Tripp (Knights Corruption MC Series Book 4)

by S. Nelson

  Slapping Marek on the back, I swung my leg over the stool and sat down next to him. “How ya doin’?” It was meant to be a rhetorical question at first, but after the words left my mouth I really wanted to know how he’d been faring, especially after everything he’d been through. Him and Sully both. I’d asked him a similar question earlier and he gave me a coded look accompanied by a generic sort of answer, which was to be expected seeing as how Reece had been present.

  I was the guy who witnessed the first slice into Marek’s soul when Psych spewed the lies about the two of them being related. I saw all hope fade from his eyes, only to be replaced by fear and uncertainty. I saw it only fitting that I was the one who delivered the good news by reading the DNA results, almost coming full circle from desperation to elation.

  “I’m good,” he answered, continuing to nurse the amber liquid in his glass, the ice cubes clinking together and drawing out the staleness of his response as he lowered his drink. Marek glanced over at me when I simply bumped his shoulder. “What?”

  “You know damn well that answer ain’t gonna fly. Not now. Not after everything we’ve been through.” Sure, Marek had been the one to bear the brunt of Psych’s lies, but I’d been affected by his reaction to the entire situation.

  “What do you want me to tell ya? That I withdrew so far into my own pain and misery that I practically pushed Sully away, treating her like shit and not givin’ a fuck about how she was feelin’? That I thought about eatin’ a bullet if it turned out that she was indeed my half-sister because my heart would’ve been shredded and there wouldn’t’ve been any reason to live in a fuckin’ world where she wasn’t mine?” He ran a hand through his hair, the blue hue of his irises darkening with his still-present pain. “It took everything in me not to grab her and hold her close, fearing the outcome every second of every goddamn day. But Sully didn’t deserve to be put through that shit, to drive herself crazy waiting for the final results.”

  “And you did?”

  “It was my cross to bear,” he answered quickly, and I truly believed he thought he spoke the truth. “Anyway, we got through it.”

  “Barely,” I uttered, flashing him a smirk when he turned to look at me once more.

  “Yeah. Barely.”

  The chatter in the clubhouse swirled together, all bodies present involved in their own conversations, allowing me time to delve deeper into what happened when he finally told his wife the reason he’d withdrawn from her.

  “How did Sully take the news? You know, when you eventually fessed up as to why you were actin’ like such a prick?”

  A gruff laugh escaped my fearless leader.

  “She was beyond livid.” Marek leaned over the bar and grabbed a bottle of whatever he could reach. Normally Trigger would be on point in serving the drinks, but he was still too busy razzing Stone. “Actually, I’d never seen her so furious. She called me every name in the book. Not that I didn’t deserve it.”

  “I can only imagine.”

  “No, you can’t. I’m tellin’ ya, I saw a side to my wife I never even knew existed. She was pissed that I chose to hide what her father said from her, sure, but she was more hurt than anything. She thought I didn’t love her anymore and that eventually I’d leave her altogether. She told me she kept thinkin’ she’d done something to deserve the way I treated her, that she was just waiting for the emptiness to creep back into her life when I finally decided to walk out the door for good.” Marek hung his head, breathing quickly to regain his fleeting composure. “All of her hurt and fear manifested into rage. She almost scared me, and I’m man enough to admit that.”

  A slow smile spread across his face as if he was proud of his wife’s reaction, that she was able to let go and not bottle everything up inside. Then again, it proved what I’d always thought about Sully, that she was a fierce woman underneath all the calm. His smile disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, however. “I’ll always regret putting her through what I did, treating her as if it was her fault that I couldn’t even bear to look at her, let alone touch her.”

  Clasping his shoulder, I said, “You two will get through this. I can already see that she’s forgiven you. No one can mistake the way that woman feels about you, man.”

  “Forgiven, maybe, but it’ll be a long time before I can prove that I’ll never hurt her like that again.”

  I didn’t know what else to say in support so I chose to remain silent. That was until he started his own sort of interrogation on me.

