27. Butch
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
BUTCH
T he conference room is filled when Candy and I arrive for church. “Church” is code for what bikers call an important meeting pertaining to club business—like a religious experience. Typically, we never involve our women in these meetings unless they’re directly involved with what we’ll be discussing. It’s a way for us to keep our women safe from what we deal with. We may be mercenaries by occupation, but we’re still bikers at our core. We’re not against breaking a few rules for the better good, especially when it involves the lives of innocent people.
Candy being asked to join our meeting means she’s officially on the team for the mission.
Hand in hand, Candy and I move to the last two remaining seats. Word of my claiming must have traveled fast, seeing as all eyes lock in on us. And anyone who doubted the news certainly doesn’t doubt anymore with Candy sporting my property patch on the back of her club jacket. We receive a few smirks from the crew, but nothing else. They’ll harass us later—it’s time to learn what we’ll be facing with this case.
Helping Candy into her seat, I take the chair beside her and wait for the meeting to get underway .
“Ravens,” Atlas addresses the crew from the front of the room, with Gauge on his right and Piero on his left.
“HOOYAH!” we holler back.
Atlas continues. “Good news. We’ve contacted Patrick Duffy.”
“Fuck me, that was fast,” Punk says, with an amused chuckle.
“It was a collaborative effort. Once we knew who we were looking for—thanks to Candy’s insight—the work was easy. Between Chase digging around on the black web and Piero reaching out to his contacts, we tracked down…” Atlas pauses, seeming to choose his words carefully. “Let’s just say an informant.”
Piero smirks. “The snitch sang like a canary.”
“You and your men have that effect on opposing parties, brother,” Atlas says pointedly.
The mobster shrugs in response, not denying anything.
“The informant gave us a burner number, connecting Piero to Duffy,” Atlas continues, filling us in.
“And how did that conversation go?” Brass asks.
“Better than I expected,” Piero replies smoothly. “Once I introduced myself, the bastard was all too eager to placate. Nerves have a way of doing that when the offender knows they’ve overstepped.”
The room breaks out into chuckles before settling to hear more.
“What did you say to get him to comply so fast?” Stage asks.
“Told him if he insists on stealing from me in my territory, he needs to pay the piper.”
Ziggy asks, “What was the agreed amount?”
“I demanded eighty percent of the profits.” He snickers to himself before adding, “The fool thought himself a negotiator. We agreed I would get seventy percent of the Denver sales and first pick at auction to reclaim any of the Denver women—or as he referred to them, ‘merchandise’—prior to them hitting the bidding floor. A veto, if you will.”
“Merchandise?!” Reaper all but snarls his disgust, slamming his fist into his palm. “Fucker is going to burn.”
“Soon, brother,” Atlas agrees, echoing Reaper’s displeasure .
“Seventy percent?” Triple lets out a low, slow whistle. “Damn. If this was any other business dealing, I’d say you killed it.”
“Who the hell gives away seventy percent of a business deal?” Eagle questions in disbelief.
“An idiot,” Gauge answers. “That’s who.”
“I agree. The man doesn’t have much brains for the operation. But the confidence with which he spoke would suggest he’s leading this flesh trade. Still, I asked who else I was dealing with. Duffy was quick to say he worked alone…” Piero pauses, lost in thought.
“You think there’s someone else behind the scenes pulling the strings?” Gauge asks him.
“Hard to say.” Piero rubs at his chin, musing aloud. “But if there is, he won’t be pleased with his partner giving away over half of their profits to me. No sane businessman would.”
“But this sex trafficking ring seems to be a newer business venture in the state, unlike the ones we’ve dealt with prior. Maybe Duffy is having beginner’s luck in an open market,” Chase suggests.
“Things have been running too smoothly with these traffickers,” Atlas interjects. “It’s more feasible someone else is calling the shots behind the scenes and Duffy is the frontman for the operation.”
“A fall guy,” Punk says, piggybacking off of Atlas’s comment. “Smart thing to have in place if shit goes south.”
“Let’s go into this case playing dumb for appearance’s sake, but keep our eyes and ears open for anyone who may fit the bill of being the real hotshot of the organization,” Gauge suggests.
“Agreed,” Atlas seconds, then motions for Piero to continue.
