by KJ Dahlen
“Did she say the man from yesterday would have a broken wrist?” Candyman asked.
Pride nodded. “Do you suppose Smoker has an assfull of buckshot?” He paused then made up his mind. “Let’s go.” He growled. “I want to meet this woman and clear the air.”
Both men got up and walked toward the door.
Pride called the others back. They weren’t that far away, so he got them turned around and headed back for the lake. He spoke to Cosmo and told him about the call they just got and he told the other man they were headed back to the lake. Cosmo told him to be careful and they made plans to hook up just beyond the parking lot of the docks. They would keep out of sight and have a look see first and once the others got back, they would go in as a group.
The late afternoon sun barely gave them enough light to see what was going on at the docks by the time they got there. There were several vehicles in the parking lot and more than just the people who lived in the boats.
Pride paused when his eyes fell on a young woman with light colored hair. He couldn’t help but stare at her. It was just like looking into a mirror. It was just like looking into the past. She may look like him but she was all Joanie. From her facial expressions all the way down to the way she moved her hands when she was worked up.
Pride had to catch his breath. Her words were carried by the wind and she even sounded like her mother. So lost in memories was he, he failed to notice Candyman looking stunned next to him
“Holy shit, boss!” Candyman exclaimed. “She’s your mirror image.”
“She may look like me but she’s her mother in every other way,” Pride told him.
Candyman searched the dock area. He remembered some of the people he saw there but there were also several newcomers and it was the newcomers that had him concerned. There were seven other men standing there and they told him by their loose stance that they could be a threat. They were all bigger men but the way they carried themselves told Candyman that they would be ready to either defend or harm at a second’s notice.
He looked over at Pride and saw the same look on his face. “Who do you suppose they are?” he idly asked the question.
“I don’t know, but I’ll make a bet with you that if they shoot, they aren’t going to put a bullet in your ass.” Pride growled. “Men like that will put it right between your eyes.”
Candyman nodded. “Yup, and they will look you in the eyes while they do it.”
“No doubt.” Pride glanced his way, then looked back at his daughter. “The good thing is she isn’t afraid of them. That means they pose no danger to her or her friends, at least not at the moment.”
Just then, they heard a bird call and Pride knew the rest of his men were here. He took a deep breath and exhaled. It was time to get this show on the road. He grabbed his phone and returned the call he’d gotten earlier.
He watched as the woman’s phone rang and she glared at the implement in her hand. She raised her head and looked around the area, before she answered the call. “What the hell do you want now?” she snarled.
“I want to come in and talk. I swear, that’s all,” Pride told her. “I didn’t order anyone hurt today or four months ago but I just realized I may have a traitor in my camp.”
“Well, bully for you,” Boo snapped. “I told you if you come back here to expect an ass full of lead, do you remember that?”
“I remember,” Pride assured her. “That’s why I called you. I want to get to the bottom of this as bad as you do. But we can’t if we can’t talk. I have maybe nine or men out here with me and none of us are here as a threat to you or the people standing with you. We just want to talk.”
“Come on in if you dare,” she challenged. “We are well armed and we won’t hesitate to shoot first, if you try anything.”
“We aren’t going to try anything,” Pride replied firmly. “All we want is information.”
“Come on in then,” she invited.
Candyman called the others in and when they all rode their bikes closer, Pride told them to leave their weapons behind. They all put their handguns in the saddlebags of their bikes. Then as a group, they scrambled down to the dock area.
Coming close to the main group, Pride held out his hands and said, “We aren’t armed.”
Chapter Ten
“Well, goody for you,” Boo called out as she cradled her rifle in her arms.
Kirill chuckled. “Behave yourself woman. He’s trying.” He turned to the other man and asked, “Who are you and what do you want here?”