  “What the fuck happened with that crazy bitch showin’ up here like that?” He abruptly changed the topic and I couldn’t say that I blamed him. Marek wasn’t a touchy-feely kind of guy, and the fact that he told me as much as he had was a rarity in and of itself.

  “I have no goddamn idea. I’m still tryin’ to wrap my head around it. I haven’t thought about Rachel since the night I left her, and for her to show up out of the blue, and claiming she has my son of all things, is mind-blowing. Then she fuckin’ takes off and leaves her kid behind.” A heavy exhale passed my lips. “Everything happened so fast. One minute she was here and the next she was gone.”

  “Crazy shit,” Marek mumbled before pouring himself another drink.

  “You can say that again.”

  A half hour later, we were all still trying to relax and find our footing after the evening’s events. Riley and the baby boy, whose name we didn’t know, were resting in one of the back bedrooms. It seemed like the night was gonna end on sort of a good note when all of a sudden one of the prospects—I believed his name was Cod—rushed inside.

  “You guys better get out here,” he shouted, the panic on his face unmistakable.

  Tripp

  “Fuck!” Marek yelled. “What the hell is goin’ on now?” All the members hurried outside, the women following close behind. But as soon as we saw who was waiting for us, I turned toward the females and shouted for them to go back.

  “I got ’em,” Trigger offered, thankfully following the confused women back inside the clubhouse.

  As we approached the gates, badges were flashed and a few more SUVs appeared.

  “Open the gates, Marek,” Sam Koritz shouted. The crooked DEA agent who’d raided our club, and who was still in bed with the Savage Reapers, I was sure, had the audacity to show up out of the blue, without cause, and put the cherry on top of one of the shittiest days I’d had in a long time. Granted, I hadn’t been there when he and his goons had stormed in, but I heard all about it.

  The man was around ten years older than me, yet he looked at least twice that. A huge potbelly hung over the top of his cheap khaki pants, a laughable comb-over doing shit to hide his receding hairline.

  “Why?” Marek’s stance was unyielding. He didn’t want to deal with Koritz any more than the rest of us did, but being in our position it was part of the deal, I supposed.

  “Do it or we’re gonna ram ’em.”

  “Why don’t you go set up someone else?” Hawke shouted from behind me. I twisted around and shot him a warning look. We didn’t need any reason for Koritz to put a target on our backs again. Granted, the club was legit now, no longer dealing with Los Zappas Cartel, but we did have a few decomposing bodies under our belt. Recent ones, at that.

  Koritz signaled for the men still occupying two of the SUVs to back up, no doubt waiting for his go-ahead to lurch forward and slam into our gates.

  Before they could make another move, Marek threw up his hand and rotated his finger in the air, signaling for the prospects to open the gates. The defiant part of me wanted to stand in front of the gates and tell them to fuck right off. In order to get rid of them, however, we had to comply.

  The groan of the metal infuriated me. None of us understood the reason for Koritz’s visit, but I was sure he was gonna fill us in real soon.

  All five SUVs entered the compound, our men stopping them from going much farther than the entrance. No way in hell they were gonna make themselves at home and traipse all over our lot. My hea
rt picked up pace the longer we stood in silence, waiting and wondering just what the hell brought them all out that evening.

  Koritz finally stepped closer, a few of his men behind him with their hands on their weapons. None of us were armed. Well, let me clarify. As soon as Cod ran into the clubhouse shouting for us to come outside, all of us strapped up, the cold of the metal tucked safely in our waistbands. But Koritz didn’t know that, and we sure as hell weren’t gonna let him in on our little secret. For all he knew we were unarmed. Element of surprise and all that shit, in case it all went south.

  “What the hell are you doin’ here?” Marek spit out, taking a single step closer to the bastard stupid enough to think he could just show up out of the blue and there wouldn’t be any consequences.

  “We’re looking for Psych Brooks,” he cockily responded, arching a brow as if that reaction alone was enough to make us think he knew what we’d done to the Savage Reapers’ president.

