by Ryan Michele
There were four of them. Each aimed at a different direction covering the entire perimeter of the place. Bikes and cars were in the lot of the bar, and a couple of men went in then out of the barn doors.
“How’d you learn to do this?” Crow asked.
A smile graced my lips. “Two people actually. Buzz and Austyn. Buzz is a mastermind, and I’m not as good as he is. Workin’ on it, but not there. Austyn is brilliant too. She taught me to be logical in my searches and what to do, when, and how. She may have also taught me how to break into the school’s grading system and change my grades a few times.”
He chuckled a bit. “Happy you learned from them.” I was too. They were excellent teachers.
“Me too.”
“Can you pull up the feeds from the last few days. See if there’s anything.”
“Yep. I take it Lemon didn’t pull those?” I responded, pulling it up and searching. Rewinding the feeds, there were lots of different men going in and out of the barn. One was Rodney. Fucker.
“Nope,” he responded, watching the tapes glide by. Knew Lemon was a piece of shit. Knew he was a brother, but he wasn’t doing right by his club. That earned him zero respect from me.
It took awhile to find anything remotely usable. So much so, I started to yawn, but powered through. It was difficult watching the same thing over and over for long periods of time.
My luck changed because on the screen was a semi pulling up to the grounds. I rewound it from when it first arrived on screen then called out to Crow, “Come here.” He didn’t hesitate moving in close.
I pointed to the screen. “Semi. Looks like cars covered in tarps.” We watched as the semi backed up to the barn, then the door lifted and the semi backed further inside, going all the way in. The door came down again giving us nothing. Fast forwarding to two hours later, the empty semi was seen pulling out and leaving.
“Whatever it is has to do with cars, Crow. These people have the knowledge to hide the feeds inside their place, and they have the knowledge to hide the money and whatever they’re doin’ with the cars.”
“Right. We have a meeting with Ebony, the woman who owns the place tomorrow.”
This caught me off guard as I said, “Who’s Ebony?” That pit of fire hit me at the sound of another female’s name. I hated it because that wasn’t the life I wanted to lead, but it was still raw. I just wished it would go away. Carrying it around all the time was exhausting.
“She’s a loan shark, and we recently found out that her holding company owns the property. There’s also another issue with her. Jenny and her shit of man, Stan, created fake documents to put the house they lived in up for collateral. According to the dickhead, Ebony thinks she has rights to the place. She doesn’t. It’s club property, and that won’t roll pretty.”
“You’re shittin’ me.” Stunned, shocked, surprised. All of them were my initial thoughts, but as the words rolled in my head, it was what a junkie would do to get a fix. They’d lie, cheat, and steal whatever they could.
“You goin’ in with backup?” The words flew out of my mouth before I even thought.
He answered immediately though which relieved me. “Yeah, we will. We’re callin’ in other chapters.”
“Are you calling Sumner?”
He shrugged. “Not a hundred percent on that one yet. Wrong Way is handling it. He’ll do what needs to be done.”
“Good. What’s your relationship like with Ebony?” This wasn’t a question about personal connection because I knew I didn’t want to know any of that shit. This was a question to find out if they really had to worry about meeting. Hell if I had to worry about them going.
“We’ve been on good terms with her, but this situation hasn’t been. First the mystery about the bar, Simon working there, another connection Barry is there and now the house. I don’t expect this to go smooth.”
“No shit. And Simon was in on it?” That fucker was dead, at least I hoped.
“Yeah. Couldn’t get anything out of him though.”
“Shit. Who’s Barry?”
Crow turned fully to me, grabbing my hands and making me focus on him. “Goldi’s girls.”
“Yeah.”
“We have a stable of girls who pay us to take care of them.” This was interesting.
“Prostitutes?” In Sumner there were none of those around. Mommas yeah, but actual paid women, no.
“Yeah. The only part we have in it is protection. We check the guys the girls want to get with and make sure they’re safe.”
