“Fucker,” I snicker, but know very well how true his words are.
“Okay, I’m gonna go check if Vienna is ready. You handle it here and head to the club when you’ve got Kazz all set.”
He smacks my shoulder. “Talk later.”
“Later,” I reply and head for Vienna’s bedroom.
I’m standing in the doorway and notice Vienna sitting on her bed with a bag beside her. I hate seeing her defeated. The way she walked into the bar last night, all determined and full of fire is a stark contrast of how she’s holding up now.
For sure it has something to do with her sister and the whole confronting shit North and I added in the mix. Things in life are never easy but this twist between me and North, adding Vienna in the middle and throwing Reva in the mix along with it? I’m struggling with everything but I can’t even imagine how she’s feeling with Reva missing.
“Come on. Let’s find out what information my brothers have managed to get their hands on,” I tell her and hold out my hand for her to take.
She gives me a genuine smile—one aimed right at my damn heart—takes my hand and lets me lead her out of the apartment. First thought popping into my mind is the regret of not having her on the back of my bike. See? Damn feelings thrown into the mix. I don’t put women on the back of my bike.
And this strong woman here has her own damn bike. It does make me wonder if her sister has one too. I feel a smile spreading across my face. It would be absolutely awesome if Reva did share some of Vienna’s qualities, enough to kick North in the balls. But first...first we need to find her and I hope for everyone involved we find her soon and in full health.
I’ve parked my bike and stalk over to Vienna when Lips, my Prez’s Old Lady, comes rushing over. She stops right in front of Vienna and points at her bike. “Bad-freaking-ass. How fast does this baby go?”
Vienna chuckles. “Fast enough.”
“Oh, crap. Where are my manners? Hi, I’m Lips, Deeds’ Old Lady.” She holds out her hand and Vienna takes it and gives her a smile in return.
“Deeds is the President of Broken Deeds MC, right?” Vienna asks and I’m not surprised.
She seems like a woman who did some digging of her own before she decided to crash the meeting we had in place last night with a contact person about this case. Lips nods while she’s still enthralled by Vienna’s bike.
“Here,” Vienna quips and steps aside. “Why don’t you take her for a spin? You do have a license, right?”
“Hellz, yeah, I do,” Lips flashes an all-white toothy smile and straddles the bike.
Cursing flows through the air and we all turn toward the clubhouse to see Deeds stalking toward us. Fuck. He doesn’t like Lips on a bike and is absolutely being an overprotective asshole ‘cause Lips can hold her own.
“Get. Off,” Deeds growls.
Lips smirks. “I wouldn’t dream of letting this bike get me off, baby. Only your cock, fingers, and mouth have that privilege. Maybe your thick muscled thigh too when you give me the best angle and added pressure.”
“Okay,” I cringe. “We’re done here, come on, let’s get inside ‘cause these two can take a while to hash things out when they get like this.” I grab Vienna by her upper arm and guide her into the clubhouse.
Vienna glances over her shoulder and chuckles. “Those two are weird.”
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. I promise once you step foot in the clubhouse it’ll only get weirder.”
“I’ll gladly settle for weird if it helps bring my sister home,” Vienna sighs.
I let go of her arm and instead grab her waist and pull her flush against me. I don’t care if it raises eyebrows or the fact my Prez and Lips’ eyes are about to pop out. Vienna needs the support and she’ll get what she needs, I’ll make sure she does.
Broke, my VP, strolls up and introduces himself to Vienna. He connects his gaze with mine and says, “Church in an hour. Where’s North? Or did you finally trade the fucker in for an Old Lady?”
Vienna sputters and I can’t help but shoot the fucker a grin. “You know I have to chop off his damn head before he’d leave my side willingly. Nah...he stayed behind to scan their apartment and make sure we didn’t miss anything. Reva has a pet and he’s bringing it home since Vienna here didn’t take care of it properly and you know how North gets when it comes to animals.”
