Chapter Seven #3
“We pushed back,” Razor said simply. “Took out their warehouse, freed those kids they were trafficking. We sent a message.”
“And now,” Snow added, his voice dry, “they’ve hit Oak Grove?”
Vendetta gave a short nod. “And Eli rolled out the welcome mat.”
“They picked the wrong fucking side of the state,” Player muttered.
He was a big, broad-shouldered biker with tattooed knuckles and the kind of energy that said he’d rather solve problems with his fists than words.
He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest, but his eyes burned with anticipation.
Vendetta pegged him as one of their rabble-rousers, the kind who’d be the first in and the last out of a fight, grinning the whole damn time.
Razor didn’t take his eyes off Vendetta. “Go on then,” he said. “Tell ‘em who you are. And why the hell you’re standing in my clubhouse with Crizer’s niece in tow.”
The room fell silent, all eyes landing squarely on him. Vendetta straightened a little, feeling the weight of the moment. If he wanted their help, he had to earn it.
“Name’s Josh,” he said evenly. “I go by Vendetta now. Before you ran Sinister Skin out of here and they set up shop in Oak Grove, it was Tank. I was a member of the Abingdon chapter of the Cottonmouths. I patched in young, right after I got out of the Marine Corps. I followed orders even when I didn’t like ‘em. Back in the fall, the Oak Grove chapter said they had some big ops coming and needed extra hands. Me and a couple of my Abingdon brothers came over. And that’s when everything went to hell. ”
A few heads nodded around the table.
Vendetta didn’t bother sugarcoating it. He laid it out plain.
The ops started as muscle-for-hire gigs, backdoor security, and roughing up deadbeats for loan sharks.
But that changed fast. The Cottonmouths began taking jobs directly from Sinister Skin.
Jobs that involve moving people, not just product.
Girls and teenagers, a few young men. All of them scared, drugged, and completely disposable to most of his Cottonmouth brothers.
He explained that he started asking questions and pushing back. When he wouldn’t shut up and follow orders, they strung him up in the woods off a forgotten road and walked away like they had taken out the trash.
“Tried to hang you?” Player asked, looking genuinely curious, his usual smirk tempered by something sharper now. Respect, maybe.
“They did more than try,” Vendetta replied, reaching behind his neck to tug the collar of his hoodie down even farther. He lifted his chin just enough to show them.
The scar was angry and jagged, a brutal, uneven loop of damaged skin wrapping around the base of his throat. No clean line, no surgical precision. Just the mark of something vicious and rushed, the kind of wound meant to silence.
A couple of the Hounds swore under their breath. One of them, one of the twins, sat back like he’d just been punched.
Vendetta let them have a long look. Then he pulled the hoodie back up and sat down. “I’m still here. They think I’m dead. They told the MC I ran off, went nomad.”
Beast gave a low whistle. Snow slowly shook his head.
“I went dark. I hid out and tracked what I could. I waited. I didn’t know how far it went, how deep Sinister Skin had their claws in the Cottonmouths.”
He paused, his gaze flicking briefly toward Outcast, then back down to the table.
“And then I ran into him,” Vendetta said, jerking his chin toward Outcast. “He was trying to get his old lady back from Louisville. And that kind of loyalty? That kind of grit to walk into the fire and drag someone out? That reminded me what I’d lost… and what I needed to do.”
He looked around the table again, more steel in his voice now. “I stopped hiding after that. Figured if the Cottonmouths were too far gone to fix, maybe they could still be shut down.”
Vendetta paused, glancing briefly in the direction of the spare room where Dylan was resting.
“I came back to Oak Grove under another name. And that’s where I met Dylan working as a waitress at Ned’s.
I didn’t know who she was at first. But then I found out she was Eli Crizer’s niece.
And she was caught right in the middle of all this shit.
” He let out a breath, slow and deliberate.
“I was gonna finish this job myself. Collect proof and try and break the network from the inside. But Eli? He offered his own fucking niece to one of those SS pricks like she was just another girl to sell.”
A dark ripple moved through the room.
“I had to pull her out because she’s a target now, so I need her kept safe. And I need help taking Eli and these fuckers down and breaking whatever pipeline Sinister Skin’s building in Oak Grove. Especially since all of you managed to shut that shit down in Mercy.”