“Does that mean pussy on tap?” It was a snot shit thing to say, but it was out there now. No taking it back.
“No. Ravage doesn’t pay for pussy. We make damn good money off of it.”
As I sat there thinking about it, this didn’t bother me one bit. “Okay. And how does Barry fit in?”
“Barry roughed up one of the girls. Beat the shit out of her then took her money. We tracked it, found out he left his wife awhile ago and has gone ghost. Then we saw him up at Purple Pride.”
“Whatever is going on with the cars has to be big to have all of these people there, but none of them are actually there. If you know what I mean.” I went on to explain, “Normally people use credit cards or there’s some way to track them. For that to be non-existent and it all centering around one place, that doesn’t leave a good taste in my mouth.
“Me either.” He leaned back, and I turned back to the computer rolling through a little bit more to see if anyone else showed up. Nothing.
“Can you tap into another feed for me? It’s at one of our convenient stores. The basement has our stock inside,” he asked me.
I shrugged. “Should be able to.” My body let out another yawn. Fuck, the day had gotten to me bringing me down. I hoped every day wouldn’t be this complicated here in Rebellion or I’d need to invest in Monster, a lot. Hell, maybe I’d have to buy some stock in it.
Going through the same process as before, this camera was a bit harder to get into than the outside ones of the barn. There were firewalls and malware placed strategically in several different places. My computer even putted a few times, trying to keep up with all the shit that wanted to download on my laptop.
Good thing for anti-virus. “Who set this up?”
Crow leaned back in his chair. “Lemon and Wrong Way.”
“It’s smart. Putting viruses at every turn, but not good enough to keep me out.” I smiled once again, turning the laptop and showing Crow.
“Woman, you’ve got some serious skills,” he complimented me.
“Damn straight. Blonde and brains. You’re so damn lucky, Crow.”
He chuckled, and I loved hearing it. Loved that I was able to help him. “I am. Is it black?”
My brow quirked as I pointed to the screen. “I’m rewinding it right now, Crow. You can see it’s not.”
“Fuck,” he barked, running his hands through his hair. “He told me it was black. Even showed it to us, running through a few hours. Nothing but a dark screen stared back at us.”
That must’ve been what pissed him off coming out of Lemon’s room the other day. Shit. Shit. Shit. Another huge red flag went over Lemon’s face. It was piling up.
I turned to my man, knowing what I needed to do, but fuck—I didn’t want to tell him this. But there wasn’t a choice with everything going on. Crow had to know what I heard.
“There!” Crow said, and I stopped the scroll along with my words. “That day.” I looked to the timestamp and nodded. “Did anyone go to the door?”
Scrolling through, nothing was there until Crow and his brothers showed up. Crow watched with avid fascination, and I had no idea what I was looking for. “You’ve got to be shittin’ me,” Crow growled, and all the sleepiness wiped clean away from me.
“What’s goin’ on?”
He leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “I have a brother I can’t fuckin’ trust, and he has access to everything we have.” Crow pulled out his phone and started to rise. It
was now or never.
“I have something to tell you.”
He paused, looking at me expectantly so I continued. “I overheard Lemon the day this happened.” He heaved in a breath, but said nothing. “He was on the telephone with someone. I heard him whisper-yell about, “He’s here now!” and then asking whoever was on the other line, “What do you want me to do?”, “How?”, “What bone?”, “Fine. Right. Bye.”
He was quiet for a moment then his ringer went off, and I heard him say, “A few seconds ago. The basement. A man in a black sweatshirt with hood and jeans taking a crowbar to the door. Be there soon. He then said he was in his room and would be out on his bike. That was when you all rolled out.”
Crow’s face turned to stone.
“I didn’t want to tell you until I had a chance to check it out. Not my place to cast any doubt with your brothers. Just you talkin’ about this and it not coming out right, just needed you to know it.” Why I was trying to cover my tracks I didn’t know. It wasn’t like I tailed a brother or anything. Hell, I hadn’t had time to do any of that shit yet.