“I didn’t neglect Kazz,” Vienna huffs.
“No, sweet pixie, you didn’t...you just tried to turn a Bearded Dragon into a vegetarian.”
Broke’s head tips back and he laughs his lungs out while Vienna shoots an angry glare my way.
“Come on, let’s get some coffee before I have to leave you alone with the Old Ladies for a bit,” I tell her and head to the kitchen.
Vienna rushes after me and when I grab some mugs she asks, “Why do I get the feeling you’re going to place me in a chair so the women of this MC can keep an eye on me till you guys are done with your meeting?”
I shrug. “Because women aren’t allowed in Church. So, you need to wait till we’re done. But don’t worry, we’ll share crucial information of course.”
“Of course,” she says skeptically and rolls her eyes. “Absolutely nothing sexist about anything you just mentioned.”
The corner of my mouth twitches. See? This is the kind of stuff that makes my cock harder while North’s cock would shrivel up. It’s not about talking back or having a smart mouth, it’s about his level of toleration. Or maybe he hasn’t found the woman yet who will balance him out enough to make him happy to compensate or some shit.
Meanwhile I’m enjoying having this woman around and not having to worry about her setting North off. Besides, she’s tied to club business and I need to keep my cock far away from her. Yet it doesn’t necessarily mean I have to keep complete distance, I just need to keep boundaries in place and make sure that shit doesn’t blur. The both of us head back to the main room of the clubhouse.
From the corner of my eye I see Hadley rush into the room. Her hands start to fly and I’m having trouble keeping up. I’ve only been trying to learn sign language in the last few months and let me tell you, that shit ain’t easy.
Vienna giggles beside me and reaches out to Hadley. Now I’m watching these two going back and forth waving hands. I’m fucking stunned Vienna can sign and my brother, Depay, is assessing the whole thing with hawk eyes too. Hadley and Vienna keep throwing signs and giggles back and forth while everyone in the room is now focused on them.
Diamond, Depay’s wife, moves in next to me and whispers, “I don’t care where you found her or who she is...but you keep her, okay?”
I snicker and whisper back, “She’s a special agent whose sister is missing. My hands are tied when it comes to club business.”
Depay’s Old Lady shrugs. “Look around. I’d say the vote would be unanimous for you to dabble in club business. Oh, wait...where’s North? Ah. Oh. Shit. Okay.”
My eyebrows scrunch up. “What the fuck does the rambling of that last throw of words mean, woman?”
“Nothing.” Diamond is suddenly all smiles and slides to Depay who pulls her close and kisses her temple.
Depay locks eyes with me. “Come on, let’s leave them to it while we head into Church.”
I take one final glance at Vienna but she’s now pulled into a discussion with Diamond, Lips, Roan, and the other Old Ladies. It’s safe to say they’ll keep her busy while I take the time to bury myself in the case of her missing sister.
Lochlan places a mug of steaming coffee in front of him as he takes a seat beside me. “Nice catch. Tell me you’re happy I called last night ‘cause I had an emergency I had to take care of, allowing you two to take my place and go to the meeting.”
I slowly shake my head. Asshole. “You and your emergencies. You just didn’t want to leave your woman.”
A smile spreads Lochlan’s face. “True. But when I read the file about a missing agent, I knew you two would be the team this case needed. Besides, I too
k the escaped convict case and was in bed before midnight.”
“Nice.” I lift my chin. “Rub it in why don’t you. Would have saved a truckload of issues if we didn’t swap cases, asshole.”
“You’re welcome,” the asshole says and leans back in his chair to lazily sip his fucking coffee.
Chopper strolls into the room with a large pile of files. He puts them on the table and starts to hand each one their own file. When I take a glance inside, the first thing I see is a picture of Reva. I did see a few at Vienna’s house but this one is a rather large mug shot while the ones at their home were the full body vacation shots from a distance.
