Chapter 45
Aiden
“Take him back and get an answer outta him, and do it quick. I don’t have time for this shit tonight,” I order Raef as I light my smoke and hang back beside Archer and Stone in the back of our clubhouse. My knuckles are busted open and bloody from beating the fuck out of this sack of shit.
“I was just doing what I was told! I don’t know who the boss is. I get the orders anonymously every time!”
I hold up a hand to Raef, who’s about to drag off the scrawny little lowlife who tried to ambush our gun shipment that was heading to Savannah this morning. We’d heard rumblings that someone was going to try to steal from us, so I sent Stone on the last run.
This little shit wasn’t working alone, but his two partners didn’t make it after my guys took aim at them.
Stone and Raef are smart enough to always leave at least one motherfucker alive so we can get the answers we’re looking for.
And these aren’t guys we’ve seen before.
Dressed all in black with black balaclavas and not a stitch of ink on them to tell us what crew they’re affiliated with.
“I don’t know who hired us! I’m just doing my job!” the sack of shit garbles out as Raef punches him, hard, and blood spurts from his lip.
“Well, let’s see if you’re still saying that after I lift your kneecaps with my chisel.”
“You think he sounds too excited about that?” Archer chuckles as our prisoner winces in pain.
“Yeah, but he’ll get the answers we need,” I say as I pull a drag from my smoke.
We’re a closed-door outfit. There’s no way anyone could know that we transport these guns in locking buckets on the underside of the delivery trucks that carry Ruston Jam in the summer months.
Each truck holds twenty pallets of fresh jam up top, and the guns underneath, and we deliver the jam to the grocery supplier in Savannah after our drop to Dagger’s crew.
No one would question it. And even if they did, we have the county sheriff’s office in our pocket.
So I was shocked when I got a phone call this morning, right as I was ready to bury my face between Mia’s soft, sweet thighs, telling me that our truck had been ambushed.
I draw my fist back, punching this cocksucker hard in the face.
The sounds of his howl and his jaw bones cracking send a dark joy running through my blood on an otherwise dull night.
“It’s real fuckin’ simple. If you want to live, you’ll tell us who ordered you to intercept our shipment. If you don’t, Stone here will make you beg to keep every single one of your teeth.” I grip his chin tight and push his face to the side.
“I’m fucking dead anyway. He’ll kill me if I talk. You don’t know who you’re dealing with!” our prisoner cries out. And he’s not wrong. He’s a dead man regardless.
I chuckle, folding my arms over my chest.
Archer pipes up before I can. “No, motherfucker, you don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
I clap Archer on the back and give a nod to Stone. This scum-sucking rat we’ve captured looks up at Stone’s mean mug and knows he’s fucked. I listen to him struggle and fight as Stone drags him down the hall.
Stone’s a big and ruthless grizzly of a motherfucker. He’ll stop at nothing, and he’ll have a great time doing it.
“You think this is the mob?” Archer asks after the first sounds of Stone’s handiwork echo out from the kill room. “They’ve been known to hire nobodies to do shit like this.”
“Yep,” I bite out. “That’s exactly what I think. Sending us a message for turning down their offer to partner with them.”
“You don’t say no to the Mafia,” Archer grits out. “This is why, Brenin.”
“I won’t be strong-armed into working with them. They’re only trying to get on our train because the border is locked down.”
“But how the fuck would they know about the way we’re transporting?”
“That’s what Stone is for.” I shrug, then put my smoke out. “We’ll give him a few minutes to pull a couple teeth, and then we’ll head in. Good cop, bad cop.” I grin as my phone buzzes in my cut pocket.
Rhiannon
I finished my shift but you’re not here…
Got hung up, I’ll be there soon. Stick with Roz.
Rhiannon
Should I ask one of these sorry fools to entertain me while I wait?
If you want to sentence them to death, sure.
Rhiannon
So touchy.
Don’t fucking test me.
Rhiannon
I’ll wait in your office, on your desk. Clothing optional.
The thought of Mia in all her naked glory, sitting on my office desk, ready and waiting, sends a ripple of unstoppable need through me.
If it was up to me, I’d spend my days in bed, all my other commitments forgotten, but I can’t do that.
I have to stay focused on my club and my men, and lately, on overturning rocks to prove Dagger was the one involved with her sister’s rape.
So far, I haven’t found what I’m looking for, but I know I’m close.
Before I can figure that out, I have to know who’s behind the attack on our shipment.
If it is the mob, they’ve been tipped off by someone, and I wouldn’t put it past a member of the Souls, trying to cut out the middleman.
I don’t trust them on a good day, but now that I’ve plucked Mia away from Dagger, I know he’s up to something.
He hasn’t been around Lavish or the clubhouse in the two weeks since my father’s memorial ride, when I almost slit his throat, and he’s a sneaky motherfucker.
If he’s trying to undermine my business too, I’ll find out, and my club will hand me the cleaver as I take his fucking head.