by Charlie Lee
“Brother, I don’t care if you toss them in the Hudson. We want that man dead and the little boy brought back to his aunt. Don’t give a fuck what happens from there. You know how we kill around here. Clean. You want torture and dirty, that’s fine by me. I play by my rules and you play by yours. However, I have no problem switching teams when it comes to finding out who did this. Tell me what the hell is going on. This bigger than we thought?” Curtis replies. He may not care how Ricky dies. I do. I want that fucker to pay a slow death for what he did. I don’t care who or how big they are or if I have to burn down an entire town to get to him. I’ll do it.
“I believe I know who Ricky owes money to. The punk is a dealer. Now, before I get into him, let me explain a few things. We had quite the run-in eight years ago with the Mexican cartel. The leader was a good friend of my brother’s. Unlike you, my brother and I hated each other. It’s a story left dead right along with him. However, it seems they’ve built their empire back up and now they’ve spread into our country with dealers like Ricky.” Dilan pulls a package out of a briefcase I didn’t notice he had, tosses a bunch of photos down on the table, and my stomach clenches. Ricky is in several of them. Trunk of his car wide open in some. Head bent down in others. Packages exchange hands. Jesus Christ.
It hits me why he killed Zoe. She found out. I’ll bet my life on it.
“You all thinking what I am? This woman, Zoe, found out. She was drawing the line with the drugs. I’ll bet anyone a damn thing she was trying to leave when he caught her; that’s why he killed her.”
“Motherfucker!” Curtis roars, leans in, and Roan carries on.
“I’m positive that’s what happened. We aren’t dealing with kind people. These are the types who will shoot you for smiling at them. I hate this fucking family for my own personal reasons. I have a family to keep safe back here while all of you take these fuckers out. Cain and Dilan know how these men work. I want them eliminated. This Ricky, he’s hiding from them. I’ll guarantee they’ve been under your noses the whole Goddamn time without them or you even knowing who is who. Trust me when I say we aren’t the only ones looking. My guys can fill you in. I’d suggest you take a few men with you. Leave behind the ones you know will take care of your women and get your asses searching them mountains. I’d lock down my club as well. These fuckers don’t care if it’s a man or woman or even children. They protect their empire. Ricky’s crossed it and now he and anyone around him will pay.”
“We got this, Roan. You take care of our family back home. Get the other families together to see what they want to do. We got it from here.” Dilan grabs the phone, disconnects, and I’m shaking with fury.
“Ricky fucked them over on money and a load of drugs; all of it happened about the time the girl was killed. He’s a scared fucker running,” Dilan adds.
“You still with us, Brick?” Curtis asks.
“Yup. I’m not staying back here. Not this time. Don’t even fucking think about asking. I’ll go AWOL. Swear to Christ, I will. I know better than most people about loyalty, respect, and protecting the people you love. This is my responsibility here. Just like whatever Roan has going on is his. I ain’t staying.” Curtis’ eyes search mine for long seconds before I nod in understanding. If anything were to happen to Wilder over this, I know Eden wouldn’t survive.
“I’m going to leave you in charge while I’m gone, Snake. Club’s on lockdown until we get back. I ain’t taking any fucking chances. Brick, it’s me and you. We don’t need a fucking army for this. You gonna stand down until we’re given the word to attack? We ain’t calling the shots this time, brother.”
“You got my word. You of all people should know this.” As far as my word goes, a man doesn’t have the balls to hold up his cock if his word is shit. We may not know how these types of people work, but we deal with scum like this on a daily basis. Everyone wants to be the king. To rule us all. They want war instead of peace. Peace among our families is important to me. The problem with all that is, if you aren’t willing to mind your own business and leave me to mine, well, then we have a fucking problem. The Mexican cartel has a problem, and it’s me. Cain rubs his fingers over his chin.
“We need Eden to call this Ricky. She needs to keep calling until he answers. I want to talk to him,” Cain says.
I’m about ready to object. Tell them I’ll call, then all hell breaks loose and a pissed-of Caitlin and a beautiful woman with tears in her eyes bust through the door.