“Hot freaking damn.” Lochlan whistles. “If no one’s gonna say it, I will. If it wasn’t sure these two are twins, it is now...or we already found her and she’s sitting at the bar, keeping our Old Ladies company.”
“The only difference is the haircut,” Broke muses while he holds Reva’s photograph up.
“No,” I snap, somewhat annoyed they’re talking about Vienna now too. While it’s common to talk through details, it rubs me the wrong way now. As if it’s already become personal for me.
Broke raises his eyebrow and I know my VP just gave me an underlying reprimand about the snap in my voice. I mumble out an apology and throw the file I was holding onto the table.
“No, they might look the same but from the discussions I’ve had with Vienna about her sister, I’ve come to know they function differently and also don’t have the same character. For instance, Vienna turned Reva’s Bearded Dragon into a vegan these last few days ‘cause she doesn’t do the whole insect thing. Reva, on the other hand, does and is consumed with computers while her sister is more of a field agent. Vienna’s got a temper, smart mouth, and knows how to handle herself while Reva is the timid one, assessing every angle, and almost never raises her voice.”
Deeds sits down in his chair. “Counterparts. Good to know. If she indeed is the timid one, she might have a shot of keeping her head on her body. It’s been eleven days all ready, right? Makes me fucking wonder why we were only contacted yesterday instead of bringing us in sooner.”
“They’ve kept it in house way too long,” I agree. “Might have something to do with the fact Vienna thinks there’s a rat in the team. It’s also why she tried to function as the contact person while obviously she wasn’t.”
Broke places his forearms on the table. “Turned out for the best you two went in and decided to take her side instead of ditching her and going with Wyman. Have you read the four pages of information Chopper added? If I would have to guess who the rat in their team is...I’d put my money on him.”
My interest is drawn and I gather the papers Broke mentioned and glance them over. “Motherfucker,” I growl. “How come these pencil dicks don’t see what kind of snake they have in their midst?”
“Because,” Chopper grins. “They don’t have me. We found these files harder to get than the oil buried in the ground of Alaska. Nash is still trying to dig up some more dirt on these fuckers, it’s why he isn’t here with us now.”
“We can’t put a spotlight on the guy yet,” Depay muses, making all eyes land on him. “You have to keep an eye on this fucker, yes, but don’t let it appear as if you know the skeletons he’s hiding. If he is in fact working with the ones who took Reva, they might get rid of her.”
Fuck. I know he’s right.
“Okay, enough with the half details. Someone hit the lights. Chopper, debrief all of us on the case at hand because I’ve decided to bring all of you in on this case. It’s been eleven days; we need to get this agent back as soon as possible before this turns into bringing a body home. Besides, it’s too big to only put two guys on it. Well, one ‘cause where the hell is North?”
“Taking care of the Bearded Dragon,” I chuckle.
“Fuckin’ figures, him and his damn love for animals. Fine. You can update him when he finally drags his ass in here,” Deeds sighs, stands up, and decides to plunge the room into darkness himself.
“Zay Brice, also known as Shade, because he’s a damn shadow. No one does business directly with this guy and yet everyone who is a player in the underworld who needs to get their hands on either drugs or weapons knows the road to get to this fucker. And it’s not only the usual drugs or weapons...this guy can get you anything from an organ to the house of your dreams, a slave in your basement or the golden teeth of a fucker who stole the parking space right before you. Whatever you need...go online, place an ad and he will answer. Well, not him directly obviously, someone from his team. There’s a whole network behind it. Pretty sure this is the reason why they’ve waited so long to contact us. They don’t want to have us dive into this case. They want to bring down every damn contact involved in this online black-market and not just Shade or get Reva back. They consider her expendable with the whole bigger picture thing.”
The screen switches to a network of photographs. This fucker, Shade, has three guys working directly underneath him and they have people working underneath those and so on. Chopper gives a little introduction for all the lead characters.
Chopper shows us another shot, but this guy is presumed dead. It’s Zay Brice’s brother, Beau. He was killed four weeks ago when a major player named Blancher wanted to take over. Clearly, Blancher failed but managed to kill Beau, though it says here his body was never found.
