25. Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Three
Medusa
Walking into the clubhouse to the stench of cigarettes, sweat, and pot makes me mad. Indiana isn’t a state where pot is legal. I don’t have a problem if people want to smoke pot or take edibles but don’t do it where we can get shut down or go to jail. When they get into this party mood I think they forget there are minors that come here. Some of the members, officers, and prospects are parents or guardians. I won’t have them taken away.
I walk over to the light switch since it’s a mood setting and I flip it up to turn the lights on. Many people groan and someone yells what the fuck!
“If this place isn’t free of drugs by morning, all of you that are here right now will be dealt with old school ways.” My voice is calm and I make sure to look into everyone’s eyes so they know I mean business. “Drugs are not allowed in the clubhouse or on the premises. If you want to do them then go somewhere else. I won’t stop you from doing them but I will stop you from doing them here. This is your one and only warning. Next time, no more chances.” They all look around the room waiting for something—I don’t know. “Am I understood?”
“Yes, President!” They all say not in unison but close. I walk away. “Fancy, get the coffee going. They are going to need to sober the fuck up.” She nods and goes into the kitchen. I notice Bubbles standing with her arms crossed watching everyone. “Rooms need to be checked too. I want the Duchess in charge of that. She won’t do anything to hurt her kids. If she finds out they’re having parties like this, then hell is coming for those girls.” Bubbles's smile gets bigger.
“I’d like to see her lay down some smackdown on some of these girls. They won’t know what hit them.” Bubbles giggles. “Joker said she had something big. Let’s go.” We walk toward Joker’s den when I see Tripline walking my way.
“Hey.” The three of us stopped in the hallway. “I didn’t take part in that. I stayed in my room. I was working on some things.” I raise an eyebrow. “Joker got me the bomb squad report.”
“Did you find something?” Bubbles asks as she catches the piece of paper in Tripline’s hand. She nods. “Do you want to tell us?”
“Oh sorry.” She smiles. Tripline seems to be clear minded, but it’s hard to tell. I know this shit makes her happy so maybe she isn’t on something right now. “Let’s go see Joker. I need her to do her hacking.” We all head out.
“Wow.” The room is Joker’s, and only hers. She has a bed, mini fridge, and a big screen TV off to the left. On the right are about ten computer screens on the wall. They all have something different on it. She’s typing away as she mutters to herself. I see an array of energy drinks and coffee all over the floor. “Someone needs to come in and clean this up,” I whisper to Bubbles as Tripline is talking to Joker.
“I’ll talk to her about leaving so someone can come clean up or she can direct someone to do it. This is disgusting.”
“You know I can hear you, right?” Joker swivels in her computer gaming chair.
“No, I thought you had your headset on and were ignoring all of us.” I cough being caught talking about her. She rolls her eyes at me.
“Let me do this with Tripline first then I’ll get to you nosy people.” I stick my tongue out at her. Bubbles and I stare at the different screens. One is a map, which I assume is the tracker we put on Luca’s car. Then there’s some video of the businesses watching the workers cleaning or just keeping an eye on them. We upped our protection on the other businesses we own. I also offered Smitty some extra protection as well.
“I knew it.” Tripline slams her hands on the desk. Joker yells at her to watch it. “Sorry.” I step forward to see what she’s so excited about. “I was looking at the components of the bomb and something wouldn’t stop nagging me. I’ve seen this chemical makeup before but couldn’t place it. Do you remember the Irish pub we would go to during high school to make money? The old geezers would have us doing their errands. We knew they were the Irish mob but the money was good.” I nod. “They died in an explosion the then the chief of investigations ruled it as a gas leak. It was a bomb. Everything is the same.”
“I remember that someone took credit for that after the funerals of the four men who were inside at the time. Who was it?” Bubbles stands next to me as we surround Joker.
“DeMarcos enforcer Richie.” Joker pulls up his photo.
“Bring up the picture of the men from the day before, can we do a comparison?” Joker does as I ask. “Bingo! They’re father and son.” Joker’s fingers fly over the computer and I see she’s looking up information on Richie. “Didn’t he die about three years ago? If I remember right, it was a car accident. He was drunk.”
“Or so they say.” Bubbles comments. “Look!” She points to the screen. “There are three properties in Richie’s name. There’s a Junior, who is the spitting image of Dad. Should we get some surveillance to the three places?”
“I would, but the ones we need are stoned or drunk.” I sigh. I pace the room with my hands on my head. “Tomorrow at the meeting, Joker, can you write this down for me?” She nods as she gets her notebook ready. “We need to set up at these three places to get some cameras or see if there are street cams we can hack into to watch. I want to make sure he’s there before we kill him. This is confirmation that Luca Rossi is in the DeMarco organization. Hopefully we will know once DaVinci gets the DNA results.”
“Speaking of Luca Rossi or should I say Lucas Thomas Rossi.” Joker spins in her chair to look at me. “Lucas and Luca are the same person. His mother is deceased and she went to high school with Tommy. I bet anyone in this room a thousand dollars he is Tommy’s kid.”
“I’m not taking that bet.” Tripline, Bubbles and I say all together. We all laugh.
“How did he find Michelle? Was it because of me?” I ask.
“Since I can easily hack her phone because you gave me permission since she’s on your account. To me it seems like she pursued him, not the other way around. Just so you know, she doesn’t know he sent someone to kill you. I saw that on a text thread between Luca and D. I’m still going through those text messages. I’m assuming D is DeMarco by the way he’s obsessed with you.”
“I wish that man would just die.” I mutter. “We need to figure out who is who in the organization. I think if we start taking out some of the soldiers, some of the higher ups and make it look like accidents we might be able to get Tommy to come out and play with us.”
“Why not go after their businesses like they did with us?” Tripline mentions as she stares at the screens.
“We will but first we need to even the score a little bit. He’s first.” I point to Richie Jr. “I want him in the shed by the weekend.”
“Let’s get some sleep. Joker, do you have alarms set to wake you up if anything goes amiss on your screens?” Bubbles teases. “I think we all need some sleep.” I nod because I’m so tired I could fall asleep standing.
When I make it to my room, I shower and throw on one of Noah’s t-shirts that he left here when he stayed here one night. I want him to be with me in all aspects of my life, but I don’t know if he could handle it knowing I’m a murderer.
The banging on my door wakes me from my sleep. “Whoever is banging on my door is dead!” I yell as I pull open the door. My hair is wild and eyes are barely open. Derby is standing there with my coffee order from Starbucks and some breakfast from McDonald’s. “It’s too fucking early.”
“It’s seven and the meeting is at eight. If you don’t get your coffee and fully wake up, then we all might die today.” she chuckles, shutting the door with her boot.
“It must be nice to get some sleep.” I growl at her taking the coffee and food from her. “I didn’t get to sleep until almost five. I don’t know if I can do another day like I did yesterday.”
“Take today off. I can cover you at the bar. TJ and Noah are meeting with the architect. They have my input. Until the garage is fixed, I’m free.”
“It’d be nice to get some sleep and then go see my boyfriend. I think my brother has seen him more than I have in the last few days.” I sit down on my bed covering myself up and eat. “I’m mentally drained right now.”
“You have a whole club to lean on.” Derby stares at me. “I noticed the Duchess is doing inspections.” I explained to her what I walked into last night. Derby’s eyes widened. “I can’t believe they would do shit like that.” I shrug. I finished eating and drinking my coffee. I get dressed in black jeans, white tank top with our Valkyries logo on it, and throw my cut on top of it. My hair is in a bun because I’m not going to try to tame it right now. This meeting is too important.