Chapter 19 #2
“Hey. Can I stop by yours when you’re home? I want to update you about our visit with Rory,” I lied. “We had a kickass lunch in Rosevale too.”
“You want to talk to me about your lunch?” he said dryly, but he knew I’d said it for a reason. “I suppose. I’m just finishing up at the Shed. Meet me at mine, we can talk outside, if that’s cool?”
He didn’t want me in the house, and I could respect that.
“Sounds good. I’ll see you in what, an hour?”
“Make it thirty minutes.”
“Done,” I said before hanging up, giving Marco a nod to let him know it was sorted.
I went for a shower while Marco took the knife to melt it down to nothing like it never existed. With him leaving to do that, I took my bike to Pine Valley, having enough time for a cigarette before Diesel parked in the driveway beside me.
“What happened? I doubt you want to talk about lunch,” he said as he climbed out.
“It was a good lunch. We went to the place that Marla’s ex owns,” I replied, flicking my cigarette. “Rory should be out in the next week. Witness is handled.”
“You did? Already?” he asked with surprise, making me nod.
“Yep. Left one of the Soldiers’ cigarette butts and a beer bottle on the property, so they should get hauled in and investigated. Gives us some time as they’ll go underground again with the cops watching them.”
“Smart,” he chuckled, lighting a cigarette too. “Did she say much? About what actually happened?”
“She mentioned a few things. Skeet won’t want to hear it,” I warned, and he scowled.
“He might be mad, but maybe some truth would help him.”
“This is only going to make things worse for you guys, trust me.”
That made him frown, and he studied me for a moment before replying. “Is this an internal issue?”
“The rat was fed information from one of your own. I really think this needs to be handled carefully, D. You can’t just go in firing shots,” I said, his eyes narrowing.
“One of the guys is in on it? Matteo?”
“Bingo. He followed Rory and saw her kill Max, then took a weapon to Mandy in a bag, claiming it was the murder weapon and told her what to say to the cops. He was threatening her, but there’s more,” I sighed.
“She overheard Matteo and Cliff planning to kidnap and rape Rory. Cliff was going to fuck her with a knife when they were done so none of you would want to touch her again.”
“I’m going to fucking kill him,” Diesel snapped, grabbing for the truck door handle, but I stopped him.
“Be smart, or you’ll only get yourself killed. Take it to Skeet, hold a meeting, do it the proper way.”
“The guys won’t execute him for planning on raping Rory,” he hissed.
“No, but he still told Mandy to rat to the cops on his behalf and gave her a gun to claim as evidence. He’s a rat, so play that card.
He still went behind Skeet’s back too. You guys were all ordered at the time to back off from Rory, she was his girl, so use that too.
He’s a rat that went against orders,” I repeated, seeming to calm him enough to stop him from running off and getting his ass killed.
“Skeet’s going to lose it. This is the last thing we need right now.”
“Look. The Soldiers will go underground once they get hauled into the spotlight for Mandy’s murder. Rory will get released with no evidence pointing her to Max’s murder. You guys will have all the time in the world to handle your business.”
“They still have the murder weapon, right?”
“That’s why I wanted to talk. Do you have a cop that can make evidence vanish? With the witness gone, all they have is a gun that has to have her prints on it. Surely, one of your contacts could hand it over to you, along with the police records about it,” I said carefully, and he cringed.
“I can maybe get evidence tampered with, but a murder weapon and its records going missing is a stretch. The rookie cop is desperate to help, but we also can’t risk him getting caught. He’s been really high value for us, we can’t lose that kind of access.”
“Can’t hurt to find out, right? He might know a way,” I shrugged. “If not, I can try and send Mark in, but he probably can’t access the records or know if he has them all if he does find them.”
He pulled out his phone and sent a text before looking back at me. “I’ll find out tonight when he’s home and get back to you. How was Rory?”
I filled him in on our visit and what had gone down at the prison yesterday, and he filled me in on the tense week at the Shed since the Soldiers had attacked Cliff and Matteo. They’d been shooting at each other all damn week and drawing way too much attention.
At least with the Psychos warring with them, it had been easy for me to sneak around undetected. They’d probably blame the Psychos for setting them up.
The McLaren was loud as it rumbled up the road, the headlights blinding me as I leaned back against my bike to wait for him to come over to join us.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he demanded gruffly as he switched the engine off and climbed out, glaring at Diesel. “You’re having secret meetups with him now too?”
“Your right-hand is a lot easier to deal with than you,” I said dryly. “I was letting him know about the rat problem being handled.”
He relaxed a little, eyeing me. “It’s done?”
“Yep. I’d stop shooting at the Soldiers for a while too. I set them up to take the fall, so the cops will be sniffing around them for a bit,” I chuckled, but Diesel winced.
“We have a problem though.”
Skeeter listened silently as we filled him in on Matteo and Cliff, his voice cold when he finally spoke. “You’re sure? This isn’t you causing trouble?”
“Swear on it, man. That’s what Mandy told me. I’ll leave that problem for you to handle since it’s internal, but you’d better deal with it, Skeet. If I have to go after him myself and start a war, I will,” I warned, putting my helmet on with the intention of leaving.
“Matteo visited Trixie the other week. Told her to rough up Aurora,” Skeeter said randomly, and I stopped putting my gloves on to look at him, my visor up to see better.
“Why are you telling me?”
“I don’t fucking know. Trixie got suspicious since the order didn’t come from me, so she asked me about it when I visited on Tuesday.
I guess Matteo’s been making a few moves behind my back.
I’ll add it to the list of shit to throw at him at the meeting.
He’ll try turning it into an Aurora thing, but he’s been flat out going against me.
I wouldn’t send Trixie after her anyway, Aurora would destroy her.
I don’t have to like her to admit she can be a weapon when she needs to be,” he scoffed, leaning against Diesel’s truck.
“A few of the girls have learned that now. One was put in the hospital after Rory went after her, another was pretty bruised and sent to the hole. Seems Rory’s doing just fine in there,” I huffed, finishing putting my gloves on. “Still don’t want to go and see her?”
“Eat shit, Rivera,” he muttered, the roar of my bike bouncing off the hillside as I straddled it to start it.
“Just asking,” I said over the noise, giving Diesel a nod. “I’ll be in touch.”
He nodded back, and I rode off while we were still on good terms, heading home to bed.
Rory
My arms itched, and I tried not to scratch through the sleeves of my shirt, knowing Lexi would kill me. She’d spent the past week tattooing me, the basic outline now filled with bright red tones with some green added to make the design pop.
I swore I wouldn’t let her ink me in here, but she hadn’t been kidding about the proper equipment, so I’d caved and told her she could start one sleeve in the rose and thorn style she’d suggested.
Somehow, I’d ended up with both being done.
They really were beautiful, and it confirmed my thoughts about her getting her own studio one day.
“Yo, Donovan, doesn’t that chick go to your school?
” Kat called out, and I frowned as I got off my bed to poke my head out into the common area, itchy arms forgotten.
The TV was on, a news reporter talking about a murder that had happened on Thursday night in Ashburn Valley to one of the academy kids.
I moved closer, and Lexi pulled me onto her lap so I could sit, my eyes glued to the TV.