Chapter Two
Rebel
“We can’t leave the place empty,” I say to Nero as we walk up the stairs to the room we refer to as the chapel, where we hold church, our meetings to discuss club business.
A group text went out to the council to come in for the meeting. It won’t be long before the rest of the officers arrive.
“I’ve asked Nashville to pick four or five brothers who will stay here rotating,” I continue. “Blaze is going to set up more security outside.”
Nero nods and pushes through the door. I’ve filled him in on what happened last night, omitting the part where I held an innocent woman at gunpoint. Raven didn’t see that part either, so it stays between me and the little villain.
Kinsley.
“It’s a good call. If he can go after our people, there is nothing stopping him coming after the buildings. They already tried at the warehouse,” he reminds me.
A month ago, alarms triggered at one of our storage warehouses, and some weapons were stolen. It was a reconnaissance mission to see if they could get through our defenses.
“What’s our next move?” I close the door and join him at the table.
“Fury and Stryker didn’t find him, but they’re going to update us.” Nero stares at me when I don’t respond. “Say it,” he sighs.
“Say what?”
“That we should have tried harder after he took Sheridan and came after Oscar.”
“Hindsight is a terrible thing.”
He huffs. “Since when do you hold back?”
“You know I think we’ve made the wrong choices, I’ve already said my piece on that, so why argue about it now?”
“I underestimated him. Again,” Nero sighs and shakes his head.
“That shit stops now, right? We get ahead of this and stop hiding behind this bullshit idea we’re protecting our people. What he did proved we’re not protecting anyone.”
“Watch what you’re saying, Rebel.”
“Not with this,” I fire back. “Fuck, Nero, I know better than anyone what Oscar means to you. And Jesse and Taylor. You care about Ellie too. The rage in you that night when we took that prick to the farm, that is the Nero I want to see. But you pulled back when we should have kept going.”
“Don’t fucking say it.”
I stare him down, but I’m the first to look away.
“Just because I have a family doesn’t make me weak.”
“I never said that.”
“You fucking implied it,” he snarls.
I heave out a sigh, drawing the anger back inside. Nero isn’t who I want to take my frustration out on.
“The only way to protect them, and anyone else we give a shit about, is to strike back, hard and fast. Storm can’t keep us on the back foot.”
Nero is a good man, he cares about people and he can be easy-going, to a point. When he turns, it’s written all over his face.
Nero and I have disagreements, but I never outright disrespect him. Even when I don’t like his decisions, I follow them because he is my president.
Instead of fighting it, he’s seeing sense.
“We’ll discuss it when everyone else gets here,” he says. “I respect your argument, it’s coming from a place of wanting to keep us safe. I know what I’m doing, Rebel.”
There is no point in arguing. I walk to my designated seat and slump into it. Nero remains standing, waiting for me to argue, but I bite my tongue for now.
“How is Ellie?” I ask to diffuse the situation.
“Made it through surgery,” he rubs his chin. “She woke up, cussed a lot of people out, then they sedated her because she was getting agitated.”
“That sounds like her.”
He smirks. “She’s pissed he got the drop on her. Ellie has spent her life expecting people to hurt her and devising ways to protect herself. She didn’t see this coming, and instead of scaring her like most normal people, she wants to fight back.”
Nero knows her better than I do.
“She’ll be fine. The problem will be holding her back once she is well enough.” He pulls out his chair and takes a seat.
“I’m sure Beast can manage it. Are we closing any of the businesses?”
“I’m not letting him fuck about with our income. Elegance will be open tomorrow as normal. I want him to see he failed. Our priority is finding the prick who attacked her.”
“Good.”
His body language changes setting off alarm bells. “What?”
“You might not like what I’m thinking.”
“Meaning?” I lean back in the chair.
“Surveillance.”
“Of Kivisto?”
He nods.
I contemplate that before knee-jerking into another argument. Nero has a reason for everything he does. I can see where he is going with this. I’m not convinced, but wave a hand for him to explain.
“Blaze looked into him. The bastard’s father is the head of the Kivisto family.”
“Why the fuck is the son of a mafia boss coming to another city to stab a stripper?”
“If he’s working with a mafia family, we need to tread lightly. The last thing I want is to be pulled into a war with people like that. Mafia men are a pain in the ass, all retribution and shooting shit up for no reason other than someone called their dog a bad name.”
I can’t help but laugh at that. It’s so true. They’re big fucking babies.
“It’s likely what Storm wants,” Nero goes on, keeping his tone serious. “To get us embroiled in something we have no fucking right or desire to start.”
Shit, I never looked at it that way. “We find him, we follow him, then we make a move?”
Nero nods. “I’m not taking these decisions lightly, Rebel.
You don’t like it, but what I’m doing is to protect the club.
I’ve underestimated how low that slimy fucker is prepared to go.
He’s sending others after us because he is too chicken shit to do it himself.
We need to find out who is backing him and get ahead of that. Isolate him, take away his safety net.”
Makes sense, even if it infuriates me.
The door opens and Blaze comes in. He has a tablet in one hand and a takeout coffee cup in the other. He dips his chin and takes his assigned seat at the table.
Since we lost Ghost, the man who used to do all the surveillance and gather digital information for us, Blaze has stepped up. He could do it before, but Nero relied on Ghost for more covert shit.
Nero’s little brother Phoenix is Ghost’s best friend and business partner, so that mellowed Nero into letting him go without the usual shit that comes with leaving the MC. That being death, or the ruthless ejection Storm received.
“Anything?” Nero asks, cutting off my memories of Storm being kicked out and how it went down.
“I’ve tracked the car he was using, abandoned by the rail yards.”
“That’s close,” Nero muses.
