Chapter Fifteen
Rebel
The Drake Hotel is on the waterfront. I’ve never been inside before. We’re not the type of men who can just roll up at a place like this and not have every eye in the vicinity on us.
Which is why Razer and I are standing in a back corridor with a nervous-looking guy who works here and is a close acquaintance of Ellie’s.
She’s been coming here for years, and this guy has helped her with what she does when she is here. There is no need to question what they are, we all know what Ellie does to get information out of men.
This guy does not want his employers to know his relationship with her but one call from Ellie got us in here with ease. No questions, and three hotel uniforms waiting for us.
Neither I nor Razer can do this, Wallen will recognize us. We have men he has never been around before he went to prison, so they’re the ones in the storage room getting changed.
I’m pissed off that one of them is Cipher. The poor bastard has been on the receiving end of my very annoyed look every time we make eye contact.
It’s taking everything in me not to slice his lips off his face for ever having had them near Kinsley.
For his part, he's been eyeing me warily since we got here, even Razer has noticed.
“Here’s the key card for the room you requested. I had to tell the current occupants there was a fault with the electrics, so try to keep it down.”
Razer takes it and glares enough that the dickhead cringes. He’s forgotten who he is talking to.
“This is the duplicate key to the other room.” He hands that over with a little more reluctance. Then he grows a set of balls, which I guess I have to give him credit for. “If you get caught, this has nothing to do with me.”
Ellie would have our balls if we do. This guy is important to her business, it’s in our best interest to keep him on our side.
After giving us the key to the service elevator and directions to the room, he walks away.
I’m irritable and getting tenser as time ticks closer to that fucker showing up. I force myself not to say anything. Ellie was not happy with Beast for trying to keep her out of it when all she wants is for us to murder the bastard who almost killed her.
Speaking of that idiot.
“Beast you in position?”
“Yes.”
Razer looks over at me. That was a snippy response through the comms Blaze has us using. The little earpieces are irritating but well worth it to be in immediate contact with everyone.
“Be ready.”
“I am.”
“What’s up with him?” Razer asks.
“His G-string is too far up his ass crack.”
“I can hear you, you prick.”
Razer snickers but straightens up when the others come out of the storage room wearing hotel uniforms. Wallen and Kivisto are meeting at the bar to be sociable or some shit, but they will want to talk privately. We're banking on them going up to the room Kivisto booked yesterday.
I text Darius to tell him we’re ready. He is in the lobby with his girl. His job is to go into the bar and sit near them so we can see what they’re doing in there. He’s not to engage. Cipher will be working as waitstaff.
Fun time is over. “Be ready, this is going down soon.”
Beast is getting impatient with me. “I just told you I’m in position and ready-”
“This shit is serious, stop fucking around.”
“Yes, Prez,” Razor says with a smirk in my direction.
Nero is with Stryker watching the front of the hotel in the car. We’ve got the chance to get one step ahead of Storm. So far, the guys we’ve caught have been lackeys working for him.
Wallen might be low-level, or was when he went into prison, but he’s more than that now. And Kivisto is a big fish. Finding out what these two know will get us closer than we’ve been before.
And we can figure out what the hell the Demon Sinners have to do with this.
The plan is still to let Kivisto go. It’s only Wallen we’re snatching tonight and delivering him straight back to prison. We’ll have a friendly word and tell him if he talks, there are men waiting to deal with him once he is locked back up.
“Wallen is on his way,” Nashville says through the comms. He and Fury have been watching him since he got back into Baltimore.
“Get to the room,” Nero says.
Everyone has gone quiet, we’ll only talk if we need to. We can switch off the microphones, which some of them have done.
The brothers head out to their respective posts to look like hotel staff. Razer and I follow the directions the hotel guy gave us and head for the service elevator, using the staff key to get us in.
Blaze is waiting and comes out of the stairwell as we exit the elevator. He has a job here today too, one that is key to us getting what we need.
We head into the hotel room opposite the one Kivisto has moved into and settle in to wait.
I sit, Razer paces, and Blaze gets everything out of the rucksack, setting up his equipment.
“Everyone stay quiet,” Nero says. “I only want to hear from Cipher once they’re in the bar, and then the others as they head to the room. When I want information, I’ll ask for it, so turn off your mics and just listen.”
