“What the hell ever happened to probable cause?” Brendan Slate, the attorney that the Invaders kept on retainer, had been going round and round with the detective questioning Zack about why they pulled him over in the first place. Zack had been roughly shoved to the ground, cuffed, dragged to the car, and then strip-searched once they made it to the station. They had separated him and Nicole on the scene, taking her away in the other car, and wouldn’t tell him where she was, or what was happening to her. He started out trying to tell them the methamphetamines weren’t his, but gave up quickly and told them he wanted an attorney. His main goal was hoping that Brendan could find out where Nicole was and make sure she was okay. The rest of this was bullshit as far as he was concerned. Someone put the meth in his bag and someone tipped off the cops that it was there. He was sure that he knew who that someone was, and once Stone and the rest of the club found out about it, that should be easy enough to handle. But this could seriously affect Nicole and her custody battle, and that was what worried him the most.

“We had an anonymous tip. Zachary Leoni was mentioned by name and a description of his bike along with plate numbers was given. Mr. Leoni is a known associate of a gang. We had plenty of probable cause,” the detective said, dryly.

“This is a joke, an obvious set-up. Why would someone just call you out of the blue and tell you that he was carrying a pound of meth?”

The detective looked at Zack with something akin to disdain and back at Brendan. “The caller expressed concern that the young lady was getting involved with a bad element, letting him spend time around her son…”

“This is so much bullshit,” Zack said.

“Zack…” Brendan warned.

“No, Brendan, this is bullshit! A few hours before this happened, I was threatened by Nicole’s ex-boyfriend, who happens to be the one involved in the custody battle with her. You want to talk about a bad fucking element, you need to be looking at him.”

“You’re saying that her ex-boyfriend set you up? Did you report these threats?”

“No, I didn’t report them, and yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. He told me that Nicole and I would both be sorry if I didn’t help him get full custody of his son. I told him to go fuck himself and…poof, here I am under suspicion of transporting drugs to sell. Am I affiliated, damn straight I am….”

“Zack!” Brendan snapped. He looked at the detective and said, “I need to talk to my client alone.”

The detective was smiling like he’d just gotten lucky. “Sure.”

“I want to talk to you,” Zack told the detective. “Give us five minutes and then come back.”

Brendan’s aggravation was almost palpable, but he kept a lid on it until the detective was out of the room. Once he was gone the attorney said, “You need to let me handle this, Zack. You’re going to talk your way into a jail cell.”

“I don’t give a fuck. I’ve been in a jail cell before; I can do it again. I want you to listen to me, Brendan. Go find out what they’ve done with Nicole and do whatever you have to do to get her out of here and home to her baby.”

“I’m not here to represent her.”

Zack narrowed his eyes and leaned in close to the attorney in the five-thousand-dollar suit that his club had paid for. “You are here to do whatever I fucking ask you to do. You work for me, do you understand?” Zack could tell that Brendan was contemplating telling him that technically, it was the club he worked for, but thought better of it. Instead, he said:

“I will go find out what’s going on with her if you promise me to keep your mouth shut. Tell them nothing at all. Let them book you if that’s what they’re going to do and we’ll take it from there. I’ll have you out on bail in two hours or less.”

“Fine, deal, if you come back and tell me that she’s okay.”

Brendan rolled his eyes. “Stone is going to kick both our asses for this.”

“I’ll take the fall,” Zack said. “Thank you, Brendan.”

The lawyer shook his head and sighed as he picked up his briefcase and stood up. Before he left he said, “You know, this was supposed to be easy. You’re one of the few that doesn’t have a rap sheet as long as my arm.”

“It can still be easy,” Zack said, “and if you do this for me, I’ll make sure you’re compensated for it, handsomely.” Zack thought about that safe in the floor of his father’s room. Skeeter was keeping what they found there safe until Zack figured out what he wanted to do with it. He wouldn’t hesitate to use it to help Nicole. He watched Brendan leave and a few minutes later, the detective came back in the room and sat across from him.

“So, are you ready to talk to me?”

Zack yawned. “Nah, I think I’m done. The meth is not mine. I was set up and I’m sure you know it – this collar was way too easy. But if you want to arrest me anyways, let’s do it so I can get some rest.”

The detective smirked. “Alright then, have it your way. Zachary Leoni, you’re under arrest for possession of a controlled substance with the intent to sell, transportation of a controlled substance, and possession of a firearm without a license. Let’s go get you booked.”

