Everything has changed and yet,
I am more me than I’ve ever been.
-Iain Thomas
“What do you think’s happening in there?”
“I don’t know, but that Lamborghini that just pulled into the parking lot?” She gestures out the window and I glance to where she points. Sure enough, there’s a black sports car parked outside right next to mine and all the guys’ motorcycles.
“Yeah?”
“It belongs to the Boss of the Russian Mafia.”
“No fucking way.” My eyes grow wide, waiting for her to explain.
“Yep.”
“Why would the Mafia be here?”
“Well, you know London and Avery from the other club?”
“Yep.”
“Their duo is really a trio. The third best friend, Emily, is married to the head of the Russian Mafia. Hence, the connection with the guys.”
“Holy shit.”
“Uh-huh. The brothers did some work with them awhile back, but I can’t get into any details.”
“That’s still crazy he’s here right now.”
“I know. I’d guess that things are a little more serious than we’d anticipated. If Mafia and the other club is involved, it’s a bigger threat than our guys are letting on.”
“Who’s that, then?” I point out the same window as a gray Phantom pulls in next.
“Holy fucking shit,” she says, copying me from a minute ago, and I laugh. She turns to me and whispers, “That’s Thaddaeus Morelli.” The way she says it, makes him seem to be some magic creature.
“Okaaaay…Who is that, exactly?”
“Uh, that’s Chicago m. o. b.!” She spells out mob, and it nearly makes me laugh. I don’t, though, because this is serious according to her shocked gaze.
“So, is this bad, then?”
“Supposedly Cain did some work for him, but I’ve never seen him in person. I only know who he is because Viking showed me a picture in case I did ever see him.”
“Wow, I wonder why they’re all here at the same time. It kind of scares me being here with a ton more criminals than I’m used to.”
“For once, B, it scares me too, because it means my man is knee deep in something.”
“I take it he hasn’t mentioned to you about whatever he’s up to?”
“That would be a big fat no, but you better believe I’ll be asking him tonight.”
“I should ask Nightmare to tell me.”
“You can, but don’t be surprised if he doesn’t say anything.”
“Why would he keep it from me?”
“Because, it’s club business. He may not tell you to keep you safe.”
I hope that’s not the case. I may go crazy if he doesn’t share what’s going on. Prissy has me a little wigged-out with all these people suddenly showing up.
“Come on,” she calls and takes off out of the kitchen toward the main entry. I follow along, because I need to find out what’s happening one way or another.
The heavy door opens with Cain coming through on a mission and Thaddaeus hot on his heels.
“Princess.” Cain nods in acknowledgment. Of course he’d stop to greet her; she’s the Prez’s ‘ol lady. “Bethany,” he says to me next, and I nod, remaining quiet, stomach twirling with nerves.
The breath leaves me in the next moment as my hand’s engulfed by a large, strong completely male hand. “Pet.” His gaze meets mine, and I think my heart skips a beat when they do. “I’m Thaddaeus Morelli.” His other hand falls on top of mine as he introduces himself. His deep voice invokes hot flashes. The man is the definition of GQ power and beauty. Holy fuck.
“Ummm…hi,” I reply quietly, and Princess steps in to save me. I’m grateful for the interruption as I have no idea what to say to a man like that.
“Mr. Morelli, Cain…I’ll take you to see Viking.” She turns and leads the way, leaving no room for argument.
My hand is set free from his warmth, but Morelli’s eyes linger on me for a moment longer and then he’s gone.
My feet remain planted in the same spot as my nerves cool down. I’m going to go ahead and call that “The Thaddaeus Effect.” Holy shit, if I wasn’t so far gone for Nightmare, I’d probably follow that man around like a devoted groupie.
Taking my place, I glance around at the brothers. Every one of them from ours and Ares’ chapters is here, including Tate, the Boss off the Russkaya Mafiya, and Morelli, from the Chicago mob. It’s like a goddamn convention for criminals taking place. Rarely do you see this many of us in one spot at the same time and usually there’s either a big deal going down or cops involved if so.
“My woman was attacked today. This needs taken care of immediately,” I growl, and everyone’s stern gaze looks to me. I’m sure the majority of them have heard through the grapevine what went down, or, at least, the short and sweet version, but it needs to be brought up in front of everyone.
“Bethany, the woman I just met?” Morelli’s cold stare lands on me, and I send one straight back. He shouldn’t be speaking. He’s a guest here. Clearly no one told him to shut up before he entered our clubhouse.
“Yep, she belongs to me.”
“Noted.” He nods with a smirk on his face.
The fucking Joker, huh. I’ll wipe that look clean off his mouth if he gives me a reason to, and I’ll do it fucking smiling the entire time too. Show him how bikers handle business.
“We’ll find them all, brother,” Ares growls, angry that pain has touched our club once again. He, of all people, knows how I feel. His ol’ lady, Avery, has been targeted in the past. So has Twists ol’ lady, Sadie, and Princess. It seems to be a favorite spot for our enemies to hit us—our women, our hearts. You’d think they’d steer clear, knowing that’s a line you don’t cross, but apparently, they’re fucking idiots.
