Chapter 33—Kooper
Iknow the second she’s taken. Not only because my phone is chirping like a damn alarm, but because the siren goes off in the clubhouse the second shit goes down.
Mad Max called it in, said shots were fired at the hospital. No one thinks twice about hopping onto their bikes and going.
But I already know we’re too late. Too much time has gone by. If things were okay, my team would have told me. Them not calling is all the information I need. Still, I’m not prepared to see it.
The Crazy Eights are on the scene too. I see them, Jack and Billy, run down one hallway, while I go another.
Word is that Law is fine. No one came that way, but Mad Max still has shit locked down.
A few brothers head to his room anyway. The blood trail I’m following is from another brother.
Atom. He got hit multiple times from what I heard over comms.
I’m stopped by a wall of vests, but my eyes go to King. He sees me coming and moves in front to get to me quicker.
“Five, maybe six people came out of a van. No plates. It was white with a blue racing stripe. Nothing on the outside to distinguish it. Went south at the entrance. Told Flint what I could.”
I nod. I get it. Even with the call, the van was gone before Flint could track it. The satellites weren’t in the positions we needed.
“Casper.” I look over at the prez, who’s talking to General. He holds up a finger, and I wait.
“Atom took three shots through and through. The fourth is dug in deep. Going in now. Should be out soon,” General tells Casper.
A day without losing a brother is always a good day.
But losing Ruby? My Peaches? Fuck it all to hell.
The boys are still riled from earlier. They got their punches in.
Not all, but a few. I let Bulldog, Chains, and even Bass have a hit.
When a line formed, I punched back. I’m not about to get a beatdown over falling for some girl.
I can understand the first few hits. I get it.
She’s family. And despite everything, they think I fucked her over.
Actually, I don’t know what they think. They just got mad at her leaving, and, instead of taking it out on themselves, I was the easy target.
A willing one, because the woman was right.
I should have just claimed her, then and there.
Should have done anything, even groveled, to keep her there.
But I didn’t. Not sure if it’s because I still don’t think I deserve her after all the shit that went down.
After I wanted to use her to get the presidency.
I saw her as a thing to use. To dispose of after I got what I wanted. But somehow along the way, I fell in love with her. Not the sweet kind that gives flowers and recites poetry. The hard kind. The gritty kind. The kind people burn bridges for and end up locked behind bars. The obsessive kind.
I was shook when she left. When she called out what we did and threw it away so quickly.
In one breath, she acknowledged what we had and tossed it aside.
In that moment of weakness was when my brothers attacked.
Just three times. Enough for me to get my head on straight and tell them to fuck off.
But enough for the damage to be done already.
She’s gone.
“Casper,” I say again, and he looks at me. He knows what I want. He got the same debrief from King like I did just seconds before.
“Yeah, I’ll ask Billy, see what C8 can do.”
I nod because I appreciate it. It means the club will owe the Crazy Eights again. That they’ll have something over on us like before. When all this started and old ladies became part of the damn club and not just a fable a vamp dreamed about when she was in a brother’s arms for a minute.
“Like fuck you’ll ask us.”
We all turn at Jack’s words as she storms down the hall. Billy’s close by her, but not with as much pep. Tears are leaking down her face, and I know they ain’t for our own.
“You had one job. One goddamn job.” Jack gets close to Casper and pushes him.
One push, and that’s all it takes for another brother, Walker, to get in front of her and push her back. For the brothers to realize that we’re no longer friends. No one touches, let alone pushes, a president.
Walker holds her back, but I see the struggle as she keeps trying to get out of his hold.
“You won’t get shit from us. None of you. You can suck a dick for all we care.”
“Settle the fuck down,” Casper booms, then looks at his woman.
“Krista?” His voice is softer as he uses her real name, something I know isn’t used often between them unless it’s just them.
Or in sweet moments behind the bar or in a dark corner when they think it’s the two of them against the world.
But the stricken look on her face has him coming over to her and cradling her in his arms as he tries to get an idea of what’s going on.
“She’s dead. Rue’s dead.”
Shit. This complicates things. Of course, the Crazy Eights will be out for blood. They lost one of their own. But maybe we can pool our resources. Use that hatred to find my girl.
“We said we would work with you. We said we would do shit your way. You were told that the only thing we wanted was the same protection for our people as you gave the others,” Jack snaps.
“We did.” Casper looks confused, and Jack turns to King, whose face is stoic as he looks on.
“Did you? ’Cause the security feed I saw showed you leaving her there to bleed out while you helped your friend. Even after they left, you stayed away.”
She pushes Walker’s arms off her and takes a few steps away, then comes back. Walker holds his hands out wide to block her from coming close to any other brother, but that doesn’t keep her from pointing her finger right at King as she speaks.
“Her death is on you. Hers and your kid’s.”
We all turn to King. He looks stricken as his eyes go wide.
“That’s right. She was pregnant. Your kid, King. Yours. No one else’s. And you left him to die. Just like her. The Crazy Eights are done with the Hounds of the Reaper. You need to find someone? Find them your fucking selves.”
She turns and walks away, muttering and cursing as she goes. Billy turns her head into her man, away from the rest of us, and cries. We can’t hear it, but we see the shakes.
I look at King and feel sadness. Dread. The guy had no clue. None of us knew they had hooked up. Was it before she told us who she was or after?
Does it matter?
King looks at us. None of us have judgment in our eyes. How can we? This shit is serious.
“I didn’t know,” he says with a shake of his head.
“I… I didn’t know.” He turns and walks a bit, shaking his head.
Then he slams a fist into the wall, smashing through the plaster.
It comes out bloody, but he doesn’t even stop for aid, just pushes off a nurse who comes to help and walks out.