“My name is Nash Pride and I came here to find her.” He pointed at Boo. “She’s my daughter and this is the first time I’ve ever seen her in person. Her mom sent me a photo of her but that was many years ago. She was just a kid back then but when we were supposed to meet, her mother never showed up, and I never heard from her again. I never knew where this girl was until the other day.”
“You liar!” Boo screamed at him. “You were here four months ago and you beat an old man to death because he wouldn’t tell you where I was.”
“No I didn’t.” Pride shook his head. “I swear I didn’t do it or order it done. What purpose would that serve?”
“From what we heard,” Fred spoke up. “You want free access of this lake as a way from Pontchartrain to the gulf so you can move your damn drugs.” He snarled. “That’s what we heard.”
Pride frowned then looked around the group of men with him. Then he stared at the group of hard men glaring at him. They looked more than fierce and if anyone crossed them, they wouldn’t come out alive. “We do not market drugs. We hail from the Jackson’s Landing area and I hate to ruin your theory but Pontchartrain is just too far from us to be used in that way.”
“But I know it was your vest I saw the day Joe died.” Fred was adamant about that.
Pride looked over at Boo and nodded. “You said something about another attack yesterday. You said the man in question might have a broken wrist, didn’t you?”
Boo nodded. “What about it?”
“What happened?” Candyman asked her.
Boo snorted. “He was coming after me and not for anything a decent man would do, when my friend stopped him.” Boo glanced at Kirill then turned back to Pride. “They got into a knife fight and your man was losing when he had a friend ambush Kirill with a two by four upside the head. But before that Kirill snapped his wrist. The two of them got away before I could get a shot off.”
Pride’s lips narrowed. “Those two men were not here on my orders. I swear it by all that I believe in. Their names are Spider and Smoker.”
“And little girl, they betrayed this club by what they did,” Cosmo added. “Pride is telling you the truth.”
“But as I don’t know this man Pride, I don’t know that now do I?” Boo stated. “All I know is what I can see and hear and I know someone wearing your vests came here four months ago and beat a man who I cared for a lot... to death. They left him broken and bloody and he died in my arms before he could get medical help.”
Cosmo shook his head. “Pride never would have ordered something so savage as that, but I think Spider and Smoker could have done it. Spider has a crazy streak in him a mile wide.”
“I don’t know this Spider fucker or his friend but I ever see him again I will shoot him,” Boo promised. “I won’t even hesitate or let him say a word. I’ll just put some lead in him.”
“And she won’t be the only one either,” Fred added. “We may not have a lot but what we got, we will fight to keep.”
“And from now on, this place and these people are protected by the Bratva,” Yuri stated. He’d arrived after Kosta’s phone call. “But if you want my opinion, I don’t think the attacks came from your MC.”
Boo snapped her head around to glare at him. “What the hell?”
Yuri wasn’t used to her kind of mouth and he glared at her even as he held up his hand. “Please listen to my words.” He turned back to the bikers. “I believe all of this might have been
done by your man Spider but not under your orders. If as you say, you do not market drugs I know someone who does.” Yuri turned back to Boo and her friends. “Pride was telling the truth when he said Pontchartrain was too far out of the way to be any use to him as a route to the gulf. His MC is too far away, but there is another group much closer to here that wouldn’t hesitate to use the lake as a route to the gulf.”
“The fucking Shadows of Hell!” Boo swore as she realized what he was saying.
Yuri nodded at her. “So far, they have only been a nuisance, but rumor on the street is they are growing and becoming bolder in their quest to set up a route to traffic their drugs.”
“But what the hell would Spider have to do with a street gang?” Candyman asked.
“What is this Spider’s real name?” Yuri wanted to know.
“Logan Rinc,” Candyman answered.
Yuri snorted. “Logan Rinc is a twin brother to the leader of the Shadows, Lionel Rinc. He’s known on the streets as el jefe even though he’s not Spanish but I understand he likes the title.”