  “What makes you think we know where that piece of shit is?” I took my place by my prez, offering a united front of sorts, denying any involvement in Psych’s disappearance. A lie, but they’d never know that little tidbit of information. Henry ‘Psych’ Brooks was exactly where he should be—rotting in the ground. Marek had done the world a service when he’d extinguished that bastard’s existence. Granted, his demise had been more brutal than what we were used to, but the ends justified the means.

  “I have it on good authority that you were the last ones to see him alive.”

  “Oh yeah? Who told ya that?” Marek questioned. I personally couldn’t wait for the day when we could teach Koritz a lesson, snatching his life once and for all.

  Did I mention that the Knights were riding the legal side of the fence these days? Because that theory gets tested every once in a while.

  A man who was a couple inches taller than Koritz sidestepped one of the DEA men and came into full view. It was dark and I couldn’t make out much except that he was bald and stalky. When he moved under one of the lamps, however, I saw he wore a cut, but I couldn’t make out the patch.

  “You know where he is, and if you don’t tell me I swear to Christ I’ll rain holy hell down on your club.” It was then I recognized his voice, had heard it a few times before. Unfortunately.

  All of a sudden, an eruption the likes of which I’d never experienced before exploded around me, men screaming and barreling toward the intruder.

  Rabid.

  VP of the Savage Reapers.

  Psych’s right-hand man.

  He dared to set foot on Knights soil?

  Inside our compound?

  The closest any fuckin’ Reaper got to our clubhouse was outside the gates when they’d left me for dead, shot to all hell.

  Koritz, along with his men, drew their weapons, and it was then we decided to show our cards as well. The smirk on the DEA agent’s face would have been alarming if I’d thought enough to give a fuck.

  “Well, it looks like you boys are in a bit of trouble.” He puffed out his chest as best he could given his girth. “I’m sure those guns aren’t registered.” He made a move but stopped when Marek started shouting.

  “Take one more step and I’ll blow your head off, Koritz. Agent or not.” The malice in Marek’s voice left no room to wonder if he’d actually follow through or not. A glint of reservation flashed in Koritz’s eyes, his men looking to one another for guidance. But they wouldn’t find it. They dared to disrupt us, to show up on our doorstep asking about a worthless piece of shit. Adding to their stupidity, they brought Rabid with them. We should’ve killed them all just for that shit, but we didn’t just have ourselves to worry about right then. The women in our lives took precedent over our need to show those fuckers who was boss. That didn’t stop Hawke, Jagger, Stone, Ryder, and Cutter from spouting off at the mouth, though.

  “Just get rid of ’em,” someone shouted behind me, everyone’s voices blending together and making it difficult to distinguish who was saying what.

  “Fuck them for bringing that Savage piece of shit here,” another yelled. If Marek didn’t do something soon, all hell was gonna break loose, that much I knew for sure. Thankfully, Trigger had been able to keep the women away from this shit; otherwise, I had no doubt we’d be engaged in a whole other kind of standoff. And fuck Breck for passing out earlier. We needed all hands on deck in case shit went down, and based on all the hardware pointed at everyone’s heads anything could happen.

  Tense moments passed and still we all stood there, threatening the others in complete silence. Until our prez finally spoke up. I released the breath that was stuck in my lungs. I had no idea what Marek was gonna say, but at least it was somethin’.

  “We don’t know where Psych is, and we don’t care. We’re done with the war, have been for some time now,” Marek spewed, his conviction a practiced one. If I hadn’t known better I would’ve believed he spoke the truth. “Now unless you have a warrant, get the fuck outta here.”

  I got the feeling Marek wanted to say something else, but he surprisingly held his tongue. Probably for the best. We didn’t need to invite any more trouble into our lives than was already present, although I was sure Koritz wasn’t gonna stop until he’d buried us somehow. Literally or figuratively. Either way would be bad.

  And Rabid . . . fuck! I thought for sure we were done with the Reapers, what with extinguishing their leader and all. But it looked like he was itchin’ to start up a whole new war with our club.

  Koritz eventually lowered his weapon, his men following suit. “I’ll be in touch. You can count on that.” The only thing we could do was watch in silence as they filed back into their vehicles and slowly backed out of our lot.

