23. Ruthlessness
Chapter 23
Ruthlessness
Steel
“Okay,” I said and paused. Nothing was okay about Jordan’s demand that I get rid of Simone. I swung my arm out toward the empty room for church. “We’re both raising our voices right now. Let’s go in here so we can sit down and get some things straight.”
Jordan’s lips curled as he took in the room and the huge table with our patch etched into the center. I couldn’t believe Deb had raised him to be so judgmental. After a beat, he trudged toward the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
I shut the door, and sat across from him. “You and I can get along without Simone being an issue, Jordan.”
He gave a short head shake. “The fact I used to sleep with her doesn’t bother you?”
I took in a deep breath while I ground my teeth together.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Jordan said.
I exhaled slowly. “I didn’t say anything, Jordan. As long as you don’t dwell on it, I don’t see there being an issue.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I suppose that’s what you’ll say about all the years you weren’t around, too. If I don’t dwell on it and rub it in your face, it’s not an issue.”
I dragged my hand along my jaw. “Believe it or not, I was there, Jordan. Every little league game, high school games. Hell, I was there when you took Robin to prom.”
His jaw dropped open a touch. “No, you weren’t.”
“How do you think you were able to do all of those things? That shit costs money.”
“Child support is what you’re supposed to do, Steel.”
I lowered my chin. “Yeah, and every sport and extracurricular activity cost money that went above and beyond what I was ordered to give your mom. I did more than I was supposed to because you’re my son, and I fuckin’ love you, Jordan.”
He stared at me for a long moment. “I think Mom needs help.”
I shook my head. “What do you mean? She was here two weeks ago and confronted me. What kind of help are you talking about?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. She’s just so angry and bitter all the time.”
There were many things I wanted to say to that, but I wouldn’t disparage Deb in front of him.
“I’m not the person to help her there. She blames me for many things that I didn’t do or couldn’t control.”
Jordan looked around the room, his expression saying he couldn’t argue with that. He locked eyes with me. “Maybe you can point me in the right direction to help her.”
I mulled it over. “You’ll be better off to encourage her to see someone for help if you’re concerned. And make it clear this is coming from you. She loves you very much. You bring me into this and… she’s more likely to dig in her heels.”
He nodded and stood. “Right. I’ll, uh, let you get back.”
I walked him out to the common room when Rafferty stormed in through the front door.
Everyone turned to him.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
His eyes darted to Jordan and then to me. “A prospect is out cold, by the gate. Wasn’t sure if you knew about it.”
Tie darted out of the room and upstairs to check security cameras. Greco went to the rack of bats by the door, grabbed one, and shoved outside.
Torque sauntered toward me. “Why should we believe you didn’t have something to do with it?”
Rafferty aimed a dead-eyed stare at Torque. “Because forty-five minutes ago I was getting a speeding ticket from one of Augusta’s finest.”
“Speed trap on US 25?” Jordan asked.
Rafferty lifted his chin, then looked at me. “Is Simone here?”
I opened my mouth to says she was, but a bad feeling hit me. I knew when my instinct was trying to tell me something. “Let me check.”
I turned on my heel and hurried to my room. The bathroom door was open, and I saw Simone’s toiletry bag next to her suitcase by the wall. As quiet as the room was, I knew she wasn’t there. The deadbolt on the side-door exit was unlocked. I shoved the door open and stopped four feet from the clubhouse. Everything was too quiet. The hot tub had a cover on top of it.
My gaze traveled down the slope of the back lawn. By the fire pit, something seemed wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I ran down there. The mixture of dirt and trampled grass seemed more torn up than usual. I straightened and stared at the bikes and vehicles parked in the back. I recognized everyone’s – even Rafferty’s. My truck was still where I’d left it, so she hadn’t driven off on her own.
My gut said someone had to have taken her. Anger surged through me, but I had to keep a lock on it. Hot-headed reactions weren’t going to help me now. I hung my head as visions of her ran through my mind.
