I really am fucking naïve.
Silas has his own motives that I know nothing about.
I allowed myself to be his pawn.
It turns out this new information is what I need to point me in the right direction. My priorities are no different from what they were before my world collided with Silas’s on that goddamned elevator.
I know what I need to do.
One: Get the hell out of here.
Two: Figure out how to free Jordan on my own.
Three: Get as far away from my father and Lorenzo as possible.
Four: Never, ever be used as a convenient poker chip.
Five: Forget I ever met Silas Corrigan.
“Reality’s a bitch, ain’t it?”
My head jerks up. Cole’s still standing there. Fuck. “Yes it is,” I agree.
“Sorry he didn’t tell you about the whole engagement thing.” Cole shoots me a knowing look as he takes a long puff on his cigar. “Then again, you left out a few details too.”
“True.”
“So, you’re kinda even, although that doesn’t matter anyway. Try to get some rest. You’ll need it for the next forty-eight hours.”
I can’t argue with that.
I only have myself to blame.
Chapter 24
Silas
Light from an almost full moon bounces off of our cuts as we take care of one item before our meetings with Giovanni and the Padrino. We’ve all had some rest, taking the day to plan. Now, a few hours remain before I return Sabrina to Giovanni.
I’m in the middle of a war I didn’t start.
But I’m ready to finish it.
Standing beside the Ford F150 Axe drove, I look out at the curved, uneven arroyo a short distance away from Los Diablos’ clubhouse. The tarp that’s covering the truck bed has everyone curious. I can’t wait to do the unveiling, thanks to Axe. It may be the craziest thing I’ve done ever. My lips pinch into a smile as I raise a hand to get their attention.
“You all know my style so I’ll keep this short. We’ve been through a lot over the last few days. Every day it’s getting harder to know who’s gone from allies to rival to enemies. We’ve been dragged into the middle of something big, and tonight, we’ll take the first step to dig ourselves the fuck out. That step? Send a message to every son of a bitch who thinks they can fuck with us.” Pulling the tarp off the back, I make contact with each and every face looking at me for leadership. “Gear up, men. We’re taking the fight to them.”
Tate is the first one to reach into the truck cab. He notices the rocket launcher and smiles, raising it up to his shoulder. “I’ll keep them busy with this,” he tells everyone, shoving a cartridge into each of his oversized camo pants pockets. As the others choose their weapons, he comes over to my side.
“I’m game for any and all forms of violence, but tell me something, Pres. We know Giovanni’s behind all this shit that’s gone down. Why aren’t we just going after him?”
“Before we straighten him out, his hired guns need a reminder, something to help them think twice before they look to accept another job that involves fucking with our club.”
“What about Rizzo?”
“Rizzo’s the reason we can’t touch Giovanni yet.”
“How about less talking and more observing?” Axe says from the other side of the truck bed. His eyes squint into the dim light around our hideout in the deep crevice. “We’ve got a job to do.”
“Listen to your Sergeant at Arms,” I tell Tate. “All you need to understand right now is that what we’re about to do tonight will give us an advantage for the meeting with Rizzo. All right. Follow my lead, men,” I call out. “Show your weapons, but don’t use any of them unless I tell you. You know what to do, Dean.”
I lead everyone closer to the Los Diablos’ clubhouse on foot. Dean heads off to take care of his assigned task. This trip won’t be as messy as the last one. We have firepower as backup. The main plan is to throw them off-balance first. After that, we’ll disable their defenses, and that’ll crush them fast. It’s the only way to be in and out within the hour.
Once we’re all in position, I signal to Dean with a quick text message. Less than a minute later, all the power to Los Diablos’ compound shuts off. As predicted, the task of restoring power draws a wave of them outside. And as I suspected, there are Mongols MC members among them.
I don’t mind. Two for one works for me.
Reaching into my pocket, I hit send on my phone a second time and Dean launches a series of flashbangs into windows at the back of the building. More of them come out through every available exit, stunned, coughing and disoriented.
And most of them are unarmed.
Cole takes the lead on manning the exits and keeping everyone in line. Not one weapon is discharged so far, so I head out back to meet Dean. I’m halfway there when he sends me an unexpected message. He found something.
The only thing I’m looking to find out here is Antonio Vasquez on his knees, pleading for mercy and giving his word that Los Diablos MC is ready to fall in line again. The icing on the cake would be for Dean Romans’ Mongols to do the fucking same.
“How are you making out?” I say to Dean, who’s waiting at the door of a shed behind a large water tank. shouted.
“I thought I heard someone in that shed. It might be a hideout for Vasquez. Somewhere he lays low for times like these.”
“Could be. I’ll go in. Back me up.” I find my way to the front of the shed, which faces away from the back of the compound, strangely enough. By the time I make it to the door, I’m sure this is no hideout.
It’s more like a makeshift holding cell. The reinforced concrete foundation and heavy locks and bolts confirm it. It’s built so that what’s inside can’t get out. Using my handgun to blow off the locks, I open the door. The stench is so unbearable I don’t want to step inside. But now that I’m here, I have to see what these fuckers are up to.