Blancher hasn’t been heard from since. As if the fucker went into hiding and it’s a little hard to believe because this guy owns a large computer software company. But I guess when you have the kind of money this guy has, everything is possible. The screen switches again and everyone in the room curses until the room goes dead silent.
“The body of an older woman with her head, hands, and feet cut off was found yesterday. There were several fresh, and old, burn marks on her body and on one side of her face was a B wrapped in swirls.” Chopper switches the screen and a seal like what he just described appears. “I have reason to believe this woman who was chopped up was a former hacker who went missing a few years ago. I’m waiting on dental records to confirm since the fingerprints were burned right off.”
Fear starts to burn low in my gut. “She’s been replaced by Reva,” I growl.
Chopper points right at me. “I’m thinkin’ the same thing, man.”
“Fuck. You know that’ll make it harder for us to find her ‘cause I’m thinking the fucker will keep her close.” My head is pounding. This is as bad as it gets and I now fully understand why Deeds didn’t leave the case up to me and North; we all need to be involved.
Deeds hits the lights and takes his seat. “We’re cutting off all connections, screw the contact with the government. We don’t need to keep them in the loop. And this Wyman fucker demanded a personal meeting with me right after the woman sitting at our bar took over his job last night. As if he thinks we’d listen and not find out he’s fucking two-timing everyone. But I also don’t think it’s smart to...”
“Vienna stays in the fucking loop,” I growl, knowing very well what my Prez was about to say. “She risked her damn job by interfering last night. She has been nothing but forthcoming when it comes to giving information and cooperation. Hell, I’m thinking she was the only one who kept the fire burning to find her sister.”
Deeds glances around the table and shoots his VP a look. Broke gives him a slight nod in return.
“If there’s so much as a doubt she’s in on shit, interferes, or in any way blocks our actions...she’s out. Understood?” Deeds snaps.
I lift my chin and it’s settled. The rest of the meeting it’s about dividing tasks to make sure everyone is focused on doing their part in this case. Both me and North are assigned with finding out more information we can out of Vienna.
Chopper already gathered a lot of information and with it we have a few leads we need to check out. But the hardest part now is keeping some of the information from Vienna. I don’t like it but it’s necessary. Fuck. Bile is rising in my throat when I think a
bout the woman who was found dead yesterday. Those burn marks, old and fucking new...what if this fucker Shade already started to brand Reva as his? Yeah, withholding details from her is a necessity at this time.
Chapter Six
***Vienna***
My gaze keeps sliding to the door of the room where all the bikers have been gathered for hours now. I understand their rules but I would have been more use to them being included, rather than sitting here talking to their women and kids.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bored or annoyed by their presence. On the contrary, these are very nice women; friendly, open, funny, welcoming. Not to mention the kids are adorable, maybe a bit hyper, but cute nonetheless. But I need the information and details they are discussing in Church.
And I also appreciated when Kray said he’d update me on the case once they’re done, but I’m not an idiot. I know very well not every single detail will be shared with me. Simply because if I was working the case, I would keep some details to myself. It’s just the way things work; you need to, for the sake of the case.
Not to mention I’m not in my right mind with the person missing being my sister. And I know damn well with each day passing the window of getting her home alive and safe is getting smaller and smaller. Though, I also know she was taken because of her abilities and won’t be of any use to them if she’s dead. Comforting, right? Hell, no.
The door to Church swings open and the guys all head in different directions. I feel a hand on my thigh, giving it a little squeeze as Lips says, “Try not to worry too much and focus on the case. If anyone can find your sister and bring her home, it’s these guys, okay?”
I hope the smile I manage comes across as genuine. I’m trying here but it’s hard to do when you’re surrounded by strangers. Turning to bikers who balance the thin line of the law and handle everything how they deem fit.
Kray (Broken Deeds MC, #6) Page 5
