Chapter Two
ODIN
Three Months Later
“Jesus Christ, I hate ridin’ in a fuckin’ cage.”
I glanced at Danger in the rearview mirror. He’d been bitching for three fucking days about being twisted into a pretzel in the backseat.
His words, not mine.
Not that I blamed him for complaining. Danger was a hair under 6 '5”, which meant he had to ride slouched down in the backseat because his head hit the roof, but that also meant his knees were damn near drawn up to his ears.
Dash snorted. “Suck it up, princess. We had too much shit to haul down here.”
My lips twitched at Dash calling our new enforcer princess.
He was more like Andre the fucking giant. Not only was Danger as tall as a goddamn tree, dude was 280 lbs. of solid muscle.
My mind drifted to last week when Danger showed up at my house out of the blue.
I hadn’t seen him in years. He’d done time with me and Dash for Uncle Sam over in the sandbox.
Somehow he’d heard through the grapevine that we were picking up stakes and heading across the country to head up a club.
When he asked if he could tag along, I jumped on it.
No prospecting necessary. He watched our asses in the desert, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind he’d do the same in Devils Cove.
“We’re almost there,” I assured him, letting my gaze shift to the side mirror and the thirty-foot ATC Hauler that was hitched to my murdered out Heavy Duty Dodge Ram Dually.
The trailer was packed to the fucking brim with bikes, tools, clothes, and anything else that would fit that my brothers couldn’t live without. It was just too much to haul on our sleds, which meant we were all fucking miserable.
My gaze slid back to the road before going back to the mirror and the 2nd truck that’d been following close behind since we rolled out of Boston a few days ago.
It wasn’t just us heading to Devils Cove.
After Danger approached me, I reached out to a few other brothers I’d served with.
Jekyll jumped in head first, no explanations needed.
Dollar was in as long as his younger brother Shine could tag along.
Apparently Shine needed some direction in life.
He’d been flirting with the outlaw life, and Dollar was worried his baby bro was going to end up in a concrete box with the way he was headed.
You see, Shine was a hacker. Give him a computer and an internet connection and there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do.
The man was dangerous. Just not in the same way Danger and Jekyll were.
“There it is.” Dash pointed through the windshield, pulling me out of my musings. “Turnoff’s up ahead.”
I eased off the gas and made the turn, gravel crunching beneath the tires.
“What the absolute fuck?” Dash rumbled
The gates were wide open like a goddamn invitation to anyone who wanted to roll up. If Ghost’s estimates were right, there was a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of automatic weapons on the property. At least there was supposed to be.
“By all means. Come on in and jam us all up,” I growled. “What if we were the ATF? The Feds? Surely to god, Moody isn’t this fucking stupid.”
Danger leaned forward, somehow managing to wedge his big body between the seats. “Someone’s getting their ass beat,” he said, pointing a tattooed finger at the black spray paint slashed over the Saint’s Outlaws insignia on the gate.
My jaw locked.
I kept driving as boiling rage started to crawl up my spine.
Moody had been given a goddamn gold mine. A prime location in the middle of fucking nowhere with the perfect cover. The routes and clientele were already established for crying out loud, and instead of protecting the gift they had, they’d let it go to shit.
“See this shit,” I said pulling up in front of the clubhouse, “I’m not going to feel bad at all putting a bullet in that stupid fuck’s brain.”
Danger snorted. “You look like you’re about to blow a gasket.”
I threw out an arm at all the bullshit around us. “Do you blame me? Look at this fucking place.”
It was in worse shape than any of us realized. Trash, junked cars, old tires, and a few hundred fucking beer bottles and cans were littered around the property.
“Naw. I don’t,” Dash sighed.
Jekyll’s truck pulled up beside mine, and I could see they were having the same reaction to seeing this shithole that we were.
I pulled in a deep breath and slowly let it out. I was about to get all these motherfuckers in line.
“Let’s get this shit over with,” I said.
Shoving open the door, I stepped down from the truck.
As I started towards the clubhouse, the doors swung open, and Moody strutted out with three men at his back.
His eyes came to me, then flared when he got a look at the crew I’d brought with me.
Surprise motherfucker.
