Chapter Nineteen
King
“She doesn’t have to marry me if she doesn’t want to,” Fury muttered. “She can still leave with me in the morning.”
“No she can’t,” I reminded him. “She’s Golden, or have you forgotten that?”
“I am too.” He sighed. “My grandmother was Meridiana Doherty. I’m Reaper’s second cousin by blood.”
“You are more than that,” Nav spoke up, clicking away on his computer. “While you’ve been chatting it up, I’ve been running your background. Fury, you are connected by blood or marriage to everyone. I’m talking the Valentinetti’s, the O’Malley’s, the IRA, the Golden Skulls, and by oath to the Soulless Sinners. You are a fucking massive trifecta. We can’t stop him, King. Not without causing a war. If you thought having Carly here was bad, Fury is worse. I don’t see a way we can stop him from taking her when he leaves.”
“Wasn’t gonna stop him, Nav.” I let out a heavy sigh, the sound rough against the silence, as I scraped my fingers on my beard while staring intently at Fury.
I had options here. Fury and I were both related by blood to Braesal O’Malley. As was my niece, who was an officer’s old lady in my club. If I played my cards right and kept my fucking mouth shut, maybe he wouldn’t realize he and I weren’t actually related, by blood or marriage. Braesal may be my brother, but that was because we shared a mom. Now, Braesal’s father Eamon, he was the son of Casper O’Malley, and Fury’s uncle, but he was no blood relation to me, and he never married my mother.
Was a common blood link enough to connect our clubs? Maybe, maybe not. But I sure as hell wasn’t passing up the opportunity, not with a war coming.
“Then what’s with all the marriage shit?” Fury griped.
“Like you, I’m trying to protect my own, and what better way to do that than to seal the clubs together?”
Fury glared at me.
Sitting back in my chair, I smiled. “You know I’m right.”
Fury shook his head and seethed, “I won’t force her to do it.”
“I wasn’t suggesting you do, but even I can see from where I’m sitting that there is something between you two.”
“There is nothing.”
“Lie to me all you want, but it’s there.”
Fury slowly got up from his seat and stood, taking Carly with him. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he shook his head and said, “We will not become a pawn in this fucked-up game. I’ve got love for all of you, but I left the Soulless Sinners because I refused to be used as a bargaining chip. I don’t want Carly or our kids anywhere near what’s coming. Find someone else. I’m out.”
“You know it’s not that simple, Chris,” Matlock spoke up. “I hate this for you, brother. I hate it for both of you, but you know King is right. There is nowhere on this planet where either of you could go and be safe. The best thing is to fight this mess together as one.”
Looking up at Fury, Carly asked, “What is he talking about?”
“Tony’s talking about our mutual blood ties. If we marry, no one can touch us.”
“And by joining clubs, the Silver Shadows would be blood bound to protect you both,” I stated, getting to my feet. Walking around the table toward them, I stood before Fury and added, “Take the night. Talk and leave nothing out. She has a right to know the score, Fury. You can let me know your decision in the morning. Matlock, show them to a room.”
“You think it’ll work?” Cash asked.
After Matlock led our guests upstairs, the rest of the club was dismissed. Only the officers remained.
“Who the fuck knows, but I had to try. There is a war coming, and we need to make sure we are on the right side of it.”
“Which side is that?” Jack asked.
“The fucking winning side.” I deadpanned.
“The Soulless Sinners are the biggest club in the world.” Colt leaned back in his chair. “Unless every other club unites, we don’t have much of a shot.”
“Like that would fucking happen.” Blade snorted.
“Montana may have the biggest club, but you all saw what Reaper and Sandman did earlier this year. Those two fuckers single-handedly took out the Satan’s Angels. I’d hedge my bet that Reaper comes out on top when this shit is over.”
“You don’t know Montana. Club connection aside, the man is ruthless. There isn’t a person in New York who isn’t afraid of getting on Montana’s bad side. Except Malice, his enforcer,” Jingles said.
The Soulless Sinners were dangerous, no doubt about it. But they were rich fucks who thought they were on top of the world. Montana believed he was the king, and there was one thing all kings had in common, they always fucking fell.
