“That bitch was always fucking trouble,” Ballistic grunted. He gave King a look that wasn’t even the slightest bit apologetic about his ex-old lady.
“Preaching to the choir, man,” King said. “War and Waverley are the only good thing that came from that whore.”
I looked to see how War was taking this, but he was unaffected.
He didn’t know his mother and spent most of his life hearing she abandoned him and his sister. She might as well be a stranger.
“I’ve got Kansas digging into Danica’s family history. Part of me is wondering if she was a plant or if she really ran from them. Although when she went back, her father was long dead. I don’t know where she was between leaving here and going back there two years ago, but I need to find out.”
Everyone nodded, making affirmative noises.
“Hustle, I think you’re owed a little payback. We need to make an example and show them we’re not intimidated by them.”
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
He pointed at the screen, frozen in the empty living room.
“Leave him in his house. I want them to find him. Take the camera, leave them guessing how we knew to hit him. I’m sure they’re wondering what happened to that other cunt. It’s time we fucked with the Kingsmen.”
Chapter 13
Still wearing his gloves, War took the camera from the shelf and tucked it under his cut into the pocket of the black hoodie he was wearing. We had waited until the dead of night, watching the house until the lights went out and Kansas checked the feeds on his phone to show Stiverson had gone upstairs.
There was no way of knowing whether we were walking into him still awake, but there were three of us and one of him and we had known he was alone. We weren’t worried.
It hadn’t been too hard breaching the house again. We moved like a well-oiled machine, silent as we made our way through the house, clearing everywhere just to be certain.
Kansas was standing in the kitchen smoking a cigarette, his hand shaking. I’d already told him to make sure he pocketed the stub. I didn’t think it was a good idea to bring him along, but King wanted to test him, he’d spent a lot of time inside the clubhouse doing his techie thing but being a part of the MC meant being a part of all aspects of it.
If we were having the patching in tomorrow for him, King needed to be sure Kansas could stomach this. He’d surprised me. He hadn’t puked, but he was rattled. It was the first time someone had been killedin front of him. Kind of a rite of passage for a prospect, as horrible as that seemed.
His response was normal though. Not everyone was hardened to the wet work, but he couldn’t shy away from it. I would let King know he hadn’t run or done anything stupid, even if he hadn’t partaken and he looked as if he had seen a ghost.
To be fair, War had done the damage to Stiverson. We’d only spent twenty minutes talking to him because we weren’t in a safe environment. Anything could surprise us. We asked a few questions, but he gave us nothing. He had nothing to lose and was loyal to his club. I’d say it was admirable if he wasn’t such a fucking prick.
He had a big mouth though, was creative with his insults and threatened our mothers and our sisters. I didn’t think he had meant it, it was just a generalization, but given what was going on with Waverley, War had taken that one threat personally and Stiverson lost two teeth for it.
I’d frowned at him for making a mess, but he’d just given me a dark glare that told me to keep the fuck out of it. We didn’t intend to torture the guy this time. We knew what part he had played in the attack on Connor and now the compound, so despite the little tantrum, War put a bullet in his head using Stiverson’s own gun.
I had offered to be the one to do it, but War was on a mission to avenge Connor, and nothing was going to stop him.
After we’d cleaned up any evidence of our being here, we left Stiverson where he was, tied up at his kitchen table, then taken the camera and snuck back out of the house.
A lot of the guys gave Ballistic a wide birth, knowing the things he did, and I was taking over from him when the time came, so by default, people were wary around me, even though I’d barely had anything to do with beating this shithead up tonight.
War said nothing, he just headed away from the house. Our faces were covered by bandanas, Kansas and I were wearing caps pulled down low, we were careful to keep out of sight as much as possible until we got back to our bikes.
Back at the compound, after cleaning up, War and I sat together at the bar.
“What do you think the Kingsmen will make of this?” I asked, sitting back, taking a drag of a cigarette, and leaving it dangling from my lips asI spoke. “They’ll know the people we’re hitting are the ones who were involved in what happened to Connor. They might not put two and two together that we know this guy was involved with the bombing.”
War shrugged. “I don’t give a fuck what they think, but they’re not stupid. They hit us. One of their guys winds up dead. King is right, they will know we did this. It’s a message, that’s all. Plus, I get to wipe another son of a bitch off my list.”
I pinched the cigarette between the tips of my fingers and stomped it out in an ashtray. After some thought and watching War down his shot, I said, “Do you think what we’re doing is the right way to go about handling this?”
“What do you mean?” War looked up, a dark storm in his eyes. “I’d rip their fucking heads off if I could for what those sons of bitches did to Con.”
“Yeah, that’s a given,” I waved my hand. “But in terms of the other stuff going on. I know King wants to understand things with Danica and the reasons behind why they want at Wave. Doesn’t it feel like we’re wasting time going after these guys?”