“Woman, what in the fuck do you think you're doing?” Katch stands, grips his wife by the arm, and escorts her flapping mouth out the door, while Eden stands there not knowing what to do.
“What’s going on?” she whispers.
Her voice is shaking harder than the tremors running through her body. I can see her wobbling as she tries to hold herself upright. She shouldn’t be in here. To be honest, none of us should be. This shit needed to be handled a long time ago, and if I had opened my big, fat mouth the same way I did a few minutes ago, then we wouldn’t be. Zoe would be alive. I would have made sure that bastard never touched her again.
The problem is, we don’t get to choose the path life takes us on. We just have to travel down the road and hang the fuck on with all we got. My woman is barely hanging on. I can feel her grip loosening with each breath she takes.
“With all due respect, Eden, this room is off limits to you unless you're invited in here. I’m going to strum it up to the fact my cousin went on a rampage to get in here and you followed. We’ll be out in a minute.” It’s a damn good thing Curtis is going easy on her, or I would lose my shit.
“I got her,” I say, grip her tenderly by the arm, and pull her into me.
“No.” She jerks away. Her eyes shooting her anger in Curtis’ direction. Fuck.
“This may be your club. It may be your rules and your damn kingdom. Whatever all of you are discussing in here is my business. So, fuck your rules. I’m not going anywhere. You aren’t going to send Saxon out to fill me in. I’m not going to keep my mouth shut any longer. This is my family and I appreciate everything you are doing to help me get my nephew back. I owe you for something that is irreplaceable to me. That little boy. He’s all I care about right now. So, either you tell me what’s going on, or I demand you give me my phone back so I can find out for myself.” She’ seething mad. Any other time, my dick would be ready to pound her anger out of her. Not today, though. Not with Curtis lifting his brows and telling me she is stepping over the line.
“Darlin’. You need to let us handle this. I told you to trust, remember.” I slide my hand around her waist. She jerks herself free again and whirls on me. Facing me this time. Her wrath flowing out of her like the end of a river running into a waterfall. Feisty and dangerous. She is livid. She is also going to pay dearly for this. It don’t matter that Curtis is going to demand I set her straight. I told her if she wants me, then she best do what I say when it comes to this club. Ain’t no different than if I were to go to some fancy doctor shit with her. I wouldn’t run my mouth and disrespect her like she’s doing now. I’d wait. Do it in private if need be. Damn her. She’s forcing my fucking hand here.
“Fuck you, too, Saxon. I’ve allowed all of you to take control of this because you said to trust you. I do trust you. I trust them. It’s Ricky I don’t trust. You all think you know him when you don’t. None of you do. I have every right to know what’s going on. I may be a woman and I might be on the edge of losing it, but I’m done with this. Done with binding my hands behind my back. Now, tell me.” Yeah, she ain’t getting away with telling me to fuck off. Not a chance in hell. She’ll be on her knees apologizing with my dick in her mouth.
“You really want to know, let me tell you what’s going on. Then by all means, if you can stand there and tell me you can handle it, then you can stay, but if those shaky knees of yours have you falling to the floor, then Brick will carry you out of here, you will sit on the picnic table next to my pissed-off wife and stay where you belong
.” Katch slams the door to church, stepping in, livid. “Ricky is into selling drugs. He’s one of many suppliers all over this country. It isn’t nickel-and-dime stuff, sweetheart. It’s ounces, grams, and kilograms. It’s pure white fucking cocaine. He owes thousands of dollars to a Mexican cartel in New York. If they get to him before we do, well, look at it this way; you best be praying they don’t because if they do, you won’t see your nephew again. They’ll take him. Raise him, brainwash him, and he’ll grow up just like his old man, and that’s the best-case scenario for him. Now you know. Time is wasting, lady. Either you sit your damn ass down before you fucking fall and shut your mouth, or you get the hell out and let us do our job.”
