Leave a Trail

by Fanetti, Susan

  “Didn’t think so. Dom—you mind repeating yourself?”

  Dom sat forward. “There’s big trouble in LA, looks like. Got some national attention.”

  Badger tried to catch up, fill in the blanks. “Wait—LA. You mean the Scorps? Bart?”

  “Yeah. Hoosier is trying to secede—the whole LA charter, and he’s trying to bring the other West Coast charters him.”

  “You heard this on the news?”

  “No, asshole. I got it from Bart. What’s on the news is a bomb at the Scorps’ bike shop. Took out most of the block—their clubhouse and shop, both.”

  “Shit. Bart’s okay?”

  Isaac answered. “Yeah. No casualties. They got a tip, cleared the place—even got most of the bikes out. That tip confirmed it, though—Sam ordered it. The Scorps are having themselves a civil war.”

  “Tip from who?” If it came from inside the Scorpions mother charter, then Badger figured a civil war was just the beginning of the chaos.

  “Bart didn’t say.”

  Show crossed his arms over his chest. “Maybe Rick? They’re close.”

  Tommy asked, “Does it matter who?”

  “Sure it does. If Sam’s intel guy is feeding out Sam’s intel, then it matters a lot. It could help us. Or it could kill us. Because all our shit with the Perros is chained up with the Scorpions. They break, what does that mean? Does that give us a way out? Or does that bring us even more fucking grief?” Show sat up. “Because I have had my fill of it. I have fuckin’ gorged on grief and pain, and I am done.”

  “What are you saying, brother?” Len’s voice was sharp, and Badger knew Len had heard the same thing he had. In fact the whole table had tensed.

  Show looked around, picking up on the vibe. “Easy, brothers. I’m just saying that we need to discount nothing. I want to keep us and ours protected. There’s been enough fuckin’ bloodshed in our house. We need to know how a rift in the Scorpions affects us. Because it will affect us. We are in bed with them. They are not some piddly-shit little club like we are. They have sixty-three charters across the globe. If they break, every MC with a foot over the line will feel it in some way. And LA? They are ground zero for Scorpions’ main business. No way Sam lets them go—and I don’t see how Santaveria lets them, either. That’s bloody business, what they’re trying. And Santaveria has got to be so far up Sam’s ass over this he could see daylight. Unrest in the Scorps is a problem for the Perros. And that means we all feel it. Question is—is it an opportunity, or is it a crisis?”

  Double A cleared his throat. He was still new to the table, sitting in Havoc’s seat. He was smaller, younger, lesser in every way than Havoc. He didn’t fill that seat very well. Not yet, anyway. “Can I ask a question?”

  Isaac nodded. “Shoot, brother.”

  “I know I’m an idiot, but I still don’t understand. What is LA trying to do?”

  “What they were trying to do is set up a secession—take the LA charter as a whole and leave the club. Start on their own. They’ve taken some hard losses with the cartel, and they have not had Sam’s ear the way Hoosier thinks they should. Dom, jump in if I miss somethin’, but Hoosier made his intention known at a leadership meeting in Vegas and did it all right out in front. So, looks like Sam tried to bomb him back in line. Remains to be seen if he succeeded.”

  Dom shook his head. “No. Bart says they’re still out.”

  “But all the assets—the shop, everything—that’s all Scorpions property, right?” Badger struggled to get his head around all this.

  “Yeah. They just flattened their own property, though.” Isaac stared at the carved braid in the table. Badger could see his brain working. “It’s another damn piece that doesn’t fit. Why blow up a block of LA real estate? How does that fix Sam’s problem? How does that get Santaveria off his back?”

  Badger tried out an answer. “Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it’s as simple as Sam going off half-cocked. I mean, fuck. Look what happened in our own clubhouse, when he was all fired up about the movie. Those assholes were out of control. No respect for anything, and no concern for consequences. Rolled right over us and then rode to Hollywood to set up something not much different from what he tried to tear us apart over.”

  Isaac stared at Badger, obviously working what he’d said into the equation. “That gives me no ease, little brother. None at all. Sam going Scarface on everybody does not make our situation better.”

