Chapter 27 Rock
ROCK
“You out of Piper’s house?” Brewer asked.
“On the road to the lodge, yep,” I said.
“Good. Now we can talk. Monroe’s got some shit we need to know. Shit that backs up what we took to Diesel last night.”
“Does this mean the entire group is getting together?” I asked.
“Yep. We’re all headed to the lodge now. I covered your ass for Diesel, but he needs you here. We all need you here.”
“I know. I know. Thanks for covering my ass so I could make up with Piper,” I said. “I appreciate it.”
“Diesel’s pissed, but in some ways, he gets it. You know he does. But anyway, Monroe’s caught onto some whispers that the U.S. Attorney is using Rex officially as an informant for the fucking RICO case.”
“Shit. Okay. I’m picking up the speed now.”
“That’s not all. According to Monroe, Rex is getting out of jail today.”
I slammed on my breaks at a red light and held my breath.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked. “The fucker’s in a holding cell for murder!”
“And someone conveniently posted his bond.”
“The man had bond!?”
“He did. And something tells me the U.S. fucking Attorney arranged it. Knox has more details for us once we all gather.”
“Fuck. I’m getting there as fast as I can.”
I hung up the phone and drove as fast as I could through alleyways and downtown areas.
I almost ran over some fucking pedestrians trying to cross town to get back to the fucking lodge.
There was one thing I did know. If Piper and I did work out, her house was way too far away from that damn place.
We’d have to figure out a way to rectify that shit.
I skidded into a parking space at the lodge and kicked my stand down. I ran all the way up the steps, launching myself onto the porch before barreling through the door. There they all were; Knox, Grave, Diesel, and Brewer.
And no Mick in fucking sight.
“We just got done going’ over all the shit you and Brewer picked up last night,” Knox said.
“I’m surprised you’re as calm as you are,” I said as I walked in.
“Piper good?” Diesel asked.
My eyes connected with his as I made my way to the kitchen table.
“Brewer tells me Rex is getting out today,” I said.
“Yep. Monroe’s trying to fight it now, despite being fucking four weeks out from her damn due date. But she doesn’t think she’ll get far,” Knox said.
“Those Black Saddle assholes are trying to build a damn case against us to legally push us out of Redding,” Brewer said. “This can’t fucking stand.”
I looked over at Grave, who hadn’t said a word as I sat down.
“You good?” I asked.
And the second Grave’s eyes panned over to me, I saw that look. It’d been years since I’d seen that look in his eye. The bloodthirsty hound that made him good at what he did. His arms were folded over his chest, making his granite rock muscles bulge even more than they already were.
I knew exactly where he stood on the matter.
“I’m waiting until we get to the part where we kill him,” Grave said.
“He’s right,” Diesel said.
We all panned our gazes over to our President as he sat back into his chair.
“Rock. Brewer. You two brought us identifiable proof that Mick is the rat in this group. And I don’t tolerate that bullshit in this club.
We finish Mick, then we take care of Rex.
We rid The Black Saddles of anyone they’ve been using to try and push us off our turf because they’re too pussy-shit to roll up onto our front lawn and try to do it themselves. We end them. Today.”
My eyes glanced over at Brewer before taking in the guys around me. And no one said a word.
“A vote?” I asked.
I watched everyone nod as they all leaned back into their chairs. Girding their fucking loins and preparing to make a decision that would forever change our club.
“All in favor of Mick meeting the reaper, raise your hand,” Diesel said.
Every single one of us slid our hands into the air, ready for this shit to be over with.
“Unanimous vote. Good. Once the job’s done, we’ll take a breath, reconvene, and take a vote on what the hell do to with Rex.”
That one I wasn’t quite sold on, but I did my best to hide it from the guys.
Right now, we had a task at hand that would put me out of reach from Piper and Gavin for a few hours.
The rest of the day, even. We all got up from the table and walked to the back room of the lodge.
And when Diesel ripped the door open, he punched in the code for the sealed door behind it.
He passed us guns and ammunition. Smoke bombs and grenades.
