DECLAN

 

Petey had more book smarts than every other man in the club. Ever since he was a kid, he spent most of his time reading and learning everything he could in front of a computer. I’d seen some of the shit he was capable of, so I took his word for it when it came to doing something I didn’t understand.

I watched him work over the battery and cables connected to it.

“That should be good—”

“No,” he cut me off. “You have to get the voltage just right. Too much and you’ll kill him. Not enough and it’ll feel like a massage. Just gimme a second…”

He fiddled with all of the wires in front of him. I waited patiently until he finally finished.

“There,” he said. “You’re all set.”

He gave me a nod to let me know that everything was set.

We were miles away from Ivory. There was so much abandoned land between Ivory and all of the surrounding cities that it was easy to get lost in. The old building we were in looked like an old farmhouse that was left a long time ago. There wasn’t any electricity except for the battery that Petey had hooked up to a single light bulb.

I walked up to Brawn, who was standing at the side of the small room we were in.

“Wake him up.”

Brawn followed my orders by slapping the punk in front of us. He gasped a deep breath and started shaking in his seat. With his hands and feet tied to the chair, the motherfucker wasn’t going anywhere.

“You awake, asshole?”

I crouched down in front of him. The punk started panicking, looking in every direction for an escape but there was none.

He didn’t look much different from the assholes I was used to seeing at Finn’s. Just some guy in a leather vest who thought he was a big deal because he had a leather kutte on. The logo on his chest didn’t look familiar. But it didn’t matter what club he was repping. He was all alone now.

“I asked you a question,” I said.

The man looked right at me. Blood trickled down his nose and from a cut on his forehead, courtesy of Brawn.

“What the fuck, man!” he shouted suddenly. “Let me go!”

“You’re not in any position to give orders. And just to show you that I’m not joking…”

I looked at Petey and gave him a nod. He flipped some of the switches on the battery in front of him. A current of electricity flowed through the wires and to clamps digging right into the asshole’s thighs. I couldn’t imagine what he was feeling. I didn’t want to. The way he gritted his teeth and started foaming at the mouth told me that Petey had done his job.

“That’s good,” I said to Petey.

Petey cut off the electricity. The man collapsed in his seat and started gasping deep breaths.

“You’re not gonna get away with this,” he said. “You’re gonna pay—”

I snapped my fingers and Petey flipped the switch. The asshole shut up as he started struggling to deal with the electricity running through his body. I trusted Petey not to kill him but it sure looked like the motherfucker was about to die.

Petey pulled the plug.

I looked the man right in the eye. I wasn’t interested in wasting any time. The clock was ticking and I had to get answers now.

“The rest of your club is dead,” I said. “They’re gone. Disappeared without a trace. Now give me the answers I’m looking for or you’re gonna join them.”

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“You just drove by and shot up my clubhouse. That shit wasn’t just random chance. Why did you do it?”

He breathed hard through his nose, glaring at me. Still not the response I was looking for.

“Petey.”

My man flipped the switched and the punk started shaking in his seat all over again. I waited a few seconds before telling Petey to stop.

“Look,” I said. “I’m not enjoying this. You’re wasting my time. Just gimme my fucking answers and you won’t have to go through it.”

He was busy trying to catch his breath. I gave him a moment before he finally said something.

“I… I can’t…” he said.

“You can’t what?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?”

“They… They said they’ll kill me… They’d kill all of us… They had our entire club by the balls. Said they had evidence that’d get us locked up.”

“Right now, getting locked up is the last thing you need to worry about. Petey.”

“Please!” he shouted. “Don’t!”

“You’re not giving me much of a choice. You either give me a name or I tell my man here to turn up the voltage.”

“I… I don’t know… I swear!”

“Petey.”

Petey flipped the switch. The man started convulsing more violently in his seat. I looked at Brawn and the big man just stared indifferently with his arms crossed.

I waited longer than the last time before telling Petey to cut it off.

“Now,” I said as I looked the man in the eyes. “Tell me.”

The man stared at me. I could see the defeat inside of him. He didn’t have much left inside of him. I had to get the answers before it was too late.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know his name.”

“Petey—”

“He was a bald guy! He was in his 40s! He didn’t have a name. I… I don’t know who he is…”

“He didn’t just tell you to shoot my clubhouse up.”

“He said we had to do it. He said he’d turn our whole club in. Said he had all the evidence in the world to get us convicted.”

“Who was he?”

“I don’t know,” he sobbed. “I swear! He…”

“He what?”

“He said he worked for the Triads. I think he mentioned his boss. Something like Lin or Ling or something…”

Shit.

I grabbed him by the collar and pulled him close.

“Are you lying to me?”

“I’m not lying! I swear… Please… That’s all I know…”

He looked a lot more pathetic than he did when he was first arguing. I would’ve felt sorry for the bastard if I didn’t know what he was capable of.

I took a step back from him and sighed.

“All right,” I said with a nod. “I believe you.”

“Good,” he sighed. “Now let me go.”

“There’s just one problem. You shot up my clubhouse. Normally, I would’ve forgiven something like that. I could repair it, no problem. But my wife was in that building when you shot at it. You tried to kill my better half.”

“Wait… Wait…”

“I can’t let that go unpunished. Brawn.”

The big man gave me a nod and grabbed the chair the punk was attached to.

“Wait! Let me go! You can’t do this!”

The man shouted as Brawn dragged him out of the room to shut him up for good. I never liked getting my hands dirty. Even with punks who did drive-bys. I would have done it myself but Brawn took some kind of pleasure in doling out the justice that needed to be handed out.

While the club’s enforcer took care of things out back, I looked at Petey.

“Where is everybody?” I asked.

“Ghost is at the hospital checking on Nate.”

“How’s he doing?”

“He’s the same as he was last time.”

“Needle?”

“Jail.”

“What?”

“He got into it with Harris. His sister was at the clubhouse when it went down. He wasn’t too happy about it. Took it out on Needle.”

“I guess it’s for the best that Needle spends the night behind bars,” I sighed. “Sully?”

“Back at Finn’s. Questioning the people who were there that night but everybody seems to have a foggy memory of what happened.”

“Yeah, no shit…”

“I don’t think there was anything for them to remember. That’s if what this guy was saying is true.”

“The Triads…”

I couldn’t get over it. If Lin really did put a hit out on us, we were in deeper than I imagined. The Chinese weren’t some random punks. This was a threat more serious than anything the club had ever had to deal with before.

My hands on my hips, I kept going over it in my head. I knew what it meant if we had to deal with Lin and his gang. It wasn’t gonna be pretty no matter what I did.

“What do you think, boss? You believe him.”

“I don’t know if I believe him or I don’t wanna believe him.”

“It would make some sense. I can’t imagine Nate shooting someone unless he was trying to defend himself. And the guy who shot at Nate knew exactly how to avoid the cameras. It was a professional.”

“Like a member of the Triads…”

I still had to put it to a vote even though it didn’t look like I had much of a choice. The clock was ticking. I had to make a decision now.

“Pres?”

“Spread the word. Start gearing up. Get ready to deal with the Triads.”