5. Weston
WESTON
Talking about those early days forced me to remember the state that Dax was in at that time.
If people thought she was a loose cannon now, they wouldn’t have stood a chance against her after losing her brother.
Even though they were fighting and didn’t see each other very often, Dax would have dropped everything to help Devin.
Her twin was part of her soul, and you didn’t just cut out that part of your life because you didn’t like their choices.
The night she got the call, I got a text with the words—I need you.
When I showed up at her dorm, I found her in the bathroom on the floor, curled into a tight ball, sobbing and broken like I’d never seen her before.
Dax loved and felt deeply, but since having lost Devin, she refused to let people in that close.
Cameron had been almost to the point she couldn’t walk away from him.
If I allowed him back into her life as she was now, I didn’t really know what she’d do.
Part of me wanted to keep him away, afraid he hadn’t changed, and this whole ruse of being there for her in the shadows was a lie.
There was no way to know if he was telling the truth.
His father was one of the best con artists out there.
No one should ever trust a word out of his mouth.
It’d always been my job to look after her, and I failed her when she got shot.
I should have told her it was too cocky a move to pull a stunt like that.
Somehow, I was going to need to balance out things now that we were in a relationship as well as her best friends and crazy wrangler.
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, these Phantom Saints men were turning out to be just what Dax needed in her life and filled gaps in supporting her I didn’t see were there.
Looking at all of them as they listened in on this conversation and we waited for Cameron to answer my question, I could tell they would be right behind me in following Dax, no matter where she led us.
That was what good men did—they supported their woman.
“I was a boy back then and didn’t know what the real world was like.
My father might be a criminal and always wanted me to work alongside him, but he kept me from learning just how dark our world really was.
I dreamed of becoming the best at putting people like him away until the one person I loved more than life itself became one of the biggest criminals on the West Coast. It opened my eyes to see what my dad had said all along.
Things aren’t always black and white, right or wrong, good or evil.
Sometimes we do the wrong things for the right reason, and that’s exactly what Dax did for her brother,” Cameron stated as he held her gaze as he spoke.
“Long before you carved your name into my chest, I belonged to you. I have absolutely no hesitation in following you into the depths of hell if need be. I won’t ever give you a reason to leave me behind ever again. ”
“We’ll see about that,” Dax said, grabbing a slice of pizza and breaking the tension in the room.
We all helped ourselves to the food and fell into a comfortable silence as the roofs of our mouths were scorched off by the spiciness of the meal.
I never understood how Harper and Dax could put away a pizza and wings between the two of them and not breathe fire or end up on the toilet all night.
I liked heat and cooked with lots of spices, but this got to the point where you couldn’t even taste anything with how hot it got.
Void’s eyes began to water as he bit into one of the wings but refused to say anything as he continued to eat.
No way would a man like him let Dax best him as she stuffed her face like nothing was spicy about the food in the slightest.
“Damn, loba, you weren’t fucking around when you said this was going to be spicy.
” Cognac laughed as he pointed to Void’s face, where a tear rolled down his cheek.
“You know English people don’t really handle their spices well, don’t you?
Poor guy, I’ve been working on building his tolerance over the years, but we’re still on the Tabasco level. ”
I tried to hold in my snicker as Void’s face started to turn red, reaching the point where he just couldn’t handle the spice anymore. Taking pity on the guy, I got up and poured him a glass of milk which he just grunted his thanks before chugging it down.
“I warned you guys this was going to be spicy,” Dax pointed out as she watched Void with a creased brow. “Why did you eat it if you don’t like spicy food?”
“Oh, I like spicy food, but it just doesn’t like me,” Void answered. This made us all laugh as he finished off the rest of his milk and slammed the cup down. “How will I get better at eating spicy food if I don’t push myself?”
“I’m not sure that’s how it works,” I offered. “No one will judge you if you can’t handle spicy food. Typically, I don’t eat it, but once in a while, I’ll humor her and the lava-flavored food she likes.”
