Chapter 19
Flint
Our alarm goes off at five. I ease myself away from my still-sleeping old lady.
If I’m being honest, I’m still upset about her insisting upon going with us.
I’m not stupid. I fully understand her reasoning and even agree with it on some level.
That doesn’t mean I have to fuckin’ like it.
I have a bad gut feeling about this whole situation, and it’s making me regret agreeing to it.
She shifts in her sleep, and I decide to give her a few more moments. Looking down at her, she looks too damn young. Too sweet and innocent for this world.
My phone buzzes, and when I pick it up, I see a message that’s been a long time comin’.
Tommy: How’s it swinging asshole?
I text him back.
Me: You’re back.
Tommy: And I found out that you put my little sister in your fuckin’ property cut.
Shit. I knew it was coming but thought I’d have time to get my story straight.
Me: Yeah, about that. I was gonna tell you, brother.
Tommy: Don’t even try to justify it, you fuckin’ traitor.
Me: Look, we need to talk about this.
Tommy: Oh, we’re gonna fuckin’ talk alright. I’m fifteen minutes out.
Fuck.
When the screen goes dark, I toss my phone aside and haul my ass out of bed. I run my hands through my hair, thinking this couldn’t come at a fuckin’ worse time.
I shower and get myself ready before Tommy has a chance to get here.
The second I hit the top of the stairs, I can hear him raging, screaming my name, and causing the kind of ruckus that’s gonna get us both in trouble.
The prospect at the gate shouldn’t have let him in without checkin’ that it was okay.
Hell’s fire, maybe they fuckin’ did. He’s a fully patched member of an allied club.
Why would any of the officers deny him entry? This whole situation sucks.
Tommy is standing in the middle of the bar with club girls scurrying around him tryin’ to get breakfast on the buffet in the back of the room. Several of them shoot me panicked looks as they pass.
He doesn’t wait for me to cross the room.
He stalks over and hits me with two fists in the chest, sending me staggering back.
“You sick son of a bitch,” he growls. “She’s fuckin’ twenty-two years old.
You swore to me that you’d keep your fuckin’ hands off her and look out for her.
But no, you just had to lay claim to her, didn’t you? ”
“Tommy, calm down,” I grumble, rubbing two burning spots on my chest.
“Shut the fuck up, Flint. You don’t get to tell me to calm down after gettin’ with my little sister, Flint. She was off limits.”
“I know she was,” I acknowledge.
“You had one job. It was to look out for her and keep her safe while I went to help Mica build a fuckin’ club. And the second I turn my back you’re crawlin’ into bed with her, like she’s some club girl you picked up in a parkin’ lot.”
I grit out, my voice low and dangerous, “Don’t fuckin’ talk about your sister that way.”
He steps forward and shoves my shoulder with one hand. “I’m not talking about Jules. I’m talking about the fuckin’ dirty bastard that dirtied her up.”
“Watch your fuckin’ mouth, brother. Jules is her own person. You’re acting like she’s still twelve years old when all you really want to do is control her.”
“Don’t act like you know my sister just because you slapped a property cut on her back.”
“If you’re waitin’ for an apology from me for lovin’ your sister, you’re gonna have a long wait. She’s too good for every man out there, includin’ me. You ought to be glad she took a shine to me. I recognize quality when I see it. At least you can trust me to treat her right.”
Tommy sneers. “Trust? You’ve already proven you can’t be trusted. You waited until I was a hundred miles away and then you helped yourself to the most precious thing in my damn life. Some friend you turned out to be.”
“Both of you, stop it right now!”
We both freeze when we hear Jules’s angry voice. She strolls into the room, beautiful as ever, even with a scowl on her face. She stops short in front of us and folds her arms over her chest.
“Jules.” Tommy’s voice turns placating. “Go back to your room. Let me handle this.”
Her frown deepens as she stares at him.
“No. I heard what you said about Flint dirtying me up. You should be ashamed of yourself. Do all the women you sleep with end up getting dirtied up, or do you just reserve that misogynistic shit for your sister?”
“Jules, you know I didn’t mean it that way.”
“No, Tommy. You don’t get to handle this. You don’t get to come in here at five in the fucking morning and yell at the man I love because he didn’t ask you for my hand or some such archaic nonsense.”
“It’s not that, Jules. We had a deal, and he broke his word to me.”
“A deal? What am I, one of your fucking belongings? Besides that, you’re as much to blame.”
