Chapter Forty
Chasm
My eyes looked around the table at my men. Men I wanted to trust but wasn’t sure I could.
“Someone had to have told them,” Ambush said. “There’s no way they would have known they were in that vehicle.”
“Unless they’ve been watching,” Scorpion pointed out.
“They’d have to have fucking x-ray vision to see through the garage walls to know who was in the SUV when it pulled out,” Dutch added.
“Unless they hacked the camera out there,” Psycho muttered.
“No one has fucking hacked the camera!”
“Omen, sit down,” B ordered.
I didn’t say a word. No offer of suggestion or accusation. I watched my men as they discussed what happened among themselves.
Morgan and the baby were fine. I made her go in the ambulance with Sully and get checked out. I called Dr. Adams on the way there, and he met us in the ER. After the ultrasound, he said everything looked good, but he wanted her in bed the rest of the day.
She was upstairs in my room.
In my bed.
Which was where she would fucking stay.
I sent Misty to Target to get her some clothes, and Morgan could order the rest online because she was never leaving the clubhouse again.
Same with Sully and Benny.
I wasn’t taking a chance with my sister or my mother-in-law. Benny had some cuts and scrapes, but otherwise she was fine. Sully had a mild concussion. I moved her to Morgan’s room, and Brian was standing guard over both of them.
Both he and Pardon were unscathed, though Brian’s bike was totaled. What no one had realized was that he took out a rider before they shot at him.
“But why was Satan’s Angels after them?” Monty asked. “I would have expected Stone or Ballistic.”
“They are all fucking working together,” Venom snapped.
He was right. The attack in Nebraska was orchestrated by the Satan’s Angels and the Death Dogs. We were missing something. The Silver Shadows never had beef with Satan’s Angels. That was Golden Skulls’ bullshit.
Then again, King had aligned himself with Reaper and Montana.
I’d called King from the hospital.
“Chasm,” King answered.
“There was an attack today.”
“My sister?”
“She’s fine. The baby’s fine,” I assured him. I heard his sigh and it didn’t surprise me; I knew he was close to her. I’d known Sully a lot less time than he’d known Morgan, and I loved that kid already.
“Smokey took Morgan, her mother, and Sully shopping. They didn’t get far before someone went after them. The car flipped over and by the time we got there, five men were trying to get to her.” I paused and smiled. “Did you know your sister can shoot?”
King chuckled. “Doesn’t surprise me. Sal would have made sure she and Benny could protect themselves.” King’s voice sobered, and he asked, “Was it Stone?”
“No, that’s the weird part. It was Satan’s Angels.”
“Satan’s Angels? Popeye is supposed to be taking them over, but Zephyr has them now.”
“We need to know who all the fucking players are. Why would Zephyr be after Morgan?”
“He wants the Federation. They all fucking want it,” King groaned. For the next few minutes, he told me everything they knew about Sylvia St. James and everyone that was working with her.
“Zephyr is working with Dakota Stone.” Everyone stopped talking and stared at me. “Zephyr is the bastard son of Cordell James and Lucy Mclaren. Dakota is the product of an affair George Stone had with Lucy Mclaren.”
“Zephyr and Dakota are brothers?” Zombie asked.
“And the grandsons of Kalden Baudelaire,” I confirmed. “Zephyr wants Satan’s Angels because his father started the club. What he doesn’t realize is, if Popeye steps up, he has a legal claim to the club.”
“How?” Smokey asked.
“Popeye is the brother of Cordell James. It’s in the bylaws.”
“That’s why they went after Grace,” Legacy surmised.
I nodded. “Dakota knew who Popeye was because of George Stone’s DNA database.” I glared at Omen. The fucker didn’t even have the good sense to look guilty. “Grace thought Steele was her father, because Popeye had asked Titan to watch over her and her mother back in the day.”
“Steele knew Popeye was Grace’s father and told Dakota,” Ambush hissed.
“Who else is involved?” Krypto asked.
So I told them.
I shared with them everything King shared with me. Knowing that one of them could have been the man who betrayed me and put my old lady at risk.
“Strangers on a Train,” Smokey muttered.
“What the fuck are you mumbling about, old man?” Legacy asked, glaring at Smokey.
“Strangers on a Train.” He looked around the table. “None of you have seen Hitchcock?” He shook his head. “Throw Momma from the Train?”
“I saw that,” Spider piped up. “Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal. They meet and make a pact to kill each other’s wives or something.”
“Billy’s wife, Danny’s mother,” Smokey corrected and when I growled, he smirked at me. “The point is, they made a pact to kill someone completely unconnected to them just like the Hitchcock film.”
“Why?” Dutch asked.
“No fucking motive,” I said, grabbing my phone. I dialed King’s number, and when he picked up, I put it on speaker.
“I know what we’re missing.”
“What?” he asked.
“Strangers on a fucking Train.”
“The Hitchcock film?”
“Yeah, remember Morgan made us watch it?”
“Yeah, but what does that have to... Fucking hell!” King shouted.
“We have no way of knowing who is going after which club?”
