Chapter Eleven
Vandal
The clubhouse smelled like home and the walls in this place held more secrets than any fucking safe ever could. It was home, the only home, other than Macy, I’d ever had.
The moment I stepped inside the office, I saw Slate hunched over with his laptop open on the desk, his dark brows furrowed in deep concentration.
“What’s all this?” I asked, motioning to the photos on the monitors on the wall.
There were half a dozen photos, surveillance stills that were grainy but clear enough to see exactly who it was. “Halloran?”
He nodded. “The fucker is so brazen he’s not even hiding,” Slate replied and pointed to a few of the photos of him at different gas stations with nothing but a ballcap on his head. “Fucking badge fixed on his belt,” he muttered.
“That’s good,” Diesel said, his voice booming from the back of the room. “It means he’s not being careful and that makes it easier to track him.”
“He’s not heading straight west,” Slate interrupted. “He went north, crossing into Colorado early this morning.”
My jaw tightened. “That makes sense, Macy said she was looking at jobs in Colorado so he probably thinks she might go there. How sure are you?”
“Credit card hit outside Amarillo yesterday. Another this morning just south of Pueblo. Same card and it bought a hotel room and a tank of gas.” He tapped the screen. “He ain’t exactly hiding.”
And that pissed me off more than if he was hiding or at least trying to be incognito.
“Means we’ve got time,” Diesel said from the back of the room, arms crossed over his chest. “Days maybe even a week or two before Nevada hits on his radar.”
Time. A word that meant something different depending on who you were protecting.
“We can’t let him make it to Steel City,” I spat out, my palms flat on the table.
“If he finds that Macy is here and gets word to Ruiz, we’re fucked.
We’ll be crawling with cartel soldiers before we know what hit us.
I can’t let that bastard get anywhere near her. I won’t.”
Rocky arched a brow. “You proposing what I think you are?”
I nodded. “I’m saying let me fly to Colorado and put a bullet in him before he gets close enough to see the Vegas skyline.” My jaw clenched tight and I waited to hear all the reasons that was a bad fucking idea.
The room fell silent, but it wasn’t shocked, nobody was shocked that I wanted to kill this son of a bitch. The silence was heavy. And so fucking quiet the room roared with it.
Diesel, the voice of reason, was the first to speak. “That might make you feel better, but it probably won’t stop Ruiz from looking.”
“True, but Halloran will be six feet under, and they’ll have to start from a cold as fuck trail.” I let out a slow breath. “And I’ll make it clean.”
“And if you miss,” Rocky countered, his tone a pure challenge. “Or if he’s got eyes on him? Or if taking him out tips Ruiz off faster than letting him move?”
I didn’t want to hear logic. Logic didn’t quiet the image in my head of Halloran’s eyes on Macy again.
That cold smile. The way he’d shown up over and over like a fucking ghost she couldn’t shake.
“I’m not losing her again,” I said. The words came out rough, scraped straight from my chest. “There is no fucking way.”
Slate held up a hand to stop the arguing before it escalated. “I’ve got eyes on him, man. He won’t disappear off our radar. If he heads south or west, or any other direction, I’ll know. And then you will know.” He looked up from the screen and stared at me.
I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I got it.” I didn’t fucking like it, but I got it.
“Don’t go startin’ a war by yourself, not when shit is finally a little bit quiet.” Hawk leaned back in his chair, a shit-eating grin on his face.
My fists clenched until the nails bit into my palms. Every fucking instinct within me screamed at me to act, to do something to ensure Macy’s safety. I needed, with every fiber of my being, to eliminate the threat before it could touch her life again.
“There’s more,” Slate announced, his gaze dark and too serious.
Shit. That got my attention. “What?”
“It’s Ruiz,” he said, his tone heavy. Still serious. The photos of Halloran disappeared from the screen and more photos replaced them, but this face was younger and female with big dark eyes and a wide smile. “Shit’s not all sunshine and roses for him.”
“Good,” I grunted. “Why?”
“Marietta PD’s been sniffing around him for the assault and murder of a fifteen-year-old girl.