Void seemed to consider this as he scowled at the hot wing still on his plate. Just as he was going to reach for it, Dax snatched it up with a grin. “Don’t worry, big guy, I’ll save you from having to eat another.”
The man’s answer to this was to grab her around the waist and pull her into his lap, where he buried his face into the back of her neck.
Void was one scary motherfucker, but something about Dax turned him into a teddy bear.
I just hope no one made the mistake of believing this was his normal attitude, or maybe I should let Cameron walk into that trap.
“Alright, now that our bellies are full, I believe, Cam, you had something to share?” Dax announced, relaxing into Void’s hold.
Knowing I was going to need a computer at some point during this conversation, I got up and grabbed the one from the bedroom.
Thankfully, Dax was a workaholic and always had a way of dealing with things around her no matter where she was.
Since I got her all her tech, I knew this computer was safe and untraceable no matter what I used it for.
Rejoining them, I popped open the lid and booted it up as Cameron filled us in on what they found.
“So, I had the fire department send some things to the FBI to be tested against our database. If done locally, it wouldn’t account for anything outside of California, and I had a feeling whoever pulled this off wasn’t a beginner.
They needed to break into your place, take whatever it was out of the safe, and then set the charges without setting off your security.
Granted, you didn’t have any of your phones since you were in our safe house, but the fact he knew he could call Tilly and find you means he’s got eyes on you,” Cameron said, looking at all of us as he spoke that last part, knowing it meant it could be someone in the Phantom Saints crew.
“That’s a topic for another time. Right now, we need to deal with the bombing.
I got word back that the trigger and explosive material used are the same signature as other bombings that have happened all across the East Coast. I think it’s one of the De León Cartel’s hitmen. ”
“My guy, Mike, back at the pizza place told me they weren’t done with me yet,” Dax murmured. “What about the Mad Dogs? Have they been quiet since the attack on the warehouse?”
All eyes shifted to Eagle for the answers. “From what I know, the hit they took has made them regroup. That wasn’t a small attack as far as numbers go, but they took the hit hard. I know Mastiff will want revenge for it, so yeah, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them either.”
I pulled up my portal into my database and accessed the folder we have on the Mad Dogs.
Even if we didn’t do work with the MCs in the area, I always tried to keep tabs on their movements in case we needed to correct anything.
Mostly, they all stayed out of our way since Dax wasn’t subtle about her dislike of MCs and would come down on them hard.
More than one would have been destroyed if they’d gained her attention, but they also should have known better than to poke the bear.
After getting kicked out of California by Eagle and his crew, Mastiff made their headquarters in the Nevada desert outside of Vegas.
His big money was in women and drugs. Drugs I’d bet my left nut came from the Tesoro Cartel.
It makes me wonder if he really wanted Dax because she was promised to him or if that was just a ruse to get his hands on her for Marco.
The Mad Dogs were not good people and were exactly what you’d think a biker gang would be like.
Like their name, they believed they were top dogs and nothing could touch them.
But now that they shot Dax, they were soon to find out just how wrong they were about that assumption.
As we talked after the attack, we estimated that a hundred men came for the fight and lost. A small handful of them got away, but all they would be able to report was that Dax was alive, and they failed, which should have them shaking in their boots.
Quickly, I shot out messages to my people who could check in on the situation and get back to me about what was happening in real-time.
It’s not that I didn’t trust Eagle, I just liked things done a certain way, and no one but me could do it right.
That might make me controlling, but it always kept us one step ahead all these years.
I had a feeling we were going to need every advantage we could in this battle.
“So, here’s the million-dollar question… do we wipe out the Mad Dogs or the De León Cartel first?” Dax asked, leaning forward in Void’s lap, a grin on her lips and vengeance flashing in her eyes.
Things were about to get messy. Let’s hope Cameron was up for the task of dealing with the feds and keeping us out of jail.