36. Smoke
36
SMOKE
I t’s a complex plan with lots of moving pieces, which requires impeccable timing.
It’s one I’d like to believe we’re capable of executing.
But there are a number of new members in our group.
We have to trust that our fellow clubs sent us some of their best men.
Yet, nothing is guaranteed.
It’s never been hard to ride out with my club.
But today, I feel the tether to Quinn as surely as though there were a strand of elastic holding us together, pulling me back to her.
When Butcher realized Ember was at the bakery, he suggested we stop to say goodbye.
He’s also given Ember three flash-bang grenades, and Atom gave her a quick primer on how to use them.
I pray to God they don’t need them.
But when I saw Quinn standing there, in her dress the color of late-summer sunflowers, all the things I’d wanted to say were replaced with a simple declaration.
I love you, Quinn. I really fucking love you.
I didn’t want to leave the warmth of her arms. But there were things I had to tell her.
Then, she surprised me with her request. One I should have thought of.
If I die, there’s every chance my body won’t be seen again.
And I can only imagine the anguish she’d feel if she never knew where I was.
“Atom,” I say as we pull up down the street from our target, Lev Zakharov’s home.
We pulled up on some wasteland out by Denver’s city limits, waiting for nightfall, before riding here under cover of darkness.
“What?” he asks as he grabs additional weapons from his bike.
“Anything happens to me, you have to tell Quinn the truth.”
He looks at me like I just grew a second head.
“What?”
I tip my head in the direction of Lev’s home.
“In there. If I get killed, if I die. Whatever the reason, you can’t just ride back into town and never tell Quinn what happened. She’s spent her whole life dealing with a missing person. Don’t want to add to that burden.”
Atom shakes his head.
“No one is dying today.”
“Yeah, they are. That’s why we’re here. And they’re gonna defend to the death. And scared men do stupid things. But if I take one, you gotta promise me. Quinn needs to know.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
I place my hand on his shoulder.
“I wouldn’t ask unless it was important. I need you to promise me. Whatever happens, whatever Butcher says, tell her. She’s not a risk. She’ll carry it alone. I trust her with every fiber of my being.”
Atom runs his hand over his face.
“Fuck’s sake, brother. When you ask for a favor, you really ask for one.”
“Not sure I can do this if you won’t give me your word. I can’t go in there and worry that I’m gonna devastate my girl.”
Atom sighs, then offers me his hand.
I take it and shake it.
“You have my word. I won’t leave Quinn hanging. Guess I better have your back, so I don’t have to do that shit, though. I fucked my president’s daughter. I think that’s the only pass I’m gonna get with Butcher this year, and he’ll kill me if he finds out.”
I tug Atom to me and hug him.
“Thanks, brother.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he says, hugging me back.
“Feels appropriate we go into this together.”
I know what he means.
Butcher walks over to us.
“Ready?”
“To break into a house with who knows how many assailants, with who knows what weapons?” I say.
“Absolutely.”
“If we find Lev, he’s mine,” Atom says.
Butcher shakes his head.
“We find Lev, he’s dead. Doesn’t matter who does it. We’re not taking any chances he could get away while we try and find you. It’s a lesson. They don’t get to terrorize our town. They don’t get to claim blood debts. They need to fuck off and leave us alone.”
I look to Atom.
“I’ll help you find him.”
He nods, and we start our approach.
Dice confirmed earlier that the man is here, wearing a sling on one arm.
Guess I hit him in the shoulder.
Can’t help but pray I took out his shooting arm.
But the man is meeting his maker today.
Because Rurik Zakharov needs to learn he can send his best lieutenants to Colorado, but they are going to be met with force.
“You good?” I ask Zimmer, one of the bikers from the Wyoming chapter.
Turns out, the guy is a security expert in his day job.
Fits alarms and shit.
Knows how to turn most of them off.
“Didn’t ride all this way to sit in the clubhouse and drink beer,” he says.
“Looking forward to some action. We don’t see much where our clubhouse is.”
I can’t decide if that’s a good thing.
Once upon a time, I’d be all in on the action.
Maybe the higher-octane days are over.
Plane jumps and shootouts.
Maybe it would be nice to be a little more Wyoming.
