Chapter Twenty-Two #2
King cursed. “Slippery son of a bitch. How’d he get away?”
“Not just him,” Mace said. “Juice and Brick aren’t officers. Besides Nytro, you’re still missing Stiles and Jameson.”
There was a grimace on his face as he handed the phone back to Ink.
I couldn’t tell if it was at the news the guys who were trying to kill him were still out there somewhere or, being in a room full of the Devil’s Chaos council.
Then I saw the way he looked at King, something past between them.
I glanced at War, he hadn’t been paying any attention so didn’t see what I had.
The others had all started talking at hearing the plan had not only got fucked up by the cartel, but three of the guys we were after had got away. The chances of getting them back out in the open again just got real slim.
“Stiles was definitely there, you can’t mistake that Quasimodo looking ugly fucker,” Dirt said, leaning back in his seat.
“War, call the O’Connell’s, let them know what went down tonight,” King told his son.
We’d been working a lot closer with the Irish mob out of New York. I wasn’t sure why King wanted them kept in the loop about this.
“Oh wait,” Ink raised his phone again. “Shit, he really does look like the cartoon character off the Hunchback of Notre Dame movie.”
He quickly flashed us the screen and I made a face at seeing an up close and personal shot of Stiles, the Kingsmen’s Enforcer.
One of the deputies in the Sheriff’s department was sending him the images.
For want of a better phrase, he’d been shot to shit.
Probably from those automatic weapons the cartel was carrying.
“Have we got eyes on Waverley?”
I looked back at King as Ballistic nodded at him. “She’s in the hotel bar with Cassie. Rosa went up to bed early, but the girls have stayed downstairs. They’re good.”
“Have them move the party to their rooms,” King told him and got to his feet. Ballistic took out his phone and walked to the other end of the room. “Mace,” King lifted his chin at the Kingsmen’s VP. “What’s his play now? Where can he go after that?”
“He won’t run,” he said, keeping his gaze firmly on King. “He’s too stupid for that. He thinks he’s invincible and this whole thing will have pissed him off.”
Ink laughed as he dropped into his chair at the table. “He thinks he can go up against the cartel? Man has brass balls.”
“Or a brass brain,” Banshee muttered.
Was I the only one who found it odd Mace was being included? I hated to admit it, he’d helped me out back there in the woods.
“Locations?” King wasn’t messing around.
“At this point,” Mace rubbed his chin. “The only place I think he can turn is Danica.”
We all saw how King’s jaw tensed at that. “You know where that might be?” his voice was dangerously low. Had Mace just fucked up and let us know he knew how to find her?
“No. I know she has a place in Summit.”
I raised my brows at that. Summit was one of the most expensive places to live in New Jersey.
“How’d the fuck she manage that?” Even Dirt was dumbfounded.
“Rich husband,” Mace sighed.
“There is more to what you told us before? Of course there is. Sit the fuck down,” King told him. Mace didn’t hesitate for a moment, he walked to the table. A few glances were exchanged before King waved his hand impatiently and Mace pulled out a chair at the council’s table and sat down.
“He’s dead, died about a year ago. From what I’ve gathered, he left behind a lot of debt.”
“Which is why she needs money now?” King asked. He nodded. “Banshee, what did you find out?”
He hadn’t been a part of the operation tonight, he’d been holed up in his own office for a couple of days now, investigating the more corporate side of what we were dealing with.
“There is a Trust fund… Delaney was the sole beneficiary,” he hesitated to mention her name but neither King nor War flinched. “I managed to get in touch with a guy at Hereford Mutual this morning. How much do you want me to say here, Prez?” his eyes flicked to Mace and back.
“Go ahead.”
Everyone glanced at each other again. I didn’t know what was going on between King and Mace, but it was clear they’d struck up an alliance.
One that meant he wasn’t afraid to let him hear our business.
And Banshee would not have had a particularly legal way of getting information from this insurance company.
“The Trust came from their maternal grandmother. She was the heir to a shipping company out of Providence. The business stopped operating years ago, the grandmother was living off the funds. It was put in Delaney’s name when the grandmother died.
Their mom died when Danica and Delaney were kids, so it automatically moved on to them.
“The rules of the Trust Fund was that it followed a female only blood line when they turn twenty five. Guess their grandmother didn’t trust the men in the family either,” he remarked. “Or who they’d married into.”
