Fourteen
FANG
Jinx follows Highway into the room—the last one to arrive for church—oblivious to the general impatience around the table as he swipes something closed on his phone.
“Glad you could finally join us,” Chaos sasses.
He earns a scowl from his second-in-command in response. “Had a few words to share with the sheriff before he left.”
“Maybe you could choose a better time to pick a fight with your future father-in-law, yeah?” Our president narrows his gaze, daring Jinx to protest.
Our VP officially started dating Marty’s daughter, Kyra, recently. Problem was, he didn’t get the sheriff’s approval first. Or after. It’s been an interesting affair to watch, that’s for sure.
I tap my phone where it lies on the table and check the time. I’ve got roughly an hour to get this wrapped up and on the road to pick up Molly.
Jinx’s chair scrapes loudly across the dry, timber floor as he gets comfortable to Chaos’s right.
Highway swats a dead cricket off his seat before settling on my left.
The meeting room was initially set up in the parlor of the farmhouse, but it was quickly vetoed when we couldn’t be assured privacy from unwanted guests or ears.
And so, we shifted locations to the rundown cabin buried in the woods at the rear of the property. Invisible to the eye from the road, and not talked about with anyone who doesn’t already know of its existence.
I glance up at the temporary patch job on the damaged roof, then at the empty ice-cream tub positioned midway down the table to catch any water should it rain.
The building isn’t completely fit for purpose, but it works.
A few weekends putting new boards on the roof and tearing the old lining off the walls, and it would almost pass as habitable.
We’ve got to finish the boundary fence first.
Chaos gestures for Darko to pull up the iPad with a jerk of his chin. “We’ve got a few points to discuss after Marty’s visit.”
“You don’t say.” Loki balances on the rear legs of his chair, arms folded. “Open agenda?”
Chaos nods. “No time to table the points first, so I’ll say my piece and then the floor is yours.”
Darko nods to indicate he’s ready to record the minutes.
“Meeting open at…” Chaos glances to his phone.
“Eleven-fifteen.” He waits for Darko to tap out those present and then continues.
“I received a message from Smoke this morning.” He references the Devil’s Breed president as he produces a blank, open mailer, promptly shaking three Polaroids onto the table.
“Is that—” Highway starts.
“Davis Anderson,” Chaos says, naming the local shopkeeper, Devil’s Breed associate, and brother of the Breed member Chaos shot and killed. “Smoke cleaned up a loose end and he wants us to know.”
Jinx briefly looks over each image before sliding them down the table for the rest of us. “More like he wants us to know he found out who ratted about his operation.”
“I thought that was obvious,” Chaos says. “Yeah. But Smoke knowing who killed that mouthy fuck isn’t my concern,” Chaos clarifies. “It’s that the story ran on the Tribune’s website this morning.”
“So?” Highway asks. “They report on this kind of shit all the time.”
“It was posted at 7:05 AM. Davis’s murder was called in at 7:33 after Beryl found the body when she went to open up shop. Late.” He taps the end of his phone on the table as he talks. “Either somebody there is fucking clairvoyant, or they knew what nobody else did yet.”
“As in, they were the one who did it?” Highway asks, confusion clear on his face. He pushes the photos my way.
“As in, they’re another Devil’s Breed associate, hidden in plain view in our town, working for Smoke and his agenda.”
I stare down at the undeniable images. Davis restrained at the wrists and waist, ankles bound together.
His body slumps, blood draining from his mouth to stain his clothes.
What appear to be his fingers sit on a side table along with an assortment of unpleasant tools.
There’s nothing in the images to link it to the Devil’s Breed.
Nothing incriminating that would make Smoke a fool for handing these over.
“I don’t get it,” Jinx says. “How does running the story early help Smoke?”
Chaos wakes his phone and slides it to his VP. “Read it.”
I push the photos to Loki, who then slides the Polaroids back into the envelope without looking at them. He sets them beside Chaos while the rest of us wait for Jinx to assess the story. Our VP’s frown deepens the further he goes, his finger slowly scrolling the text up the screen.
“This isn’t new, is it?” he finally grumbles, watching Chaos for his answer.
“No.” Our president runs a hand through his hair and then slumps in his seat with a sigh.
