Chapter 5
Colt
Olivia drew in a deep breath before she afforded me her gaze one last time. An attorney? Duke must have called Diesel and got whoever works for them. Was Olivia, right? Did having an attorney make me look guilty? Did it really fucking matter at this point? I watched something akin to disappointment roll over her stare. Disappointment over what, I had no clue. But, she wasn’t happy, to say the least. She nodded her head before getting out of her chair, then she made her way to the door.
And a funny thing happened.
I didn’t want her to leave.
One woman exchanged herself for another. Agent Banks left, and a woman in a gray pantsuit with “business” written on her forehead walked in. Her hips were wide and her hair was pinned up into a bun. She had slight bags underneath her eyes, but her stare was ice cold. She placed her briefcase down by her seat and held out her hand, waiting for me to shake it.
I took it out of courtesy, and I was shocked by how strong her shake was.
“My name is Monroe. I’m an attorney that works with the Dead Souls. A man named Dean wanted me to tell you that he hired me to take on your case,” she said.
I nodded slowly as she sat down in the chair across from me. From her stare, I knew right away to follow along with whatever she said. My eyes looked up to the one window that gazed out into the hallway. It had plexiglass on my side and bars on the other. I saw Agent Banks peering through them, shaking her head as if something bad had happened. I watched her walk away, with her black hair flowing behind her and her emerald stare filling with defeat and disappointment.
“I’ll be fielding your investigation. From now on, all questions from federal authorities will be routed through me. But, this only works if you are blatantly honest about what happened that night. No holds barred, have no mercy, and spare no details in your explanation,” Monroe said.
“My club stays out of this,” I said.
“I will try my best to make that happen, but my priority right now is getting you out of here. Dean made that very clear, and a man by the name of Duke was practically shouting it in the background.”
A grin ticked my cheek.
“What are we looking at in terms of bail?” I asked.
“Nothing, right now,” Monroe said.
“What do you mean, nothing?”
“The police are dragging their asses around here. They’ve got every excuse from ‘we’ve been busy’ to ‘we lost the paperwork’ to ‘he technically hasn’t been processed yet’. They’re keeping you in limbo for a reason, and I’m ready to snuff that reason out. If you talk with me and tell me everything, I can have a bail set to your name by tonight, and come tomorrow morning I can figure out a way to get it posted.”
“You’re not going to pay it yourself, are you?” I asked, grinning.
“Don’t think my husband would enjoy that very much,” she said, smirking.
“Lucky man.”
“If I trust you with something, will you trust me with what happened that night?”
I sighed. “Sure, but I don’t think there’s anything you could tell me that would shock me.”
“Knox is my husband.”
Okay. Maybe there was one thing she could tell me.
“Knox is your—?” I knew she looked familiar from somewhere.
“He’s fine. The wound in his side was pretty severe, but after a couple of pints of blood and some stitches, he’s at home resting with our little one.”
“How old’s your kid?”
Monroe smiled. “Three months old. She’s a cute little thing, too. Knox looks tough, but he’s a slut for some baby nose kisses.”
I chuckled as I envisioned the solid man with his nose kisses and his daughter being held in the air with his hands.
“You’re not just getting yourself out of here so you can be with your club, Colt. You’re giving me answers,” Monroe said.
Shit. That was the only fucking thing I’d never be able to resist. Someone who had their fucking family mixed up in this shit.
“Look, I’m sure Knox filled you in on what the hell has been going on.”
“He has filled me in on some, but not exactly everything because he wanted me to keep my distance, incase either of the clubs needed my help.”
“Well there was a shootout with the cartel. They’ve been running through Redding for a while now. Setting up camp right underneath our noses. They’ve patrolled the streets looking for underaged kids in our city to sell their bullshit drugs. They’ve approached gangs and other smaller crews to do their dirty work. And you know Jace right?”
Monroe smiled. “He is the one that helped deliver our daughter.”
I bit back a laugh. “Well then I guess you know Jace pretty well.” She let out a laugh and nodded.
“He’s got a girl and about to have a kid. The cartel killed her brother and used his life as leverage to get her to peddle drugs for them,” I said.
Monroe shook her head in disgust.
“And another one of my guys? He’s got a girl at his side whose family is holed up in some bullshit safehouse somewhere because her father was a fucking nut job Made her work for the cartel. Trained her to be some sort of undercover bullshit operative or something like that. And when he didn’t get his way, he tried to kill her and her mother. Locked her sisters in a room and tied them up with fucking duct tape,” I said.
“I’m so sorry,” Monroe said. “I knew there was a lot of drama going on, but I wasn’t told everything.”
“Don’t apologize to me. I stay unattached and away from my damn family because of shit like that. But you want to know why that shootout occurred? It occurred because the cartel had it coming to them. You know it. I know it. And I’m sure Knox knows it,” I said.
“Did you lead the charge?”
“No. That DEA agent also asked that question.”
“And you answered ‘no’?”
“I did. Because I didn’t plan this fucking shootout. If anything, I was weary about it happening.”
“Why?” Monroe asked.
I shook my head. I couldn’t go into that. How I thought my own damn President was losing his fucking mind. I mean, Dean had always been hardcore. Tougher than a cement slab of rocks. But when he proposed marrying off his daughter to the head of some club we hadn’t heard shit about, I wondered if he had lost his shit. If he had finally cracked under the pressure of running with a club like ours for so long. If I ever had a daughter, I’d never be able to do something like that. It was a lucky fucking thing that Diesel was who he was at the time, otherwise she would have probably married some psycho fucking idiot.
And ever since then, I felt like Dean was spiraling deeper and deeper into a hole we couldn’t pull him out of.
“Because our club is known for planning. Striking with the least resistance. A shootout isn’t our style,” I said.
“It became your style that night. Why?” Monroe asked.
“Because we’re ready to push out this cartel and keep our children safe.”
“Look, Colt. I’m going to be very honest with you. The only way you might be able to get out of here is if we make some sort of deal. Being who you are and rolling with who you roll with puts a stigma on you unlike any other. The police here will turn over every stone and find something to keep you here. Once they figure out where you live, they’ll storm your place and look for anything. A gun that isn’t registered. Any single ounce of drugs.”
“I don’t do drugs,” I said flatly.
“But, you catch my drift. You can play loyalty all you want, but the odds are very much stacked against you. I get that you don’t want to tell me details because your club is involved, but right now? You don’t have a choice,” she said.
“We’ve always got a choice, Monroe. And I’ve made mine.”
“If you make a deal with the DEA, we can get you out of here by morning. Tonight, if I hustle,” she said.
“I’m not giving you anymore details.” I refused to let any of my brothers take the heat for this mess.
“Colt, this is—.”
“Enough!” I roared.
The door slammed open and a guard charged me. He wrenched me out of my seat by my arm as Monroe tried to talk him down. But, I knew my time was up. I knew if I erupted again like that, he was hauling my ass back to a holding cell. Monroe talked as quickly as she could, but the guard wasn’t listening.
And I didn’t want him to.
The guard wrapped my arm around my back and guided me out the door. I didn’t want to talk to Monroe any longer. I felt for her. I knew she wanted answers. But now that I knew she was also personally wrapped up in this, the only thing I could assume was that she would act erratically. And I didn’t need anyone else in my world acting erratically. I didn’t need anyone else’s head popping off and flying around me while I was expected to simply sit there and act like it wasn’t happening.
I could hardly handle Dean’s erratic behavior that had gotten me into this situation in the first fucking place.