“Yeah, asshole, I know a whole lot, and none of it’s good, but the chick, Braya, is safe for now. I’m on a plane, heading your way. We have a meet when I land. Get your ass to the airport, tell Axel to get his boys moving too. We’re not going into this situation blind. There’s been enough of that shit going on, it’s time to take a stand. Half an hour, be there, and make sure your damn phone is charged.” Tuck hung up, and Crash looked over to Axel, telling him what was going on. The other man didn’t look any more relieved than Crash felt.
“Do you really think that Kayla chick set this all up?” Axel asked.
“I think she’s part of it, but not the mastermind behind it. This shit feels familiar, and with Tuck being called in, that means it’s bigger than the crap I’ve been chasing.”
“Dude, I don’t like being played,” Axel said, throwing himself into a chair.
“Fuck, brother, none of us do, but your part in this is just another part that doesn’t make sense, doesn’t fit with Braya’s theory. Kayla doesn’t know you or your club, had no idea how you would react to that information or even if you would turn it over to me.”
“So, who would?”
“That’s the question of the hour, now isn’t it?”
Axel got up and went to his bag, pulling out a cord.
“The airport is only ten minutes away, but I think we need to get our asses there and make sure another security breach hasn’t been called in to delay Tuck and the boys.”
“I don’t think anyone is stupid enough to go against Master Sergeant Tucker Masterson, but hey, there’s always a first time. Let’s hit it.”
Crash hadn’t been wrong. Tuck’s plane pulled in, and within minutes, the man was walking out to the parking lot where he and Axel waited. Just a few words were spoken before they all loaded up and were on the move again, following Tuck. He and Axel hadn’t talked much since leaving the hotel, both of them thinking about all the shit going on around them. He didn’t know what the other man was thinking, but by the vibe he was getting, he was definitely angry. He himself, nah, he was beyond being mad. His thoughts kept going back to Braya. The way she looked when he kicked the chair and punched that damn table, her fear bothered him. But what was worse, he wasn’t thinking about the mission anymore. It was in his headspace, but it wasn’t his primary thought as they wound their way through the back streets of El Paso. Braya herself, the way she had trusted him, the way she had opened up to him, the way he had hurt her by making her think that she was just another fuck to him.
He had lied to himself and her about that shit. He hadn’t regretted fucking her. He had wanted to do it again, and it sent him into a tailspin. What made it worse was he wanted to feel the heat of her body on his back as he rode his bike. He still wanted her cunt wrapped around his dick, but that wasn’t all there was to it and wasn’t that just a bitch?
For years, he hadn’t thought of doing a woman more than once. He sure as fuck didn’t want one on his bike. For a club member, that shit meant something, but she had felt right there. Axe must have caught on to his vibe.
“You know, her first question, both to Tuck and me, was if you were alright."
"I don’t want to talk about it, man. Braya might not be involved in any of this shit, but she isn’t exactly innocent either.” Crash almost laughed at his statement. What was another lie added to his already long list of them where Braya was concerned?
“Dude, I’m going to tell you what I told her. It’s time to start living your life, the past ain't going to change. You keep chasing ghosts, and you’re never going to get anywhere, and you might pass up the best thing that ever happened to you.”
“Who the fuck are you, Dr. Phil? You forget, Axe, I know you and the ghosts you’re chasing as well as I know my own. How about we keep the psychological bullshit to the real players in this game?”
“Okay, fucker,” Axel shrugged. “Have it your way, but I spent a little over an hour with that chick, and she’s different, loyal as fuck, and smart. She has ride or die written all over her.”
Crash looked straight ahead, seeing Tuck’s tail lights glowing red. Looked like it was game time. But before he wiped Braya out of his mind entirely and focused on the mission once again, he said, “That’s the problem man, I'm not ride or die for anyone but my club.”
The SUV stopped, and Axel opened the door but said before getting out, “Keep on telling yourself that. After a few hundred times, you might actually believe it, brother.”