  There was no resolution that evening, and there wouldn’t be one for a very long time. I was sure of it.

  Rabid knew our club was the last to see Psych alive, Marek, Stone and Jagger agreeing to meet him at the warehouse to exchange Sully for Adelaide and Kena. The rest of the men who’d accompanied Psych that day had all been extinguished, and looking back we should have chased down Rabid and taken him out as well, tied up all loose ends. But the VP of the Reapers had always been a follower, and we honestly thought once his prez was no longer in the picture, along with their supply being cut off from the cartel, that their club would’ve imploded from the inside.

  Our arrogance had just come back to bite us in the ass.

  Tripp

  The past two months had flown by in a blur. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find Rachel. It was as if she’d disappeared off the face of the earth, abandoning her kid like she didn’t give a shit about the little boy. Then again, actions spoke louder than words, and while I’d initially been outraged at what she’d done, I came to believe that she knew she wasn’t a fit mother, her selfishness for drugs clouding any maternal instinct she could have possibly had toward her own baby.

  Even though only a short time had passed, the infant was growing quickly. Whenever Sully brought him by the clubhouse, there was a look of love and adoration in her eyes for the baby she cradled in her arms. I saw a peace come over not only her but Marek as well. The tension between husband and wife seemed to have evaporated, replaced by exhaustion, mostly due to late nights with the little boy would be my guess. If I asked my prez I was sure he’d tell me he’d prefer sleepless nights caused by a baby over all the other shit that had kept him up until the early morning hours.

  All had been quiet where Reece’s ex-husband had been concerned. She’d filed for divorce but her lawyer couldn’t locate Rick, which wasn’t a surprise to me, although I never let Reece in on that little tidbit of information. Not until now. I couldn’t hide my secret any longer. Sure, I’d been a vault in the past, most of the club’s dealings requiring the utmost discretion, and even though that would always remain, the situation with Reece was different. Outside the scope of what I was used to dealing with, so to speak.

  “Reece?” I whispered. “Are you awake, baby?” She groaned, snuggling
closer and slinging her arm over my chest, her head buried in the crook of my neck. The heat from her naked body made my dick twitch, as if I hadn’t just exhausted him over the past couple hours.

  “Reece?” I repeated, trying my best not to move because the feel of her next to me was too good.

  “Uh-huh,” she grunted, sleep still struggling to steal her from me.

  “It’s about Rick,” I confessed. I hated bringing up his name while lying in bed with Reece but I had to tell her what happened. What I’d done. I knew I was risking her, risking us, but I didn’t want that kind of secret between us.

  Her eyes fluttered on my chest, her lashes causing an odd tickling sensation. The strands of her long hair cascaded over my arm as I continued to hold her tightly.

  “I don’t wanna talk about him.” She was more awake than before but still groggy. “He’s dead to me.”

  “Well, speaking of. . . .” I waited for the dawn of recognition to blossom in her brain. It didn’t take long. She pushed herself up and bent her legs behind her, waiting for me to elaborate.

  “What?” she prompted, rubbing her eyes with her palms to drive away the sleep once and for all. “Why did you say it like that?”

  Not sure how to start off this particular conversation, I reached for her hand, wound my fingers with hers, opened my mouth and let the words flow. “He tried to come after you again.” She gasped and I shook my head to stop her from responding. “Hawke was the one who actually spotted him. That guy was brazen.”

  I couldn’t stop her from interrupting that time. “Was?” She tried to pull her hand from mine but I only held on tighter. “What are you telling me?” Her voice shook and her eyes widened. I feared she wouldn’t understand what I’d done, even though she’d lived with the fear he’d find her and most likely would’ve ended up killing her.

  “When Hawke saw him waiting in his car across the street from Indulge, he called me right away. My blood boiled at the thought that he was never gonna leave you alone. Never,” I reiterated, trying like hell to drive home that she would’ve been in constant danger as long as he still breathed air into his lungs. “When we approached him, he tried to leave, but I ripped open his door and flung him onto the pavement before he could. Hawke did a quick search of his car and found a loaded gun in the console, along with a half empty bottle of whiskey.”