Chapter Three

I waited for Maverick at the place they'd told me to be at. It was hard to believe now, but once upon a time, we'd been buddies. Good friends, actually. But our lives had taken radically different turns, and mine no longer included running drugs and guns with the MC. I got out before I got caught – or killed. For the most part, my record was clean of anything major, and I intended to keep it that way.

We were meeting at an old warehouse that I was familiar with – it was one that we'd used to house the heroin and cocaine we cut and sold. If the cops rolled up on me, just being there could get me in trouble. But, I had no choice – that was where they'd told me to meet them. Maverick himself was coming, and I prayed I could talk some sense into the guy. Make him see I couldn't be part of his shit anymore.

After about fifteen minutes of waiting, Maverick rolled into the parking lot, along with Jay and another guy I didn't know. Obviously, somebody who'd joined up after my time. The three of them were tall, big men. They had a hard edge and an air of violence around them. They were the type of men you didn't want to run into in a dark alley, that was for sure.

I was a little surprised to see that Maverick was getting a little grayer in his otherwise dark hair than I remembered him being. His facial hair had gone almost completely gray. Damn. It was amazing what five years could do. Or maybe it was life in the MC that happened to age people faster than normal.

Jay was older than I remembered him being as well – he had a face I hardly recognized. So much had changed in the MC since I'd left, membership and leadership changes and whatnot. Mav was still the president, of course, but it looked like Jay was the new VP, his right hand, and that was bad news for me. We'd never gotten along very well because Jay was a dick. A straight up dick, often for no reason at all other than he could get away with being a dick.

The other guy, the one I didn't know, was shorter than Jay and Mav. He looked to be quite a bityounger too. Probably a newer recruit, someone brought along to learn the ropes maybe. Maybe he was there as a backup in case things got ugly. It wasn't going to get ugly though – I wanted to return to my daughter alive, not in a casket.

“Eli, long time, no see, bud,” Mav said, pulling me into a one-armed hug. “You remember Jay, right? Well this is his little brother, Dean. He joined us last year.”

“I'd like to say it's nice to meet you, but given the circumstances – ”

“Nah, man, it ain't like that,” Mav said to me, patting me on the back. “It's all good between us. I promise you.”

I looked over at Jay, remembering the threats and intimidation he laid on pretty thick when he'd called earlier.

“Yeah, that's not how it sounded when I was invited to this little party in the first place,” I said.

Mav scowled at Jay and shook his head. “Jay can be a bit heavy handed, but trust me, Eli, as long as you work with us, it's all good.”

“As long as I work with you?” I said. “I left the club, Mav. You signed off on it. Why are you dragging me back into things now, after all this time?”

“Because we need you, man,” Mav said. “We need you real bad. And maybe you don't recall, but I was clear that a condition of letting you out was that we could call on you, as needed, from time to time to help us out with some shit.”

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “What kind of shit do you need help with?”

“You still with that broad, Amy?”

I scoffed. “Not really,” I said. “She left us for her dope. And last I heard, she's locked up in some treatment facility. Parents had her committed or some shit like that. Haven't talked to her in over a year.”

“Well, that makes things a bit more difficult than I would have liked,” he said. “But we can work it out.”

“Work what out?” I asked, narrowing my gaze. “And what's Amy got to do with any of this?”

“She used to hang out with some guy named Carl Gillespie,” Mav said. “Does that name ring a bell with you?”

“Can't say that it does,” I said.

That was a partial lie – I'd heard of Carl. Just never from Amy. Not directly, anyway. I saw his name and number on the missed calls screen of her phone a lot, but I'd always just assumed it was her dealer.

“I'm not in that life, remember?” I said. “I stayed the fuck away from Amy's friends.”

“Well Gillespie seems to know you.”

That statement piqued my interest. “What do you mean?”

“He's mentioned you a few times, in passing, when we talked business,” Mav said casually. “Asked how we knew you and shit. Not that it matters, but – ”

“It does matter. I don't want dirtbags like him knowing my name.”

“We can fix that for you,” Mav said. “Carl used to work with us. Key word – used to.”

“Bad business deal?” I asked. “Everything to go south because of him?”

“Something like that,” Mav said. “He's now apparently working for the Kings. And he's apparently passing on some of our personal information in his new job.”

I knew where this was going already and I felt the knot in my stomach tighten. “So let me guess, you need this Carl guy gone?”

“You got it, bud,” Mav said. “But of course, he's not going to trust any of us enough to let us get close to him. Let's just say, we left things with ol' Carl on not-so-good terms. But we were thinking if your gal Amy – ”

“Amy can't do shit, I'm sorry,” I said. “She's locked away and as far as I know, isn't getting out anytime soon.”

“Do you still have access to her old cellphone?” Mav asked. “Or at least know the number? If you have that, we can spoof it – ”

I did have her old phone, but it no longer had service. I'd disconnected that line entirely once she got back into drugs and stopped working. I could easily reactivate it though, if needed.

“So you want me to call and pretend to be Amy?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “How's that going to work? It's not like we sound alike or anything.”

“Call? Mav said, laughing as he looked at the others. “Who said anything about calling anyone? That's just asking for shit to go sideways. Nah, man, all we need you to do is text him – just like Amy did. Shoot him a text and set up a meeting somewhere, that's it. That's all you have to do. We'll take care of the rest.”

“Take care of the rest?” I scoffed. “As in kill him?”

Mav shrugged, scratching his beard as he stared me in the eyes. “We'll take care of it,” he said. “That's all you need to worry about, brother.”

I said nothing, but Mav could probably see the look on my face – and understand my hesitation – because he continued.

“Come on, man,” he said. “This is the drug dealer who got Amy hooked on the stuff in the first place. Don't you want a little payback on him anyway?”

Truth be told, I'd love to get some payback on the man who'd ruined my family. But indulging in that little fantasy, I risked everything I'd fought for. Hell, I'd be risking my own freedom.

“I can't get involved with this shit, man. I can't risk getting caught,” I said. “I have a daughter, and I'm the only person she's got. If this shit goes sideways and I get implicated in this, it's going to be bad all the way around.”

“I know, I know,” Mav said. “But trust us, Elias. We'll take care of you. Have we ever done you wrong?”

That was a loaded question. I could think of many times the welfare of the club took precedence over the welfare of its members. I remember several times when I'd been left behind to have the shit beat out of me by a rival club or some other pissed off person.

I remember times when I'd almost been arrested for crimes I barely played a part in. That was why I got out in the first place. But to say that to these men was a dangerous proposition. Mav wasn't the kind of guy who liked hearing the word “no.”

“You also know it's not just about me, Mav,” I said. “I got to jail, Harley gets put in the system. Or worse, she goes to live with Amy's folks. And you know what they did to Amy – I can't let that happen.”

“It won't go down that way, man,” Mav said. “Trust me, brother. We'll take care of anything. All we need from you is to send that text.”

Sounded easy enough alright. One text and I was done. But if I knew anything about Mav and the MC, things were never that easy. There was always some angle to be played. Some hidden agenda. Or some hook in the bait that couldn't be seen until it was too late.

And I knew he wasn't telling me everything. Knew it right down to my bones. Mostly, because he never did. But at the same time, I knew that if I refused them, they could make my life a living hell. Harley's life a living hell. They would keep twisting that knife they had in me until they got what they wanted. That was just the way they operated.

“So you in, man?” he asked me.

I sighed and shook my head. “It doesn't sound like I have much of a choice.”