Fucker! Crash’s training kicked in once he stepped out of the SUV. He looked around, surveyed the area, and quickly realized they weren’t dealing with an unknown at all. Shade and Rock stood right in front of the door of a nondescript building.
“Son of a bitch!” Crank looked down right pissed, and Tuck didn’t look much happier, going right up to the men.
“You better have a damn good explanation for being here Shade. The RBMC stays out of your shit, and we expect the same in return. This fucked-up situation falls firmly in our court.”
Crash was surprised when it wasn’t Shade, the de facto President of their club, who answered. These guys weren’t a club, more like a brotherhood that came together for a common goal. All of them were active law enforcement, but like the RBMC, they also got government contracts, only theirs were black ops shit. Rock.
“Kayla is mine, that makes it our problem,” Rock responded.
“Well, if she is yours,” Tuck said, turning his attention to the other man, “then we have a fucking problem because that bitch played my club, and I don’t take kindly to that shit. If you allowed it this time,” he said, looking at Shade, “then we have a problem.”
Shade shook his head before motioning toward the door.
“Let’s talk.”
Shade led them into an empty office and started talking. Crash stood there and listened to everything Shade and Rock had to say, and it all matched up perfectly to what Braya had told Axe, except for one thing. Talon was involved in this shit. Shade and Rock were just playing clean up. Crash noticed Tuck didn’t seem all that surprised by that revelation, which bugged the shit out of him. The Club had been told Tal was out on a mission, but listening now, Crash doubted that shit was even close to the truth. The more he listened, the more he realized just how badly they’d all been played.
Having had enough, he said, “What’s the point?”
“Kayla was only trying to keep her sister safe,” Rock glared at him.
“Yeah, asshole, and I can think of about a hundred other ways she could have done that. There’s more to this than all that bullshit you’re spewing. It’s time to spill, or I’m going to go with my gut and hunt down Duncan Stewart.”
“You can’t touch him. He’s connected to Perez, and right now, we have a guy in tight. It will jeopardize our operation, and we’ve never been this close to nailing the asshole.”
Another piece clipped into place—son of a bitch… Tal. It had to be. But they were calling him their guy?
“Listen,” Shade said, “Kayla wants her old man to pay by serving time. We can make that happen, but it has to wait until we have more on Perez, so we can take them both down.”
Crash grabbed his head, the pain he was starting to feel almost too much to bear. Thankfully, he didn’t have to say a thing.
“Are you fucking idiots?” Tuck barked. “Neither Perez nor Stewart would spend a fucking night in jail “suffering,” as you put it, before a bullet or shiv finds their way into the assholes bodies. You guys have gone deaf, blind, and fucking stupid if you even think it’s possible.”
“It’s the right way to do it, the lawful way, to do it,” Rock said, the sanctimonious ass.
“You go your right way,” Tuck laughed. “Preach your choir boy ways, but fucker, I’ve been dealing with the Perez cartel since I was barely out of boot camp. And I can tell you this, those boys might want their piece of shit daddy taken down, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to just follow suit with whatever you have plan
ned. Mickey gave you a fucking gift, and I’m sure Cin paid for it with blood. Tal is playing a deadly game with all our fucking lives, and he’s green. You hear me? He doesn’t have the balls for what’s going to be needed to be done. You put a fucking baby in a viper pit. You think because he’s damn good with a computer and intel, he is somehow going to get you what you want. You’re fucking delusional.”
Well, god damn, Crash thought, that was eye opening, and he didn’t have the first clue on how to process all that shit. All the members of the RBMC went deep cover at some time, it was part of the job, but Talon never had. Crash liked the man, even respected him, but Tuck was right. Talon wasn’t precisely hardcore, by any means and would be the last person Crash would ever put with the Perez’s.
“Get the girl, bring her out here,” Tuck demanded.