Tommy’s mouth drops open, and he shakes his head slowly back and forth.
“Wait, what in the hell did I do?”
“You’re the one who left the fox in the chicken coop.
You knew I had a crush on Flint for years.
Did it honestly never occur to you that I was going to use my foxy body and womanly wiles to get him to like me back?
I honestly thought you’d picked him for me.
You gave me the perfect setup to make all my dreams come true. ”
Tommy and I look at each other and do a double take at Jules.
Tommy stammers, “Are you saying you’re the fox and Flint’s the chicken in this analogy?”
She shrugs with one shoulder. “Rooster, or whatever.”
“Hold up,” Tommy mutters, looking at me. “Are you tellin’ me that my little sister came after you?”
When I glance at Jules, I can tell she’s practically daring me to say it’s not so. Reluctantly, I admit, “Yeah, that’s the size of it.”
He steps back and leans against the bar. “So, my baby sister seduced you.”
I don’t like the way he strings out the word seduced, like it’s an insult. “I fuckin’ held out for weeks, bro.” Lowering my voice, I mumble something about her being irresistible.
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Flint,” he says, gesturing to her. “She’s my fuckin’ sister.”
“Mm-hm. So, are we good?”
Tommy rubs both hands down his face before shooting back, “Not even close, you fucker. You didn’t resist hard enough.” I can still hear the venom in his voice.
A short silence spins out between us as footsteps approach from behind us.
Jasper descends from upstairs wearing his president’s cut with his hair still wet from the shower. He stops in front of us and takes a sip of coffee from the mug in his hand.
“I came downstairs to see what all the ruckus was in my clubhouse. You folks are screaming loud enough to wake the dead.” Glancing at Jules, he adds, “Not you. You’re golden, as always.”
Tommy starts, “Sorry about getting loud at o-dark-thirty.”
Jasper asks, “Are you here with Mica?”
“Yeah, he’s in the back talkin’ to Rock.”
“What are you raising hell about this mornin’?”
“You can probably guess.”
“Yeah, you don’t like Flint’s name on your sister’s back, right? Didn’t think you would, but you can’t be waking people up at the crack of dawn.”
Tommy has the decency to lower his eyes.
“And you too, Flint. You should have had this conversation before you ever gave Jules your cut. You and Tommy have been best friends long before either of you came here. I want to see the two of you shake hands and make up.”
I hold out my hand, but Tommy hesitates for a second before shaking it. I can see this ain’t over in his mind because he practically throws my hand away instead of just letting it go normally. I hate how this is playing out between us, but I’ve got to make it right, for Jules and for myself.
Jasper grins, lookin’ mighty pleased with himself. “Now let’s sit our asses down and have some breakfast before it gets cold.”
Jules steps closer and slides under my arm. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
I tug her against my side and whisper, “No, foxy, it wasn’t.”
Jules just laughs at her new nickname.
Eventually, Rock and Mica join us. Mica slaps Tommy good-naturedly on the shoulder as he takes his seat.
“How are the eggs, Deuce?”
That’s when I realize Tommy has a name patch on his cut that doesn’t say Tommy. How did I not notice that before now? “Your club name is Deuce?”
Before Tommy can answer, Mica does. “I picked it because he’s been in two clubs, been tested, and walked through fire twice. He deserves a name that speaks to all he’s been through.”
“That’s a good, strong name,” I tell him sincerely.
He just frowns and goes back to eating his eggs.
I nudge Jules. “Take your plate, go sit with your brother, and bring him up to speed on what’s been goin’ on in your life.”
She eagerly does as I ask. Jules is the kind of woman who prefers telling her own story, especially to her brother.
Tommy listens to her with one ear while pushing eggs around his plate. He occasionally turns to ask Jules a question and then listens intently to her answer.
Mica speaks up. “Deuce and I are gonna sit in the meeting with Striker and ride with you to LA this morning.”
Jasper takes the last drink from his coffee cup before saying, “I hate fuckin’ mobsters. The more brothers on this ride, the better.”
Mica lifts his coffee cup. “Glad to oblige.”
Tommy—who I should probably start thinking of as Deuce now—perks up now that he’s back in the loop with what’s happening with his sister and going along with us.
I can see the relief on his face. He asks her something in a low tone while looking at me.
Jules smiles and nods, whispering something back.
His expression looks disgruntled, but he moves on.
