Chapter Forty-Five
Chasm
I walked into the basement to the sound of a fist hitting flesh. The stale, damp air made my stomach roll, and I thought about the cells King had constructed below the clubhouse in Nebraska.
We needed to do some updating, starting here. The dirt floor was soaked with decades of blood and other bodily fluids. Dirt that, with a court order, could possibly send us all to jail permanently.
We needed a place to work that could be cleaned. Where not a trace of evidence was left behind. Zero had taught Keno and Tito everything he knew. They were good at getting rid of evidence, but dirt couldn’t be cleaned.
Eagle and Falcon were taking turns beating the shit out of Nathan. And I watched in satisfaction for a moment before I ordered, “Enough. If you kill him, we get nothing out of him.”
Nathan laughed and then spat more blood into the dirt. “You ain’t getting shit from me.”
I smiled as I walked across the room and leaned down in his face. “I don’t need you to tell me anything.”
I stepped back and held out my hand for his prospect cut. Morgan had finally confessed to me that her cut had been shredded too. I already had Warden order a new one.
I reached into the pocket and pulled out Nathan’s phone. Venom stood behind him with one hand around his neck and the other on his forehead, holding his head up. Krypto stepped forward and pried open his eyes that had already begun to swell.
I held the phone up in front of his face and was granted access. You had to love technology, and stupid kids who didn’t know better. As I scrolled through the numbers I didn’t recognize, I shook my head, seeing one number called repeatedly.
I opened the text messages and tsked.
I grinned at Nathan.
“You know, we were talking about you in church the other day. Dutch said he wasn’t sure you’d make it as a brother. Said your head was up your ass and you acted like you were in a frat house. So when Jenna said it was you that destroyed my old lady’s shit, I didn’t believe her at first.”
All three of the birds growled at once, and I rolled my eyes.
“I thought, no way was this kid smart enough to do that shit and not get caught.
And looking at these messages really pisses me off, because how did we not figure this shit out when you are too goddamn fucking stupid to delete the messages you're sending to fucking Zephyr?” My voice rose with every word.
I looked around at my brothers. Each and every one of them had their eyes on the floor.
“I blame myself. I’m the president. It’s my job to know what is going on in my fucking house.”
I tossed the phone to Omen. “Find that number,” I told him.
I walked back over and stood in front of Nathan. Squatting down in front of him, I rested my arms on my thighs.
I sighed heavily, and Nathan watched me cautiously.
“I take this personally, kid. You see, my job has always been doing what you fucking did. I joined this club for the same reason you did. To watch and to listen, and to learn.”
I heard my brothers shuffling behind me. Morgan was right; it was time they learned the truth. As much as I could tell them, anyway.
“My job was to find out if my president was dirty.” I shook my head.
“I don’t mean in the criminal sense, ’cause we’re all fucking criminals,” I said, holding my arms out to include my brothers.
“But to determine if he was one of the fucking scumbags who were selling women and children to sick fucks like Devlin Scott and George Stone.”
I stood up and looked my brothers in the eye. “Thankfully, he wasn’t. But his kids were.”
I turned back around and faced Nathan. “You see, my former president was working with his aunt, doing shit that went against humanity, and I don’t play when it comes to that shit. I don’t forgive and forget like my father always preached.”
I cocked my head to the side and stared at Nathan.
“Did you know my father was a preacher? Well, preacher isn’t exactly the right word. Motherfucker is better. He liked to quote scripture to get people to do his bidding. He’d twist it around to make it sound the way he wanted it to. The way ignorant, weak-ass men understood it.
“They followed my father because they wanted to be him. They wanted to fuck any woman they desired and use the Bible as the means to make it okay.”
I grabbed Nathan’s chin and squeezed it tight, making him squirm.
“I never wanted to be anything like my father. But you did, didn’t you, Nathan? You thought a man like Zephyr gave a shit about you because you shared his DNA.”
“What the fuck are you saying, Prez?”
I looked over at Zombie, my VP. “It seems Nathan here is Zephyr’s spawn. He sent his kid into our clubhouse thinking we wouldn’t find out.”
“I’ve been here for months without you finding out shit, even with your fucking cameras,” Nathan hissed.
I nodded silently, thinking about my next words. Then I smiled.
“There are no fucking cameras.”
Nathan’s mouth dropped open. “But you said...”
“I fucking lied. Turns out I am a bit like my father.”
Before I could say anything more, the basement door flew open, and Brian stood in the doorway, panting.
“Prospect, what the fuck are you doing down here?” Ambush growled.
I placed a hand on Ambush’s chest before he tore into Brian. “What happened?” I asked, already making my way toward the door.
“Jenna... said... Nathan had someone... outside. Morgan... took gun... under bar... went outside.”
That was when I heard it. The gunshots.
“Fuck!” I pulled the gun from my back, turned, aimed, and fired a single shot into Nathan’s head. Then I took off for the stairs, my brothers with me.
