Chapter Six
Nero
Downstairs is quiet. I sent those who were hanging around over to the bar, because what we need to discuss here cannot be overheard by anyone except my council. Stryker’s bombshell from earlier today has been on repeat inside my head.
A fucking traitor. I got complacent, thinking Storm was in the past. Kept an eye on him for a while to be sure but after three years, I let it go, taking Ghost off his tail. Fuck, I wish I could call Ghost right now to pick that back up.
The other thing that keeps plaguing my thoughts, and one I’m fighting with everything I have, is Cherry.
Jesus, I’ve even given her a fucking nickname. Her swollen cherry red lips keep popping into my head at the most inopportune moments. I’ve spent far too long imagining them, wrapped around my cock preferably, smearing cherry red lipstick all over me.
I push her from my mind. She is not my concern. If anything, I need to steer clear of her, I’m the one who told her to forget we ever met after all.
We’re on Disciples turf here, that is what I need to focus on. Not the sexy, spitfire nurse who’s lips I want to devour to see if they taste as good as I imagine. Cherries have always been a weakness.
Every one of my officers is in the room. Rebel got Raven to give him a couple of bottles of her best whisky from the bar. She’d made him pay for them before she handed them over. He’s been grumbling about it since he got in here.
I filled him in on what this was about before I gathered everyone here. Rebel understood we’re going to need it.
Stryker has been quiet. He’s a man of few words as it is, but the news he brought to me has rendered him mute. When you find out family is not only fucking you over, but everything you hold dear, it will do that to you.
When I dropped Jesse’s car at home and grabbed my cut, he said Stryker didn’t say a word, handed over the cut and walked away. He’d also quizzed me about my trip to the clinic and the fact I even took off my cut but I waved him off. It’s unexplainable.
I look around at my men, we’ve talked about other business and everyone has had a couple of drinks.
But now it’s time to get down to the real problem.
Stryker is standing apart from us, leaning against the wall holding his glass.
It’s not disrespect, he often stands when we’re holding Church, but tonight it’s different.
I’m not having him feel separated and catch his attention.
“Take your seat.”
He hesitates for a beat, then pushes off the wall and sits beside Blaze, our club secretary, clasping his hands on the table. His knuckles are bruised and cut after his last fight. The one where he learned what his cousin is doing.
He knew this moment would come the minute he told me what he found out. The brothers won’t judge him, but his shoulders are tense, anyway.
Everyone listens as I explain, not making Stryker even more uncomfortable by asking him to repeat it.
The men around the table became my council within days of me starting my presidency. I handpicked them all because I trust them. Knowing there is a traitor in our ranks has them in varying degrees of annoyance. Rebel shows the least reaction, his questions will come after everyone has gone.
Whereas Beast our Tail Gunner is visibly upset, he’s been close to Chains for years.
“Are you sure?” he asks, leaning forward to see Stryker.
“Would I make this up?” he asks without raising his head.
“We need to kick him out, after we kick his fucking ass,” Fury leans back in his chair, resting one elbow on the arm rest, his fist clenched.
After I let them have their say, they all look at me.
“I appreciate you are all pissed about this. I am too. Chains has been with us for a long time. He’s been a friend, a brother and he’s family,” I nod towards Stryker, but he still has his head down.
“You all know we’ve been looking for answers about who is coming at us and this is a solid lead. Right now, that is all it is.”
Stryker’s head comes up, his expression is unreadable to most. It’s not that I don’t trust his intel, we need to see it firsthand and not believe a man at a cage fight who was pissed about what happened to him. I explain that to them all and more discussions ensue about the best course of action.
“There is merit to what we have learned,” I say when they’ve all quietened down. “But we are going to look into this ourselves.”
“Prez, Storm is a fucking traitor who has held a grudge from the moment we kicked him out. You know he is capable of this shit.”
“I’ve heard what everyone has had to say,” I tell Fury.
As the club’s enforcer, it often falls to him to handle situations like this. He was the one who burned Storm’s patch tattoo off his arm before we kicked him out.
“Nashville,” I look to my sargent-at-arms. “Get close to Chains, watch him, try to feel him out. Stryker, be yourself, don’t change your habits but keep your ear to the ground at the ring. Beast, I know your friends with Chains, are you going to be able to be around him and not give anything away?”
“If he’s a fucking traitor like Storm, he is no friend to me, Prez,” he shakes his head and his face hardens. “I know what I need to do.”
“Good. Blaze, find out everything you can about where he’s been, who he’s talking to, texts, emails, anything you can find. Storm too. I want to know everyone he has spoken to, worked with, fucked, right down to the tiniest detail over the last three years.”
I warn everyone else to do what they can and to keep this information behind these doors. If Chains is a traitor, and Storm thinks he can come after this MC, I intend to make sure he never sees us coming.
Once everyone is dismissed and filed out, Rebel gets up from his seat. Nashville glances back, sees us standing together and closes the door behind him.
