Wizard (Hounds of Hellfire MC #4)

Prologue

PROLOGUE

WIZARD

I ended the call with my club brother and scanned the notes I’d taken during our conversation. Echo was on active surveillance for a ring of con men that the Hounds of Hellfire, my motorcycle club, was trying to take down. Apparently, the female neighbor had perfect access—at least, that was the story he was spinning—and he wanted me to do a background check. Possibly a deep dive if anything looked questionable.

Since I had several programs that basically ran on their own, they were searching for specific information about the thieves, which left me free to work on Echo’s request. Even though most of the background check was done by the computer, I always went through everything. When all was said and done, I would never believe that a robot was better than the human eye. Even if I designed it.

Violet Kimball. Twenty years old. Single. Audiobook narrator.

An audiobook narrator? That job could be a cover for many things, but that didn’t mean I would find anything else.

I pulled up her list of credits and noticed she’d done the majority of her work for a romance author, Thea Drummond. It was a beautiful name, and I wondered if it was real or a pen name. Curiosity got the best of me, so I started digging into Thea.

Despite the fact that I was supposed to be looking into Violet, I let the program run on her and focused on Thea. I was shocked when I looked at her address and realized she only lived about twenty minutes away in the next town over. I could have run into her and never even known it. But then, as a tech genius, I spent most of my time behind a screen…so maybe not.

She was twenty-two. Single. Never married. Went to a college a few hours from Riverstone, Georgia—the town where my MC was located—but dropped out between her junior and senior year when her independently published books began to make her enough money to write full-time.

Parents moved to Arizona when she was eighteen. She had an older sister, Cady. They didn’t appear to have a strong relationship since Thea’s phone records indicated they only spoke once or twice a year. And her travel had never taken her to Michigan, where Cady lived.

I continued to build a picture of her life story through all the facts I was compiling until I got a text, pulling me out of the little bubble I’d built around myself. After answering the message, I remembered Echo’s request and figured I should look into Violet before I got lost in Thea again.

While compiling her dossier, I pulled up one of her audiobooks and hit play.

Before long, I was sucked into the story. Until she reached a steamy scene, and the thought of listening to the Echo’s girl pretending to have sex made me flinch.

But I was too hooked on the story to stop reading, so I purchased the e-book on my computer and quickly found my spot.

Holy fuck.

After the first couple of paragraphs, I went back to the information I’d been gathering and found a picture of her. My lungs froze, and my body stirred when her face appeared on my screen.

Light blond hair hung in silky waves around her shoulders. Her forest-green eyes were fringed by dark lashes. She had an oval-shaped face with high cheekbones, a button nose, and full lips. Fucking gorgeous.

Her last report from her doctor said she was an average weight for her size. I couldn’t help noticing that some of that came from her generous tits. I glanced at her height and chuckled. She was only five foot two. At six foot four, I would tower over her, but I liked that it would make her so petite next to me. She would fit perfectly into the grooves of my body, and I could just carry her around. Or if she was being stubborn, I’d simply pick her up and put her where I wanted her to be.

With her picture in my head, I went back to reading. When the scene was done, I was sweating, and my pants were so tight it was almost painful. The couple on the pages had become Thea and me, making me ache to run my hands all over her body, kiss those pink lips, and feel her pussy squeezing my cock.

I set the e-reader down and thought about anything that would cool my libido, then I tried to get back to work. However, my mind kept wandering back to the story, and not the sex—well…not only the sexy part. I was curious about the suspense, wondering how she would resolve the conflict with the villain and between the main couple. After a half hour of staring at my computer and getting nothing done, I told myself that in order to do thorough research on Thea, it was important for me to read her book.

I’d always been an extremely fast reader, so I finished in a few hours. Then I downloaded the next one in the series.

More research.

Several hours later, a knock on my office door startled me out of Thea’s fictional world once again. My work involved a lot of intense focus and, often, very sensitive information. If I wasn’t in my office when working, then I was in the SCIF—or Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility—also called a skiff room. So everyone knocked before entering, even my superiors.