To his credit, the bastard had enough sense to force a smile as his arms spread open wide. “Well, I’ll be damned. Look what the cat drug in.”
I didn’t even try to play along. I wasn’t going to pretend this was a social call. I had a job to do.
“Where is everyone?”
His brow furrowed. “Everyone, who?”
“Your club, brother.” He wasn’t any brother of mine, but I needed everyone together before I dropped the hammer.
Like fish in a fucking barrel.
He tipped his head towards the building behind him.
Good. That was going to make things easier.
I shoved past him, into the clubhouse, making a note of who stood beside him in the same coked-out state he was in.
Oh, I’d noticed the white powder still dusted under his nose. I was goddamn Army Special Forces for ten years before joining the club. I always knew who and what was happening around me.
Slate. VP.
Pike. Enforcer.
Ragnar. Enforcer.
They were out too. They just didn’t know it yet.
Dash’s elbow hit my side, and he gave the smallest shake of his head.
He saw it too.
“That’s a helluva convoy you got there,” Moody called from behind me.
Sure as fuck was.
“Don’t fucking worry about that,” I snapped. “Gather up your men.”
I went straight into the clubhouse like I owned the place.
Inside, several patched members were cleaning up what looked like the aftermath of a party.
My lip curled.
Their fucking club was falling apart around them, and they were partying.
Those cleaning looked up when I walked in.
I couldn’t be sure, but I was pretty sure I saw relief on their faces. Then Moody and his boys stumbled in behind us, and the tension in the room skyrocketed.
Interesting.
It seemed some of Moody’s men weren’t happy with him. Maybe I wasn’t going to have to kill everyone after all.
I filed that away for later.
“Church,” I barked.
Everyone moved at once as I started down the short hallway toward the meeting room.
Dash fell in beside me, laughing under his breath. “Moody’s gonna blow his top when he realizes he’s out.”
I shrugged. “He’s going to die either way.”
Behind us, I heard the scrape of chairs as the men started to move.
Danger and Jekyll took up position by the meeting room door.
We’d already gone over the plan. I wanted everyone’s phones and weapons.
Shine and Dollar were going to go through everything to find out what we were up against, and well…
we didn’t need anyone taking shots at us once they learned what was about to happen. “Phones and guns,” Jekyll said flatly.
“You gotta be fuckin’ joking,” Pike snarled.
Danger’s eyes narrowed. “Does he look like a man who fucking jokes?”
That ended the argument real quick.
One by one, every man who came through the door handed over his piece and phone.
I let them file in while I walked to the head of the table, where Moody was sitting.
“Get up.”
His brows pinched. “What?”
“You heard me. Get the fuck up.”
He stared at me for a long second, then pushed out of the chair, like he couldn’t believe I had the balls.
“The fuck?” he snarled.
I crowded his space, towering over him. “Stand against the fucking wall and don’t say another fucking word.”
His face went red. “You can’t come in here and—”
Jekyll took one step in his direction, and the pussy took two steps back, moving toward the wall with Slate, Pike, and Ragnar crowding close beside him.
Once everybody else was seated, I planted my hands on the table and looked around the room.
There were a few hard faces staring back at me, mostly Moody and his cabinet huddled in the corner.
The others, they just looked like they were fucking tired.
“Listen up,” I said. “Effective immediately, I’m in charge.”
The room exploded.
“What the fuck?” Moody shouted. “This is my fucking club!”
“Shut the fuck up,” Danger barked, pulling his gun.
That bought me a second of silence.
“This is bullshit!” That came from Slate.
Dollar jumped into action and tossed the stupid fucker to the ground. One crack against his temple and the dumbass was out cold.
“Anyone else have something to say?” I asked.
Fucking crickets.
Giving Dollar a nod, he made quick work of securing Slate’s hands with a thick black zip tie.
With the room silent, the next few minutes played out quick.
Danger grabbed Moody.
Dollar took Pike.
And Jekyll handled Ragnar, who tried to jerk away and earned the butt of Danger’s gun for his trouble.
They zip-tied the three while the room watched in stunned silence.
Moody started up again—cussing and shouting. He clearly hadn’t gotten the memo that this was a hostile takeover.
Shine, who’d been leaning against the wall, quiet as a church mouse, sighed like he was bored. Then he stepped forward and zapped the dumb fuck with a stun gun.
