Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
SNIPER
How is it that every woman that we have gets involved in club business?
The room is deadly quiet when I walk in with Bullet. I cleaned up the blood on my face, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I get mild black eyes from that punch. I see a few eyes widen when they see me, but no one says anything. Probably because of the dark look on my face, so if it keeps their nosy asses quiet, all the better.
The door slams behind us and Bullet barks, “Cryos, what did you find?”
Cryos immediately brings up a video on the screen. I turn to look at it. “Someone took out the cameras in the front and rear just before the explosions happened,” Cryos announces grimly as we watch the feed go black on the screen abruptly.
“How the fuck did they know where the cameras were?” I demand, looking over at Cryos expectantly.
“Dagger,” King guesses before Cryos can answer. “Wanna bet that in whatever information he gave Dmitri, it included the location of the cameras at each business?”
“Fuck, we never thought of that,” Torque states grimly. “Which means they can tap into all of our shit and see what we’re doing. Who is around and who isn’t. It’s probably how they’ve been staying so many steps ahead of us.”
“No one has hacked into the system,” Cryos snaps, clearly affronted. “There hasn’t even been an attempt, and if there was, I would know about it.”
“I’m not trying to say you wouldn’t, brother, but we all know Vlad has access to people we don’t, including ones that could get past you with enough practice,” Torque points out.
“No,” Cryos says firmly. “There is no way that would be able to happen. They would leave some kind of trace and there is nothing. I think this is simply they knew where to find the cameras, and if we check the location, we’ll find wires cut.”
“We’ll look into it,” Bullet states before Torque can argue anymore. “What that means is that we don’t have any video of who we’re after or who set them off. But I think we all know that it was Vlad.”
“We gave him a perfect target,” Frost points out matter-of-factly. “The majority of us were there, along with the women, and if he or his men were watching, they had the ideal time to get rid of us all at once.”
“Fucking stupid on our part,” Hulk agrees, his mouth set in a grim line. “We’re getting too lax, and Vlad is going to use that to get to us. We were fucking lucky tonight that whoever they sent didn’t know what the hell they were doing and we all got out, along with the customers. I heard the medics say the guy they sent to the hospital is stable and should wake up in a few hours. He was just mostly cut by the falling glass.”
“He’s right. We need to stop congregating in large groups outside the clubhouse,” Bowie agrees. “Here, we’re prepared if shit happens, but outside of these gates, we’re sitting ducks if we’re not careful.”
“Fuck, I’m fucking done with all this fucking bullshit.” Bullet seethes, his fist slamming down on the table. I agree with his anger because it’s burning inside me too.
“If it helps, I might have found something,” Cryos says, clicking a couple more times until an image comes up. “This one is from a camera I put on the light pole at the far end of the lot. Most times I don’t have video on, just stills, since it’s just surveillance to monitor the cars and bikes, but I never told anyone about it besides Bullet. I don’t have video, but I do have a picture and I was able to enhance it…” He lets that hang for a moment as he zooms in on the picture, cleans it up, and we can see two large black SUVs pull off along the road, just out of view of the front door where Carson was bouncing.
Which reminds me…
“Where the hell was Carson when this shit happened?” I asked tightly.
“There was a drunk woman that stumbled out with her friend and almost took a tumble down the steps. Theo corroborated that since he helped them outside in the first place, and Carson was helping the two of them to the car,” Timber jumps in.
“The explosion, from what the Fire Department said, came from the side of the building so there was no way for Carson to see anyone anyway,” Titan adds. “I checked that out. From every angle, other than right on top of them, none of us would have known they were there unless we were doing rounds of the building.”
I nod. “Alright. Probably for the best he was helping the women, because if he was by the door, he’d have been fucked up.” Just the thought has my gut souring. We don’t need the death of a Prospect on our conscience either. Especially considering how both Kaleb and Carson have already been hurt, along with Crypt.
“Any way you can tell who those SUVs belong to?” Bullet asks Cryos.