That gave me time to hide away my e-reader before I called out for them to enter.

It was King and Blaze, the president and VP of my MC. They’d just been in a meeting with Echo and wanted to fill me in. After they left, I was tempted to go back to Thea’s books, but I had shit to do. Reluctantly, I went back to my deep dive on Violet and put together a dossier, then sent it to Echo in a secure email.

Two days later, I’d devoured two more of Thea’s books and was downloading the next one when I got a text from Echo. Jeff, the guy we were surveilling, was on the phone with some associates, and he wanted me to monitor the trap and trace we’d set up. Unfortunately, it was useless although we learned about a meeting set for the next day.

I texted with the prez during the call, and we set up a plan.

When Jeff hung up, Echo’s number immediately flashed on my cell phone screen.

“You get it?” he asked when I answered on the first ring.

“Too many relays,” I replied with a frustrated grunt. “These fuckers aren’t messing around. Whoever is in charge has deep pockets.”

“Dammit,” he muttered. “We’ll have to put a tail on both of them after their meeting.”

“Already on it,” I assured him as I worked through the little information we’d gained from Jeff and his associate. It wasn’t much, but I had produced results with less. “Sent a text to Prez, and he’s sending Ink and Shadow to go with you.”

Both men were club enforcers and knew how to stay out of sight. Shadow had picked up his skills as a former thief, and Ink had ties to the southern mafia, who’d given him many skills that came in very handy.

“Kevlar and Cross are comin’ to guard your woman,” I added. Kevlar was our sergeant at arms, and Cross was our captain. They were both big guys who were exceptionally talented with weapons and had backgrounds in mixed martial arts.

“Great,” he replied. “Tell Ink and Shadow to meet me at the library at eleven thirty.”

“Got it.”

During the time leading up to the meeting, I continued pursuing information about anyone and anything that might have been connected to Jeff and the people he worked with and for. When I dug up some new financial documents, I sent them to our treasurer, Ace, to do some forensic accounting magic.

The man was brilliant with money and kept the MC accounts more than flush. However, he’d been given his road name because of his gambling. He was a fucking ace and rarely lost. He’d cleaned out several patches while he’d been a prospect. It wasn’t an addiction, though—he knew when to stop, and he wasn’t reckless. Which only contributed to his lethal talent with the cards. He was very, very good.

Something was off about the businesses, but we hadn’t yet figured out exactly what it was. Then some clues began to take shape as we realized that several of the shell companies were more likely to be owned by a woman. Since we’d recently discovered that women were not the only targets of this group, it made sense that the boss, Gene, would have a female among the higher-ups.

But when Jeff’s meeting was over, we had brothers on his tail and on the associates he’d met with.

To our shock, it turned out that the person in charge spelled their name J-E-A-N, rather than G-E-N-E. The boss was a motherfucking woman.

This new insight into the ring gave me a fuck of a lot more to work with and a new player to assess. I told the boys to give me twenty-four hours—give or take a few hours—to put together everything I could find with all the information I’d already gathered.

Jean turned out to be a highly intelligent woman. And a rich, spoiled, high society bitch who was as cold as ice and meticulously careful. She had daddy and mommy issues and a clear dissatisfaction with the silver spoon she’d been born with in her mouth. So she took advantage of people—not because she needed their money but because she could.

When I had what I needed, I conferred with Ace, then we called a meeting.

King, Blaze, Ace, Ink, Shadow, Kevlar, Cross, and I were all in King’s office when Echo arrived. We were sitting at the conference table to the right of the door, and he grabbed one of the other chairs and sat down, ending any conversations happening around him.

“Wizard?” King prompted.

I pushed a folder in each of their directions, then leaned back in my chair and tapped the keyboard of my laptop, where I had all of the same information pulled up in front of me. “That’s pretty much everything we know about this group,” I said, beginning the briefing. “There’s also a chart for the hierarchy and an info sheet on each of the key players.”

