Chapter 12
Hellfire
The next morning, we all sat around the table, waiting for Lockout to start church.
Everyone was tense. We refused to let it affect the party last night, but it was in the backs of all of our minds.
If Fremont was sending cops to harass us, then we were running out of time.
He was probably trying to escalate knowing that The Italians were about to do the same.
If our focus was split he'd have an easier time bringing us down.
I sighed and scrubbed a hand over my face.
"What's the plan, Prez?" I asked.
He shut the door and sat back down at the head of the table. "We need to keep Fremont busy."
"How do we do that without splittin' our forces and makin' us more vulnerable?" Hush asked, clearly pissed about the whole thing.
"We could call Wyoming back in," Toxic suggested.
"Hold off on that," Lock replied. "I don't want to bring them in too early. We might end up needing them later and I don't want Fremont knowing how many men we have."
"So what do we do?" Static asked. He was sitting at the far end of the table. Our entire club was present this morning. We were crowded into every nook and cranny of the room, though the rest of the members were silent, waiting to see what plan we'd come up with.
Lock looked around at us, a devious smile on his face. "We need to call in a few favors. We can't take care of The Italians with Fremont up our asses. And we can't afford to go after Fremont first. So we make sure that his little errand boys are too tied up to bother us."
A grin slowly spread over my face, mirroring his. "Who you thinking of calling?"
"Everyone," he growled, grin gone. "Anyone we've ever helped who can handle this."
"What're we talking about here?" Smoke asked.
"Anything they can come up with that’ll keep the Marana and Oro Valley cops busy. Too busy to be doing Fremont's bidding."
Dash let out a low whistle. "That's going to take a lot of people."
"Good thing we've helped a lot of people, then," Ricochet said. "This isn't too much to ask of them in return."
"It probably is," Lock sighed, "but it's our only option for now." He looked around. "Some of our contacts we know well will only take a call to get them on board. The others we'll need to reach out in person. Who's available to help?"
"I'm in," I told him. "Whatever you need from me."
"Same," Smoke said.
"I can help, too," Ricochet said.
"Good. Rip, get them a list of who to contact over the next few days." Lock met my gaze. "Let them know that if they're willing they need to do as much as possible for the next few weeks. We'll contact them to let them know once they can let up."
"Understood."
"What about The Italians?" Butcher asked.
"They're locked down like Fort Knox," Lockout said, blowing out a frustrated breath.
"The women stumbling onto them at The Event Center was a fucking one off chance apparently.
Word is that Amato is bringing in every made man he has, though.
He's preparing for the war he knows we're bringing.
" He shook his head. "We need to find a way to start chipping away at his numbers.
If we launch a full scale assault at his home, it'll be a fucking blood bath. "
"So we take our time and chip away at ‘em," Hush said with a shrug. "It won't be quick but it’ll be effective."
Lock nodded. "That's what I'm thinking."
"We can't just sit here and wait," Butcher argued.
"We're not going to," Lockout assured him. "But this needs to be done right. We can't afford to lose any of you." Lock looked at the upper level of the clubhouse, where the families were living. This wasn’t just about losing a brother.
Butcher nodded, his eyes narrowing. "Whatever you need from me, Prez. Just let me know."
"Sit tight, just a little longer. All of you. As soon as I have a plan that doesn't involve putting all of us into the crosshairs, we'll begin."
"What if they start first?" Hush asked.
"Then shit gets real easy. No more making plans. We kill them all." Lock's words rang around the silent room.
Smiles were spreading over my brother's faces and I knew they were getting impatient.
Once we were set loose, the mafia wasn't going to know what fucking hit them.
They may be a crime organization, but we were trained fucking killers.
We may have less numbers than The Italians, but that just evened up the odds for them.
If Amato thought he was going to win this fight, he was dead fucking wrong.
As soon as Lock released us from church, Smoke, Ricochet, and I followed Rip back to his apartment so we could get a list of names and addresses to start with.
"I'll send you more as I go through them," he told us. "I'll text a few names to you so you can get on the road, but I'd start with Jackie."
"Oh shit," Ricochet said with a laugh. "I didn't even think about her."
Riptide grinned over his shoulder at us. "She'll be exactly what we need."
"Text us, we're going to hit the road," I told him.
"You know where she is?" Rip asked.
"Yeah, she hangs out near my parents’ place. We'll find her."
It didn't take long to make it out to where Jackie liked to turn tricks.
It wasn't that our family business, and my parents’ home, was in a shady part of town.
It was a decent area, actually. Jackie just didn't like other hookers.
Or their pimps. She tended to steer clear of Miracle Mile, the area they usually congregated at.
That meant the rest of Tucson got to put up with Jackie as a result.
Slowing my bike to a stop, I cut the engine and eyed the woman strutting down the sidewalk in broad daylight. As soon as the others shut down, I whistled.
Jackie's head snapped my way so fast it nearly sent her to her ass. A huge grin formed as she came over. "Well hey there, Hellfire."
"Hey, Jackie."
"You looking for a good time, handsome? I've been asking to climb this tree for a long time now." She licked her lips. Ricochet and Smoke chuckled from behind me.
"Not this time, Jackie," I told her. Not any time.
Ever. Most of the time you couldn't be sure which eye was really looking at you because they pointed in two different directions, and she only had a few teeth left in her head.
She didn't seem to hurt for customers, though.
Didn't mean I was going to be one of them.
"We wanted to see if you'd give the club a hand. "
That wiped the smile off her face. "Anything you need."
Jackie was a nice enough lady. We'd helped her out a few years back when her pimp was abusing her.
No one fucking deserved what that man was doing.
She was a free agent these days, or so she liked to say.