“I went back through the old articles once I got a suspicion, and sure enough, the pieces written about the loading dock fire had the same impossible timeline. Even if the Tribune has a guy on the inside at the sheriff’s office, they couldn’t have written, proofed, and published those stories so quickly.
At least one had minor details that I know were only released to the public in the days following.
” He shrugs. “How I didn’t spot this at the time, I don’t know. ”
“Sorry,” Highway says, slicing his raised palm before himself. “But you’re losing me with this. What’s the point to having a reporter on the payroll?”
“They’re creating a smear campaign against us,” I deduce, looking to Chaos for confirmation I’m right. “Subtle warfare.”
“Correct,” he says, turning his head to look at me.
“Smoke has been turning Temperance against us for years. Slowly. Quietly.” He tosses his hands to gesture to the cabin around us.
“Look at what he’s achieved already. We’ve been pushed out of town to the outskirts.
We’re no longer a welcome voice at town meetings.
The council has yet to approve our annual Christmas fundraiser, and I get the feeling they won’t.
Smoke wants Temperance on his side when he makes a push to take the county from us,” he says, stabbing his index finger onto the table.
“Make us the villains and then sweep in with his carefully planned pantomime that paints his club as the moral savior of this place.”
“Fuck,” Highway breathes. “That’s a fucking long game if ever I saw one.”
“But it works,” Chaos says, one eyebrow raised. “Doesn’t it?”
Circus sighs heavily after listening to the exchange in relative stillness. He leans back and folds his arms, lips twitching to one side.
I’d pay to know what’s in his head right now.
“How does that work in their favor if they’re coming into town and starting shit with us?”
“To us, it’s obvious who the bad guys are,” Chaos continues.
“We know what the Breed have brought into our town and why they’re here.
But to the people of Temperance, who do you think they see as the devil on their streets when all the news reports about is one of our own killing in cold blood?
A fire at one of our operations? To the uninformed, we are the devil at their door. ”
“What do you propose we do?” Loki asks.
“Nothing drastic, yet. Not while we have the women in our care.”
I sigh out my nose.
“Something you’ve got to say, Fang?”
“Doesn’t that give them a head start?” I ask.
“They’ve had a head start for years.”
“I meant with regards to the women. We’re keeping them here like a fucking lure, waiting for the Breed to come get their stock. Is that what we want? War in our goddamn backyard?”
Jinx frowns, Chaos chewing my words over.
“Everything good with you?” Loki asks carefully. “Avoiding conflict ain’t your style, brother.”
I stare at the asshole. Like he gives a shit. “I wanted to wait until the end to table this, but I suppose it’s relevant now.”
Loki rocks on his seat, Jinx staring blankly at the table while his mind is undoubtedly elsewhere.
I catch Circus’s eye and find the big guy softly urging me on with an almost indiscernible nod.
How he understands what I’m about to say, who’d fucking know.
Maybe because he saw the whole argument with Reno yesterday.
Maybe because he sees a lot more than any of us give him credit for.
“I need to bring Molly back here for a while,” I say directly to Chaos. “With the women here and the Breed breathing down our backs, it’s not the right time. But I don’t have any other option.”
“Fine by me,” Chaos says casually as though it’s no big deal. “Anything else?”
“She might be here for a weekend, or it could be a while longer if talks with Reno don’t go how I hope.”
“Whatever you need.”
I’m not sure the guy gets it. “The bunnies can keep an eye on her if need be, but it’ll limit my availability to the club having her here.”
“I get that,” Chaos states, leaning both elbows on the table and clasping his hands together. “But it works out fine for what I need.”
I frown. What the hell is he talking about? “Care to share?”
Asshole smirks. “Since you did such a great job smoothing things over with the Amish, I thought you could be the club’s voice for the girls, too.”
“You’re fucking serious?” Crow’s in the clink, and now he wants to place me, his equally best shooter, on the bench?
“Completely.” Chaos idly spins his phone atop the table.
“The sheriff’s office has been able to contact family for two of them.
But the other four—kid included—are yet to be placed anywhere.
I know one of them plans to go her own way, and I’m down with giving her safe haven for a week or two until she’s ready.
But there’s no real answer from the others. ”
“So get one.”
His stare warns me to try talking back again and see what happens. “That’s your job.”
“Do we not have anyone else who can do that?” Highway asks. Bless the golden-haired fucker. “Fang’s a better asset on the road.”