Chapter 5 - Stone
FIVE
STONE
Harry’s face deadpanned and I chuckled. He couldn’t stand it when I teased him like that.
The man constantly had a stick up his ass, and I hated working with people like that.
Always so serious all the damn time. Then again, he did work for one of the most ruthless gun runners in all of China.
It would only make sense that he’d have a stick up his ass.
Better than the barrel of his boss’s gun.
“My boss and I are concerned about this supposed cop that was undercover in the club,” Harry said.
“Well, you and I both,” I said.
“We’re worried he might have gotten a hold of some sensitive information.”
I shook my head. “Not possible.”
“Oh? Not even with how close Bronx got to him?”
“Not even with that.”
“Bronx is your numbers guy. He has a lot of information on us. Such as bank account routing numbers, times and dates for payments and drop offs. Bronx could do a lot of damage to us.”
“And he didn’t. Bronx knows not to talk about any of that stuff with people. Especially prospects. Which was all Boulder was. That grunt worked in the bar,” I said.
“Where you clean and funnel your money through.”
“He wiped down tables and cleaned up vomit,” I said flatly.
Harry leaned back into his seat. “My boss wants reassurance that we aren’t compromised. We want to know you guys are still good for your regular orders and shipments along with the sales you do for us on a bi-yearly basis.”
“We will continue to be good for it once we settle this little issue. Right now, we’re switching up everything. Burner phones have been tossed and divvied out again. Delivery routes have been switched, which you and your men will single-handedly figure out tomorrow.”
“How can you ensure our safety, Stone?”
“By doing exactly what we’re doing right now. Switching over to precautionary and emergency mode until we can wipe that pig from the surface of the planet,” I said.
“Oh, so The Lost Boys are killing cops now? You know how my boss feels about that,” he said.
“And you know we aren’t actually going to kill him.”
“Then what will you do?”
He was looking for answers I didn’t have. I didn’t know what the fuck we were going to do about Detective Woolf. I only knew we had to do something.
“Privileged information like that shouldn’t be shared unless it’s necessary,” I said.
Harry grinned. “So, you don’t know.”
“You don’t want us killing cops, that’s fine.
We don’t want to kill cops. So, we go back to the drawing board and figure out something else.
But that bust Boulder ran threw out seven dirty cops in the San Diego department in the first place.
Five of which were connections we had. The first step is rebuilding those connections. Then, we can take on Boulder.”
“You mean Detective Woolf.”
I swallowed the grin I wanted to plaster on my face. So, Harry knew more than he was letting on. Not once had we given that name to the Chinese. Hell, we didn’t even use it ourselves if we didn’t have to. Pissed us off to hear it.
“Yes, that’s exactly who I mean,” I said.
“How long was this Boulder in your ranks?” Harry asked.
“He didn’t start tending to the bar or coming to any of the functions until a couple months before shit went down.”
“And before that?”
I ground my teeth together. “He pledged himself to us for five months before we gave him a leather jacket.”
“And in those five months, what did he do?”
“What every other prospect drooling over the leather cut does. He bided his time, lived his life, and waited for our call to come to the bar for an interview.”
“And nothing struck you as odd during the interview, Mr. President?”
“I take full responsibility for what happened to the club, for what happened to Boulder, and the weight it’s brought down onto your shoulders. But I can assure you and your boss that nothing has been compromised. If it had been, he would’ve already made moves. That bastard is tailing us—”
“He’s what?” he asked.
I nodded. “He was tailing Bronx there for a while, so we are taking precautions. Many of them. Driving back roads. Using burner phones to call other burner phones. And before you ask? No. I wasn’t followed here.”
“You better make damn sure of it.”
“I am. But him tailing us means nothing was compromised. If it had been, your boss and us would’ve been stormed by his lackeys. He’s following us because he has nothing and he’s desperate. Which means we can use his desperation against him.”
“Desperate cops always screw up,” he murmured.
“Exactly.”
Harry nodded, drawing in a deep breath. “Okay.”
“Okay… what?”
“Okay, I have enough information to subdue my boss and his tantrum right now. But we’ll be in communication. Regularly. Stay by your phone.”
“I didn’t expect anything less.”
I stood from my chair to shake his hand, but Harry cleared his throat.
“Did this Detective Woolf know you were doing any business with the Chinese?” he asked.
Fuck. The smoking gun question I hoped he didn’t ask.
“He knew we were involved with a Chinese,” I said.
Harry quirked an eyebrow. “A?”
“When Boulder started asking Bronx questions, Bronx had a feeling in his gut that something wasn’t right. So, according to Bronx, he said that there was a Chinese we were involved with that connected us to another group in China. That was it.”
“Uh-huh. And you trust this Bronx?”
I gnashed my teeth. “With my fuckin’ life, Harry.”
“So, you’re sure none of our names were given out.”
“Like I said, if they were, you would’ve had red flags flying up everywhere from him digging into you guys. Has that happened yet?”
Harry paused. “No.”
“Then stop fuckin’ askin’ questions you know the damn answer to.”
Harry slammed his hands down onto the table and shot out of his chair.
“You know damn good and well that if you don’t take care of Detective Woolf in some fashion I’ll be forced to cut ties with your gang and find another club to work with, right?” he asked.
“I’m well aware of it,” I said curtly.
“Which means I’ll lose my position and be demoted, if not killed first.”
“I got it, Harold.”
“Don’t you dare sass back at me.”
“Then tone your fuckin’ voice down. We’re behind a door, not soundproof fuckin’ walls.”
Harry stood up and drew in a quick breath.
“Take care of this bullshit, and soon. Otherwise, all of us are done for,” he said.
Then, he held out his arm and ushered me toward the door.