“No, it’s too dark,” he replies. “But what I can tell you is that they are the same size and appear to be the same make as the one that shot up the bar.”
“That’s enough for me to know Vlad is the one behind this,” Stone states, face hard and grim.
“Suppose this is retaliation because of the pawn shop?” King asks.
“Would make sense,” Torque agrees. “I mean, they’re going to know it was us. Who else would it be? They don’t have any major players against them but us, and since we tipped off the Feds, they probably just assumed it was us.”
“It was probably his new righthand man’s idea, considering his MO for bombing shit,” I point out with a scowl. There’s some agreement, but then I stop and think about that a bit more. “Actually,” I say slowly, my brain turning more and more over what it could all mean, “maybe it isn’t.”
“He likes to blow stuff up, so I would say it is,” Milk says drily.
“Yes, he does, but he never misses,” I argue. “There’s no way that he would have done anything like that messy shit. We would not have walked out of there alive, or in one piece if we did survive.”
“You’re right,” Viper agrees, leaning forward. “I looked over the file Cryos put together, and when he blew shit up, he lit up the sky. There were never any survivors. He’s not going to sneak in and do a hurried charge and then run away. That’s rookie shit. No, he’d wire it up in the dead of night, and then he’d wait patiently until we were in place, and detonate it when he was close enough to see it happen, but far enough away to not get caught in it.”
“So are you saying that it might have been some rogue soldiers blowing shit up to impress Vlad?” Timber questions.
“Could be, but I can’t imagine Vlad would want that attention,” Viper replies.
“Or, he’s counting on it looking like we’re in a war with someone other than him,” I suggest. “I mean, the club used to be a 1%er club, and even though we’re not legit, the cops would think we’ve slipped back into that life or a rival club is coming to try and take over our territory. And the cops have no clue that we know Vlad is here, or that we’re involved in this little battle outside of Vlad’s rats in the force and court system. And they’re not going to announce that or get themselves in deep shit.”
“Maybe we’re just looking at this too hard,” Torque says thoughtfully. “I mean, it could be that we’re just pissing Vlad off and he’s done being nice. I mean, this has been months of back and forth. We did the same with Dmitri, but since he was setting up, he couldn’t do shit that would gain attention on himself. So he went after the women. Vlad is more seasoned, and him going after us hard and out in the open is something he can do without as much repercussion. More connections, more plants, and more resources than Dmitri had.”
“And maybe he’s doing the loud work while Nikolai works quietly in the background,” I agree grimly. “Either way, we’re in a shit position.”
“Might need to look at going full lockdown,” Shadow suggests.
“But won’t that just give him a new target with all of us and the women and kids here too?” King points out.
“We have this place covered in security and we have people patrolling, so him getting on the grounds would be next to impossible,” Cryos disagrees. “And we also have the shelter downstairs and in one of the outbuildings if we need it.”
“All of which they could find if they really wanted,” King answers.
Cryos opens his mouth to argue some more, but Bullet cuts him off by stating, “There is no good resolution. Cryos, your shit is damn good, but it’s not perfect, and you know it. Even the rest of us aren’t going to be able to keep them out with the little manpower we have.” He glances at me. “I think we should look at calling in an ally or two to have on hand. This shit goes south, and we’re going to need as many hands as we can to help us out.”
I nod my agreement. I’ve already been planning on mentioning this to him when we had a moment to ourselves. “We have a couple of options that aren’t far away. We could reach out to Arson and his crew first and see if they’re willing to come help out. They’re the closest, and their guys are crazy enough to enjoy this shit.”
The Heaven’s Misfits MC is a 1%er group that’s one state over, and one we’ve had some good relationships with over the past few years. We don’t get involved in their gun running, but we give them safe passage through our territory whenever they need it. They agree to our rules, and they don’t deal in our territory. Our guys have gone to help them out with some things in the past, like tracking down one of their missing women, and also keeping a few other women and children with us when they need it.
Arson’s batshit at times, but he’s a good man deep down and he’ll come through for us.
