“Well… I’m honored,” I said, which was true. I knew Jude and Brody didn’t take these things lightly, and the offer wouldn’t be made unless they were sure. But. “I’ve gotta tell you, though. If I’m even gonna consider this… I’ve got some real issues with your club brothers.”
“And what issues would those be?”
“Their loyalty, for one. Honestly? I’m fucking pissed that Maddox went behind my back to Piper. No matter that Piper very possibly saved my ass last night—”
“Possibly?”
“If you want me managing security for this band,” I told him, “there are no Kings on my crew.”
“Lot of guys in the club have been doing security for Dirty for years.”
“Yeah, well. You and Dirty can do whatever you want. But your brothers’ loyalty is split. How can I protect my client if the guy I put on her isn’t one-hundred-percent loyal? If my orders mean less than your brother’s do?”
“Your client?” Jude kinda laughed. “You mean Summer? I figured you were in love with her by now, but Christ. Can you hear yourself?”
Yeah. I heard it.
“I’ll put someone else on her, as her bodyguard,” I muttered. Obviously, I had to. She was way more my partner at this point than my client. We did everything together.
She was practically my wife.
“Good,” Jude said. “But other than that, everything stays the way it is. Haz is on Ash. My guys will back you up whenever you need them. And my brother and his club will keep saving your ass whenever I ask them to.”
That got my attention. “You asked them to?”
“Maddox didn’t call Piper,” he said. “He called me. He was watching your back, like he was supposed to. So, there’s your loyalty for you.”
I didn’t know what to say. That threw me for a major loop.
I’d just assumed Maddox had been on the phone to Piper the second he was out of my sight.
“And if I were you,” he added, “I’d seriously consider making Maddox Summer’s bodyguard. He’s licensed, he’s cleared to travel, and he wants it bad. And if that doesn’t work for you, I may have someone else I can pull from the club.”
And that’s when I got it. I saw it all clicking into place.
“You want them out,” I said. “That’s why you hire them out to the bands. You want to give them a chance to get out of the club.”
Jude didn’t respond to that, but he didn’t have to. It was obvious.
“Let me know who you decide to put on Summer,” he said instead. “You can get back to me about the head of security position. I’ll give you a few days to think it over, but the door’s not gonna be open forever.”
Naveen called, just as I was getting off the call with Jude—to tell me he’d received word that Blair Sanchuk had been arrested last night.
“I was just gonna call you,” I told him. “Just talked to Jude. But he either wouldn’t or couldn’t say much.”
“Well, I got the rundown,” Naveen informed me. “Sanchuk’s being charged with a long-ass list of serious offenses. Including possession of at least three controlled substances, and trafficking at least two. VPD is sifting through the evidence right now. It sounds like they’ve got him on methamphetamine, and get this, Flunitrazepam, better known as Rohypnol.”
Holy fuck.
I sat down. “Date rape drugs.”
“He was in possession. Unclear yet whether he was trafficking, or a user himself.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Trafficking meth carries a maximum penalty of up to life imprisonment, depending on how much they can prove he actually possessed. Sounds like they’ve also got him on what they call Aggravating Factors. Those’ll add mandatory minimum penalties. Shit like selling to a youth, and using violence, weapons charges. The list goes on.”
“Youth?”
“He was luring underage girls online. That’s what I’m told. I don’t know how they know that or what the extent of it is. And they’ve definitely got him on the association with a criminal organization. That’s the shiny bow that ties the whole thing up into a pretty package.”
“Well, shit. That’s some good news.”
“Yeah. That’s all I’ve got so far. I’ll be following up on this throughout the day. I don’t know why all these charges are being laid now or exactly what evidence they’ve got against him. I couldn’t get more information yet. Just the list of charges.”
Which meant we didn’t know yet how the Kings fit into it.
“Do you think the Kings are working with the police?” I asked him, spinning it all in my head. “That they fed them evidence? Or maybe they set him up or something? Maybe the cops were already watching Sanchuk and wouldn’t tell us?”
“It’s possible. At this point, anything’s possible. The Kings definitely have a back door to the police. I don’t know who or how, but it’s pretty common knowledge that they’ve cooperated with the law when it benefits them. Most criminal organizations do. And from their point of view, it might not be worth sticking their necks out over a lowlife like Sanchuk unless they have to. Better to let the police deal with it, and the problem goes away anyway? I wouldn’t be surprised if they served him up on a platter last night with a fucking apple in his mouth.”
“Has he coughed up a lawyer yet?”
“I don’t know.”
“Piper seemed to think the Bastards would cut him loose at the first sign of trouble.”
“Then maybe he won’t be able to afford a decent lawyer.”
“One can hope.”
“I’m gonna say, though. No matter what lawyer he swings, these are serious offenses and it sounds like whatever VPD has on him is strong.”
I headed out to the living room; I could hear the distinctive roar of motorcycles coming up the road outside Summer’s house.
Fuck me.
“Ronan?” Naveen said, when I was silent.
“Gotta go,” I told him, opening the front door. “I’ve got company.” I couldn’t see the bikes approaching beyond the trees, but they were definitely coming this way. “I’ll touch base in a bit.”
“Sure.