A cot in county jail was not where Zack had hoped to lay his head for the night, but he had faith that Brendan would have him out by morning. He just hoped that Nicole was already on her way out and home to Liam.

* * *

The next morning Zack was ushered into court with shackles around his waist and on his ankles, and Brendan was already waiting for him. The judge listened as the district attorney rattled off the charges against him and then asked him how he pled. Zack said “Not guilty” and Brendan proceeded to tell the court how it had been over five years since Zack was arrested and that none of his charges had been drug related. Then he started to launch into the theory that Zack had been set up when the judge waved a palm at him and announced that bail would be set at a hundred thousand dollars. Brendan didn’t look happy about that, but as Zack was ushered back out of the courtroom, he assured him that it would be taken care of. Three hours later the guard arrived at his cell to tell him he’d made bail. He was taken out to the release area to sign paperwork that said he promised to return for court when a date was set, and to pick up his property. When he pushed out through the double doors into the bright sunlight, he was surprised to find Skid was the one waiting for him.

“Stone wants to see you,” he grumbled as he started walking toward the van.

“Okay. Can I ask why you came all the way down here to pick me up instead of sending one of the guys?”

Skid hit the unlock button on the fob in his hand and climbed into the driver’s side of the van. Zack got into the other side and as Skid started it up, Zack decided that the older man wasn’t going to answer him. He had pulled the van out of the parking lot and driven about two miles before saying, “Because you and I need to talk.”

“Okay.”

“I know you don’t like me much and to be honest, it goes both ways.”

Zack smiled and put his hand over his heart. “Wow, wounded. I thought we were friends.”

“Knock the sarcastic shit off. Look, I respect Stone more than I’ve ever respected any other man and I trust him not just with my life but the life of every man in this club. But for some reason, when it comes to you, he has a soft spot. He lost his son and somehow he’s made you a surrogate for him. You get away with a hell of a lot more than any other man would get away with where Stone is concerned.”

“I don’t ask for any special favors…most of the time.”

Skid chuckled. “You don’t have to ask, most of the time. When Stone sees you need something, he jumps in to take care of it.”

“Maybe he just appreciates the high quality of work I’ve been doing for this club for the last three and a half years.”

Rolling his eyes as he turned the corner Skid said, “Zack, I have to admit that you’ve never given me a reason to not trust you to do your job. But this thing with Johnson…it’s becoming a big problem.”

“I didn’t put drugs in his saddlebags, so maybe he’s the one you should be having this conversation with.”

“Maybe so, but you did get involved with his old lady…”

“Ex old lady.”

“Ex old lady that he wasn’t finished with. Ex old lady that he has a kid with. He’s taking it personal, and this feud between you and him is causing a lot of problems for us. The police knocked on their clubhouse door at three a.m., asking questions about some ‘threats’ he supposedly made to you. Needless to say, Chaney was pissed.” Chaney was the president of the Defenders, a lackadaisical son of a bitch in Zack’s opinion. If he took the time to pay attention to the shit Spider was involved in on the side, he might not only have a better handle on his club, but he’d garner a hell of a lot more respect. Skid went on, “Stone got a phone call at four a.m. this morning. Chaney’s demanding that Stone get rid of the ‘rat’ in his midst, or forfeit the deal we have with their club.”

“That ‘rat’ being me.”

“His words. You had to know when you brought up Spider’s name to the P.D. that it wouldn’t go well for you. Let me ask you this, have you ever talked to the cops, about anything?”

“No. But what did you expect me to do? I’m supposed to do five to ten years on a drug charge and let Nicole lose her baby while this asshole goes scot-free? You won’t let me kill him…”

Skid pulled the van onto the road that led up to the clubhouse and then suddenly, before they got to the gate, he pulled off to the side of the road and turned off the engine. With a sigh and a scratch of his head he said, “I’m about to tell you something that no one in this club knows except the executive committee. You know that Stone pulled us out of the drug trade about five years ago and he started investing in property. We’ve been slowly terminating our associations with the street gangs and the cartels, and at least fifty percent of our business these days is legitimate.” Zack nodded. A lot of what he did out on the road was pick up tips from other clubs that had gone legit and bring those ideas back to Stone. It was a major reason why he was so confused about Stone’s sudden attachment to a club like the Defenders, who had no concept of what legitimate was. “Well, it wasn’t as easy as you might think. Getting building permits and hiring contractors to upgrade the shitty buildings we invested in took some doing. Stone couldn’t exactly walk into a bank and get loans to finance all of that, so he went to his old friend, Michael Lee Johnson II.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah, but it gets worse. You know about Stone’s son getting killed not long before you showed up.” Zack nodded and Skid said, “I don’t know how much you know about that, but Jeff had been messing with a young Mexican woman who also happened to be the old lady of one of the Mayans.”

