Chapter 21 #2
I’d lingered after the funeral, curious to see what Keegan was up to.
My heart raced the moment I saw a woman who wasn’t Vanna, waiting for him at a grave beneath an old oak tree.
They embraced upon meeting, and she placed a kiss upon his cheek.
I’d tasked Reaper with finding out who she was.
Had the pixie blonde been Keegan’s new squeeze, I’d have had two reasons to rejoice.
A believable and warranted reason to divert attention from Vanna to this woman I felt nothing for, as well as an opening to pursue Vanna for myself.
“Yet you went on to enlist Jack Nero in your war against us. Spare me your bullshit claims of concern for my wife,” Keegan growls.
A pang of guilt jabs through my solar plexus with the sharpness of a fuckin’ blade. “Against you. We’ve been over this.”
“You have no idea how often I go over this .” He scoffs. “How what you orchestrated that night still haunts us both. Forgiveness… Redemption… They’re an impossibility!”
“Perhaps for you, they are.” I can’t say I blame him, but we both know Vanna has a soft heart.
And although I want to earn it, I know she will eventually bestow her forgiveness upon me.
The hearts of angels grant even us undeserving demons a place to dwell within.
“It’s inevitable. You should make your peace with it. ”
Keegan leans closer, practically bristling like a wolf. “And you should know, I’ll do everything in my power to prevent that from happening.”
Though I expected him to harbor a certain level of animosity, his words struck…analogous to a physical blow.
Before I can reply, there’s activity across the street.
I subtly nod toward the black van pulling over near the side gate of the scrapyard.
Keegan shifts his dark gaze in its direction as two men jump out, each carrying a small duffel bag.
The one with bright blonde hair looks around nervously as he makes his way through the gate.
“Cooks,” I say. “It appears Stanley wasn’t lying about this place still being operational. The production of meth is generally a nocturnal activity.”
The two men shut themselves inside the gates, then padlock the chain as the van drives off. Keegan turns back to me. “And what became of the man in the van ?”
“I haven’t killed him yet, if that’s what you’re asking. I imagine they’ve put him to work elsewhere. He’s due to check in by tomorrow night with more intel.”
Keegan skeptically arches a brow. “You trust him not to run? Or set you up?”
“Of course not. That’s what his family is for .
He doesn’t know how many men I could have watching.
The darkness may have concealed your identities in the Jokers’ cellar.
However , your shadowed forms impressed upon him the integral belief I’m not working alone.
If he double-crosses me now, they’ll kill him before I’d be able to get to him. ”
Keegan shakes his head as if my methods go against his moral code. “Jesus fuck… Well, what else did he tell you?”
“There are other locations within Jocsan County. Though I know you gave your word to assist the Jokers, your precious Bermuda County is my priority, for reasons of which I’m sure we agree.”
“ We do ,” Keegan reluctantly concedes, gazing down at his wedding band.
“Shall we, then?” I force a smile and gesture toward the scrapyard.
“No.” Keegan expels an agitated breath and nods to the establishment behind us. “This restaurant closes at ten. We’ll come back when the area is less populated. In the meantime, you can tell me what else the man in the van had to say about this operation.”
I can’t fault his logic. It would be wise to wait until there are fewer witnesses around.
“Very well. You’re the boss . They’re running this operation similarly to the way I was.
None of the cooks or the dealers know who the real shot-callers are, by design.
There are multiple cells operating on their own and run by regional managers , if you will.
Depending on the demand of an area, these cells occasionally share cooks, which is why Stanley knew about this place.
I snagged him in Jocsan, but he’s done work here in Bermuda County.
Potentially, he could provide us with intel on other cells. ”
Keegan’s phone buzzes in his pocket, but he ignores it. “What else did he tell you about my county?”
“Last he heard, they were still dealing near the Budget Inn.”
“So, Stan doesn’t know who’s at the top of mount meth.”
“Stan doesn’t. But I do .” In fact, I suspected it the moment Stanley began to explain the infrastructure of the network. It simply couldn’t be anyone else…
“How?” Keegan asks as the cell in his pocket rings again.
“Perhaps you should take that? I’m not going anywhere, after all.”
He begrudgingly answers the call, and Viking’s booming voice demanding to know where he is may as well have been on speaker.