Pride swore under his breath. Little things that had been happening suddenly made sense now. All those times Spider and Smokey disappeared, all the times they hung out at the clubhouse. They had been working both ends of the game. “That little bastard,” he swore under his breath. He looked over at Cosmo. “Put a call into the club and warn them to lock it down. Do not let Spider or Smoker back into the compound. Then have someone search their rooms. I don’t think they’d be stupid enough to come back but if they do, take them prisoner until we can get back.”
Cosmo nodded and split away from the group to do Pride’s bidding.
Pride turned back to face the other men. “I had no idea this was going on in the background but you can bet, it won’t continue. Our club is a clean club and Spider knows that. He’s been using us as a cover for his other activities and that stops today.” He looked over at Boo and stared at her. “I would never give those orders. That is not what we stand for.”
“I don’t know you or that...do I?” she stated quietly. “And I learned a long time ago, not to trust anyone at first sight. Joe taught me that trust is earned and you haven’t earned that yet.”
A short time later, after Yuri sent some of his men to watch over them, Pride sent some of his own men to join them, everyone else was on Boo’s boat discussing the events of the last few days.
“So where were you the other day when Spider stopped by and tried to take you?” Pride asked Boo.
“I was in town getting groceries earlier in the day,” she answered. Looking at Fred she told them, “I was putting supplies away when I heard the fight happening behind me.”
Kirill now spoke up, “When we came in off the lake after fishing, I noticed your man sitting in the weeds watching her. I didn’t like the look in his eyes. After my brothers left, I hung around to see what he would do. When he went after her, I stopped him.”
“And got slammed in the head with a two by four for your troubles,” Boo quipped.
Kirill shook his head. “I would have done it all over again. It was the right thing to do.” He turned and glared at Pride. “Your man had a knife and then cheated to win the fight. I hadn’t even hurt him yet.”
Pride glared back. “How many times do I have to say I didn’t order him to do anything?”
Yuri held up his hand and cut into the fight before it got started. “Enough, we are still piecing together the events. All of this happened before you got here, so let’s move on.”
“We all came running and the other two bozos ran off,” Boo took up the story. “We, as in Henry, Fred and me got the big guy here onto the boat and I took him out on the lake. I figured if those other douchebags came back, they wouldn’t get to us without Monster letting me know.” She motioned at the dog sitting on the floor beside her feet.
Monster lifted his head at the sound of his name and he looked around the boat. He wasn’t used to this many people being aboard and he didn’t seem to like it.
Pride looked around the deck and remembered he’d seen this boat out on the lake when he was here the other day. “Was that where you were when we were here before?” he asked.
Boo shrugged. “It must have been. Henry and Fred never told me anyone else had stopped by. We didn’t come back until I heard the shooting this morning.”
Pride narrowed his eyes. “What shooting?”
“When I saw Henry bloody on the ground, I fired a warning shot,” Fred explained. “The two men took off when I fired another shot. I hit one of them but they still ran off. We called the cops and an ambulance for Henry. I stood guard until the cops arrived.”
“When we got here,” Boo again told her side of it, “the ambulance was just taking him away and we were talking to the police. Ever since Joe died four months ago, the cops come right away. They haven’t found the man that killed him yet and they want the guilty party as much as we do.” She looked around before she said, “We are a community out here and we look out for one another.”
“Then my brothers showed up and I knew who I was again,” Kirill told them.
Pride looked confused, as did Yuri.
It was Boo, who explained, “He didn’t know who, or what he was when he woke up. Getting slammed in the head with a two by four will do that to you.”
Pride looked over at Candyman and Cosmo then shook his head. “We need to hunt down that little weasel and stop him, stop both of them.”
Cosmo snorted. “You can almost bet that if Smoker is wounded he’s dead by this time. Spider isn’t going to keep him alive to spill the beans on him. And I doubt Spider is stupid enough to come back to us, he’s most likely joined his brother at the Shadows compound by this time.”
