Chapter Twenty-One
Party-Crasher
Tyr
“As of now, the Chicago Gravediggers hangout is a virtual ghost town.” Ajax, with his aviator sunglasses in place and a laptop sitting on the conference table in front of him, hit a key. On the main screen in the Situation Room, surveillance photos showed an empty parking lot in front of Rooster Juice. “It’s been three and a half days since the massacre, and LEO still hasn’t fully cleared off the property. Apparently they’re intent on documenting every last inch of the place.”
“Fun,” Zee murmured, eyes on the screen. “And by fun, I mean that would be about as much fun as a colonoscopy.”
“I just had one of those,” Ashtray volunteered, offering up information no one on the planet wanted. “It wasn’t so bad, you pussy.”
“That’s because you can’t feel anything from the waist down,” Ajax said.
“Not true,” Ashtray boomed out with a huge grin. “Just this past week me and Mabel have had huge progress in what we call sex therapy. The old soldier can now stand at attention and I can feel everything as she rides my hog. I’m back, baby. I’m fucking back.”
“Good for you, Ash,” I said while the men around the table cheered and those closest to Ashtray high-fived him. “But if it’s all right with you, I’d like to focus on business instead of your damn sex life.”
“Oh, dear God, please focus on business,” Tomahawk said, then gave Ash another high-five as the pair laughed.
I bit back a sigh. “What else do you have, Ajax?”
A few more taps on the laptop changed the photos. “So far, LEO’s search of the Chicago Gravedigger compound has been very thorough. They’ve discovered a fully functioning meth lab with over a hundred pounds of product onsite, nearly a million in cash, two-hundred AR-15 style rifles, over ten-thousand rounds of ammo, and half a dozen crates of military-grade small explosives, from flash-bangs, to smoke bombs to grenades. Needless to say, Hades Colgrave, leader of the Chicago Gravediggers, is now one of the most-wanted men in Chicago’s history, right up there with Al Capone.”
“Doing the family proud,” I said, my upper lip curling. “Good thing I’ve got our lawyers primed and ready to go. They’ve already sent notifications out that if any law enforcement agency wants to talk to Hades’s family—namely me—they can make a fucking appointment.”
“Gotta say, Hades’s fuck-up of not taking care of the Yoyo situation himself is really biting him in the ass.” Romeo shook his head before shooting a glance at Ajax. “What about all that weaponry? Obviously Hades was stockpiling for war. Was it all confiscated?”
“Every last bullet and cartridge.” Ajax flicked through the lineup of photos until he hit on one showing several people in front of Rooster Juice, wearing ATF jackets and carrying crates and guns toward the back of a military-style personnel carrier. “If Hades had left his dick behind, LEO would’ve confiscated that, too. They took everything that wasn’t nailed down.”
“Any retaliatory SWAT calls coming from our enemies could wind us up in the same shit storm.” I looked over at Romeo. “Where are we on sterilizing our house?”
“We’re pristine. There’s no product onsite. According to Lasso, the armory looks like nothing more than a couple of those big-ass motorhomes, both inside and out. We’re mobile, just like you wanted, so we can roll out at a moment’s notice.”
“The trick is actually getting that moment’s notice,” Zee added. “But I’ve been working the past few months to solidify our connections within law enforcement to make sure we’re in the loop. Better yet, after Yoyo fragged her daddy and the Chicago Gravediggers, people seem to be a lot more amenable to our approach now that we’re the only game in town.”
“Don’t let your guard down, my brothers.” My jaw locked against the need to bark at Zee for sounding so damn confident. They had earned the right to enjoy this victory, but we were still surrounded by enemies. The war was far from over. “We’ve got a lot going in our favor, which feels good. Scratch that, it feels fucking amazing , and it’s all because the men in this room put in the work and never gave up in the belief that our way of running shit was the better way. We also have the shared belief that ending that rabid bastard Hades makes the world a better place. And make no mistake, my brothers, we have to end him.”
“He’s on the ropes now, “Romeo said, nodding. “Thanks to you boomeranging their psycho spy back to them, Hades now has no base of operations, no money, no weapons, and whatever dangerous personnel he had, Yoyo took care of for us.”
“Thank you, Yoyo.” Ashtray raised his cardboard coffee cup in a heartfelt toast.