Vendetta looked Razor dead in the eye. “I came here because I knew you’d remember what they tried to do in Mercy. And I’m betting you’d rather end this on our terms than wait for the war to come back to your door.”
Razor’s gaze didn’t leave Vendetta. “So, you’re asking us to go to war with a rival chapter and a cartel-run operation. For a town we don’t run and for a girl who carries their president’s blood.”
Vendetta didn’t flinch. “I’m not asking you to fight my war. I’m asking you to help me finish the one they started. If you don’t, this shit spreads. They’ll come back to Mercy, and they’ll hit you hard. But you already know that.”
There was a beat of silence.
“We’re still here after the shit they pulled here in Mercy,” Outcast said slowly. “You’re still here after what they did to you. We’re patched in different clubs, sure, but it seems like we’re on the same side of this.”
Vendetta looked at him, surprised.
Snow nodded. “Hell, we ran the Mafia out of here. I sure as fuck don’t want them back here again. Emily’s just got the new bakery off the ground.”
One of the twins nodded.
Player wore a wide grin. “Getting rid of Crizer and that bunch over there in Oak Grove? I’m game.”
Vendetta wasn’t surprised by that.
Razor gave a slight nod, then looked around the table. “Let’s hear what Vendetta’s got planned.”
“I appreciate the time,” Vendetta started, his voice steady.
“Start talking,” Razor said.
“Sinister Skin’s in Oak Grove. Deep. They’re not just pushing product as hard as they’re pushing people.
They’re trafficking, mostly teenage girls and younger women.
They’re slick, routing through temporary safe houses, hiding behind fake medical shipments.
One of the hubs is a medical supply warehouse called INeeda,” Vendetta said.
“I took a job there as a courier and started noticing things… deliveries that didn’t make sense, shell routes, manifests with missing destinations.
They were using it as a front to cover their tracks.
Drugs, weapons, even medical sedatives were being funneled through.
It gave me a window into how deep the operation ran, and how far they were willing to go to keep it quiet. ”
A couple of Hounds muttered curses. Beast cracked his knuckles.
Vendetta nodded grimly. “And Eli Crizer, he’s in bed with them. Not just tolerating it. He and the Cottonmouths loyal to him are helping him run it. Half his table’s turned. The other half’s too scared or too paid off to stop it.”
Outcast leaned forward. “How long?”
“A few months now,” Vendetta said.
“And now you’re here,” Razor said, his voice unreadable.
“You already know I was going after Oak Grove for what they did to those girls. To me,” Vendetta said. “And I’m sure as hell not letting them get away with what they did to Dylan.”
Outcast nodded. “Vendetta got me and Anya back safe and helped us take out Sebastian Six. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m definitely in.”
A beat of silence followed Outcast’s words, heavy and meaningful.
Crash leaned forward, resting his tattooed forearms on the table. “Six was a bastard. After what you told me he did to you and Anya,” he said, glancing at Outcast, then back at Vendetta. “You’ve got my vote.”
Beast gave a grunt of approval, already looking to be itching for a fight. “They’re moving girls like cargo. Anyone helps stop that, I’m down.”
Axel exchanged a look with Ryder, then gave a sharp nod. “We all saw what Sinister Skin tried to do here. If it’s spreading through Oak Grove, we’ve got a choice. Shut it down now or let it come knocking again.”
“Margot’s going to be pissed,” Ryder said. “But yeah, I’m in.”
Player tapped the table with a finger, his eyes flicking to Vendetta. “Just tell us where to hit.”
The air shifted. Suspicion turned to solidarity. The kind forged in blood, not just patches.
Razor looked around the room, reading the temperature. Then his gaze returned to Josh. “Looks like you’ve got more than one in.”
“I trust you,” Vendetta said simply. “And I need backup. If I go back in alone, it’s suicide. But if we go in right, we can burn their whole fucking operation to the ground.”
Crash leaned forward. “What do you need from us?”
Vendetta looked around the room, meeting every set of eyes.
“Intel. Manpower. Leverage. If we cut off the supply lines, expose the connections, and turn a few of their guys against them, we can run Sinister Skin out of Oak Grove.”
Silence held for a long beat.
Then Razor sat back in his chair. “We’re listening.”