Chapter 24 Chaos
Chaos
“Fashionably late?” Soul grins when I walk into church ten minutes late.
I got distracted by Willa showering and lost track of time. This girl is my obsession, and I can’t stay away from her.
“Yeah, I was really worried about my T-shirt matching this.” I flip him off, and he chuckles.
Like he’s one to talk when he’s usually the last one here.
Steel waits for me to shut the door before continuing what he was saying. “Zane’s trying to force us to make a move since the Feds aren’t any closer to pinning the Iron Sinners incident on us. He thinks if he pisses us off bad enough, we’ll slip up and do something reckless with the Feds watching.”
“He’s probably the one who has them still watching,” I point out, dropping into my seat. “They were outside the compound when the shooting started. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the one who told them something was going down that night.”
“You’re probably right. But we can’t retaliate without it causing more problems.”
“Not with force, anyway.” Legacy taps his thumb on the arm of his chair.
“You’re saying to hit him financially?”
“That’s how you hurt rich assholes.”
Steel leans forward. “We could barely put a dent in his accounts last time we tried.”
“He keeps most of it offshore and spread out. Even if we could track down all of them, the accounts are unbreachable,” Ghost adds.
“It was an idea.” Legacy shrugs.
“What if we don’t go after his bank accounts?” I suggest. “We go after his income stream instead. Disrupt it at the source.”
“We already shut down his strip club.”
“That was nothing to him in the legal sense. It stopped the trafficking ring, but that’s not where most of his money comes from.”
“You want to hit his casinos?” Steel asks.
I nod. “With the Feds watching, none of us can touch money we didn’t earn legally. It’s too risky, and that goes both ways. I bet Zane is feeling the pressure as much as we are and relying heavily on his casinos right now. We need to put pressure on the money keeping him afloat.”
“How?”
“The same way he’s fucking with us. Surprise inspections. Shutting down our businesses for stupid shit.”
“We don’t have the city backing us like he does.”
“So we find a different way to do it,” Havoc says. “Dealing with the Iron Sinners isn’t enough. We need to take care of Zane, or this shit never ends.”
“It never ends either way,” I say, knowing that eventually a new club will try to pop up now that the Iron Sinners are gone. “But taking him down might at least give us a little bit of a break.”
Steel leans back in his chair, considering the proposal. There’s never peace. But at least we won’t be dealing with this asshole.
“All right,” Steel agrees, scanning the room. “Come up with a plan to take down Zane. Something that won’t make the Feds more suspicious. We’ll deal with the next shit when the next shit comes. For now, I want him out of my fucking city.”
“Will do.”
“Got it.”
We all nod in agreement.
But Steel still hasn’t taken his eyes off me. “You had something else you wanted to talk about?”
Soul is the first to look over at me, his eyebrows pinched. He and I are always telling each other shit before everyone else. But I’ve been too busy with Willa the past couple of days, so I haven’t seen much of him.
Clearing my throat, I rest my elbows on the table. “I need to take off for a while. Head to Texas and deal with my family shit. I know it’s not ideal timing with the Feds circling, but it can’t wait any longer.”
“Did something happen?” Steel asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
“You know the final court date was set. The clock is ticking, and I’m no closer to a solution than I was six months ago, even with the list Willa gave me.”
“Ghost is working on that.”
“I know, and I appreciate it,” I say to Ghost, dragging my hair back. “But it’s not just business. There’s crap that needs to be dealt with in person.”
“Kincaid?”
“And Willa’s father.”
Steel nods, his eyes narrowing. “You sure this wasn’t their plan all along. Send her here just so they could lure you back?”
I shake my head. “It’s not her idea. It’s mine. Willa wants me nowhere near them. If it were up to her, we’d stay in Vegas.”
“She afraid of what they’ll do to you?”
“Afraid what I’ll do to them,” I correct.
Soul smirks, knowing me too well.
“How long are you planning to be gone?” Steel asks.
“Don’t know yet. At least a couple of weeks. Kansas has Sapphire Rise under control, and the prospects can take shifts checking in. Don’t worry, I’m not leaving you with the strippers.”
Steel laughs, shaking his head. He’s the club’s president, and still, he’s never really had a thing for strip clubs. He’s too uptight all the time. And now that he has Tempe, he only has eyes for her.
“I’m not worried about the strip club.” Steel leans forward.
