Chapter 24
Creed
It’s hard to let Nova out of my sight after what happened on the road.
I know she’s safe and I’ve put a couple of men at the end of the hall where her and Layla’s rooms are to make sure even in a surprise attack, they’ll be protected.
Doesn’t stop me from wanting to be the one protecting her though.
Judging by the way Patch keeps looking toward the stairs, he’s thinking the same thing, but he hasn’t asked for any sort of exception, not even when I told him Nix and Whizz would be the two on guard duty.
Church is going to be short because there’s only one thing we really need to talk about, and it’s not something we have to debate.
The Kings were pissed before when we found out Meridian’s trying to move into our territory and traffic in humans.
Watching Stray nearly die has just made all of us more determined to make sure these assholes stay out of California.
And it won’t break our hearts if we reduce their numbers doing it.
I have Stone on speaker, and the Vipers are having church too. I don’t ask him about the leak, not knowing how much his men know, but I trust he’ll handle it. When we decide what we’re going to do, he’ll make sure we only have men we can trust, and that’s what matters.
Cipher is in the meeting, pacing in the back since he’s been sitting for so long, but that doesn’t stop him from giving the MC a rundown of everything he’s found about Meridian with the exception of the phone records.
There’s nothing new to me, but as soon as he’s done, Cipher heads back to his office to keep digging into Meridian’s finances, contracts, personnel records, and anything else he thinks might be useful.
He says he’ll brief me again in an hour.
Before I close out church, there’s one final thing that needs done. The only thing we have to vote on.
“Meridian isn’t gonna let this go,” I say.
“We killed their men. We took someone they wanted. We made it clear they’re not welcome here.
Men like that, men who buy and sell people, they don’t like having their power questioned and they don’t like being defied.
So the question isn’t if we fight. It’s on whose terms. Do we wait for them to come to us, or do we take the fight to them? ”
“I say we take it to them,” Ace says. “Hit them before they hit us.”
“I second it,” Vandal adds. “Arrogant bastards like them won’t expect it.”
“All right, Kings,” I say. “Let’s have a vote. All those who say we take the fight to Meridian, say ‘aye’.”
Everyone calls out their agreement. When I ask for the dissenting vote, no one says anything, and it’s decided.
“Okay, I got some business to handle. Stay in the compound and as soon as I got a plan, we’ll call another meeting and lay it out. Take the down time because shit’s gonna move fast once it starts. Church is dismissed.”
As the men go off to do whatever it is they need to do, Ace and Crusher come my way.
They don’t say anything as I head over to the basement door, just follow me.
Usually, when I have someone in the clubhouse basement, I leave a guard with the prisoner and either at the base of the basement stairs or at the door to the stairs.
The man currently sitting in an uncomfortable wooden chair in the center of a concrete room, however, poses less of a threat than his two family members upstairs.
Marty isn’t hurt, but he’s definitely defeated. His clothes are dirty and wrinkled, torn in places. According to Titch, Marty had a hard time staying on his feet and may have tripped a few times. I didn’t see any reason to not believe my man.
I don’t say a word when I step into the room, but he flinches when he raises his head and sees me.
In the corner of the room is a small wooden table with Marty’s phone and a black bag sitting on it.
The bag does have some tools in it since the clubhouse’s furnace and water heater are both in the basement and it’s nice to keep some basics down here, but the bag serves another purpose too.
Occasionally, I might need something more than my fists to ‘encourage’ someone to talk, but most of the time, just having the bag in the room where the person can see it and wonder what’s inside does more to loosen their tongue than any physical pain can do.
Judging by the way Marty’s eyes dart toward the table and then come back to me, that little psychological trick is working.
Based on the sweat stains at his armpits despite the cool temperature down here, I’m guessing I might not have even needed the bag.
This coward doesn’t have even a fraction of the Reed sisters’ bravery.
I circle him and I’d be lying if I said I’m not enjoying hearing him start breathing faster as he squirms in the chair. Unsurprisingly, he breaks the silence first.
“What am I doing here? You’re keeping me against my will. I’ll have you arrested for kidnapping.”
The words tumble out and there’s absolutely no strength to them. He’s a weak little man resorting to empty threats.
