Chapter 17
Widow
Iwon’t lie. I was pretty shaken by the fact that the asshole who had his gun to my president’s head knew my name, but I didn’t have time to think about that.
I needed to end this motherfucker before he had a chance to pull that trigger.
I stepped over to him, and as I placed the barrel of my gun at the back of his head, I commanded, “Drop it.”
“I see some things never change.” There was something eerily familiar about his voice, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to place it. “You’re still trying to control things beyond your capabilities.”
I turned and looked at the two-way mirror, and my blood ran cold when I saw those piercing green eyes staring back at me.
I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t seen him in over ten years, but he looked exactly the same.
I was still trying to make sense of what I was seeing when Shotgun asked, “You remember Talan, don’t ya? ”
“Yeah, I remember him. I remember him well.”
Talan had prospected for the Sinners, and not only that, I was his fucking sponsor.
He was ex-military, strong and determined, and a man we thought had a real future with the club.
I’d busted my ass trying to get him through prospecting, but the guy ended up being a loose cannon.
Dude was unpredictable and lost his shit at the drop of a fucking hat.
He’d fight anyone at any time, but that wasn’t the issue.
We wanted brothers who could hold their own, but Talan had a bad habit of taking shit too far.
Almost killed a teenage kid for cutting him off at a red light, knocked a guy’s teeth out with a beer bottle when he’d accidently bumped into Viper, and that was just the beginning.
The outbursts started piling up, and I soon realized he didn’t just have an issue with his temper.
The guy was off—like killing kittens kind of off.
When he beat the hell out of his pregnant girlfriend and kicked her so hard he killed their unborn child, we all knew he had to go.
The club cut him and never looked back. Certainly, never thought he’d come back after ten fucking years.
“Nice to know I made such a strong impression on you.” I didn’t respond.
I had nothing to say to the crazy motherfucker, so I just stood there with my gun to his head, waiting on the moment when I’d finally pull the trigger—ending this bullshit once and for all.
“I know your finger is just itching to pull that trigger, but you gotta remember, it only takes a fraction of a second for me to do the same and your precious president’s brains will go flying all over this fucking room. ”
“Just tell us what you fucking want, Talan.”
“The name’s Skitz, and you aren’t in a position to be dishing out orders, now are you?
” He didn’t wait for my response. Instead, he pressed his gun harder against Viper’s head and snarled, “You know there was a time when I would’ve given my left nut to be a part of this club of yours.
I thought it was my only shot of something real but turned out I was wrong.
I was never meant to be a Sinner. I found my place with my own boys. Never needed yours.”
“A group of boys you have to intimidate and threaten to stay by your side? Sounds like a hell of a group you got there, Skitz,” Viper scoffed.
“I see Grant was mouthing off.” Skitz shook his head. “He was always such a fucking pussy.”
“You know what they say, ‘you’re only as strong as your weakest link’.”
“Well, as you can see, that’s no longer an issue.”
I was done listening to his bullshit. “You gotta know, you can’t win here. You’ve got two guns pointed at your thick fucking head. No matter how this goes, you’re dead.”
“Don’t you see?” he snickered. “I’ve already won. I’m standing here with a gun to the almighty Ruthless Sinners’ president’s head. Your precious club is a shambles, your brothers are wounded, others are dead, and you, the infamous Widow, couldn’t do a damn thing to stop me. None of you could.”
“You haven’t won a damn thing,” Viper snarled.
“The clubhouse will be repaired. We’ll add on and make it better than ever.
Our wounded will heal, and even if you are stupid enough to pull that trigger, there’s not a brother in this club who couldn’t step up and fill my shoes.
That’s the kind of loyalty we have, so you’re wrong.
You haven’t left the Ruthless Sinners in ruin. You’ve only helped make us stronger.”
“Always such the blowhard. I could’ve been an asset to this club. I could’ve shown you what war is really all about...”
He’d gotten mad and started to rant. I knew this was my chance to end this.
He was so distracted by his own tirade, he didn’t notice when I looked over to Shotgun and gave him a nod, signaling I was about to make my move.