Moody dropped like a sack of bricks.
“Well, alright, then.” I chuckled.
Shine shrugged. “I was sick of his fucking yelling.”
Then he zapped Ragnar and Pike.
“See,” Dollar said, eyeing me.
I smirked. “He gets it honest.”
Dollar rolled his eyes. He’d warned me his brother could go from cool as a cucumber to no-nonsense killer in the blink of an eye.
“Well…” I glanced around the table, making eye contact with every man still conscious. I needed them to pay attention. Their lives literally depended on it. “I know the last thing you want to do is snitch on your brothers, but their time of fucking over this club and its reputation is done.”
“Thank fuck.”
My eyes landed on the man who’d said those words, then dropped to the patch on his cut.
Tyson.
I gave him a slight nod before looking back at the room.
“If any of you have a problem with the new leadership,” I said, “there’s the door.”
I let the silence stretch for a long beat, giving them time to decide what they wanted to do.
When nobody got up, I clapped my hands together.
“Okay then,” I continued. “Let’s get rid of these motherfuckers.”
“Keep digging,” Danger barked.
So it turned out when Ghost said he wanted Moody at the bottom of a deep fucking hole, he meant it.
Which was how I found myself standing in the middle of the desert with my arms crossed over my chest, watching as Moody, Pike, Slate, and Ragnar dug their own graves in the scorching California sun.
“Hurry the fuck up!” Jekyll snapped, gun trained on Moody and Pike.
Back at the clubhouse, Shine and Dollar were digging through everyone’s phones, computers, and anything else with an internet connection. Moody had gotten in bed with the cartel and we needed to know exactly how deep.
I had a feeling the answer was real fucking dirty.
Moody slammed his shovel into the dirt and looked up at me, sweat pouring down his face. “Come on, man. You can’t do this.”
I stared at him.
He swallowed hard and tried again. “We can work this out.”
Pike tossed his shovel aside for a second and put his tied hands up as much as he could. “Please, brother. Please. We were gonna fix it.”
“Brother?” Dash let out a cold laugh. “You stopped being a brother the second you got involved with the cartel.”
Slate started crying.
Actually fucking crying.
Ragnar just shook his head over and over. “We were following orders. Moody told us what to do.”
Moody whipped around. “Shut the fuck up!”
Danger cocked his gun. “Keep digging.”
They did.
After a few more minutes of scraping and panting and begging, Moody looked at me again. “Odin, please. We’re Saint’s Outlaws, too.”
I uncrossed my arms and stepped closer. “No,” I growled. “You were Saint’s Outlaws, and you fucking blew it.”
His face fell.
Dash nodded toward the holes. “This is the end of the line, fellas.”
Nobody spoke after that.
“That’s enough,” I said once the holes were deep enough.
Dash moved in and took the shovels one by one.
“Please!” Pike shouted. “Have mercy.”
“Mercy?” Danger’s eyes narrowed. “Did you have mercy for the little fucking kids you sold?”
None of us had an ounce of remorse for what we were about to do. They’d done the unthinkable.
I stepped back and pulled the Glock from my waistband, then put a slug right between Moody’s eyes. His head snapped back, and he dropped like a lead weight.
Danger shot Pike next. One clean crack and Pike dropped straight into the hole.
Jekyll shot Ragnar, then Slate.
Then there was silence.
Turning back to the men I’d made sure were watching everything as it unfolded, I nodded to the four holes. “This,” I said, my voice hard, “is what will happen if you break our laws.” I didn’t want there to be a single doubt in their mind about what would happen if they crossed me.
When nobody said a word, Dash tossed the shovels at their feet.
“Get to work,” I said.
Tyson moved first.
Valor was right behind him.
The two of them picked up shovels and started throwing dirt back into the holes, burying the bodies of the men they’d once followed.
I hoped to Christ they’d fall in line. I couldn’t afford to lose any more members. Not with a whole goddamn operation to rebuild from the ground up.
Danger smirked from beside me. “Way to start things off with a bang, P.”
Dash barked out a laugh, and to my surprise, everyone else did too.
For the first time all goddamn day, I smiled.
Everyone was on board.
Thank the Gods.