“All of ‘em dead this time,” Twist mutters, his fingers tapping in some random rhythm.
I’ve heard he plays guitar, and he’s damn good, too. I find myself tapping out beats all the time as well. It must be a musician thing. I could use some music therapy right about now. Beating on some drums would help me get some of this energy out, that’s for sure. Or a good fight. I’d take either.
“Why are you here, Thaddaeus?” Ares brings up the question we’re all sitting around wondering as well. “Cain said you had business to discuss?”
“It can wait until after this other matter.”
“No, go ahead,” Ares orders.
“As you know, my uncle is in charge of Chicago; he runs everything with the Italians.”
The majority of us are well aware of who he and his family is, so we nod and he continues.
“I want you to clean house for me. In return, I’ll take over his territory and offer you the area you’ve been wanting.”
“Shit,” Ares mutters and takes a large gulp from his water bottle.
“Fuck.” Viking sighs. “So you expect us to go in and do your dirty work and you’ll give us a Chicago charter in return? How does this benefit us? We’ll lose half our club cleaning out the mobsters up there.”
“Right. In return you get your colors in my state.”
“Who’s to say you wouldn’t turn on us, sell us out, and have your mob buddies come after us after we ‘clean house’ as you put it. As you can see, we’re already dealin’ with our own shit.”
“I’m not a rat, and I’m loyal. I’m doing this because the man wronged me; otherwise. I’d never cross him. It’s time I take back what was mine to begin with.”
“Why would we encroach on mob territory like that? We run weapons, we deal. You guys already have your system up there.”
“Right. I run all the shipping and such, meaning I could offer you a partnership in that aspect. Like I said, some things have come to light, and it’s time he was dealt with.”
“Break it down a little blunter for us Southern folk,” 2 Piece interrupts.
“You run weapons for the mob like you do the Russians.” His gaze flicks to Tate’s and we all hold our breath briefly, waiting to see if we’re about to have a mob war on our hands next.
After a tense moment, Tate shrugs. “We are eastern-southeastern. I don’t see any conflict of interest with the Midwest, as long as you remain good on our deals we have in place. There are more of you now; I’d be an idiot to expect you to not work with others.”
Viking rubs his temples, then nods at Morelli. “We’ll discuss it and then vote. It’s club business so everyone has to agree. We’ll be in touch with what we decide.”
“Good. I look forward to speaking with you soon.” He stands, as does Ares and Viking. He shows them respect by shaking each of their hands and then Cain shows him back out. Cain being so close to Ares is the only reason Thaddaeus Morelli was allowed in here and heard out in the first place.
“Now, how about you, Tate?” Viking’s gaze hits the Russian. It is his clubhouse, so while Ares is a President, he respects Viking’s status in his own club. It’s the same as when we were at church in their club last week.
“It started out as just a trip so Emily could visit with her friends. Then I caught wind that something was going on, so I left her with the girls at the other club to see if y’all needed my help. Well, the Mafiya’s, specifically. Whatever’s going down, do you have enough weapons or enough men to keep everyone safe? Especially after what Nightmare brought up in the beginning?”
2 Piece claps him on the shoulder, grateful. They’re friends, along with Cain, because of their wives and have grown to do a lot of business together over the years. We’ve done some work for Tate’s cousin, Beau, as well. That’s actually why I got attacked by that damn lion. We were down in Mexico searching for a woman the Russians were hell bent on finding. We came away with nothing, but that’s beside the point.
“We’re good as far as members go, but we can always use more weapons. Did you bring anything with you?”
“I didn’t, but one of my soldiers will be here tomorrow with a few cases. I figure what you don’t use, you may want to sell?”
“Sounds good,” Ares agrees instantly. “Brother?”
“Yeah, we’re in,” Viking confirms.
Tate stands next. “All right, I’ll let you handle your business in private then. If I can help out, let me know.” He shakes Viking and Ares’ hands on his way out.
What a busy damn day. I swear it seems nice and quiet around here and then everything comes at the club all at once. Shit can never just trickle in to be dealt with one at a time.
“Fuck, now back to what we’re going to do to catch these assholes.” Vike takes another swig of his drink and continues. “Spidey, run that photo of Shadow you took today through your face program.”
“Will do, Boss. I’ll let you know what I find.”
“I’ve called the other Nomads, Exterminator and Ruger. They’re on their way into town to provide some backup, but let’s hope we don’t need any. The rest of the crew is on a run up north so they won’t be heading down with them. The mess at Nightmare’s crib is cleaned up. I say we go on full lock-down until we figure out what the fuck to do next. They got a little too close to home today, and I don’t want to see it happen to anyone else, especially when we haven’t even found their location.”
“I agree. We need to vote. All in favor of the plan?” Ares finishes, and we go around the table agreeing.