When my eyes adjust to the darkness, I see him.
They’re holding someone in here. The man is on the floor, wrists and ankles bound with heavy ropes connected to a reinforced iron ring in the center of the room. He looks hungry and weak, like they left him out here to rot. It’s too dark to recognize his face, but I’m ready to break him out just to free him from these deplorable conditions. I also make one main assumption. If Los Diablos members are doing contract jobs for Giovanni, this prisoner is my ally.
Using my pocket knife, I cut him out of his rope bindings and help him to his feet.
“What’s your name and why are these people holding you here?”
“It’s Bain. We need to leave now,” he says weakly. “They can come back anytime. Please, let’s go.”
The guy can barely walk. I throw him over my shoulder with little to no effort because they probably haven’t fed him for days. Dean watches my six until I help Bain close to our staging area near the arroyo.
“Get him some water and stay with him,” I tell Dean as we arrive at the truck. Cole then sends me an update that everyone’s evacuated the buildings. When we first got here, I had every intention of ordering Tate to point that rocket launcher at Los Diablos’ clubhouse and leveling it to the ground. Vasquez is lucky that I have some compassion. I spare them the massive cleanup, and order Dean to let Tate do the honors on the shed we just got Bain out of. We manage to get out of there without causing a single injury, freed a prisoner, and sent Vasquez an important reminder.
Satan’s Saints MC has the smarts and the means bring the fire to Los Diablos any fucking time we want.
On our way back to our clubhouse, my phone rings. It’s a call from the Mongols MC President.
“Dean Roman,” I mutter into the phone. “I hear that you’re allies-for-hire now?”
“You know how this works, Corrigan. Every club has a price,” he drawls.
“Well, keep in mind how much you can lose because of me, not just what you’ll gain from siding with Giovanni.”
“We d
on’t scare that easy,” he replies.
“I want to hear you say that next time. There won’t be a warning like tonight. People might get hurt.”
“This isn’t over.”
“It is for now, you shady fuck.”
He must hear my message loud and clear. Roman puts me on hold for a minute, and when he returns to my call, his tone is different. “Look, I talked to Vasquez. Are you agreeable to a twenty-four-hour cease-fire as of right now?”
I smile. This is exactly what I wanted. “I can be convinced. Only because we want you to use the time to see that you’re on the wrong fucking side of this.”
Ending the call, I drive the rest of the way to our clubhouse. There’s still the item of figuring out who this Bain guy is before we head out to the first meeting.
Tate is leaning outside Axe’s pickup truck as I head through the parking lot. “Who the fuck is this guy?” he asks me.
“Help clean him up. He’s probably hungry too. We’ll find out soon enough. Don’t let him inside the club. No more outsiders.”
Chapter 25
Silas
Just when I start to believe things are under control, it all goes to shit.
I walk into a boisterous tension-filled clubhouse and several people call out my name.
“What the fuck’s going on here?”
“Pres! Looks like your women are about to throw down,” the bartender for the evening shouts over the noise.
“Where?”
“Hallway to the meeting rooms.”
Axe is behind me, so I motion over my shoulder for him to come along, moving a lot faster toward the boarded up side of the clubhouse that’s still waiting on repairs to the exterior wall.
“What’s going on, Si?” Axe asks.
No answer is needed because we see the tops of Sabrina and Riley’s heads halfway down the hall in a standoff, partially surrounded by members hoping for a catfight to break out.
I push through the crowd, and move in close enough to hear the ladies’ voices above the cheers and whistles.
“Don’t fuck with me, crazy bitch!” Sabrina shouts. “I’m not the first and I sure as hell won’t be the last. Take it up with your future husband, not with me.”
I quickly realize it’s more serious than I first thought. It’s not a cat fight the members are waiting for. It’s a gunfight. Sabrina is in the middle of the clubhouse with a double barrel trained on Riley’s head.
My Texas charter fiancée, in the loosest of terms.
Club members and sack demons are keeping the two women in the middle, with some buffer space if the ladies decide to settle their argument with their fists.
“You got problems,” Axe states, smiling.
“I can’t catch a fucking break these last few days.”
“You might want to take care of it before it gets out of hand, Pres.” He slaps me on the back and heads to the bar, grabbing a bottle of whiskey.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass that you fucked him, bitch,” Riley shouts back. “You’re a two-bit whore wrapped up in designer clothes. Look around at the shit you caused here. You think he can’t see right through you? Well, he does. You’re nothing to him, twat.”
Sabrina doesn’t take that low blow too well. “I never said I wanted anything! Why do you women keep attacking me? Go after him, for fuck’s sake!” Her fingers trembles over the rifle handle and Riley goes in to grab it.
It’s time to break up the show before someone gets hurt. Pushing the rest of the way through the onlookers, I face off with Sabrina by getting between the barrel of the gun and Riley.
“Get the hell out of my way, Silas!” They both yell in unison.
“That’s enough. Both of you. Give me the gun, Sabrina.”
“We’re handling this!” Riley shouts.
And gives me the glare that reminds me why we never got together. We’re close friends, but I never felt a thing for her, and the feeling is mutual. Our engagement was a business transaction to join our charters together and keep us afloat. It was planned out long before we stopped playing in the sandbox.
