I pick it up, noting the odd weight to the package. It can’t be school books, so I have no clue what could be inside of this box. Thinking of it, it’s oddly packaged as well. It’s surrounded in duct tape, making my job of opening it just that much harder. Carson walks over to me and opens up his pocket knife, handing it to me. I take it and start slicing apart the duct tape. It’s a slow methodical job and it takes me forever to get it open. Once I get the box open I see something inside wrapped in a garbage bag. Levi and Carson both look at each other with hesitance in their eyes. I’m getting nervous about what lies inside of this package.
Deciding to go ahead and open it, I drop the box and scream out in agony. Inside of the garbage bag is my mother’s dismembered head. I run for the bathroom to vomit everything inside of my stomach. I don’t care for my mother, but to see the look of fear on her face I know she must’ve suffered dearly as her head was disassembled from her body. Thinking of it again has me retching up bile. I’ve already emptied out anything of substance and now it’s just acid that’s left. Someone is behind me pulling my hair back and placing a cool washcloth over my forehead. I don’t have the energy or strength to turn around and see who it is. I hear pieces and bits of conversation around me.
“There was a note inside….”
“Should we call the guys?”
“Was that really her Mom?”
“It’s going to be alright Bristol, we’ve got you.”
I couldn’t tell you who was saying what, and frankly I don’t give a damn. That was my mother’s head! How, why would someone do this? I feel myself get pulled under with an anxiety attack that comes on quickly and I allow myself to succumb to the darkness.
Ghost
We turn all of our phones off when we’re in any type of meeting, being distracted isn’t a good thing when your life may be on the line. When we pull over for gas I remember along with the others to turn my phone on. It lights up with notifications putting me on alert instantly. I look over and see Wasp on his phone, he looks over at me and the expression on his face lets me know whatever he is hearing is not good news.
He winces and looks away from me, I go over to him to see if I can hear what’s goin’ on from his side of the conversation. “We’re on our way, we’ll be there in the next fifteen minutes. Stay away from it and I don’t want anyone else touching it. Go ahead and put it in our meeting room. See you soon, brother.”
“What’s going on?” I ask him, knowing in my gut this has something to do with my girl.
“Before you completely freak out Ghost, I wanna tell you Bristol is fine.” I feel a but coming on here and I’m waiting to hear what that will be.
“But…” I prompt him.
“But, she got a package delivered, it’s not pretty brother.”
“Okay, get on with it so I can get back to her, Prez.”
“Fuck!” he screams out. “She was delivered her mother’s dismembered head.”
“What!” I scream. “That’s impossible, she’s at a safe house.”
“We left her there unprotected as punishment. She was easy pickin’ if someone figured out where that safe house was located, Ghost.”
He’s right. “Motherfucker! I need to get back to her,” I say over my shoulder as I turn and run back over to my bike. I swing my leg over and start my beast up. I’m going to push her to her limits so I can get to my girl as quickly as possible. I need to be there, now!
As I pull away, I see Tic run back out of the convenience store, he went in to pay for gas. I know we’re supposed to stay together, but I can’t wait, I need to be on the road now.
Justice
I watch as my brother is delivered the news, he loses all color to his face and I’m worried about him and pray he doesn’t have an accident on his ride home. I can’t even imagine how opening up a package and seein’ your mother’s head has affected Bristol. No matter how much you dislike your parents, losing them, especially in that manner isn’t a good thing. Neither emotionally or physically. I’m sure this is going to take a toll on her body, knowing she suffers from anxiety from her childhood, and how the body reacts to shock, I know this isn’t gonna be good. She’s become like a sister to me and I can’t fathom what she’s going to be going through.
I vow here and now that I won’t stop until I know this motherfucker is in the ground where he belongs. Who the fuck does this guy thing he’s playing with? If he thinks the shock value of this will have us giving her up to him, he needs to rethink his stance. And how the fuck did he know to have the package delivered today? While there were none of us there with the girls, other than Carson and Levi that is.
Motherfucker! We have a god damned traitor in our midst. I will find out for sure and I will deal with them personally. It’s the only thing that makes sense. If we were all there, no one would have the gonads to deliver such a package. Someone is keeping tabs on us for this guy, and I am going to make them suffer for such treasonous actions.
As soon as we reach the clubhouse, I pull Tic and Wasp aside and share my suspicions with them.
“Who do you think it could be?” Wasp asks me for my opinion.
“Honestly, I have no clue,” I tell them.
“I don’t think it’s a brother,” Tic states, “I’ll have them all checked out anyways, but I have a feeling it’s someone new inside of our walls. I really want to concentrate on anyone who’s new. All the patched members care for Bristol, and we haven’t had any trouble out of any of them and none of them have been acting off.”
