No one else had been there. He had considered asking Reaper to stay in the shadows just in case, but he’d given his word to her. He had to believe in the two of them the way she did. They were a partnership. She was strong. She said she could do it, and she would, no matter how much he manipulated her or her body. She’d been on fire, and he’d been … gone. Out of control. She’d called him back.
A new kind of euphoria settled over him. Different. He recognized love. It ran deeper than that red reservoir of rage. He would always be a sexual sadist. That wouldn’t go away, but she wasn’t making him apologize for it. The well inside him would fill with anger from the past and future, from his memories and those of his brothers and sisters, but he could handle it better now. There would be balance.
He parked his Harley among the long row of bikes in front of the Torpedo Ink clubhouse and stepped to the curb as he took out his phone. Seychelle wouldn’t have quite made it to the Floating Hat yet.
Forgot to tell you. Glitch can read lips. He’s going to sit in that shop facing you and let me know every single thing you say.
He smirked as he sent the most outrageous thing he could think of to her. Glitch would lose his mind if he told him he had to do that.
You wouldn’t dare. There has to be a law against that kind of invasion of privacy.
I already told you, I don’t believe in privacy between us. No locked doors or locked lips.
It was all he could do not to hold his stomach laughing. If he looked toward Sea Haven, he was certain he would see smoke coming out in two long, black columns.
There were a few moments of silence. He couldn’t help grinning as he walked into the clubhouse. His phone vibrated.
Well, then. I suppose it’s war and poor Glitch is caught in the middle. Sabelia has promised classes to some of us and he’s going to hear all about retaliatory … There were toad emojis and snails and all kinds of other little creatures. Next came a series of remote control emojis and on/off buttons and emojis of men.
Savage was pretty darn certain he knew what that threat meant. Between his laughter, he managed to send her bare butts and paddling emojis. Then he added text. You’re not supposed to be texting and driving.
I could be parked. You don’t know. Glitch got caught at the stoplight. So slow, that one. Lots of laughing emojis. He can’t possibly be telling you where I am.
“You’re in a good mood,” Czar greeted.
Savage looked up from his phone. “Seychelle is a riot when she’s texting. She drives like a bat out of hell. If I wasn’t holding a grudge against that bastard Deveau, I’d ask him to lie in wait for her and give her a ticket for speeding.” He smirked at the thought.
“No, you wouldn’t.”
Savage followed Czar into the meeting room. “No, and I’m betting my little angel could just smile and get out of any ticket she deserved anyway. Seychelle said Blythe was meeting her at the Floating Hat to have tea or something like that with Eden and a couple of her friends.”
The other members of Torpedo Ink were drifting in, taking up their regular places around the large oval table.
“Yeah, Blythe told me Seychelle said Eden was taking her sister’s death pretty hard,” Czar acknowledged as he took his place at the head of the table.
The rectangular room was large, with a bank of windows that looked out over the wide expanse of meadow leading to the bluff overlooking the crashing waves. The view was priceless and gave them the illusion of freedom. They were Torpedo Ink and took nothing for granted, least of all freedom and safety—every window was bulletproof.
The long wall opposite the windows was painted with a mural of their colors, a tribute to those who had fallen and a reminder that together they could be indestructible. To the left of the colors was a row of names painted in beautiful calligraphy. The flowering shrubs surrounding the names were covered in webs that shimmered in the morning light, forever iridescent, caught with the mist from the sea in those fine filaments, forever weeping tears for the fallen. Brothers and sisters they failed to bring home.
Four armories were secreted in that room, and four ways to escape. They left little to chance. They had practiced using every one of their escape routes under every possible circumstance they could come up with or Code’s computer could simulate. The common room held even more, as did their barracks and the kitchen. Each of their chosen homes had safe rooms and passages to escape should they need it. They had go-bags with passports and money stashed. Czar had several children. Steele had a son. Plans had been worked out to get them all out as fast as possible, the entire club working fast to move them to safety. The children would be their first priority.
“Savage?” Reaper called his name. Got his attention. “Czar said Eden was taking it pretty hard that her sister died in a car crash.”
“And Brandon, her nephew,” Savage added. “She was afraid of him, but she didn’t wish him dead. Eden isn’t like that. She and Nina, her sister, hadn’t gotten along for years. Nina drank a lot, and she’d turned Brandon against Eden and Reggie, her husband. Nina had gotten sober and acted as if she was making amends. She visited Eden, did her hair, seemed closer. It was the first time in years Eden had hope that they were going to have a good relationship. Family means something to her.”
“That sister of hers was a piece of work,” Code said. “She did have a far-reaching plan to put Brandon in a position of power in the Diamondback club. She was furious with Brandon and Tawny for fucking it up by insisting on putting out hits on us. We were of no consequence. That was all Tawny’s doing, from the emails flying back and forth between the three of them. Brandon wanted Savage dead, and Nina was fine with getting him out of the way, but all the others were too much money. She didn’t want to go to her source for more.”
“Who was her source?” Czar asked.
“I traced the money back to a man by the name of Walker Thompson,” Code said. “It took a while for me to find any connection between Thompson and a business corporation, but he’s part owner of a group of casinos in Nevada and Louisiana. They run the casinos on the river and on the beach-front along the Mississippi. He’s the younger Thompson. His father, Mathew Thompson, is also a part owner, but he generally runs the Nevada side and from what I understand is very serious about his casinos and keeps them clean.”
“What do you know about the son, Code?” Czar asked. “How did he get involved with Nina? And why would he give her that kind of money? Why would he bankroll the destruction of two chapters of two clubs?”
“I found a thread in one of his emails that leads me to believe he’s a member of the Ghosts, one of the founding members. I think they want an in with the Diamondbacks and couldn’t get it when we took back Plank’s wife. They want to get their hands on the counterfeit money and drugs as well. At least what they consider their share of the money. Taking out the main leaders, Thompson thinks he can set up his own leaders. He was going to put Brandon in a position of power. That was part of the deal,” Code said.
Savage made a sound of derision in the back of his throat. “Nina and Brandon didn’t understand the clubs very well. Brandon wouldn’t have survived five minutes. He would have been challenged and probably killed.”