Chapter 18
Creed
I’m not trying to avoid Nova, but I’m not seeking her out either. I have work to do, a club to run, and our bills don’t just disappear because we have other things going on, not even if one of those other things is the best sex I’ve ever had.
It’s heading toward evening when I decide that I’m done waiting for Cipher to come to me.
I’ve done the paperwork I had piling up, made decisions about a few new projects, and fixed the issue with my brother’s bike.
I don’t have any other reason to not spend the rest of the day in the main room with the rest of the MC, the Bunnies, and my woman.
So I make up a reason and grab some coffee to take to Cipher.
“Anything new?” I ask as I walk into the security office.
Cipher leans back in his chair and spins around to face me. “Thanks,” he says as he takes the coffee. “You have good timing. I was just gonna come get you.”
Relieved that I’m not going to sit around with my thumb up my ass, waiting for him to finish, I grab the other chair and sit, facing my SAA. “Let’s hear it.”
“Marty first,” Cipher says. “His main creditor? Meridian Group.”
“Shit.” I sigh.
“Yeah,” Cipher agrees with me, and we sit with the information for a minute.
Meridian isn’t based in Pine Ridge, but we’ve definitely heard of them.
They work out of Reno but operate across all of Nevada.
Lately, they’re trying to expand over the border, which is why we’re keeping an eye on them.
They come anywhere near our territory and they’re going to find out the Kings of Ruin don’t put up with shit like they do.
Like the Reapers, Meridian Group is involved in the kind of stuff we don’t touch.
Officially, they run legal gambling and escort services in Reno.
Unofficially, they run debt schemes that include making loans to addicts, and they’re human traffickers.
Mostly women and girls working in or sold into prostitution, but some men and boys, too.
We don’t get squeamish when it comes to torturing and killing men who need it, but women and kids are off-limits. And rape and slavery? Nope. I don’t care how much money is in that business. The Kings don’t do it, and we don’t ally with MCs that do.
Except the Meridian Group isn’t a motorcycle club.
They’re businessmen in suits. Corporate and highly organized.
Their leader is Victor Calder, a former attorney turned CEO who caters to the same sort of rich bastards who are used to their money getting them whatever they want, whether it’s a not-guilty verdict or a sex slave.
The only people I hate worse than those fuckers are the ones who get them what they want. Which means Meridian Group is at the top of my shit list. I almost want them to come across the state line so we can beat the shit out of them and send them back to Reno.
“How much does he owe?” I ask.
“Three hundred and forty thousand,” Cipher says.
I let out a low whistle. With the interest rates those assholes are probably charging, Marty doesn’t stand a chance of ever paying it all off, not unless he hits the lottery or becomes a better gambler.
“Not looking good for Marty,” I say finally.
“Especially after what I found when I finally got into Patch’s deleted messages,” Cipher continues.
“That spying the Reapers said he was doing? It was exactly what we thought. Stupid prospect trying to prove himself. But that’s not all I found.
Day after the kid was in the warehouse, he got a text from someone who said they used to work for Meridian.
This guy told Patch that Layla was about to be sold through one of Meridian’s contracts. ”
“Why didn’t the kid come to us?” I shake my head. “He risks his life scoping out a warehouse without permission but doesn’t trust us enough to tell us his girl’s in danger?”
“Based on the time he got the text and when the sender said Layla was being picked up for transfer, Patch wouldn’t have had time to get us.”
“Could’ve called us while he was on his way,” I say with a sigh. “Wouldn’t have needed anything but the address to go to.”
Cipher shrugs. “Patch is young. My guess is, he panicked. Grabbed Layla and ditched their phones so they couldn’t be tracked. Ditched his bike because it’s recognizable. Now the two of them are out there somewhere alive, but laying low.”
I want to be relieved, but I don’t want to make assumptions, so I ask, “You’re sure they’re alive?”
“Yeah,” Cipher says, “and I think I know where they are.”
I straighten in the chair, adrenaline dumping into my blood. “Keep talking.”
“The last person Patch texted from his phone was a man named Frank Delaney,” Cipher continues.
“Delaney is a veteran and he served with Patch’s dad.
Was there when Patch’s dad died in Afghanistan.
That’s the only reason I was able to find out anything about him.
He’s been almost completely off the grid, except when he’s communicating with Patch.
After Patch texted Delaney, a traffic camera caught Delaney crossing the border from Nevada into California.
He doesn’t show up again… but his car does.
Once. And there are three people in the car.
