Chapter 16
Overdrive
“What is that?”
I glanced over as Ruck walked into the clubhouse and paused. “Norman?”
His eyebrow arched as the dog yawned then flopped on the ground and fell back asleep. He’d obviously picked up on Ruck’s energy immediately and didn’t see him as a threat. Or maybe he was just a really fucking bad guard dog. Either could be true.
“Welcome back,” I told him with a grin. “Everything go alright in Pennsylvania?”
“Yeah.”
“You going to tell me why you went?” I asked.
“Nope.” He grinned at me when I shook my head. “Where did you get-”
“No,” a loud voice cut through our conversation and we both looked over at where Flir was standing, shaking his head. “No dogs. Hair, slobber, shit everywhere…”
“Figured the club could use a mascot,” I said with a shrug.
Ruck sighed and addressed Flir. “Calm down-”
“Since when has telling anyone to calm down ever worked?” Flir snapped.
“Works on women, right?” Bolo joked. We were drawing a crowd as my brothers drifted in from wherever they’d all been hiding.
“Remind me to video the next time you try that on one,” Flir told him. “Ruck…they’re dirty as hell.”
“No more than Code,” Relay said, stalking into the room.
Code threw up his hands. “What did I do?”
“Left that fucking half eaten pizza out the other night,” Flir said with a haughty look. “We’re going to have to spray for ants.”
“Sorry, didn’t know this was a sorority with cleanliness rules,” he muttered as he leaned up against the wall. “You’re just jealous because he can lick his own balls.”
“Dog belongs to my gir-” I broke off when all of my brother’s heads snapped in my direction. I cleared my throat. “To Rue. He’s just here for a little while.”
Ruck crossed his arms over his chest, watching me with that steady, unnerving gaze of his. “Right. Flir, looks like you’re going to have to deal with the fact that we have a mascot now.”
We all ignored the swearing because Rue stepped into the room, then paused. The dog shot to his feet then tapped over to her, leaning his massive block head against her thigh. It was love. Couldn’t blame the damn beast.
“Shit,” Flir muttered. He knew when he’d been beat.
“Look at it this way,” Bolo offered, “now you have another reason to clean more often. That should make your weird fucking ticks happy.”
“You’re one to talk,” Flir grumbled.
“I’m not weird,” Bolo said, sounding offended. “In fact, I’m the normal one in my family.”
“Fuck you,” Relay told him in an even, passionless, tone.
“I knew it.”
We all looked over at Rue, who was grinning at the two men.
“Knew what?” Relay asked, eyes narrowing on her.
“You’re related,” she demanded. “Cousins? Brothers?”
“What makes you think I’m related to him?” Bolo asked, jerking his thumb at Relay.
“Same eyes,” she said with a shrug. “Well…mostly…”
“Yeah, mine have some life in them,” Bolo said with a snort.
“Still don’t know why you don’t introduce yourselves as brothers,” Strike said with a shake of his head. “Like it’s some big fucking secret.”
“Would you claim him?” Bolo challenged, ignoring the glare his younger brother shot him.
The two men looked different enough most people didn’t clock the fact that they were brothers.
Irish twins. Born fourteen months apart.
Bolo was a big bastard. And while Relay wasn’t small he had a thinner, more wiry build than the bulky fucker to his left.
But Rue was right. They had the same eyes.
Most people didn’t feel comfortable enough to look Relay in the eyes so they missed it.
Well, comfortable enough to maintain eye contact at least. Fucker was nuts.
Bolo was the quintessential middle child and, according to him, Relay had been exactly what you’d expect from the baby of the family.
The fact that he was how he was now wasn’t something he was born with.
It was situational. It was from years of being put into the shittiest positions and having to make moral decisions that slowly eroded your soul.
Relay was forever changed, but we accepted him for how he was now. Still loved him as the man he’d always been as well as the new one he’d morphed into over the years. There were times I missed his laugh. He did it so rarely anymore.
I knew Bolo missed him even more. Those two fuckers had always been inseparable. Still were even though they liked to pretend otherwise.
“Shit, did I miss the memo?” Kilo asked as he walked in the front door. He held it open for Mercy.
“What memo?” Ruck asked.
“We having a meeting?” he asked, looking around.
“Discussing the addition of a dog,” I said with a toothy grin aimed at Flir. He flipped me off.
“Oh! Hi!”
Rue gave Mercy a hesitant smile but Mercy was as sweet as the desserts she liked to bake.
She hurried over to Rue and had her arms around my girl before Rue knew what to do.