I thought of how my dad would handle this with my mom. I’d hope he’d be happy she had useful information for him, but a woman’s place in the club was very particular and it varied from club to club. But with everything that Crow had shared with me tonight, I’d think I was on the right track.
Nothing like possibly chopping my own head off before it even started.
“Not pissed at you, Pixie. Pissed at Lemon and fuck, if I know what game he’s playin’. Don’t like that shit. A brother fuckin’ the club over. It pisses me off that it was right under my nose and not once did I catch it until now.”
“Can’t beat yourself up about that. Need to move on, get him handled, and deal.”
“Right,” he clipped, turning to his phone and dialing. Getting up from the table, he moved into the kitchen. Not to be away from me though. This was more of an ‘everything was chaos and I needed to move kind of thing’.
“You find anything?” I heard as I continued to go through the videos to see if anything else was strange or unusual at the store.
“We’ve got a problem,” Crow said into the phone. “Lemon has turned.” I could feel the pissed off hurt coming off Crow all the way across the room. No man wanted to be betrayed. When that man had taken an oath to protect the club and his brothers trusted him, it was a betrayal so deep it seared itself into your core.
There was no doubt that Crow was feeling that. While I hated it, I was also happy he had the truth which would lead him to more truths. Knowing was half the problem. One you knew, you could fix.
“Want him picked up and brought to the clubhouse. Want you and Wrong Way over to my house in twenty so Rylynn can show you what she pulled up.”
I sucked in a huge breath as the shock sent lightning through me. In private, he talked to me about the club and allowed me to help him. That was behind closed doors. Now, he just announced that I knew what was going on with club business. He just announced to his brothers, that I was helping out in the situation. That was huge, and I couldn’t help but wonder what they would think about it. Would they be pissed off and let both of us know it when they got here? I’d love it if life could be less complicated for a while.
“Right,” Crow said then disconnected. I didn’t ask how his brothers were because he wasn’t in a mood to be questioned. He was in the mindset of what he did wrong and what he could do to change it. And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to help him with that. It was something he had to work out on his own, and I didn’t like it one bit.
13
Crow
My brothers listened to everything Rylynn told them and then watched the tapes. The air in the house pumped with fury coming off all three of us. One of our own betrayed us. Pulled us away from getting information from Simon to be led on some fucked up goose chase that never was.
Pissed wasn’t even the half of it. Fury unleashed was more like it.
She hadn’t even gotten to Purple Pride shit yet, so it was only going to get worse.
“You think Lemon is workin’ with Ebony?” Wrong Way asked, and with all the shit going on lately with that damn place, I wouldn’t take that option off the table.
“Don’t know.”
“If he said, ‘he’s here.’ That meant Simon who worked up there. That leads to Ebony,” Brewer worked out, going step by step. “But why would Lemon be working with her? Where is the connection there?”
“Her pussy,” Wrong Way chimed in, shrugging.
“True,” Rylynn said. I would’ve smiled at that if I weren’t so fucking pissed off.
“You think Lemon knows what the hell is goin’ on up there?” Brewer asked.
“Fuck if I know. Rylynn has more,” I told them.
My brothers turned to her, and she played the footage from Purple Pride. They watched in silence.
“Do the cars ever leave?” Wrong Way asked, nodding to the computer, and Rylynn handed it over to him. He began pushing buttons fast forwarding it. “There,” he called out.
On the screen was a large box truck backing up the same way the semi went in about forty-eight hours after the semi. The door closed and forty-five minutes later, the truck took off.
“Their splittin’ them for parts.” Wrong Way kept clicking and found a second truck doing the exact same thing. After that truck though, several men came out the door. There were smiles and nothing like the greeting we received going up there.
“Okay. If that’s true, what’s up with all the fuckin’ firepower?” I asked, leaning back on my kitchen chair.
