“She wasn’t on the lookout for someone like him.”
“You’ve kept her from the evil in the world, babe. That’s your job as a mom. Can’t see what more you could have done.”
“I hate him.”
“What’s done is done,” I tell her. “There’s no point revisiting what could have been done to prevent it. Now we deal with shit and get to the point where you and Alicia can move on.”
I find I’m stroking her face. She relaxes into my touch. “You’re wise, aren’t you?”
“Hate to say it, babe, but I’ve seen the ugliness that exists. Far too much of it. All you can do is learn from your mistakes and then make sure you don’t make them again.”
“I can’t believe you make mistakes.”
Oh I do, I reassure her in my head. Big ones. Perhaps the biggest of them all was trusting Snake. Maybe if I tell her some of what went down, it will take her mind off her daughter. “I mentioned our old prez. Well, he was called Snake because of his tattoo, but in the end, he was a real snake. When the previous prez, Bird died, Snake had been his number two, our VP. He moved to the head of the table, and none of us saw any reason not to vote him in. Actually, that’s not true. I think a lot of us were slightly uneasy, but what we didn’t do was canvass opinion. I didn’t care much for the man, but could I follow him? Did I respect him as a leader? Fuck yeah. So I kept my doubts to myself.”
“What happened?” Her shaking has stopped, and I hope her tears too.
“Snake seemed to settle into his role, and he made Lost his VP. Now Lost, as you observed, isn’t the kind of man you’d particularly associate with an MC. But he’d been with us over a decade and had proved he fit in. What he brought was business acumen, and Snake left the day-to-day running of the club to him.”
“What does an MC prez do?”
“Basically everything Lost was doing, making sure our businesses are prosperous and that we get paid, looking out for the members in the club, being aware of any threats coming our way and preparing us for them.”
“How long was Snake your prez?”
“Two years.” Two fucking years. “Turns out Snake wasn’t looking out for the club at all. He wanted to get us into shit the majority of us wanted to steer clear of. He convinced eight others to go along with him. The club had divided itself into two factions, none of the current members were aware of it.”
“What happened?”
“You haven’t met Alex, and I don’t think Dart as yet. Dart is Lost’s VP. Well, he originally was from Tucson. He came to San Diego following Alex, who he eventually made his. That’s their story to tell if they ever want to speak of it, but it was the catalyst, and everything came to a head. I hadn’t a clue, babe. That was my mistake. I couldn’t see what was happening under my fucking nose. I looked up to Snake, to Poke, the previous sergeant-at-arms. I never suspected they were going to betray the Satan’s Devils, but then it came out.”
“What did you do to the men who betrayed you?” She goes still. “Did you kill them?”
“Fuck no.” I can be honest here. Snake and Poke lost their lives at the hands of the mother chapter prez, Drummer. “We sent them out bad. Kicked them out of the club.”
“Men you once trusted.”
“Yeah. I should have dug deeper. Should have checked with Pennywise and Salem, Bones and Snips too. I should have talked to my best friend, Smoker, but I thought only I owned my doubts. I kept my mouth shut, and Snake took the chair. Fuckin’ stupid, eh? But the point is, I don’t dwell on it now. No fuckin’ point. But if I ever have more doubts, ever get a feeling in my gut, I act on it.”
“Your club must respect you if they made you sergeant-at-arms.”
“Respect? I suppose. I think I’m just good at telling people what to do.” I chuckle, mostly to myself.
“You like to take charge.”
Oh fuck, my dick has perked up again. See, in certain circumstances that’s exactly what I’d like to do. Give Mary a few orders to follow? Fuck yeah.
Luckily, she’s oblivious and yawns loudly.
“Go to sleep, babe. I’m here.”
It seems like forever, but before long, she does. Unlikely as it might seem, being in a strange bed and doing something for the first time in my life, holding a woman I haven’t fucked, I also drop off.
I’m startled awake by the vibration of my phone.
Seeing Mary’s still sleeping, I slide it out of my cut, accept the call, but don’t answer until I’ve pulled the bedroom door closed.
“What you got?”
“Utah came through for us.”
“Yeah?” I answer Lost. “They didn’t waste time.”
“We’ve got a location on Owen. You want to give him a Sunday morning wake-up call? Salem and I are getting ready to head out. Niran is already on his way to you.”
I grin into the phone. Lost knows I wouldn’t want to miss out on this. My palms are already itching in anticipation of being around the fucker’s neck and throttling the life out of him.
“Any news on the video?”
“They’re still digging. Snatcher complained they’ve all been up all night watching porn.” When I chuckle, he continues, “We’ll find out more when we speak to that asshole.”
And that is very true. By the time Salem and I have finished with him, he’ll go to the grave with none of his secrets intact.
“Where and when?”
He gives me an address out La Jolla way and tells me to leave when Niran arrives.
Which is exactly what I plan to do.
I hadn’t wanted to wake Mary, and looking at the time, see it’s only six am. But neither do I want her to