The prick was obsessed with her, followed her to school and attended her volleyball games.
He has a type.” Slate’s mouth tightened when he slid a wary glance my way.
“Word is, the Somba Negra cartel boss is pissed. Ruiz is drawing heat and costing money.”
Another heavy silence rolled across the room.
“He’s also doing side deals with local gangs,” Slate continued.
“You think he’s trying to take the number one slot?”
Slate shook his head. “Fuck no. He’s just a slimy bastard who likes doing dirty shit. Making deals on the side, feeling like a big man and pocketing the extra cash. He likes that shit but not the responsibility.”
“That’s good,” Diesel said while my own thoughts raced. “It means there are other ways we can get to him without getting too close.”
“Pissed off cartel boss, for one,” Maverick added.
“Yeah or shot caller pissed off because his product is landing in their territory,” Rebel said.
I appreciated what they were trying to do, but that didn’t change shit. “I promised Macy I’d kill that fucker myself. Ruiz and Halloran.” All eyes were on me, and I felt exposed as fuck, but I meant what I said.
“Got something you wanna tell us?” Hawk asked, a teasing smile lighting up his face.
“Not really,” I grunted. “Macy and I both had fucked up childhoods in different ways. Absent and neglectful parents, you know the story. She’s my best friend in the whole fucking world, before the MC and before the Army, and we took care of each other.
I was always a little in love with her, but it wasn’t ever about that.
” I stared at the table as I spoke, a memory appeared without warning.
Macy, scrawny as hell, curled up on the floor beside the garbage chute with tears streaming down her cheeks. She was trying to make herself as small as possible until she was damn near invisible. But I saw her. I always did.
Some other girls in the building were teasing her about her clothes that were always a little too big or had a few too many holes in them. She didn’t fight back because she’d been conditioned to shrink.
“Did you get those clothes from the dumpster,” one of them laughed.
Macy didn’t answer, somehow, she shrank even more.
I took a step forward until I was right behind the mean girl. “Not everyone’s mom can just open their legs to get new clothes. New shoes. A new phone.”
She gasped and turned to glare at me.
“Get the fuck out of here,” I said, louder when she thought she might argue with me. I didn’t bother watching them walk away, instead I picked her up and took her back to my place where we curled up in bed and slept back to back.
The way we had for years.
“Not before,” Hawk said. “But what about now? What’s it like?”
I didn’t have an answer to that even though I could still taste her on my tongue. I knew what I wanted but we weren’t there yet. “Now I’m not willing to let any fucking harm come to her. Period. I won’t lose her again. I can’t.”
Gio let out a low whistle, a wide ass grin on his face. “Another one bites the dust.”
I frowned. “Asshole, you’ve bitten the dust.”
Gio wore a smug grin and shrugged. “That’s how I recognize the signs.”
I rolled my eyes. “I just hate feeling so fucking helpless.”
“Yep, that’s one of the signs,” Gio said, so fucking amused with himself.
I flipped him off and turned to Slate.
He closed his laptop and nodded. “I’ll keep eyes on Halloran and Ruiz, you keep Macy close. And safe.”
It wasn’t the answer I wanted but it was the one I got and I had to live with that. In that way, MC life wasn’t much different from Army life.
The meeting shifted after all my fucking drama to more mundane details like club businesses.
Without the shit stirred up by Sledge’s ex, Leather & Chrome’s business was booming.
We always had a backlog at Steel City Motors, and Demon Head Guns had private parties booked out for six months.
For the first time in a long fucking time, MC life was quiet.
That was a rarity and one I planned to enjoy.
With Macy.
I hardly heard any of the details or updates because my mind was so full of her.
Last night she’d been so light and carefree, generous with her laughs and her smiles.
The way she looked at me this morning when she said she wanted me.
Fuck, the way she trusted me with her body and her pleasure.
After what she’d gone through I knew what a fucking gift that was.
That was why I hadn’t pushed for more even though my cock really wanted more. A fuck of a lot more.
But there was no rush. I had her back and I had no plans on letting her go.
No matter what.
I didn’t plan to just keep her in my life, I planned to make her mine.