Chapter 4 #2
That made my stomach drop. If he didn’t know, someone had gone rogue. Someone was dangerously playing with fire.
“One of my men is in critical condition because of this,” Blackjack said.
His tone was level, but I could feel the fury coiled under it.
“We walked into a hot drop blind. We think the Steel Serpents showed up on our roads. Guns were drawn. Somebody used our backs as shields for something, and now we could be right smack in the middle of a brewing war.”
On the other end, Roman inhaled slow. “Steel Serpents,” he repeated. “That is a name I have not heard in quite some time.”
“Old friends of your friends?” Blackjack asked.
“Old tools of theirs,” Roman said. “Ones I believed were discarded long ago.”
“Well, it looks like Philly still has a grip on the handle,” Blackjack said.
Roman didn’t argue. “You said your man is in critical condition. Who?”
“Miami,” Blackjack said. “You’ve seen him. Road Captain. Blonde. Tattoos. Pretty.”
Roman made a faint sound. Could have been recognition, could have been annoyance. “And the bike?” he asked.
“With us,” Blackjack lied. We had no idea where it was. “Which is the only reason you’re hearing about this now and not from a cop, a reporter, or a rival.”
“I want it back,” Roman said. No hesitation. “Whatever it is, I need to know why they want it. Whatever foolishness the Vincinos think they are playing at, or whoever is involved, that bike belongs to us until I know what’s going on and can get to the bottom of it. It belongs to my control.”
“Not tonight,” Blackjack said.
If there was a temperature in that room, it dropped.
“Careful,” Roman said. Still calm, but the undertone had sharpened. “You work for my family, Alice. Do not forget that.”
“We work with your family,” Blackjack said as a reminder.
“Don’t forget that. We bleed for your docks, your casinos, your clubs.
Tonight we bled for a job that you didn’t even know existed.
I don’t know who’s using your ships to smuggle secrets through the city.
Until I do, that bike stays in our hands, and I want heavy compensation. ”
Roman was quiet long enough that I started counting heartbeats. “You are putting yourself between my family and a serious complication,” he said at last. “That is a dangerous place to stand.”
“Standing in front of gunfire is our job,” Blackjack said. “But I pick which direction I face. Whatever game the Vincinos or whoever this is are running, they dragged us into the middle without asking. They dragged you into it too.”
On the other end, paper rustled. Roman exhaled, long and slow. When he spoke again, his voice had changed. Less Don, more man.
“I will look into this,” he said. “Quietly. My sons, my consigliere. If someone moved this behind my back, I will find them. To move something without my blessing, something that pays so high and is equally as hot. I don’t like it when people do things that put my empire at risk.
And you know I respect our partnership. So, in the meantime, that bike, you keep it hidden.
You keep it untouched. And you trust no one who comes asking for it, even if they come with my name on their tongue. ”
“You can count on that,” Blackjack said.
Roman made a soft sound that might have been approval. “We will meet soon and talk more on this,” he said. “Face to face. Me, you and the truth. When your man is stable enough that your mind is not split in two, you call me. Hopefully by then I will have learned more.”
“I’ll call,” Blackjack said.
“And Alice,” Roman added. “Thank you for bringing this to me before you brought it to anyone else.”
Blackjack’s mouth quirked. “You pay us to keep your headaches private.”
“I pay you to make sure I still wake up in the morning,” Roman replied. “Make sure this doesn’t get worse. We can talk compensation when it’s all over.”
The line clicked. Call over.
Blackjack set the phone down between us and stared at it for a moment like he wanted to crush it in his fist. “Roman not knowing scares me more than him potentially lying,” he said.
I nodded. “Means someone under him thinks they’re smarter than him.”
“Or someone thinks he’s gone soft,” Blackjack said. “Either way, the ground just shifted under everybody’s feet.”
He picked the phone back up and scrolled again. “Now we call Liberty,” he said.
Even just seeing her name flash on his screen changed his face. Not softer, exactly. Just different. Like a man remembering there was a time before this life, and that had teeth too.
He hit dial. The ring barely finished once before she answered.
“You’ve got nerve, Alice,” Lady Liberty said. Her voice crackled through the speaker like a lit fuse. Low, sharp, a little amused. “Took you long enough.”
“Riann,” Blackjack said. “You heard.”
“Hard to miss,” she said. “One of your boys eating asphalt on my roads, screaming in on an ambulance I didn’t authorize. One of my girls at the hospital parking lot saw the cut under the blood. Devil’s Aces patch on a stretcher doesn’t exactly blend in.”