“My uncle is definitely down, but don’t think for a second that he’s out.” I looked around the table at my brothers, the fiercest motherfuckers in all of Chicago, and felt a surge of pride. They were the reason this club had come so far so fast, and by God, they would only get better from here. “My uncle’s got nothing left to lose, so this makes him the most dangerous man alive. He’ll want to hit where we’re most vulnerable, soft targets that he knows will break our hearts and crush our will. That leads me to the next order of business—the party tonight. What’s the status on the perimeter around Vixen’s Den, Tom?”
Tomahawk, a man who would have looked right at home as Paul Bunyon’s stand-in with a full beard, bushy brows and a never-ending assortment of flannel shirts, leaned his thick forearms on the table. “We couldn’t get the permits to block off the road like we’ve done in the past whenever we get our party on. Not enough time, since Ginger wasn’t throwing this party until the last minute. Next best thing we can do is monitor it ourselves. At either end of the street I’ve assigned a mix of brothers and prospects to clock each vehicle going in and out of that road during the party. Say a blue Chevy Malibu rolls in on the west side. It gets reported. If that Chevy Malibu doesn’t come rolling out on the eastside in the next minute, I’ve got another team in the middle to hunt it down. Eyes will be on that road at all times.”
“That includes the guys at our front gate,” Romeo added, his ever-present phone in hand. “We’ll have four guards up front, as well as four watching over the back service alley. I’ve also got a drone over the street between us and Vixen’s Den, so if any car suddenly veers off, we’ll see it.”
“I’m placing two of my enforcers on Vixen’s Den’s doors,” Ajax said. “One in the front, and one in the back. And as for the rest of us, every Gravedigger at that party will be carrying, just in case.”
Ginger would love that. “Can’t be helped. My gut tells me a party is exactly the kind of soft target my uncle would go for, because he’s a fucking coward. But if he sees me there, hopefully I’ll be too tempting of a target for even that coward to resist.”
“In a crowded space that could mean a lot of casualties.” Romeo frowned. “We could always cancel the party.”
He was thinking of Shiloh and the baby she carried. I felt it too, knowing Ginger was going to be there, but all I could do was shake my head. “If we cancel because I’ve got a gut feeling, what then, Romeo? Misty and Lasso are putting together a charity auction at Ride Or Die for kids with cancer in a couple weeks. It’s going to be a huge event, at least a couple hundred people will be inside our perimeter. Do we cancel that, too? Let those kids down and fuck up the goodwill we’re actively trying to build within this community? Then we’ve got the holidays to get through and all the social shit we do that makes us not just a club, but a family . Should we cancel the holidays? Should Ginger cancel the baby showers she wants to throw for Ana-Sofia and Shiloh, because my fucking asshole uncle may or may not show up? When do we stop canceling our lives because of that cocksucker? Talk to your women and be totally open about what the risks are, but I say the party goes on. I’m done bowing my head to Hades. If he wants to put Gravediggers security to the test, I say have at it. It’ll be the last goddamn mistake he ever makes.”
“Hell, no, we are not canceling shit.” Ashtray pounded a beefy fist on the table, looking so fierce I wouldn’t have been surprised if he started growling like a bear. “We’re men, for fuck’s sake, not pussies. More than that, we’re fucking Gravediggers. That should mean something, not just to us, but every fuckin’ biker in Chicagoland. If we can’t protect our women, friends and loved ones at a fuckin’ birthday party—when our goddamn HQ is right across the fuckin’ street—then we don’t deserve to wear the patch.”
Damn. Who knew Ashtray could spit that much truth like it was pure fire?
“We’ve got the personnel and the firepower to stop one old man who’s on his last legs,” I said after letting Ash’s words sink in like the good medicine they were. “We can win this war once and for all, and build an epic life for ourselves. Retreat is not an option. Talk to your girlfriends, your ol’ ladies, your wives. Let them decide for themselves what they want to do. But I’m living my damn life. Let Hades crawl out from under whatever rock he’s hiding so he can try to take it.”
*
Ginger
“It’s ridiculous how nervous I get whenever I throw a party.” With the last tiny braid secured away from my face, I stepped back and examined my reflection in the breakroom’s mirror on the back of the door. “I’m not sure. Do I look like Freya, Norse goddess of war?”
