15. Chapter 15
Hangman’s looking at me like I have two heads. I’m not surprised. Showing up with a girl, a dog and a crushed box in tow is the last thing anyone would expect me to do.
“What the fuck is going on?” he snarls, deliberately ignoring X.
She won’t be ignored. “Long story. Started with me?—”
I stop her quickly. “Let me do the telling.”
“Okay,” she agrees a little too readily. “You talk, I’ll add in the parts you forget.”
“Don’t,” I say bluntly.
Hangman seems to remember the box. He nods towards it. “What’s inside?”
No point in putting it off. “A kilo of coke.”
He chokes. “Are you fucking kidding me?” He turns to X. “This your fucking coke?”
“Holy,” X exclaims. “You’re not a very good listener. Reaper said he was gonna explain.”
Hangman’s face reddens and I think I should grab X and hide her behind me. I know Hangman won’t hurt her; at least I think he won’t. I’ve never seen him pushed to his limits by a woman but knowing X, she might be the one to do it.
Exasperation creeps over me as they stare each other down.
“Let me give you the rundown.” I start with X at the club, then move on to her dead boyfriend, then the cops, her dad, and finally, the coke.
By the time I’m done, Hangman’s mouth is gaping. “You know, I fucking expected something like this from Trigger, Red, Rocky, even fucking Coyote, but you. I can’t fucking believe it.”
“The events unrolled themselves,” I say evenly.
“The bitch set you up,” Hangman concludes glaring at X.
“Hey!” X replies. “You call me that again, I’m gonna introduce you to my pops. He won’t like you for it.”
“He pay his rent on time?” Hangman asks me.
I sigh. “Yeah.”
He stares at X. “You tell your pop to leave his calling card. I need to blow off some steam.” He’s wearing a malicious grin as he cracks his knuckles.
“Hangman,” I say. “Just call her X and let’s move on.”
“This fuckin’ place is turning into a Suffrage convention,” he grumbles. Hangman plays dumb but trips up here and there. Some of the guys would have no idea what he’s talking about.
I bring him back on topic. “We have to figure out where the coke came from and get it back to them.”
“Narrow it down. Who’s running drugs in town?”
“The mob comes to mind first. Our good friends south of the border. I know they have a far reach.”
Hangman looks at X. “The boyfriend’s dead?—”
“Ex-boyfriend,” X and I say at the same time.
X looks pleased at my exclamation and for my part, I feel heat rise to my face.
Hangman curls his lip. “This?” He shouts at me as he waves his hand towards X. “This is what gets you hot and bothered? Jesus Christ, Reaper, I thought I could count on you.”
“The heart wants what the heart wants,” X says proudly.
“Would you stop,” I growl at her.
Hangman grabs his braid and yanks it hard. “This the most fucked up this club has ever been.” He shoves his chair back and stands, striding over the paddock and glaring at Lullaby as if she has something to do with it. Spot runs up, licks his hand, then jumps back when Hangman growls at him.
X leans into me. “Is he always this intense?”
“This is one of his good days,” I mutter as Hangman jerks around and stalks back towards us. “Fuckin’ horses,” he snarls.
“Hangman,” I say through gritted teeth. “X has a couple of friends who we’ll touch base?—”
“Provided they haven’t been fucked over by the pricks that killed the boyfriend.”
X is gaping at Hangman. “You’re about as sensitive as a porcupine. We’re talking about my ex. Show some respect.”
“The guy you were fucking? Didn’t take you long to move on.”
I’m about to open my mouth when sirens split the air. Tires screech on pavement, car doors bang, and then I hear Levine, Sagebrush’s resident asshole cop, yelling, “Open the fucking gate. We got a search warrant.”
Hangman shoves back his chair and literally picks X up in one arm and the coke and her purse in the other, carries them over to the garage and dumps them on the floor. “I’m gonna stall them. You got five minutes to get her and the coke down into the chamber.”
“What the hell!” X exclaims.
“Stop,” I command. “Not another word.” Guess the tone of my voice is cold enough because she clamps her lips together.
Spot runs up to us, thinking we’re about to leave.
Guilt is coursing through me. Hangman means to hide her, not torture her, but we don’t show this side of our club to anyone. At least anyone that comes out alive. I realize at that moment that my loyalties have shifted. This girl is my girl and that sentiment is going to irrevocably change my world. I need order and peace and the woman I’m about to dump into the chamber is the definition of chaos. But it’s too late for regrets. My heart’s fucking involved.
“Stay,” I say gruffly to her. Spot sits down and looks at me expectantly. I climb into the old truck we have as a prop covering the hatch of the chamber, put it into neutral, then jump out and give it a push. It rolls a few feet forward, enough to expose the hatch under it. I shove it open, dump the coke down, then grab X by the shoulders. “There’s a light switch at the bottom of the ladder. Don’t worry about what you see down there. It’s a thing, but we’re only hiding you, nothin’s gonna happen. Yeah?”
She nods, her eyes big and uncertain as she slides them from my face to the darkness below. “You sure about this?”
“We get caught with the coke, we’re fucked. And the cops see you, they’re gonna link us to the murder of Miguel.”
“No kidding,” she says with a tinge of sarcasm.
I almost grin at how quick on the uptake she is. “Go.” I give her a quick peck on the lips. “Don’t hate me.”
“Why would I do that?”
I don’t answer as I push her through the hatch. After she sees what we got in the chamber, she’ll never speak to me again.
I hand Spot down to her when she gets to the bottom of the ladder. “He can’t be seen either.”
“What if he barks?” she says, her head tilted up at me.
“Place is soundproof,” I mutter as guilt swamps me.
I wait until light floods the chamber, then slam the hatch closed, and roll the truck back where it was. I dust myself off and head to the gates.
Hangman’s in the yard, abusing the cops. It’s a put-on showdown meant to buy me the time I need to hide X and the coke. Prez is standing in front of the gate, hands waving in the air, his gun nowhere to be seen. “Fuckin’ motherfuckers comin’ to our clubhouse like you have a fuckin’ right to!”
“We got a search warrant,” Levine says still outside the closed gate. “Gives us the right.”
Hangman glances at me as I walk towards him. I give him a short nod.
“For fuck’s sakes,” he mutters, pretending he’s capitulating. He looks at Zero, one of our prospects. “Let ‘em in.”
“On it,” Zero says as he unbolts the gate.
“You keep your fuckin’ cars on that side of the fence, you hear me. You wanna come in, you do it on foot.”
Two cops head towards Hangman but by-pass him and come straight at me. “On the ground, fucker,” Levine sneers from several feet away, his gun aimed at my heart. “Face down, hands behind your head.” I gotta give it to the cocksucker. He’s got balls walkin’ onto Hell’s Jury turf with his gun pulled. Either that, or he’s irredeemably stupid.
I comply without comment. I expected this and in fact, I’m surprised it’s taken this long. They pat me down, then handcuff me. “Jaxon Kincaid, you’re under arrest on suspicion of the murder of Miguel Ramos. Anything you say….”
I stop listening. I’ve heard it all before.
“You fucking fuck-ups,” Hangman bellows indiscriminately to anyone within hearing range including Stark, Zero, Joker, and the roofers. “Stay cool,” he says to me as I’m yanked to my feet. “I’ll call the lawyer. He’ll meet you down at the station.”
I stare Hangman in the eyes. “We’re all gonna be okay, yeah?”
He gets my meaning. “Yeah.”
I nod as I’m manhandled over to the cop car and shoved in the back.