I ground my teeth. The idea of Miami bleeding out on a gurney under fluorescent lights, strangers’ hands on him, all while our patch screamed his identity, made me want to put my fist through a wall.
“I needed to get eyes on the situation before I called,” Blackjack said.
“You needed to control your mess before it hit my doorstep,” she corrected. “You failed. I’ve got sirens in my streets, uniforms sniffing around, and rumors flying about some blackout bike that crashed like a bat out of hell.”
Her tone wasn’t just pissed. There was a sliver of concern under it, buried deep.
“I need to check on my man,” Blackjack said. “We’re riding up.”
“No,” she replied sternly.
Just like that. No discussion.
“You and your pretty little army stay in your sandbox,” she went on. “I can’t have a full club rolling through my territory. You bring a patch parade up here, the cops will be on you before you even park, and every pair of eyes from here to the Pine Barrens will clock it. Too much attention.”
“He’s ours, Riann,” Blackjack said. “And he’s hurt.”
“I’m not saying you don’t lay claim,” she said. “I’m saying you don’t cross my line with every swinging dick in a leather vest. You get one man. One only.”
Blackjack’s gaze slid over to me. We didn’t need words. I nodded.
“I’ll send my enforcer, Jersey Boy, at dawn.”
Silence on the line for half a breath. I could picture her on the other end, weighing that. Jersey Boy. The one they sent when peace talks ended.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on with you, Alice,” she said at last. “But this smells worse than usual. And I’ve seen you up to your neck in some ripe shit before.”
“This isn’t our usual,” Blackjack said. “We took on a job at the docks, same as a hundred times before. Except this time the drop was hot, the contact never showed, and we think Philly mercs turned up wearing Steel Serpent cuts.”
“Steel Serpents,” she repeated. “Haven’t heard that name in years.”
“Seems like tonight’s a reunion night,” I muttered.
Blackjack continued. “We grabbed the cargo. Put it in a hole. Thought we had time to sort it out. Now that cargo’s turned into a magnet for bullets and one of mine is on your streets bleeding.”
“You still haven’t told me what’s so special about the damn bike,” she said. “Why’s everyone sniffing around it like it’s the last bone in the yard?”
“We got something we didn’t ask for,” Blackjack said carefully. “Something big. Bigger than me, you, or the Giorlandos. I don’t know the full of it yet. But I know if it gets into the wrong hands, it won’t just be my clubhouse catching fire.”
“And you’re so sure your hands are the right ones?” she asked.
“I’m sure I’m trying to stop a wildfire from exploding more than it already has,” he said.
“If whoever’s hunting that bike finds out you’ve got any piece of it, they’ll come for you next.
Your girls. Your bars. Your shelters. They’re not street punks.
They’ve got military training and cartel money. ”
On the other end, she laughed. Sharp, humorless. “I appreciate you worrying about my girls,” she said. “But us Vipers have teeth. We take care of our own.”
“You ever gone head-to-head with mercenaries trained to move like a unit?” I cut in before I could stop myself. “Because we did tonight. They weren’t just playing bikers. They were soldiers on steel horses.”
There was a beat of silence. I realized I hadn’t spoken to her directly before. Not like this. Not as more than a rumor behind Blackjack’s eyes.
“And that must be your enforcer,” she said. “Voice matches the reputation. Jersey Boy, was it?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“I’ve heard about you before. Hear you play cards like the devil and hit like a truck,” she said. “Impressive resumé. Still doesn’t change the fact you boys brought something nasty into my neighborhood without asking.”
“Wasn’t planned,” I said. “Bike wasn’t supposed to go that far north. Neither was he. He moved it because he smelled danger. He went down trying to keep that danger off our doorstep and yours.”
Another pause. I could almost feel her weighing the truth under my words.
“This is why I don’t mix business with men,” she said at last. “You all leak.”
Blackjack snorted quietly.
“You want that toy back,” she went on, the edge back in her tone. “You’re cutting me in.”
I straightened. “No,” I said.
“No,” Blackjack echoed. “You don’t want a piece of this Riann. I promise you.”
“Sweetheart,” she said, and I could hear the grin in it. “I’ve had your balls in a vice before. How’s the pressure these days?”
Despite everything, a ghost of a smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. Blackjack’s expression didn’t change.
“Still attached,” he said. “Trying to keep them that way.”
