CHAPTER 60 #3
“Grinder, I think so. Stone and Croc, could be, but I don’t think so.”
Dozer then turns to Deeds. “Tell us the rest.”
“The cartel is behind it. They’ve infiltrated your club by using the Thirteens, and they’ve infiltrated mine.
They’re plans are to cut out the middlemen, you could say.
Pappy’s aware of it, but he thinks we have more time before they make their move.
I don’t. I’d like to clean house now and face the fallout, but he’s not willing to risk it.
Thinks it’ll set off a chain of events that we’re not yet ready for.
He’ll push it until the last moment, and who knows what that will look like.
Mainly, he wants to keep doing business. Profit as much as possible before all-out war breaks out.
So yeah, we need to know who we can trust, strengthen the club by recruiting the right men, and build alliances before it comes to a head.
If we can hit them with enough force before they’re ready, we’ll have a better chance of putting the balance of power back in our favor. They don’t know we know, and that’s our advantage.”
“How did you figure this out?” Dozer asks.
“Little things at first and Gypsy.” He motions to me. “She’s how I knew for sure.”
“Lily,” Finn says sternly. I roll my eyes at him and grab his thigh. He lays his hand over his mind and grasps it tightly.
Deeds smirks at him. “Sorry, man. Just habit. Lily.”
“She was able to confirm some things after working different angles and then shits just been off with the cartel, so we took a page out of their book and got some people on the inside on their side of the border. Once they made their way up the ranks, we were able to confirm that they are planning to eliminate any crews like ours by infiltrating their personnel into our clubs, much like sleeper agents. Like the Thirteens, they are forming crews on this side of the border and pushing their product, running their activities through them. The money all goes south, though, and they want a larger part of the take, so they’re cutting out anyone they have to pay to get their shit in and out of the U.S. ”
“Holy fuck, are you for real, man?” This comes from Bodie. He looks shaken by the news.
Dozer thinks about it all for a long time before he speaks again. “When were you going to share this information with us?”
Deeds purses his lips and shadows flicker over his eyes, because he and I both know what he’s about to say isn’t going to land well.
“When we had to. When we knew who we could trust.”
Dozer stands and lays his hands on the table. “Which was going to be when, never?”
“I don’t know, okay! We were still working that part out.”
Dozer shakes his head. His icy gaze is leveled on Deeds with deadly intent.
Deeds is completely unaffected by it. If anything, it boils his blood too and fires up that demon that lives under his skin.
“Look, asshole. This isn’t something you can go sayin’ at church.
This is who needs to know bullshit, and so far, your club hasn’t seen any ill effects.
I was making inroads and was gonna come to you when the time was right.
This is exactly why I sent, Lily. I needed to know who to trust and who wasn’t a rat posing as a HOC. ”
“Well, you sure and the fuck knew I wasn’t.”
“Look, man, the point was I didn’t know who you would trust with it and didn’t have solid information until recently. You can throw shade at me, but I was doing my level best to figure this shit out.”
“Why didn’t Pappy come to Cap with this. Why you?”
Deeds is silent for way too long.
Dozer reads him, though. “He doesn’t want out of business with them, trying to find a way around it.”
Deeds just stares back at him, his face blank.
Dozer chuckles humorlessly. “My dad has always said that Pappy valued green more than people’s lives, and that was one line the HOCs would never cross. I get it now. Why he left.”
“You done?”
Dozer pushes off the table. “Yeah, I’m fuckin’ done.”
Deeds takes a deep breath. “Don’t let this come back to bite me in the ass. Because I’m warning you now, I’ll come for you if word of this reaches Pappy.”
Finn answers for Dozer because the man is seconds away from throwing a punch. “Understood. We’ve got as much invested in this as you. All I want to do his protect her and my club.”
“I get that, just don’t drag my name through the mud if shit goes down, or hell will come callin’.”
Finn taps his hand on the table. “Same for us.”
Deeds meets Dozer’s gaze. “And we agree here and now to keep this between us. Cap and Pappy aren’t to know.”
Dozer nods, and with that, Deeds stands. He gives me one last lingering look before he turns to leave.
Taz is reluctant to step out of his way, and it’s then that Deeds’ temper flares to life. “Get the fuck out of my way, before I put you down.”
“You could try,” Taz grins.
“T, let him go,” Dozer snaps.
