Chapter 13
Still wearing his gloves, War took the camera from the shelf and tucked it under his cut into the pocket of the black hoodie he was wearing.
We had waited until the dead of night, watching the house until the lights went out and Kansas checked the feeds on his phone to show Stiverson had gone upstairs.
There was no way of knowing whether we were walking into him still awake, but there were three of us and one of him and we had known he was alone. We weren’t worried.
It hadn’t been too hard breaching the house again. We moved like a well-oiled machine, silent as we made our way through the house, clearing everywhere just to be certain.
Kansas was standing in the kitchen smoking a cigarette, his hand shaking.
I’d already told him to make sure he pocketed the stub.
I didn’t think it was a good idea to bring him along, but King wanted to test him, he’d spent a lot of time inside the clubhouse doing his techie thing but being a part of the MC meant being a part of all aspects of it.
If we were having the patching in tomorrow for him, King needed to be sure Kansas could stomach this. He’d surprised me. He hadn’t puked, but he was rattled. It was the first time someone had been killed in front of him. Kind of a rite of passage for a prospect, as horrible as that seemed.
His response was normal though. Not everyone was hardened to the wet work, but he couldn’t shy away from it. I would let King know he hadn’t run or done anything stupid, even if he hadn’t partaken and he looked as if he had seen a ghost.
To be fair, War had done the damage to Stiverson.
We’d only spent twenty minutes talking to him because we weren’t in a safe environment.
Anything could surprise us. We asked a few questions, but he gave us nothing.
He had nothing to lose and was loyal to his club.
I’d say it was admirable if he wasn’t such a fucking prick.
He had a big mouth though, was creative with his insults and threatened our mothers and our sisters. I didn’t think he had meant it, it was just a generalization, but given what was going on with Waverley, War had taken that one threat personally and Stiverson lost two teeth for it.
I’d frowned at him for making a mess, but he’d just given me a dark glare that told me to keep the fuck out of it.
We didn’t intend to torture the guy this time.
We knew what part he had played in the attack on Connor and now the compound, so despite the little tantrum, War put a bullet in his head using Stiverson’s own gun.
I had offered to be the one to do it, but War was on a mission to avenge Connor, and nothing was going to stop him.
After we’d cleaned up any evidence of our being here, we left Stiverson where he was, tied up at his kitchen table, then taken the camera and snuck back out of the house.
A lot of the guys gave Ballistic a wide birth, knowing the things he did, and I was taking over from him when the time came, so by default, people were wary around me, even though I’d barely had anything to do with beating this shithead up tonight.
War said nothing, he just headed away from the house. Our faces were covered by bandanas, Kansas and I were wearing caps pulled down low, we were careful to keep out of sight as much as possible until we got back to our bikes.
Back at the compound, after cleaning up, War and I sat together at the bar.
“What do you think the Kingsmen will make of this?” I asked, sitting back, taking a drag of a cigarette, and leaving it dangling from my lips as I spoke.
“They’ll know the people we’re hitting are the ones who were involved in what happened to Connor.
They might not put two and two together that we know this guy was involved with the bombing. ”
War shrugged. “I don’t give a fuck what they think, but they’re not stupid. They hit us. One of their guys winds up dead. King is right, they will know we did this. It’s a message, that’s all. Plus, I get to wipe another son of a bitch off my list.”
I pinched the cigarette between the tips of my fingers and stomped it out in an ashtray. After some thought and watching War down his shot, I said, “Do you think what we’re doing is the right way to go about handling this?”
“What do you mean?” War looked up, a dark storm in his eyes. “I’d rip their fucking heads off if I could for what those sons of bitches did to Con.”
“Yeah, that’s a given,” I waved my hand. “But in terms of the other stuff going on. I know King wants to understand things with Danica and the reasons behind why they want at Wave. Doesn’t it feel like we’re wasting time going after these guys?”