We all do as we’re told. It makes us free to speak to each other while we wait, though we’re all still quiet. Razer goes to the window, watching the front of the hotel. Blaze makes coffee now surveillance is set up.
“He’s arrived,” Nero says.
It’s weird we all hear it in our ears but not out loud, and glance around at each other.
“Going inside.”
“He’s headed to the bar.” One of the other guys we’ve planted said.
“Kivisto?”
Blaze watches one of his screens. Cipher tells us Wallen is on his phone, and a few moments later Kivisto steps out of the room opposite us. Blaze straightens and grabs another bag, then slips on thin latex gloves.
“On his way,” I say, getting up too.
We wait until it’s confirmed he is downstairs and heading to the bar, then Razer nods as Blaze and I head out and use the keycard to get into Kivisto’s room.
Blaze works his way around setting up cameras at varying different angles around the room, I go to the small black suitcase Kivisto has left on the luggage rack.
In my ear, Cipher says the two men are sitting down for a drink. Darius and his girl have come in and sat too close for them to speak freely. It’s one more way of us making sure they retreat to the room.
Fortunately, the case isn’t locked. Opening it, I rifle through the contents but find nothing useful. He has his phone with him, which we can monitor already thanks to Blaze cloning it.
I search every edge of the case until I feel something behind the fabric in the corner. There is a small tear in it, and I put my hand in and pull out a wedding band.
These mobbed-up assholes don’t give a shit if women they pick up are aware they’re married. That is something to store away. Is he worried about his wedding vows? No, he’s worried about what it will do to the truce with the rival family if he’s caught.
Not my business. I put it back and look around at Blaze.
“You done?” I ask.
“One more camera.” He moves over to the window and messes with the curtains, dragging over a chair to stand on so he can reach the rail. Once he’s done, he looks into the camera and speaks to Razer, asking how it looks.
“Everywhere is covered.”
After making sure everything is as we found it, we head back across the hallway to the other room. It took ten minutes in all. We wait another twenty before Wallen and Kivisto head upstairs.
Once they’re in the room, we gather closer to the laptop and Blaze makes sure the sound is good.
They get a drink, then go to the seating area. We have two cameras on them and can hear every word they say.
“Patched in Prez,” Blaze speaks. Nero can hear what is going on in the room now. He can’t risk coming upstairs.
Razer drags a chair over and sits down closer to the screens, I fold my arms and we watch the assholes getting comfortable.
Blaze doesn’t take his eyes off the screen, but Razer and I share a look.
He doesn’t need to say it, he agrees with me, letting Kivisto walk away is a mistake.
The decision has been made, and we can’t change it.
Unless something goes wrong in that room.
“Have you spoken to my father?” Kivisto asks.
“We met before I left Virginia. He didn’t mention you.”
Razer smirks. “Burn.”
Kivisto scowls. “Yeah well, fuck him. He does not know what I’m capable of.”
“I wouldn’t brag too much. You didn’t kill the bitch.”
“He wanted me to do it in the middle of the damn strip club. There were people everywhere.”
“You told him you could be discrete.”
“I didn’t think some cunt of a waitress would see me. I was seconds away from gutting the bitch when she threw a fucking tray at my head.”
“When can we kill this fucker?” Nashville hisses.
Nero says nothing. He shouldn't be talking but that's his woman Kivisto is talking about.
“Does he want me to try again?”
Wallen scoffs. “You only had one chance, and you fucked it up. He’s wondering if he should have trusted you.”
“Do you know who I am?”
Jesus Christ, this guy.
“I had to talk him down from going to your father and telling him what is going on.”
Kivisto bursts out of his chair. Wallen doesn’t even flinch. All of us are expecting Kivisto to knock him on his ass, but he doesn’t, even though he looks like a raging bull.
“He double-crosses me, and I’ll kill him. Without me backing him, he has nothing.”
Wallen hasn’t moved and watches Kivisto pacing back and forth.
“What the fuck is going on?” Razer asks. “Who is in charge here?”
I tell him to be quiet with a look.
“And you failed to do the one thing he needed you to do.” Wallen says.
“I coulda got any guy to do the hit. I did it to show him I’m all in on this. That I’m more than fucking capable than my family thinks.”
“Fuck,” I huff out.
Storm is using him, probably has him convinced whatever they’re doing is going to make daddy see he is as good as his half-brothers and worthy of being in the family. Only this idiot is too fucking dumb to see it.