I walked them through everything, with Ace jumping in from time to time while mulling it all over in my head. From the thoughtful expressions on everyone’s faces, I had a feeling we were all digesting the information and forming ideas about where to go from here.

When I finished, they asked several questions before we began to brainstorm. Suggestions were tossed out randomly while some of us analyzed the data more thoroughly and worked the problem from every angle we could see, attempting to come up with a plausible solution.

“Hold up,” Shadow murmured, staring at one of the sheets of paper in his hand. “Jean has been married six times?”

I nodded. “Younger men. No prenup.” Honestly, from everything I’d learned about her, I was a little surprised that they were all still alive. Jean definitely seemed like the Black Widow type.

“She was already filthy rich when she started this shit?” Kevlar blurted, tossing his folder on the table with a disgusted huff.

“Yup,” I replied, with a pop on the P.

“She does it for the thrill then,” Shadow surmised.

“Fair assumption,” King agreed, his gaze locked on Shadow. “You think it would work?”

“Would what work?” Ink asked, his eyes darting back and forth between the two of them.

“Maybe,” Echo grunted. “Only if there is a compelling reason for her to get back in the game.”

I stopped typing and frowned as I tried to puzzle out the cryptic conversation.

“The fuck are you three not talking about?” snapped Blaze, voicing my thoughts.

Shadow scratched his chin, then set down his folder and tapped his finger on it. “If we want to take down the entire organization, we have to get Jean. Not just the underlings because she’ll just hire new ones.”

“We need to catch her in a con,” Echo added as he sat back and propped an ankle on the opposite knee.

“Exactly,” Shadow agreed.

King folded his arms over his chest and leaned back against his chair. “How do we get her back in the game?”

“Bait,” Cross tossed out. “A fish so big and illusive that she can’t help herself.”

“Appeal to her ego and her love of the thrill,” Echo mused.

Ace rapped his knuckles on the table twice, then snatched my laptop out of my hands.

“What the hell?!” I bellowed in outrage.

Everyone stared at Ace, absolutely dumbfounded at his temerarious action. Touching my equipment was tantamount to treason in my mind. And the motherfucker had just stolen it. He was a dead man.

“Chill the fuck out, man,” Ace said distractedly as he quickly typed. “Not like I stole your kidney or something.”

I was so irate that I couldn’t even form a sentence. My face was probably turning purple as I seethed, glaring at Ace venomously. My hands curled into fists so tight my knuckles turned white and cracked.

“You gonna save his ass?” I heard Echo ask quietly. Probably to Blaze, who was sitting next to him.

“Nah,” Blaze responded lazily. “Fifty says Ace ends up in the hospital tonight.”

A pretty safe bet, I thought.

There were several murmured agreements, and King chuckled, making me glance at him with astonishment.

He watched the two of us with amusement, something we rarely saw from the prez unless he was with his old lady or son.

“You have a death wish, Ace?” Cross murmured, watching me warily from the treasurer’s other side.

He grunted and tapped hard on one key, then slid the laptop back over in front of me. Saving his life for the moment.

Taking a deep breath, I slid my eyes to my computer screen and scanned it. Irritation bloomed in my gut when I had to grudgingly admit, “This is good.” Then I gave him another death glare and snarled, “Not gonna save you from being stabbed in your sleep when you’re least expecting it, though.”

Ace rolled his eyes. “It will if you want my help with the financial shit.”

Fuck. Knowing I’d never decipher all that crap by myself, I ground my teeth into dust so I wouldn’t say anything else.

“You two done?” King grunted, his face back in its usual scowl.

Ace gestured to the computer and explained, “Wizard and I have the beginnings of several aliases set up for cases when we need to get someone gone fast.”

