“Asshole,” I greeted him calmly.
Still straddling the bike, he pushed up the gut-smeared faceplate and grinned through his beard. “McQuestion sends his regards to Little Girl, Shining Smith, made-man, daughter of the war chief and then the international president, Bill Smith.”
So. McQuestion knew my name and lineage. It was going to happen eventually, and wasn’t surprising, but it was still sucky.
“Greetin’s and felicitations,” a Southern voice said over the speaker system. Jolene was sticking her nose in.
At my feet, Spy let out a loud“Siss Mrower! Orrrowmerow,”telling me that though she knew this man and had fought mutual enemies with him, right now he was an invader and bad news all around. To Spy, something was off about him—anger in his body language, tension in his face, probably something she could detect in his scent.
Yeah. Not my Jagger.McQuestion’sJagger.
From my other side came Tuffs’s decidedly lower-pitched“Baaaahr.” This place is ours. Cats were all around me now, weaving or staring or hiding in ambush, eyes on Jagger.
Into my ear, Mateo said, “Passive systems just pinged. He’s wired. He may be under suspicion by his boss.”
That was even more bad and meant I needed to step carefully. I let a tiny smile move my lips. “Asshole. Logan Jagger, national enforcer to McQuestion. Little Girl attends you. But if you move wrong, you will be struck down and killed and your innards given to the cats. We clear?”
“Crystal.”
Tuffs said,“Kkkkk.”Dead humans.Good protein. The rest of the cats echoed her,“Kkkkk”coming from all around me and resounding into the junkyard.
Mateo said into my comms, “One tiny cam on his bike, facing you. Someone’s getting a real good look at you, Shining.”
“Why did you identify yourself as Heather on my last visit?” Jagger growled. “And where is this boss you claim to have?”
As lies went, that was a good one, questions that might keep him alive if the cam and the mic meant he was under threat. I pursed my lips, thinking. Popped a hand on a hip and said, “Intel said MSA was moving in. I’m outta the loop on OMW operational protocols and the current organizational situation. I had no idea if you were compromised. Still don’t. So I lied. It’s not a killing offense.” I grinned briefly. “Not most of the time.”
The tension in Jagger’s face eased. My words told him that I had caught on and he could relax some. He said, “Red’s Old Lady has been contacting leaders of the biker clubs and companies all over the eastern half of the US for a parley.”
“Eastern” meant east of the Mississippi. Most of the land to the west was barren desert, ruins, and PRC bots, with a few outposts of civilization and the military still fighting the good fight against decreased rainfall, floods, and autobots that built more bots out of the remains of cities.
“Red’s Old Lady has a name.”
Jagger ignored that. “Last time there was an attempt at a negotiation, twenty-four ended up dead.”
I made a little finger twirl, gesturing him to keep talking.
“And McQuestion’s IT man says some of the communications can be traced to these coordinates.”
Bloody damn.Jolene and Cupcake had slipped up somewhere. But it was too late to go back. “So you put two and two together and figured out Heather was an alias.”
“And the woman you call Cupcake was Red’s Old Lady in the Hells Angels.”
“Not bad IT work. Hope you don’t mind if we keep our weapons on you.”
Jagger grinned and set his kickstand, but he stayed sitting, his jeans stretching over parts of him that I would not be interested in.
Not.
Never.
Liar.
“A fortified cabin, within a few miles of a major interstate highway, was in the hands of the MSA. Then in the hands of an OMW made-man. That would be you, Little Girl. And you gave that fortress away without McQuestion’s consent. Yougave away propertytoMarconi, aHells Angels chapter president,” he enunciated carefully, as if to point out my stupidity.
I chuckled and shrugged, a “so what?” expression on my face.
“Marconi then moved up in the Hells Angels. He’s now a regional president, and he’s so powerful he may as well be co-prez now. McQuestion is not happy.”
