by Bella Jewel
Malakai nods. “Don’t need to explain yourself to us.”
“What kind of bad shit did you do?” Koda suddenly demands.
I look to him. “I said I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Could fuckin’ help.”
“It won’t fucking help!” I snap. “Back off.”
His jaw clenches.
“Koda,” Malakai growls, “back the fuck down. What she did back then has little to do with what is happening now.”
“You can’t fuckin’ know that. There could be a person, information, somethin’ that might help us find this fucker.”
“I can help you find him,” I snap. “I’m that person. I’m that information. You don’t need them, you need me. So back off.”
Koda glares at me, but I hold it.
I won’t back down from this. He’ll just have to deal with it.
“Can’t deal, brother, walk away,” Maverick says, his voice hard.
“Get fucked, Maverick.”
“Dakoda,” Malakai growls, his voice a vicious warning.
Koda clenches his jaw shut but says nothing more.
I swallow, my fingers trembling, and I stare down at my feet for a few minutes. Why does this matter so much to Koda? I know he’s angry. I know he wants to end this. But why is he so determined to make my life miserable because of it?
“Don’t have to continue, if you don’t want,” Malakai says. “No rush.”
But there is a rush, isn’t there?
He’s after me, and eventually, he’ll find me.
“I’m the reason he went to prison,” I tell them, my voice soft. “I knew it was the only way I would be free. At least, at the time, it made sense. I never thought that one day he’d be out of prison and want revenge. I just wanted … I wanted to get away from him. I wanted a life.”
“How?” Maverick asks, his tone kind, but firm.
“The old-fashioned way,” I tell them. “I went to the cops, I found one I could trust, and I told them everything. He was a really nice man. His name was Oliver. He was a detective, and he agreed to help me. I’d do what they asked, they’d change my name, and I’d go free. I just had to work with them. Which meant I went back in, and instead of getting information for my father, I got information against him. It only took a few months, I had a lot of information. And it worked. One day, during one of the biggest tradeoffs, the cops took them down. My father, his closest men, and anyone else they could.”
“And the cop?” Mason asks, speaking for the first time.
I look at him, and I know my face is sad.
I shake my head.
I don’t want to talk about Oliver.
I don’t.
I won’t.
Mason nods.
He gets it.
“So, they took it down,” I say, my voice a little thicker than I’d like, thinking about Oliver and everything he did for me. “Of course, they didn’t get everyone, that’s impossible, but they shut most of it down and it would have continued, but most people would have scattered. They knew they were being watched. The information was too substantial. They weren’t game to take the risk. Obviously, I now know it didn’t fully stop, but without my father, it slowed down.”
“And he knows it was you,” Malakai says simply.
It isn’t a question.
“He knows it was me. The cops changed my identity, and I left. I moved as far away as I could. I tried to start my life new. My father was supposed to be away for life, but he knows people, he is corrupt, and so is the system. So, I guess, somehow, he got out early.”
“And he wants blood,” Maverick mutters.
I nod. “He wants blood. Mine.”
“Gotta know, how did he find you? Was it us? Treyton?” Malakai asks.
I nod. “I’m guessing Treyton. I should have known better than to delve into that world, but I wanted protection. I heard rumors, strange things started happening, and I just knew he was out and looking. I didn’t know who to turn to. I was scared. When Maverick asked me to help, I thought the protection from the club might be enough. I was right, but also wrong. My father is dangerous, and he’s smart. I didn’t realize when I went into it that Treyton was part of the new operation, whatever it is. When I got caught, it all fell together. Treyton figured it out. It didn’t take him long. And he sent my father on the hunt.”
“We were correct in assumin’ that Treyton was workin’ for your father, he was the big silent monster behind it all,” Boston mutters. “Makes sense. We couldn’t fuckin’ find out who was runnin’ it.”
“My father is smart, and he’s good at what he does. You can guarantee he’s even smarter about it now after serving time. He has unfinished business, mostly being me.”
