24. Hawg
HAWG
Onyx takes our empty plates back to the kitchen while I go find the recruit who’s sidled up next to one of the Harlots who looks like she’s being polite but not interested at all.
I get sidetracked talking with one of my other men, and when I head over to talk to Brick he’s gone.
“You see where Brick went?” I ask the ladies who are having a smoke.
“Out to the alley. Said he needed to get something from his bike.” I head outside, intent on putting the boy to work but stop short when I hear his voice through the brick wall covered with some flowering bush used for privacy more than for its looks.
Especially since it got singed with heat.
“No one’s said a word about bringing girls in to me, Prez, but I’ll keep my ear to the ground. ” He’s quiet for a moment. “I will.”
I turn and make it back to the club, heading inside to find Onyx with Pearl and Carver.
“You three, with me, now.” I lead them upstairs to the club room and close the door, the only halfway private spot in the club, at least while they’re moving rooms around.
“We’ve got a fucking rat. Pretty sure it’s either a Desert Rider or fucking Scorpion, but my bet’s on the Riders since they’re the ones who’ve been running the girls for the DeSantis family in the past.”
Pearl’s eyes get wide. “In my fucking club? Who is it, Hawg?”
I’ve seen that murderous look in Pearl’s eyes before and she has a temper that doesn’t take much to get lit, especially when she’s protecting her ladies.
“It’s Brick, but I pulled us together because I think we can make use of the information. If I beat the shit out of him and send him packing, we lose the element of surprise we could use in a different way.”
Carver nods. “You’re not wrong, but the fucker’s been walking in and out of this club with free rein all fucking week. Who knows what he’s been feeding back to the lousy fucks.”
Onyx looks at me with wide eyes. “The ladies? Does he know about the safe room?”
“No, baby. I heard him talking on the phone and figured it out before I asked him to move any furniture.”
She heaves a heavy sigh of relief that makes me realize just how close I came to spilling their secrets to a man who could share them with the very people who want those trafficked ladies for themselves and for very bad reasons.
Fucking rat and I almost missed it.
I knew something was off about him, but I just thought it was the fit, that he wasn’t made of solid stand-up material, not an infiltrated rat.
“I’ll be back. Let me get the guys out of here for a while and me and Carver will give you a hand with those cots,” I say, heading out toward my men and the two new recruits.
My thoughts roll back to the person who vouched for him, with vengeance in my mind.
The next time we’re in Tucson for the rumble, he’s going to wish he hadn’t recommended him so highly to me.
A lone wolf who probably took sides. Fucking waste of a man.
He’ll see what that costs him soon enough because it almost cost the ladies the only way they know of keeping trafficked ladies on the run safe. And he’s going to pay for that.
I keep a couple of the guys to guard the front and send the rest of them packing on some bullshit errands and then a job for the two recruits at the Royal Bastards’ club that will keep them busy for a week.
The only one I tell is Taze, who’s going to make the little fucker sorry he ever infiltrated our gang without letting him know his cover is blown. I smile. My VP sounded like he was going to enjoy that job just a little too much. And if I know Taze, the rat isn’t going to like it at all.
Setting up the ladies’ safe haven is not hard, and with all the Harlots taking care of everything else and me and Carver moving dressers around to make room for two more cots, it comes together pretty fast. It may not be much, but it’s clean, comfortable, and they’ll be safe behind the wall of the bar where no one outside of the club, except for me and Carver know where they are.
When Duchess sends the truck from the north, if the girls want to head that way, they have a ride, and most of them always do. It’s a good gig, free to do their own thing, make a ton of money under her watchful eye and most importantly, free to go if they ever choose that road.
She’s made good on that promise time and time again and it sounds like she’s making good on it with this next ride, if Lacey wants to come back this way.
I look around and catch the smile on my baby’s face. This is what she loves doing, helping other women, and I fucking love that about her.
It’s later than we thought it would be by the time we get done, and it’s the last night in the club before the Friday night dancing event.
Saturday the dance will go on as normal to make it look like business as usual with my men helping the Harlots keep everything from looking off while Carver, Pearl, Onyx, Skye, Shine, and I ride to Vegas to help bring that truck of trafficked women back here, arriving an hour after close to smuggle them inside without being seen.
At least that’s the plan.