I focused on my boots, and noticed a small glass bottle. Only, when I stepped closer, I saw it wasn’t a bottle, but a vial. The label indicated it was Ketamine. We dealt drugs, but we stayed away from things like Ketamine because it was so heavily regulated and getting access to it normally required breaking into a pharmacy or veterinarian’s office. That didn’t mean other members didn’t use it every so often.
Yet, this vial still had a fair amount in it. Someone who took the risk of scoring Special K wouldn’t lose it or drop it randomly.
But someone struggling with a woman like Simone probably wouldn’t realize they’d dropped it.
I turned toward the clubhouse to yell for Torque just as Rafferty ran to me.
“You find any sign of her? Did she drive her SUV up today?”
I clenched my jaw and shook my head. “No, took my truck, which is still here. Go get Torque and Greco. I found this vial of Ketamine. Whoever took her, probably used this to knock her out.”
Rafferty’s eyes went wide. “What? She’s pregnant… what the hell is that gonna do to her and the baby?”
“Fuck if I know. Go get Torque and Greco, tell Tie to review the security feeds, then you can check WebMD to find out.”
If anything happened to Simone… I couldn’t even stomach the thought. I’d find Knuckles, then kill all of his men in front of him. Then I’d burn him alive and feel no remorse.
I sure hoped my kid liked orange because they would have to visit me in jail.
Torque and Greco ran down the backyard with Jordan on their heels.
I started up the slope and met them half-way. “Jordan, you need to leave.”
“No way. Where’s Simone? You look like you’re going to be sick or something.”
My eyes cut to Torque and he nodded. “Jordan, you gotta leave. It’s for your own good.”
“If something happened to Simone, I want to help.”
I tilted my head. “You want to go to jail?”
Confusion stole over him and he looked at me like I was crazy. “No. Why would—”
“Then leave .”
The confusion cleared and I couldn’t tell if his eyes held respect for me or a newfound understanding of my ruthlessness.
“I can keep my mouth shut,” Jordan said.
Greco clapped a hand on Jordan’s shoulder. “Damn right you can, but the three of us need to talk. How about you head out and see about your Mom. We’ll call you as soon as we know something.”
Jordan’s lips set in an angry line. I expected him to argue more, but with a short head-shake, he turned and left.
“Corrupt Chrome has her,” I said.
“We don’t know that, brother,” Torque said.
“Who else would take her?” Greco asked.
Torque looked from me to Greco. “She’s the daughter of a Riot MC president. Could be one of their enemies, could be someone else looking to fuck with Steel.”
Greco turned an outraged expression to me. “You hooked up with a bitch from the Riot?”
Before I realized what I was doing, I planted a fist in Greco’s gut. “Don’t ever fuckin’ call her a bitch, motherfucker.”
Torque pulled me away. “Calm your shit, Steel.”
Greco kneeled over, panting for breath.
Rafferty ran to us. “Tie thinks Josie brought someone in here. He can’t get a good angle on the name patch, but he’s wearing a Corrupt Chrome cut. They knocked out the prospect at the gate, but kept outside the range of the cameras. Tie thinks Josie knew that nobody keeps an eye on the cameras on Saturday mornings, so nobody saw them.”
Greco straightened. “Why are you trusting him? He isn’t even a prospect.”
I glared at Greco. “He saved our ass three weeks ago, and I need decent members in Jacksonville.”
“Is he a Riot kid, too?”
If someone had said something like that when I was nineteen, I’d have lost my shit. Rafferty had one helluva poker face though. He also kept quiet.
“He is, but he’s considering joining our Jax chapter if you don’t do something stupid right now and fuck that up.”
“Maybe we don’t need a member like him. We hate the Riot MC.”
I shook my head. “That’s news to me, Greco. What the hell did they ever do?”
“Rancid died because of them, and we don’t know where Snake went. If I had to guess the Riot killed him, and we never avenged his death.”
“That happened years ago now, and considering how Rancid died, I’d say it makes shit even.”
Greco opened his mouth to argue more – the man could argue about anything with anybody, but Rafferty spoke.
“Can we move on to finding Jade? If they gave her Ketamine, who the hell knows what else they’ll do to her.”
