Chapter 16
Chapter sixteen
Cash
Tensions are high in the clubhouse when Linc, Jude, and I walk in. Not because of Liam being here, per se, but because of what it means.
We’re going after the Bone Breakers, and soon.
After Cece telling me what those fucking bastards did to her, I’m more ready now than I ever was before.
I had a feeling they’d hurt her. Especially after seeing that disgusting fuck on top of her when we walked into that motel a few months ago.
But having her confirm it? Knowing for a fact what they did to her, what her husband made her endure?
It makes me glad that son of a bitch is dead.
And it has me chomping at the bit to send Red and the rest of those bastards to hell with him.
We all file into church, and my brothers have a seat at the table.
For the first time in club history, we have more than just the brothers in the room with us.
This is going to be a team effort, so Ozzy said, for one time—and one time only—he’s allowing Liam and his team to join us.
They are all standing against the wall, and Ozzy bangs the gavel, calling everyone’s attention to him.
“I’m letting Liam and the rest of his guys in here because this is a family affair that includes them. The Bone Breakers need to be dealt with, and because Cece is Liam’s little sister of sorts, he’s going to help us.”
“Glad to be allowed in the inner sanctum. Although I would have appreciated a seat at the table,” Liam says.
“Only patched brothers get that. And as much as I appreciate your help, we aren’t there. Unless you and your guys want to prospect?” Ozzy asks with a smirk.
Liam tilts his lips, returning the smirk with one of his own. “Thank you for the offer, but MC life suits my brother more than it does me. Too many rules.”
“Meaning you don’t make them,” Jude says.
His brother chuckles. “Exactly.”
“Alright. Sawyer, what can you tell us from the satellite images?” Ozzy asks.
Sawyer is Liam’s resident hacker, which gives me an idea. Roman might be able to use his help on a couple things, whether he wants it or not.
Sawyer places several photos on the table and fans them out.
“Their setup is pretty simple. Here”—he points to a larger building in the desert—“is their clubhouse. I pulled up the original plans. It looks like it was built similar to a small hotel with only a few rooms, but we can see from the photos that they’ve added on without permits.
My sources tell me there are twelve members who live on site. Eight patched and four prospects.”
The mention of their prospects has my blood boiling. I know the “reward” they used to get before patching in. Fucking bastards.
Sawyer continues. “These buildings”—he points to two smaller shanty-looking structures—“are where they took up their meth operation after the cult was…dismantled.”
He means murdered and burned in the desert.
“It’s a small operation, but it keeps them in the filth they’ve become accustomed to,” he finishes.
“Are there any occupied houses out there? Encampments we need to concern ourselves with?” Ozzy asks.
“Nothing within a thirty-mile radius in each direction,” Liam answers.
“If they wanted to stay off law enforcement’s radar, they picked a pretty good spot to do it.
The men go into the little town closest to them to grab supplies and cause a little havoc while they’re there.
They aren’t loved by the locals, but it’s a poor town, and the residents don’t like causing trouble.
The closest police station is nearly an hour away, so if shit goes down, they know help won’t arrive for a long time. ”
“How the hell are we going to get out there without them seeing us coming from a mile away?” Barrett asks.
“It would be nice if we had some ATVs or side-by-sides that didn’t make a shit ton of noise. We could go in the middle of the night and take them by surprise,” Braxton says, looking at the photos.
“Done,” Liam says.
“Just like that?” our sergeant at arms asks.
Liam nods. “Just like that. A friend of mine specializes in low-profile ways to get in and out of certain situations without causing a fuss. I can have a few things here by tomorrow morning.”
“Nice friends,” Braxton mumbles.
“Okay. So, everything we have is here. How do we get it to Arizona? That’s going to be a long drive across the country.
There’re a lot of eyes on the highways from here to there.
Some eager local cops might pull us over and ask questions.
This is a bigger operation than what we do for the Monaghans, with a lot more unknown variables,” Wyatt, our road captain, chimes in.
“Lucky for us, we won’t be driving,” Liam says. “I have access to a cargo plane. It will fit all of our toys and weapons, plus the rest of us.”
“Another friend?” Braxton asks.
Liam shrugs with a shit-eating grin on his face. “It’s good to have people who owe you favors from time to time.”
“What about a pilot?” Jude asks.
