“I had to, man. He told me I was in charge. Thanks a fucking lot.”
“Don’t be a pussy.”
“You see what Dirt does to people who piss him off?”
I laughed. “Sure have. Clear this house with me.”
Both of us turned to the back of the house when we heard a door slamming, more muted yelling and then the tell-tale sound of fists hitting flesh.
“I’m only going along with this because the bastard deserves it,” Felix grumbled as he took out a gun and headed for the stairs.
I felt a little bad about dropping him in it. Lana was about to give birth any day, he didn’t need to be on Dirt’s bad side. I’d convince the council these guys all had no choice but to go along with us. Down the narrow hallway, I could see into a kitchen. Handlebar was holding Omen on a chair as War used something to tie him to it.
Omen was bleeding from his mouth and his eyebrow was split. I walked through the rest of the ground floor, making sure no one else was here and met Felix as he came back down the stairs. He nodded we were good.
“Keep an eye out the front,” I told him.
“My pleasure,” he saluted me with two fingers. “Give him a hit from me,” he added angrily. “He deserves everything he has coming.”
Yeah. He did. Felix left and I headed to the kitchen. It was pretty old fashioned in here, faded yellow Formica worktops over dingy white cabinets. The stove looked at least twenty years old. There were dirty dishes in the sink and on a dining table behind War, who stood with his arms crossed, glaring down at Omen.
They all looked at me as I came in. Omen’s eyes widened and he started to shake his head.
“Hustle, you’ve gotta believe me, I didn’t know what they were going to do.”
War moved past me and punched him again, hitting him so hard the chair moved. I gave him a disapproving look and he shrugged at me, as if to say “what?” I nudged him to back the fuck up. I saw movement outside of the window and reached for my gun again.
“Casper,” Handlebar said making me relax. “Keeping an eye on the back.”
I nodded. He walked over to the kitchen door and leaned against it, folding his arms. Handlebar wasn’t usually the kind to be involved in this stuff, but he was a brother in the club and this fucker betrayed us. Didn’t matter what part you played, something like this happens, you take part where you’re needed.
I pulled up another dining chair and put it in front of Omen. He was sobbing and spittle and blood was dripping from his mouth onto his shoulder where his head lolled. I was surprised War hadn’t knocked him unconscious with that hit. He was definitely disorientated.
I straddled the chair, which I had placed facing away from him, and leaned my arms up against the back of it. I stared at Omen until he eventually looked up at me, his eyes rolling slightly as he tried to focus. I smiled, it wasn’t a nice smile which was clear when Omen began shaking.
“Let’s talk.”
Chapter Seven
This was where my expertise came in. What most people didn’t realise was, the old saying was true, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Omen had been one of us for years, yes he’d fucked up, let a pussy lead him astray. I had to play on that side of him, the feelings he had for the club. There had to be some of that still in there.
For a long time, I stared at Omen. War was antsy, he paced a little until I glared at him. He stopped moving, the tension in the air was high. Despite the reasons for one of our brothers being tied to a chair, it was still a hard pill to swallow. Both of them understood I needed quiet, stillness.
Another tactic that held a lot of merit was keeping your silence during an interrogation, letting your target fill it, tripping themselves up or giving you information they hadn’t intended. It was a tried and true tactic for me. It didn’talwayswork, but with Omen it was the right move.
Initially, Omen kept up the eye contact, then his eyes lowered, his head dipping, so his chin rested on his chest. A couple of tears fell, splashing onto his t-shirt. I didn’t feel sorry for him. What was coming for him was inevitable, everyone in the room knew it. Question was,would he do anything to redeem himself before it happened? I didn’t have to say anything, he started speaking on his own.
“Lily never told me what they planned on doing,” he said on a stutter. “Just said it was important she got Waverley away from the Devil’s.”
“Where have they taken her?”
I wasn’t going to engage with his bullshit excuses. I wanted to get to the heart of the matter, and fast. I didn’t think Dirt was about to burst in here and put a stop to it, but I wasn’t going to hang around waiting for him to show either.
“I don’t know,” he raised his head, trembling. “I swear, Hustle. Once we got off the compound, we drove to this meeting place, there was another van there, two guys were waiting. Lily went with them and they…” he paused and gulped, looking away.
“Did they hurt her?” my voice was even but my heart rate sped up. His next answer was make or break for him, our plan be damned.
“No, they just moved her. But, Lily…”