Taz gives an exaggerated bow as he moves aside.
Deeds only looks back once more. The emotion in his gaze speaks volumes. An ache builds in my chest at the betrayal on his face. Yes, it makes me feel like absolute shit, and I know I’ll never forget this moment. But it was the right thing to do. I hope, in time, he’ll see that.
Finn’s arm comes around me then. I tilt my head and look up at him. “Are you pissed?”
He shakes his head adamantly and places a kiss on my forehead. “No, babe. I’m not pissed.”
“Comin’ here like you did,” Dozer says as he takes Deeds’ seat, “was fuckin’ dangerous, Lil’ Bird. But fuck, you might have just saved all our fuckin’ lives by doin’ what you did. Thank you.”
“What?”
“I’m fuckin’ grateful, Lil’. What you did here was fuckin’ brave, and if this meeting hadn’t happened, who knows what the future would look like for us. Just wanted to say thank you and let you know, we’re good.”
The emotion trickles in and then rushes in a wave over me. A tear trails down my cheek, and another soon follows. Finn puts his arm around me and pulls me close. He holds me and runs his hand over my back.
I lost my oldest friend today, and it fucking hurts. Yes, I gained the loyalty of men who will be in my life, hopefully for quite a while. I hope the tradeoff is worth it and that, in time, Deeds will eventually forgive me.
“So what the fuck are we gonna do?” I hear Bodie ask.
Dozer’s the one who responds. “First things first. We need to get rid of the rats, then we’ll figure out the rest.”
Taz chuckles, “Let’s not sit around all day then. Let’s get back and do some hunting.”
“Stealthily.” Dozer growls. “Which means that no one finds out what we’re up to, and when they do disappear, we do it right so no one’s the wiser.”
“It’ll take time and patience,” Finn adds, and the others nod in agreement.
“What about Mateo. How do we make sure they don’t get to him again?” Bodie asks.
Dozer thinks about it for a moment.
But Finn cuts in. “We bring him in. Let him prospect. Watch over him. He can be Lily’s bodyguard because she’s also going to need to be watched over.
I’ll sponsor him, and it’ll be his main task.
All of us, though, need to keep an eye on him and make sure they can’t get to him.
We’ll send his mom somewhere safe, if we have to. ”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Is he up for it, though?”
“He is,” Bodie nods. “He’s asked me how he would go about joinin’ the club. Maybe it was because they were forcin’ him to, but nah… I think he was lookin’ for a way out. Now that I think about it.”
Dozer checks in with the others and meets each of their gazes. “So we let him prospect, and he’ll become Lily’s shadow.”
Finn drums his fingers on the table. “Yeah, I think it’s for the best.”
Bodie adds. “Me too.”
“The kid acts like he’s at death’s door. But sure. I’m not opposed,” Taz voices his opinion. “Just gonna be a mood killer is all.”
Dozer shakes his head. “Like you’re not?”
“What?”
Dozer waves his hand. “That’s neither here nor there. My point is, if we agree, I’ll get Cap on board and his blessing when we get back.”
The men all nod their assent.
Dozer gets up from the table, and we all follow him out of the Diner.
As I ride on the back of Finn’s bike on our way back to New Mexico, I can’t help but wonder at how Mateo is going to take the news.
We’re going to be very close, real soon.
I’m not upset about that. It’ll give me a chance to get to know him on another level.
Maybe then I can figure out how to fix what’s broken between him and Finn, and Mateo not being alone might just be what he needs.
It’s twenty-one days later, while in a local grocery store shopping for condoms and a few other essential items for the HOCs, when I come across a woman who is the female version of Deeds. She looks so much like him that when I enter the aisle where she’s standing, I come to an abrupt halt.
Her hair color is the same shade of auburn, and she also has tan skin for a ginger, which is something you rarely see.
As I tentatively close the distance, I notice the items in her hands, and she raises one and then the other as if she’s trying to decide between the two.
Condoms, or a pumpkin necklace. When I strike up a conversation with her, what I notice immediately is the look in her eyes.
They scream help me . I don’t know how else to explain it.
So I do.
I offer her a quick escape from the cop following her around the store—a safe haven from whatever else she’s running from.
Little did I know at the time that she’d become not just a friend, but a sister in every way except by blood.
She became the girl with many names, a pumpkin that transformed from a house mouse into one of the strongest females I know.