Switch

Kitt’s truth exploded my world. It was about to explode Sly’s. Her words burned through me. Sly’s daughter. She was Sly’s daughter. There was no way he knew about her. But did he even suspect? It wasn’t for me to judge how he lived his life twenty-plus years ago, or even now. If things were as bad as Kitt said they were for her mother, I knew Sly would have done something about it. I didn’t question that for a minute. She did though. God, no wonder she hated him.

It took me most of the day to track down the missing liquor shipment Dex called about. Thankfully, it appeared to be an innocent mistake. A number got switched around on the purchase order. I got it all sorted and headed back to Green Bluff. I called two of the probies and ordered them to meet the driver at one of our warehouses on the other side of town. The Ridley address was out of the question. As it was, we were up to our ears in overstock now that the bar was shut down. Sly was planning to move forward on a sports bar we bought just outside of Redding. We needed it. A few more months like this one and we’d be in a serious cash flow problem.

It was dark again when I pulled into the lot behind Benny’s bike shop. Gunn and Angel were just getting there.

“Hope you got good news,” Gunn said. “This day just keeps getting worse.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I put out my fire. What about the rest of you?”

“Something’s up,” Angel said. “Didn’t you get a text?”

I pulled out my phone. I’d been riding for the last two hours. Sure enough, there was a text from Big John. Sly was calling for church. Nothing from Kitt. I had to take that as no news being good news. I made her promise me to just sit tight at the Hansen. I wanted to call her, but the look on Big John’s face as he came into the office killed that idea.

“Sly’s inside?” I asked, slipping my phone back into my pocket. I threw a look at Angel. Ava and Scarlett probably wanted to murder him for leaving the house so soon after he’d been shot. It made me feel better though. It meant Sly was just fine. What he’d said to his wife was true. He was too damn tough to kill.

“We’re just waiting on the three of you,” Big John said. I followed close behind Gunn and Angel. Sly was at the head of the table looking pale and uncomfortable, but mad as hell.

I did a quick headcount. Only Ford was missing. His empty chair at the far end of the table sent a wave of fear through me.

“You got news?” Sly asked me.

“We’re good,” I said. “Shipment just got waylaid on account of a clerical error. It’s fixed.”

“Good,” he said. “That’s damn good. I don’t need another complication.”

Dex sat at his side looking fierce as always. I’d seen Ava in passing in the back room. My guess was Scarlett only let Sly out of her sight because Ava agreed to stay close by. If Sly so much as looked green, Ava’d have him in an ambulance.

“Londo’s putting more pressure on us,” Dex said. “We’ve had four security contracts fall through today. We’re getting squeezed from every direction.”

“You heard anything from your pops?” Sly looked at me. There’d been nothing since my visit and I told him as much.

“You really think you can trust him?” Charlie asked.

“No,” I said. “But I’ll take any information he’s got. I figure the table can decide what to do with it. You want me to reach out to him again?”

Sly rubbed his hand over his chin. He looked about ready to blow. I couldn’t stop thinking about Kitt as I watched him. Dammit, she did look a bit like him now that I was looking for it. It was in the eyes and the shape of his face. Sly was half gray now, but he had that same butter-blond hair.

“Not yet,” Sly said. “We have to play it just right with Mad Max. I need him. I just don’t want him clued into how much. Give it a day or two for the dust to settle on what happened out on Ridley Road. We’ve got a more immediate problem.”

Big John had yet to take his seat. He stood guard by the back door. As far as I knew, the only person on the other side of it was Ava. Dex and John passed a look and I realized she was the problem. Whatever Sly called this meeting for, he wanted to make sure she didn’t hear. Big John gave him a nod.

“We think the Rebels are taking this further,” Sly said. “Ford’s sister Doreen ran into some trouble at work.”

I knew Doreen was a real estate agent. My gut dropped.

“She was showing a house out at Emerson Point yesterday evening. On the way there, she was run off the road. By the time she got herself back together, vandals got to the house. They left a calling card.”

Sly slid his phone across the table. Angel caught it. He pulled up the picture Sly had opened. I looked at it over his shoulder.

“Fuck,” Angel said. All over the interior walls of the house, someone had spray painted the flaming wheels that were the center of the Hellz Rebel’s patch.

“Isn’t that stupid obvious?” I asked. “I mean, are we sure it’s the Rebels?”

“We’re sure,” Sly said. “Doreen had her head together enough to get the plate number of the van that ran her off. It was the Rebels and they wanted us to know it.”

“Son of a bitch,” Charlie said. “They’re gonna keep going after families.”

“And they know we can’t call for a lockdown. The Den is gone. They wanted us scattered.”

My heart raced. I wanted to get Kitt on the phone. Maybe the Hansen wasn’t safe for her anymore. Too many people had seen me come and go.

“What do we do?” Gunn said. I could see the same fear on every guy at this table. They all had wives and some had kids now. If we couldn’t protect them, we were lost.

“We’re squeezing the cartel out at the border,” Sly said. “Without their support, the Rebels can’t hold out. They don’t have the network we do up here. Our partners are lying low for now, but it’s not going to last.”