It only took seconds for Braya and Kayla to come into the room, escorted by another one of Shade’s boys. Kayla looked confident, walking right up to Rock and standing next to him. Although he did notice a bit of extra pink on her cheek and wondered if she and Braya hadn’t gotten into it. All he thought about that was, good for her. Kayla wouldn’t meet his eyes, looking straight ahead, avoiding looking directly at him. That shit was going to change. He had a few words he needed to say, and she needed to hear.
Braya, on the other hand, looked pissed and shell-shocked. She jerked away from Shade's man and walked closer to Axel. Now that pissed him off. He wanted her to come to him, but he guessed he deserved it. That was another thing he would take care of later.
Tuck ignored everyone else in the room and addressed Braya.
"You still have a bounty on your head. I’m sure these assholes have a way of making that go away, but for now it stands, so you have a choice. Stay with them and your sister or come with me and my boys. We’ll keep you safe until this all blows over, and you can go on with your life.” Braya’s mouth fell open, but she didn’t say anything. Tuck didn’t pay any attention, adding, “This is a onetime offer because your sister fucked all of us, and I’m feeling generous. You stay, and she fucks you over again, that’s on you. I won’t offer to bail you out, get me?”
Braya cleared her throat and said, “I’ll stay with him,” indicating Axel. Now it was Crash’s turn to talk.
“Not an option princess. The BRMC has a bigger target on their backs than we do. It’s me or nothing.” Damn, he held his breath until she nodded. She still didn’t move from Axel’s side, but it was something.
“We still have unfinished business,” Shade broke in.
“No, I have unfinished business with her,” Crash said, pointing at Kayla, “and we are going to have our ten minutes.”
Chapter Twenty
Crash waited for Rock to have his meltdown, refusing him access alone to Kayla. Tuck, Shade, Rock, and Kayla went off to another room to discuss it, leaving Crash, Crank, Axel, Braya, and the other boy in blue. Axel got the others out of the room, which Crash was thankful for. Braya looked kind of scared, and he hated that, but instead of crouching in the corner or following the others out, she faced him head-on.
“I didn’t know about your sister, and I didn’t know what Kayla was doing. If I had, I would never have come to you in the first place.”
“I don’t doubt that, Braya. Your sister is pretty good, but from what Axe said, you aren’t so bad yourself. He said you figured out most of it on the plane.”
Braya leaned up against the wall, only to slide down it to her ass.
“Yeah, it’s one of the perks of getting screwed over too many times to count. You start thinking about all the bad shit that could happen and start putting pieces together. What can I say? It’s a gift.”
“What are you going to do?” Crash moved to the opposite wall and sat down himself, getting comfortable. He knew this was going to take a while. “What do you mean? You haven’t figured it out yet?”
“Let’s see if my genius preschool teacher mind can figure it out.” She was fucking cute with her finger over her lips, eyes cast upward like she was thinking really hard. “If I were you, I would say screw it and take Duncan out regardless of what those men and Kayla have planned.”
“I would have to say you are probably right about that. Does that bother you?”
“No, if I was in your position, I would do the same. What about Kayla? What are you going to say to her?”
“I saw her cheek, looks like the two of you already had words. Care to share?”
“Will it make a difference?”
“No, it won’t. Kayla needs to answer some hard questions for me, but I don’t plan on making a move against her. Tuck will get Shade's assurance what she knows won’t affect my club, and I’ll honor that. Even with all this shit, I still feel sorry for her. What can I say? I’m a good guy.”
“Yeah, underneath all the tainted leather armor, you’re a prince of a guy.”
“I need to apologize to you for how things went down, what I did.”
“Oh, no,” Braya said covering her face with her hand, splitting two fingers so she could look through them. “Please don’t apologize to me again. I’m still reeling from your other apology. Kind of took a hit to the old ego with that one.”
“We haven’t exactly started or ended on the right foot, have we?”
“Nope, we kind of started in the middle, went right for the end, then came back to the beginning. I don’t have any regrets. Well, I have a few, but I don’t have any regrets about what we did. I also don’t and didn’t have any expectations.”