I took the stairs two at a time and slowed only when I got to the end of the hall and the shooting had stopped. I held up a hand and, with my gun in front of me, I turned the corner into the main room.
The first thing I saw was Benny standing behind the bar with a gun in her hand. Smokey pushed past me and went to her. My eyes swept the room until I found Morgan, back against an overturned table and a gun on the floor beside her. I dropped to my knees beside her.
“What the fuck happened?”
I pulled Morgan into my arms, and she sobbed against me.
“SULLY!” Pardon yelled.
I looked behind me and saw him pulling my little sister into his arms, while Falcon did the same with Jenna.
“Your old lady is a badass, Prez. Insane, but a fucking badass,” Vincent said from across the room. Peter kneeled beside him, holding a rag to his shoulder.
“So is her mother, Prez. She saved my ass,” Peter said; his voice held a tremor of fear mixed with respect.
I looked over at Benny; she wasn’t crying. In fact, she looked a little too steady as she told Smokey what happened, and I wondered if she might be in shock.
“Are you okay?” I asked Morgan.
She inhaled deeply before answering, “I’m okay. The baby’s okay.”
“What the fuck did you think you were doing going outside, knowing someone might have been out there waiting to take my fucking sister?” I growled, my voice an octave lower than I wanted it to be.
“I know it was stupid, but I wanted to see if I could get a look at the vehicle. I took a gun with me,” she said, as if that made everything fine.
Morgan was a great shot, but in that moment, when someone was standing in front of you, the risk of freezing up and getting yourself killed was too fucking high.
“Stop freaking out. Vincent threw me over his shoulder and carried me back inside... Oh my God, Colson!”
Morgan tried to get up, and I held her against me. “Jude, Colson was outside at the gate when Vincent brought me in. What if he’s hurt?”
“LA! Go check on Colson!” I yelled, and he moved swiftly. “Come on, let’s get you a drink.”
“I really wish I could have a whiskey right now,” she said with a brittle laugh.
“You’ll have to settle for coffee,” I told her as I set her on a stool at the bar.
“I’ll get it, Prez.” Brian took off to the kitchen. He knew how Morgan liked her coffee.
“Stay here; I need to check on Sully.” Morgan nodded, and I moved down the bar to where my sister sat with Pardon. I stepped behind the bar and poured a finger of whiskey, setting it down in front of her.
She looked up at me with wide eyes.
“I think you’ve earned it. Just don’t tell Justin.”
Justin would have my ass if he knew I was letting our sixteen-year-old sister drink whiskey. If Sully were a boy, he wouldn’t think twice about it.
Sully picked up the glass and sniffed. “Shoot it down in one gulp,” I told her. She took a deep breath and then tossed the liquid down her throat. The glass hit the bar as Sully started to cough. Pardon rubbed her back while she caught her breath, and I waited for her to look up at me.
When she did, I asked, “Feel better?”
“Not really.”
“Give it time. You’ve been through a hell of a time over the last twenty-four hours.”
“Is it over yet?” she asked, looking out over the room.
“Not yet,” I said. I reached over and placed my hand over hers. “But I promise you are safe here. Pardon won’t leave your side.”
I looked up at the newest brother in the Silver Shadows, and he nodded.
“He has to sleep too.”
“He does, and when he takes a break, Scorpion will take his place.”
I still wasn’t sure about Scorpion, but Morgan was right. The way he was willing to go against me to protect her meant I could trust him to watch over my little sister.
“I’m tired,” she said, biting her lip.
“Come on, I’ll stand outside your door while you sleep,” Pardon said as he helped her down from her stool.
I walked around to hug Sully and told Pardon, “I’ll send Scorpion up in a few hours so you can get some rest.”
Returning to Morgan’s side, I helped her down from the stool. “Church at ten!” I told the brothers, then led Morgan upstairs.
We climbed back into bed, and she snuggled up to my side. I was a lucky son of a bitch that she forgave me. I held her tight, but she didn’t relax into me.
“What’s bothering you?”
“What happened to Nathan?”
I took a deep breath before answering, “Baby, I know you want me to tell you everything, but there are some things I’ll never be able to tell you. You can’t be forced to reveal things you don’t know.”
“Arkansas has spousal privilege,” she whispered.
“We aren’t married anymore. Justin is still working on bringing me back from the dead.”
“We could get married.” She looked up at me through her lashes, her cheeks lightly pink.
“Baby, I would like nothing better than to make you my wife again, and I plan on it as soon as I get my life back. But it’s not just the law we have to worry about.”
I rubbed my hand up and down her arm.
“The last twenty-four hours has shown me that my enemies will try anything to get their hands on you. That alone would bring me to my knees. But the idea that they might hurt you, torture you to get information…”
I blew out a frustrated breath because the reality was whether she had the information or not, that was always a risk.
“For now, I will tell you what I can. Nathan can’t get near you or Sully, or anyone ever again.”