Chapter Seven #2
“I didn’t put a hit out on your boy. Have no idea where he is or what happened to him.”
Czar’s gaze shifted to the man seated next to Sid.
The lawyer. He was called Absinthe. He had a reputation for being a kick-ass lawyer.
Kept his club clean. Sid didn’t realize the man was very lightly touching his wrist. It was so light, and Absinthe was so still, Sid hadn’t even noticed him.
Probably because Czar was the most intense man he’d ever had the misfortune to meet.
Absinthe shook his head and Czar’s face darkened. He pushed back from the table, the chair scraping on the floor. “You lying son of a bitch. It just so happens my lawyer is a walking, talking lie detector.” He stood up, the chair crashing backward to the floor.
Sid held up his hand to stop his brothers from trying to pull weapons. Torpedo Ink had them covered, and at the least sign of aggression on his club’s part, the president of Headed for Hell knew there would be a bloodbath the likes of which he’d never seen.
“I didn’t lie. I didn’t tell the entire truth.
We didn’t put a hit out on him; someone else did.
I didn’t know he was Torpedo Ink. Man came to me and laid it out: he’d been paid to take him and the woman out.
He had precise instructions. I knew him from the old days when I served.
He’s militia. Part of a crew living up in the mountains, and every one of them served.
His name is Merrit, and he took four others up the mountain in our territory to make some kind of video to prove they did it.
There were no names given. I didn’t know it was Keys.
They offered money to use our land, and I agreed.
Why not? Someone puts out a hit on a couple of strangers, that’s not my business. ”
Savage reached down and casually righted Czar’s chair. Czar didn’t sit down. He put both hands flat on the table and leaned forward, his glittering eyes pinning Sid like an insect on a board. “You got anything else to say that you should have said?” Czar snarled at him.
“Something went wrong up there. I know that. More came, eight of them. Looked like they sent the big guns in. I took their money again and gave them a map of the area. Once you’re up there, especially when it rains, the roads disappear. It’s wild country.”
“My brother knows how to stay alive in wild country,” Czar said.
“Most likely the eight going after him are dead already, but we’re going up to get him out.
I strongly suggest that if any more of this militia come knocking, you tell them no.
I will take it personally if you give them any more aid, money or not. ”
“Czar,” Sid said patiently. “I didn’t know he was Torpedo Ink.”
“That’s the only fuckin’ reason every member of this club isn’t dead right now, Sid,” Czar snapped. He whistled and made a gesture of round up with one finger. “I want the courtesy of the same map to get us in the right place first time out.”
“You can’t take your bikes up there. They won’t make it in that terrain.”
“We came prepared. We have a couple of helicopters and several four-wheel-drive Jeeps. We’ll do okay.”
Helicopters? Holy shit, Torpedo Ink wasn’t messing around.
“I ever have one of my brothers missing, I’ll be calling on your club to help,” he said, blatantly fishing, offering Czar an olive branch. To his relief, Czar took it.
“You ever have a brother in trouble and need us, Sid, put out the call. We’ll come.”
Just like that, Sid had their club covered and had made a tentative alliance with Torpedo Ink. He’d try to follow it up later and see if he could cement relations with them. But it would be a long time later, after he found out whether Keys and his bitch were alive.
“Stay inside and keep the brothers here for another ten minutes to give my people time to clear out. We don’t want any mistakes made,” Czar cautioned.
Sid nodded his head in agreement. The last thing he wanted was a war he couldn’t win.
“We used the Rampage club as support, Czar,” Steele said as both men sprinted toward one of the two helicopters that had landed in the Headed for Hell yard. “That’s going to give them the idea we’re going to patch them over. We haven’t vetted all their members.”
“I’m aware,” Czar said. “We’ve left it too long.
They’ve been hanging on but could go either way.
We want them to go our way. They took the vote, and right now we can persuade them to follow the code.
The last thing we want is for them to go maverick and have the Ghosts hire them. That happens, and we can’t save them.”
“That’s a huge number of us for the Diamondbacks to swallow,” Steele pointed out.
“Every member of Rampage went to one of Sorbacov’s schools,” Czar said.
“They weren’t in ours, but those other schools were no joke.