“I have no idea what Freya is supposed to look like, so to me you look like that Vikings badass bitch, Lagertha, only you have red hair instead of blonde. The kohl around the eyes makes your gray eyes look lighter, so that could be seen as freaky godlike.” Dressed as a sexy pirate wench with a leather bustier that did amazing things for her hourglass curves, Roxie fluffed up her wild hair while looking my costume over with a critical eye. “It’s crazy how much that looks like a real dagger on your hip.”
“Mm-hm.” What I didn’t tell her was that it was a real dagger, and that I also had the pearl-handled straight razor tucked into my belt. We were right across the street from the Gravediggers, so I didn’t expect trouble. It would be sheer suicide for whatever was left of the Chicago Gravediggers to attack now. But I knew how Hades’s mind worked. He never met a stupid move he didn’t like, so trying to screw up a civilian’s birthday party would be totally his style.
But again, the odds were against it, especially with Tyr right there with me. Hades was terrified of Tyr, so he wouldn’t strike wherever his nephew was.
But still, the extra weaponry didn’t hurt.
And it wasn’t like anyone would notice that I was armed. The Iron Age attire from the Viking era was seriously badass, and I was a little sorry I couldn’t walk around in this getup year-round. Faux foxtails in red and gray dripped off armored shoulders in an impressive furry mantle, with a cape of gray faux fur continuing down my back to stop just above my butt. My torso was covered in a cool mix of silvery chainmail and a weave of rich oxblood leather—the Iron Age’s version of a bandage bodice—and showed an impressive amount of cleavage. That probably wasn’t authentic battle attire, but I didn’t care. The gray faux-fur skirt hanging in tatters well above the knee also would have looked ridiculous on a battlefield, but at a costume party it freaking rocked. I even had boots made of the faux fur, and while I knew it would probably get hot as hell as the party wore on, that didn’t matter. For one night I was the goddess I always pretended to be, and that meant I could handle anything.
“Welp, guess it’s time.” I gave Roxie a quick hug before heading out to the front room to find a couple Gravediggers and their ladies—Ashtray and Mabel, and Tomahawk and a dark-haired little mama I didn’t know—being greeted at the door by Carlo.
“Let’s get our party on!” Ashtray bellowed.
Just like that, the evening’s festivities began.
Every time I turned around there seemed to be more people crammed into Vixen’s Den’s front room, almost all of them Gravediggers and their ladies, and almost all of them strapped and loaded for bear. I knew what that show of firearms meant, just as I knew what it meant when Ajax’s enforcers took up posts at the shop’s front and back doors. Like me, Tyr wanted to be ready for any sort of trouble, but also like me, he was clearly done with worrying about what might happen. What I had around me at this party was a shocking show of both force and defiance, something even Hades would have had to think twice about. We were armed and not scared—two definite drawbacks for a coward like Hades.
Music blared from a playlist I’d put together, a mix of party music such as “Uptown Funk” and “Yeah,” as well as classics like “Gonna Make You Sweat” and “Cupid Shuffle,” mixed in with seasonal tunes like “Thriller,” “Monster Mash” and “Somebody’s Watching Me.” When the Pussycat Dolls song “Buttons” came on, I dropped what I was doing and went straight to the pole with what felt like a wild grin on my face.
For every woman, there was a song that called to her inner stripper. “Buttons” was mine, and I went for it like it would be the last time I’d ever dance. Roxie, former exotic dancer that she was, had done a decent job of teaching me a few moves on the pole, so I went into a spin with gusto and nearly impaled myself on my dagger.
Oops.
Why hadn’t anyone told me pole-dancing and bladed weaponry didn’t mix?
Hastily I took it off, threw it to Roxie—who was laughing her butt off at me—then gave it another try. Big cheers went up for the perfectly executed “chair” and nice little outside step I wove around the pole, though I did nearly take out a guest with my long legs when I outside-stepped with an exuberant flair.
Oops again.
Maybe I shouldn’t quit my day job.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Shiloh, standing in the protective circle of her husband’s arms as she enthusiastically waved a dollar at me. Next to her, Misty stood with her man Lasso, both dressed like they’d just come in from a cattle drive, while Misty waved her cowgirl hat in the air and yelled at me to take it all off. Mabel was doing some dirty dancing while watching me, laughing while sliding one hand quickly over the other in a “make it rain” move.
God, I loved my girl posse.
“Who wants it next?” I called out to the rowdy crowd, then did one final move—the hook—while loads of woman called out for a fun turn on the pole. I came to an abrupt stop when a giant of a man in a fur-lined hooded cloak stepped onto the tiny stage. One massive hand shot out to grip the pole to stop my twirls, the other holding up a one-hundred-dollar bill.