Yuri grabbed his phone and called his security team at the hotel. He ordered them in Russian to find out everything they could about the Shadows street gang and to find it fast. Then he ordered their teams to get ready to go to war. He called in the Nomads and the Ghosts. He said they needed everyone to get ready for war.
When he finished he ended the call and looked around the room. “We all heard the rumors too. We know what this gang has in mind for us and right now, we have the element of surprise on our side. We would be foolish to let them get the upper hand wouldn’t we?”
“Da,” Kirill growled. “And the Bratva are no one’s fools.”
Chapter Eleven
“And neither are the Kings,” Pride growled as well. “We will bring our wrath down on their heads as well. Spider has known I’ve been looking for Boo for a long time now. Now the more I think about it the less I’m inclined to think he was ever going to bring her to me.”
Candyman’s phone pinged with a text message and when he checked the text box, he found something disturbing. It was a series of photos taken in Spider’s room at the clubhouse. The more he went through the photos the more he grew enraged. He looked up at Pride. “Boss, you have to see this.”
Pride stared at his man for a moment then took his phone. He looked down at the photo on his screen and froze. It was a picture of a wrecked car at the bottom of a very steep ditch. The vehicle was crumpled like a sheet of paper that had been crushed into a ball. You could see a woman in the front seat and another smaller figure on the ground nearby. The kid had been thrown clear of the wreck but she was lying so still, she could have been dead.
He flipped through the short series of photos and one was worse than the rest. The last picture in the series was of the car engulfed in flames. Pride’s hands closed over the phone and the rage in his eyes made them go cold.
Yuri reached out and took the phone from his frozen hands. He flipped through the photos and then handed the phone back to Candyman.
Pride stormed to his feet and screamed in his rage. His chair went flying behind him and into the water.
Each one of his men scrambled out of the way and the others just sat there stunned.
Pride screamed a war cry and then snapped his head around to
glare at Yuri. “Spider is mine to kill. Your men don’t touch him.”
Yuri nodded solemnly. “Of course. We will plan our attack carefully as we will lay a trap for them to come to us but we do not wish to allow the streets to run red with innocent blood.”
“Agreed, we only want the Shadows to bleed,” Pride rallied. He turned to Cosmo and said, “Get the men ready for battle, leave enough at the compound to guard it and lock it down, but get the others here soon.”
Cosmo made the call then looked at Candyman as Pride walked off the boat to the end of the dock.
“What the bloody hell did he see?” Boo wanted to know.
“Honey, he saw what Spider did to you and your mom eighteen years ago,” Candyman explained to her.
Boo froze. “How do you know it was me and my mom?”
“It was you. I recognized you from the color of your hair and I knew Joanie too.” Candyman shook his head. “It was you and Joanie.”
“Why would this Spider guy hurt this Joanie?” Yuri asked.
Cosmo snorted. “Because he was jealous that’s why.”
“What?” Boo asked, “Why would he be jealous to the point that he killed her?”
Cosmo shifted in his seat and looked over to where Pride was standing across the deck by himself. He let out a long sigh. “You have to understand the man Pride was all those years ago. He was young and wild like the wind. He offered Joanie a ride like she’d never seen before. But there was another man in the wings waiting for her to notice him. Lionel Rinc was a jealous miserable soul. He wanted Joanie to bend to his will, so Joanie took Pride’s hand. They lived free and she was so in love with him, but she didn’t want the MC. She tried to make Pride choose. He couldn’t leave his brothers. So one day, she took off, or so we thought. Then she had you and had to hide the two of you for a few years. I don’t know what happened but she contacted Pride one day and told him about you. She even sent a photo of you to Pride to show him that you were his. She had said she was in trouble with Lionel and she wanted Pride to keep you safe. She told him she knew he didn’t want her anymore but she begged him to take you.” Shaking his head he told them, “She never met Pride after that. He had waited all day in the spot she had directed him to. It was like she just up and disappeared.”
