“Are you sure?” he asks, leaning forward to see Stryker.
“Would I make this up?” he asks without raising his head.
“We need to kick him out, after we kick his fucking ass,” Fury leans back in his chair, resting one elbow on the arm rest, his fist clenched.
After I let them have their say, they all look at me. “I appreciate you are all pissed about this. I am too. Chains has been with us for a long time. He’s been a friend, a brother and he’s family,” I nod towards Stryker, but he still has his head down. “You all know we’ve been looking for answers about who is coming at us and this is a solid lead. Right now, that is all it is.”
Stryker’s head comes up, his expression is unreadable to most. It’s not that I don’t trust his intel, we need to see it firsthand and not believe a man at a cage fight who was pissed about what happened to him. I explain that to them all and more discussions ensue about the best course of action.
“There is merit to what we have learned,” I say when they’ve all quietened down. “But we are going to look into this ourselves.”
“Prez, Storm is a fucking traitor who has held a grudge from the moment we kicked him out. You know he is capable of this shit.”
“I’ve heard what everyone has had to say,” I tell Fury.
As the club’s enforcer, it often falls to him to handle situations like this. He was the one who burned Storm’s patch tattoo off his arm before we kicked him out.
“Nashville,” I look to my sargent-at-arms. “Get close to Chains, watch him, try to feel him out. Stryker, be yourself, don’t change your habits but keep your ear to the ground at the ring. Beast, I know your friends with Chains, are you going to be able to be around him and not give anything away?”
“If he’s a fucking traitor like Storm, he is no friend to me, Prez,” he shakes his head and his face hardens. “I know what I need to do.”
“Good. Blaze, find out everything you can about where he’s been, who he’s talking to, texts, emails, anything you can find. Storm too. Iwant to know everyone he has spoken to, worked with, fucked, right down to the tiniest detail over the last three years.”
I warn everyone else to do what they can and to keep this information behind these doors. If Chains is a traitor, and Storm thinks he can come after this MC, I intend to make sure he never sees us coming.
Once everyone is dismissed and filed out, Rebel gets up from his seat. Nashville glances back, sees us standing together and closes the door behind him.
“Stryker wouldn’t turn on his cousin if he didn’t believe it.”
“I know,” I rub a hand over my head. Rebel is the only one who gets to see the less authoritative side of me. It’s why he is my VP.
“You’re probably doing the right thing,” he says.
“Probably?” I give him a look.
His smile is grim. “We can’t drag our heels on this. If he is what Stryker thinks he is, letting him stay here is going to look bad.”
“Getting as much information out of him while he still thinks he’s safe is more important than how it looks. The others will see that.”
“You have doubts?” Rebel reads me with ease.
I think on it for a moment, then shake my head. “No, you’re right, Stryker wouldn’t have come to me if he didn’t believe it of his own family. Make sure Blaze works fast on finding connections. Keep an eye on Fury, he didn’t take Storm’s departure well and we both know he can let his emotions get the better of him.”
Rebel snorts. “That’s one way to put it.”
Storm was in the hospital for three weeks after Fury finished with him.
“I thought it was bad before,” I grab my phone and push it into my pocket. “If this is coming from within, it is going to get so much worse.”
Rebel doesn’t answer. He knows what I mean. If we have one traitor, there may be more.
“What are you going to do now?” Rebel asks.
He doesn’t mean about this, he means in general. He’s probably expecting me to go home but the way I’m feeling right now, I can’t take this back to the house. Jesse will have already put Oscar to bed so all I would do is go home and brood.
“It’s been a fucking week,” I blow out a heavy sigh. “Let’s go next door.”
His smile says he is down with that idea. It is not off my mind, but having a few drinks and trying to put it out of my mind for a few hours is the best thing I can do right now.
