Chapter 14

Briar

“Did you have any trouble in Pittsburgh?” Lynch’s question pulls me from my own thoughts.

I’ve been distracted for days. My confession to Molly in the park has been playing on repeat in my head, and the details of getting off while my hands choke the life out the random girls I’ve fucked have already begun to invade my sleep. They play in vivid 4K Ultra HD on my eyelids, and I know I haven’t been redeemed or cured because I wake up stone solid and ready to fuck each and every damn time. I’m just as bad as her sick, demented father. A realization once again brought to the forefront after what happened with Frances Jiménez not long ago. My celibacy is the only thing keeping it from happening again.

Until I straddled my bike last night and made the nine-hour trip back to the clubhouse, I wasn’t even sure if I’d return to this damn place. It wasn’t until recently that the pull to even ride out of the gate hit me. Before Molly showed up with Zoe a couple of months ago, it took an act of Congress, or more specifically a presidential order, to get me to leave. Now, I jump at every damn opportunity.

“Brother?” My eyes meet Lynch’s. “Something else on your mind?”

TJ snorts at the other end of the table but otherwise keeps quiet.

“No trouble. Things are running just fine,” I answer. “They’ve all been informed of the new standards, and everyone is confident that they can move the newly required amounts.”

“Good.” Finally, he pulls his scrutinizing gaze from me and addresses the entire group. “We’re going down to Richmond for the handoff tomorrow. When we ride back, we’ll split apart into teams of two to get the product to the four corners. Boston and Smalls will take Baltimore. TJ and Ronan, you guys are responsible for New York. Hornet and Chains, you’ll head to Pittsburgh. Briar, you’re with me in Detroit.”

“What about the computer nerd and me?” Professor asks.

Virus snorts at the designation.

“He’s got a project he’s working on,” Lynch answers in relation to Virus.

My eyes narrow. There isn’t much that goes on in the clubhouse that Lynch doesn’t discuss with me first, but something must’ve come up while I was gone over the weekend. I’m sure I’ll hear about it sooner or later.

“As for you, Professor, I need you here to keep an eye on the property.”

“You mean babysit the girls?” he corrects.

“However you want to see it,” Lynch says with exhaustion in his voice. “Now, I’m not one to put a curfew on you assholes, but we have a hard ride tomorrow, and I need each and every one of you able to keep your bikes upright.”

A couple of chuckles filter around the table.

“TJ?” The enforcer’s eyes snap up from his cell phone. “I don’t know what kind of creepy shit you’ve been involved in recently, but I need you to stay here tonight. No fucking sneaking off in the middle of the night.”

TJ’s jaw clenches at the command from his president, but he doesn’t argue. He also doesn’t acknowledge his agreement, but you get what you get with TJ.

“Prez?” Ronan raises his hand like he’s in fucking school.

Another round of chuckles fills the room.

“What?” Lynch snaps but doesn’t pull his eyes from his brother for a few seconds longer.

“Those cartel fuckers scare the shit out of me.”

No one laughs this time. We all have a healthy dose of fear where the Colombians are concerned.

“I wouldn’t cross Luis. I know I’m the rookie here, but they have some crazy shit going on,” Ronan continues.

“You’re going to have to give me more than that, kid.”

“Did you see the collars on the women? I think they’re sex slaves.”

“Didn’t keep you from dipping your dick in two of them,” TJ mutters.

Ronan’s eyes widen. “They both told me they wanted to fuck, Prez. I swear it.”

Chains smiles wide. He took all that was offered to him and never batted an eyelash.

“Lots of people have sex slaves.” Lynch sounds agitated for even having to have this conversation. “We don’t deal in skin, but you’re ignorant if you think other organizations don’t.”

“I…umm,” Ronan wipes sweat from his forehead. “I opened a door I shouldn’t have, Prez.”

“He looks legitimately terrified,” TJ says finally putting his phone down and fully joining the conversation.

“I heard screaming, and not like sexy screaming when you’re fucking a girl so hard she doesn’t know if she wants more or wants you to stop. They were horrible screams.”

“Are you going to spit it out, or do I need to pop some fucking popcorn?” TJ asks.

“I heard the screaming, too,” Hornet adds. “But I wasn’t fucking dumb enough to go looking for the source.”

“We all heard the screaming,” Lynch adds.

The guys around the table nod their heads in agreement.

“What did you see?” our president asks.

“That big guy.” He looks in my direction. “The one you told me to keep an eye on?”

“The massive one with the tattoo above his eye?” Professor asks. Ronan nods and swallows. “That fucker even gave me the creeps, and I’ve seen some pretty crazy shit in prison.”

“The screams stopped before I opened the door, but I went in anyway. That guy was fucking a gash he had cut into some chick.”

“Really?” TJ sounds more intrigued than disgusted.

“She was already dead,” Ronan assures everyone. “I would’ve tried to stop him if she was still alive, but by the time I got there, she was gray and completely limp.”

“How are you still alive?” Hornet asks with clear confusion in his voice.

“He didn’t see me,” Ronan answers. “He was too into it to even notice the door had opened.”

“Prez?” I address Lynch when he doesn’t respond.

