Eighteen
FANG
Father of the year. I should get the T-shirt now. Maybe hint to Reno that I’d like the mug and keychain to finish off the collection next Father’s Day. Fuck me. I dropped Molly at the clubhouse, made sure she was settled, and then promptly asked Jezabel to keep an eye on her while I ran an errand.
All before getting sidetracked with our troublesome newcomer on my way out the door.
I couldn’t resist. Couldn’t deny the pull of temptation just to try. If Chaos thinks I’m so fucking good at charming people, then why the hell did Jenna see right through it?
And why the fuck did that make me so angry? Probably because it makes you feel like your father.
I draw a deep breath and exhale the nettled feelings out my nose. I’ve got a goddamn job to do here for the club. And as much as gleaning information from Jenna is one too, she’s a task that can wait.
Figuring out where the Devil’s Breed reside within our state lines isn’t.
“Looks like Amy was right,” I tell Circus after he sets his helmet on his bars. “Matthias has been busy.”
We needed to ride to the next town over to catch up to the grifter, which already concerns me. If he has to leave Temperance to pedal his shady business, then either the rot spreads, or he’s made more enemies than friends.
Circus wastes no time crossing the street to where Matthias’s car is parked. The giant freak circles it slowly, peering in the windows and testing the trunk. I scout the street while he does, searching for signs of where our festering pain in the ass went.
His wife, Amy, said he has his sister with him. A mouthy, little blonde by the name of Danica who brazenly tried to convince Chaos that pairing up with Matthias to run a brothel in Temperance would be a top-notch idea.
Prostitution is illegal now in the state of Minnesota. And while the Kings have never been averse to standing on the wrong side of the thin blue line, setting up shop in a trade that’s under the goddamn microscope due to recent law changes is not the smartest thing anyone could do.
Which makes me wonder, as I walk past the nearby shopfronts, peering into the windows, why Matthias hasn’t taken his shit out of state, where it is legal.
As if you don’t know. I shake my head at the blatant obviousness of why—because then he’d have to work within the confines of laws and regulations.
Matty’s never been the guy to play by anyone else’s rule—even ours—when he can do it easier his own way.
“Any luck?” I ask Circus when he joins me.
A middle-aged woman slows her walk after she spots us, then quickly changes to the other side of the street. I don’t know if they get people like us here much, which makes this whole thing even more odd.
Circus shakes his head. His inked eyes shift over my shoulder—at least, I think they do. It’s always hard to tell when the only dot of color is his dark gray irises.
I twist to follow his focus and find Matthias standing outside a store, seemingly having just walked out.
Bingo. The asshole lifts his head and turns for his car, then immediately spots us.
The panic and frustration are clear as day when the man hesitates, takes a cautious step back, pauses, and decides to front as he walks to meet us halfway.
“What brings you to this quiet, little town?” I jest.
So fucking quiet that we hold our conversation in the middle of the road without fear of being run over.
“Can’t be more than two hundred people living here,” I continue. “And you’re going to tell me you found at least one who likes you?”
“Fuck off, Fang.” Matthias eyes Circus as he speaks to me. “Can a man not travel his state without gaining a hall-pass from the Kings first? Is that it?”
“Curious what you’re up to, is all.” The man owes the Devil’s Breed a fair packet. If anyone has reason to be caught up in their web, it’s him.
“None of your business. That’s what.” He moves to walk between us, yet Circus pins him in place with a firm arm barring Matty’s escape.
“I’m not sure if you remember,” I say. “But you made an interesting comment to Chaos when you stopped by the clubhouse a little while back.” Matthias’s gaze shifts my way.
“You said that you had everything he needed to run a brothel. The equipment, the connections… and the girls.” I lean in close to add.
“Mind telling me a little more about that?”
A sedan quietly sneaks past behind us.
Matthias swallows—hard. “Can we do this shit later? I got somewhere I need to be.”
I huff out my nose. “Only place you need to be is right here, right now, answering my goddamn question.”
He looks to me first, and then Circus. “What exactly do you want to know?”
“Which of those things I listed are you currently missing?”
His steely gaze meets mine. “You think those women were mine?” He snorts. “I heard what you did. And all I’m gonna tell you about that is you made a huge fucking mistake.”
“I don’t make mistakes,” I growl, even as the whole fucking situation with Reno flashes through my mind.
And as though he sees it reflected in my gaze, Matty smirks. “You sure about that?” He’s torn away from my immediate field of view, Circus’s meaty hands wrapped around Matthias’s arms as he hauls the guy back to the sidewalk.
