Guess I’d just add it to the list of shit I needed to deal with next time I saw her.
List was getting damned long.
My Reaper brothers had gathered at the same cheap-ass hotel I’d stayed in when I first got to town. I counted twenty-six bikes in the lot, and it looked like they’d called in the cavalry because several had Devil’s Jacks markings. Fucking shame it’d come to this, but I didn’t see how we’d had much choice. With Marsh and his boys still in jail, we’d never get a better chance to make our move.
Pic stood waiting for me out in the parking lot, along with Horse, Ruger, Bam Bam, and several others. I parked my bike, and he walked over to meet me, catching my hand before pulling me in for a tight hug.
“Glad to have you back, brother,” he said. “Everything go okay with your girl?”
And now for the fun part—I hated admitting when he was right.
“No.”
“You wanna talk about it?”
“Never wanted to talk about anything less,” I said shortly, and he laughed.
“Believe it or not, I understand. Everyone’s waiting. It’s a little crowded inside, but we’re ready for you to brief us on the situation.”
I followed him into one of the end units, the others filing in behind us. More and more came, filling the room wall to wall.
“Glad to have you back, bro,” Bam Bam said, slapping my back. Others followed, and I was surprised that even the Devil’s Jacks took a minute to welcome me. Hadn’t realized until that moment just how much I’d missed being around my people. My family.
“So, here we are,” Pic said, calling the meeting to order. “You all know what Gage has been through these past weeks.”
“Saw the picture of the bitch you had to bang,” Hunter said. “Sounds like it was rough.”
Laughs, which I chose to ignore, echoed around the room.
“Pretty sure she has teeth lining her cunt,” I told them. “Believe me, Talia Jackson is a scary woman—don’t let the tight ass fool you. The real issue here is her brother, Marsh. We’ve all suspected for a long time now that the Reapers weren’t getting their cut from the cross-border traffic, and I’ve seen it for myself. Even if they were, though, it wouldn’t matter. The Nighthawks are falling apart as a club. Dysfunctional as hell. If they were paying, we’d still have to step in at this point, because the whole situation’s a fucking time bomb. Not only that, the club’s out of control. Marsh brought in nothing but useless pieces of shit and now we have to somehow salvage the situation or we’ll lose control of the territory.”
Hunter’s face turned serious.
“How’d that happen?” he asked.
“Most of the leadership and the old guard went down in a raid, all at the same time,” Picnic said. “Most of them are still serving time. Marsh stepped into the power vacuum. We probably should’ve shut it down then, but we had no idea how toxic he was at that point, and they were holding up their end of the bargain.”
“There are a few who’ve gotten out since then,” I added. “Four of them—Cord seems to be their leader. Wish I could tell you more, but they wouldn’t give me the time of day, given that I’m one of Marsh’s scabs, at least in their eyes.”
“And none of them went down this weekend?” Hunter asked.
“Nope,” I said. “I haven’t seen any of them since earlier in the week. They didn’t go out with us on Friday night and missed his little rampage. He kept us all in the clubhouse that night, asking questions and looking for traitors. Full-on paranoia. I don’t know where they are, but they weren’t with him.”
“They’re out at the clubhouse right now,” Picnic said. “Waiting to talk to us about what happened. Cord got in touch as soon as he heard the news. Sounds to me like they want to fix things, make it right. You think that’s possible?”
I considered the question carefully, weighing our options.
“Tough call,” I finally admitted. “If I knew Cord better, I’d have a better answer for you. I don’t think that he’s an enemy to the Reapers. I think he was outnumbered, so he waited for his moment. There’s still a lot of brothers on the inside, brothers who are good men. They’re the real Nighthawks, not Marsh and his crew.”