Chapter 13 #3
When the others started to disperse, I went over to Viper and said, “I need to talk to you about something.”
“Yeah? Whatcha got on your mind?”
“The lockdown. I’m not sure what to do about Frankie.”
“She the girl you’ve been talking to?”
“Yeah.” I had no idea how he knew about her.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Viper always knew everything that was going on with his brothers.
I let out a deep breath as I shook my head with frustration.
“I want to do whatever I can to make sure she and her boys are safe, but I’m not sure she’s ready for a full-on lockdown. It might scare her off.”
Viper cocked his eyebrow. “It’s a tricky situation you got there, brother. You gotta know she’s gonna find out about the club life sooner or later.”
“I’m aware, but it’s too soon for something like this. She’s got a past like mine. Too much too soon will have her running, and I can’t have that. Took me too long to find her to lose her over something like this.”
“We’ll put two prospects on ‘em. As long as it looks like they’re in the clear, we’ll leave them be, but if things get much hotter, you’re gonna need to bring them in.”
“Understood.”
As he turned to leave, he looked back to me and said, “Proud of you, brother. Good to see you’re finally taking a chance.”
With that, he continued down the hall, leaving me alone there in the hallway.
I turned back to the window and watched as Shotgun continued to torment Grant in ways I could’ve never imagined.
Most of our brothers couldn’t stomach such a horrific scene.
The torture and the screams got to be too much, but it didn’t bother me like it should.
Instead, I was intrigued by it. I envied the fact that Shotgun could dig deep into his own personal darkness and use his demons for the good of the club.
After standing there watching him for over an hour, I finally forced myself to leave the attraction of the two-way mirror and went to find the others.
I knew how eager Hawk was to find Danny, so I wasn’t surprised to find him in the conference room with Menace.
They were going over all the information Menace had uncovered, hoping they might be able to find something he’d missed.
As I walked in, I heard Menace say, “I’m telling ya.
Other than that credit card of Grant’s, there’s nothing to be found.
It’s like these guys were wiped off the planet ten years ago. ”
“You sure the facial recognition software brought up the right names?”
“Checked it three times. It’s spot on.” Menace reached for the photographs and arranged them on the table.
“Tyler Evans. Mike Turner. Jeff Williams. Denis Ford. Dalton Grant. The photos line up with their driver’s licenses and old social media sites, but as of 2010, there’s not been a single thing on any of these guys. ”
“Probably a good reason for that.” They all turned to me as I said, “You heard Viper. These are a bunch of fucking vigilantes. They’ve taken every precaution not to be found.”
Hawk turned to Menace as he said, “If that’s the case, then we got lucky when you were able to track down Grant.”
“Only if Shotgun is able to find out what we need to know.”
We sat there going through everything time and time again.
Even Viper came in to join our efforts. Unfortunately, Menace was right.
There was nothing to be found. We were all feeling frustrated, which was only amplified when Shotgun came into the room.
The man looked completely defeated as he looked to Viper and said, “I fucked up and pushed Grant too hard. Now, the motherfucker’s gone into shock. ”
“You gotta be kidding me.”
“I wish I was.” Shotgun sounded completely defeated as he explained, “I knew he was gettin’ close. Sure you saw it, too. The motherfucker could barely speak when you came in there, but I just kept pushin’ and now his whole body is close to shuttin’ down.”
“It happens, brother.” Viper leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms with an aggravated grumble. “The timing sucks, I’ll give you that, but it is what it is.”
“Doc is in there with him now. He’s pumping him up with fluids. I’m gonna have to give it a couple of hours, maybe even longer, before I can get back at him.”
“Then, go take yourself a shower and get a few hours of shuteye. That way you’ll be ready when he comes around.”
“Yes, sir.”
It was times like these when every second counted, so it gutted us to know it would be that much longer before we got the information we needed.
Unfortunately, our hands were tied. We couldn’t move forward until Shotgun got Grant talking, and there was no telling how long that would take.
Viper glanced down at his watch as he said, “We might be on lockdown, but we still have a business to run. We’ve only got an hour before the clubs open.
You boys need to go get ready for your shifts.
I’ll let you know if anything new comes up. ”
“Yes, sir.
“Keep your eyes open, boys. I want you ready if these assholes try to pull something.”
“Understood.”