Chapter Seventeen
King
Church was full this morning. My men all sat around the table, while the men from Arkansas lined the walls. Cash had offered Angel Hash’s chair. He’d refused to sit in it and instead leaned against the wall. The chair sat empty. Reminding us all of what we had lost.
I sat in my chair and slammed the gavel on the table. “Meeting is called to order. We have a lot of shit to go over. Angel, as interim president, I need to catch you up on what we know.”
I looked over at Mimic. “Where is your old lady?”
“In the kitchen watching over Sam, Rose, and the girls.”
I nodded, then looked at Cash. He nodded, knowing what I was about to do.
“Angel, this information does not leave this room. If any of your men can’t be trusted, send them out now.”
“I’ll vouch for every single one of them,” he assured me.
The Gods of Mayhem were not at this meeting. This was strictly club business. “How many men didn’t vote?”
“Ten, if you include Steele, Stone, Lynch, Demise, and Ballistic.”
“Why didn’t you ask Ballistic?”
“Because he was firmly lodged up Steele’s ass. He would have told him what was going on.”
I looked around the room. “And the men you brought?”
“All happy to vote yes,” Krypto replied for him. “Especially after what we learned yesterday. Titan was a good man. He didn’t deserve what he got, and knowing it was his sons that did it sealed their fate.”
“Stone’s going to try to call Steele. He won’t be put off for long.”
“I’ve got his phone,” Zombie said. “I’ve been texting him. Being cryptic about talking. Telling him it’s not safe. He’s expecting Steele to meet with Skinner in two days.”
“We’ll be back home by then and taking out the trash,” Venom said with a grin.
“Then it’s official. The Diamond Creek Chapter will now be the main charter. Little Rock is secondary.” I hit the gavel on the table, and my brothers banged their fists and stomped their feet.
“You sure you can handle Stone, Ballistic and the others?” I asked Angel.
“About that. I learned some information last night, and I’d like to stay here until I can get some answers.”
“What information?” Gunner asked.
Angel looked over at Banshee, who had his eyes on the table.
“You all heard Steele. I was in love with his wife, Kay. Banshee’s sister. Had I known who she was at the time, I would have said something. She was pregnant when Steele sold her. I’d like to talk with Kyllian and see if she knows what happened to the baby.”
“How old was Kyllian?”
“She would have been six or seven when the baby was born,” Angel answered.
“Banshee, did Kyllian mention a baby?” I asked.
“No. Kyllian said Steele sold her because she couldn’t have any more kids and he wanted a boy.”
“She was pregnant,” Angel growled adamantly.
“Brother, I’m sorry. From what Kyllian said she went through, she probably lost the baby.”
“Maybe. But I need to know for sure,” Angel argued.
“You are the interim president.”
“I am, but I’d like to nominate someone else.”
“Who?” Cash asked.
“Zombie,” Angel said, his eyes on me.
Zombie straightened from the wall and said, “What the fuck?!”
“Brother, you know what you’re doing. I’m not a fucking president, I’m an enforcer. You have two more right there.” Angel pointed at Krypto and Venom. “You’re fucking smart, and you deserve it.”
The room was quiet as Zombie and Angel faced off. Ambush stepped forward and said, “I second the nomination.” One by one, the men from the Arkansas Chapter stepped up and agreed it should be Zombie.
“Well, Zombie? What do you say?”
He paced the room as we all waited for him to come to the same conclusion. When I ripped the patch off Steele’s chest, I’d handed it to Angel because he was closest. I knew he wouldn’t want it.
“Do I have a choice?”
“Well, you can take that patch home and hand it to Stone,” I challenged.
“Fuck that, gimme the damn thing.” He held his hand out to Angel, who dug into his pocket. When he pulled out the patch, he slammed it into Zombie’s hand. The room once again thundered with fist pounding and foot stomping. “This is fucking temporary,” he grumbled.
“Okay, now that’s settled, there is some information you need to know. Chasm is alive. I haven’t spoken to him. But Banshee has seen him, and he spoke to Banshee’s old lady.”
When Banshee’s head popped up, I grinned. “He has also spoken to mine and my enforcer’s.”
“Your what, Prez?” Romeo asked.
“Yeah, Prez, your what?” Zero said, as others chimed in with their own questions.
I groaned and rubbed my hands over my face. “My old lady. You fucking happy?”
“Couldn’t be fucking happier,” Jack bellowed and pounded his fists on the table as the others joined in.
I couldn’t hide my smile even if I’d wanted to.
Steele was dead, and even better, he wasn’t Grace’s father.
I didn’t know who was, and frankly, I didn’t give a shit.
She would have my patch on her back, and with a little bit of luck, my ring on her fucking finger before we found out.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Enough fuckers.” I chuckled at my men. My brothers. My family. We still needed to take a vote for Aspen and Grace. Until Nav returned, that would have to wait. It was a formality, though. I didn’t foresee anyone objecting to Aspen or Grace.
“Where has he been?” Zombie asked, bringing the room back to order with four words.
“We don’t know. We don’t know what happened.”
I remembered that day as if it were yesterday, though. I’d lost my best friend, or so I thought.
