“I don’t promise anyone anything,” King said. “I make business decisions and choices that will benefit my club and the people associated with it.”
“We’d wear your patch?” I don’t manage to keep the snarl out of my voice. “That won’t sit well with a lot of people.”
“Then you cut them loose. Or you go on the way you are. Or you leave, let them fall either way. The Irish have no interest in getting in between a failing MC and the cartel. But if you became a part of us,” he held his hands out.
He was a cunning bastard. I’d be stupid not to listen to him, because in all honesty, we didn’t have anything to offer him. At least, nothing that I could see right now. I’d been concerned about the cartel for a long time. They’d already attacked us years before when Tank ran us right onto their radar.
History was repeating itself. King was right, I’d had conversations with some of my brothers, people coming to me with concerns, people I could trust. Without even thinking about it, I could name the guys I knew would come with me if I brought this up.
The problem was relinquishing our patches and taking on theirs. Whether or not he said we’d keep our own hierarchy, be our own chapter, I didn’t know how many of my brothers could make that switch. Joining an MC wasn’t easy and yet he was willing to take us on. Which was where I got suspicious.
“Oversight?” I asked.
“Of course, there would need to be. There would need to be trust, an understanding, which at the moment, neither of us have. So yeah, for a while you wouldn’t have complete autonomy,” he shrugged. “I’m not here to convince you, Mace. I’ve laid it out, it’s up to you. Once this is over, you can go talk to the men we have locked up, we’ll let you all go and you can make your decision from there. We won’t come after you, if I have your word we will have no trouble from you.”
He wasn’t actually giving me a choice. We either signed up on this offer, or we ended up dismantled, or worse, dead. There would be no way to deal with the cartel now, there were also other gangs I knew Nytro had pissed off, running protection and selling product for rivals for too many years had cultivated that hatred of us.
King was right, our name was destroyed. I just hadn’t seen it all until this whole mess. Danica strolling in and using us how she wanted, drove that home too. It wasn’t the club I’d pledged my life to.
He left after that and Ballistic came in with War and ran through what I had to do tonight. I had to focus on this to prevent myself getting killed. After that, I was on my own. A decision weighing heavily on my shoulders.
I’d entertained the idea of taking over the Kingsmen for a while, figuring out how I could bring things back and make it safe again, but after King’s offer, the more I could see that was an impossible outcome.We had one other local chapter, but they’d distanced themselves a while ago and Nytro didn’t care enough to keep in touch with them. Reality was, the Kingsmen were fucked.
Ranger and Marla had agreed to be taken some place safe, I wasn’t sure how pissed he would be at me for that, but I knew what he would say about this offer from King. He’d want us to keep an identity, but it couldn’t be the same as it had been. With Nytro and Danica gone, the Walker’s would be wiped out. Only Kristy would remain but given the things I’d heard how War felt about her, she wouldn’t be around for much longer either.
It was time for a new start. I just didn’t like the idea of being under the Devil’s Chaos patch.
“How much longer?” I asked. I didn’t have a watch, or my phone. The meeting was set for eleven. We’d got here just after eight after it was confirmed to be safe. Brick and Fisheye had arrived after us and were out of earshot from where we were waiting.
Hustle took his phone out and glanced at the lit up screen. I hadn’t heard a sound, it must have vibrated in his pocket. He read it, then looked up at me. “We have eight guys, all in ski masks and heavily armed, just pulled up off the main road. They’re making their way through the woods on foot. Another two vans have pulled up a couple of miles down the road.”
“Shit,” I muttered. “I have no idea where he could have got support like that.”
“I don’t think they’re with Nytro.”
My head came up. “Meaning?”
“Wait here.” He walked away from me.
I couldn’t hear what he was saying as he made a call. Fuck, I glanced around. It was cold out here. Ballistic loaned me a thick black hoody, he was big and broad like me, so it fit fine. Still, the wind was picking up and it was blowing my hair about my forehead. I started to get a really uneasy feeling. I made sure to keep Hustle in my sights. Who the fuck else was out here? And who where they after, Nytro or the Devil’s?
Hustle hung up and came back to me. “Let’s go.”
“What?” I stiffened as he started to move past me.
“Come or stay, I don’t give a shit, but we have a bigger problem than Nytro right now.”
“Who are they?”
“Cartel.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, shit. Seems your asshole boss has pissed them off one too many times.” Hustle walked into the trees. “I don’t know how they figured where they were gonna be, they must have followed them. They’re probably laughing their asses off at how easy Nytro has made this for them, coming out here.”
“What about your men?”
“They’re pulling back.” For a second, he looked pained, as if he didn’t know whether to tell me or not, but we were here together, and it would be stupid to keep me in the dark. “We’re on our own getting to the outer ring where they’ll be waiting for us. King can’t risk sending anyone in. They’re too heavily armed and this isn’t something we want to get in the middle of.”
