“There’s no room up here for you, Bro,” OD said, then groaned again as the dog stepped all over his legs as he made himself comfy near our feet.
The Rottie settled in then gave us a happy look as he laid his chin on my leg, watching us with utter adoration.
I smiled and settled back down against OD. Only one thing was missing. Ryan would love being near these guys. He’d been looking for a place to belong, and somehow I’d managed to find it. Now it was time to bring him home and show him the family that was slowly making room for me within their ranks. I had no doubts they would take in the two teenage boys who came with me.
CHAPTER 20
Overdrive
“What’re we looking at?” Ruck asked me.
All our officers were sitting around the table in our meeting room for church. It’d been twelve days of relative quiet. It had to be explained as relative because Bolo and Relay’s family was still here and the nature of their relatives meant it was inherently chaotic.
Glitch had just gotten back to me with what he’d found. It was a lot. He’d cc’d Ruck on everything, but he wanted me to tell the others. He sat back, arms crossed over his chest, watching me with an unwavering stare. I hated when he fucking did that. It was too much focus pinpointed on me.
I normally wasn’t the type to step up to leadership positions. I was the fuck up in the back making commentary under my breath as the do-gooders ran things. A lot had changed since those days and for some reason, unknown to me, Ruck had refused to allow me to join the MC unless I agreed to be his VP.
I’d held out for about a month, and then I’d finally given in and had been in the position since. I’d grown a lot and now was one of those same assholes who dedicated himself to the cause. Though I still usually cracked jokes at the same time. It was a dichotomy I’d embraced.
“Glitch has found pretty much everything we need,” I told our group. “This organization calls itself The Collective.” I didn’t need to look at the email to remember Glitch’s information. I’d read through it multiple times.
“Carrick is one of the low level bosses,” I continued. “There’s an impressive list of names he’s linked to this crew and though he doesn’t have the top name yet, it’s only a matter of time.”
“Anyone we know on it?” Kilo asked.
“Couple high level business men,” I replied. “No one to be concerned with by themselves.”
“But together it makes for a daunting task,” Ruck continued.
“Too much?” Relay asked with an arched brow.
“Fuck no,” Ruck said, scowling. “Doesn’t matter who pops up on that list, we’re not letting them continue this shit in our city. Look, I won’t sugar coat. If we were to try to hit them all at once, yeah, that would be too much. We’re going to have to be methodical. Take them out one, or two, at a time.”
“What kind of shit we talking about?” Bolo asked.
“Everything from recruiting kids, killing, racketeering, to extortion,” I answered. “Only thing Glitch hasn’t found yet is trafficking.”
“Thank fuck for small favors,” Drifter muttered.
“No shit,” Strike added. “The rest is bad enough, but to add that?” He shook his head.
“Or it means they’rereallygood at it,” I added. “Hopefully that’s not the case.”
“Doesn’t mean what we’re dealing with is much better,” Kilo pointed out.
“It’s really not,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck as I launched into just a bit of what the various levels of this organization dealt in. “Carrick, and a few others, do most of the recruiting for The Collective. That can be anything from luring young kids away from their families, usually teenage boys who’re looking for a place to belong-”
“Like Ryan,” Bolo said, a grim look crossing his face.
“Exactly,” I told him. “From that to basically kidnapping them. So it’s not considered trafficking because they aren’t reselling them, but they’re not exactly letting them leave either. At their ‘kindest,’” I made air quotes around the word, “they manipulate and brainwash the kids to the point that they don’t want to leave. But if they make a serious effort to go…”
“They end up dead on the street where Rue and the others in the medical community are called to try to help them,” Relay concluded.
Ruck and I both nodded.
“How the fuck have the cops not noticed this?” Strike asked with a sour look on his face.
“Yeah, entire police forces can’t be bought out. Someone should’ve picked up on this,” Drifter added.
