Chapter Twenty #2
There is no quip back, enough that my heart thumps a little but Beast straightens up and looks out across the parking lot.
“Everyone thinks this is about me not stepping up and taking care of my shit,” he says.
“It’s not?” I ask with less sarcasm or amusement in my tone.
“Her mom… She looks just like her mom.”
That is not something I’ve thought about a lot. The kid’s mom died, which was why she showed up here and Beast never knew she was pregnant when he left. That’s got to mess with his head. The way he is looking off into the distance is about more than the shock of it. It’s grief.
“She meant a lot to you?”
He sniffs and turns to face me. “No bullshit?”
“No,” I straighten up.
“She’s the only woman I’ve ever loved.”
There is no point asking why he left, that will just open up more wounds. “Then do right by her kid. By your kid. Do you think she would want you to run away and bury your head in the sand? Or be the only person Tink can turn to. She has nowhere else to go, Derek.”
“Isabella.”
“What?”
“That’s her real name. Found out when I did the paternity test. Not sure why she goes by Tink.”
“Well, we know more than most about nicknames,” I point out.
“I don’t… I just… How do I do it?”
“Start by introducing yourself, maybe?”
He rolls his eyes.
“It’s gonna take a while for both of you to get your heads around this. Sometimes baby steps is the only way to go. Raven will help. She’s all salty asking me to get you to get your head out of your ass but she would never toss the kid out. She likes her.”
“She does?” he looks up.
“Not sure that’s a good thing, man. I think she might be on Raven’s wavelength and that means trouble.”
“If you’re trying to make me feel better, you’re shit at it.”
“Making you feel better isn’t what is important. Tink is.”
He heaves out a heavy breath and nods. “She showed up at the wrong time.”
“There is never a right time for shit like this.”
“I mean with the whole shit show with Storm. Look what happened to Sheridan.”
“That won’t happen to Tink.”
“How do you know? He went after her to get to Nero’s kid.”
“We protect our own. We didn’t let him get to Oscar. Taylor and Jesse were okay. Sheridan,” I heave out my own heavy sigh. “We missed that but we have her now.”
All the council know what state she was found in and where she was being held. The thought of Charley ending up somewhere like that raises an instant red hot rage in my veins. I’d tear through the whole fucking place if anyone laid a hand on her like that.
I’m not going to talk about my problems and how I’m dealing with the fall out of all that, this is about getting Beast around to the idea of having a kid who needs him.
The door opens and a blast of AC/DC follows Fury out of the bar. He holds up his phone.
“Razer called.”
Beast and I exchange a look. Anything else is going to have to wait. We get on our bikes and head to the clubhouse.
Things are tense when we arrive but no one says anything as we walk up the stairs.
Everyone except Razer is here now. Nero’s gaze flicks to Beast as he takes his seat. He waits until we’re all sitting down then pushes his cell phone onto the table and hits the speaker button.
“Everyone is here. What have you got?” Nero gets straight to the point.
“This whole town is smaller than Locust Point,” he starts out, sounding frustrated. “Keeping a low profile is not easy.”
“Is this the part where you tell us your job is hard, or you get to the fucking point?”
Nero frowns at Rebel but doesn’t say anything. Everyone is on edge over Storm. Not knowing where the fucker is makes us all frustrated and anxious.
“The surrounding area is owned by a group called the Kivisto’s. They’re a mobbed up family out of Finland.”
“Finland?” Blaze asks, grabbing hold of his beard, a habit he has when he is thinking.
“Second generation but from what I’ve seen, it’s slick.”
“Storm is working with them?” Nero asks, looking pissed.
I get it, how the fuck does he keep landing on his feet? Everything went to shit with his last collaboration. Cannon and his crew are likely to be locked up for the next ten to twenty years.
“Trying to. Remember Kirk Wallen? I saw him having a meeting with two of the Kivisto’s. We can’t get close enough to see what is going down.”
“You still haven’t had eyes on Storm?” Rebel asks.
“No,” Razer says, the frustration clear in his voice.
“I thought Kirk Wallen was in prison,” Fury says.
“He got out a year ago,” Blaze said, his face a mask of anger.
“That is a piece of information we could have used. We can’t afford to let anything slip by us.”
“That’s on me, Prez,” Blaze shakes his head.
“Go find out everything you can about the Kivisto family,” Nero says and we all watch Blaze as he stands, his chair pushing back a lot harder than necessary, almost toppling over as he leaves the room.
No one will judge him as harshly as he will judge himself.
“How do you want me to play it?” Razer asks.
“We get intel on this family, you keep watching Wallen. Storm might be making some good moves, but bringing in Wallen isn’t one of them. Fresh out of prison and not having anywhere to turn means he could be swayed.”
“You want me to try that?”
“Not yet, let Blaze get what he can on this family. I want to know if they’re smart enough to see through Wallen or if they’re just going for whatever Storm is promising them. Hold tight for a couple more days.”
“Got it.”
Razer hangs up and Nero tucks his phone back in his pocket.
“How does he keep evading us?” Stryker asks. “He wasn’t this smart before. Maybe we should have kept Chains alive longer.”
“Chains didn’t know anything else,” Nero cuts that line of thought off.
Chains was a brother and a traitor, feeding Storm information that almost got most of the officers at the club killed. He was also Stryker’s cousin, who he tortured for days to get information out of.
“Storm had him on the hook for what he wanted, not because he was bringing Chains into the inner circle, it was a way to keep track of our movements.”
“Are you suggesting Storm might have someone else behind him?” Rebel asks Stryker, picking up on his comment when everyone else thought back on Chains’ involvement in this whole mess. “Have you heard anything else at the Battleground?”
“No.”
Stryker asking questions would stick out like a sore thumb, he works best in the shadows, watching and listening.
“Fury go to Stryker’s next fight and see if you can find anything out.
What Storm was up to all started at the Battlegrounds.
Everyone else, keep doing what you’re doing.
We’ll get to the fucker one way or another.
And no one lets their guard down. Nashville, make sure everyone knows we’re still on full alert. ”
There isn’t much more to say so church breaks up.
This limbo we’re in is getting to all of us. No one wants to sit back and wait to see what Storm’s next move is, but the fucker is doing a really good job of staying a few steps ahead of us. I trust my brothers, we will find out what the asshole is planning.
Preferably without anyone else getting hurt.