Chapter 21

EZRA

“How’d you do last night?”

Hunter stared at me, his eyebrows raised. The motherfucker was smirking, so I knew he wasn’t concerned too much. Guys like him thought everything was funny.

“I don’t know if I would’ve gotten any sleep if it wasn’t for the half-a-bottle of vodka,” I said. “I can’t remember the last time I drank that much.”

“Guy like you doesn’t seem like the type to relax too much. Stick around Hades and you’ll build your tolerance up. You’ll be drinking a lot more.”

“Especially with a guy like Hunter around,” the other man across from me said.

Hunter rolled his eyes.

“Pay no attention to Mercy,” Hunter said. “He likes to bust my balls because of those boulders he calls fists. But I’m a lot smarter than he is. I’m the real brains of this operation.”

“Mercy…” I said.

I looked at the man sitting next to me. I narrowed my eyes at him. There was something familiar about him.

“You ever heard of Aden Mercer?” I said. “Fighter from a few years ago. Disappeared.”

“I heard of him,” Mercy replied. “What about him?”

“You look just like him.”

Everybody else around the table smiled when I said it. Hunter reared his head back and started cackling.

“Shit,” I said. “You are Aden Mercer. What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I’m not the Aden Mercer you remember,” he responded. “I’m just a man living in Ivory. Another Devil who’s here trying to live his life.”

“I can respect that.”

There was more to Aden’s story but I didn’t bother pushing for more information. There was more important shit to deal with.

Roman sat at the other end of the table. Dark hair. Goatee. The guy looked like he didn’t take much shit from anybody. Same as usual. His arms crossed, he leaned back in his seat and was silent.

“Where is he?” I said to him.

“He’ll be here in a minute,” he replied. “Just finishing up some details on something he’s got going on.”

“Business must be good for you in Ivory. There’s all kinds of things you could get a monopoly on with so few people around here.”

“We get by.”

“We could be doing more than get by if they actually listened to me,” Hunter said.

Roman glared at him and Hunter changed his tone.

“But… it’s a good living out here in Ivory regardless,” Hunter said.

“It seems that way,” I said. “I haven’t been here for very long. It’s a nice change of pace from the city.”

“Tell me about it. Everybody up there is a fucking asshole. You can’t even walk down the street without some punk bumping into you and telling you to watch where you’re going.”

“That’s because you are bumping into them so you can steal their wallets,” Aden said.

“But they don’t know I’m taking their wallets. Besides, I don’t do that anymore. Haven’t been back to the city in months. What kind of look is that for the MC for one of its patches to go around being a pickpocket? We’re better than that.”

“Some of us are.”

Hunter rolled his eyes at Aden’s comment. Roman got a chuckle out of it. Before the club could get into it anymore, Sebastian stepped inside of the room and took a seat at the head of the table.

“How you feeling?” he asked me.

“Just fine.”

“You took a good lick last night.”

“Ellis got it worse. A little bruise never hurt me.”

“That’s the spirit. There might be more where that came from.”

“That’s what I’m expecting.”

It was around noon. The MC called a meeting and invited me to it. I didn’t think much of it, considering I’d hired them to do a job. There were matters that had to be discussed.

Despite the circumstances, Sebastian looked as confident as ever. The president of the Devils looked around the table.

“I looked into Ellis and the rest of his boys,” he said. “Checked to see if there was any reason they decided to skip town.”

“What did you find?” I said.

“Their last charges against them were back in Corvus.”

“That’s a pretty far place from here,” Roman said. “Looks like they were just trying to get away.”

“They did their time,” Sebastian explained. “Probably got off because they could afford the lawyers. The kind of crimes they’re committing, it wouldn’t surprise me if they hit up a few businesses to line their pockets on the way to Corvus from wherever the fuck they came from.”

“They were probably doing the same on their way to Ivory,” Hunter said.

“That’s reasonable to assume. But they’re here in Ivory and they’ve taken a lot of interest in our man here.”

Sebastian pointed at me.

“You want me to help you, you have to give me all the details,” he said to me. “I need to know what the fuck is going on.”

I would’ve thought twice about giving Sebastian and the rest of his club the information. But I trusted my gut.

“There’s a drug trade going on Ivory,” I said. “People are moving weight to every city in every direction, including the big city up north.”

“That’s not a secret,” Sebastian said. “I listened to the negotiations for myself. There’s a group that has a monopoly on it.”

