Chapter 19
19
ASHE
I’m man enough to admit that maybe I pouted a little when Prince told me to focus my surveillance efforts elsewhere.
He had taken Zarina’s theory to heart, mulled over it probably all night. It made sense to all of us, but we just didn’t know where to begin looking.
There were a few other MCs around, none of them local, and none of them that I would particularly worry about being competition. We were friendly with most of them, and knew most of their dealings.
The Santinos pretty much had the monopoly on all things mafia. Anyone else who had tried to build something of their own over the years had ended up bending the knee and joining them instead, unable to even gain a slither of their power and influence in Melbourne.
“What about the SCB?” Charmer had suggested while we sat around the table.
Prince had gone full conspiracy theorist.
All he was missing was the red twine to connect the dots. But he did have a whiteboard.
“The Southern Cross Boyz?” Freddie scoffed. “Those little brats still deal in dime bags of shitty pot to high school kids.”
Prince scribbled them out almost immediately after writing their name on the list of suspects.
“What about the EA?” I asked, chewing on the end of my pen.
The EA, or the East Allies, were only a whisper at this point in time. There was some chatter, a few mentions of them, but no one really knew who they were or what they did.
All we knew was that they had some big money to throw around.
Prince nodded, thinking.
“They fit the rich boy profile,” Charmer shrugged.
“The only issue is, no one knows who the fuck they are. They never personally deal with anyone,” Freddie sighed, swinging in his chair.
Prince scribbled EA on the whiteboard, making the letters the largest out of the bunch.
“Luckily for us,” he said slowly, tracing a large circle around and around the letters, “we have a man on board who loves rich girls.”
I stiffened.
Charmer and Freddie turned to look at me, and Prince watched me with a knowing smirk.
“You want me to ask Zarina if she knows anyone in The EA?”
Prince slid the cap back onto the marker, throwing it across the table and heading for the door. “You’re smarter than you look,” he called over his shoulder, pushing the doors open and heading out of the room.
I was left sitting there a little dumbfounded.
First, he takes Zarina’s advice, and now he trusts her enough to find a fucking lead? Since when did he start taking the Santinos at their word?
“Stop pouting,” Freddie clapped me on the shoulder on his way out. “That’s basically permission to go and stalk her again, you sick fuck.”
I shrugged. “It’s fun.”
Charmer was swinging in his chair, deep in thought. “Maybe I should try stalking.”
“No!” Freddie, Bull and I snapped in unison.
He scowled at us, obviously offended.
“It’s only fun if she likes you,” I said.
“Girls like me.”
Freddie rolled his eyes so hard that we could almost hear it.
“No,” I shook my head. “They think you’re pretty, so they fuck you. The issues begin once they hear you speak.”
Charmer spun around and punched me in the shoulder.
“Careful, gorgeous,” I mussed up his hair, only narrowly dodging his second swing.
Then I tore out of the room, down the hall and into the gathering area with Charmer hot on my heels. He reached for me, over and over, but he was only a half a second too slow.
So I screamed like a girl and hid behind Bull.
That was enough to get everyone’s attention, and then they were all on Charmer, restraining him and pulling him into non-consensual bear hugs and passing him around for noogies and attempted wedgies.
The clubhouse was and always had been as if you put a large handful of 12 year old boys into a playhouse with no parental supervision. Add a few beers to the mix, and the average age probably dropped closer to eight.
Either way, it was enough time for me to slip out of the chaos, jump onto my bike and rip off down the highway with a smile on my face (and the keys to Charmer’s bike in my back pocket).
* * *
It probably wasn’t my smartest move to waltz into BoredHeux in the middle of the day, knowing damn well that Zarina’s shitty excuse for a bodyguard would be there.
But it couldn’t wait.
Not when so much was riding on the outcome.
It was time for the Redliners and the Santinos to work together. And as much as it hurt my pride to have to be the one showing up to offer an olive branch, I knew that it would be best for everyone.
Those fucking mafia turds would never be the ones to relent, so it looked like it was up to us.
Well, me.
I was alone. Showing up with a crowd of us would’ve probably only escalated the tension, maybe even made the little man a tad trigger happy if he was too on edge.
So I walked in with my hands up, stepping through the buzzer a little slower than necessary so as to not surprise anyone.
But, that apparently wasn’t enough. Because Mario-Without-A-Moustache had his gun out and in my face after about three seconds.
“Ashe?” Zarina blinked between me and her bodyguard, looking absolutely panicked that I was there. “Theo! Put the fucking gun down!”
She stomped over and placed herself between me and the gun, putting her hands on her hips and scowling up at Theo. He lowered the gun, but kept his finger on the trigger.
Zarina spun around, looking up at me with a warning in her eyes.
“What do you want?”
I noted how she looked a little more tired than usual. I also noted that she wore the same skirt as the night before, that little denim thing that had been far too easy to nudge up and fuck her in.
Don’t get a boner right now, I scolded myself.