Pistols and knives and everything else we could fucking stuff into our pockets.
And once we were all loaded down, we walked out to our bikes and struck them up.
We rode through the town as a club, letting any Black Saddle within a ten-mile radius know they couldn't tear us the fuck apart. I pulled out my phone and began tracking Mick’s phone using the tracker I’d used to find his ass holed up with that disgusting crew.
He wasn’t at his home, but he wasn’t in town, either. He was in the middle of the damn woods.
At the fucking bonfire sight where all this shit started.
How ironic.
We rode our bikes all the way to the edge of the woods, then shut them down and walked them in.
None of that parking at the gas station shit again.
We rode around and circled the bonfire sight, looking around to see if Mick was with anyone.
A Black Saddle. Some woman he was fucking.
Maybe a kid from a woman he didn’t know he had.
I didn’t put anything past the guys in our club anymore when it came to their cocks and who they honed in on.
Especially after the past week and a half I’d had.
We surrounded the fire sight and saw Mick sitting there, dicking around on his fucking phone.
We kicked our stands down and emerged from the woods, watching as he talked to someone on his screen.
Diesel put his finger up to his lips to shush us and we all stopped, waiting for him to get off the video chat.
But the second he said Axe’s name, Grave bristled.
I reached out and grabbed his arm, trying to get the angry tyrant to fucking stay put.
But the second he hung up the call, we all emerged from the woods.
Mick turned around and his face automatically dropped. I hardened my eyes onto him as we slowly circled around the man. Stalking him, like prey.
“Hey, Mick,” Diesel said. “How’s it going?”
“Good,” Mick said. “What’s up, guys?”
“Nothing’ much,” Knox said. “Just hanging’ out.”
“Uh huh. On the other side of town,” Mick said.
“You’re on the other side of town,” Grave said. “What’s wrong with us being on the other side of town?”
His eyes hardened on the hulking man whose hand was already halfway to his gun.
“Settle down, Grave. We still need to give Mick a chance to explain himself,” Diesel said.
He was here. The torturer we were all afraid of.
Diesel had finally arrived to the party.
“Explain what?” Mick asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Diesel said as he pulled out a knife.
He whipped it around until the blade was shining against the streams of sun penetrating the treetops.
“How’s Axe?” Diesel asked.
I watched Mick swallow as his eyes darted to all of us. Then, Diesel’s eyes locked onto Mick’s.
“I asked you a question, boy. And you better not lie to me.”
“Axe is good,” Mick said. “He’s um… he’s good.”
“I bet he is, seeing as Rex gets out of jail today,” Diesel said.
Mick’s eyebrows shot up to his forehead.
“Rock, go get Mick’s phone,” Diesel said.
I grinned as I started for the man, but he reached for his gun. In a flash, Diesel was at his side, fisting his hair and holding his head back while the blade of the shining knife sat against his pulsing artery.
“I wouldn’t move if I were you,” Diesel said darkly. “It might get a little sticky if you do.” Mick slowly moved his hand away from his gun.
I walked up to Mick and took his gun, and tossed it to the ground.
Then I fished around in his pockets until I retrieved his phone.
I took out the battery and slid it into my pocket, then inched out the SIM card and crushed it underneath my boot.
Then, I stuck it all back into my pocket to destroy in a fire we would all set later in order to mark this new transition for our club.
With one man down and out.
“Diesel, they made me offers I couldn't resist,” Mick said. “When we talked about cleaning up our act, I knew I wasn’t going to make the kind of money I knew I needed to in order to take care of my mom and sister. It was only to help them with the RICO case, but I thought the RICO case was against them. I didn’t think it was to push you guys out.
I swear, I didn’t know that until last night. ”
“Now why don’t I believe you?” Diesel asked.
“Please, Diesel. I was only feeding them a little bit of information at a time. Nothing that could get anyone hurt. Just enough to foil plans to keep us all at odds with one another.”
“Until you tried to fucking kill me,” Brewer said.
Mick’s eyes whipped over to my best friend.