“That’s part of their problem. They’re moving so much weight that they need help. They’re looking for partners.”

“And you came down to be a part of it.”

I sighed, thinking about what I planned on doing and what it meant to Lacey.

“That was the plan,” I said. “I was supposed to open a business. I picked a spot just down the block from here. I’d launder the money through the business.”

“Smart plan,” Hunter said.

“Smart would’ve been opening in a part of Ivory that’d actually be successful,” Sebastian said. “Old Town isn’t much for business.”

“Not now,” I said. “But it can be. That’s why my plan changed. I don’t want any part of the drug trade going on here. I just want to open my business.”

“You wanna open a business?” Roman said. “Like… a legitimate business?”

“That’s right.”

“Why the sudden change of heart?” Aden asked.

Everybody at the table had their eyes on me. But Sebastian was the only one that was smiling. I didn’t have to give an answer that he already knew.

“In any case, you’ve got beef with the Rebels that needs to be settled,” Sebastian said. “You’ve got options.”

“And what are they?” I asked.

“We could finish what you started last night,” Aden said. “Take on the whole gang. Ellis can’t fight for shit. Doesn’t look like the rest of ‘em can fight either, even if they do outnumber us. Single ‘em out and I’ll do my part.”

“Always with the meathead option,” Hunter said.

“And do you have a better idea, Joker?”

“Sure, I do. Listen, Ezra… I say we set up a meeting with the Rebels hash out your differences. Unless you’re hiding something from the city that you’re not telling us about, I figure it’s got something to do with the drugs. I say you let ‘em in on the deal. Give ‘em some money.”

“Pay them to go away?” Aden said. “That’s your idea?”

“I didn’t say to let them keep the money. I say we pay them on the condition that they leave town. I can set ‘em up with some counterfeit bills. They’ll be on the other side of the country before they figure it out. Shit looks realer than anything.”

“And when they figure it out, they’ll come riding back here wanting to take care of us. Great plan, Joker.”

“Hold on,” Sebastian said as he held his hand up. “Any other ideas?”

He turned toward Roman, who was sitting comfortably in his seat with his arms crossed.

“This is your show,” Roman said. “I’m just here for the ride.”

“Those are my options?” I said. “Beat the shit out of them or pay them off with fake money.”

“There is one other option,” Sebastian explained. “There’s always that one other option.”

“And what’s that?”

“We can just kill all of ‘em.”

“No,” I said as I shook my head. “That’s not happening.”

“It wouldn’t be hard. Nobody’d miss a group like that.”

“I didn’t come here to pay you guys to go to war for me. I haven’t been in Ivory for more than a week. The last thing I want is blood. I know how violent MCs can get. It’s not as simple as you’re making it seem. Besides, we can’t kill ‘em. I need answers.”

“Answers to what?” Roman said.

“These guys wouldn’t just start beef with me for no reason. Even if they were doing it because they wanted to get in on the big deal, there’s room for them. No, there’s more to it than that. Ellis knows. I have to get the answers out of him.”

“So… How are you going to get the answers out of him then?” Hunter said.

He raised his eyebrows at me, that confident smirk still on his lips like it always was.

Everybody was focused on me, waiting for my response. I turned toward the table and closed my eyes.

Think… There has to be a way…

I considered all of the options they’d given me and then it hit me.

“Ellis will never spill the details willingly,” I said. “We have to convince him to do it however we can.”

“So, what is it you wanna do?” Sebastian asked. “You wanna pay ‘em off like Joker says or do you wanna beat the shit out of ‘em like Mercy says?”

“Both.”

“Both?”

“Trust me. I’ve got it all worked out in my head. Next time we see Ellis, I’ll get what I’m looking for.”

“And do you plan on letting us in on this whole scheme you’re plotting?” Hunter asked.

I gave him a nod.

“Ellis is looking for me,” I said. “He’s probably got a man outside of the club watching my every move. We’ll set everything up. Then tonight, we’ll draw him out and I’ll get the answers I need from him.”

“You sure you know what you’re doing?” Sebastian said to me.

“Trust me. This will work.”

He turned toward Roman.

“VP,” Sebastian said. “You sure you don’t got anything to say?”

Roman looked at me. It was hard to tell what the motherfucker was thinking like always.

“The man didn’t get to where he is today in that fancy suit of his without knowing what he’s doing,” Roman said. “I trust him.”

Everybody at the table was in agreement.

Tonight, everything would be settled with Ellis and the Rebels once and for all.