“I’ve been known to fly a plane or two,” Liam says. “We also have Hendrix. He loves to fly the not-so-friendly skies.”
As far as I know, Hendrix was never military like Liam or a couple of other guys on his team.
Makes me wonder about his flying experience in those said skies.
Not that I would ever get an answer. Liam and his guys only tell us what we need to know when we need to know it.
I have a feeling he likes to think of himself as somewhat of a ghost, which, for all intents and purposes, he kind of is.
I find it as annoying as Ozzy does, but I sure do get a kick out of Ozzy’s reactions to him sometimes.
“Okay. When are we going to do this?” I ask, ready to fucking get out there and put some Bone Breakers to ground.
“Tomorrow too soon?” Liam asks.
I look around the table and each brother is shaking their head. We’ve been waiting for Liam to get back from wherever he was to help us out. All of us are more than ready to get out there.
“I have one ask,” I say, looking around the room. “I want Red for myself. For…reasons.”
I’m not going to divulge those reasons, not that my brothers need me to.
“Done,” Ozzy says. “But before you take him out, I need information. I want to know who’s been giving him intel about the club and our women. What they want with us or Shine. Think you can hold off long enough for me to get it?”
I tilt my head toward my president. “I’ll do my best.”
“That’s all I ask, brother. We’ll play this like we did with the Farinas.”
“Go in and shoot anyone we see who isn’t one of ours?” Knox asks.
Ozzy nods. “Exactly.”
“How are we going to get rid of the bodies? Unless we have a pig farmer in Arizona that I don’t know about,” Linc asks.
Liam lifts his hand. “Leave that to me. Or rather Abel. He loves to make things go boom. What’s another meth lab explosion in the desert?”
Abel dips his chin with a small smirk curling his lip.
“Anything else?” Ozzy asks.
No one voices any more concerns or questions, so he hits the gavel on the table, dismissing church.
We all file out to the main room of the clubhouse, where Freya is doing some work at one of the tables.
Ozzy walks over to her and places a kiss on her mouth before whispering something in her ear that makes her blush.
Instantly, I want Cece here with me. For the two of us to show the world that she’s mine.
I want everyone to know how fucking lucky I am to have such an amazing woman in my bed and by my side.
Liam walks up to me and stares at my face. “Heard you got clocked pretty good yesterday.”
“Where did you hear that?” I ask.
“Lucy may have called me asking if I would be opposed to disappearing a body before Jude ripped the phone from her and told her in no uncertain terms that she is not allowed to try to take a hit out on one of his brothers.”
“Jesus Christ. She was more pissed yesterday than I thought then.”
“Just so you know, I wouldn’t have done it,” Liam says.
“Uh…thanks?”
He nods as though it makes perfect sense for me to thank him for not killing me. “Little Bit has been through too much. Lucy can be a little overprotective and tends to fly off the handle. Cece is different though. She has a calm rage that simmers because she rarely lets the steam off.”
“I’ve been helping her with that,” I say, my mind going back to the night in the alley when she beat the shit out of that asshole who hurt her friend.
“I’ve seen you with her. Seen how you two orbit around each other. I knew it was only a matter of time before one of you took your head out of your ass and saw what’s been in front of your face.”
“I couldn’t rush her. Hell, I didn’t even want to admit it to myself for far too long. But now that I have, I’m not letting anyone stand in my way.”
“That so?” he asks, his brow in a high arch.
“It is.”
A smile sweeps across Liam’s face as he clamps my shoulder. I look at his hand and lift a brow of my own. This touchy motherfucker. He sees my expression but is completely unfazed, as I’ve come to realize he is with most things.
“That’s good to hear. You’d be a right dumb arsehole if you gave up on something as special as what you two have. Then I really would have to bury you.” Liam laughs, but I don’t.
It’s not that I mind the overprotective brother schtick from him, not as much as I do from Jude, at least, but I’m not a fan of anyone threatening my life. Especially when I know they have the means to follow through on that threat, and I’m not entirely sure they’re joking.
“You didn’t tell him what Lucifer said, did you?” Jude asks, walking up to us.
“That she wanted him murdered in his sleep? Nope, didn’t mention it,” Liam says with a sly grin.
“Really, Jude? Lucy is trying to call in favors to have me killed?” I ask, tilting my head to the side as I give him a look that screams, This is out of the realm of okay.