“So why’d it skip Danica after Delaney’s death?” King asked.
Banshee didn’t have an answer to that. Each of us could guess, given what I now knew about the woman, if this grandmother was as shrewd as she seemed, she wouldn’t leave anything to Danica Walker. Which meant…
“It goes to Waverley,” I said through gritted teeth. Banshee nodded. “Fucking hell.”
“What’s it worth?” War asked. He didn’t sound in the slightest bit worried he hadn’t been in for a share of the trust fund, he just wanted to know what we were dealing with here.
“Eight mil.”
Someone whistled, War leaned back in his seat putting his hands on the back of his head.
That stunned all of us into silence. If Waverley was set to inherit eight million dollars, and Danica wanted it, she would only have to have Wave under her control until the fund paid out.
By default, if Waverley was dead, being the last of the female line, Danica would get it.
The stark realization of what Danica intended to do to Waverley had me grabbing a chair and tossing it at the wall.
I glared at King, and he glared right back.
It was personal to both of us now but the fierce darkness in his eyes told me I didn’t stand a chance of taking this away from him.
Especially when it clicked with me what else this meant.
Danica killed Delaney to get the money. Did she plan on killing Wave when she was a baby too?
“Shit, remember that car accident Del was in when she was pregnant?” Ink spoke up.
King gave a sharp nod then looked away from everyone. That wasn’t something he’d mentioned before. It was proof right there, if what they were insinuating was correct. Danica tried to take out her sister and unborn niece or nephew. What kind of sick fucked up person was this woman?
“You don’t know where this house is?” King asked Mace, he shook his head.
“Should be easy enough to find,” he said quietly. We could all see the look on his face now. It wasn’t exactly remorse, or sympathy for what he’d learned here tonight. It was more an understanding of what was the right thing to do. “Her husband’s name was Francis Miller.”
King flicked a look at Banshee who was immediately on his feet and leaving the room. A few minutes after he left, we were still all in silence, a knock at the door broke it. Handlebar entered when War shouted to come in.
“Sheriff’s here,” he said.
King nodded and got up, Dirt followed him, then after giving me a look, War went too. It left me, Ink and Mace sitting at the table and Ballistic standing over by the giant mural of our patch on the wall, where he had remained standing after calling to make sure Waverley and Cassie were safe.
“You could have told us this sooner,” I stood off to the side of the table, my gaze fixed on Mace.
“Put yourself in my place,” was how he responded. He held my look though, the arrogant fuck. Even if he was right. He had no idea of what was at play here, he was protecting himself. When it counted, he’d come clean.
“Hustle, you and Handlebar take him back up to the cabin, for now.”
I wanted to protest, last thing I needed right now was hanging out with this guy but Ballistic’s face didn’t leave much room for argument.
I wanted to stay close to the clubhouse, to find out what was going on with the Kingsmen.
War would let me know. I didn’t respond, just glanced at Mace then headed for the door.
I heard the chair move and he followed behind me.
I text Wave after getting Mace up to the cabin. Handlebar was inside with him while I stood out on the porch and looked into the dark. I’d figured she would be asleep but should have known better. She wouldn’t sleep till she heard from us. She’d called me a few minutes after the text went through.
I didn’t give her all the details of what went down with the cartel, just that they’d shown up and the plan went to hell with Nytro and another officer still unaccounted for but reassured her King had a plan. I didn’t know what the fuck it was, but she didn’t need to know that.
“Everyone is okay,” I told her after she asked what happened.
I spotted War trudging up towards the cabin as she was filling me in on how things were going with Connor. There wasn’t much to tell, he was still being a surly bastard, but his fever was getting better, and the doctor wasn’t so worried about him anymore, they’d adjusted his medication though.
War stopped in front of me lifting his chin. I nodded, letting him know it was Waverley. He yawned without saying anything.
“So am I still being side lined out here, or can I come back?”
“Never thought I’d see the day you were asking to come back here, Wave,” I laughed.
“Keep talking shit and I won’t come back at all.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Asshole.”
“We’ve established that. I need to go,” I sighed. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay. Be safe.”
“Always.” I hung up and War made a face at me. “That’s your sister you’re about to make a gross derogatory remark about.”