Mercy’s little bump kept them a little apart, but she still managed to hang onto my gun shy woman.
Rue looked at me with wide eyes over Mercy’s shoulder.
I was already learning she wasn’t the kind to ask for help—another reason it was a miracle she’d asked me that night—so I doubted she had any girlfriends.
She was a loner. A do-it-yourselfer. But she was going to have to learn that in my world, we all pitched in whenever any of us had a need.
These men, and Mercy, were my family. There wasn’t a damn thing that could happen that they wouldn’t be there to help with.
Rue’s arms slowly lifted and she gave the pregnant woman a soft squeeze.
“Sorry. I’m a hugger,” Mercy said with a smile as she pulled back.
“How are you feeling?” Rue asked, searching Mercy’s face.
“Good.” She awkwardly squatted down to stroke her hands over Norman’s massive head. “You’re so handsome.”
That brought the attention back to the dog. Flir pinched the bridge of his nose, but he didn’t complain again. Ruck had already made the decision that the dog could stay and he’d deal with that.
“Since everyone is here, we have some shit to talk about,” I told Ruck.
“Yeah, we do,” he agreed. His eyes fell on the women. “They’re pretty much involved in this.” He crossed his arms over his chest, having made the decision to include the women in this conversation. “So what’ve you found out?”
Mercy looked up from the floor and took the hand Kilo gave her to leverage back to her feet.
She wasn’t that big yet, but Kilo was over protective.
Couldn’t blame him, especially not after the spill she’d taken.
“Kilo’s told me a little about what’s going on,” she admitted after getting a nod of encouragement from her old man.
“Do…” She sucked in a breath. “Does this have anything to do with Kruzman?”
“No,” I replied.
Ruck shook his head. “Trust me. Over the last six months we’ve systematically dismantled that fucker’s empire. It’s nothing but rubble now.” He met her gaze, his steady and true. “You’ll never have to worry about him, or anyone connected to him, again.”
She nodded, the relief stark on her face. “Thank you.”
Rue looked over at me and I told her in a low voice. “Scum bag piece of shit was trying to kill Mercy for something out of her control. We took care of it. I’ll fill you in on the rest later.”
Rue blinked, then looked around at us. “No wonder you hardly flinched when we showed up with Rhino.”
“Rhino?” Ruck asked, arching a brow.
“First fucker we killed,” Relay said. He was leaning against the wall.
Everyone was here and most were sitting around the tables.
Merc, Hype, and Code were at the corner table now, quiet, but listening intently.
Normally this would be church meeting content, but this was big enough that our members, and our old ladies needed to be aware of what we were about to step into.
“Glitch has been looking into Carrick since his name first popped up in connection to this,” I said, getting to the point now that Mercy’s fears were eased. I rubbed a hand over my short beard. “This is bigger than we thought.”
“How big?” Strike asked while everyone else processed that information.
“Carrick’s more of a low level lackey than a main boss,” I told the group. “Taking him out will take care of the immediate threat to the homeless and down trodden in the area, but it’s going to be like kicking the hornet’s nest.”
Ruck seemed to take that news in stride. “How many levels does this go up?”
“Don’t know. Glitch is still working it.”
Ruck’s eyes met mine. If it was taking Glitch days to trace all the branches of this particular tree it meant it was extensive.
“Means we have no idea how many people we’re going to piss off by taking out Carrick,” Drifter pointed out.
“Exactly,” I replied. “Could be none if he’s moved away from this organization and is doing his own shit.”
“How likely is that?” Kilo asked, tone saying he didn’t believe that would be the case.
I shook my head. “I think he’s deep into this shit and we’re going to end up with people breathing down our necks from all sides.
” Glancing over at Rue, I frowned when I saw her wringing her hands.
“I’m not saying we don’t get involved,” I added, catching her gaze. “This fucker needs to be put down.”
“Agreed,” Bolo said, his deep voice ringing through the room. “He doesn’t get to harm one of ours and get away with it.”
Rue shook her head, looking around at us in disbelief. “I’m not one of yours though,” she said. “As much as I appreciate all of your help… How can I ask you to put yourselves at risk for me?”
“Because that’s what we do,” Relay said with a shrug. “Even if you weren’t one of us, we do what we can to protect this city. Just knowing that someone is out there preying on the vulnerable? We can’t let that fucking stand.”
“Also, you are one of us,” Ruck told her, shooting me a shit-eating grin. “Doesn’t fucking matter how far up this organization runs,” Ruck added before Rue could comment, “Relay’s right. Now that we know they’re here, we’re not letting them stay.”