Chapter 19 #2
We strode through the bar and pushed into the long hall that led to the cavernous room at the end.
Exact same spot where that sneak had been doing what she did best last night—clearly trying to gain intel when I couldn’t afford for her to have it.
Didn’t know what the fuck was wrong with me because I couldn’t stuff down the slog of guilt that lifted every time she asked a question. Questions I had to shut down with some vague, pathetic answers that she still did her best to decipher.
Every time I looked at her, I felt like I was going to bust and spew every secret. Or maybe I was just worried she had the power to infiltrate my thoughts. Dig her fingers around in my mind and discover my secrets. Pluck them free and make them her own.
Clearly, I needed to get my shit together.
Redefine the boundaries between us before I did something reckless like devour that delicious body and lay myself bare.
Tossing open the twelve-foot high wooden doors seared with the Crimson Crows insignia, I strode into Church.
Every Crow poured in behind me.
It was a long room that ran horizontally.
A worn, rambling wooden table sat in the center, and twenty high-backed wooden chairs surrounded it.
The room was dark, the antique chandelier hanging from the cavernous ceiling above sending shadows scattering in the flare of its light.
A pathetic illumination attempting to chase away the ghosts that had followed us into this room.
There was no chance of it succeeding.
The walls were covered in dark, gruesome paintings—paintings spun from our Madman’s hands. It was the only way for Phoenix to purge the demons from his brain.
I’d given him free reign.
My crew took their chairs, except for the newest members who would stand until they fully earned their seat.
I was at the head.
Trevan to my right and Phoenix to my left.
Seventeen others took up the rest of the chairs, and another ten hovered on the fringes.
I slammed the gavel down onto the worn, rustic wood of the table. “I call to order this meeting of Crimson Crows.”
Trevan gave a dip of his chin. “I second it.”
“Good,” I said as I glanced around at my army.
The lot of them were unruly and wild. Shaped by wounds and traumas. Scars that had been carved on their spirits and minds.
Driven by the rage that had coated their souls in sin and barbarity. Twisted by the thirst to right some of the wrongs that had been meted by tyrants and oppressors.
I wouldn’t have anyone else beside me.
Their devotion was unwavering and complete, and their utter commitment to our cause had written them as my brothers.
Every bit as permanent as the tattoos on my body.
They were family.
No, they didn’t know what our club really stood for when they became prospects. We needed to establish their complete loyalty before we could take them there.
Which was why the prospects were currently guarding us without a clue of what we were actually meeting about until the time came when we gave them a peek at what Crimson Crows was really about.
Those we never came to trust were plucked out and weeded.
“Have some important updates tonight,” I started with. “Going to need each of you to be all in. Focused and ready.”
A raucous of “ayes” went up around the room.
They agreed without having any indication of the details.
Exactly what was required of them.
“First and foremost, tonight’s job. Are we set?”
I looked to Fuse.
Dude was as fucking smart as they came, the scary kind of smart that verged on diabolical. He had a photographic memory. Permanently cataloging every face and name he encountered. Dates and times and details embedded in his wicked brain.
He lifted his trimmed, blond beard, blue eyes hard as he stared back at me. “Team is en route.”
We’d been getting intel coming in about constant deals taking place near a southern town in Oregon.
Guns and fentanyl.
Even though we were neck deep in the bullshit with Kent Ellison, we couldn’t turn a blind eye.
It was close enough that we could be in and out without notice, small enough that we only needed a handful of men to carry it out. But what we were stopping was atrocious enough that it was worth the expenditure.
Our duty always prevailed.
“Do you foresee any issues?” I asked.
Fuse was in charge of intel. In organizing every facet of every job. Piecing them together like a disordered puzzle that only made sense in his mind.
His hacking skills were almost as good as Cash’s, though directed at different things.
“No. This one should be cut and dry. In and out. Easy.”
But the impact would be astronomical.
“Good. Keep me apprised.”
His tongue swiped out to wet his dry lips. “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear it’s done.”
I dipped my head then pulled in a steeling breath, ready to dive into the larger matter at hand.
“You all know the girl is here.” I tried to keep my tone in check. Last thing I needed was a mention of Brinley rumbling out like possession.
