Striker’s screams fill my ears until he cries out an address and says, “That’s where they work from.”
I stop slicing. “Keep fucking going or else I will.”
“The leader is Bourne. Leif is second in charge.” He pants with the pain coursing through him and tries like fuck to keep his head up, but fails. He face-plants while his body shudders.
“Bourne who?” I demand, grabbing his hair and pulling his face up. That name is fucking familiar.
“I don’t know his first name, only his last.” He takes a few quick breaths. “Just fucking kill me. I’m done.”
“You’re not done until I say you are. Tell us how they work.”
“All I fucking know is someone called Hagarty was financing them for a while, but now they’ve found someone else. I don’t know who. They have two separate locations they work from. One is where the guys running it work, and the other is where everyone else works. But they change that second location all the time so it’s harder to track them.” His pain becomes too much and he stops talking while he works through it.
I smack his face. “We’re nearly done. Keep talking and then I’ll stop the pain.”
He blows out a few short breaths and gets himself under control. “That’s everything. All I did for them was send updates through their app. Letting them know what the club was up to.”
Hunt steps in and takes his knife from me. I know he’s been holding himself back when all he wants to do is feed his desire for blood, so I let him loose. As he slices into Striker’s back to remove more of the tattoo, I say to Striker, “Hunt’ll keep going if you haven’t told us everything. Is there any more?”
“Fuck!” Striker’s scream pierces the air as he writhes underneath Hunt. “That’s fucking all! Fucking kill me!”
Hunt keeps going for another few minutes while Striker continues screaming.
I pull out my gun and aim it at Striker.
Our eyes meet as I prepare to pull the trigger.
He sends me one last filthy look before I put a bullet in his head.
“Fuck.”
I look at Ransom and Hunt. They’re feeling what I am. Utter fucking betrayal.
“Yeah, fuck,” Ransom says while Hunt remains silent and continues skinning Striker.
Once we’re finished burying him, I say to Ransom, “That address he gave us is Jackal’s club.”
Ransom’s eyes darken. “Yeah. Fury and I talked to him, and I fucking knew he wasn’t telling us something.”
“Bourne is the name we got from one of the Zenith guys who killed Ice. You think Jackal’s Bourne?” Hunt says.
Fuck, that’s why the name is familiar.
I look at him. “Only one way to find out.”
An hour later, we arrive at the club. It’s early in the night, only just past 9:00 p.m., so it’s quiet here. We enter and make our way to the stairs that lead up to Jackal’s office. His security allows us through. Too fucking easily. When we step in his office, he’s sitting behind his antique desk, smoking a cigar.
“It took you longer than I thought,” he says.
Every one of my senses is alert, but something’s telling me they don’t need to be. “For what?”
“To figure out this is where Zenith’s headquarters were.”
“Were?” Ransom says.
Jackal laughs. “Yes, you’re too late. They’ve moved on.”
“Bullshit,” I say.
He spreads his arms wide. “Feel free to take a look around. They were working from the room underground”—he chucks me a key—“which you’re welcome to take a look at. See for yourself.”
I throw the key to Hunt. “You two go check it out.”
Hunt nods, and he and Ransom leave.
I move closer to Jackal. “Where did Zenith go?”
He shrugs. “I’ve no clue. One day they were here, the next they were gone. I merely rented the space to them; I didn’t keep tabs on their movements.”
“Maybe you’re Zenith and you’re giving us this elaborate fucking story.” Even as the words are out of my mouth, my gut doesn’t believe them.
His laugh this time is a deep belly laugh. “I assure you, Winter, that I do not have the time nor the inclination to do the stuff Zenith do. What I do have is a grudge against King, so when they told me they wanted him gone and asked if I had space to rent, I allowed them to use it.”
“So you simply rented a room to them and know nothing else?”
A text comes through on my phone.
* * *
Ransom: The room is empty. We’ll check out every inch of this place, though.
* * *
Jackal draws my attention back to him. “I know hell is coming for you.” His voice has turned cold as ice, his eyes, too. “King deserves everything he’s about to get.”
I aim my gun and shoot him.
I’m fucking tired of talking to people who give me nothing useful.
A call comes through.
Memphis.
“Yeah?” I bark.
“This Eloise bitch is busting my fucking balls about going home. Can I let her leave?”
“Yes, take her and Maddox home, and stay there to keep watch.”
“Fuck, Pres. Fucking really?”
“Yes, fucking really. We need to make sure he’s safe. So wherever he goes, you go.”
“So not her, though? I don’t have to watch her?”
“Fuck no. She wants out, she’s on her own. Just make sure the boy is safe at all times.”
“Gotcha.”
I think about Maddox after we end the call. He’s been dealt a shitty fucking hand in life. I’m going to make it my mission to ensure he’s looked after and finds his family if that’s what he wants to do. God knows, if I’d been lucky enough to have a child, I’d fucking hope someone looked out for him if I couldn’t.
Ransom and Hunt come back. Ransom stares at Jackal before looking at me. “He give you anything?”
“Nothing except some shit about King getting everything he deserves.”
“So this place was a bust, and nothing Striker told us is of much use,” Ransom says.
“He told us someone new is financing Zenith, and he confirmed the name Bourne,” I say. “But yeah, it doesn’t feel like we’ve gotten too fucking far.”
I know one other thing after the events of today: we’re leaving for Brisbane in a couple of days. If Zenith has packed up their main place they worked from, they’re not planning on coming back to Melbourne anytime soon.
33
Birdie
* * *
“What do you mean he’s gone?” I ask Hunt when he tells me Maddox isn’t at the clubhouse anymore. I arrived five minutes ago with some books I think Maddox might like to read, but now it appears he’s left. I’m surprised at both the fact he’s not here, as well as how disappointed I feel over that.
“Eloise wanted to go home last night; Winter said yes. So Memphis took them home. That’s all I know.”