“That’s why Zephyr came after Morgan, because he doesn’t have a connection to her.”
Morgan was pregnant. We’d learned from Crispin Sinclair that Sylvia St. James was after the kids. We assumed she wanted the little ones, and maybe she did. But Morgan was pregnant. So was Grace.
They were both carrying a child from a biker. And Morgan was an O’Malley. She was also carrying a Peterson. My father had worked with the Society; he supplied them with women and children.
“I’ll let the others know.” King hung up, and I stared at the phone.
This war would be never-ending unless we took out the heads of the snake. Every fucking one of them.
“So now what?” B asked.
I looked up at my men and grinned. “Now we find that fucker and take him out. Along with every fucking Angel Satan thinks he has on his side.
When church was over, I went upstairs to check on Sully and Morgan. Brian leaned against the wall looking down the hallway. When he noticed me, he stood straight and took a step into the middle of the hallway.
“Easy, kid. You’ve been through hell today; you should be resting. I’ll have one of the other prospects come up.”
“I’m fine, Prez.”
I studied him as he looked down the hall, wondering what was bothering him. “Something I need to know?”
“No, Prez.”
“Brian,” I said, walking over and standing in front of him. “Tell me.”
He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. “There’s nothing to tell Prez, I just...” He shook his head, denying whatever was on his mind. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared him down, knowing he would break.
“It’s just... I don’t trust the other prospects, Prez. Not with this.”
I nodded. “I’ll have a brother relieve you.”
“I’m fine, Prez,” he insisted.
“My old lady will have my head if she knows you’re out here about to keel over.” I pulled out my phone and sent B a text to have a patched brother come up and watch over Sully’s door. Then I knocked on her door and waited for her to let me in.
“How are you feeling?” I asked as I sat on the edge of the bed.
“Scared,” she answered honestly.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“They yelled, ‘Give us the girl.’” She looked up at me, and her eyes filled with tears. “They were after me, weren’t they? That’s why Stephen came to get me? Why we’ve been running and hiding for months?”
I closed my eyes and reached for her hand. The truth hit me like a freight train. There was no way to deny that we had a mole. Someone in this clubhouse had told Zephyr that Sully was here. And told him that she and Morgan would be out today.
“I think they were after both of you.”
“Why?”
“Because of our father.”
“Who is he? Is he trying to find me? I did one of those ancestry things, but nothing came up.”
“How long have you known you were adopted?”
“I’ve always known.” She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. “I don’t even know why they adopted me; they never really wanted me.”
“Scoot over, kid.”
When Sully moved to the middle of the bed, I sat against the headboard and put my arm around her. I held her against me and wished Justin were still here.
“Justin should be telling you this; he’s better at the emotional shit.”
“Morgan told me why you aren’t together.”
I rubbed a hand over my face and sighed. “I fucked up, but I had my reasons. As for you, let me tell you about who your parents were. We never knew much about your mom. Her name was Margaret Nichols. She died giving birth to you.”
I looked down at her. “Sully, I want you to know, if Justin or I had known anything about you, we would have come for you a long time ago. We’d been searching for you when Pardon showed up on our doorstep with you in tow.”
“Really?” she asked, and the hesitation in her voice, the distrust I heard, broke my heart.
“Really. Family is the most important thing to me and Justin.”
“Are there others?” she asked.
“There is a sister we know about. She’s older than Justin. But I won’t let her anywhere near you. There’s something wrong with her. Something evil she got from our father.”
“He was evil?”
“I think he might have been Satan himself, kid. Samuel Peterson was the leader of a cult called The Disciples of the Word. He worked with an organization called the Society, providing them with women and children.”
“Providing them for what?”
This was where I needed Justin. He was a hell of a lot more diplomatic than I was. I was too fucking blunt, too fucking honest, which was ironic considering how lying was how I’d fucked things up so badly with Morgan.
“Human trafficking,” I said.
Sully sat up and pulled away from me. “Like selling people for sex?
I nodded, unable to voice that shit out loud to my little sister. Knowing what my father was capable of, what he’d done to so many, I wondered how she’d been spared.
“He sold children?” she whispered. “How can someone do that?” She turned her eyes toward me.
“Some people are just born evil.” I shrugged, wishing I had an answer better than that, but it was true. There was no gene to blame it on, despite doctors believing there was. It all came down to the nurture vs. nature debate.
“Does she have kids?” Sully asked.
“She does. A son and a daughter.”
“And are they…?”
“They are fucked up, but not in the same way. For the most part, they’re good people. I don’t know them well, but maybe someday I’ll let you meet them. But you have a cousin on your mom’s side that I could introduce you to when all this is over.”
“What is she like?”
“Ari is... sweet. Innocent, despite being raised in the cult. She’s married to a Golden Skull, a brother to my nephew Ink.”
“That’s your sister’s son?”
I nodded and smiled. “Technically your nephew, even though he’s more than a decade older than you. He’ll probably want to meet you when he learns about you.”
“And his sister?” Sully asked.
“Karlyn has had a rough life because of Janelle. She’s closed off, and not easy to get close to.”
“How did you and Justin end up normal?”