With church coming to an end, the brothers and I pile out into the bar area while Spider runs the photos he got of Shadow through everything he can think of. I’ve barely thrown back half a beer, and, in no time, he’s calling us to his room to see what all he’s found.
Blaze, Viking, Ares, Cain, and I all pile in and take a look while he explains everything he was able to uncover. He found it in mere minutes with the right information to search for. Fucking crazy how you can be hunted down through random cameras positioned throughout the world.
“So, the facial recognition was able to pick up Shadow all over the place. One in particular was his mugshot which came paired with his legal name. It also found him at several gas stations that have been under surveillance after being robbed. Lucky for us, he had several buddies with him during these times. I was able to feed those camera shots into the system and figure out where a cluster of them have been gathering.”
“A cluster?” Blaze’s eyes row wide, glancing at Viking.
“Yep, not a small one, either. It looks like they’ve been holed up in a little town four hours north of here. My guess is they did it on purpose, waiting to make their move. It’s way too damn convenient they’re that close and they weren’t planning something.”
Ares grumbles, “I don’t get it. How could everyone miss them? We have allies everywhere. It doesn’t add up, none of it.”
“Actually, it does. The spot where they’re hiding out is technically Oklahoma, which puts them out of our main territory. And it’s also right off a busy highway so they can be on and off in no time, with hardly anyone seeing them. In this case, random gas stations were the only thing that pulled them up. If Shadow hadn’t got caught by Nightmare, there’s a chance we never would’ve caught on. They’re smart, and I hate admitting that about enemies.”
“Makes sense.” Cain shrugs. “Random Casinos run by the Indians, pussy, drugs, all right there, and not closely monitored ‘cause it’s Indian Territory.”
Viking huffs, cursing. “Where are the fucking Indian bikers in all this? We couldn’t go through Oklahoma on a run without them being up our asses for a payout to pass through.”
Blaze tsks. “I’m sure they’re getting a payout somehow. You know the Iron Fists roll around in heroin and meth. Bet they’re cooking some shit up for the Indians to keep quiet. The entire thing smells bad to me.”
“Goddamn, motherfucker,” Ares mumbles, rubbing his temples. “The fuck we gonna do then? We can’t go guns blazin’ on the goddamn Indian reservation; Uncle Sam would be breathing down our throats in a heartbeat. We’ve gotten around with mild heat for many years, not trying to get in trouble with them now.”
“Actually,” Spider interrupts. Smart little fucker has an answer for everything. “Where they are, it’s not technically the reservation. It’s closer to the Texas line, so if I give you a location you should be fine. You have to light it up and get the fuck outta there though. No sticking around to see the outcome. It would be hit it and quit it.”
“Good work, Spidey.” Viking claps his shoulder. “Get us a location, and we’ll plan a visit.”
“We need to discuss this ASAP,” I mutter as we pile into the hallway.
“We’ll have a drink and wait for Spider to finish. When he’s done, we’ll go back into church. I think everyone’s still here.” Viking glances at us and Ares nods.
“Sounds good, brother. It’s been a while since I’ve had some fun. I’m ready to take care of business.”
“Brothers, we have news,” Viking begins as we’re all crammed back into church, Spider with printouts spread on the table in front of him. “We have a location and an estimate in numbers.”
“’Bout time, let’s finish this,” Twist grits, and I couldn’t agree with him more.
“Ares and I discussed a plan we’d like to run over with everyone. We’re wanting to pay them another visit like before. Think Cali all over again. We torch the place and get the fuck out of there. Come home and batten down for potential blowback. We can knock a bunch of them out with one big hit. Let them scamper away like roaches, same as they did the last time.”
“We all going?” Torch questions, ready to get down and dirty. He used to be a Widow Maker in South Carolina before they were patched over, along with Blaze and Bronx. He’s a pretty mean fucker; I have respect for him always keeping his word.
“We’ll have Exterminator and Ruger; I know they’ll want to be in. From our charter: Chaos, Torch, Nightmare, and I will go.” His irises flick to mine. “If you’re up for it?” Everyone else’s gaze falls on me as well. He’s never asked before, but I know he wants to make sure I can handle the ride with my leg. I’m touched and irritated all in the same breath.
“Of course,” I mutter, glowering so I don’t come off as a weak spot in front of anyone.
“Scot, Bronx, Blaze, and Spidey will stay here to hold down the club.”
“I’m going, too,” Twist interrupts and Ares growls.
“Yeah, Twist, Cain, Snake, and I will ride up. The rest of my charter will stay at the club.”
“Everyone good with it?”
“Aye,” we each respond pegging our gaze on Viking and Ares.
Enough fucking around. I’m ready to leave right the fuck now and handle this shit. I’m sure the others are antsy as well.
“Everyone watch your backs until then. We’ll see what Tate’s men bring up and then plan to hit the road the following day. Expect to ride out Friday. Those assclowns will get fucked up Friday, and we’ll be able to surprise their asses when they least expect it.” Ares and Viking rise, done with business for the time being.
The only thing on my mind is finding Bethany and kissing her again. Her lips were perfect earlier.