***
Around seven, we all head into the chapel. There’s Rock, Jasper, Mica, Onyx, Slate, Jinx, Deuce, Jules, and myself. We find Striker already setting up his laptop. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days. He drops into the empty chair across from Jasper and turns the laptop so we can see the screen.
When I pull Jules down into the chair next to me, Deuce mean mugs me for a second.
Striker leans forward. “Brothers. Sister,” he says in a rough voice. “Sorry it took all night, but I got the intel you need.”
Jasper jerks his chin. “Don’t apologize to us. I’m sure none of us could have pulled off what you did.”
Striker shoots him a tired smile. “I live for situations like this,” he responds.
“I dug through all their public and private information. Everything I could get by scraping their social media, local news feeds, and the county tax database. This family has four shell companies and multiple real estate holdings. They’re mostly homes for all the family members, but there was a warehouse and a boat as well. ”
“Tell us everything you know,” Jasper orders.
“There is a house in the hills north of LA listed under Anthony Terrance’s wife’s maiden name.
They are the ones listed on Daniel’s birth certificate as his parents, but we suspect that’s not true because they couldn’t donate blood for him and he has a twin with another set of parents.
I believe this is where his parents actually live.
The utility records show normal residential patterns, with no unusual electrical load or water usage.
They could be holdin’ Daniel there, but I consider it a low probability. ”
“Yeah, seems unlikely,” Jasper mutters.
Striker continues, “The boat is a fifty-foot motor yacht moored in Marina del Rey. It’s registered for offshore use. If they decide to sail off with him, we might never find him. I think this is a slightly higher probability than the house, but not by much.”
He scrolls on the computer, saying, “The third place is at Pacific Cordage and Storage. It’s an industrial parcel out past the rail yard.
It’s listed as a paper goods warehouse, owned through a shell company that traces back to Anthony.
The LA brothers say they use it a lot, which makes sense because it’s the most isolated location. ”
Onyx immediately asks, “What’s that property like? Can we get in without being seen?”
“You should be able to. It’s a single-story metal building, around twelve thousand square feet. The LA brothers report a chain-link fence with a large gate, a cement mixer, and piles of building supplies out in the open. It has a roll-up door on the side and office doors on the front and back.”
This sounds doable to my mind. Jules moves her hand to hold mine. I give her hand a little squeeze, so she knows I’m here for her.
Striker continues, “This is the highest probability location because it’s the only one that’s active round the clock. I had two LA brothers ride past it last night between midnight and four. Three SUVs were parked in the side lot, one man was at the gate, and lights were on at that hour.”
“This is really good intel, Striker. Good job,” Jasper says.
Mica speaks up for the first time. He’s been listening with his hands folded on the table, the way Mica listens when he’s takin’ a thing seriously.
“Could they tell how many men were on site, or did they mostly just see vehicles and the man at the gate?”
Striker sits up straight. “They report the mobsters usually travel by SUV two at a time. Three SUVs usually means six men. The brothers from our LA chapter are gonna be eyes-on until you get there and ready to give you a report when you roll in later today.”
Deuce leans forward next to him. “Do we know how they’re communicatin’?”
“Cell phones mostly,” Striker replies. “Probably burner phones, if they’re half smart.”
Jasper nods. “What approach do you suggest?”
“Come in from the back. Climb the fence and avoid the gate altogether.”
“What about comms for our team?” Jasper says.
“We’ll use our earpieces. I’ll pick an unused channel, so they don’t pick up on our chatter. I’ll be monitoring the channel the entire time. I’ll alert you to anything I pick up on my end.”
Mica looks at Jasper. “Vultures are willing to ride lead on this one.”
Jasper nods thoughtfully. “Sons will take the back door. Vultures take the bay. SORLA brothers take the front door.”
Deuce looks at me across the table. “I’m on Jules.”
I shake my head. “No. Carnage is on Jules. He’s a SORLA prospect, veteran, and we know him from our time in the military. He’ll stay with her in the truck far away from the building until we clear it.”
Deuce frowns. “I get that you don’t like it, but you know he would die before he let anything happen to Jules.”
“Yeah, I get that,” he grudgingly admits.
“All right. Everything’s settled,” Jasper says, looking around the table. “We roll out in thirty minutes. Striker, stay on the line.”
“Yes, prez.”
“Brothers,” he says. “Bring that poor bastard home.”
Murmurs of agreement sound off around the table.