Bullet nods. “Alright. I think that’s going to be the best option. They can help us with patrols and keep the women and kids safe while any of us aren’t here. Any objections?”
“You sure that’s a good idea to have Silver around the women?” King snickers. “He’s either going to try and join forces or piss them off so much we’ll have to deal with his body before they’re gone.”
“Wasn’t it Rose that tossed that knife at him the last time?” Timber laughs.
Bullet smirks. “Yeah, but we’ll just make sure the two of them stay far apart this time. Arson will agree for that for peace.”
“Will they be bringing their women?” Shadow asks with a groan. “Don’t half of them have them?”
“We’ll tell them not to bring them with everything that’s goin’ on,” I offer. “Plus, if I remember correctly, Rose and Crook’s Old Lady almost got into a fight the last time she was here.”
“The woman is a leech,” Hulk says in disgust. “She tried to worm her way into all our beds at one point. Don’t know what the fuck the man sees in her.”
“He stays for the kids,” I reply. “But the oldest should be off to college now so I wouldn’t be surprised if he kicks her the hell out, if he hasn’t already. But either way, I’ll let Arson know it’s too dangerous to have more women and kids here. Some might not be happy about it, but they’ll deal.”
“Should we be sending the women over to them in the meantime?” Torque wonders. “I mean, I don’t want Izzy away from me, but if they’re going to be safer there…”
“I don’t want Syn away from me being pregnant,” Stone says firmly. “At least here, I can protect her.”
“She has the dogs to protect her,” Torque argues.
“If we start sending them away, Vlad might take that as an open invitation,” Frost interjects. “We need to keep them here as much as we can. And I hate to say it, but having the Misfits here and the connection to weapons. We have plenty, but won’t hurt to have that option.”
“We can’t have that shit on the grounds,” Bullet says with a shake of his head. “I wouldn’t put it past Vlad to call the cops and make some shit up again to get them here and do another search.”
“True,” Frost agrees with a sigh. “But we need a plan.”
“I’ll talk to Arson to see what we can work out,” I offer. “Maybe he has a suggestion, but Cryos, I’ll want the line encrypted just in case.” He nods.
“Alright, we got that figured out. Now, we need to figure out we’re going let Vlad know that we don’t appreciate his idiotic attempt,” Bullet announces. “And we need to ramp up our efforts to figure out where he’s hiding that shit.”
“Any news on if Crypt has deciphered anything in that stuff Cryos’s got, or the new stuff that we found in the wall?” Stone asks.
“I checked with him earlier,” Shadow answers. “He said he managed to figure out small bits and pieces, but nothing that makes sense. He said that whatever cipher Dagger set up, it’s not anything he’s worked with before.”
“Then Dagger probably didn’t come up with it.” King scoffs. “I mean, the man could barely understand how to cook with basic instructions on a box. So he had help getting it coded that way.”
“You think he had one of Dmitri’s men help?” I ask.
“Would make sense.” King shrugs.
“Or he’s using one that Bull used,” Bullet suggests. “Bull was real careful about shit, and one of our old VPs, though he didn’t last too long before he ate his own gun, was big into riddles and shit like that. He was one of those old doomsday quacks, and he was big on not wanting government to figure out anything. So it could be possible that he had him create something for him.”
“Maybe he did and then Bull killed him to make sure that no one but him would know how to decipher it,” I suggest.
Bullet says nothing, thinking that over, before nodding slowly. “Could be. He was found in one of the buildings he liked to hang out in, and the gun was found in his hand, so we all just assumed it got to be too much for him. He was big into drugs and had PTSD from his time in Vietnam. Bull and the new VP who came after him, Sprocket, found him. At the time, we didn’t have any clue what Bull was up to, so none of us questioned it.”
“But that means that all the shit that anyone who dealt with that in the military wouldn’t be able to figure it out,” Titan reasons grimly. “I mean, if he was as paranoid as you say, then that means that he would have made sure it wouldn’t be something someone who worked for the government would be able to figure out, right?”