“How’d Treyton figure it out?” Maverick asks. “Curious to know.”
“When he took me, because he knew I was snooping for the club, he didn’t know I was any relation. He had no idea. Of course, I had a suspicion. Once I got out on the streets and the talk started coming in, I knew someone big was behind it, and I had a strong idea who that was. I got scared, came and asked you for money, I was going to give you what information I could and use that money to run, but I screwed up and I got caught.”
My fingers are trembling, so I take another drink. And another.
“Treyton purely took me because I was working for the club, and at that point, you were all getting too close to figuring out that what he was doing, was far bigger than you first thought, and they wanted to take you down. When he was holding me hostage, he was talking to people, telling them he had a girl who was working for the club, name was Charlie. I guess that sparked a question. It must have got back to my father, and he only had to ask one question to know for sure …”
“And that was?” Malakai asks.
I smile, but it’s sad. “What color is her hair.”
“Your father would know you by hair color alone?” Maverick asks, a little confused.
“A girl named Charlie, which is ridiculously close to Charlene, on the streets asking questions, with flaming red hair. How many girls do you think would be brave enough to enter the streets, looking the way I do, unless they had past experience? He’s not stupid. I’m stupid. Because I should have kept my hair dyed, and I should have requested a completely different name. I was young when it was changed, and the reason it was picked, was special, but I didn’t think it through. I was a fucking idiot. But mostly, I should have never agreed to help you.”
“You’re not an idiot,” Scarlett says. “Not even close. You were young. You were scared. You had just done a massive thing.”
“She’s right,” Malakai says. “Not an idiot at all, darlin’. And we appreciate your help more than you’ll ever know. Because of that, we’ll make sure you’re safe. Promise that. Now, your father put two and two together. He didn’t get to you, though?”
“No. Treyton only figured it out just before you came and took me. I don’t know how much information he told my father. That’s the worst part. I don’t know if he mentioned the club or if he just mentioned me. Either way, he obviously shared my name, and details, and my father figured it out, so he must have given enough for that to happen.”
“My guess,” Mason adds again, “he didn’t mention the club. We’ve had nothin’. Not a thing come back at us. If your father thought we had you, he’d have come in by now.”
“Maybe,” Koda mutters. “Maybe not. He would have known Treyton was dealin’ with the club. Man that smart, he might be watchin’, waitin’ …”
“He put a hit on her,” Boston says, “which means he didn’t know where she was, or he wouldn’t have bothered. My guess is Treyton wasn’t runnin’ a clean ship. I am thinkin’ the drugs he was usin’ Scarlett to move weren’t part of the operation he was runnin’ for Shanks. I’m thinkin’ Treyton had a dodgy side and was runnin’ two shows, hence why he panicked when the club got involved. My guess? He probably told him he picked up a girl, put two and two together, and
we ended him before he said much about the club. Which is lucky for us. Fuckin’ lucky.”
“Think Boston is right, the only upper hand we have right now is that he doesn’t seem to know we have you. He knows you’re alive. He knows you were askin’ questions on the street. But we kept it all pretty quiet. The only person who knew of our involvement was Treyton.”
“And Treyton is cocky,” Scarlett adds. “Boston is right, he wouldn’t have been following orders. Treyton works for Treyton. He was also smart. He would have tried to handle it on his own, I can guarantee it. He was basically running the show, while her father was clearly still coming back into it. He was top dog. And he would have loved that. He hated taking orders, which means it’s highly likely he thought he could sort the issue and end it himself, as Boston mentioned. I would be that’s why he didn’t say anything to her father.”
Malakai nods. “You’re right about that, darlin’, which means for now, we have the upper hand. Won’t last long, though.”
“No,” Koda says, his voice gruff. “He just needs to start askin’ questions, and eventually, our name will get dropped. Treyton had help when he was movin’ drugs on Scarlett’s bus, those people would know our involvement, won’t take long for it to come out.”