Ooh.
“Didn’t we do this about a decade ago?” came Tyr’s voice from the shadowed depths of the hood. I gasped, peered up at him under that hood and found him grinning like a madman down at me.
“Tyr!” I all but screamed in shock. Everyone burst out laughing as I gaped like an idiot at him. For his part, Tyr pulled the hood back to show he wore a simple braided crown, very Viking-style that matched my vibe, and my stunned brain slowly got that he was in as much of a costume as he’d probably ever be. Of course he still wore the usual jeans and biker boots beneath the cloak, but his chest was covered in a similar type of Iron Age-looking body armer of studded leather and chainmail. In another era, he would have been a Viking on his way to pillage.
I’d never wanted to be pillaged more in my life.
“Someone else get up here on the pole.” Eyes never leaving mine, Tyr stuffed the hundred-dollar bill into my cleavage and grinned. “The only dancing my ol’ lady does is for me and me alone.” Then he kissed me, a long, conquering kiss that branded me in no uncertain terms as his .
Bawdy catcalls and whoops went up even as a woman hopped up onto the tiny staged and started grinding away while Tyr led me off to one side.
“I never thought you’d show up in a costume.” I laughed in sheer delight, because we sort of matched just like the couple we were. Smiling brilliantly up at him, I twined my arms around his strong neck and reveled in how his arms held me fiercely close. “You’re always surprising me, you know that?”
“I like to keep you guessing.” He kissed me again, long and deep, before cruising his mouth to my ear. “Do me a favor and stay on the alert for anything weird, yeah? Everything’s probably cool and there’s nothing popping on our radar. I just know Hades, and he loves to strike when he thinks we’re at our weakest.”
“I know, Tyr.” My hand came up to caress his jaw while I kissed his lips, then his cheek before moving to his ear. Anyone looking at us now would think we were just an ordinary couple making out. But Tyr and I had never been ordinary. “I’ve clocked how many guns are in this room, as well as outside at all the points of entry. Let him come. And let him die. It’ll be the best birthday present ever.”
“God, you’re so fucking hot, woman.” Approval and desire mixed into a volatile fire in his eyes as he stared down at me. “Maybe you really are the goddess Freya reborn, after all.”
“About time you realized it.” I leaned into another kiss before reluctantly easing out of his arms. “Gotta play hostess, baby. Do you want me to check in on you every once in a while just to keep you happy?”
“Every ten minutes.” He glanced at the clock on the wall before holding my hand to his lips for a lingering, loving kiss. Lord, how this man could make me feel like I was the most precious thing in the world to him. “Better yet, make that every five to ten minutes, or I tie you to my side.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time you tied me up.” I turned away with a sassy little flair, only to snap back when he swatted my ass good and proper.
“That’s what you get for being mouthy with me,” he warned, a playful light threading with the desire in his eyes. That one look melted me so utterly it spawned a wet slick between my legs that made me flush all over.
“Well, then. Guess I’ll have to be mouthy to you more often.” I blew him a kiss and sashayed my booty out of there, all the while feeling his handprint on me like I’d been branded.
The next hour or so went by in a happy blur. I got the beer flights going big-time by daring the so-called beer aficionados in the crowd to give their opinions on all those yummy seasonal beers and ales. My next target was Mabel, challenging her to do the adult version of bobbing for apples, then gave her a case of beer with a big, shiny bow on it when she successfully bobbed for a penis-shaped toy in under twenty seconds, much to the delight of her man Ashtray. I also made sure I took about a billion selfies with my girlies at the highly popular selfie wall. The music got louder and the crowd got drunker, and through it all I made sure I found my man and checked in with him so he knew I was okay.
Roxie, the sexiest pirate wench in the room, decided to test the flexibility of her back on the pole, and she showed us mere amateurs how it was done. She got the crowd screaming when she did some fancy upside-down split move, just as the unmistakable stab of a gun hit me in the small of the back beneath my fur cape.
“This is a Glock pointed at your spine. I’ve got another one ready to shoot up every last one of your innocent little guests who are having such a fun time right now, even the pregnant ones, I don’t give a fuck who I hit. If you don’t want anyone here to die, you’ll come quietly with me,” Red Flag said in my ear.