Crash raised his eyebrow but didn’t say anything.
“Okay,” Braya laughed. "I guess I did have the expectation you would actually sleep in the same bed with me after you fucked my brains out. It is, after all, only common courtesy.”
“Hmm, I’ll have to remember that when I’m... what did you say... doing a one-night stand, booty call, or a woman up against the wall in a bathroom at the bar.”
Braya laughed like he wanted her to.
“I’m too tired for you to use my words against me, Crash. I’m really happy you’re okay. seeing you like that freaked me out, and knowing I was to blame made me feel like shit. I hate that either of us were put in this position.”
Crash got up and went over to Braya, no longer wanting or needing the distance. Sitting down next to her, he nudged her with his shoulder until she laid her head down. Braya blew a breath out, pushing her bangs away from her face.
“Thank you for this.”
“What?” Crash asked because he wasn’t sure what she was thanking him for. He hadn’t done a damn thing.
“For having a normal conversation with me, playing with me. I don’t know. I haven’t slept in like three days. I just wanted to say thank you because this is the first time I’m not freaking out or questioning what’s going to happen next. I mean, I know there’s still a bunch of crap going on, but this,” she said, waving her hand between them, “is nice."
“You’re right, it’s kind of nice, isn’t it?” Crash put his arm around her, cuddling her closer to his body. “Just think we have all those miles to get nice and comfy on the way back to the clubhouse.”
“Umm, I don’t think my butt can take another couple days on the back of your bike. Can’t we maybe fly this time?”
“Yeah, princess, I think you’ve earned it. We can fly back to Defiance.”
“Why wouldn’t you the first time?”
“The last time I was conscious in a plane, I crashed it. Hurt some people pretty bad, can’t seem to stomach it anymore.”
Braya’s head popped up like a jack in the box.
“We can totally take your bike back.”
“Nah,” Crash said, kissing her forehead. “I think it’s time for me to let go of the past and get over some shit. What did you say? Fake it until you make it?”
“I didn’t say that out loud. Is that how you got your name? Shit, I’m sorry, that was probably a really inappropriate thing to ask after what you just said. It's just…”
“Nah, I got it in flight school after several failed attempts during simulation’s rounds. It stuck.”
“That kind of sucks.”
“Yeah, princess, but it is what it is. Axel got his nickname because every Humvee he took out came back with a broken axle."
Braya, looked at him in disbelief. “Isn’t that like kind of hard to do?”
Crash tried and failed to hold back his smile. “Not for him. Heard it became a game until the Airforce forced him out because it cost them too much money.”
“You’re lying,” Braya smiled. This time he laughed.
“Yep, I have no clue how Axe got his road name.”
Braya laid her head back down on his shoulder.
“When is this going to end?”
“I don’t know, babe. We have too many players in the game. Now, we need to weed them out before we can see the finish line.”
The two of them sat there for he didn’t know how long, and he was pretty sure, at one point, Braya had fallen asleep. It felt nice. This woman had been dragged cross country, fucked, then gotten fucked over, and through it all, she still managed to cut him some slack, forgave his asshole behavior, and trusted him enough to fall asleep on his shoulder. He thought back to the last conversation he had with Kayla. Maybe she had been right in some respects. He didn’t deserve nor should want more. It wouldn’t happen overnight, that shit was for sure, he still had things to take care of. Once it was all said and done, he could see himself with Braya, not settling but actually wanting to build something. He wanted more than his room at the clubhouse. It had been so long since he put down permanent roots, he wondered if he was even capable of it now. He considered it a good sign he was even considering it.
Axel popped his head into the room and quietly said “They’re bringing her down.”
Crash didn’t want to wake Braya but knew this would be the only chance he had to finish things off with Kayla. Brushing Braya’s cheek, he said, “Princess, time to wake up,” and just like a trained soldier, her eyes opened, and she started to get up.
Crash: Ruthless Bastards (RBMC Book 9) Page 14