“Stryker wouldn’t turn on his cousin if he didn’t believe it.”
“I know,” I rub a hand over my head. Rebel is the only one who gets to see the less authoritative side of me. It’s why he is my VP.
“You’re probably doing the right thing,” he says.
“Probably?” I give him a look.
His smile is grim. “We can’t drag our heels on this. If he is what Stryker thinks he is, letting him stay here is going to look bad.”
“Getting as much information out of him while he still thinks he’s safe is more important than how it looks. The others will see that.”
“You have doubts?” Rebel reads me with ease.
I think on it for a moment, then shake my head.
“No, you’re right, Stryker wouldn’t have come to me if he didn’t believe it of his own family.
Make sure Blaze works fast on finding connections.
Keep an eye on Fury, he didn’t take Storm’s departure well and we both know he can let his emotions get the better of him. ”
Rebel snorts. “That’s one way to put it.”
Storm was in the hospital for three weeks after Fury finished with him.
“I thought it was bad before,” I grab my phone and push it into my pocket. “If this is coming from within, it is going to get so much worse.”
Rebel doesn’t answer. He knows what I mean. If we have one traitor, there may be more.
“What are you going to do now?” Rebel asks.
He doesn’t mean about this, he means in general. He’s probably expecting me to go home but the way I’m feeling right now, I can’t take this back to the house. Jesse will have already put Oscar to bed so all I would do is go home and brood.
“It’s been a fucking week,” I blow out a heavy sigh. “Let’s go next door.”
His smile says he is down with that idea. It is not off my mind, but having a few drinks and trying to put it out of my mind for a few hours is the best thing I can do right now.
We enter the bar through the back entrance, which is connected by a short hallway I had built a couple of years ago. Only my officers use it and Raven because it leads to her bar and she demanded access.
The place is busy tonight, it’s Friday after all.
A bunch of brothers are gathered at a table near where we enter, some are at the bar and I spot Raven chatting with a few of the locals who are regulars here.
It’s not usually my scene but if it can take me out of my head for a while, then I’ll deal with it.
Raven spots me and her brother, says something to the girl behind the bar, who passes over a bottle and two glasses, then she comes over.
“Wasn’t expecting to see you in here tonight.”
Rebel rolls his eyes. “It’s our bar.”
“Fuck you, douchebag. It’s mine.”
This is an old argument. Truth is the bar does belong to the club, for a lot of years.
When Raven took it over, she turned the place around, it became less of a biker hangout and more a part of the neighborhood, which is what I’ve always wanted for the club.
It may not be her name on the deed, but as far as I’m concerned, the place is hers.
I’m not getting between the two of them and their petty squabbles, I know better.
“Thanks,” I take the bottle and glasses and turn around.
“Oh, I put someone else at your usual table. I didn’t know you were going to come in tonight.”
“What the fuck did you do that for?” Rebel snaps.
“It’s no big deal,” I motion to empty stools at the bar.
“I can ask them to move,” Raven says. “But I don’t want to.”
“Jesus,” Rebel shakes his head.
“It’s fine, I just want a couple of drinks and to not be bothered,” I turn again and glance at our table and stop in my tracks.
It’s Cherry…
My first instinct is to run my eyes over her, to feel like the fantasies I’ve been having all day have manifested her here.
Then my suspicions grow. I haven’t got to be a successful president by not trusting my gut.
Three times in one day, when shit is going down at my club. And now she's here at the club bar.
No, this is far too much of a coincidence.
I’m going to find out what the fuck she is doing in here.
Rebel sees the change in my body language and follows where I’m staring. He glances back at Raven then turns his back on her.
“What’s wrong? Or should I say which one do you want?”
“I’ve seen her three times today.”
His jovial mood changes instantly. “She's following you?”
Is she? Technically… She works at the clinic where Jesse is cared for.
He said she was his nurse. I don’t know how long she’s been there.
Has she been getting close to him for a reason?
She barged her way into my house this morning and she saw Oscar, that could be put down to her helping him out, bringing in the groceries.
Then it was me who showed up at the clinic, not her coming to find me. But that could have been orchestrated too. It isn’t only men who can betray and cheat. And using a woman to get closer to me, find out about my son is one way of doing it.
“Doubt it. Send Speedway to the house anyway, tell him not to go inside, only keep watch.”
Speedway is Sheridan’s brother and knows about Oscar. He isn’t here tonight, and he lives near to my place.
Rebel takes out his phone to do as I ask.
As I watch, Taylor gets up from the chair and straightens out her top. She laughs at something the woman with her says, who is pointing towards the bathrooms. Taylor walks in that direction, she doesn’t see me.
Or maybe she is making a point of not looking at me. Maybe she is going to tell someone where I am. I shove the bottle and glasses at Rebel and follow her.
No one is getting the drop on me, especially not her.