Walker and a few of the other brothers follow.
No one left behind. No matter how fucked up that is to say or think right now, it’s the truth. Hounds don’t do shit alone.
“Casper.” This time when I say his name, I give him the time he needs to pull away from his woman and look at me.
I don’t know what this will mean for them.
And honestly, at this second, I don’t care.
I need my girl. I need to have her in my arms. Till I do, not much else matters.
“I need a few brothers to come check on my team.”
I’m asking for help. I’m letting him know that I have others. Others I trust beyond the Hounds to help. Does that make me an outsider? Someone not fit for the club because of who I ask for help and who I don’t?
I see the anger flare in his eyes before he nods. But that look lets me know the conversation isn’t done. That there will be a shit ton more to talk about when we all get the chance to catch a fucking breath.
“Bass, Gator, Jumper, go with him. Report back once it’s done.”
I nod and head out, not questioning who he chose.
I get it. Gator’s good with tech. Bass knows his weapons.
And Jumper is crazy enough to survive anything thrown his way.
He jumps off buildings for fun. Going to look at the damage to my team and what I might have caused this club is a walk in the park compared to what he’s used to.
Finding my team is easy. I track them just like I do with Peaches. But unlike Peaches, whose phone was tossed before she even got into the van, they just left my guys’ phones next to their bodies.
“Jesus,” Jumper says as he takes in the scene.
My team had the trackers too. They followed her from the club to the hospital. They must have expected her to be there for a while, like she usually is. That explains why they’re both on the roof across the street.
Doesn’t explain the other body, though. But if you take in every part of the scene—the carnage, the empty shell casings—you get the picture.
Someone was up here to take out Ruby. Or to just be the eye in the sky.
They weren’t expecting my guys to show. To deem that the same building had the best vantage point to see who was coming and going from the hospital.
I check one of my guys, then the next. My brothers stand around and assess while I confirm what’s obvious. My team is dead.
“This the whole team?” Bass asks.
I shake my head. “Two more. One got called away to do another gig, and the other had the day off. Fuck.”
I stand and kick at the gravel on the roof. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go down. My team was good. We survived worse than this in the Middle East.
“They trained?” Gator questions with an eyebrow raise, and it pricks at my anger.
“Watch your mouth, boy.”
He holds up his hands in surrender. “No mouth, just questions. If they were just some flyby boys, this can be tossed aside as a sloppy mess. If they were trained, then we have to assume that there was more than one guy up here to get the drop on your team. And if that’s the case, we might need to think on whether they knew about them before they came up here. ”
“What are you saying?” Jumper asks as he kneels beside the guy I don’t know. One who must have been with the team that nabbed Ruby.
“This was planned. They’ve been watching her. And they’re good. So good that you and your team didn’t notice. They saw her leave, saw an opportunity, and took it.”
I nod but then shake my head. “These guys trained with me. No way they got taken out by a rookie.”
“Exactly. This was planned and well organized. King picked a fucking great time to screw us all over,” Bass mutters as he steps over a body and goes to look at something across the way.
Having the Crazy Eights would have helped us.
They have resources. They can get into places—have gotten into places—without others noticing.
They play at being weak, exploiting a person’s desire to look away from the uncomfortable, like someone with a disability or smelling of garbage.
They hide that way. They do it well too.
We never saw it coming when they pulled that shit on us.
And from the OHH debriefing forms I’ve looked into, they still make it work.
“There a reason why you picked them?” Bass stands tall and nods to the bodies on the ground. “Why you asked for their help and not ours?”
The club. The brotherhood.
“You know why.” I hold his stare, which isn’t easy to do. Hounds have an ability to make anyone uncomfortable just by looking at them. Even another Hound.
“You ever think that was your sign? That if you had to hide it from us, you shouldn’t be messing around in it?”
Bass, like everyone else, has a right to what he feels.
Hell, I know he was close to my girl. He’s always seen her as a baby sister and ragged on her enough that it was a mutual thing for her.
He has a right to have thoughts, feelings, and whatnot.
But he doesn’t get a say in how I feel. In what I feel.
“You might think you know what happened, but you don’t,” I say with a shake of my head.
“It was never meant to be like this. What I feel for her….” I hang my head as I put my hands on my hips and look at the bodies.
“It didn’t start out that way. She was a job.
Just a job. They were called in when I wanted a night off.
I still did the job, just outsourced when I got tired, or bored. But then….”
“Things changed.” This from Gator, and I see that he’s starting to get it. He’s newer to the club. Prospected a few years back. Not as much history as some brothers have with Ruby, but still close. They all got close to her. She was around. She was nice. She fit in with the old ladies. Still does.
I nod. “Yeah. Things changed.” I look back at Bass. “I needed them to protect her when the club couldn’t. Or wouldn’t.”
Bass looks away first, then turns back and nods. He understands now.
“What now?” This from Jumper.
I don’t answer, because I don’t know. Hunt, obviously. But where? Which direction? We’re blind.
“We call our friends.” Bass pulls my attention, along with Gator’s and Jumper’s. “We pool our resources. We do what we have to do. Ruby’s family. She might not like us right now, but she is.”
The boys nod and pull out their phones to make calls. Bass pats me on the back as he walks by.
“Don’t worry, brother. We’ll get your old lady back. Kicking and screaming if we have to.”
While I appreciate his call that I’m still his brother, I doubt his words. Getting Peaches back won’t be easy. And there’s no doubt that she’s doing a fair amount of kicking and screaming. The girl doesn’t like to be pinned down. From my experience, she’s the one who does the holding down.
And I’m the only one who gets to enjoy that. I promised myself I would be her first and last. And I don’t break promises.
I break necks.