“But this was back in the eighties and shit, so things are much more sophisticated than they were then,” Twigs points out. “I mean, my uncle has been in the Army for as long as I can remember, and the technology and terms they use have grown and changed over that time. So it could be that this will be easier to solve instead, right?”
“Crypt hasn’t figured it out and this is the kind of thing he used to do,” Viper points out.
“Not exactly,” Shadow corrects. “He did it on computers, not handwritten. Sure, it’s digitized, but he’s used to codes and programs to do most of the work. This is low tech and also trying to figure out someone’s brain child of a cipher.”
The room is quiet for a moment. “Well, we do have another option,” Cryos suggests hesitantly, and I frown when I see him looking at me. What the hell? I don’t do this shit. But then I go still when he clicks some buttons and Thea’s military ID comes on screen.
“No,” I snarl, furious that Cryos would even suggest such a thing.
“Cryos, we’re not involving women in club business anymore,” Bullet reminds him sternly. “Not to mention, she’s our employee and that’s going to make things messy.” He glances over at me. “And after earlier, I don’t think she’s going to be too keen on helping us from the state of Sniper’s face.”
“Look, I get that,” Cryos rushes out. “But Sniper asked me to look into her after she started at the security business. It’s the standard one that we always do, but I also looked into her military records. And one of the big things that she used to do was decoding military messages and work on ciphers for her unit. Her team was one of the more skilled at the time for these kinds of things, per her commendations, and she was the one that got the majority of the hard work done. She’s fucking smart, and she didn’t always do it with a computer. She did pen and paper with messages that would be intercepted from the bad guys. And as much as I appreciate how hard Crypt is working, he also is dealing with a head injury, and pushing him to try to work on this is only going to slow his recovery.”
I don’t like it. Not one bit, but I know he’s right at the same time. But it’s not only that we don’t want to involve her, I need to talk to her first. Because after that bombshell she dropped in my office earlier, there is no way in hell I’m going to leave her alone now.
“Fuck,” Shadow groans. “How the hell do we keep having women drop in our lap that either know shit that can help us, or are physically able to? Izzy told us about where to find the garage and the operation they were running, Syn has her dogs that found the drugs, and now we have Thea, who could help us find them and figure out whatever their routes are, and where the stash houses are. Not to mention Sage starting all this with her camera skills, Quinn getting taken, and Eden alerting us to Vlad bribing the judge.”
“We can’t seem to un-involve them, can we?” Stone sighs. “And I don’t fucking like it. Especially not now.”
Bullet is quiet and I look at him expectantly, waiting for him to quell this. But he doesn’t. Instead, he looks at me. “How much do you not want her to be involved?” he finally asks me.
“You can’t be thinking about doing this,” I snap, incredulous. “She has no ties to us but her brother and job. Other than having a smart mouth and a bit of a temper, she mostly follows the rules, and she will probably want to go right to the cops.”
Bullet stares at me a moment. “You’re sure of that?” he asks.
I don’t reply immediately, clenching my jaw and fighting not to grind my teeth. Fuck, would she? What do I really know about her? Like she keeps saying, she’s not an officer anymore, she moved up to a damn high rank in the Forces all on her own. “Fuck,” I hiss, scrubbing a hand over my face and then flinching at the pain that sparks. “No, I’m not sure, but she’s pissed enough at us that?—”
“At you,” Bullet interjects pointedly.
“Fine, at me then. She’s pissed enough that she might just to spite me.”
“Could we make it an order as part of her job?” Twigs asks.
“She already tried to quit once, and if we try to order her around, she’s going to jump ship for sure,” Viper replies with a shake of his head.
“Can I just point something out?” King asks calmly. “We’ve been in here over an hour now, and that means that she’s been out there with the women for longer than that. And considering that one of those women is Mom, who would gladly throw all of us under the bus if she wanted, we might be surprised what she’s willing to do now. Mom has a way of getting to the heart of things, and maybe she’s calmed her down enough to talk to us and consider the option to help if we want to involve her.”
