CHAPTER 16
SPOOK
My blood is boiling as I punch in the code to Church and slam open the door.
It shuts behind me with a bang as I pace waiting for the brothers to arrive.
I haven’t calmed down since we arrived back at the clubhouse.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I had done a good job of hiding it while I helped Honor shower.
That was a testament, in itself, to my self-control—and not for the usual reasons. I’d catalogued every bruise on her body, memorizing each one. I was doing my damnedest not to lose my shit with her.
She’d thrown herself out of a fucking moving vehicle.
I understood why she did it, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t fucking pissed at her.
Jesus Christ. My heart had stopped when Janis had told us. I was so spanking her ass when it wasn’t covered in a bruise the size of Texas.
My house was full of our family. Axle and Angel were there helping with the boys, and where Angel went, Siera and her girls were never far behind—which meant Roman was there too. I was damn grateful for it, because it meant I could concentrate on Honor.
Ash had to be medevacked out, and was in a hospital three hours away, in a coma, with a broken leg, a broken arm, and a bullet hole in his back. They’d shot him in the back. Fucking cowards.
Muppet had a dislocated shoulder, which one of the medics on my payroll had already fixed. He’d needed stitches too.
I was waiting for Maverick to bring me intel from the guy that had lived.
Carnage was working him over. As much as I wanted to be in the room with him I couldn’t.
I wasn’t sure if I’d stop before I killed him.
Besides, Honor had needed me, and I wanted to check and make sure that Mason and Reed were okay.
The Church door opens and Maverick stands framed in it. His shirt blood splattered, the skin on his knuckles broken, lips tight with anger. It wasn’t often anyone saw him like this.
“You get anything?” I ask through gritted teeth.
He nods.
“I’ll fill you in as soon as everyone is here.” He taps my shoulder with a hard hand.
I return the gesture with a short, sharp nod before resuming my pacing. The brothers begin filing in, Carnage bringing up the rear. He tips his chin at me.
There’s none of the usual chatter. The brothers are silent as they wait, faces grim, shoulders rigid, tension hanging thick in the room, anger simmering just beneath the surface.
“Carnage,” Maverick nods. “Fill Spook in.”
Carnage stands, leaning his bloody hands on the table, his eyes dark with anger, voice hard as steel.
“They work for Mulally. They were sent when he first made contact. They were told to grab either Angel or Honor if they could. He’s not the one that was in charge when Angel’s father worked for them.
” His eyes go cold when he asks, “Did you know that Angel’s mom was the daughter of the Boss? ”
Shock ripples through the room. “What the fuck?” I growl.
Carnage nods. “The guy was pretty talkative once I had his balls in my vice and added electric current. He was young when it all went down, but he knew a lot. Guess it wasn’t just Angel’s father turning on them that pissed them off.
Angel’s mother was his daughter from his first wife who died in a car bomb. No children from his second marriage.”
“Fuck,” I hiss. “What else?”
“Mulally is his son. Different woman… a mistress. He didn’t share the same name as the father.
Which is why we didn’t find a connection.
He’s ten years younger than his sister… Angel’s mom.
The Boss died four months ago, but not before letting it slip that there were more heirs.
Not sure how he found out about Honor. From what I understand Milo Mulally is psychotic and not well liked.
There's a push to move him out, but it’s a slow process.
He knows it. For some reason, he has it in his head that it’s his niece.
Like I said, he’s not firing on all cylinders. ”
The room is silent as we digest this news.
Anger is thick in my voice when I finally speak. “I don’t fucking care. He went after my woman and sons. He’s a dead man. Now the club doesn’t need to be involved. I can handle this myself…”
My tirade is interrupted by angry voices until Maverick bangs on the plough disc and gets order.
He’s fuming as he spits out, “You don’t fucking handle anything yourself.
We’re a fucking brotherhood for a reason.
We’re your brothers.” His eyes bore into mine.
“We make a plan, and then we move. Don’t worry brother, he'll get his. That I can promise you. Nobody fucks with our family and gets away with it.”
Emotion fills me. Pride, thankfulness, gratitude, and the overwhelming love I have for my brothers. This is what I missed when I was in the CIA. The sense of brotherhood and never handling situations alone.
Swallowing hard, I nod. “Thank you. Let’s make a plan. I don’t care how, but I want his organisation wiped out. But he’s mine. Nobody else touches him.”
The brothers agree to my request. I turn my attention back to Carnage. “Is the guy dead?”
Carnage winces. “Yeah, brother, sorry. I got a little carried away. But I promise I got all I could out of him.”
I’m disappointed that I won’t get my five minutes with him, but if Carnage said he got everything he could out of him, I believe him. “Okay, what intel do we have. Mamba?” I turn to our tech guy.
Mamba opens his laptop. “Someone get the screen up, so I can share.”
Petit gets up and pulls down the screen we use when we need the room to see information.
“Here’s what I found out with the new information that Maverick gave me while they were working the prick over.
Milo Mulally. Fifty-Six, single, no children that I could find.
Only heir to the Irish Mafia in Vancouver.
They’re not a huge organisation, but big enough.
Here’s all the addresses I could find for him. Three in Canada and one in Florida.”
I study the addresses. “We’ll have to split up to find him,” I murmured.
Mamba shakes his head. “No need. He’s in Florida. I got a hit on his face from two days ago.”