“Until you ratted on our women as well,” Brewer said.
Mick shook in the palm of Diesel’s hand as my friend approached my side.
“You’re a slimy, good for nothing piece of fucking shit,” Grave said. “And I’m going to have fun playing with my food today.”
“Diesel, we’re a club. We don’t clean up acts. Redding’s our town, and we should own that. I was going to start feeding them false information. You have to believe me, Diesel!”
“Say I do,” he said as his knife slid along Mick’s skin. “Say I do believe you. Give us the rundown of the long game for you. The long term play you were making.”
Knox stalked toward Mick and punched him quickly in the gut.
“Shit!” Mick exclaimed as he buckled forward. Diesel kept his hold on Mick, and he quickly pulled his head back up and pushed the knife harder into this skin.
“Now, now, Knox. We did promise Grave the first shot,” Diesel said.
“Just got a text from Monroe,” Knox said. “Rex is out of jail and Axe somehow knew the exact time he’d be released. They were there to pick him up and they spat at Monroe in the fucking process.”
Diesel’s eyes darkened to black holes that made even me want to take a step back.
“What I was going to do was--”
“Enough,” Diesel said.
“But I was only going to--”
“I said enough, Mick!”
Diesel’s booming voice echoed off the trees of the woods and filled the crevices between us.
“You’ve been ratting on this club for months.
Talking to them about confidential information for months.
Telling them about the families of this club for months.
Then coming to church meetings and acting like you’re our buddy.
Our pal. The man we could trust. While you were behind the scenes cleaning up your fucking messes and aiding a damn RICO case on us to shove us out of our town, and for what? Some fucking money!?”
Diesel tightened his grip on Mick as he whipped his knife around and stuck it back into his pocket.
“Our women,” he said as he took out his gun.
“Our children,” Knox said as he took out his.
“Us,” Grave said as he took out his gun.
“Your family,” Brewer said as he brought out his gun.
“You betrayed all of us,” I said. “And that comes with a fucking price.”
Then Diesel tossed Mick to the ground and pointed his gun at him.
He leveled it at the man as Mick scrambled to his feet, and I watched Grave snap.
He reached down and physically tore the leather cut from the man’s back.
Ripped our emblem off it and then he tossed it to the ground and spat on it, his eyes wild with fury as Knox’s boot stomped on it until it was unrecognizable.
“You don’t deserve to wear that cut,” Diesel said as he stalked Mick.
“You don’t deserve to wear that emblem. And you sure as hell don’t deserve to live.
Did you think you’d really not go down with us?
All of the numbers and the evidence and the eyewitness testimony?
Did you really think The Black Saddles would let you off scot-free with the hundreds of thousands of dollars they gave you to rat on us?
What? Did you think you wouldn’t go down with the club you’d dedicated yourself to for years simply because you decided to switch teams! ?”
Mick scrambled over to his discarded gun and leveled it at Diesel as he began to laugh.
“I’ve never been one of you,” he said. “You never accepted me. Always teasing me for my shooting skills and mocking me for my mathematical mind. You shoved me into the shadows like I’m some kind of parasite. Some kind of pariah. Sure, I wore the fucking cut, but I never was actually a brother!”
Diesel walked all the way up to the barrel of Mick’s gun and pressed his forehead directly into it.
“Then if you’re such a big man, pull the fucking trigger,” he said.
“What?” I asked. “Do you think being the behind the scenes man is any different than sneaking around in the shadows for them?”
Mick turned his gaze over to me as his gun fell from Diesel’s head.
“You think you're any less in the shadows simply because someone’s giving you some fucking money for it?” I asked.
“That’s the thing,” Mick said with a grin. “At least if I’m going to be in the shadows, I might as well get paid handsomely for it.”
“Can we fucking kill him now?” Grave asked.
“That’s a good question,” Knox said.
“I second and third that notion,” Brewer said.
I looked over at Diesel as a devilish smile crossed his cheeks.
But before he could get an answer out, two gunshots rang out into the woods. And I stood there, frozen in place as my heart stopped in my chest.