  “Let’s think about that a minute, though.” Show put his elbows on the table and leaned in. “Sam’s been top dog a long fuckin’ time. Thirty years at least. He’s been arm in arm with Santaveria almost half of that. Could it be as simple as overkill? The Perros deal with their problems with nuclear warheads, no matter how small. Could this be Sam taking a page from Santaveria’s book, trying to shut down trouble decisively?”

  Tommy jumped in again. “Why do we care why Sam did it? It’s a Scorpions thing, right—an internal issue or like that?”

  Isaac sort of snarled at Tommy, but Badger answered. “Shows weakness.” Isaac and Show both gave Badger their full attention. The rest of the table followed suit, but Badger kept his answer directed to Tommy. “If Sam blew up one of his major assets to prove a point, and that point didn’t get proved, then that’s a huge crack. Scorps LA are whole”—he glanced over at Isaac for confirmation and got it—“and are still looking to break away. Then all Sam accomplished was to destroy something that might have given some or all of the LA crew a reason to stay. He took their home away. Now they need a new one anyway.”

  Suddenly, Badger realized he understood it completely. No longer working it out as he spoke, now he saw it all. It was like Adrienne’s life. Her father, and then the fire, had torn away all her moorings to what had been, and all she was left with was what could be. “Clean slate. New start. Sam just lost his civil war before it even started.” He looked around the table. “This helps us. It doesn’t hurt us.”

  “He ran the ball into the wrong end zone.” That was Tommy, getting it—in his own way.

  Isaac gave him a lopsided grin. “Good man, Badge. That makes damn fine sense.”

  “We gotta know how the cartel figures.” Len had spent most of the meeting listening. Badger knew he’d been absorbing the information, looking at it strategically. Doing his job. “What I see is Santaveria isn’t gonna give much of a shit who’s running his product, as long as his product gets run. But he’s not gonna allow a vacuum. He has competitors, too. He can’t take his routes offline, or he’ll lose more than just the take. So, if the LA crew breaks away…he’s gonna need somebody to pick up his product at the border.”

  “But not necessarily California.”

  Isaac cocked his head. “What’re you thinkin’, Dom?”

  “Just that the border is longer than just Cali, and Santaveria’s reach is long. What if he brings it up through the Southwest instead—Texas or New Mexico. If you think about it, maybe he controls it better if he sends it up the middle. He’s never farther than, like, a thousand miles or so. If he’s thought of that, maybe he’s not so inclined to help Sam out.”

  “And does that help or hurt us?”

  No one had an answer.

  “We need to know, brothers. We need our eyes wide open. Dom—you’re on that intel, too. But for now, we got more to talk about. Because we got shit flyin’ at us from all sides these days. Show—news on the fire.”

  “Investigation is done. They’re sayin’ inconclusive for arson. Sniffed around us for insurance fraud, but they came up empty—since we didn’t fuckin’ blow up our own place. Now I guess Lilli and Shannon are gonna have to wrangle with the insurance, get a payout.”

  “We’re rebuilding, right?”

  Isaac laughed. “Fuck, Badge. Lilli would’ve had us out there when the damn place was still smoldering if we’d’ve had the jack to get started. Yeah, we’re rebuilding. And the town is in. Strange to say it, with all we lost, but that fire had an upside. I still think somebody set it—that ful
l cancellation is hanging me up—and I want to know who. But I’m glad that one good thing happened. Having everybody working together on that fire reminded people what we do for our town, I guess. Seems like things are back to normal in that respect.”

  “Long as we keep our shit out of town, anyway.”

  Isaac nodded at Show’s observation. Badger also thought Show was right. They shouldn’t get too comfortable in the town’s regard. They had people outside the club who’d lost kin to club violence, and they had people calling themselves townsfolk now who’d only lived in Signal Bend a couple of years. People who didn’t know the way of things. The days of the Horde being the undisputed leaders of the town were coming to an end, at least in the way they had been.

  “Next up: Seaver. Dom, tell the table what you and Lilli have on this code idea.”

  “Yeah, boss. We got distracted by the fire, so we’re still working on it. But it for sure is a code. Lilli thinks he’s talking to a Fed, but we don’t have much detail yet. Maybe this is why it looked like the Feds dropped their convo with Seaver—because they moved to a code and bounced their transmissions. That could be trouble. But one thing we haven’t picked up yet is any clear mention of the club—Lilli says that doesn’t mean anything, though. They could have a code inside the code…or something like that. She knows better what that means. Anyway, we’re on it.”