“I haven’t been around as much as you two have, with being out of commission for as long as I have been. I’d feel better if I could check everyone out, especially phones. Do I have ya’lls permission to proceed?”
“Go for it,” Wasp says while Tic says, “Get it done.”
“Just putting this out there, no one will be an exception to my investigation, it will include brothers, Ol’ ladies and club babes. We don’t have any new hangers or proby’s so we don’t have to worry about that,” I tell them.
“Check that new bitch Tasha out, she has a hard on for Bristol,” Tic tells me.
“I’ll start with her first.” I leave them alone ready to find one of our computer whiz kids. I see Tazer first and grab him up and lead him to the meeting room for some privacy. Tazer was my prospect that I sponsored, I’ve had him vetted and trust him completely. When I tell him our suspicions, he leaves me to head off and do his thing. What I don’t tell him however, is that I will be doing some research of my own. And unfortunately, that means I have to check him out too. I’m really good at recon work and can get more off of a person than what the computer can tell you. I’m positive I won’t find anything wrong with him, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.
Not even two hours later, Tazer comes into the common room where I’m sitting enjoying a beer. “Hey Justice, need to speak to you in private,” he says to me and I notice some papers in his hands and he looks pissed as fuck. Knowing I’m in for a long night, I go behind the bar and grab two beers. I figure he’ll be needing one as well. I motion for him to follow me to my room where I know we’ll have some privacy for the talk we need to have.
“I started with that bitch first like you asked me to, and man, it isn’t good. She’s our traitor.”
“Are you sure?” I ask him, we need to be one hundred percent positive before we ruin someone’s life.
“I have the proof right here in my hands,” he says, shoving the papers he’s been carrying at me. I hand him his beer and take a seat at my desk so I can go through the papers. There are text messages with a corresponding number that came up on our intel for one Johnny Valdez. I recognize the number immediately.
They start off a few weeks ago…I skim through them and am not happy at my findings.
Tasha: I’m not making much headway with Ghost.
Johnny: Try harder
A couple days later:
Tasha: I tried intimidating Bristol, got my ass beat for my effort
s. I don’t think this plan of yours is going to work Johnny.
Johnny: Tasha! Stop playing around and get the job done! I will not accept failure!
The rest are a lot of the same type of messages until I get to tonight’s text.
Tasha: They’ve all left. Deliver package immediately, not sure how long they will be gone for. Word from grapevine is they’re at some meeting and not expected to be gone long. Hurry!
Johnny: Well done, you will be rewarded for your work.
That’s all the proof I need for Wasp and Tic to be satisfied of who the traitor is. I pull out my phone and send off a text to both of them.
Found the traitor!
Wasp: Meet me in my office, now.
Chapter 36
Ghost
I walked straight through the clubhouse and to our room where I knew my girl would be. She was curled into a protective ball and I could see tearstains on her beautiful face. My fear for her turned into anger toward him. Who the fuck does something like that to a person, it’s bad enough for her to know her mother is gone, but for it to be shoved in her face…literally is the most disgusting thing one person could do to another. Not being able to stand seeing her this way, I remove my boots and my cut and slide in the bed next to her.
She immediately moved into my embrace and woke up crying. I couldn’t do anything for her other than hold her and whisper how it was going to be okay and how I’d take care of everything. She kept repeating over and over again that her mother was dead. After an hour of her sobbing into my chest, anger radiated every square inch of my body. I was ready to dole out some revenge in honor of my girl. She’s the most caring and loving woman I’ve ever had the pleasure of having in my life, something I didn’t want to see her lose. She deserves peace and happiness, and I intend to deliver those things to her for the rest of our lives.
An hour later she’s cried herself back into a fitful sleep and it’s taking everything I have to remain calm on the outside for her while rage that I’ve never felt before consumes me on the inside. I want to demolish everything in my path, but knowing destruction of our property is not allowed, I have to hold it all in which isn’t making things any better for my mental state of mind. Three words kept playing in my mind—maim, kill and protect. I’m gonna maim and kill that motherfucker and protect her from everything that could harm her in life. Especially him! I don’t just want to destroy him, I want to obliterate him and everything he holds dear. A man like him only cares about a few things, mostly money and power. I intend to remove both of those from his life before I take his breath from his body…permanently. I loathe this man with every fiber of my being. Not sure how much longer I can lay here and keep it all in, so I’m relieved when there is a knock on my door. I’m not sure how long I have lain here and stewed in my anger and revenge plotting, but the knock on my door means there’s information. I need it, I want it, I desire it, I crave it. Knowledge is key for taking care of business, and I am no longer able to be Brady right now. Ghost has taken over and I don’t want Bristol to see me this way. I get up and put my boots and cut back on and head out the door. Justice is waiting for me on the other side.