I stormed through the restaurant, not caring about who I knocked out of my way.
I was pissed. Way angrier than I should have been.
Thunder and lightning crashed through the sky, but the clouds were moving away from us.
I slipped my helmet over my head and went out to my bike.
Fucking hell, it was soaked. I grumbled to myself, cursing against the plexiglass of the helmet visor as I jammed my keys into the ignition.
“Fuckin’ asshat, thinking he can intimidate me. I’d crack his fuckin’ skull open.”
I slung my leg over the bike and grimaced at the wetness that penetrated my jeans.
I looked at my watch and grunted. Eleven thirty.
My, how time flies when I’m having the time of my fuckin’ life.
I cranked it up and sped out of there, zooming in between cars.
They honked their horns and cussed at me.
Some of them flicked me off as I sped by in a blur.
I took back roads and kept my eyes on my rearview mirrors, making sure that pig cop wasn’t following me anywhere.
Then, I pulled back out onto the main road.
I white-knuckled my handlebars. Never in my life had I been so angry and felt so helpless at the same fuckin’ time.
Killing Jett was supposed to be the answer to all my problems. My blood pressure had skyrocketed to a dangerous point during those years.
Those years when we tried to pin that bastard down and get him away from my sister and my fuckin’ niece.
But all it did was expose more issues I knew I had overlooked because of my worry for my sister.
I couldn’t be that distracted ever again.
I pulled into a parking space and walked my happy ass into the grocery store.
I needed some shit for my apartment. I walked up and down the aisles, keeping an eye on all the security cameras.
I was painfully aware of everyone surrounding me.
Everyone who was anyone that detective could have tapped into to watch us.
The single mother battling her two twins who cried because they wanted sugary cereal.
The asshole with the sunglasses whose eye was watching that single mother a little too hard.
I lingered around her, making sure that man wouldn’t do anything.
And when he took a step toward her and her kids, I eyed him down until he backed his ass out of the grocery store.
“Thank you. He’d been following me around the grocery store ever since I walked in. I’ve been ready to check out for twenty minutes,” she said.
“If you give me ten, I’ll check out and walk out with you,” I said.
“Thank you so much,” she breathed.
I rushed and got the things I needed. A six-pack of ice-cold beer. Some steaks to grill up. Potatoes to bake and some cheesecake to devour later. I picked up some damn toilet paper and a few bags of chips. Then, I headed to the register with the woman and her kids.
I walked outside and saw that asshole standing around a vehicle. And when that woman froze, I knew he was standing by her vehicle.
“You stay right here. I’m putting my stuff on my bike, then I’ll walk you over there,” I said.
I kept my eyes on the man as I stepped off the curb.
The woman clung to the curb with her cart and her kids, her eyes never wavering from the man in the sunglasses.
Such bullshit, men these days. I wanted to strangle all of them I came across.
I stuffed my groceries into the stowaway compartment I’d attached to my bike when I first got it, and then I balled up my fists and walked over to the guy.
“You got a problem?” I asked.
“I need to talk to her,” he said.
“You don’t need to do a damn thing.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“I’m the man who’s gonna make sure her and her kids get in this car safely and get home,” I said.
“You fuckin’ her too?” he asked, grinning.
I jutted my hand out and wrapped it around his neck as the woman cried out. I pressed him against the car as people stopped and gasped. I gnashed my teeth as the man’s eyes bulged with fear behind his pathetic sunglasses.
I ripped them off and tossed them to the pavement before I stomped on them with my boot.
“You’re going to let this nice woman get in her car with her kids. And you’re going to let them drive away. I’m going to give her my number, and I’m going to tell her that if she ever sees you again to call me instead of the police. You got it?” I asked.
The man nodded quickly as my face came closer to his.
“And if she needs a good fuck, she can call me too,” I said, grinning.
I sucked air through my teeth before I sat back up. I tossed the man by his neck out into the street where he scurried off and ran. I turned back to the woman who had her children clutched to her bosom and her eyes locked onto me.
Then, I walked back over to her and pulled out a piece of paper from my pocket.
“You got a pen?” I asked.
She nodded quickly as her trembling hands dug through her purse. She handed me one and I wrote down the number of my office phone at the lodge—an encrypted private line where clients could call and barter for our services.
I wrote my name down underneath it and handed it to her.
“Call if you have any issues. Ask for ‘Stone’,” I said.
“Thank you so much,” she whispered.
“Not a problem.”
I escorted her kids to her car and helped her with her groceries.
And when I watched them drive down the road safely, I hopped on my bike and rode off as well.
I didn’t give a shit about the crowd. Or who saw.
Or what was caught on tape. All that mattered was that woman and her kids and the fact that they got home safely.
I sighed as I hit a traffic jam on the highway leading out of San Diego.
My apartment was on the outskirts of town in a quiet area that would never be further developed because it was a fuckin’ dump that smelled like sewer all the damn time.
But the apartments were very nice for a cheap price.
It was the developer’s first chance at trying to set roots down in the area.
Which didn’t work well, because no one wanted to live in a damn bog that smelled like shit all the time.
But my three-bedroom, two-bathroom renovated apartment with all the utilities included only ran me one grand a month.
I sighed as I weaved in and out of traffic.
Horns honked and people cursed at me as I hopped curbs and tried to get around the jam.
If I could get to the damn back roads, I was only fifteen minutes away from home.
Away from my couch. Away from my walk-in shower and my jetted tub and my king-size fuckin’ bed.
I swerved into a lane and slammed on my brakes, readying myself to jump another lane of traffic. Then suddenly, with horns honking and people screaming, my motorcycle went screeching up the lane. Moving without being propelled by me as my ass flew over my damn handlebars.
I’d been hit by a goddamn car.