The back door to the clubhouse banged open and Tie joined our huddle. “Put in a call to Durham, he’s managing Player’s Palace today. Knuckles has been there since they opened the doors. Gives him a fuckin’ alibi, I’m sure.”
I nodded. “Is the cop that’s on their payroll there, too?”
“How’d you know?” Tie asked.
“Fuck,” I muttered, twisting my head to the side.
Rafferty pulled his phone from his pocket.
“Who are you calling?” I asked before he did anything else.
Rafferty looked up. “Her dad. They may have GPS tracking enabled on her cell. That’ll tell us where she is – or are you certain they’d take her to their clubhouse? I thought they didn’t have an Augusta chapter yet.”
Shit. I didn’t want him to call Volt, but there was no way around it. Rafferty was right. Corrupt Chrome didn’t have a clubhouse to our knowledge and they could have taken her anywhere.
I nodded. “Do it.”
Once Volt was on the line, Rafferty cut right to the heart of the matter. There was silence, then he said, “He’s right here. You want to talk to him?”
Whatever Volt said, Rafferty closed his eyes and appeared to fight a smile. “I’ll let him know.” Rafferty ended the call and tucked his phone back in his pocket. “He’s got to check the app, but he’s pretty sure they still have that enabled. As long as the phone isn’t dead or powered off, we should be able to locate the phone.”
I nodded, while praying that neither Josie nor the Corrupt Chrome members were smart enough to check for her cell.
Rafferty cocked his head to the side. “He also said, he’d do his best hold Jackie back from scratching your eyes out when they got here.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “They’re on their way?”
Rafferty shrugged. “I suspect they will be. Once he knows her location… and gets Jackie on his bike.”
“Shit,” I whispered.
Inside the clubhouse, Rafferty crossed his arms on his chest. “I get that the Devil Lancers don’t give a damn about the law, but why aren’t you reporting her missing?”
“They have a cop on their payroll, dumbass,” Torque said.
Rafferty dipped his chin dramatically. “And this could help expose him for the corrupt cop he is.”
“That’s wishful thinking,” Torque said.
Rafferty looked around the common room. “Where are all the other women?”
“Lookin’ to get your rocks off already? Thought you cared about Jade,” Greco said.
With a dry look, Rafferty said, “They might know where Josie is…or where she’s been hanging out to meet a Corrupt Chrome member.”
“Our strip club would be a start,” Greco said.
I shook my head. “Josie doesn’t dance. When would she have been at Player’s? I think he might be on to something, though. Call the girls who aren’t on shift. Hell, have Durham interrogate the girls who are on shift between their sets.”
Rafferty’s phone rang. “Hey, Volt.”
His posture slumped and he looked away from me. Dread washed through me, and I rubbed the back of my neck.
I locked eyes with Rafferty when he said, “Yeah, they haven’t reported her missing here because Corrupt Chrome has a cop on their payroll.”
There was another pause, then Rafferty said, “Got it. Ride safe.”
“He’s not coming here, is he?” Greco asked.
My head swiveled toward Greco. “If you had a daughter go missing, wouldn’t you ride out for her? Drop the fuckin’ attitude or I’m gonna break your fuckin’ jaw so you can’t say shit for a goddamn month.”
“Turning on your brothers isn’t cool, Steel,” Torque muttered.
“That bitch and any of those cocksuckers getting to her on our property isn’t fucking cool , Tor.” I looked at Rafferty. “What’d he say about the GPS?”
“She opened her own phone account over a year ago. Jackie’s trying to persuade an employee at the carrier to make an exception, but without a warrant or a police officer there to corroborate her story, they won’t help her.”
I sighed. “And of course the fact we haven’t reported her missing doesn’t help either.”
“Right.”
“Why’s he coming here, then?” Torque asked.
Rafferty appeared to be fighting for patience. “Because she’s his daughter, but also because they have another set of people trying to hack into her phone and get at her location that way.”
“That won’t work,” Greco muttered.
“It can’t hurt to try,” Rafferty countered.
My phone rang with Jordan’s ring tone. “Yeah, Jordan.”