“Yeah. Makes me wonder what else he had planned,” Blaze says with a deep exhale.
“The plan was to kill Ellie, throw us into chaos and disappear. He didn’t plan on Charley,” Nero says.
“What about Charley?” Nashville walks in.
Just last night he claimed her as his old lady. I approved it at the hospital rather than having an official vote at church.
We don’t have time for shit like that right now, it’s an outdated ritual Nero needs to wipe out. If the brothers want to claim women, why get permission?
My mind goes back to the interaction last night. Despite the infuriating exchange, it’s undeniable Kinsley is hot. She’s got a mouth on her and fighting skills. And is off-limits. She’s related to the priest across the street.
He might accept us and allow us to take part in neighborhood events, but he doesn’t agree with what we do. One thing I’ve learned, priests are good at turning a blind eye if it benefits them. We bring a lot of money their way when we run food drives or organize charity shit for them.
This is our way of having the church’s support and, when required, their loyalty.
I missed what Nashville was saying, and Razer and Beast arriving while lost in thoughts about someone who isn’t supposed to be in my head.
Fury and Stryker follow the others in as I pick up on them talking about how Nashville’s new woman attacked Kivisto last night, stopping him from killing Ellie.
“Remind me not to play frisbee with her,” Razer laughs. “That was a hell of a shot.”
There is a low rumble of laughter, but it fades to the seriousness of the situation. As I listen to my fellow officers fill us in on what has happened overnight, my fists clench, knowing Storm is still evading us.
There is some confusion and dissent over Nero’s idea to track Kivisto, leading us back to Storm, but having discussed it before they all got here, Nero and I present a united front and talk them through what we’re going to do.
Together with Blaze’s research on the Kivisto family, it convinces the others.
“They’re embroiled in some kind of dispute with another family on the west coast, the Heikkinen's,” Blaze says. “It goes back to when their families were warring decades ago in Finland.”
“No one can hold a grudge like a mafia family,” Beast leans back in his chair. “I didn’t even know there were mafia families in Finland.”
“There are criminal types all over these days,” Fury grins.
“Finland is known for the MCs running the criminal underworld. From what I’ve read up, they’re brutal.”
“And we aren’t?” Fury side-eyes him.
“They don’t give a shit who they hurt, including kids. And most of them are in the skin trade.”
We all go quiet. Kids are off-limits, human trafficking is a massive no-go for us. None of us miss how Stryker’s fists clench even though he doesn’t say a word.
It’s Beast who curses first. He’s thinking about his daughter. I haven’t taken the time to ask how that is going. I’ve heard enough about the kid from Raven, because she is still staying at her place.
My sister is almost to the point Beast is going to lose a testicle if he doesn’t sort out shit with his kid.
“Maybe that’s why they migrated to the US,” Razer says, bringing us back to the moment.
“There were some bloody fights between them,” Blaze pinches the bridge of his nose.
He’s probably read up on and seen pictures of the shit he’s telling us.
“Doesn’t matter why they’re here,” Nero brings us back to the reality we’re facing. “I don’t give a shit about their fight with another family. We need to know what we’re walking into if we are looking into them, even on the periphery.”
“You know Beast hates those big words,” Nashville grins.
“Fuck off, you dickhead.”
Nero lets the levity go on for a moment, then turns the conversation to giving everyone a job to get done. Before he calls an end to the meeting, Nero asks everyone if they’re happy with Nashville taking Charley as his old lady, and it’s agreed.
I want to check in with my contacts around the city, but intend to see them in person. I need the ride. It settles me and gives me time to think.
Before I head out, I speak to the guys Nashville has got together to guard the clubhouse and lay down the law. No alcohol, and no club girls sneaking in while they’re on watch.
I text one of my contacts to find out where he is, then head to my bike. There are a lot of them out here, which isn’t standard practice, Nero likes us to park out of sight in the warehouse we own beside the clubhouse, out of respect for the other people on the block.
I call out to a brother who is smoking outside the bar and tell him to get them moved, but bum a cigarette from him first.
While he carries out my orders, I lean against my bike and light up, looking across the street at the church.
My gaze is drawn to the long wall at the side of the building. It connects to the low fence that has a small garden area at the front of the church, and is where Kinsley disappeared last night.
There is a small building behind that wall that I’ve never checked out before. It must be some kind of apartment. Is that the wall where she is going to paint the mural that Raven told me about?
What the fuck do I even care? I tip my head back and blow smoke up into the air. When my eyes lower, I watch two women walking along the path from the church. One of them organizes the church, and she runs everything like a drill sergeant whenever we have picnics or events.
The other is her. The little villain. She looks different today, gone are the baggy hoodie and cargo pants. Instead, she is wearing a denim skirt that falls midway down her thighs, showing off every inch of those fine as fuck legs.
And to add to the discomfort I’m feeling about staring at her, she is wearing a waist length blood red leather jacket, which is hot as fuck.
Jesus, she’s a fucking walking temptation. She’s going to get a lot of attention from the brothers. And that sends a white-hot rage through me. I have to quash it. After what I did last night, I’m certain she wants nothing to do with me.
Trying not to look like I’m staring, I turn my head in the other direction but keep my eyes on them as they make their way to the sidewalk.
She doesn’t look over, which is just as well. Taking another long drag, I drop the cigarette to the ground and stub it out. The red leather catches my eye again.
Kinsley is watching me, she’s too far away to read her expression. A stupid and childish reaction takes over, and as I stand to my full height and grab my helmet. I raise my middle finger at her.
She doesn’t react, but she doesn’t take her eyes off me either. I've got inside her head. And I will be it long after I ride away too.
The real problem is, she's in mine.