“Depends on what kind they’re choppin’ up. If it’s luxury vehicles, that shit goes for serious bank,” Wrong Way began. “And they wouldn’t want a bunch of guys gettin’ into their shit about it. Hence, the firepower.”
“You think? Why the fuck didn’t Ebony just talk to us about this shit?” I asked.
“Fuck if I know. The meeting should go well though,” Brewer said, swiping a hand over his face and through this hair. “Still don’t get Lemon’s place in it.”
“I’m callin’ Tex.” I pulled out my cell, and he answered on the second ring.
“Not at home and not at his girl’s. Drove by Lemon’s folks, nothin’ there either.”
“So he’s MIA,” I said loudly to the room. “Keep lookin’.” Disconnecting the call, we needed to get to the clubhouse. “We’re in his room. Now. See what we can find there.”
Wrong Way and Brewer got up from their chairs. Wrong Way put a hand on top of Rylynn’s head. “Thanks, darlin’. You helped us out a lot here.”
She smiled up at him, but her eyes then came to mine. Loved that my brothers saw this. Brewer just lifted his chin.
“Be out in a minute.”
Rylynn got up from her chair. It was fucking late, and her eyes were begging to be dropped into sleep. “Head to bed. Not sure when I’ll get back. You got Van?”
“Of course.”
“Thanks, Pixie.” I pulled her into my arms and kissed her hard. “Love you,” I whispered into her ear.
Her body melted into me. “Love you too.”
Fuck, this woman was great. Every damn time I turned around she showed me just how much. “Get some sleep, and I’ll find out what I can on Rodney.”
“Thanks.”
Kissing her once more, I heard the lock click into place and the alarm arm. At least my two girls were safe. Now to make my fucking club safe by any means necessary.
Wrong Way sat at Lemon’s computers while Brewer, Phoenix, and I took on the room.
“This doesn’t have to be pretty, boys,” I said as Phoenix smiled, pulled out his knife, ripped the sheets from the bed and dug the blade into the mattress.
Turning the place upside down, we were coming up empty. In his closet, I pulled everything down from the top shelf finding nothing of use. Then moving to his clothes, again nothing. Feeling around the walls, there were no perforations or hideaway holes.
<
br /> Stepping back into the fray, Wrong Way had a pissed off look on him.
“What?” I asked, moving next to him.
“Fucker’s smarter than he led on.” That weight in my gut turned to stone. This fucker was dead.
“And.”
Wrong Way looked up to me. “Passwords on everything. Some with encryption. It’ll take me some time.”
“But you can crack it?”
“If not, I’m callin’ your woman. She seems to know the ins and outs of the tech world.”
To this I smiled. Fuck yeah she did.
Brewer came up holding some pictures. “Know anyone in these?”
I took them and started looking. They were from many years ago when Lemon was in his teens. No one stood out to me. “Nope.”
“Me either.” Another fucking dead end.
“Thanks for coming.” Cruz grinned as he took my hand and shook it. We were standing in the clubhouse parking lot getting ready to take off for our meeting with Ebony. Wrong Way had called the Sumner Ravage and they came, even Rhys.
“Anytime Crow,” Cruz said with a definite meaning to those words. While I knew we could always count on them, this was different. It was more personal and therefore just more.
Greeting the rest of Sumner, Rhys was the last one. He stood there with his arms crossed over his chest. It was imposing with a don’t fuck with me I’m her father attitude. I could feel my lips tipping as I walked up to him and held out my hand.
It took a few beats, but he grabbed it, grip tight. “Should I call you Dad?”
The grip became painful, but I couldn’t help but laugh. “Do that and I break every bone in your body,” Rhys growled.
“Oh come on. How about Daddy-O?”
He pulled my arm hard bringing me nose to nose with him. His face was a mask of anger, then just like magic, it faded and an actual smile tipped his lip. “You two smartasses together will cause holy hell at Christmas.”
Rhys released me and took a step back while I chuckled. “You do realize you’re gonna be a grandpa right?”