“I have an idea.”
I fought groaning. It wasn’t that I didn’t think he would have a good idea, it was that he’d never broken the law before. “Okay, what is it?”
“Well, first, when you told me to leave, I went inside the clubhouse and overheard Tie talking about Josie sneaking through the gate.”
My head tilted backward. “Jordan—”
“What if I contact Josie?”
“And do what, son? She’s involved with some seriously bad men who have it out for me and the entire club. They won’t balk at harming you.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to bust in and save the day. I’m gonna make conversation with her. Figure out where she is.”
I let out a slow exhale. “That would work except you’re ten years younger than the men she likes and honestly, she’s got her sights set on a hard-core biker.”
He sighed. “Don’t forget about me, Dad. I want to help. I… can see she means something to you, even if it doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Thanks, Jordan. I appreciate that. Not sure what brought this on, but thanks.”
“Mom said some things. She was pissed that I went to talk to you at all before seeing her. I guess I’m finally opening my eyes.”
“I’ll let you know when we find her, Jordan.”
Tie put a laptop on the table where we were seated. “I’m sending brothers out to find Mug, Flip, and Sledge. Since they spent so much time coming into Player’s Palace the past few weeks, Croc took down their legal names from their IDs. We searched for property in those names. I’m gonna see about running a search on Knuckles.”
“Why would they buy property in their own names?” Torque asked.
Tie held his hands up. “It might not be them – you’re right. But it beats twiddling our thumbs.”
“Any word from the girls?” I asked.
Tie wobbled his head “Not really. Kendall thought Josie had a small house, but that turned out to be wrong.”
I looked at Greco. “Speaking of small houses, there’s a place in Aragon Park—”
Torque slammed his fist on the table. “You’re crazy, Steel. We can’t take Farah because she hooks up with Knuckles every once in a while.”
“I didn’t say I was gonna take her. It’s Saturday afternoon. That asshole thinks to visit her tonight, he’s in for a surprise.”
Greco stood. “On it.”
My phone rang again, but with a standard ring tone. The number on the display wasn’t one I knew. “Who’s this?” I answered.
“I hear you got a bitch pregnant,” Knuckles said.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
Knuckles spoke slowly. “She’s safe. She’s alive. And I’ll let her go after you pay up.”
“How much?” I asked.
“Well, that’s a good question. I want the drug territory in all twenty of your cities and one-point-seven million.”
I didn’t have that even if I sold my house. The club had that, but I hadn’t claimed her.
“And how am I supposed to give you that money? It’s not like we have that kind of cash on hand.”
“That isn’t my problem, motherfucker. You got until tomorrow, but I’d hurry if I were you. I’m not feeding her, and babies need their food.”
The phone beeped twice and I chucked it across the room. Croc was in its path, and he jumped in the air to catch it. He grinned at me. “Don’t bust your phone, Prez. How’s your woman gonna call you if it’s busted?”
While Croc brought back my phone, Torque asked, “What’d he ask for?”
“All our drug territory – every city, and almost two million dollars.”
“Almost?” Torque asked.
“One-point-seven million.”
“That’s a strange number.”
“I thought so too, but didn’t want to give him reason to raise the price. The asshole isn’t even giving her any food. Sounded fucking proud of that shit.”
“What happens if we don’t pay?” Torque asked.
“What kind of question is that?” Rafferty asked.
Torque’s eyes slid to Rafferty. “A good question. He doesn’t have that kind of cash on hand. The club has the money, but he can’t spend it just to get his girlfriend out of a jam.”
I stared Torque down. “She’s carrying my child. I fucking love her, Tor. She’s more than just my girlfriend.”
Torque withstood my stare. “She’s also Volt’s daughter. Let the Riot pick up the ransom. We’re gonna be hurting if we give up drugs to Corrupt Chrome.”
I shook my head. “That motherfucker is going to die.”
Torque’s eyes slid to Rafferty and back to me. “You don’t mean that.”
I looked Rafferty in the eyes. “Did you hear me say anything?”
His head moved in three slow shakes.
“I didn’t hear a damn thing.”