“I’m actually here to talk to him,” I gestured towards Theo, who arched a brow and pursed his lips at me.
“Him?” Zarina snapped. “What the fuck for?”
“Not about you, Princess.” I nearly broke and reached up to stroke her cheek. But I didn’t. “I’m here on behalf of the club.”
Theo nodded once, holstering his gun and stepping backwards to let me further into the shop.
Zarina folded her arms in on herself. The other girl, Larissa, watched with excitement sparkling in her eyes, like the interaction was the most interesting thing she’d seen in months.
“We can talk in the back room.” Theo motioned to a door behind the counter.
“Ah.” Zarina put a hand on my chest, stopping me from moving. “I don’t fucking think so.”
“It’s fine, Zar,” Theo waved a hand dismissively, motioning for me to step forward.
“Don’t speak for her,” I pointed a finger in his face, perhaps more aggressively than I should’ve while trying to make peace.
“No Family business at my shop,” she shook her head.
“It’s important, Zar. I would’ve gone straight to Toni, but you know how that would’ve gone down.”
She looked at me for a long while, searching my face as if she could determine whether or not I was lying just by looking at me. And from what I had learned about this woman in the short time I’d known her, I didn’t doubt that she could.
“Fine,” she eventually relented. “But I’m standing between you fuckers the entire time. If you wanna measure dicks in there, you better get real comfortable real quick.”
I smirked down at her, biting my tongue and deciding not to comment on the fact that she knew exactly how big my dick was.
“Come on, idiots,” she moved towards the door, motioning for us to follow.
I gestured for Theo to go first, and he did without hesitation. His back was to me, and I could’ve pulled a knife or gun in a half-second and he would be finished. And that was how I knew he was an absolute rookie.
Why Antoni would trust his sister with someone as half-witted as this bloke, I had no idea.
But he strode into the stock room behind Zarina, and I kept my eye on his gaze. I noted how it lingered on her long, tanned legs, and it took all of my self control not to gut him then and there.
“Right. Speak,” Zarina ordered as she shut the door behind her, crossing her arms over herself and watching us both with an impatient pout.
I leaned against a stack of boxes, trying to relax and seem as friendly as I could.
Jess always told me that I had resting bitch face, and she was probably right, even though I suspected she did it just to roast me or to shit stir for amusement.
She also called Prince an assortment of nicknames like Pepper and Gramps. All these names came the same day she noticed his first grey hair.
Unfortunately for her, the evidence was gone the next day. Unfortunately for him, that didn’t stop her from calling him The Silver Fox.
Now, he was considerably more grey, and he blamed Jess for that—instead of his age.
“Like I said, I’m here on behalf of the club. We’d like to make an offering of peace, or at least a truce for now while we figure out who is behind these attacks on both of our families.”
Theo arched a brow. “We’re pretty sure we know exactly who is behind these attacks.”
“Actually, the club has done some digging and we’ve found out that Zarina’s theory is probably right.” I turned to her just in time to watch the shock cross her face. “We think it’s a third party who is trying to escalate the war between us, either as a distraction or as a clean way to get our numbers down.”
“You told him this?” Theo asked her but didn’t take his eyes off me.
“Yes,” she stood tall. “None of you were listening, and I didn’t want the club retaliating against my family over things we hadn’t done.”
Theo offered her a smile then, almost like he understood and sympathised with her.
Eventually, he turned back to me with a nod. “I was there when she tried speaking with Toni.”
“Yes, and he didn’t listen. But we want to show him that we’re serious about this truce. The Redline Angels are many things but we are not cowards. If it was us attacking The Family, you would fucking know about it.”
He smirked then. “Don’t I know it.”
“So you’ll speak to him then? Arrange the meeting?”
Theo took in a deep breath and watched me for a couple beats as he mulled it over. Eventually, his shoulders relaxed some and he wordlessly stepped forward, holding out his hand, and I shook it.
“Thank you,” I said. And I meant it.
I went to leave the room but before I reached the door, he spoke again.
“Henny? Do you guys have any leads as to who this third party might be?”
I paused with my hand on the doorknob and considered how much information I was willing to give The Santinos. But, the worst case scenario would be that they killed them all, so it was really a win-win situation.
They probably had far more resources than we did, and far more connections that might lead them to the source.
But Zarina looked at me with a warning in her eyes, urging me not to say another word. I frowned, but decided that I trusted her intuition more than my own.
“Not yet,” I sighed. “But we will.”
Theo nodded once, seeming satisfied with the answer.
I headed out of BoredHeux without another glance towards Zarina, even though it pained me to do so. I was hoping to get a chance to ask her about The EA, but she seemed to be wary of saying too much around Theo.
Plus, I didn’t want to get her in any more trouble than I knew she’d probably already be in. But at least we had made some progress today.
At least that useless fucking bodyguard of hers would be able to take the offer to Toni. If The Family and the club could sit down and possibly even work together, there would be no one on the entire east coast of Australia that could rival us.