“We have information that needs to be brought to the brothers immediately. Emergency meeting now, brother.”
“I need one of the girls to go sit with Bristol, I don’t want her alone right now,” I tell him as I head to the common room to see if they’re in there. I’m soon thanking my lucky stars when I don’t see just one of them but both of them sitting on the couch talking quietly together.
“Ladies, could one of you go sit in my room with my girl. I don’t want her to be alone when she wakes up.” Neither one of them says a word, they just stand up and give me a head nod in acknowledgment and take off towards my room. Satisfied that she won’t be alone, I make my way to meet my brothers.
When I walk into the room I can immediately feel the tension that is present. It’s so thick you could cut it with a knife. From my observation, it seems only Wasp, Tic, Justice and Tazer know for a fact what is going on, the other brothers are like me and just feel the anger in the atmosphere around us. This is going to be one fucked-up meeting from the look my brothers are sending my way. They are all angered on Bristol’s behalf and I couldn’t love my family any more in this moment. The love and devotion we have for each other and the Ol’ ladies is something people have had to capture in books, but until you’ve lived it you have no way of understanding the depth of devotion we have for each other.
Wasp bangs on the table. “Bringin’ this meeting to order,” he calls out. “We have some important information that has been discovered and it’s time sensitive and we can’t put this off. We have a traitor among us boys.” You can hear the collective cursing and sighs in the room. I think we all had our suspicions that something bad was going on around here. None of us were able to put our finger on what that was exactly. “Calm down everyone and let me fuckin’ finish!” Wasp screams out, his patience it seems is pretty thin at the moment. Can’t say that I really blame him, he does carry the weight of the entire MC on his shoulders, and this must be tearin’ him in two. “It isn’t a brother, it’s a fuckin’ bitch.” It dawns on me immediately who he’s referring to and I’m ready to get my hands on that stupid cunt! I should’ve knows something was up with that shady bitch and how she kept attempting to attach herself to me and make Bristol feel unworthy of the position she so deserves as my Ol’ lady.
“It’s that stupid bitch, Tasha, isn’t it?” I ask as I stand from the table. I need to move, I can’t just sit still right now. I have so much tension in my body that needs releasing, and I’m not sure how to accomplish that at this point in time. So, I begin to pace around the table and my brothers are watching me. I know that they’re worried because I can be unpredictable in my anger at times. Right now, however, I need to be in complete control.
We don’t take out women or children as a code of honor, but this bitch has put us all in danger—especially my woman. I’m not sure what we’re going to do with her. Wasp takes the words out of my head and speaks them aloud.
“We don’t take out women or children, however, in this case I think we need to make an exception. We can’t sit back and allow this type of betrayal in our club. Let’s talk this out and see what the majority feeling is on how to take care of this.”
“She’s more dangerous to us right now than any enemy we are facing. She could take down the entire club with just one phone call,” Justice says.
There are murmurings of agreement all around the table, myself included. I have to forget about the fact that she’s a woman and remember that she’s the enemy, regardless of her gender.
“Then it’s settled, we take her out. My question is, who can do it knowing she’s female?” Wasp asks us all the question.
“I’m the enforcer, and it’s my woman, I’ll do it,” I say to everyone.
“I’ll be by your side,” Justice says, “You won’t be doing it alone.”
“Thank you, brother,” I tell him.
“Then it’s settled,” Wasp says, “Ghost and Justice will take care of it. Meeting adjourned.”
We all walk out into the common room together and see her sitting at a table in the center of the room. We walk up to her and surround her where she sits.
“Tasha,” I call out to her. She’s looking a little pale as she sees us all surrounding her with no escape in sight. “We need you to come with us,” I tell her.
“Sure thing honey,” she says to me and I can hear the nervousness in her voice. “What’s going on?” she asks me as she gets up and stands.
“Justice and I need a favor, could you just follow us please?” I ask, not wanting to give her any idea that there is something seriously wrong. Justice looks at me and takes in my expression and knows what I’m up to.
“We could really use your help darlin’,” he says to her in his gentle voice none of us are used to. Alerting the other women to an issue at hand, they look at us but
we give them nothing.
“I thought you ladies were going to stay with Bristol?” I ask them.
“She’s taking a shower, then coming out to join us,” Kori answers me.
Justice grabs a hold of Tasha’s arm and leads her to the basement. I haven’t been down there since all the fiasco surrounding Riley’s kidnapping and dealing with Justin, Wasps brother. I can still remember doling out punishments during that time, I haven’t been down there since then and the situation is different, but will see the same ending. I follow Justice and Tasha down the basement and mentally prepare myself for what is about to take place. A sense of calmness washes over me since I know I’m doing this for my club.
Taken by Temptation: Rage Ryders MC Page 13