“They were a club out of Kentucky, right?”

“Yeah, they were based right near the border of Tennessee but on the Kentucky side. They were a small club, just getting started really, but they had recruited a bunch of vicious fuckers from Colombia and the Dominican Republic. This girl Jeff was messing with, she worked here in town and according to what he told Stone when they first came after him, he didn’t know who she was hooked up with. By the time he found out, she was pregnant and Jeff thought the baby was his.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. He went to talk to her old man, alone, like a fool. His battered body was dumped at the front gates. He was still breathing that time, but barely. He was a hard-headed little bastard and even getting beaten within an inch of his life didn’t teach him a thing. The girl’s old man, a bad dude that went by the name of Honcho, was holding her captive basically at the clubhouse, according to Jeff. Stone told him to leave it alone, but one night Jeff and a few of the guys that he’d grown up with had a little too much whiskey or weed…hopefully a lot. The next morning a garbage bag was left at the gates. Jeff and the three men who went up there with him were in it…their heads, anyways.”

“Fuck. Why haven’t I ever heard this story?”

“Because Stone forbade anyone that knew about it from ever talking about it. The heads were buried here on the grounds and within a week, there wasn’t one of those Mayans left breathing. I was one of the guys with Stone the night he went for them. The men were slaughtered and the old man of the Mexican girl tortured and beheaded. It’s stuff I still have nightmares about, and you know not much bothers me.” Skid made a face like he had to swallow down bile or vomit before going on. “The women were put in a truck and sent away, I have no idea where. Stone told them if they ever came back, the same as what happened to their men would happen to them. We lost two men that night; in all there were twenty-one bodies.”

“Since this club still exists and none of you are in prison, I’m assuming you found a way to get rid of them?”

Skid looked almost green as he said, “You know that office building we own downtown?”

“The one that Brendan has his office in?”

“Yeah. The building was still vacant then and the parking lot had big potholes in it. Stone had already had the offices renovated and that night he made use of those holes in the lot.”

“The bodies?”

“Yeah. They were…dismembered and the pieces wrapped in plastic, and deeper holes were dug before the new sand, tar, and cement was poured.”

“Damn.” Zack thought he knew Stone, but he was learning that where people’s kids were concerned, there wasn’t much they wouldn’t do. “I’m speechless,” he said. “But what does it all have to do with the Johnsons?”

“Stone didn’t know anything about laying a parking lot. He didn’t have the equipment and he couldn’t hire just anyone to do it. Johnson was the one with the connections, and Stone went to him that night. He trusted him because they had been friends for a long time. Johnson got a crew out there to tear up the rest of the lot the next morning, and once the bodies were strategically placed where there were no gas lines or anything the area would need to be dug back up for anytime soon, it was covered up and even the crew working the site was none the wiser. Johnson never told anyone except his wife.”

“Jesus fuck.”

“You can guess who she told and what the leverage is that they have over us now, right?”

“So Spider told his club?”

“His president and V.P. anyways. I’m not sure how many of the rest of them know at this point, but if they’re smart, not many. Spider Johnson uses it to manipulate his position in the club. The more people that know, the less leverage he’d have. I was surprised it wasn’t what he was using against you when you started seeing his old lady…”

“Ex old lady.”

Skid sighed and said, “Whatever. When he took the baby and Stone talked to his prez, he said that Stone knew since this all happened before you got here, it wouldn’t do any good to use it against you. And they still need us to move those guns because they don’t have the manpower to do it on their own. But Spider Johnson is still a wild card. He has leverage over his father, his own club, and this one. The more you push him, the more likely he is to use it.”

“So what are you telling me, Skid?”

“I’m telling you that if you keep going up against Spider…you’re going to force his hand and bring down this entire club in the process.”