Storm is a manipulative fuck who has a gift for coercing people. There is evidence of a mob bosses’ son on camera attempting to murder someone.
“I want to see him," Kivisto snaps out. “I’m sick of dealing with you. How can I trust you, you work for my father?”
“This is weird as shit,” Razer says. “What the fuck happened to Wallen in prison?”
Fucks sake, Razer needs to keep his mouth shut. They're still talking.
“That isn’t true, Timo." Wallen goes on. "You know who I really work for.”
On the screen, Kivisto’s face is calculating. “One word from me and that ends. You’ll find out what my family does to traitors and moles.”
The little shit has got some balls.
“You tell him about me, he’ll want to know how you know,” Wallen replies.
He is trying to look unaffected, but Wallen's hands grip the armrests, and his voice has a tremor to it. Kivisto eyeballs him, but neither of them speak. You could hear a pin drop in here too.
Typical mafia, there is no loyalty between any of them. If they’re taking their orders from Storm, then it doesn’t surprise me. These two men would turn on each other without a second thought.
It was why Storm was ejected from the club. It was only that we didn’t get a unanimous vote from every member that we didn’t put a bullet in his brain.
Back then, there were still members he had good relationships with. Nero wasn’t being soft allowing him to be kicked out rather than killed. He was following the laws of the MC.
He hasn’t voiced it yet, but we’re all thinking it, even those who voted not to kill another member. We should have taken Storm out when we had the chance, when he first betrayed the club.
“Okay, look,” Wallen gets to his feet. “You and I, we’re in the same boat here.”
“Not even close,” Kivisto scoffs.
“You’re one step away from a shallow grave. If your father finds out what you’ve done, we’re all fucked. Cool it with the threats, okay. If we want to get through this shit, we have to work together. On the same side.”
That is the first time he sounds like the old Wallen. Backtracking, appeasing, trying to cover his own back like the little shit he is.
“Fine,” Kivisto says after a tense stare off.
“You should go back to Virginia.”
“What about meeting Tiernan?”
I stiffen. That is Storm’s real name.
“It’s not safe. The Disciples are out for blood. Your blood. You need to leave. Plus, Ensio has been round to your place.”
“What?” Kivisto lunges toward Wallen and grabs his shirt.
Blaze explains without looking up. “Kivisto's eldest son,” he says.
“Why is that a problem?” I ask.
“He better not have fucking touched her,” Kivisto growls.
Oh, the wife. I exchange a look with Blaze, his brow is furrowed.
He’s been looking into Beth Heikkinen, had some pictures of her and talked about how she didn’t belong there. I’ll ignore that for now.
From the way this conversation is going, Kivisto will not lead us to Storm. He’s going to go back chasing after his fucking wife.
I swipe a hand over my chin and move to the window. It doesn’t take long to find the car Nero and Stryker are in. He heard that, too. Our plan is going to shit. And they haven’t mentioned the Demon Sinners at all.
Is this another secret Storm is keeping from the rats he has working under him? Two different factions who have no clue about the other? I’m about to lose my shit and go across the hall to grab both of them and end this.
I flick on my microphone, knowing full well my President is going to hear me.
“He is going to go back to West Virginia. Are you sure this is still the way you want to play it?”
The question is met with silence, but Razer shifts behind me, he agrees but is waiting on Nero's orders.
“We go ahead as planned. Blaze, do not let Kivisto out of your sight. Grab Wallen and get him out to the van.”
When no one argues, I stand back and watch Wallen leave the hotel room. Kivisto throws his suitcase across the room and grabs his phone. Probably to call his wife.
Blaze stays to make sure it’s safe for us to leave the room and monitor Kivisto as we head down in the service elevator.
This could be one of our biggest mistakes.
When we get to the van, Wallen is already hogtied, eyes wide and terrified. Beast standing over him, a gun pointed between his eyes.
“Hey there, dickhead,” I smirk. “Your parole officer is going to be so disappointed.”
There is a rag in his mouth, but it doesn’t stop him trying to speak. I’m not interested in hearing from the fucker.
“His parole officer is the least of his problems,” Beast kicks him in the side, making him groan and try to get away. Difficult when you’re hogtied and on your stomach.
“Take him to the warehouse and chain him up,” I tell Beast.
The farm would be better, but it’s upstate and we don’t have time to waste getting him up there.
Lucky for him.