“No, it won’t,” Malakai agrees. “Which is why we need to act now.”
“What are you going to do?” I ask them. “Because he’s dangerous, I’ve tried to take it down before, it didn’t work.”
Koda looks to me, his eyes hard. “That’s because you left him alive. We don’t plan on doin’ that.”
I swallow, but I nod.
I want him dead.
I want him gone.
Probably more than anyone.
Definitely more than anyone.
If that makes me equally as big a monster as him, then so be it.
I want him ended.
-10-
NOW – KODA
“Goin’ to take more than I thought to bring him down,” Malakai says, bringing a cigarette to his lips and inhaling deeply.
Laughter can be heard coming from the cabin, laughter from the girls who have taken their party inside after Charlie told us her story. Well, part of her story. She’s leaving things out which Malakai seems to think is perfectly fucking fine. I don’t agree; I think we need to know everything to be able to do this properly, but I’ll bring it up with him later.
“Too right,” Maverick agrees. “Think we gotta come in from a different angle with this one. Charlie was smart, doin’ what she did. For a girl on her own, it was her only choice, and she made the right one.”
“Yeah,” Mason agrees, “but goin’ to the cops is out for us, so is takin’ somethin’ that size on ourselves. We’ll never be able to bring down somethin’ so huge. Not without gettin’ killed.”
“So, what are our options?” Boston mutters, puffing on another cigarette.
“I think we get someone else to do the dirty work for us,” I say, staring at Malakai.
He narrows his eyes. “I’m interested. Go on.”
“People like that got a lot of fuckin’ enemies. Cartel. Mafia. You name it. There are plenty of people that want them gone. All we have to do is set it up, be fuckin’ smart about it, and let them take each other out.”
“How the fuck do we get someone with that high power to get involved?” Maverick grunts. “Never goin’ to work.”
I glare at him. “When you know people, and you’re smart, you just set shit up, make it look like the other end is startin’ a war. We know enough about Benjamin and the show he’s runnin’, and so does Charlie—she also knows names, and people. We dig deep, set it up so it looks like he’s messin’ with their shit, we get information, we basically lead them right to him.”
“Hmmm, can be done, but we don’t have the time it takes to get that kind of information. Won’t be long until he’s on our tail. We need to act fast,” Malakai says, rubbing a hand down his face.
He’s tired.
We all are.
But we also know we don’t have what it takes to fucking bring down something that size. Not without being smart. We’re risking our whole club moving in and trying to take them on. Even if we bring in other chapters, it’ll start a war we might not be able to finish.
“What are our options then?” Mason asks. “Can’t be riskin’ the club, but we don’t have much time to prepare somethin’.”
“Could use Charlie …”
All of us look over to Boston, who is still hanging onto that cigarette. He studies us all.
“He sees Charlie, he’ll kill Charlie,” I growl. “End of story. It’s not goin’ to happen.”
“He’s right,” Malakai mutters. “Can’t risk her. Not fair.”
“Then we’re back to square fuckin’ one,” Maverick grunts.
“We got prospects. Ones that nobody knows belong to us,” I say, getting fucking frustrated. We might not have much time, but my idea is the best fucking idea. “We can send them in to stir up shit. One to Benjamin, one to another big operation. All we need is a bit of information to cross, for them to fuck up a shipment and put it on the wrong turf …”
“That’s an idea,” Malakai says. “If we can find out where a shipment is headed, and have it redirected to the other’s turf, it’ll cause a war without us havin’ to do a fuckin’ thing.”
“They don’t run around announcin’ where they’re sendin’ shipments, boss,” Mason growls. “They’re not goin’ to trust some fuckin’ newcomer with that kind of information.”
“Then we fuckin’ take one of theirs,” Malakai says. “Koda is right; Charlie knows names, we just need to get hold of someone, make them tell us what we fuckin’ need, and set it up. It can be done. It’s fuckin’ risky, but it can be done.”