“In the meantime, we’re bleeding,” Charlie said. He slammed his fist against the table. “That fucking Pagano family. They’ve been lyin’ in wait all these years, hoping they’d smell blood in the water.”

“How long do we have?” Angel asked. “I mean, Pagano’s crew wants us back running their guns. What if it’s a one-shot deal? We handle their shit with the Russians next month. They put pressure on the cartel. Together, we squeeze the Rebels out. Then it’s back to business ... legit business as usual.”

Dex looked at Sly. Charlie made a noise. What Angel said made a certain amount of sense. Maybe there was a way to get what we needed from the Pagano family without getting all the way back in bed with them. It had been over six years since our last job for them. But we all knew the system. It wouldn’t be that hard to put the apparatus back in place ... just this once.

“There’s no halfway with this,” Sly said. “If we go back to the way things used to be ... we’re in forever. Charlie’s right that the Paganos have been lying in wait. If it comes to it ... and I’m not saying it has yet ... I need every one of you to know what you’re getting into.”

“They’ll have us by the balls, is what,” Charlie said. “And we’ll take heat from the feds. You don’t think they’ve been waiting for this? Jesus. This is Christmas to them. The Rebels are trying to tie it all up with a bow.”

“How long?” Angel asked again.

“In a few days,” Sly said. “We’ll know. I’m working ten different angles here. Every piece of intel is worth something. I know I’ve asked a lot of all of you. I know what you’re risking. I’m risking it too. But whatever we decide, it’s going to be unanimous. I’m not taking this club back into this unless we’re all in agreement.”

“Is Doreen okay?” Gunn asked.

Dex nodded. “She was pretty shook up. But she’s tough as hell. Ford’s with her. He’s making arrangements to get her out of town for a little while.”

You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. Every man here was thinking about who they had back home. The Rebels had broken every rule when they torched the club. Now they were trying to pick off people close to us.

Once again, my need to get to Kitt took my breath from me. I’d left her vulnerable. The second I got the go-ahead, I planned to get her the hell away from the Hansen and take her someplace no one would look for her.

“We all clear on what has to happen in the short term?” Dex asked. “Everybody’s got their orders. If you wanna get your wives out of town, do it now. The fewer people know what’s up, the better. We take no chances. Not a one.”

Dex’s words were met with grim nods around the table. I made a promise to reconnect with my old man. I doubted he had much to tell me, but like Sly said, every piece of information could be valuable.

Sly ended the meeting. Most of the men damn near ran out of the room. Ava came in and she and Dex helped Sly out of the garage. He was stiff, but standing straight as a board and moving under his own steam. He shrugged Ava off. He couldn’t ride yet, but he’d be all right. It eased my heart.

Angel hung back. His wife, Maura, was already out of town at a seminar she needed to keep up her law license.

“You good?” he asked.

“Yeah. Not happy about having to spend more time with Mad Max, but ... yeah ... I just wanna get past all this shit.”

Angel nodded. He waited for the last of the guys to file out. “What about you and Kitt?” he asked. Damn. Angel knew me too well. He’d probably been watching my face through the entire meeting.

“She’s good,” I said, not wanting to give him any more. No way Angel could suspect the truth about Kitt, but the longer I talked to him about it, the more I’d have to lie.

“Is it serious?” he asked.

“Man …” I started.

“Look, I’m not trying to get into your business. And I think Scarlett probably overreacted about her. Kitt’s cool. And if things weren’t how they are right now, I’d be telling you how good I think that girl is for you. You need someone, Switch. You’re getting too old to be alone. But things are what they are.”

“It’s under control,” I said, feeling protective of Kitt.

“Do you trust her?” Angel asked. The question surprised me. My answer practically erupted from me. It came straight from the heart.

“Yeah. I trust her.”

“Okay. And I know you didn’t ask ... but I gotta say it. Switch ... for now ... you gotta let her go. It’s not the right time to be bringing anybody new into this life. If you care about her ... more than that, if she cares about you, maybe it’ll be good later. Not now. It’s dangerous.”

I felt a wave of defensive anger rising. “You gonna tell Maura to stay away?”

“Yeah. Actually, I am. She’s in Vegas for a few more days. I’m going to ask her to stay there. She’s going to be pissed, but it’s for her own good. It’s for the good of the club too. It’ll be easier for me to do what I gotta do if I’m not as worried about her. You get what I’m saying?”

My fists curled.

“Switch,” Angel said. “I’m telling you ... break it off with her. Now. When things settle. When we get clear of this ... if we get clear of this. Then you can see.”

“And I said I’ve got it handled.”

Angel nodded. “I sure as shit hope you do. Because I’ve been watching you. This girl has you off your game. We can’t afford that.”

I wanted to tell him to fuck off. Except part of me knew he was right. It gutted me to admit it. And there was one deeper truth burning through me. Our families weren’t safe. If the Rebels found out she was Sly Cullinan’s daughter, she might make the most tempting target of all.