My brother shakes his head. “She didn’t mean it.
She was just really fucking pissed. It takes her a while to process things sometimes.
And if she wanted you dead, she would’ve done it herself.
We both know that. I think it was more of a tattling thing, if I’m being honest. Or she wanted someone to be as outraged as she was since I had a feeling something was going on, and you two were keeping it quiet.
I wasn’t pissed when I found out for sure, which really got under her skin. ”
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“Man, I’ve known you for what? Ten years at least? You always liked to have a good time, and your bed was rarely empty. This last year or so, I haven’t seen a woman do the walk of shame creeping out of your room when I show up in the morning.”
“There was never any shame involved when a woman left my bed, asshole.”
He’s right, though. The partying, the revolving door of women—it got old. It wasn’t what I wanted, but I didn’t think I could have what I really craved, so I stopped pretending. Figured if it didn’t happen with Cece, then I’d eventually meet someone. Or not. I didn’t really think that far ahead.
“I’m just glad Little Bit has come around. It was breaking Lucy’s heart watching her suffer and shutting everyone else out. Hearing that she went through more than what we thought had my woman up all night raging like nothing I’ve seen before.”
“So it runs in the family. Good to know,” I say, not wanting to get too deep in this conversation. If I think about what Cece told me yesterday, I’m liable to hop on the first flight out to Arizona and take care of those fucks by my damn self.
“Yeah, she thought with Otto gone, Cece could move on without fear he’d come after her. Lucy had no idea about the Bone Breakers,” Jude says.
“They’ll be dead soon enough, brother, you can count on that,” Liam promises, looking Jude square in the eye.
“I’m going to go talk to Sawyer for a minute, then grab Cece and take her for a ride.”
“Should I be expecting Little Bit home tonight?” Jude asks.
“If she is, it’s going to be so she can grab her stuff and move it into my place.”
Jude’s eyebrows jump to his hairline. “She know that?”
“Not yet. But when we get back, expect her to have a new address.”
“Alright then,” Jude says with a wide smile.
I turn away from Jude and his brother and find Sawyer sitting at the bar with his eyes glued to his computer screen.
“Hey, can I talk to you?” I ask, walking up and having a seat next to him.
“Sure. What’s up?” He turns his full attention to me.
“How good are you with hacking into shit?”
“I’m the best,” he replies.
“You don’t even know what I need you to break into.”
He shrugs. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll still be the best. What are you thinking?”
This fucking guy.
“I was wondering, if I gave you a name, could you put together a paper trail going from his bank account to some dark web shit? Shit that would be flagged by the FBI and have him investigated. If you could make it look real enough that they’d be knocking down his door and the charges would stick?”
Sawyer scoffs. “Fucking child’s play. I’ll even get a hold of my contact at the bureau and put them on the trail. How dark are we talking?”
“I’ll leave that up to you, but dark enough that it’s a long fucking while before he breathes free air.”
Sawyer nods. “Give me a name and consider it done.”
“Danny Crispin. He’s a guard out at the state prison. He’s a fucking asshole who likes to hurt women.”
Sawyer types some shit on his keyboard and pulls up a photo that looks like it’s from a law enforcement database. “This the prick?”
I nod. “Yeah, that’s him.” Though I’d imagine he looks a little different after the beating my woman and I gave him not too long ago.
“I’ll work on it.”
“And if I gave you another name in the future?” I ask.
If he can do it with this Danny asshole, maybe Roman will have a few more names for me at some point.
“Just let me know. I can do this shit in my sleep.”
“Thanks, Sawyer.”
He nods and turns back to his computer, typing away. I take that as my cue to leave him alone and let him work.
I head over to where Ozzy and Freya are sitting. “I’m going to head out unless you need me for anything else today.”
“Nah. I think I’m going to make my woman close her laptop and go on a ride with me anyhow.”
Freya straightens her spine and quirks her brow at my prez. “Make me?”
“Beg you?” he asks with a smile.
“Much better.” She leans over and places a quick kiss on his mouth.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I say and wave as I head out the door into the warm summer afternoon.
The only thing I want at this moment is to have my woman on my bike, then take her back to our house and enjoy her body until we leave in the morning. And that’s exactly what I plan to do.