“I think you’re settin’ yourself up for big fuckin’ failure,” Mason adds, shaking his head.
“What other fuckin’ options are there?” I bark. “Outside of us gettin’ killed. This man is goin’ to figure out we’ve got Charlie and he’ll be after us. We don’t have much time for anythin’. Right now we’ll be workin’ on keepin’ club members out of his fuckin’ way. He’ll have eyes on us. So, we can’t be fuckin’ around with shit. We need someone else in there.”
“So you’re goin’ to try and fuckin’ snatch someone from two very fuckin’ dangerous groups and hope one of them is goin’ to do as you tell them?” Mason roars back.
“If Charlie knows someone we can fuckin’ blackmail, then yeah, that’s exactly what we’re hopin’.”
“All right,” Malakai barks. “Enough. Fuckin’ enough. I need to think on this. Tonight is not the fuckin’ night to be doin’ this. You hear me? I’m goin’ inside, because at least those fuckin’ women know how to have a good time.”
He stands and leaves. A few minutes later, everyone else does, too. I sit at the fire, panting, my fists clenched. Fuck me. This is going to end fucking bad. I can feel it in my bones, and yet I don’t know how the fuck to go about it. Charlie could die. Members from this club could die. But all I wanna see is that motherfucker die a slow and painful death.
The world needs to be rid of him.
I stand after ten or so minutes, taking a deep breath, and walk inside the cabin. The moment I step through the door, I know something is wrong. Malakai and Maverick are having a heated discussion, waving a phone around. I take a step in and see Charlie rushing right toward me, only she’s not watching where she’s going. She’s running, her face pale, and she’s coming right at me.
My arms go up automatically and she slams into me so hard I’m forced to take two steps back to stop myself falling over. For a few seconds I focus on stopping myself from going ass over head, and then I pay attention to the girl clinging onto me. Her fingers are curled so tightly in my shirt her fists are white. She isn’t looking at me, her forehead is pressed to my chest and her body is dead still.
“Hey,” I say, hands moving to her arms and squeezing a little.
I don’t know what to fucking do right now.
She’s as stiff as a board.
“Koda,” she whispers. “I can’t let you go.”
Her fingers are locked into my shirt. So tight. And I know what she means. I know because I’ve felt that kind of fear in my life before, the fear that locks down your whole body and makes you seize up. You can’t free yourself from it—hell, you can’t even get your mind to work. Whatever just happened, she’s terrified.
I don’t make her move.
I just look up and say to Malakai, “What the fuck happened?”
He holds up a purple, sparkly phone. “Someone got hold of her number and has been ringin’. She didn’t think anythin’ of it, we didn’t fuckin’ think to take her phone. Started ringin’ again before, private number. She answered it, tried to hear who was on the other end …”
“Fuck,” I say, my voice low. “Fuck.”
“Yeah, phones can be tracked. All she had to do was answer.”
“We gotta get the fuck outta here,” I growl, grabbing Charlie’s arms and pushing her back until she’s standing on her feet.
“Yeah, we gotta move. Now. Fuckin’ right now,” Maverick growls. “Can’t go back to the club, need another secure location.”
“My ranch!” Scarlett pipes up. “Right down the back is an old cabin; two, I think. They must have been the original dwellings before the main house was built. I know the man who leases my house keeps them in good order, but nobody has been in them a while. Hell, I don’t even know if they’ve got power, but they’re right down the back of my property, near the stream.”
Malakai nods. “Might be the only option we have. Any other way into your ranch that doesn’t involve goin’ down the main stretch?”
Scarlett nods. “There’s an access road down the back. I’ll have to call to find out exactly where it is, and I’ll have to get the key to the cabins …”
“Can we trust the people you’re leasin’ the house to?” Maverick asks her.
“They never said a word when you were all there when I was in danger …”