“Then don’t tell me what I do or don’t want,” she said. “If a storm’s rolling through my sky, I’m getting a weather report and a cut of the lightning.”
“You’ll get information,” Blackjack said.
“You won’t get tied to that bike. You take a cut from this, you’re not just in the storm, you’re on the lightning rod.
I don’t know whose involved. But if they find out Shore Vipers put their hands in that pot, they’ll do more than send dirty cops to hassle your girls. ”
“And you think they’ll stop at your door if I play nice?” she asked. “You’re adorable.”
“This isn’t me being noble,” he said. “It’s me being practical.
You’re a stabilizing factor up there. You keep the worst men off the women who got nowhere else to go.
If your clubhouse turns into a battleground, half this side of the state loses its only safe space.
That makes the streets hotter for all of us. ”
For the first time, her voice softened. Just a fraction.
“You always did know how to stack an argument,” she said.
“We will get the bike from the junkyard once we track it down. As for everything else, fine. No cut. For now. But if this is as big as you say it is, you’re going to owe me something down the line. ”
“I already do,” he said.
She let that sit. “One man,” she repeated. “He comes in. No pack of bikes behind him. My girls see more than one Devil’s Aces cut near that hospital, they’re going to assume it’s an invasion.”
“He’ll respect your line,” Blackjack said. “He’s there to check on our brother, not stir your pot.”
“See that he remembers it,” she said. “And Alice?”
“Yeah.”
“Whatever this bike is,” she said, “put it in a deeper hole. I don’t want my streets becoming a shortcut in somebody else’s war.”
He exhaled. “Riann, trust me. This wasn’t planned. I’m trying to keep it from blowing half the coast into the bay.”
“Then control your spark,” she said. “Before it burns my girls too.”
The line went dead.
Blackjack set the phone down slowly. For a moment neither of us spoke. The office felt tighter, like the walls had leaned in to listen.
“Well,” I said at last. “Could’ve gone worse.”
He huffed something that was almost a laugh and almost a growl. “You’re riding at dawn,” he said. “Just you. Cut, colors, no army. You step foot on Viper turf like you’re walking into somebody else’s church. You don’t so much as piss on a hydrant without Liberty’s blessing.”
I nodded. “First stop, Shoreline. Check on Miami. Make sure he’s still breathing and still ours.
Blackjack nodded. “Second, get the bike from the Vipers if possible. I’ll share her contact with you.”
I nodded.
“Third,” he said. “You keep those eyes open for any sign of Steel Serpent cuts. Bikes parked too long. Men who don’t belong. I want to know if Philly is involved and if their dogs are still sniffing around.”
“Yes, Prez.”
He looked at the maps on the wall, the pins, the lines. Atlantic City and its veins. “We’re standing in a doorway, Jersey,” he said. “On one side is the life we’ve been living. On the other is something that wants to swallow that whole. I don’t know which way this door’s going to swing.”
I pushed off the cabinet and stepped closer to the desk. “Doesn’t matter,” I said. “We hold the frame.”
He looked at me for a long moment, then nodded once. Approval. Trust. Burden.
“Get some rest,” he said. “You leave at first light.”
Sleep sounded impossible, but I knew I’d need whatever scraps I could steal. The next day was going to be ugly.
I turned to go, then hesitated at the door. “Prez,” I said.
“Yeah?”
“If he…” I stopped, jaw tightening. Forced the words out. “If Miami doesn’t make it, I want first crack at whoever lined this up.”
His eyes were dark and flat and dangerous. “If Miami doesn’t make it,” he said, “there won’t be a first crack. There’ll be a last day. For a lot of people.”
The promise hung between us. A vow. A threat. A prophecy.
I nodded and stepped out into the hallway.
The clubhouse noise washed over me, muted and distant. Laughter that wasn’t quite right. The clink of bottles. The low murmur of brothers pretending their world hadn’t just shifted three inches to the left.
Quinn wasn’t there yet. She would be soon enough.
I headed for my room, boots heavy, mind heavier.
Somewhere north, under the pale hospital lights of Shoreline General, my best friend fought for his life.
Somewhere else, a bike full of sins waited in a heap in the dark of some junkyard.
Somewhere between them, Shore Vipers watched their streets, and Steel Serpents maybe watched theirs.
Sleep would be a stranger. Dawn would come too fast.
And when it did, I’d be riding into someone else’s territory with our patch on my back and wildfire on my heels.