Shocked I turn to him, “Fuck Mamba, where did you get that tech from?”
Mamba grins. “Don’t ask me that, VP. I’d rather not lie.”
I wave my hand. “Don’t care, grateful though.”
“Do we know what he does for money?” Maverick asks.
Mamba grimaces. “He’s got a few legitimate businesses, but his organisation makes most of their money from trafficking, prostitution, and drugs.”
Coldness seeps through me. I don’t have to be a genius to know what he would have done if he’d got his hands on Honor.
Turning to Maverick I ask, “What do you think?”
Maverick’s eyes are cold when he replies. “I think we hit every one of his businesses, then his houses, and clean him out.”
He glances around at the brothers. “I’ll speak to Foundry at Kings of Anarchy in British Columbia. See if he’s willing to supply us with what we need to take this fucker down.”
His gaze shifts to me. “Set up teams.”
His mouth twists, fury etched into every hard line of his face, and when he speaks again, he practically grinds the words out between clenched teeth. “And don’t fucking leave me out. I’m going whether you like it or not.”
“Didn’t expect anything else. Give me a few hours. You speak to Foundry and I’ll work out a plan.”
He gives me a sharp nod. “Church dismissed. Meet back here in three hours. Beard, you, and Stout give Carnage a hand with clean-up. Muppet’s out of action for a few days, and Giggles is on the gate.”
“No problem, Pres,” Beard replies as he and Stout get to their feet.
Maverick taps the disc, officially ending Church, and the brothers rise, filtering out of the room.
Once we’re alone, he turns to me. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m taking Rowena with me to Florida. We’ll work cleaner and faster as a two-man team.
You take five others to Canada—that’s two per house, and if you need more bodies, I’m sure Foundry and his crew will be more than happy to blow shit up with you.
” I drag a hand over my mouth, running through every possible scenario and assigning people where they’d be most useful.
“Axle and Roman stay here with the Prospects. Jake too.”
Maverick nods. “Agreed. Finalise your plans and we’ll let the brothers know.”
Three hours later, we meet and go over what I planned. We’ll have to meet again, and I need to fill Rowena in.
Making use of our allies, I reach out to Chief, President of the Saint’s MC in Jacksonville and ask for his help. Once I explain why, he’s onboard and assures me he’ll have his guys sit on the property and run surveillance until Rowena and I get there.
“Thanks, man. Appreciate it,” I tell him.
“You need any supplies?” Chief asks.
“Nah, man, we’re good. We’ll have enough on us. If you can confirm he’s definitely there, I’d appreciate it. Our intel shows that he is, but I’d prefer visual confirmation.”
“Leave it with us. I’ll be in touch.”
He ends the call, and I go back to planning.
Two hours later, my phone beeps with a message.
C JackSaints: Confirmed.
Me: Appreciate you, brother.
We’ll move in twenty-four hours. It gives Mulally time to get comfortable, to think we don’t know a damn thing.
Foundry’s more than happy to help the brothers heading to Canada. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the man was practically salivating at the chance to get in on the action.
When I’m happy everyone knows what they’re doing, only then do we finish.
It’s nearly three in the morning when I walk up my porch to my door only to be met with a gun in my face.
“Fuck. Sorry, brother,” Roman says. I shake my head and hold up my hand.
“No need to apologise, brother. I meant to message you that I was coming back. It slipped my mind.” I look around the living room.
There’s a blanket covered lump on the couch and one on the floor.
Axle is in the recliner wide-awake, Angel asleep on his lap.
He’s armed too. He puts the gun he’d had in his hand on the table next to him.
Concerned, I ask, “Everything okay here?”
“It’s all good.” Roman replies. Siera comes down the stairs, and I’m not surprised to see she’s armed.
Seeing it’s me, she lowers her weapon and says, “Honor’s asleep. I’ve just been to check on the boys to make sure their fevers haven’t returned, but they're fine.”
Relief floods me, and my shoulders slump with exhaustion. “Thank you, Siera.”
She pats my arm, “No thanks necessary. This is what family does. We band together when we need to. Go to bed, we’re on watch down here. We can catch up on sleep tomorrow.”
She doesn’t have to tell me twice. I walk up the stairs, checking on the boys first. Running my hand gently over their heads, I give thanks to whoever is listening that they’re okay.
That they have a mother that will do anything to protect them, including taking on armed men by herself and throwing herself out of a fucking, moving vehicle.
Yeah, I’m still a little pissed about that. And I’m sure it will be a good long while before I’m not.
Now that I know that Mason and Reed are okay, I leave them to sleep and go to our room. I stand at the foot of our bed and look at Honor sleeping peacefully, blonde hair spread out over our pillows.
Love fills my chest, and I blink hard as it hits me just how close I came to losing her today. Thank fuck she’d had the father she did. I wish the man were still alive, because I’d buy him the biggest, most expensive bottle of whiskey that I could find.
Drawing in a deep breath, I inhale the scent of the vanilla body lotion that Honor loves. With one last lingering look at Honor, I head to the bathroom, strip, and take a quick shower.
When I’m done, I crawl exhausted into bed and pull Honor close. Only then do I finally relax, the warmth of her body seeping into mine and the steady beat of her heart beneath my palm reminding me she’s okay and safe in my arms.