I knew what the Golden Skulls were capable of. When Amber first showed up on our doorstep, not long after we opened the chapter here in Nebraska, she told me everything she had experienced. From the first time her father touched her, until the Golden Skulls rescued her out of a fucking dungeon.
The difference between the clubs, aside from their size, was Montana knew how to talk about doing shit, while Reaper got shit done.
Changing the subject, Gunner asked, “When are you gonna contact O’Malley?”
“I don’t fucking know. Not until this shit is over. One fucking thing at a time. Dec is still hiding something. Nav, have you found anything?”
“Nothing that raises any flags. He was twelve when your parents moved. Your dad got a job at a garage just outside Little Rock, and you were born seven months later. From there, they lived an average life until your parents passed away.”
“What the fuck is he hiding?” I muttered.
“Um...” I looked at Nav, and he was staring at his computer screen.
“What?” I asked, leaning forward. He found something I wasn’t going to like.
Nav looked at Cash, then at Gunner.
“Hey, asshole, what did you find?”
“I looked into your parents’ accident.”
Sitting back in my chair, I glared at him.
“Why?”
“You told me to go through everything.”
Running my hands through my hair, I wasn’t sure I could ask what he’d found. I didn’t want to know my parents were murdered because of their connection to the Mob.
Then again, if I learned my recently discovered half-brother had anything to do with their deaths, I wouldn’t think twice about calling in that marker I just secured from Mercy.
Standing from my chair, I paced the room. No one said anything. Of the nine men in this room, only three of us still had parents. Jingles’ parents were now facing prison time. Gunner’s parents, while still alive, were shit parents, who neglected him and his little sister when they were growing up.
Cash’s parents still lived in Arkansas. They were retired. Had him later in life, like my parents. The rest of us were orphans.
Folding my arms and leaning back against the wall, I closed my eyes. “Tell me.”
“Sorry, King, didn’t mean to freak you out. Everything you know about the accident is true. They were killed by a drunk driver.”
My eyes snapped open, and I glared at him. “Then what the fuck did you find?”
“The woman that hit them. She died.”
“Who fucking cares if she died?” I shouted.
Nav took a deep breath. “She was murdered the first night she spent in prison after being sentenced. Within three hours of being processed, she was dead. Brutally.”
“You don’t think Dec...” Blade’s words trailed off as we all sat there digesting what Nav just told us.
“He was a cop. He had connections with the prison,” Ghost said.
“My brother wouldn’t kill a fucking woman,” I growled.
“He killed Connie,” Jack pointed out.
“Because she was trying to kill his daughter.” There was no way my brother would kill a woman, or anyone for that matter, in cold blood. “Besides, he was barely out of the academy, what connections could he have made?”
“This was the woman who killed his parents,” Gunner said quietly.
I looked around the table. Every one of them believed my brother was capable of murder. I could tell by the looks on their faces.
“You honestly believe that my brother, the fucking sheriff, had a woman killed in cold blood because she got drunk, got behind the wheel, and ran into my parents, killing them. Fuck you!”
“Dec sometimes—”
“NO!” I slammed my fist on the table. “Fuck you, Cash. Dec wouldn’t do that.”
“Then what the fuck is he hiding?” Blade asked.
“I don’t fucking know!”
I clasped my hands together on the back of my head and looked up at the ceiling. I didn’t know what my brother was hiding, but I knew it wasn’t that.
He might step over the line occasionally, but only for the good of someone else. He wasn’t like us. Like me.
Having that woman killed is something I would do. I wouldn’t think twice. Not for someone I loved. But Dec was different. He was good. He wasn’t a criminal. Like me. Like our brother.
“We need to table this until we get everything worked out with Fury and Carly. Once that’s done, I’ll talk to Dec. I promise you, he won’t know anything about it.”
I picked up the gavel and slammed it on the table so fucking hard, pain shot up my arm.
“Everybody out.”
Cash was the last one out, closing the door behind him. I leaned my elbows on the table and dropped my head into my hands.
I needed to catch a fucking break.