  As he tried to sort and stack all the information reeling through his head, something occurred to Badger. “Wait, boss. Anybody think it’s strange that there was a bomb that destroyed the Scorps LA clubhouse not long after we had an explosion at the B&B? That’s a big-ass coincidence, right?”

  Isaac gave him a keenly interested look. “It is indeed. Keep talkin’.”

  He hadn’t thought this out any more than he had the cartel stuff—less—but he talked it out. “I’m just hearing about the bomb in LA, so I’m just playing out an idea. But like we said before, coincidences aren’t so easy to swallow. So is there a way the fires are related?”

  Show ran his hand over his chin and beard. “What’s the link? We know Sam’s behind LA. What’s his interest here?”

  “Only two things link Signal Bend to LA: Bart and the cartel.” Isaac’s brows drew together.

  “Well, we know Bart didn’t blow the B&B.”

  Isaac nodded. “Obviously. But why would the cartel? We’re behavin’, by all appearances. They got no beef with us. There’s been no opening yet to stand against them.”

  “You think they know the bug is dummied?”

  The whole table stared silently at Badger’s question. They’d discovered months back—not long after Havoc had been killed—that the Perros had bugged the duffels in which the Horde took their payment. Since then, they’d held decoy meetings before their weekly meetings so the cartel wouldn’t know the bugs had been discovered. The Horde had not yet found a way to use that deception to fight back against the Perros and maybe exact revenge for what Julio Santaveria and his men had perpetrated on the Horde.

  Sighing heavily, as though the thought behind Badger’s question took more energy than he could muster, Isaac looked over the table. “If Santaveria knows that the bug is recording bullshit, then we’re sitting on a different kind of bomb, and we’ll have no fucking idea when it’ll blow.”

  Still working it through, Badger tried another idea. “What if it’s not the Perros? What if it’s just Sam?”

  Len sat forward and put a hand on Badger’s arm, as if to restrain him. “No. We’re overthinking this, getting ourselves wrapped around the spokes. No reason for Santaveria or Sam to blow the B&B. Sam is fighting a war in LA. Not here. And Santaveria wouldn’t’ve cleared the place out first. We’re trying to see a conspiracy, and we’re snatching at straw. Who has any reason at all to want to blow the B&B? To what end?”

  “You got an answer to that yourself, Len?”

  “Maybe I do, boss. We had trouble in our own yard. People stirring up against us. Don Mariano. Jimmy Sullivan. Mac Evans. Others. Maybe they were just trying to hurt us.”

  “One of our own? Killed Beth?” Though the idea had been raised before, it had been quickly set aside. With it under serious consideration, Show’s face showed shock and outrage in equal measure.

  “Maybe that was a mistake. Maybe they thought with the place empty, she wouldn’t be there.”

  Isaac shook his head. “Somebody would’ve needed to turn the oven on, though. I don’t see anybody in town putting Beth’s life at risk. It’s not somebody that close. But you’re right. We’re stretching pretty far to find a reason for Sam or the Perros to do it.”

  It came to Badger as Isaac finished that sentence. “Somebody who maybe thought the town would see it as more club violence—and remind them of the fire before. Who thought it would turn the town against us all the way. Somebody with an interest in making us weak. Somebody who just saw the town standing with us after all, when he thought we’d already lost them. It is Seaver. It’s got to be Seaver.” Echoing in the back of his head, Badger heard the Sheriff asking Where’s the fire?

  Again, the table went still and silent, tension crackling, at Badger’s words. Then Isaac turned to Dom. “Brother, you and Lilli have got to get some clarity on that code. And dig deeper into Seaver. We need to know what that uniformed fuck is up to, and we need some kind of fuckin’ leverage we can use. Badge makes a strong case.”

  Dom nodded, looking pale and stressed. The burden that Isaac had laid on his narrow shoulders was heavy—the Scorpions, the Perros, the Sheriff, all of it high priority. The Horde’s enemies were many and formidable these days.