“Shut up.” I don’t shout it or even raise my voice. Just two simple words and Marty reacts like I slapped him.
“Of course. Whatever you want. And I mean that. Whatever you want.”
I stop directly in front of him and then take a step toward him. “What did I say?”
Marty’s mouth snaps shut, cutting off the flow of words.
“Here’s how this is gonna work,” I say, “I’m gonna ask a question and you’re gonna give me the truth. You lie to me or try to hold back, and you’re not gonna like what happens.”
Marty nods so fast, he looks like one of those bobble-head things.
“Was it your idea or Meridian’s to use a person to pay your debt?” The question leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
“You have to understand,” Marty says, “I was desperate.”
“Desperate enough to suggest you could pay them with your niece?” I ask.
“They’re not really my nieces. I mean, their dad is my cousin and—”
“You seriously think that makes it better?” There’s an edge to my voice and I have to take a deep breath to keep my calm. Human trafficking disgusts and infuriates me under any circumstances, but someone being willing to traffic family members is something I’ve never been able to understand.
“No, no, of course not,” Marty stammers. “But I mean, I didn’t think they’d hurt the girls. These are businessmen. Rich. I thought they’d just have the girls go with them to parties and stuff like that.”
I stare at him, trying to figure out if he’s na?ve, lying, or just an idiot, but then my brain finishes processing everything he said.
The girls.
Plural.
Layla and Nova.
He sold them both.
The pieces finally fall completely into place, giving me my first look at the whole picture. Layla had been taken first because she would make it easier to get to Nova. If Nova thought Layla was in trouble, she’d go to her sister without question and walk straight into a trap.
No one had known about Patch. No one except the person who sent Patch the message. The person who gave Patch the time he needed to make Layla disappear. The Vipers had a leak, but so did Meridian.
Other things made sense now too. The men who were asking around about both sisters. The people watching the compound. The guys who chased me and Nova. It wasn’t only about finding Layla.
And Nova’s strange phone call with Marty when he tried to get her to sneak away from our protection.
My hands curl into fists. “You sold two women who have trusted you, looked to you for help when every other member of their shitty family let them down. You fucking sold them!”
Marty’s eyes widen when I shout the question at him. “You have to understand, it wasn’t like that!”
“How was it, then?” There’s red seeping into my vision as I ask the question.
“I didn’t put some price tag on them or take them to an auction to sell to the highest bidder.” Marty talks fast, like that’s going to somehow make it better. “Meridian kept coming after me for what I owed them and I didn’t have it. They broke my finger!”
He holds up his hand, and I can see his left pinky finger is crooked. He gets absolutely no sympathy from me though. He’ll be lucky I don’t cut the fucking thing off and give it to the sisters as a gift.
“When they threatened to break another one, I asked if there was something I could give them that would be as good as money,” Marty continues. “But I never mentioned the girls. I thought they’d want my car or jewelry or something like that. I mean, who asks for a person as payment?”
“The same type of person who thinks they can give a person as payment,” I shoot back, taking another step in his direction.
“What was I supposed to do?” Marty whines. “They were threatening me! They were gonna hurt me!”
Something inside me snaps and I’m on him before I realize what I’m going to do.
I grab the front of his shirt and lift him up, the duct tape holding him to the chair ripping away as I drag him to the closest wall and slam him against it.
I hear the back of his head crack against the concrete and he makes a pained sound that just pisses me off even more.
“You’re scared of the wrong person, asshole!” The words are almost a growl and I shake him, his head hitting the wall again as his feet dangle more than a foot above the floor. “Meridian is fucking merciful compared to me.”
Hands appear, grabbing my arms and pulling me back. I struggle for a second and then I hear Ace.
“Let him go, Prez. Don’t want to kill him too quickly. Not until we’re sure we don’t need him.”
My friend’s cool logic cuts through my rage and I let him pull me back.
Crusher is here, too, I realize. As soon as Marty drops to the floor in a crumpled heap, Crusher lets me go and moves to pick up our prisoner.
There’s blood trickling down the wall now, but I don’t feel any guilt when I look at it.
Marty’s lucky I didn’t crack his fucking skull.
“Good?” Ace asks.