“I told King I wanted to go after them. It’s on me to finish that. This is retribution for something they started. The rest will come later. He’s playing the long game. He’s smart, Hud. You know, he thinks every little detail through before he executes a plan.”
“I know that, I mean, shouldn’t we be thinking bigger while still dealing with those pussies?”
I sat back, contemplating my friend. He stared right back at me.
I could see the internal struggle behind his eyes.
He knew more than he was telling me, and it was causing him conflict between his standing in the club and his friendship with me.
He scrubbed a hand over his face and up into his hair, glancing about.
The bar area wasn’t too busy, but there were plenty of people about. I’d fended Tanya off once already tonight, but she was still staring. It was getting irritating. Warren caught the direction of the filthy look and looked back at me with one side of his lips tilted.
“You should have kicked her ass out,” I muttered.
“Cos she has a crush,” he laughed, and I scowled at him. “She’s been here years,” War said. “Plus you brought it on yourself trying to make Wave jealous.”
“That wasn’t what happened.”
“Bullshit,” he shook his head at me, like I was an idiot. “Connor nailed it the other night.”
“Fuck off,” I mumbled, picking up my glass and downing the contents.
“Seriously, I know some shit went down between you two before she left, but it was five years ago. You can’t still hate someone that much after that long, without there being some other feelings involved.”
“Are you turning into Connor? You want to talk about our feelings? Should we do our nails?”
“I’ve told you to quit fucking with me about him.
And I care about my sister,” he fired back.
“I care she might get hurt. And whether or not you think Connor went too far, he’s damn well right.
I missed her and yeah, she doesn’t think she wants or needs to be back here, but if I can make her stay, I’ll do whatever it takes. ”
That stunned me a little. He missed his sister.
I knew that. I could see when he was melancholy about her being gone, when he looked at the pictures he had of the two of them.
I’d heard him talking to Connor about her a few times, particularly on their birthday.
I couldn’t blame him for wanting her around, but I didn’t know how I would handle that.
“She feels the same way I do,” I said.
“I’m not so sure about that,” he countered, staring at me.
I rolled my eyes, but my heart pounded a little faster, wondering what the hell he meant by that. “You are spending too much time listening to Connor,” I said, to take the focus of my relationship, or lack thereof, with Waverley Curtis. “He’s barely left her side since she got back.”
“Jealous?”
“Stop trying to deflect. What is the plan beyond the guys we’re going after?”
“I’m not the one deflecting,” he narrowed his eyes. But War knew when to stop pushing me. He leaned back and looked around. “Not here.”
I raised my brows. Did that mean he was going to give me more information? He got up from the chair and headed for the door. I followed him, maintaining my focus on his back and ignoring everything else around me.
There were a few people outside, some working at the garage, loud banging coming from behind the doors to the huge space. Everyone subdued after what went down. War started walking, headed for the lake.
As kids, we had spent a lot of time at the lake, swimming and messing around, especially in the summer.
It was where Waverley and I had spent a lot of our alone time too.
The bank on the far side was shaded by some trees and rocks.
It had been semi-private, easy enough for us to fool around and not be seen by anyone.
As we approached the benches that had been set into concrete, I looked over there, memories filling my mind. I’d got to second base with her underneath the huge willow tree that draped over the lake.
We’d hit third at Ballistic and Rosa’s house, where I had been living at the time, when there was a party at the compound.
She was paranoid we’d be caught going too far.
But we had some good times here. Seemed fitting we’d be here to discuss her.
Although War would shit a brick knowing where my mind had gone.
War bent down to pick up some rocks and started throwing them into the water, side on to skip them across the surface of the lake.
It was black with just a small sliver of light where the moon was reflecting.
The ripples spread out across the water as the stone hopped three times, then sank into its depths.
I waited him out, knowing he was thinking things through.
War filled me in on a lot of things that went on at the officers’ church meetings. I was sure King knew about it. He’d already proven that he trusted me, bringing me into some of their plans with the Kingsmen. Which was why War thought it was okay to tell me.