’s long gone.”
“And his family?” Zane asked.
Neither of them knew Bronze’s story, so I filled them in on how we came to work together before adding, “Devil is with Bronze’s sister, and I’ve let him know what’s happened. He’ll make sure she and her family are taken care of. Bronze knows that.”