“I don’t have time for this shit. Give me the fucking gun.” Sabrina cocks the safety back on and hands me the rifle, butt first. “You two ready to talk now?”
“Lead the way,” Riley says, and they follow me the rest of the way to a small children’s games room at the end of the hall.
I’m relieved that Axe is behind them with his whiskey glass in one hand. “Need help, Si?”
I nod at him over the ladies’ heads. “Use the back stairs to take Sabrina up to her room. Don’t let her leave until I get up there.”
“You’re not serious,” Sabrina shrieks.
Axe loops his hand under Sabrina’s upper arm, leading her away.
Riley folds her arms and lets out a scoff. “You could have told the bitch about us.”
“You should have left her the fuck alone.”
“Stop, Si. I’m not here for that.”
“Then why are you here?”
Riley throws her head back, tossing her blonde locks over her shoulder. “It’s a matter of pride, buddy. I wasn’t ready to let Ms. Mafia make me look bad in front of my crew for taking what’s mine.”
“We had this talk before.”
“I know,” she says, walking her fingers up my t-shirt until she has a handful of fabric bundled up into her fist. “You and I go way back. What kind of wife would I be if I didn’t put down a woman trying to be my better?”
“I don’t think she has that in mind…”
“You. Are. So. Wrong.” Riley follows up each word with a bop to the tip of my nose and then giggles. “She’s in love with you, you big dumbass. The mob princess wants to have your biker babies.”
“What the hell’s going on with you? Did something change since we talked the last time?”
“No. I’m here to make things official. I don’t want to be wifed up. Well, just not to you.”
“Try telling that to Cindy.”
“She’s not my mother. You’ve got to convince her.”
“Where is all this coming from? I asked your charter here to help me with this Padrino situation. Can this wait a few weeks?”
“No, it can’t. Just convince your mother to accept the fact that our charters don’t need a marriage to keep the alliance going.” She glances at me through her long lashes and bites down on one side of her bottom lip. “I’m in love with someone else, baby. Come on. You knew this was coming. You and I can’t even flirt right, let alone sleep together. Our friendship means too much. And with this fiery little mafia prize of yours in the mix, we both have an out now.”
“You’re all over the place, you know that? Have you been drinking?”
“Stop changing the subject. This can work. You and Sabrina. Me and the guy I’m seeing. Our friendship and charter alliance perfectly in place.” She wraps her arms around my waist and leans her forehead onto my chest. “See? We can have it all.”
As she pulls back and straightens up, she looks up at me. “Good chat! Oh, I need to get going. I have to pick him up at McCarran Airport in less than two hours. Let me know what Cindy says!”
“You’re insane,” I tell her as she rushes off toward the front of the clubhouse.
“Always have been. I’ll text you a pic of the new guy. Later Si!”
I need a fucking drink. Riley drops a bomb so quickly that it takes me another fifteen minutes for her news to sink in. We’ve talked at length about how impractical this arrangement was in the past. I should have guessed it was a matter of time, but now I’m the one who has to break it to Cindy. And the meeting with Giovanni is almost here. Well, at least Riley left her charter members as backup.
Then there’s the blowout with Sabrina, who’s waiting upstairs. I take the back steps up to her room. Axe is right where I asked him to be, standing outside her door, waiting for me.
“Good luck,” he says to me, and heads downstairs.
I knock on her door and turn th
e knob. It’s open.
“Yes?” she calls out.
I head inside, closing the door behind me.
“You’re a piece of work, you know that?” she shouts, getting up from her seat at the edge of the bed.
Sabrina balls her hands into fists at her side as she charges toward me, but when she crosses the room to where I’m leaning against the door, her right hand flies up, palm open, and lands hard on my cheek. I don’t react. I probably deserve it anyway. But as she rears back the same hand to do it again, I stop the incoming hit by gripping her wrist. Then she tries with her free hand, which I also block. She writhes and twists her arms, trying to free herself from my grasp, but I don’t let her go as I lower her hands to her sides. As usual, she’s persistent, struggling against my hold.
Something comes over me and I let her go. I can tell she wasn’t expecting that. Instead of resuming her slaps to my face, she just stands there with intense, sad eyes and wild locks falling around her shoulders. My hand lifts to her face, tucking some hair behind her ear without thinking, and I’m at that point where I need to have her all over again.
I turn her around, pushing her back against the bedroom door. She doesn’t fight me. Reaching for the waistband of her tights, I roll them down past her hips to her ankles, taking her panties with them. I drag off her shoes next. In one swooping motion, I straighten up and pick her up at the waist, tugging each ankle behind me. My cock is fucking hard for her. It may be my last chance to touch her, but I resist the overpowering urge to take my time.
She opens her mouth to say something but I smother each word with a kiss, pinning her back to the door as I taste her one last time. The kiss is as hard and demanding as the situation we’re in because of who we are. If nothing else, I want her to remember it wasn’t easy to let her in, and letting her go will be the same.
Outlaw (Satan's Saints MC) Page 13