My mom often dropped her off homemade dinners while she was out working on the street.
She didn't know where Jackie lived or she'd probably bring the meals there.
That was just the way my mom was. She fed the homeless as often as she could, as well.
"We don't want you doing so much you get arrested.
Jackie," I told her, getting one of her eyes to focus on me when they started to wander.
"Don't get arrested," I reiterated in case she hadn’t been paying attention, "but here's what we need.
" I explained it to her and she was cackling with glee by the time I was done.
"I can do that, Hell. No problem."
"Thanks, Jackie."
We said goodbye to her, and I gave her forty bucks from my wallet. It wasn't much, but it meant she'd eat tonight and she didn't have to suck a dick to get it. I looked down at my cell as it buzzed. "Rip texted. Let's go."
We started up our bikes and took off. It was going to take a few days to put this plan into action, but Lock was right. It should keep Fremont off our backs. It wouldn't give us long, hopefully just enough time to take care of our first problem.
* * *
By the time we pulled back into the club parking lot, we'd spoken to ten different people.
That was more than enough to get us started.
We hadn't even gotten to the end of the day and Mom had called to say that Jackie and some bum from down the street had gotten into a brawl and the cops were there to break it up.
Mom had tried so many times to help Jackie clean her life up, but Jackie was happy doing what she was doing.
Mom had finally accepted it and now just tried to help where she could.
"She'll be fine, Mom," I told her.
"Oh, I know. I went to go help straighten things out and both Jackie and Henry claimed it was nothing but a misunderstanding."
I grinned as I pushed open the door to The Bunker. Frowning when I didn't find Kit there, I said bye to my mom and headed up to her apartment. My heart started to pound when she didn't answer her door. "Better not have left this compound," I muttered as I hit her number on my phone.
"Oh! Shit!" I heard a clatter as Kit answered.
"Where are you?" I demanded, worried something happened to her.
"I'm in Seek's apartment," she answered. "Come over and give me a hand okay?"
"Why are you-" I broke off as I realized she already hung up. Grumbling, I made my way down the hall and opened Hush's door. "Kit?"
"Back here!" She called out.
I followed the sound of her voice. "What are you doing in here?" I asked, pushing open the door to one of the back rooms. Freezing in my tracks, I stared at my old lady and the room behind her. She grinned at me, paint splashed on her face and clothes. She was so damn beautiful my chest tightened.
"Do you like it?"
"Holy shit." I stared up at the mural that she'd painted on the walls of Seek's nursery.
Kit's smile slipped a little. "Hush helped me move all the furniture out," she said in a rush. "He said this was what Seek was hoping to do for her theme."
"Kit. It looks fucking awesome," I told her awe in my voice. She'd painted a forest with little baby woodland creatures everywhere. "I didn't know you could paint."
She gave me a soft smile. "I don't like to show people my work, usually. I'm doing one for the others, too. Though it won't be as much of a surprise since they'll see Seek's before I manage to get to theirs."
"I doubt they're going to complain," I told her. Going over, I pulled her into my arms. "This is incredible." It was hard to keep my hands off her now that she was mine. I doubted that was going to change anytime soon.
"Thanks," she said, ducking her head. Her cheeks were flushed with pleasure. "Want to help me clean up and move everything back? Hush is keeping Seek busy, but it won't be long before they're back and I'd love for her to see it all put together."
"Of course." I got to work helping her get everything set up. It never failed to amaze me how big Kit's heart was. Her love for Seek was splashed all over the walls in bright colors for all to see.
The look on Seek’s face was pretty much what I expected when she walked into her nursery a short thirty minutes later. I’d just finished moving all the furniture back into the correct places when her gasp announced her presence.
My eyes darted over to Kit. Worry was spreading over her face. She clasped her paint spattered hands in front of her as her friend’s wide eyes took in the room.
"If you don’t like it-"
"Are you kidding me?" Seek said, voice husky with unshed tears. "I love it!"
A smile bloomed on Kit’s face, punching me in the chest with its beauty.
Seek rushed over to hug her friend. Kit laughed as she held onto Seek, both of them talking at once as they gushed over how much they loved the nursery.
I watched the two women with a smile. They were both so happy and excited about this baby that I couldn’t help but feel the same way.
Smiling, I shook my head when I saw Hush standing in the doorway.
He was watching his old lady with a look of awe on his face.
He looked over and caught me staring at him.
We shared a grin, both of us happy for our women.
"Kit," Seek said, pulling away from her friend. "This is amazing." She looked around, completely awed by what she was seeing. "You did all this?"
"Yeah," Kit said, looking shy. "I'm glad you like it." She took Seek by the hand and pulled her over to where the rocking chair was set up. "Look."
There, painted on the wall, were Auron and Jecht. Seek's fingers brushed over the images of her dogs. "They look just like them. Thank you so much." They hugged again.
"Why don't you boys give us a while," Seek said. "I'm going to need Kit to stick around while I show everyone else this masterpiece."
Kit gave me a happy smile, twin spots of red coloring her cheeks from the praise.
"We'll be downstairs," Hush told them.
I headed downstairs with him. "Need a beer?"
"Fuck yeah, I do."
We found some of the others already hanging in the main clubhouse area. The air was tense with worry, but we were all ready to cut loose for the night. Drinking away problems was a favorite pastime of ours.
"What's going on?" I asked, taking a seat at one of the tables.
"Just waiting for the others to get back," Lockout answered as he came down the stairs. He looked tired, but not angry.
"From where?"
"Rat found a spot that the mafia may be using as a backup for the Event Center," Lock replied. "I sent Priest and Static to check it out."
"Tell us all about it," I said, eager to know what kind of break we were being dealt.