“Cryos, do you have someone else that can help us decode this?” Bullet asks.
Cryos shakes his head. “I have one person, and they said they were going to try and work on it in their spare time. But I haven’t heard from them since, so that means that they haven’t looked or haven’t figured it out. Could I find someone? Sure, but that would mean involving another outside person, and that could be a person that will sell us down the river to get in Vlad’s good graces for a bigger paycheck.”
“So that means we’re stuck with either Crypt working on it, or we ask Thea to help,” Stone summarizes gravely.
“Medic, what’s your prognosis of Crypt?” I ask.
“Well, considering everything he’s been through, he’s making far better progress than I figured he would,” Medic answers thoughtfully. “My medical side wants him to rest his head for a couple more weeks, but we all know that won’t happen. I think the fact that he’s always moving, always working his mind, helps some. He also does take the meds I prescribed him and rests when I order, so perhaps that’s also part of the reason. Either way, I would say that he can do the deciphering, but if he had help, it might make him heal a bit faster.”
Shit. I was hoping he would say that he wouldn’t need help.
“I still don’t like involving someone that’s not loyal to the club,” Bullet huffs. “The only reason she’s here is because of her brother and that she works for Shadow and Viper, and the club by extension. But I’m not really seeing what other choice we have.”
“I know we want to get what we have deciphered, but maybe we don’t worry about it tonight,” Viper suggests carefully. “We focus on getting shit secured, get our rotations figured out and our allies called. Then we look at what we can do regarding Thea. Because we’re going to have to convince her to stay here with us instead of going back to her apartment.”
“And Sadie,” Shadow adds.
“And Sadie, though I doubt it will be easy to convince her.” Viper sighs. “I’ll get Eden to talk to her. And we can get Theo to talk to Thea if we have to. She’ll probably listen to her brother.”
“I agree,” Bullet says. “And that gives us time to figure out if we can do this without involving any of the women, even though I’m sure they’re all going to stick their noses sooner or later. All in agreement?” There’s a chorus of agreement, including from me. Mostly because once we’re done, Thea and I have to have a conversation.
Bullet ends Church, and we file out of the room. I see the women sitting on the couches at the back of the room, with Thea sitting at one of the tables not far away. Her expression is detached, her eyes red from the fire, but also an exhaustion that makes me feel a twinge of guilt. When her eyes connect with mine, they go cold and then look away. That’s fine with me. I have something else to do first before I talk to her.
Cryos gives me a nervous glance as I follow him to his office, shutting the door behind me. “I want her file. Now.”
Without a word, he hands it to me from where it sits on the top of his desk. I take it, open it, and look it over. I see the parts that Cryos found with her background, but those I mostly skim. If I was a better man, I would let her tell me about what happened herself, but I know she’s never going to tell me shit, and I’m not a patient man. She can hate me for it later.
I still when I get to the last few pages. I read it and the fury I was feeling earlier burns hotter. The reports, the complaints, all of it. But then I see the photos, the unredacted report that Cryos clearly worked to dig up. The one that has ice building in my gut as I read it. I fight the urge to punch something, my grip on the file tightening to the point that some of the other sheets tear.
Her team. Her own team did this to her?
I look up at Cryos. “Get me the information on her team and where they are now,” I order him so coldly that I’m surprised that there isn’t frost in the air. “And keep this shit to yourself. Burn the file for all I care, but no one else but the two of us sees this. Do you understand?”
Cryos nods, taking back the file. “It won’t take long to find, and I’ll send it to you as soon as I do,” he assures me.
I nod, turn and storm out, slamming the door behind me. Everyone looks at me in surprise, but no one says anything. I glance around but don’t see Thea. Fuck, where the hell did she go?
“She’s outside with Theo and Viper,” Rose offers calmly as she watches me.
I head for the front door, ignoring Rose’s calls to me. She’s not leaving until we talk and get this shit sorted. And not until she realizes she’s not alone and I’ll always have her back, even if she doesn’t want it.