“We’re already in bed with them. There’s nothing we can fucking do.” I knew that before he spoke, but that’s some brutal shit.

I can’t think about Molly, Zoe, or any of the other girls here at the clubhouse going through something like that. I’d never get another minute of sleep, but doing nothing doesn’t exactly seem right, either.

“We can always drop some information at the Cerberus doorstep. Those do-good motherfuckers can’t resist shit like this,” Chains suggests.

Lynch remains quiet as if he’s mulling over the idea.

“They’ll trace any goddamn clue we leave right back to this clubhouse,” Lynch finally says. “I’m not willing to risk our club.”

“What if I can guarantee they can’t?” Virus speaks up. “I mean, I don’t know them, and I wasn’t with you guys at the compound, but if you want someone else to intervene, I can make it untraceable.”

“I appreciate your input, but their VP Shadow is pretty fucking badass with all that technology shit.”

Virus holds his hands up in surrender with Lynch’s comment.

“We can always go through Snatch’s son. He’s only a mechanic, so I bet we could pull one over on him,” Boston suggests.

“Him and that girl of his went back to New Mexico for the summer,” TJ interrupts. “Plus, mechanic or not, he’s pretty fucking smart. You’d think the guy was raised on the street and not in some cushy clubhouse.”

“You’ve been keeping an eye on them?” Lynch asks his brother.

“Thinking the son of a Cerberus MC member isn’t a concern is a mistake. Don’t you think?” TJ counters.

Lynch nods his concession.

“I’m not tabling the conversation completely, but we need to get through our first shipment with the cartel before we make any decisions on what to do after.” We all nod at Lynch’s reasoning. “Anything else?”

No one speaks up.

“Stick close,” Lynch warns again in dismissal. “Briar, a word?”

I wait for the other guys to filter out, making sure the door is closed behind the last guy before turning to speak with Lynch.

“What’s up, Prez?”

“You looked confused when I mentioned Virus’s project.”

“Figured I’d get wind of it eventually.”

“He’s going to be adding key card locks to all of the various doors in the clubhouse.”

“Like a hotel?”

He nods. “Xena came to me first thing this morning. TJ’s inattention to the whores is upsetting some of them.”

“You mean Legs?”

He chuckles with a quick shake of his head. “She mentioned last night getting information from TJ’s phone.”

“She want to die?”

“Maybe?” Lynch leans back in his chair, letting it rock back and forth. “I’m not saying it won’t come to that, but for added security, he’ll give certain people all access, and others won’t have access to any room but their own and the entertainment rooms.”

“And this should keep the whores out of the club members’ private space.” I finish his thought.

“Hopefully.” His eyes refocus on me, and a cold chill runs over my body. I know where the conversation is going to go before a single syllable leaves his lips. “What’s your take on this vet?”

“I’ve been gone all weekend. Has something happened?”

His lip twitches with my avoidance. “What did you find out on him?”

I can’t tell if he’s onto me because it’s Molly, or if he’s just relying on my normal inclination to find out everything about anyone who could bring trouble to the MC. I opt to focus on the latter.

“He’s squeaky clean. No criminal record. No outrageous political views as far as Virus was able to find.”

“And how does he treat the women he’s involved with?”

My jaw clenches. “We didn’t really dig into that aspect of his life.”

His eyebrows rise in disbelief. “You knew about Legs’s abortion and her dying mother before she was allowed to get her own room and walk around the clubhouse unsupervised.”

“She’s a whore,” I reply. “Can you ever fully trust any of them after Wendi?”

“Can you trust a man who’s after my sister?”

Touché.

“He only had one girlfriend that we know of in high school. He didn’t really date in college. There was a girl he went on a few dates with, but it ended before it got serious.”

That information was sent to me in a text while I was away, as if Virus couldn’t wait to spill the news.

“Do you know why it ended?”

“Jesus, do I look like the FBI?”

He waits the way he does where he stares at you until you grow so uncomfortable under his gaze that you just keep talking.

“Virus mentioned the girlfriend cheating.”

“How did he react? Did he get pissed? Hit her? Break shit? Beat the guy up?”

I toss my hands up in front of me before letting them fall with a thud on the table. “Why the fuck does it matter?”

“I want to know how the man responds when he’s challenged by another man, how he gets even. I need to know if he’s going to hurt my sister.”

There’s more that he’s not saying. It’s playing all over his face, a cross between a smirk and agitation, like he can’t decide which one is going to win out.

“He left.”

“What?”

“When he caught them, he just walked out. There was no confrontation or anger.”

“He didn’t love her?”

“It was only a few dates. I don’t imagine love was involved, but that wasn’t part of Virus’s dossier.” I hitch a thumb over my shoulder. “Want me to go ask?”

A full smile spreads across his face, and I want to knock it right back off. I don’t want to talk about it, much less think about Molly and the fucking vet.

“Good to know.”

“Anything else?”

“Get some sleep. We ride out early tomorrow.”

I’d planned on sleeping all day, but that would ruin me for the ride tomorrow. Besides, it’s Monday, which means Molly is back at her damn job, and there’s no way I can stay clear of that place. I have to see her one last time before I leave for the next week or so.