“I know it’s bad timing, but there are things back home I need to sort out. Long overdue, if I’m being honest.”
I’ve avoided Texas since the day I left, but deep down, I always knew it would come to this eventually. I walked away, but I hadn’t fully left. The only way to be free is to cut these last strings tying me to the past.
Besides, I owe this to my grandfather. His land was home. He was a good man with strong morals. Keeping Tate off my case as much as he could. By my side at my mother’s grave. He was the pillar of our family, and he deserves someone to fight for his legacy before my brother and Tate destroy it.
“Chaos, you know we’ve got your back,” Steel says. “You’ve been through hell for this club. Given up everything for your brothers. If you need time, you’ve got it. No questions asked. I don’t care if the Feds are raiding the damn property. We can handle it.”
“Appreciate that.”
Steel nods. “Not many of us had lives outside the club, even before we patched in. But I know you did. That family is just as important as this one, no matter how strained it is. Settle what you need to, and we’re here for you if you need us.
If shit goes bad in Texas, you call me, and we’ll be there.
Club business or not, we support each other. ”
“I wouldn’t ask that of you.”
“You’re not asking, I’m telling you. I know you prefer self-sacrifice and being the hero for the club, but you’re our brother. If you need us, we’ll be there. However that looks.”
My brothers nod in agreement, and even Soul’s expression has turned solemn.
“You’ve done more than most for your patch. I won’t forget that.” Steel nods his head once.
The respect of my president.
Of my brothers.
The men at this table don’t share my blood, but that’s never mattered. The Twisted Kings is a family built through loyalty and respect. When I left Texas and found them, they didn’t care that they’d all grown up together, and I was an outsider. They made me a part of them.
They brought me into their family.
Which is why I’ve repaid them in every way I could think of. Through loyalty and bloodshed.
Through a year behind bars and a willingness to die for them.
Maybe Willa is right, and I give too much to my club, but I’d never stop when they’d do the same for me.
“Thank you.” I nod, swallowing down my emotions.
I don’t get emotional. Shit doesn’t affect me. But my brothers’ support has me looking anywhere but at them.
“You and Willa worked shit out?” Havoc asks from across the table.
I nod, clearing my throat. “We talked. Covered a lot of things we should have probably talked about a lot sooner.”
“That’s how it goes.” Havoc understands more than anyone in this room.
He spent fourteen years without Aimee, but they found their way back to each other.
It’s wild how many lifetimes we live in one, because this feels like a different one entirely from when I knew Willa as a teenager. And yet, with our lives colliding again, I’m not split in two between the man I am and the man I was. She pulls them both together.
“How serious are you with that girl?” Steel asks, smirking. “Do we need to be having another conversation?”
“You know I’m no good at asking permission. I’d rather ask forgiveness.”
“Don’t I know it.” Steel laughs.
Just because I’m loyal to my club doesn’t mean I don’t bend the rules on occasion. Most of the time, I check with my president before doing anything drastic, but some things I prefer to wait and see how they play out so I can make my own decision.
Which is why I don’t ask the guys to vote on Willa being my old lady. Not because I don’t intend for that to happen, but the decision will be mine and hers. I just hope she wants it.
This life isn’t for everyone. It’s dangerous and complicated. It will pull me away from her on occasion, and even if I’ll always come back to her, I don’t know if that’s what she’s looking for in life.
I plan on figuring that out.
Willa and I have done everything wrong. Everything backward. When we commit to each other, it’s going to be a conversation between the two of us first.
Steel smirks, watching me like he can read what I’m thinking.
All my brothers are looking at me like that, nodding, offering the silent approval I’m not asking for right now.
It means something to see they’ve accepted Willa even after the way she came here.
Even knowing our past is complicated, even more so with her relationship with my brother.
They don’t judge.
They don’t care.
We’ve all done shit. Made mistakes. Fucked up plenty. Loyalty isn’t about being perfect; it’s about sticking together through the worst of it.
“When are you leaving?” Steel asks.
“In the morning.”
He nods. “Remember what I said. Call us if you need anything.”
“Will do.”
The guys stand, filtering out one by one, until it’s just me and Soul hanging back.
Neither of us has left our seats, knowing this conversation was happening without needing to say it.
His eyes are on the clubhouse through the window.
It’s still a bit of a mess from the shoot-out, but it’s coming back together.