I follow behind, sure to make it clear to Matty what’s strapped to my ribs as always: my conversation starters.
“I’m gonna ask again,” I say as Circus pins Matthias to a brick shopfront. “What part do you play in their mess, huh? What are you doing for the Devil’s Breed?” I roll my lips as I study his face, then utter, “What can you do for us?”
His attention snaps to a small crowd that gathers on the far side of the street. “Don’t think you’ve got too long before the law gets here, boys. You might want to back off.”
Asshole clearly knows nothing about these small satellite towns. “I’ve got plenty of time before Marty gets here.” They’re all run by one county department. “Talk.”
He sighs out his nose. “You assholes know what connection I got to the Breed: I owe Manic money. But that’s got fuck all to do with those bitches you found. The girls I got are legit. They want the work after the law change made them redundant. They’re not the same as what you took.”
“And what do you know about what we took?”
Circus slides a hand beneath Matthias’s jaw, holding his head high so the shorter man is forced to look me in the eye, no matter how much he squirms.
“I don’t know much, okay? Just what I’ve overheard.”
I lift my eyebrows, coaxing him to continue.
“Smoke’s lost support lately for what he’s done.
Some of the MCs he made deals with to move through their territory locked him out.
So he’s diversifying. Moving smaller groups along more routes to improve the chance of getting stock through.
Minimizing losses.” He pauses to take a breath.
“Problem with that is he’s not so selective about who he uses to help him do it, and some of the riffraff are causing trouble that the other Breed don’t like. ”
“Where are they moving them?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve heard it’s a lot of places.”
“Hey!”
I jolt at the shrill word.
“What the hell are you doing?”
I’d plain forgotten about Danica. Fuck it. Right when we were making progress.
“Talking,” I sass, turning to face Matty’s sister as she jogs across the road. “You want to join in?”
“Let him go.”
“He’s free to leave whenever he wants.”
Circus quietly removes his hold on Matthias.
The woman’s got balls. More than the group of cowards on the far side of the road, two of whom record our interaction on their phones.
Not that it’s going to achieve much. Where are they going to post it?
On a social media profile with their name and key information?
Pictures of their kids. Places they go. Enough to lead the wolf to their door.
I don’t think so.
“What are you saying he’s done now? Huh?” She poses the question as though Matty’s a fucking choir boy.
“Question is, what hasn’t he done?” I jerk my head for Circus to follow.
We’ve got enough for the moment.
“Go back home to your daughter, Fang.”
I freeze mid-stride. “The fuck you say?” I spin and eat up the pavement back to where the mouthy little bitch looks proud of herself.
“You heard me.”
“Yeah, I did. And that’s the problem.” I sense Circus at my back. “You had my kid on that forked tongue of yours.”
Matthias takes a few steps sideways, abandoning his sister. Even he knows better than to mention our loved ones.
The pieces slot into place, my brain physically aching as it all makes sense. “You were the fucking person who gave Reno the job, weren’t you?”
She shrugs, smarmy little smirk on her lips.
Never hit a woman. Never said I didn’t want to. “After this weekend, she’s out,” I state, finger pointed in Danica’s face.
She gently moves my hand away from her. “I don’t think that’s your decision to make. It’s good money, Fang. She won’t want to give that up.”
For now. I’ve heard how these things work.
Women are offered huge amounts of money to do the easier work at the start to get them hooked—escorting, massages, etc.
Then when they’re waist-deep in the muck, the real work comes in.
Sex work, kink play, weekends as a warm hole for a group of rich frat boys.
And the pay gets less and less. The occasional high-ticket work thrown in as a tease to keep them hooked. Drugs instead of cash.
I might not love the woman, but Reno doesn’t deserve that shit.
“She’s done,” I repeat, turning before the conversation can continue.
Fuck what she needs. Danica was brought in to run a trade that directly correlates with what the Devil’s Breed pedal. Tell me again how likely it is the two aren’t related.
“Thoughts?” Circus murmurs, studying me in my periphery.
“I get the sickest feeling the skin trade ain’t the only thing the Breed are doing in our state to fuck up our lives.
” Their reach spreads like poison ivy, choking the life out of everything they touch.
Greed so ravenous and unmanageable, it's bound by nothing. “We need to put eyes on that bitch. My gut tells me if anyone’s gonna help us find what we’re after, it’s her. ”
“Follow the daisy chain,” he muses.
“Precisely.”