“My goal was to get this team in front of the women before they went to market. When I asked to see the ‘merchandise’ in person prior to bidding day, Duffy said no. He claims the women are held in multiple locations and it wasn’t possible unless I wanted to do a round-robin. We can’t infiltrate one holding spot without the traffickers informing the other locations they’ve been had. Our best bet is to wait until auction day and get all the women in one fell swoop.”
The crew gives a collective nod of agreement .
“I asked to see headshots of the women. Duffy said the images will be up on the web in a few hours. This will give us a list of the victims up for auction.”
“Do you have a link to the website?” Chase asks.
“Not yet,” Piero explains. “Duffy sends out a link and passcode to all potential buyers the minute the images are uploaded. I’ll forward it on to you once I have the information.”
Chase gives Piero a thumbs up.
“What about the buyers? Were you given any information about them?” Tank asks.
Piero shakes his head. “None was given. When I told Duffy I like to know who my competition is, he hesitated saying all buyers would leave satisfied. I’m thinking there are fewer buyers than captives if he guarantees all buyers will be happy. When I pressed again about the buyers, he claimed he couldn’t reveal buyers without jeopardizing his business.”
“That blows, but it makes sense. If buyers learned Duffy was releasing their names to other buyers, it wouldn’t be only his business on the line. His life would be in jeopardy, too. Did he at least tell you when the auction is happening?” Tank asks.
“A week from tomorrow.”
My eyes widen. “Eight days?!”
I turn my attention to Atlas. “You want to send Candy into the lion’s den in eight days? Prez, that’s not workable. We need to train her in self-defense, and coach her on how to behave for the part, not to mention my woman may want some time working with Brandon. This isn’t me being an overprotective ass—this is me spitting the facts.”
Candy squeezes my hand, trying to reassure me through her touch alone.
“A week is all we have,” Piero informs us. “Duffy doesn’t want to hold the women any longer than necessary, and I can’t request him to hold the auction off without making him suspicious. Any criminal would agree you need to unload the hot goods before law enforcement catches wind of it.”
“If we go in unprepared, it could blow the entire operation and put Candy in danger,” I retort heatedly, my anger slowly coming to a head.
When squeezing my hand does nothing to calm me, Candy firmly, but not harshly, turns my face to hers, cupping my cheeks. “Settle,” she commands in a quiet voice.
My nostrils flare, caught in her stare. I’m justifiably pissed with the timeline. Yet I try to relax for her, because my goddess demands it. I feel the eyes of everyone in the room on us, watching our silent showdown.
“Count to ten,” Candy orders with cool control, encouraging me with her thumb rubbing back and forth over my scruffy cheeks in a soothing motion.
Forcing myself to count in my head, my shoulders slowly drop, my anger sated for the moment.
When I have more of a handle on my temper, I face the others. Most avert their eyes. Punk cocks his head, his eyes shifting between me and Candy like he’s intrigued by our little interaction.
Atlas furrows his dark brows, looking at Candy directly. “Piero and Butch make good points, but it all comes down to one person. Now, we can teach you basic self-defense. We can coach you on how to act when you’re in the viper’s den. Brandon can be here to counsel you through the week if you request it. But it will be a lot. What do you think, Candy? Are you up for an intense week of training? Will you be confident enough with us helping you to go into this case prepared enough?”
With no hesitation, she straightens in her chair and says with all the confidence in the world, “I can do this.”
My heart squeezes with pride at how determined she is to help. Yet I can’t help feeling like I’m drowning in fear and insecurity. This is my woman. If something happens to her because of a rushed operation, I’ll never forgive myself .
Ziggy lays a supportive hand on my shoulder from the other side of me. “We won’t let anything happen to her, Butch. Besides, you’ll be there to make sure of it.”
Still not convinced this is a wise idea, I nod. It’ll fall on me and the rest of the guys to make sure nothing happens to Candy. We’re trained for this type of work, and we’ll handle what comes our way. I have to believe in my family to protect the person I care most about.
Atlas looks around the room at the crew, checking to see if anyone else has any objections to the mission. When no one peeps up, he says, “Then it’s settled. Operation Bring-Candy-Up-To-Speed is underway.”
He sternly looks at my woman, the captain in him taking over. “Go get changed for the gym. Your training begins now.”