  Isaac scanned the table. “In the meantime, we are still on our best behavior. Do not let your guard down, brothers.” He sighed. “Let’s wrap this up with some good news. It’s in short enough supply. Badge—your old lady. She’s home. Doin’ good?”

  His old lady. Was Adrienne his old lady? He liked the sound of it. But they’d never talked about the future, except to say they wanted to be together ‘forever.’ He couldn’t ask her for more yet. She was too new in her post-father, post-fire, clean-slate life.

  But he saw no need to correct Isaac. Before he answered, though, he glanced at Show, who was regarding him with interest but without malice. Show was on their side. In the time that Adrienne, Shannon, and the babies were all home, in fact, the six of them had become a pretty tight group. Show and Badger, in full protector/caretaker mode, were a team now.

  “Yeah. She’s home, we’re set up. She’s doing pretty good. Better every day.” He thought about this morning, holding her up, feeling her come, and he smiled.

  Isaac gave him a sideways look that made him think his smile had been more revealing than he’d intended. “Excellent. And Show. How’s your brood?”

  Badger shifted his gaze to Show and found the big man staring steadily at him. That smile had indeed been too revealing. But then Show cleared his throat and answered Isaac’s question. “Rose and Iris are back with their mom. Shannon and the twins are doing good. Kids are finally starting to plump up.” He looked around the table. “You can come over and see ‘em now. And we got their christening in a couple weeks.”

  “Shannon’s good?”

  “Yeah, she is. It’s an adjustment, no doubt about it, but we’re good. Real good.”

  “Nice to take a minute and remember why we do this shit. And I think it’s time we put guards with our women. Lilli, Shannon, Cory, Tasha, Adrienne. All the kids. When we’re not with our own, then they have a buddy.”

  Show said, “We can’t spread that thin, Isaac. Only have two Prospects.”

  Isaac glowered, but he nodded. “Badge—any problem with Adrienne hanging out with Shannon and the twins?”

  “I doubt it. They’re together most of the time now, anyway.”

  “Good. Double A, you’re on Show’s house. We’ll put Thumper with Tasha. Cory can stick with Lilli—I’ll talk to them both—and we’ll put Kellen on them. Nolan can shoot, too. He’s a good shot.”

&
nbsp; “He’s still a kid, Isaac.”

  “He wants to prospect when he turns eighteen. That’s only six-seven months from now. He can learn a thing in the meanwhile. He’ll have Kellen and Lilli both up front.”

  Show nodded, persuaded.

  “Okay. Next weed run is in five days. Badge, Tommy, Len, and me. Otherwise, back to our day jobs, back to town business. Everybody stay sharp.” Isaac gaveled the meeting to a close.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The Reverend Mortensen stood in front of the altar, with Show and Shannon and Lilli and Isaac. Lilli and Isaac each held one of the twins. The rest of the Horde and their family were arrayed in the first row, on both sides of the aisle. Most of the town nearly filled the remaining pews. Adrienne sat next to Badger, with Bo and Gia squirming between her and Cory. Loki, who’d had his first birthday a few weeks ago, was sleeping in his mother’s arms.

  Show and Isaac were in good jeans and white button-down shirts, their kuttes and boots shiny-clean. Lilli wore sleek black slacks and a sleeveless light grey top in what Adrienne thought was raw silk. Shannon wore a pretty green dress, a little on the loose side. She’d always been voluptuously curvy, like Marilyn Monroe or something, and had always dressed to accentuate what she had, but she was bigger since the babies and self-conscious about it in a way she’d never been before.

  Adrienne didn’t think she had anything to worry about. Not only had she just had twins, for Pete’s sake, but Show obviously loved her body. He couldn’t keep his hands off her since the babies, even more than usual—which was saying something. Those two had always been embarrassing with the PDA. Leaning toward gross, sometimes.

  The baptism was almost over. The twins, in their pretty, white satin outfits, had been sprinkled, and everybody had said their various vows. Isaac and Lilli didn’t strike Adrienne as particularly religious people, and Adrienne knew that Show and Shannon weren’t, not overtly. But Show had been raised in this church. It was the only church in town, and Adrienne had been here long enough to know it was an important place. If the Horde was the heart of Signal Bend, then St. John’s Methodist Church was its soul.