Chapter 58
FIFTY-EIGHT
SILAS
“This is it.”
I stood at the head of the worn table, my hands planted on the wood, eyes skating over every Crow in the dim, cavernous room.
Violence and determination buzzed through the air, and every breath was like sucking razors into my lungs.
Bare nicks that only added to the frenzy.
“Everyone has been given their assignments. If there are any questions or reservations, I need to hear them now.”
I glanced around again, gauging each of my men.
“Nay,” Cliff gritted, clearly speaking for all of them. “We are ready, Prez, and not one of us will stop until we bring these motherfuckers to their end.”
“World’s gonna burn tonight,” Regan added with a grim dip of his red beard.
My attention kept skating, meeting the nods and grunts of affirmation of every Crow in the room.
We’d been in meetings all day, hours spent going over plans in fine detail.
Final strategies.
Techniques.
Memorizing every entry point and guarded crevice within Kent Ellison’s compound.
The other jobs would be simple. Straightforward. Types that we undertook on the regular.
In and out without anyone knowing we were there.
It was the compound that loomed like a slaughterhouse.
For years, I’d believed if I died ridding the earth of that monster and his mob, it would be worth it, and on some level, that belief remained.
But now, everything had changed.
I’d promised to come home.
I needed to come home.
And I wasn’t a man who went back on his promises, and the truth was, the only thing I wanted was to come home to Brinley because I finally understood what home really meant.
“Good,” I ground out, then I swallowed around the nails in my throat.
“No matter what happens tonight, I’m fucking proud of every single one of you.
Proud of what you do and who you are. The commitment and sacrifice you’ve made.
The fact that you came into this MC thinking it was one thing and you stayed when you realized the true mission.
You might be brutal. Wrought with rage. But you’ve proven who you really are, and I’m honored to get to be your leader. ”
Fists pounded on the table and the walls, the low toll of their voices echoing through the hollow chamber of the room. “Born in chaos. Forged by iron. Sworn to vengeance.”
“Then let’s fucking do this,” I growled on a shout.
Everyone flew to their feet and piled out of Church and down the hall. The normal raucous they exuded was bated and contained. Saved up for the fight that was to come.
We poured out through the bar and into the fading light, darkness creeping in to consume the last vestiges of pinks and blues.
A single star blinked through a break in the trees.
My chest compressed and swelled. True hope hitting me for the very first time. A blossoming of faith and burgeoning of commitment.
I wanted to turn on my boots and hike a path back to the house so I could hug my family. Hold Kai and hug Elena and Meems and kiss the fuck out of Brinley before I went.
But I didn’t have time to get distracted right then. Only thing I could do was pull out my phone and shoot off a text to Fuse, one of my most skilled Crows who was heading the detail assigned to keeping our compound safe while we were away.
Me
Confirm that Brinley is back at the house with the rest of my family.
It took him all of two seconds to reply.
Fuse
Hours ago. Pyke and Colby saw her go back to the house just before noon.
I didn’t know what it was about it that took me aback. What set my already twisted stomach into a tumble.
A slick of dread that slipped like ice down my spine.
Me
Who’s watching the house?
Fuse
Colby is there now.
My fingers flew as I typed out a message to Colby.
Me
Confirm everyone is in the house. My grandmother, Elena, Kai, Brinley.
Colby
I’ve been here for three hours. No one has come or gone.
Me
Get eyes on them. Do it now.
Colby
Yes, sir.
My heart ravaged at my ribs while I waited. Waited for too fucking long before my phone rang. I answered it before it made it through the first ring.
“What’s happening?” The demand whipped off my tongue.
Distress radiated through the line, dumping directly into me. “Prez…fuck…Brinley isn’t in the house. She hasn’t been the whole day. I thought…”
“What?” I spat it, turning a circle as my eyes began to race.
“I saw her leave the office at right before noon. She took the trail through the trees the way she always does. I thought—”
I didn’t give him time to finish his sentence before I started running for the office, shouting at my crew who was already tromping for their bikes, “Find Brinley now!”
I knew giving that order put a wrench in every plan.
It was time for us to move.
But I could move in only one direction. Toward the last place that Brinley had been.
Brody was standing guard at the backside of the office, and his expression warped into worried confusion as I came blazing up.