Bring the heat level down for the club.
For the most part, we kept clubs together.
The other members of the Wyoming chapter have gone with the Indianapolis chapter to destroy the rebuilt warehouse I saw Lev at and burn it to the ground.
The Utah and Nebraska chapters have gone after a Bratva safe house.
And we’re taking Lev’s home in three teams.
I’m with Atom, Butcher, and Zimmer.
We’re going in through the front, so Zimmer, hopefully, has time to disconnect the alarm system.
Grudge, Wraith, and Catfish are going around the back.
And Taco, Jackal, and Shade are going to deal with security on the grounds.
In the darkness, we creep along the stone wall that surrounds the property.
“That’s the problem with flashy bastards,” Atom whispers.
“Makes ‘em easier to find.”
Certainly, there are significantly fewer houses to sift through to find who you’re looking for.
They crave privacy.
High walls, cameras, and fences.
But it makes them more vulnerable. Less chance of any disturbances being heard. By them, or by witnesses who could call law enforcement. If we do this right, no one should know a thing until morning. All our weapons have silencers, even Jackal’s rifle.
Butcher raises his hand to pause, and I check my watch.
Three minutes until the planned attack time. We want to leave them utterly defenseless. Our suspicion is that as soon as the warehouse is raided, there will be an all-hands call made to Lev Zakharov for reinforcements. But by then, we’ll already be in, leaving him unable to send additional resources.
Atom leans back against the wall and grins.
“What’s funny?
” I ask.
Atom tips his head closer to mine and whispers, “Just thinking in six months, you, me, and Wraith all got old ladies. Wondering what the chances of that are.”
I shake my head.
“How about we focus? And technically, she’s not an old lady yet.”
“Just sayin’,” the enforcer says.
“Wanna take a bet on who’s next?”
I glance down at my watch, then gesture that he should shut the fuck up.
Atom simply grins. “Bet it’s Catfish.”
I shake my head.
“You got a better chance of it being Butcher.”
Butcher gives the gesture we’ve been waiting for, and we go in our pre-determined order.
Zimmer with Butcher, first, Atom second, and then I’ll cover the rear.
“Fuck,” I hear Wraith say in my headset.
“Utah were spotted at the safe house and are already engaged.”
“Butcher,” I hiss.
“We gotta hurry. There’s a breach.”
The last thing we need is Zakharov having the time to make calls and tell people, like his father, what’s happening.
They’re so well connected, they could send a fucking drone in for all I know.
Butcher picks the lock and gets us into the house, and we search for the alarm box.
Atom finds it in a coat closet, and Zimmer gets to work, but no sooner does he open the panel and connect a gadget he uses to roll through alarm codes than we hear the first bullet outside.
“Fuck the alarm,” Butcher says.
“They already know we’re here. Let’s find them.”
We split, me with Atom, Butcher with Zimmer.
Our path takes us into a fancy-as-fuck living space the size of the club bar.
Lush sofas. Big windows, a fuck ton of crystal everywhere, from the chandeliers to the shit on tables, but no signs of any people.
A peppering of bullets and gunshots shatter the quiet.
Given our weapons all have silencers and suppressors, it means Lev’s men are well and truly awake.
The silence we experienced only moments before is now shattered.
I hear Taco yell in pain just outside the window.
“We need to move faster,” Atom says.
He goes ahead of me, and I lose sight of Butcher and Zimmer as they head off to the room on the other side of the hall.
The living room is separated from a study by glass doors.
Atom pushes one open, and I find a laptop sitting on the desk.
I make a note to come back and grab it, if the situation allows it.
Who knows what kind of intel could be on it?
Names, dates, places.
Plus, banking information.
I wonder if I got the laptop to Vex in New Jersey, maybe he could do something with it.
Next to it sits a solid glass or crystal ashtray.
There are the remains of a cigar in it.
Mostly ash with a stubby end.
I put my hand over it.
It’s cold. With everything else so perfect, it looks a little out of place.
Atom peers around the door from the study into the hallway, then raises his hand to tell me we need to go right.
And I’m about to follow when I feel the unmistakable cold of a gun barrel being pressed to my skull.
“You’ll do,” the voice says.