The day after the assault, I awoke in a panic. It was almost after noon already. I couldn’t believe I had slept so long. I felt a complete sense of panic as I climbed out of bed, very aware of the aches and pains that I felt from the tussle with Ringo. Looking into the mirror, I was shocked at how I looked. My lip was swollen. I had a black eye and a larger bruise on my cheek. My breasts were bruised. My wrists were raw where the belt had rubbed. Even my shoulder was marked from his grip on it.
Tears fell down my face as I thought about how close I had become to getting into something that I might not have ever recovered from. For that matter, I had hit him pretty hard. I might have to pay for even defending myself. It wasn’t like it would be up to the cops. I was going to be tried and sentenced by the club, not impartial jurors.
More importantly, I didn’t know what to do next. A part of me now was more resolute than ever to bring the Black Aces to their knees and make them pay for my father’s death. Another part was terrified of what might happen to me in the process.
It was true that I had developed feelings for D, that I didn’t believe he was involved, but it was still his club and he had done plenty for which he should pay. It wasn’t as if any feelings were mutual anyway. He had none for me. He just intended to possess me and no one else was to touch his belongings. After a bit of brooding and feeling sorry for myself, I was no surer of what to do than I had been.
I decided to try to feel out what I was looking at with the club by calling Knuckles.
“Hey, Knuckles. How are things?”
“Same as always. Bunch of drunks blowing their money on slots and sluts.”
“That’s a lovely sentiment, Knuckles.”
“Ah, you know I didn’t mean you. What’s up?”
“I’m supposed to be covering for Cynthia the next few days, but I think I’ve come down with something. D said that it wasn’t that big a deal that I fill in for her anyway, so I think I’m going to just stay home until my next shift at the bar if that is okay.”
“Ain’t no sweat off my balls. Just get yourself better. I ain’t got no time for anyone spreading germs around this place.”
“Thanks. Nothing else going on over there?”
“Nope. Ringo come through here this morning looking like someone decided they’d finally had enough of his mouth. He was looking for you, but didn’t say why. Something I need to know?”
“No. Not that I can think of. I’ll see you in a few days.”
I hung up the phone and sat down on the sofa, considering my options. Ringo was alive, so I didn’t need worry about being responsible for killing a club member. I doubt that D was going to do anything to me if Ringo told him the truth about what happened, and I didn’t see any reason he would admit what he had done, so the only person I needed to worry about was Ringo and that was enough.
The real question was if I could go through with this. I was in way over my head with everything here and didn’t know how I was supposed to pull this off. I thought it would be so easy to just go in and find the answers I needed, but it was anything but that. The Black Aces stuck together. I had learned a little here and there, but nothing substantial enough to do anything with.
I had deluded myself temporarily into believing that I might be able to get close to D, to gain his confidence and find out the things I needed to know. I could see now that there was no way that would ever work. He was too smart and was obviously only interested in me on a physical level.
And now I had one member who would definitely be gunning for me to pay for what I did to him. If he had assaulted me just for rejecting him, there was no telling what he might do to me for having clocked him with a lamp. I did the only thing I knew to do. I retrieved the burner phone and called my contact at the DEA and told him everything.
“Get out of there. You are in way over your head. I was afraid this would be too much for you. I know you want your father’s killer brought to justice, but you are putting too much at stake by setting yourself up for the same fate.”
“I knew this wouldn’t be easy. I just want to know what happened to Dad.”
“I know you do, but you can’t even get the detectives working his case to help you. The only reason I am willing to help you is to try to keep you as safe as I can and hopefully bring them down for something. Lord knows I haven’t been able to nail them for the drugs they import and distribute. As much as I’d like to bust them for that, I’m not in for giving up a civilian to do it. Get out of there.”
“There are some strange things going on in there. Ringo was talking about how D doesn’t know everything, and Arthur told me that there are some rogue members. I don’t have details, but it sounds like D isn’t as much in charge of things as he believes he is. I know he had some sort of problem with missing money, and now they’ve found Jack Knife dead.”
“Wait. What? Jack Knife is dead? How?”
“I’m not sure really. They are laying if on some gangbangers in central, but I think it has something to do with the missing money at the club. I haven’t been able to put the two together yet. Then again, D took me to a cabin looking for him. He has, like, a whole BDSM dungeon set up in the basement of the place. D said he takes a lot of the rich society types up there for fun and games. There is always a chance that a husband with enough money to pay a banger had him ended.”
“Could be. Too many balls up in the air to really know at this point. Look, you do what you feel you need to do. I’ll keep helping you all I can, but if you think it is getting too hot, you need to get out. If you don’t think you can bring them down, get out. Okay?”
“Okay. I am at the house for a few days. I am pretty banged up from the incident with Ringo, and I don’t want D to know about that just yet. It seems that Ringo hasn’t told, I’m guessing because he doesn’t want D coming down on him for assaulting one of his girls. So, I just have to figure out a way to make sure I don’t tangle with him again if I stay.”
I left out the fact that I seemed to be a bit more than just one of the girls. I might not be the girl I’d like to be to D, but there was definitely something there that I had to consider was more than he had with them.
“I’ll trust your judgement, but my advice is to just let it be. Get as far away from there as possible, and try to get your life in order so you can move past this. Your father wouldn’t want you putting yourself in danger.”
“I’ll let you know.”
“Alright, just keep in touch.”
“I will.”
I hung up the phone, still no more certain than I had been, but I was already in and it was hard to get regular agents into the club. I decided that the best thing was just to lay low for a few days, and then make a decision. I put the burner phone back in its place and pulled out the files I had on members of the club. Then I went to the kitchen to find something I thought I could keep down to eat. I settled for some cream of chicken soup and a glass of water.
That was all I did for the next couple of days. I used the files and info to remind myself why I had come here and what I was doing. Most of these people had a very long history of violent crimes. Many of them had committed multiple felonies, and some, even murder. Drugs were a way of life with most of them, either doing them or distributing them. In addition to the small-time business they did around the club, they worked as part of a larger supply chain.
While I had no intention of getting too heavily involved with trying to bring down the drug trade, it had been a part of my deal with the DEA agent that I would find out what I could in the course of things to feed him as much intel as I could about it. My father’s murder wasn’t a part of his crime folder, but if my attempt to resolve that open case landed him a drug bust in the process, he was willing to give it a shot by helping me.
After a couple of days of reviewing the information on the club I had been given to help me with finding his killer, I felt a renewed sense of determination. I was going to find out who killed him and they were going to pay for what they did, even if it was D himself. My sexual attraction to him was just a natural reaction, and I would keep that in check from now on. My focus was right back to getting justice for my father.
The Black Aces MC would be coming down and I was going to be the one who brought them to their knees, no matter what I had to do. I wasn’t about to let them get the better of me. Putting everything back into place in its hideaway, I went to make myself some breakfast and plot my next move.