“We might have noticed.” Tamping it was a failure since a smack of suggestion filled Trevan’s voice, all while he capped it with a question mark.
A razzing challenge lifting in his dark gaze.
Yeah, she’d made quite the impression last night.
A wildfire streaking through the night.
But that could be written off as expected.
What could absolutely not be written off?
Fact that I’d had her on the back of my bike when I’d taken her into town earlier today.
Assholes were going to make it something it wasn’t.
Something it couldn’t be.
“No question she made a bit of a stir when she tried to run last night.” I played it off like Trevan wasn’t referring to something else.
A bunch of speculative nods woven with muted amusement rolled through the Crows.
It’d been quite the scene.
Like she was actually going to make it over that fence before I got to her.
“She thought she was here as a prisoner,” I continued. “Thought we were basically holding her against her will and holding her over her brother’s head. Thought she was marked for dead.”
“Thought?” Phoenix’s low, raspy voice curled into the room, his hands in fists on the table.
Mad was written across the knuckles of his right hand and Man was on the left.
Each pinky capped with a jester’s face.
My chest tightened, and I looked at him point blank. “I at least owed it to her to let her know that she’s safe here. Protected. We aren’t in the business of tormenting innocent women.”
“Not a whole lot about her that looks innocent to me.” Colby cracked it like any of this was a fucking joke.
I was not prepared for the way a wave of anger punched me in the face. Possessiveness clutching me by the throat.
My teeth ground, and I leaned back in my seat, searching for cool when I was five seconds from snapping.
“You say something like that about her again, you lose your tongue.” I attempted to keep the words easy. They still came out a blade.
Dude knew it wasn’t a euphemism, and he inhaled an unnerved breath as he roughed a hand through his long, dirty-blond hair.
Colby blazed through women faster than the last one had time to roll out of his bed, and it wasn’t uncommon to find a few of them there.
“Meant no disrespect.” It cracked as it left him.
“Don’t let it happen again.” I stared him down for a beat before my gaze drifted over my men.
“It applies to all of you. Already warned you she was off-limits, and that includes talking about her unless it’s directly related to the job. Do you understand?”
Yeah, we were an MC, but we were governed by our own playbook. Our rules were formed around our mission.
It blurred some lines since we had bunnies running rampant, and we allowed some of the typical MC behaviors. We had to look legit, and on a whole lot of levels, we were.
These guys were originally drawn to the club for a reason. It wasn’t like they were going to sit around being subject to the conventional laws of society.
Every single one of us were violent and brutal.
Destructive to the extreme.
We just took those propensities and morphed them into something different.
Bigger.
It was the little good we had to offer after lifetimes of corruption.
But I wasn’t feeling so good right then. Not when I wanted to reach halfway down the table and snap Colby’s neck. Not when I wanted to crawl inside that woman, sift around in all she was, discover that thing I could feel simmering under the surface.
A disconcerted rumble of assent went around since it was rare anyone evoked that type of reaction from me.
Trevan looked at me all the harder.
Prodding gaze burning a hole in my cheek all while some kind of smirk edged the corner of his mouth.
Like the fucker thought he knew something I didn’t.
I only grunted at him before I turned back to the table.
“Cash is continuing to gather intel. He thinks we should be ready to roll in the next two to three weeks. I need every single one of you ready for when that happens. This will be the largest job we have ever undertaken, and it is not going to come without risk.”
Without risk?
What a joke.
This was fucking perilous.
A death wish.
Hatred bound my guts in coils of white-hot fury. Rage curling my hands into fists.
God knew how desperately I was wishing for death, but not for anyone else but the monsters who had stolen so much from me. From my family.
No clue who I really was. Trying to push me into a corner. Trying to bend me to their will like I was going to cave. Thinking I was some two-bit criminal. Nothing but a mule to haul their poison across the country.
Motherfucker had no idea who he was dealing with, but he was about to.
I’d been trying to infiltrate their organization for years, ever since I discovered who they really were, and it was time to bring it to fruition.
Aggression and anxiety blustered through the enclosed space. None of my brothers were immune to the stakes.
“How many?” Phoenix growled it from the side.
My chest tightened. “At least eighty men spread out over multiple locations.”
It would require a massive amount of coordination.