“Check the trail between the office and house. Brinley is missing.” The command struck like a roll of thunder.
Dread covered his features, and he shook his head once before he jumped into action, his voice ragged when he promised, “We’ll find her.”
We had to.
I blew in through the back door of the shop, attention skating, knowing I wouldn’t find her within the piles of contorted metal and the stench of oil.
I burst through the connecting door.
The one that had brought me to her so many times. Where I’d find her leaned over the desk with her perfect ass exposed.
That’s what I was praying for. That she was still here, doing her thing, molding this place into shape.
But it was empty.
Void of the warmth she emitted.
My attention skated the area, and it snagged on the laptop on the desk.
The lid had been left open, something she never did when she left. She always shut it down, closed the lid, and turned off the lights, thoughtful of the way she left things.
My eyes skimmed the room. Over the bright lights that blazed from above and the office chair that sat at an odd angle where it’d been pushed back from the desk.
Heart hammering, I moved for the laptop, finger shaking it as I ran it over the pad.
The screen came to life.
I squinted when I saw the document that was open.
Understood. I’ll see that it’s done.
Confusion bound me, a frown carving into my brow as my heart pounded harder.
I leaned in and minimized the Word document so I could see where the message had come from.
Ice froze me from the inside out.
It was my shared folder with Cash.
The way we communicated. No real details ever given. Just numbers. Addresses.
I thought I cleared everything of importance off the laptop before I brought it to her.
How had I been so fucking careless?
But that’s the way Brinley made me.
Still, she shouldn’t have been able to get into it. It was encrypted. Covered by a password.
One that she’d clearly easily flushed out.
I looked back at the note. It’d been sent earlier today, and I scrambled to see its origination, starting from the first from early this morning.
A document that looked like it’d been created by me, simply saved as “D”.
Change of plans. He has to go.
Cash had responded a few hours later.
Are you sure? Intel says he’s a go.
Frantic, I clicked in and out of the files from that day.
It has to happen. Too much liability.
This isn’t normally the way you play.
I know, but there’s too much riding on this. The guy’s a liar. A rat. And you know what we do with those.
It felt like I’d been disemboweled.
A knife dragged down my abdomen.
Gutting me.
Strained air wheezed from my lungs as I tried to piece it together.
This fucking betrayal that I didn’t understand.
A command clearly made to kill Dereck.
Brinley gone.
Oh God, no.
She had to have gone to find him. Warn him.
My head whirled with every implication, and I would have passed out if it wasn’t for the fury that blazed through my insides.
Every hair on my body lifted when I felt the presence emerge from behind.
Dark and ominous.
Slowly, I shifted to find Phoenix in the doorway, his black eyes roiling with something I couldn’t fathom.
“She wasn’t supposed to see that.” His words scraped the air that had become acid.
Toxic.
“What? The proof of your treason?” It heaved like stones.
He stepped forward.
I gauged him, prepared to counter his attack, though for once, there was no aggression in his movements.
Just surrender as he lifted his giant hands.
“It had to happen. She blinded you,” Phoenix rasped. “I did it to protect you. To protect us.”
I felt like I was bound in barbed wire. “You went behind my back? Betrayed me? Because I fucking fell in love?”
“She was collateral,” he gritted. “Not to be touched by any one of us, and you fucking claimed her.”
A hoarse scoff left me. “And that gave you the right to do this? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
I wanted to crumble, but I took a menacing step forward instead. In it, I felt my heart splintering.
This was Phoenix. With me from the beginning. The one who was there the night everything changed.
“Give me one reason not to put a bullet through your skull.” I spat it, though it was thin and wheezing.
He barely shook his head. “Don’t you see it, Silas? This is a setup. She was there. It was her,” he emphasized low, angling toward me, trying to get me to see something that remained blurry.
“The fuck are you talking about?” I demanded.
His jaw went rigid. “It was her. The night we went for Kent.”
Flashes came at me in shockwaves.
The energy.
That connection.
I swayed, nearly fucking brought to my knees when it clicked.
Phoenix gripped me by the shoulder, leaning down to get into my face.
“And there’s no way it’s a fuckin’ coincidence that her brother didn’t have this thing planned. I don’t know why or how, but my gut tells me he’s gonna flip, and this whole thing is going to be an ambush. I had to stop him before it was too late.”