Max
I tore up in front of the Holy Flames' headquarters and skidded into a parking spot, heedless of my car at the moment. I was fucking livid; I couldn't believe that Emilio had gone behind my back like that and told Jake all about the real cause of Frank's death. We'd had a deal, he and I. And part of that deal meant that you didn't stab the other person in the back, which was effectively what the asshole had done to me.
I would have words for him.
And I would make sure Jake paid as well. I knew Emilio must have threatened Jake using Halley as leverage; there was no other sensible thing for the man to do. So, on my way over to the Holy Flames' headquarters, I had stopped off to pick up Halley. I had thought about taking the kid as well, but it was easier to pass off having an uncooperative woman in my car than having a screaming brat in case something happened and I got pulled over.
Fortunately, nothing happened, despite my speeding.
I stormed into the building, dragging Halley behind me, tugging at the duct tape that I had wrapped around her wrists. I had duct taped her mouth shut as well, so the only way I could really sense her fury was in the way her eyes stayed narrowed towards me. As soon as we reached Emilio's office, I tossed her into a chair, heedless of the way she fell into it.
“You've got some explaining to do,” I snarled at Emilio, who looked mildly up at me from behind his desk, meeting my rage with cool collectedness that only further galvanized me. I snarled and furiously swiped everything off to the side of his desk, planting my palms on the dark mahogany wood so that I was towering over him. “How dare you double-cross me!”
Emilio slowly rose from his desk, a little smile on his face. “Nice to see you too, Max. What, do you need my help again? Are the Devil's Route not listening to you still? You know, maybe if you just joined your club with mine...”
“It's not my club!” I spat. “You promised that you would deliver the Devil's Route into my hands, but you've gone back on that promise. And you've told Jake, apparently, that my father's death was on my orders! If I didn't know better, I'd say that you never meant for Jake to be killed in the first place and you planned this whole thing to get me removed from my own club!”
Emilio silkily raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you suggesting that I'd go back on my word? That's pretty dangerous territory for you to be on, given that you're currently in the headquarters of the Holy Flames. I'm surprised that I would need to remind you of that. After all, your own father died here … you know what sorts of things can happen in these halls.”
I could practically breathe fire, that's how livid I was at the moment. “Don't you threaten me!” I told him. “I wonder what the Holy Flames would think of you if they knew that after making a deal with me — that if I took out my father and his successor that I could take over the Devil's Route MC — you then went ahead and sabotaged any chances I might have at every taking over our club!”
“I told you to take out your father and Jake on your own and that then we would recognize your authority,” Emilio reminded me, a steely look in his eyes for the first time. “I didn't tell you to fling them at me so that I had no choice but to kill them. I didn't want the Holy Flames to be involved in your father's death, or in Jake's, for that matter. We're not here to clean up your messes.”
I scowled at him. “It's hardly my mess, but Jake is your problem. You're never going to take over the Devil's Route MC while he's got power there. You have to know that. He's never going to agree.”
“Every man has his price, Max,” Emilio said, shaking his head. “I begin to see why your father didn't want to put you in charge of his motorcycle club after him.”
“Hey!” I snarled.
“It's true, though,” Emilio said. “You aren't any sort of leader. You believe that everything that you want can be taken purely with brute force. But that's not the way that the world works, Max. That's not the way that these clubs work, especially when you want to escape the notice of the police, or at least to work alongside them. You need to be subtle, and you need to be able to plan ahead. You need to recognize how other men think and work, rather than just eliminating them whenever your anger overcomes you.”
“And what would you have done in my place?” I snapped. “How was I supposed to lure my father out on his own and eliminate him?”
Emilio shrugged. “Jake was your real target there. Your father would have done anything to save that man. And that makes sense. He basically rescued the kid from the streets and brought him into your fold. But Jake is an easy target. You know as well as I do what Jake values.”
My eyes slid over to Halley, and I grinned a little. “Well, yeah. I mean, I threatened his family by bringing her here and—”
“You got my motorcycle club into the middle of all of this again,” Emilio said, his tone unforgiving. “After all of this, you would think you would have learned, Max Cordell. I don't want to do your killing for you. I don't want to play the scary bad guy and ransom this girl. I've already made threats, and Jake knows I'll be good on my word if he doesn't do what I want. There was no need to do something as messy as kidnapping the woman. And now, if we don't release her, the cops will come after us, and the whole club will be in danger. Especially since, thanks to the Devil's Route, lately the cops have been breathing down our necks to clean up our act.”
I watched as he pulled a gun from his pocket, pointing it at my head and cocking it before I even had the chance to react and pull out a weapon of my own. I held up both hands, suddenly nervous for the first time since I'd entered their clubhouse. “Come on, Emilio,” I said. “You don't really want to shoot me.”
“Don't I?” Emilio asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “I didn't want to kill your father, but you left me with no choice. And even if I didn't want to kill you right now ... well, you've left me with no choice. I need to send a clear message to Jake and to the authorities that I don't stand with you. I don't agree with this kidnapping. This isn't the way I would run things. And you have crossed the line for the final time.”