I can’t see their faces, but I’m positive it’s Delaney, Patch, and Layla. ”
“The fact that you’re telling me this and not just pointing at a map says there’s a problem,” I say.
“Based on what I could find, I think they’re outside Pine Ridge, hiding out in one of the buildings along the main highway.”
I immediately understand. “Iron Vipers territory.”
Cipher nods. “I know they’re our allies, but this could bring down a real shitstorm they aren’t expecting.”
A piece clicks into place. “The Meridian Group are the ones who’ve been staking us out.”
“They’re a big company, so it’d take forever for me to find every vehicle every employee owns, but it makes sense,” Cipher says.
“If we go looking for Layla and Patch, and they’re watching, they could follow us right into Viper territory.” I stand up and run my hand through my hair. “Fuck.”
“Being allies is one thing. Us starting a firefight in their territory…” Cipher shrugs again.
I make a decision. “I’m calling Stone and I’m gonna lay everything out for him.
I’m gonna ask for his help, but even if he won’t give it, we’re going after our man and Nova’s sister.
We’re gonna ride out today even though it’s late.
Work on getting a more specific location so we can go in fresh tomorrow.
And I’ll need you to stay here and monitor Meridian, so we won’t get surprised. ”
Cipher nods. “On it, Prez.”
Knowing he’ll do what I asked, I leave the security office to go to my own to make my call.
When I finish, I go to find Nova. She’s in the main room, talking to Lyssa.
The moment she sees me, her body language changes.
I hope the way she goes stiff is because she’s worried I have bad news and not because she regrets sleeping with me.
“A word, Nova.” I jerk my head toward a spot in the room far enough from others that we won’t be overheard. My guys will hear everything, too, but I don’t know how Nova’s going to handle it, and I want her to have the privacy to react however she needs to.
“Cipher found something?” she asks as soon as we’re more-or-less alone.
I don’t hold back, giving her everything without trying to soften it. She absorbs it all without a change in expression and then she nods, like she’s come to some sort of conclusion.
“I’m going with you.”
It’s not a question or a command. She’s stating it like it’s fact, and her voice is calm and collected. I can see emotion in her eyes, but they don’t spill out, as if she knows that would make anyone question if she’s in the right headspace for what has to be done.
I nod once and then reach for her. I pull her against me and wrap my arms tightly around her.
She presses her face against my chest, and I can feel some of the tension leave her.
I rub her back from the base of her spine and up to her neck, then reverse it.
I repeat the motions a few times, the need to soothe her hitting something deep and primal inside me.
I’m aware of eyes on us, but no one says anything.
In fact, a couple of my guys look damn smug, like they’ve been making bets about me and Nova.
I flip them off without letting her go. We’re gonna move soon, but she needs to have her shit together to come with us, and to do that, she needs me to hold her together for a while. Only once I’m sure she’s good do I let her go. She takes a step back and gives me a steady look.
“I like the dress,” I tell her, “but I don’t know what we’re riding into. Go put on jeans and wear your leather jacket over your shirt. Make sure you bring a change of the same type of clothes for tomorrow when we find the exact place our people are.”
As she hurries away, Ace comes up to me. I can tell by his face he’s had something to say the whole time I was holding Nova. Since I know he’s going to be pissed about Nova coming with us, I figure I’ll handle his protests all at once.
“Nova’s coming with us.”
“Dammit, Creed,” Ace says. “That’s a bad idea.”
“You got something else to say, too, don’t you?” I ask mildly. “Go ahead and get it out.”
“You sure your head’s in the right place?”
Some men, when they’re in charge, like to surround themselves with ‘yes men’ who only ever tell them what they want to hear.
One of the first things Bowie taught me about being a leader was that it’s better to have a right-hand man who’ll see things you won’t, and say what you need to hear, even if you don’t like it.
Ace has always been that friend to me, so it made sense to have him be my VP.
This isn’t the first time he’s said something that pisses me off, so he knows what to expect and I don’t disappoint him.
“You think I’m pussy-whipped or something?
” I snap. “Patch is our prospect. Not a patched-in member, but that don’t matter for something like this.
We protect our own. But that includes Layla two times over.
One because she’s Patch’s girl until one of them says otherwise, and two because Nova’s my old lady.
We’d be going even if Layla was the only one missing. ”
“Okay, got that,” Ace says as he folds his arms. “But you ever hear about an old lady going with her man into a dangerous situation like the one we’re heading into?”
“If Layla’s alive, Nova’s coming.” I put a note of finality into my voice.
Ace nods. “All right, then. What do you want me to do?”
“Get everyone ready,” I order. “The Kings have work to do.”