I was jealous of the freedom he possessed, and he showed me how to take back my life.
He showed me how to stand up to my mother. He showed me places I could go and have adventures. He walked me through canyons and helped me hike up red clay mountains just so we could watch the sun rise over the state. He held my hand as I introduced him to my mother for the first time, then he came to my defense when my mother accused me of replacing her with him.
He came to my defense when she tried to guilt me into staying with her instead of leaving with him.
But now, I was back. I was back in a state that bombarded me with memories of the love we had for one another. I was back in a state that held me, hostage, while I tried to spread my wings and fly. And all because my mother had cancer. When she first called me up about it, I actually thought she was lying. I thought it was another manipulative tactic to get me to come home. She’d employed many of them in the past. One time she called me and told me a close friend of mine had died, and it wasn’t until I tried calling her mother to ask what happened that I realized she was still alive and kicking.
That was what prompted me to call the local oncologist and actually confirm my mother was sick.
Without a second thought, I put in a transfer waiver with the police department and got transferred back home. Now, I worked with the local police department doing what I’d set out to do while taking care of my mother. I woke up and made sure my mother took her medication before I left for work, then I worked all day to try and not think about him as I rode around town. But everything in this fucking town conjured a memory of him, and I hated myself for it.
I hated that I could still think of him with such ease.
The fight that ended us was nothing short of disgusting. I called him a liar, and he called me clingy. I told him it was his unwillingness to open up to me in any aspect that forced me to cling to any part of him I could get. He called me manipulative and accused me of turning into my mother, and I slapped him across his face before he grabbed my wrist and threw me out of his life forever.
But I had loved him them, and I still loved him now.
I tried dating other men. Men who found women in power to be sexy and men who worked alongside me in other precincts. They were decent men. Good men who would find wonderful women to spend their time with. But every time I was with them… every time I spread my body for them… there was always something they weren’t doing. Something he always did that they were neglecting.
Jace was always in the back of my mind when I was with them, and I knew it wasn’t fair to them.
“Sergeant Riley.” I jumped slightly at the sound of my name, but quickly recovered.
“Lieutenant O’Hare. How can I help you?” I asked.
“The DEA’s here. I wanna bring you up to speed on what we’ve been dealing with,” he said.
“The DEA? Sounds serious.”
“It is,” he said. “Meeting in ten.”
“I’ll be there.”
I had just gotten into the office a couple of weeks ago, and I was still trying to adjust. Every precinct in the country had mandatory videos and shit to watch for newcomers, no matter how many years they’d worked in law enforcement. It took me the entire first week I was here to watch those dumbass videos before I was quizzed on them, then I was on my feet and in the field before I could unpack the rest of my desk.
I still wasn’t fully unpacked when my captain had come strolling in.
Having the DEA anywhere meant shit was going down. I was curious as to how long they had been here. I figured I’d get all that information in the meeting, so I grabbed my pad and a pen and headed towards the conference room. Whatever was about to happen with this briefing, I could tell it was serious. The meeting wasn’t just for me, that much I could tell. The room was filled with multiple DEA agents, my captain, and most of the police officers whose faces I’d come to recognize over the past couple of weeks.
Whatever I’d just landed into, it was going to be a shit storm.
It always was with the DEA.
“Officers, thank you for meeting on such short notice. This is DEA Special Agent Monaco, and she will be briefing you on the latest updates on the case. Agent Monaco, if you could give us a brief rundown from the beginning, I would be appreciative.”
“Of course, Lieutenant. For those of you are not quite up to speed, here’s what’s happening: there are two rival motorcycle gangs that dominate this area. The Devil Saints and The Road Rebels. Right now, the Devil Saints are under heavy surveillance for a connection to a drug smuggling operation that routes back to a very serious cartel coming out of Mexico.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“They were caught with a truck outside their main compound that was loaded with a specific drug combination that is signature to this cartel. The percentage of the additives cut into the drug were just a little off, but not by much.”
“How much is ‘not much’?” I asked.
“Less than one perfect,” Monaco said.
“Drug cartels are very specific with the things they add to their drugs. You sure we’re not looking at a copycat scenario?” I asked.
“Either way, The Devil Saints are under heavy surveillance from us until we can piece those questions together. Good to see your head is in the game, however, Officer…?”
“Riley,” I said. “What does this other gang have to do with this?”
“The two have a massive history that spans over three decades. Neither gangs make a move without the other knowing. The Road Rebels haven’t done anything yet to peak our interest-”
“But they’re a gang so you might as well keep your eyes on them anyway,” I said.
“Exactly.”
“That’s illegal surveillance.”
“I never said we were surveilling them,” Monaco said.
“You said you were keeping your eyes on them.”
“Do you have some sort of personal interest in The Road Rebels, Officer?”
“No, ma’am. I just want to make sure nothing impedes the investigation, and nothing gets my fellow officers or I in trouble. Illegal surveillance is illegal surveillance, whether it’s on a gang or on an A-student college graduate.”
“We get the point, Officer Riley,” my captain said.
I kept my mouth shut, but already I didn’t like the tree the DEA was barking up.
