Country and Rafe swept in from the back, and in a matter of seconds, they’d finished off the last of the remaining Punishers. A proud smile crossed Country’s face as he announced, “And that’s how it’s done, brothers.”
“Do a sweep,” Viper ordered. “Make sure we got them all.”
Without wasting any time, Hawk and I led our brothers through the entire building making sure we’d done the job we set out to do. Once we’d done a headcount, confident we’d gotten every last Punisher, I went over to Viper and said, “We’re good.”
“Well done, boys. I’ll let Billy know we’re ready for him.”
Rafe looked around the room at all the bodies and shook his head. “Dude’s gonna have one hell of a night with this shit.”
“We lost Cletus.” I motioned my hand over to his body on the floor. “We’ll need to get him back to the clubhouse.”
“Fuck,” Axel’s voice was filled with anguish. “Hate to see us lose a good kid like that.”
“He would’ve made a hell of a brother,” Country added.
“He gave his life for us. In my eyes, he’s already a brother and will be buried as such.”
I wasn’t surprised by Viper’s response. Prospect or not, losing one of our own was always hard, and after what he’d done, Cletus deserved the recognition. As much as we all wanted to take a moment to mourn his loss, we didn’t have that luxury. Even with Billy taking care of the cleanup, we still had a lot of shit to do. As Hawk headed over to the table filled with cash and coke, he asked, “What are we planning to do with all this shit?”
“Not sure what y’all are thinking, but I say we give the cash to the kids who’ve been running this shit.” I could only imagine how crazy I sounded as I told them, “This is their only way of survival, and until they find other means of making money for their families, they’re gonna need the help.”
“You really think that’s a good idea?”
“I do, but it’s your call, Prez. I’m good with whatever you decide.”
Viper thought for a moment, then said, “We’ll do our best to get the money to the kids, but first, we need to load up this shit.”
“You got it.”
Viper glanced around at all the mayhem. “Gonna need to do what we can to help Billy with this mess.”
With that, we all got busy doing whatever we could to make Billy’s job somewhat easier. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before he pulled up in his oversized white van. The room fell silent when he appeared in the doorway wearing his typical slacks and neatly pressed button-down shirt. His hair was combed perfectly to the side, and his face was freshly shaved. We all watched in silence as he dropped his duffle bag to the floor and opened it, pulling out his HazMat suit. As he started to put it on, he announced, “You boys certainly know how to make a mess of things.”
“That’s why we have you.”
“I’m going to need you boys to clear out so I can do my job.”
Viper walked over to him and asked, “Need us to do anything?”
“No.” Billy shook his head. “My boys and I have it covered.”
“Appreciate it, brother.”
“Just doing my job. Now, y’all get back to doing what you do, while I do the same.”
Viper didn’t argue. Once we had Cletus’s body, as well as the money and the blow, secured in the SUVs, we were on our way back to the clubhouse. We hadn’t gotten far when Ransom looked over to me and asked, “How’s the arm?”
Until that moment, I’d all but forgotten about being shot. I glanced down at the blood soaking through my sleeve. “It’s fine. I’ll have Doc check it out when we get back.”
“Good deal.” He glanced back over his shoulder, looking at our fallen brother’s body. “Sure hate we lost Cletus.”
“Me too. More than you know.”
After that, we rode in complete silence back to the clubhouse. By the time we’d taken Cletus’s body down to the infirmary and had Doc check my arm, I was wiped. I just wanted to take a hot shower and crawl into bed with Remington. With that in mind, I headed down to my room but wasn’t pleased to find it empty. In fact, there was no sign of Widow or Remington anywhere. Worried that something might be wrong, I charged out of the room and down the hall. I was about to pound on Widow’s door when Country walked past me and said, “If you’re looking for Widow, he’s down at the bar with your girl.”
“What the fuck?”
“I don’t know what to tell ya.” Country smiled as he poked the bear, “Looks like they were having a pretty good time.”
I clenched my fists at my side and let out a growling breath, trying my dead-level best to calm my fury before turning and heading towards the bar. When I walked in, I found Remington and Widow sitting at the bar with Rafe and Hawk, and from where I stood, it looked like they were in a heated discussion. When Widow saw me approaching, he smiled and said, “Hey brother. You gotta hear this. Your girl here has a hell of a plan for how we can get Mathews.”
“Tell me you haven’t been discussing club business with her.”
“Nah, man. It wasn’t like that. This is all on her.” Knowing what a big deal it would’ve been if he had, Widow continued, “I swear it. I’ve just been sitting here listening to her idea, and I gotta tell ya, it sounds like it could work.”
“I don’t have time for this shit,” I grumbled.
“Come on, brother.” Hawk gave me a thoughtful pat on the shoulder. “It might be worth hearing her out.”
“Fine. Just make it quick.”
Widow looked over to Remington and asked her, “You want to tell him, or should I?”
Remington’s expression was completely blank as she sat there with her drink in her hand. I was expecting her to respond to Widow when she said, “You’re bleeding.”
“Yeah. It’s just a scratch.”
“That looks like more than a scratch, Noah. There’s blood all over your clothes.”
“I’m fine, Remington.” Not wanting to make a big deal out of it, I grumbled, “You gonna tell me the idea or what?”
“Fine.” She took a long sip of her drink, finishing it off before saying, “I’ve been thinking about a way to explain where I’ve been all this time and how it can be used to get to that bad detective...The one who was there the night Thomas Long and I were attacked.”
“Detective Mathews?”
“Yeah.” She leaned forward with an edge of excitement in her voice. “I was thinking we could make it look like he kidnapped me that night. We could figure out where he lives, and—”
“No.”
“But I’m not done—”
“No, not gonna happen,” I cut her off. “No way in hell I’m going to put you in danger like that, Remington.”
“That’s just it. I won’t be in danger. We’ll go when he isn’t there, and then—”
“Are you drunk or just plain crazy?”
“Crazy?” A sour look crossed her face as she said, “This coming from a man who had a guy chained up like a dog in the office for God knows how long. Pfft. Only thing missing there was a dog collar and bowl of puppy chow, and you think my idea is crazy? Seriously?”