When he nodded back, I aimed my barrel at the base of his skull—a place I knew would render him useless, and I fired.
Viper jolted at the sound of the shot, pushing himself free as Talan’s lifeless body dropped to the ground.
Viper looked down at Talan, then over to me. “That was a risky move there, brother.”
“It was a risk that had to be taken, Prez.”
“That it was.” He reached over and patted me on the shoulder. “Thanks, brother.”
Shotgun stepped over to me as he asked, “What about the others?”
“Pretty sure we got ‘em all, but we better get out there and find out.”
“Agreed.”
We’d barely made it out of the room when Lynch came rushing up to us and exclaimed, “That was some insane shit in there! Are you okay, Prez?”
“I’m fine. I’ll be even better when I find out how the others are.”
“We’re good here,” Hawk answered as he made his way down the hall. “Rafe and Menace are doing a walkthrough to make sure no one was missed, and Country is in the bar finishing off his little buddy with the gauges in his ears...but we still don’t know anything about Danny.”
“I haven’t forgotten. We’re gonna have to get over to their place in Brookshire and see if he’s there.”
“And what about things here? You want us to handle the mess, or should we call in Billy?”
Billy was the club’s cleaner, and the man was unbelievable.
In a matter of hours, he could make a mess like this disappear, so I wasn’t surprised when Viper said, “I’ll call Billy.
We’ve got enough to manage with finding Danny.
” As he took out his burner to call Billy, he turned to me and ordered, “You and Hawk take Shotgun and Lynch with you to go check it out. Don’t take any chances.
Menace and I will be here with the others waiting on Billy, so just let me know if you need backup. ”
“You got it.”
I hated leaving Viper and the others when there was so much that needed to be done, but I had no choice.
Danny’s life was on the line. It took us some maneuvering to get through all the wreckage, but we managed to make it out to one of the SUVs.
Once we were loaded up, Hawk eased through the busted gate and out onto the main road.
None of us spoke as we drove towards Brookshire Hill.
We were too lost in our own heads to speak.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the state we’d found Badger in.
The poor guy had been through hell and didn’t make it out the other side.
I prayed the same wouldn’t hold true for Danny.
Even though he’d had a rough start, he’d proven himself to be a good kid with a good head on his shoulders.
If given the chance, he’d make a hell of a brother.
I had no doubt Hawk was just as concerned about Danny as I was.
Even more so. If Danny was dead, he’d have to find a way to tell his ol’ lady that her brother was gone, and that wasn’t something I’d wish on my worst enemy.
When we got to the house, I was surprised to find that it didn’t look all that different from my own.
In fact, it might’ve been a bit nicer. It was an all brick, two-story home with well-maintained landscaping and even had a fucking swing on the front porch.
Concerned we might be at the wrong place, I leaned up to the front seat and asked Shotgun, “Are you sure this is the right place?”
“It’s the address Grant gave me.” As he opened the door, he turned back to me and said, “Figure we gotta at least check it out.”
Without any further hesitation, Lynch and I got out of the truck and followed Hawk and Shotgun up to the house.
There were no cars in the drive or lights on in the house, so we all assumed no one was home and went to find a way in around back.
After checking all the windows, Shotgun decided to pick the lock on the back door.
We all stood behind him as he knelt down and used his utility knife to pry the lock.
When he got it opened, we followed him inside.
Once again we were stunned by what we found.
Shotgun shook his head as he looked around the living room. “This can’t be right.”
“Maybe this was Talan’s place before he lost his shit,” Lynch suggested.
“It could be any one of their houses.” Hawk was growing impatient and left the living room in search of Danny. When I saw that he’d gone off to check one of the bedrooms downstairs, I turned to Lynch and said, “Let’s go look around upstairs.”
He nodded, then followed me up to one of the smaller bedrooms. It was pretty basic—just a full bed and a dresser. No TV or pictures on the wall. When we were certain it was empty, we’d just started across the hall when we heard Shotgun shout, “Hey! Down here! He’s in the basement!”