Do you really think they can integrate back into society?
Lissa and Casimir have been living with them, getting a feel for the members, making sure all of them want this, not just their president. ”
Steele sighed. “Trinity had twenty-five members and four prospects. Rampage has twenty-two members and four prospects. We started with eighteen. Destroyer came and then Casimir and Gavriil joined us. Fatei has become a fully patched brother. That gives us twenty-two members plus our prospects. We’ve got a few really good prospects. ”
“So what are you saying, Steele?” Czar asked.
“I’m saying we went from eighteen members the Diamondbacks were comfortable with to sixty-nine members and at least another twelve serious prospects. No matter how low-key we’ve been, our reputation has grown.”
Czar sighed. “I’m aware.” He was, and he was as worried as Steele.
They’d always run under the radar because they were small and no one had heard of them.
You weren’t small with three chapters and nearly seventy members.
Not only would the Diamondbacks be looking closely at them, but they would draw the attention of the cops.
The stunt he’d just pulled would add to their reputation.
“You think there’s a chance this woman set Keys up?” Steele asked.
Czar glanced at him sharply. Steele was close to Keys. The brother had taken his back for years. “You got a feeling about this?”
They both took seats and, at the same time, adjusted headsets so they could talk. The bird took to the air, coming around sharply and heading for the mountain and the last known location they had on Keys.
“Just that women weren’t much to Keys. He didn’t ever get caught up in relationships.
Never saw him look at a woman twice, no matter how much she came on to him.
He’s in the band, and women are all over him, throwing themselves at him.
If he deigns to notice them, it’s a chin jerk and then a very quick and rough fuck, and he doesn’t look at them again.
You know he’s been that way since he was a kid.
Likes pussy hard and dirty but not relationships. ”
“Made it pretty clear he’s claiming this one. I heard every word he said to Code,” Czar said. “He wasn’t fucking around.”
“The fact that he didn’t tell anyone he was going to visit a woman and he didn’t bring backup with him is so far out of his wheelhouse it alarms me,” Steele said.
“He hadn’t changed his ways, not that I could see.
I questioned Destroyer, and he said Keys was fuckin’ anything that moved while he was here.
How is that a relationship? How could he be claiming some woman as his own and still be acting the way he does? ”
Czar was silent for a moment, turning the information over and over in his head.
“Yeah, that raises more than one red flag. But Keys is as hard as they come. You know that, Steele. He doesn’t let anyone in.
He’s even careful around us. Always has been.
Loyal as hell, but he puts on a mask. Seems friendly.
Always first one to lend a hand. Works hard.
Plays harder, but there’s that distance no one has ever been able to breach.
Not even me. Maestro is closest to him, and even he said he didn’t have a clue what Keys was doing or where he was going when he would disappear. ”
“It’s possible this woman got to him somehow and set him up,” Steele reiterated. “Absinthe’s in the other helicopter. We’re going to need him on this.”
Czar shot the VP a sharp glance. “You just remember how we totally fucked up with interrogating Anya. We can’t be making that mistake again. And Keys isn’t Reaper. Keys would come after us if he really claims this woman and we don’t back him.”
Steele nodded, looking out the open doors to the ground below.
All he could see were trees. The tops of thousands of trees.
“He’s always been loyal, Czar. He’s always been willing to take a bullet for me.
For any one of us. But you’re right, he has his own rules, and it’s only the code that keeps him from going to the other side.
He’s strict about that. If he asks for this woman’s protection and we don’t give it to her, he’ll believe we broke the code, and that will be a bad, bad day for all of us. ”
Czar sighed. “Then we protect her and let Absinthe find a way to ensure she’s the real deal. If she is, it should be easy enough.”
Steele continued to keep his gaze glued to the forest. Somewhere in those massive woods, one of their brothers was in trouble.
Head injuries were the worst. Keys was important to Steele.
All of his brothers were, but Keys lived with him in his home on and off.
He protected Breezy, Steele’s wife. He looked after Zane, his son.
Keys might wear a mask, but he cared deeply about Steele and his family, and he protected them with fierce vigilance.
The second chopper was also running a search pattern and the radio crackled. Maestro’s voice sounded different over the airwaves. “Burned-out truck below.”