Arkansas, six years ago...
“Everyone, shut the fuck up!” Steele yelled into the room.
Church was full today. Every brother was here. Even the prospects.
All but one.
The room fell quiet, and we waited to see how he would explain the shitstorm we’d encountered. What was supposed to be a routine run ended in death.
I sat in my chair, my mind anywhere but on the events of the day. I didn’t need a rundown. I was there. I’d experienced it firsthand.
“I don’t have fucking answers yet,” he told them.
I glared at my president. He was fucking lying to them. He knew what had happened. He set the fucking thing up.
Set up Chasm.
“What do we know?” Banshee asked.
I turned my head in his direction. He was older. Had been with the club for fifteen years. He trusted Steele. Hell, we all trusted him.
Until today.
“Why was he in that building alone?” Cobra asked.
“He volunteered,” Stone answered.
Stone was our VP. Steele’s twin brother. Younger than Steele by a mere two minutes. Forcing him to be the VP when he should have been the president.
Their father started the Silver Shadows in 1968 after returning from the Vietnam War. Titan was a good man. I’d thought Steele was too.
When Titan got himself killed by a rival club, Steele took over by default. That was what the bylaws dictated. The gavel went to the oldest male Ward offspring. Lucky for Titan, he had two boys. So, if one didn’t make it, he had an extra.
At this moment, I was considering promoting Stone.
“Bullshit,” Monty snapped. “He wouldn’t volunteer to go in alone. He should have had someone with him.”
Monty was right. I was supposed to be with him. Only, Steele held me back. At the time, it didn’t feel intentional. But now I was questioning every move he’d made.
“I was supposed to go in with him.”
“Then where the fuck were you?” Crater asked.
Good question. Where the fuck was I?
My best fucking friend walked into a trap and I was sucking Steele’s cock. Well, not literally. But until today I had looked up to my president. He ranked up there with my big brother as one of the most important men in my life.
“I had him doing something else. Chasm was told to wait; he didn’t,” Steele explained.
Cash’s gaze bored into mine. He knew something was up. Cash was smart. Observant. He didn’t lose his temper like I did. He would make a good VP.
Where did that thought come from?
I looked around the room. Some of these men I trusted more than others. Those were the men I focused on.
Gunner. He was a big son of a bitch. He knew how to fight and keep men in line. He would be a good SAA.
Jingles and Ghost were tough. They both knew how to fight dirty and get the job done. Together they would be a hell of a team as enforcers.
Colt was fucking smart. A human calculator. He was the money man.
Jack and Blade came as a team. Blade was young when he joined, but he and Jack connected. One wouldn’t go without the other. And Jack was organized. Despite his personality.
Nav was definite. He was a tech God. He could find anything online.
There were others. Men I knew would be loyal. Men I knew were tired of the shit we were doing day in and day out.
I looked at Cash again and nodded. The corners of his mouth pulled up, but you would’ve had to be looking at him to notice. He knew what I was thinking. He had mentioned it before in passing, and I had blown him off. He had never trusted Steele.
I was the road captain. I was privy to information he wasn’t, and I assured him Steele wouldn’t betray our loyalty. God, was I fucking wrong.
And it had cost Chasm his life.
Steele continued on, giving some bullshit story about how he would find out what went wrong and avenge our brother’s life. That his death wouldn’t be in vain.
I stared at him. And when he looked at me and nodded, I nodded back. I would find out what happened, and I knew it would differ from whatever bullshit Steele came up with.
“Like I said, none of us have actually talked to him.”
“But three old ladies have? Do any of them know him?” Keno asked.
“Aspen does. You’ve all seen the Gods of Mayhem here.
Well, both of their missing daughters have found their way to us.
I won’t go into her story, but Diana is Mimic’s mother.
And Aspen is Irene. She changed her name when she got away from the Death Dogs.
Aspen is Banshee’s old lady, and she knows Chasm. ”
“What about yours and his?” Venom asked, motioning toward Mimic, and I heard the question he didn’t ask.
“My old lady works at the bar in town. Chasm was in there as a patron the night the Death Dogs attacked. He saved my woman’s life, and introduced himself as Jude.”
It was his birth name. Jude Peterson. Not everyone knew it. Many of the brothers knew his name was Jude, but they didn’t know who he was.
I suspected Steele had found out, and that was why he sent Chasm into that warehouse. I had my own suspicions as to why Chasm had stayed hidden. The message he’d given to Grace confirmed it. He thought I was the one who’d set the trap.
I was supposed to be in that warehouse with him. I should have been dead too. The fact that he hadn’t died led me to believe he knew it was a trap and had taken precautions.
The question was, why had Steele targeted him? What did Steele know? What had Chasm learned?
“I gotta say, brother. It’s suspicious as fuck,” Venom noted.
“She didn’t know him,” Mimic spoke up. I leaned back in my chair and nodded, letting him have the floor. “Indie and I were there when he gave Grace a message for King.”
“What was the message?” Zombie asked.
I blew out a breath. Mimic didn’t talk much, but when he did, he had a way of saying too fucking much.
“That he was coming for me.”