Fourteen #2
“I agree,” Chaos answers casually. “But he’s also the one of us who’s proved time and time again to be most likely to gain people’s trust. He’s a natural charmer, and that’s what I need if the other women are going to speak.”
“Why should that be our job?” Darko asks. “Isn’t that the law’s responsibility to find out where they belong or where they want to go?”
“I want more than that,” Chaos says. “I want to find out what they know about the operation: where they were taken; who they spoke with; how it works.” He wets his lips. “I want the illegal shit from them. The stuff they wouldn’t tell the sheriff.”
“You think they would have been privy to that level of access?” Loki questions. “They’re likely to know fuck all being kept hostage.”
Chaos shrugs. “One way to find out.” He stares at me. “By getting them to talk.” The table remains silent, the tension rolling off Chaos indicating he has more to say. “At least one of them can’t be trusted. I need to know why.”
“Who do you suspect?” I lean back in my seat and fold my arms.
Chaos glances toward Loki. This can’t be good. “Jenna. The one with the short, dark hair.”
“Because she ran?” I ask.
“Because she asked Loki for a phone.” She what now? “Which he gave to her with my permission after Darko put a bug on it to see who she calls and how often.”
“Did she say what she wanted it for?” I ask Loki.
He avoids looking at me as he answers. “Said she needed to check in with home before they sent hounds after her, compromising our club.”
“And you didn’t ask what that meant?” Jinx snaps, finally rejoining the conversation.
“Of course, I fucking did.” Loki slams all four feet of his chair on the floor. “She didn’t want to get into the nitty-gritty, but she said that her family isn’t the cleanest either. I didn’t push it in case I spooked her and shut her down.”
“Fuck’s sake.” I fold my arms and slouch in my seat. “And now it’s my job to babysit her?”
“Don’t be weird about it,” Chaos teases. “Just keep an eye on her and see if you can find out what she was talking about. Who are her family? Why did she end up held by the Breed? Let me know if she does anything suspicious.”
“More suspicious than asking for a burner?” I raise an eyebrow.
He shrugs. “Weirder things have happened around here.” Chaos relaxes against the back of his chair.
“Look. You’ll be stuck here while Molly’s in the picture.
It works out good, and it might also be good for The Kid to have someone close to her age around.
Could help Marty get her to talk so they can take her home.
Watching Jenna will be a walk in the park. ”
Sure. He obviously hasn’t spent as much time quarreling with her as I have.
“It’s settled,” he announces with a slap of his hand on the table. “Back to the real issue. The Devil’s Breed.”
“What’s your feeling, there?” Loki asks.
Chaos sighs and then runs his teeth over his bottom lip.
“Strike hard, but strike smart. We can’t go in guns a blazing just because they poked us in the ribs a few times.
If we don’t do things right, we’re just inviting the other chapters to get involved.
It needs to be clean, and it needs to be discreet. ”
“I think after what you said about the reporter, they’ve poked more than a few ribs,” Highway quips.
Chaos tips his head as though to agree. “Maybe so, but the way I see it is we have one shot at this. We go in half-cocked and fuck this up, they get time to reinforce their walls. We need to be sure what we’re going to do will work before we do it.
Having the girls here will give us time to do that. ”
“And what are you proposing we do?” I ask carefully.
He holds my gaze for a long moment before glancing to each member at the table.
“Let’s be realistic. A man like Smoke who’s employed a long-term strategy like this?
He’s got backup plans. Lots of them. He doesn’t start this level of shit without thinking it through to ensure he gets what he wants—our territory.
We cut off one head, he’ll strike with another.
” He huffs a disbelieving laugh. “The Devil’s Breed used to be allies with the Fallen Aces.
When Tuck was at the head of the table, they got this close to ending the skin trade in the northern states.
” He holds his index finger and thumb before his face, squinting at the tiny gap.
“Smoke is the reason they turned that around. He saw the vast amounts of cash going down the drain every time the club shut down another arm of the pipeline, and he got greedy. The only way to end this is to end him.”
“We all know he was responsible for the resurgence,” Jinx says. “But how do we make sure the next guy won’t be the same? Half them motherfuckers are just as full of ambition.”
“By taking the Devil’s Breed name out of Missouri altogether.”
The silence is thick enough to hear a pin drop.
Loki breaks the tension with a scoff, Highway then chuckling at the absurdity of it. Circus leans forward, elbows on the table, face indiscernible as usual, but I can guarantee even he thinks Chaos’s plan is madness.
“You want to make their chapter patch over?” Darko asks, seemingly confused.
“You’re shooting for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow with that one, Pres.” Loki shakes his head. “Bags not being the fall guy who has to tell them that. Don’t fancy being hung, drawn, and quartered by the officers who refuse to bend the knee.”
“You think I’d give them that option?” Chaos asks, leaning back in his chair to sling one arm over the back.
“That’s how you made it sound,” Highway points out.
“How do you suggest we get rid of the patch then?” I ask with a slight lilt of humor in my words. “Kill the lot of them?”
Chaos stares me down, all eyes in the room on him, as he says, “Why not?”