The Hounds of Hellfire were known for our ability to make people disappear…for a price. Not the hired killer kind of disappear, though. We gave people a new life. Under the right circumstances, we did it for free, but mostly, it was the MC’s main source of income. Seeing as how we had experts in all the fields necessary for that kind of shit—a wizard at the tech stuff (hence my road name), a forger, a money guy, etc., etc., etc.

We’d long ago learned that it was helpful to have some of the legwork already done for several identities in case it was an emergency that required an immediate extraction.

“One of them is for a high roller,” Ace explained further. “Someone who wants to disappear with their fortune and can afford to pay us to do it since it takes a fuck ton of work.”

I nodded. “Won’t take much work to get this up and running. The backend is as solid as they get. Breaking this identity would take years for the best of the best. Once it’s live, we filter word of the new man through the grapevine, and as long as we’re reading her right, she’ll bite.”

“Volunteers?” Ace asked with a smirk.

Echo sighed. “It’s my op, so I’ll do it.”

Blaze and King shared a look, then they both grinned and King suggested, “Bring Violet in here to tell her.”

Oh, that’ll be good . I highly doubted Violet was gonna let her man date another woman, even if it was pretend.

“Why?” Echo questioned with narrowed eyes.

“Protection,” Blaze drawled.

Echo scowled. “Why would Violet need protection?”

I hid my laugh in a cough, but the dirty look Echo shot my way told me I hadn’t done a good job.

“Not Violet, Echo,” King muttered as he stood and walked around his desk to take a seat behind it. “You.”

“What?” Echo shook his head, clearly confused.

Blaze swept his hand around the table and grunted. “Out.”

Disappointed at missing what was bound to be a fantastic spectacle, we all protested but shut up and left when King growled. “Now!”

Later, we were sprawled out in the lounge of the clubhouse, drinking and taking a break from all the shit we were currently mired in.

Courtney, Blaze’s old lady, was teasing Echo about how he’d basically forced his way into Violet’s life after overhearing her narrating a book.

“Stalker much?” she asked with a giggle, making Blaze shake his head with a sigh.

Echo shrugged. “A guy’s gotta do what he’s gotta do to get his woman’s attention.”

“Damn straight,” King agreed, cupping the back of his son’s head with a soft smile that had his woman, Stella, blushing.

I shrugged and commented, “I’m sure some light stalking wouldn’t scare Violet off after she narrated that book for Thea Drummond with the hero who took his masked stalker rep very seriously.”

The room went silent as we all turned to gawk at me.

Oh shit .

Violet’s eyes were wide as she asked, “You’re familiar with The Monster Behind the Mask ?”

Thinking fast, I said carelessly, “Stumbled across it when I was looking into you.”

The comment turned Violet’s attention back to Echo, and I should have simply left it at that…but when King got defensive about his ability to sweet-talk Stella, I couldn’t help murmuring, “Chill, Prez.” Then I shot a wicked smile at Echo. “At least you don’t need to worry about your woman recording sex scenes with another guy.”

Watching the ensuing argument was hilarious as fuck.

Eventually, Ace elbowed me in the side. “Another one bites the dust,” he joked.

So it seemed.

My thoughts turned to Thea, and I felt a trickle of relief that I wouldn’t have to worry about her working with another man—in any capacity. And I’d be the one she used to research any steamy scenes in her books.

I shook my head. “When I claim my woman, I’m not gonna be pussy-whipped enough for her to act out hot-as-fuck sex scenes with another guy,” I stated.

“Quit starting shit,” King rumbled. “I read somewhere that babies are sensitive to their environment. Don’t need Cadell to get all worked up.” His face softened when he glanced at his newborn son.

But even though I hadn’t been trying to make a dig, just a statement of fact, I raised my hands in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry, Prez.”

Cadell suddenly let out a little wail. Everyone turned their attention to the baby, leaving me free to down the rest of my beer and grab another one from behind the long bar.

I thought about Echo’s comment to Violet about falling for her when he saw her picture.

It seemed Ace was right. Another one had bitten the dust. But it wasn’t Echo.