“For some reason, The Road Rebels have holed up in their own compound. We don’t know why this move was made, but we think it might have to do with the moves The Devil Saints are making. Their leader, Beast, has been very erratic lately. His wife and daughter have disappeared and our agents haven’t been able to get either one of them back on the radar.”
“You think they were killed?” I asked.
“I thought you didn’t enjoy delving into theories,” Monaco said.
“I never said that.”
“That’s one theory, yes. But, it’s nothing we can prove. There’s no blood trail, and there’s no chatter. They were just there one moment and gone the next. What we do know is that The Devil Saints are gearing up for something big.”
“How do we know that?” I asked.
Monaco shot me a death glare, but my captain stepped in quickly and came to my defense.
“It’s a good question. What is the new information you have for us?” he asked.
“One of our agents surveilling the Saints caught some chatter from passing crew members. My agent heard the words ‘grenade’ and ‘ammo’ used several times, and we have multiple pictures taken that show trucks moving into and away from their compound’s back entrance.”
There were pictures that flashed up onto the screen, and I could see the trucks they were talking about.
“The big man in the last picture is Beast. He’s the head of The Devil Saints, and we think he’s beginning to spiral.”
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“Chatter,” Monaco said.
“Will we get to hear th
is chatter?” I asked.
“Riley.”
“Sorry, captain.”
“Anyway,” Monaco said, sighing. “Now, we have to figure out what they’re gearing up for. We can’t see what’s in those crates and if we raid to figure it out, we risk the loss of many lives. What we’re trying to prevent is a war between the two gangs. Between the Saints shipping in whatever they have through their back gates and The Road Rebels stowing away, I think it’s building to something. We have to figure out what and we have to stop it.”
“And cut off the drug line,” I said.
“What?” Monaco asked.
“And cut off the drug line. That’s what started all of this, right?”
Special Agent Monaco blinked at me before she drew a deep breath in through her nose.
“If our theory pans out, Officer Riley, then we’ve got a bigger issue than drugs.”
“That’s code for ‘you haven’t found any other drugs except the one load,’” I said.
“Enough,” my captain said. “Get back to your office, and I’ll deal with you soon.”
“I just want to make sure everything is being done well. I’ve worked with both the FBI and the DEA before. I watched the FBI’s case unfold completely, and four murderers walked because of corners that were cut because of ‘theories.’ If all of this is true and it’s really this serious, we can’t risk this happening. There aren’t just lives in these gangs to save, there are lives in this town to save.”
I watched my captain’s face soften slightly, and I knew my words hit him in his gut.
“That’s all,” I said.
“My theories always pan out, Officer Riley, make no mistake of that,” Monaco said.
But for some reason, her words didn’t do anything to settle my gut.
Chapter 3
Snake
Church was called, and everyone was eager for the information Fox, and I had. We both pulled up to the mechanic's shop where Mac and everyone else would be waiting, and I saw Talon kiss my sister. My fists tightened around the handlebars of my bike while the two of them got hot and heavy, and I could see Fox grinning at me from the corner of my eye. I was happy the two of them were happy, but that didn’t mean I had to enjoy the sight of them kissing. That didn’t mean they had to flaunt their shit out in the open for everyone to see.
Didn’t the two of them know that the fuck a bedroom was?
I felt my entire body tighten as I threw my leg over my bike.
“Get a room!” Fox called out.
The two of them stopped kissing, and Gemma giggled before she blushed.
I watched Talon kiss her forehead before she waved at me. She made her way back to the lodge, and I stood there and watched, making sure she made it back safely. Talon was watching her as well, and I felt a sense of replacement crawl over my skin. I was the one who looked after my sister. I was the one person that had been important in her life.
Until Talon happened.
After church, I needed to blow off some steam. I needed a woman to lose myself in tonight. The tension was clenching my muscles, and I felt my fingers cramping with how tight I was clenching them. I knew a good fuck from a woman who jiggled against me all night would do me some good. I knew that a woman painting me in her makeup while she choked on my cock would erase the bullshit I just saw take place.
To me, Gemma would always be that pigtailed little girl in the tree reading a fucking book until the sunset over the damn trees.
“What the fuck did you see?” Mac asked as we walked in.
“Damn. Can’t even sit down for this?” I asked.
“The compound was quiet,” Fox said. “I mean, some members were coming and going… you know, casing and shit. But there was nothing to hold up the chatter you heard.”
“Nothing at all?”
“Nope,” I said. “Not a fucking thing.”
“Then why the hell did you call church?” Mac asked.
“Because there was a damn DEA scoping them out,” I said.
“What?” Hawk asked.
“You heard me. And that motherfucker was parked in the woods. Sitting there without their fucking lights on. They were hidden so well I almost didn’t fucking see them.”
“Did they see you?” Talon asked.
“The fuck kind of question is that?” I asked.
“A decent one. Did they see you?” Mac asked.
“No. No one did,” I said. “But if they’re casing the Saints like that, then they’re still casing us.”
“I haven’t seen anything,” Hawk said.
“And I haven’t seen them on our usual routes,” Talon said.