Katch rarely talks to anyone like this. His frustration is wearing on him as badly as it is on all of us involved. I know one thing that will happen; he’ll be apologizing to my woman once this is over. He’d slice my fucking throat if I talked to Caitlin this way. Don’t matter if she needed to hear it or not. He should have let me tell her.
“Fuck you. All of you. I’m staying in this room, and if you think I’m staying behind when you leave again, then you have another thing coming. I don’t scare easily, Katch Sterling. Not anymore. Not since the day Ricky killed my sister. I don’t give a shit about the cartel or your legend of killing. I want my nephew back; all the rest of you can go fuck yourselves.”
Eighteen
Brick
The second Katch got into Eden’s face after her words, I thought I was going to have to slit his fucking throat. He laid it all out to her through both of their anger. Eden finally collapsed in a chair shaking like a leaf. The last fucking thing I wanted. It was everything I had been protecting her from. Now she’s shattered.
Curtis stares at me from across the table. We’re the only two men left in the room. I have no clue what’s coming from him next. I’ve only seen one other time when a visitor who wasn’t welcome busted into church. It didn’t go down like it did today. The woman was punished in front of all the members. It’s not something I’ve ever thought about again until today. Her shame was seen for all. The brother she was associated with was also punished by wearing that mistake permanently on his skin.
“I ain’t fucking happy,” Curtis growls. “Church is sacred. I don’t fucking care who or what disturbs that. That’s a club rule. Our honor and legacy. Ain’t fucking good.”
“Me neither, brother, me fucking neither.” I trace the edge of the table with my finger. “Ain’t no excuses besides her emotions are driving her into insanity.“
“I’ll deal with this after the boy is home. There will be a punishment.”
“I’ll take it all.” I stare him in the eye.
He nods. “I start letting shit slide, and this club crumbles. Our enemies, hell, even our alliances will spot weakness and take us down. And of all the fucking people to lead her in here, it was my cousin.”
The words roll around in my head. I get it. Understand it all. And for the first time, I’m not jealous of Curtis’ position. “Ain’t no excuse for any of it. The women and prospects know to not even touch the doorknob if church is in. This club is my life, and I’ll take mine and Eden’s punishment, no questions asked, but, Curtis, Caitlin is—”
He bolts up from his seat pounding his fists into the table. “My fucking family. I know this. Both Katch and I will deal with her. She knew better. She’ll be punished, you have my word on that.”
I nod feeling sorrow for the prez. All of this shit he’s taken on not flinching once because it’s his family all the while protecting his club.
He sends a beer bottle to the wall. The glass shatters to the ground. “You know I’d never put a woman’s life out there as bait, Brick. It’s the only choice we have to get this job done before this club begins to self-destruct.”
I stride over to him, pat his shoulder, fully ready for him to take a swing at me. “I’ll always honor this club. Take the punishment and do any job, Curtis. I just ask one thing.”
He squints at me waiting for the bomb.
“I get him. It will be under my hands that fucker Ricky takes his last gulp of air. Then I’ll come home and honor the club.”
Curtis stands to his feet. “You fucking bet he’s yours. We all respect that decision. Now, go gather your things and school that little lady of yours about the ways of the club, since you’re choosing to accept the punishment.”
I nod leaving the room. This is my family. They’ll always have my back, whether it be ugly shit like this or the mundane day-to-day shit. Curtis is right about schooling Eden. Any other circumstance, old lady or not, her ass would’ve been drug out of that room and tossed from the club, and that’s if she were lucky.
She’s pacing my room chewing on her fingernails when I enter. She’s breathtaking even in moments like these. Eden’s told me she trusts the club and me, but it’s about time she fucking starts showing it. Words are cheap. I slam the door with such force the window and walls rattle. Eden’s spine stiffens. She opens her mouth to talk, but I’m up in her face before she gets a damn word out.
“Shut the fuck up,” I grit out.
Her mouth snaps shut. Her hands reach out to cup my face, but I capture her wrists in one hand then back her up to a wall. I slam my fist into the wall next to her head. The drywall shatters and crumbles to the ground.