“Ford Focus is covering my shift at the safehouse with Axel. I’m with Legion.
We’re about to head over to the Budget Inn for a little recon,” Keegan explains, to which Viking informs him he’s on his way.
Keegan shoves the phone back in his pocket.
“You might as well explain to both of us. Let’s go. ”
K eegan and I pull into the back corner of a gas station across the street from the seedy motel. While he informs Viking of our exact whereabouts, I remove the binoculars from my saddlebag and scan the motel’s lot.
The moment Viking arrives, Keegan breaches the subject once again. “Now tell us who we’re going after, and how you know.”
“As previously stated, they’re running shit the way I was, working with multiple smaller crews to distribute the product. And that guy parked in the blue Tahoe on the far side of the lot, I believe he reports to this region’s Capo.”
“ Capo …” I can feel Keegan’s interminable fucking glare burning into the side of my face.
“An underboss in this network,” I explain. “The one the street soldiers report to. The guy who then relays everything to the top guy in charge. The regional fucking manager! ”
“ Fuck you , I’m familiar with the term,” Keegan grumbles, snatching the binoculars from me. “You just confirmed what I always suspected of you.” He slowly scans the area and zeros in on the vehicle.
“ Oh?”
“That you’ve always been more gangster than biker ,” he grumbles. “Speaking of bikes, what made you swap out that flashy chromed-out Indian you used to ride before the black one?”
“She served her purpose…” I sigh, recalling the night a few years ago when she was blown up…a casualty of my self-inflicted mission in the pursuit of redemption. “Indistinguishability evolved into necessity.” Keegan glances at me curiously, and I shrug. “What draws the eye also tends to evolve.”
“Do any of these pricks ride?” Viking asks.
“A few cells are MCs. This guy also rides a newer model, copper-on-black Harley Davidson Road King. Some modifications and upgrades. Stage five kit. Have you heard of the Iron Rebels MC, based out of Creek County?”
Keegan passes Viking the binoculars and shifts his attention to me. “I see you’ve been busy since the Jokers’ party,” he begrudgingly admits.
“I didn’t come back to fuck around.”
His stare narrows with disdain. “ Didn’t you?”
I return his steely gaze at the insinuation regarding my nebulous relationship with Vanna. “She means a great deal more to me than that , Keegan.”
“Not to break up this heart-to-heart, but speaking of , looks like we got ourselves a bump and bang operation,” Viking announces.
“Some guy just exchanged cash for a small baggie and is heading to a room upstairs… Yup , there’s a door with a heart-shaped sticker next to the room number, two-fourteen.
He’s headed right for it.” He hands the binoculars back to Keegan.
“Are these women willing?” Keegan demands, ready and willing to kick in a door and sweep the damsel up into his Knightly arms. I suppress a sneer at his bone-deep inclination.
“I’d venture to say they are,” I reply, lighting up another cigarette. I pull a long drag and exhale the smoke. “ He’s always had a soft spot for whores.”
Both Saviors shift their attention to me.
“There’s only one man who could be running this operation. The only one who was privy to my methods when I built the original network,” I explain.
“The suspense is killing me,” Viking dryly states.
“Reaper,” I say, and Keegan scowls in recollection of my former Sergeant at Arms. “ Ah, yes , I believe the two of you briefly met.” It was right around the time I began to suspect a waver in Reaper’s allegiance.
The memory of what transpired that night resurfaces with a vengeance, bringing with it a torrent of rather inconvenient emotions.
I t was the same night Vanna sought me out at the Demon’s Den, and inevitably confessed to falling pregnant with Keegan’s child… As if the bubbling cauldron of conflicted emotions brewing inside of me over her hadn’t been torment enough prior to that revelation! She was fucking pregnant…
“That complicates things… More than you even know…” Vanna’s earlier words slap me across the face. Puppet wasn’t lying… My intestines knot as they did the night Vanna came to me with a plea and her news…
What had been a foreign feeling then had stolen my breath and made my heart riot with vacillating emotions in my chest. It took every shred of self-control to retain the image of indifference to her condition.
I’d needed the distance to compose myself as much as I’d needed to avoid Keegan the night she showed up demanding answers.
I hadn’t anticipated she possessed the lady-balls to pull a stunt like that.