“Did you not hear me? This fucker was in the damn woods,” I said.
“We heard you,” Mac said.
“What the fuck is up with this bullshit? How the hell did we pull off this shit with the truck and the drugs and have the DEA land in our laps like this anyway?” Hawk asked.
“It’s an interesting question. Why don’t you ask Mac?” I asked.
“Yes, all this shit has gone sideways. But if you remember, Hawk, we did all this shit to dig Syd out of all the trouble she’d found herself in,” Mac said.
“Oh, so this is Syd’s fault. You gonna blame this shit on Emery, too?” Hawk asked.
“No one’s gonna blame your daughter for things,” Fox said.
“Well, I don’t hear any of you coming to Syd’s defense!” Hawk growled.
“Because Mac’s not wrong,” Talon said. “Syd coming into town is what got the DEA in town in the first place. And you know all the government needs is probable cause to-”
“Fuck probable cause!” Hawk exclaimed. “We followed you into the trenches, Mac. We pulled off putting a truck full of fucking drugs out front of the Saint’s compound to get the DEA off the Iron Souls and Syd and put them onto the scent of the Saints. Who are prostituting women and killing off their own fucking crew members? How the fuck did this spiral against us!?”
“I didn’t think the DEA would fucking case every damn road from here all the way down to fucking Mexico. I figured they would take the win, especially with the shit job they did with the Iron Souls, and run for the hills,” Mac said.
“So… what?” Hawk asked as he stood up and walked towards Mac. “We just sit back, cram ourselves into the lodge, and hope for the fucking best? You think Beast gives a shit about the DEA? He’s fucking lost his damn mind, and we’re sitting fucking ducks!”
“Enough!” Mac roared. “That’s enough, Hawk.”
We all fell silent as Hawk’s chest panted with fury.
“We’re all stressed, and it’s a tight cram, I get it. And I’m trying to fix this while I keep everyone safe. It’s spiraling, and we just have to stay out of the eye of the storm.”
“How can you stay out of the shit you caused?” I asked.
It was a question that halted the entire room into fucking silence. But it had to be fucking said. It was Mac’s call to set up the Saints.
“We can all agree our two biggest issues are The Devil Saints and the DEA. Right?” Mac asked.
We all nodded as we watched our president gather his thoughts. But then, Talon opened his mouth.
“Who the hell are we supposed to take care of first?”
And again, the entire room was dead fucking silent.
“Talon, can you hack the DEA again without getting caught?” Mac asked.
“That’s risky as fuck,” I said. “You don’t have to be a tech genius to know that.”
“Snake’s right,” Talon said. “But I can try and see if there’s anything new. Anything to give us a head’s up as to where their heads are at.”
“Good. Snake and Fox, I need you guys to stay with the DEA. If you see any of those unmarked black sedans, you follow them to the ends of the earth. See if you can find out anything by following them. Keep a low profile and for fuck’s sake, don’t get caught,” Mac said.
“We’ll start tomorrow,” I said.
�
��I don’t get caught,” Fox said.
“Don’t get cocky. Shit goes sideways when people get cocky,” Hawk said.
“Hawk, you’re in charge of keeping people in the lodge calm. You’re better with those scenarios. Like your father was,” Mac said.
“I’ll do my best. Once I can get over my own shit,” Hawk said.
“I’ll try to tap into my other sources and see if anyone else has heard anything else,” Mac said.
“That all?” I asked.
“That’s all. Church is over,” Mac said.
I couldn’t get out of that damn mechanics shop fast enough. The stress was boiling my veins, and I could feel my heart slamming in my ears. I needed to wet my cock with the juicy pussy of a woman with shit self-esteem and makeup as thick as her thighs.
“Wanna ride tonight?” Fox asked.
“I said I’ll start tomorrow,” I said. “Right now, I’m headed to the bar. I need a drink.”
“Want some company?” Fox asked.
“Nope,” I said.
“Well, be careful. Keep your eyes peeled.”
“Don’t worry, I will,” I said.
I hopped onto my bike and rode into town, leaving all this bullshit in the background. All this shit my sister was caught up in was rattling me to my bones. Every move I made and all the times I kept my distance while she was in college was to protect her from all this. I shunned her and Talon’s shit when they were younger because I didn’t want her caught up in this mess. She’d endured enough living with the parents we did. She was the intelligent one. She was the good one. She was the one that was supposed to get out of this bullshit town and make something of herself.
She wasn’t supposed to come back and hop right onto Talon’s cock.
The thought alone made me sick. I needed a few beers to relax me and a soft body to grind my chest against. I needed a woman who wanted my face buried in her large tits who didn’t mind me slipping a hand down her shorts in public. Every single time I woke up in that damn lodge, I was reminded of the fact that Gemma was there. I was reminded of the fact that her eyes had officially been opened to the grisly life I led with The Road Rebels. I was reminded of how hard her life would be now that she’d chosen some fuck up like Talon, and I was reminded of the bloodshed she saw when Beast gunned down his own damn wife in front of our mechanics shop.
Snake (The Road Rebels MC Book 3) Page 2