“What the fuck, Eden?” I leave the question open, wanting to know what in the hell was running through her head.
“I’m not sorry. Rachel was going insane rattling on about punishments, but I had to know the news. He’s my nephew—”
I cut her off. “Has this club ever done you wrong?”
“I want him back. I need to go.”
“Answer the fucking question,” I grit out. “Has this club ever done you wrong?”
“No, but—”
“Have my brothers dropped every fucking thing to find your nephew? Did they leave their families to go to Colorado? Have they put their fucking life on the line for you and your nephew?”
“I have to get him back.”
My last shred of patience snaps, my voice roars to the point of hurting my vocal chords. “Answer the fucking question, Eden!”
“No.” It’s barely a whisper.
“We are putting everything we have into getting him back. You’ve told me you trust me and the club. Are you a liar?”
She shakes her head.
“Then, after everything we’ve done, you waltz your ass into church demanding answers.”
Eden squeezes her eyes shut, dropping her head, but I don’t stop.
“You want your fucking phone back? I’ll give it to you right now. You think you’re going to grab your case of money and drive down there because you're bigger than Ricky or this club? Is that your plan? Because I’m having a real hard fucking time right now figuring you out.”
Deadly silence. But this is the last time I’m going to bring this up. I get her desperation to have Wilder back. I understand better than anyone else about having your passion and emotions trump common sense. It’s an internal war I’ve battled my entire life. Eden’s passionate, strong, and smart, but if she can’t trust in my club, then we will never work. We have to find a common fucking ground to ever have a chance to make it.
“I was wrong, but—”
“Bull fucking shit,” I roar, stepping back and dropping her hands. The loss of connection slices her as much as it does me. “There ain’t no but, and quite frankly, Eden, it fucking hurts to know you don’t trust this club. Guess you and your fancy doctor gear could do better.”
“Stop!” she screams at the top her lungs, making the noises from the barbeque outside go silent in here. Her hands tangle in the sides of her hair, tugging and pulling at it. “Just fucking stop! I can’t handle any more of it. I flipped and needed to know. It’s not that I don’t trust you. I want to be a part of it.”
She recognizes her mistake as soon as the words leave her lips. Never thought my heart would ache again after the w
alls I erected around it. But she’s doing a damn fine job of wrecking them.
She races over to me, but I step back raising my hands above my head.
“Saxon, listen to me. I trust you. I trust your club. I fucking love you, but you have to understand it’s always been me in life. It was me who basically raised Zoe, put myself through college, built my career from the ground up, and it was me who let my sister slip through my fingertips. I’m shit at having help. The news startled me, gave me hope, and ignited the fighter inside of me to get shit done.”
“Then go,” I say, not meaning it at all. The pain it causes in her eyes makes me the asshole I’ve always been.
“No.” She places a hand on my chest, but I don’t react. “I made a mistake. I know that now. I need you to help me. I need this club, and those words don’t come easy for me. I’m sorry.”
“Words are cheap, Eden. You’ve said trust and all this shit, but your actions don’t show it. I’ve done everything to reassure we will do our best to get Wilder back. Say this time is forgiven and over. Then, if we head to Colorado, you make another dumb decision based on emotions instead of tact or plan. And when you do that, you won’t be getting Wilder back; you’ll be getting a bullet in your head from Ricky’s gun.”
“Help me,” she begs. “How do I keep my passion and drive and still trust the process?”
“That’s on you. Your choice.” I step away from her touch. “I don’t know how else to show that I love you. I’m busting my ass to bring Wilder home. Guess it’s up to you to decide if you want to continue alone in life or accept help.”
“Brick, I just--”
I turn and punch the wall again, creating a new whole. “It’s a ‘Yes, I fucking understand’ or ‘No, I can’t handle it and walk away’ type answer. I know what you’re going through. Have the life of my brothers on the line to fucking help you. Should be enough.”
She’s silent for a long time. I know that she knows the answer, but it’s all the other static in her mind she’s wading through.
