Vandal
The room where we convened for church was filled with a thick, silent tension that said we all knew why the fuck we were here.
My hands rested on top of the hand-crafted table in tightly balled up fists. My anger over the incident at the restaurant hadn’t lessened one fucking bit. Rage vibrated along every inch of my skin and all the brothers knew it. The long table was crowded with patched Steel Demons and for some reason, a few prospects stood along one wall, looking nervous yet excited to be let into the inner sanctum.
Shit was serious.
Slate sat across from me in front of the only electronic device allowed inside this room. Dark circles and bloodshot eyes told me that we hadn’t been summoned herejustbecause of what happened to me and Macy.
Diesel stood up and, as Prez, he started the meeting the way he usually did before turning to Slate. “He can explain this shit better than me, so Slate take the floor.”
He nodded, raking one hand through his hair. “T-Bone and a few prospects got back from Georgia last night. They tore Halloran’s place apart and it was a fucking treasure chest.” He shook his head. “I was up all night going through the flash drives and hard drives while Hawk, Pike, and Hollywood went through the paperwork.” He pointed to several stacks of paper with a heavy sigh.
“Yeah, yeah,” Rebel rolled his eyes, a playful smirk on his face. “You guys are all fucking amazing. Grateful, blah, blah, blah.”
Slate flipped him off, but his gaze never left the screen in front of him.
“What did you find?” I finally asked when the quiet became too fucking quiet.
“Asshole kept everything,” Hawk grumbled. “Names and dates, transfer details, pay-offs. Everything, and the dumbass did it in excruciating detail. Who paid what, when and for what purpose.” Hawk shook his head. “Good for us.”
“Tons of fucking video too,” Slate added, his voice oddly quiet and calm.
The room fell silent at those five shocking words.
“What kind of video?” I asked, heart racing because the last thing I wanted to think about was there being video of what that asshole had done to Macy.
“Most of it is security footage from Diego’s properties and businesses, and some of it is surveillance on friends and enemies.”
I sat up tall and looked my friend right in his eyes. “And the rest?”
“The rest is fucked up, but it’s where shit starts to get interesting.” He didn’t elaborate and I was grateful for it. There was no need to voice what we already knew. “I’ve been cross-referencing what we found with what we already know about Diego’s side operations, and I have some ideas.”
“Good. Because that shit in the parking lot can’t happen again. They’re closer than we realize,” I said, my voice barely contained my rage. “The details of tonight meant they’ve been following us around, waiting for the right moment to strike, and they found it.” It was my fault, goddammit. I should’ve been more careful with Macy’s safety. My mind kept playing all the ways shit could’ve gone sideways, hell would have if Macy hadn’t found her courage.
“That was a bold move.” Diesel folded his arms and looked around the room. “They’re not scared, which probably means they already have backup. Numbers to take us on.”
“They could just be desperate,” Maverick offered. “Feeling the pressure from a pissed off boss because he hasn’t heard from his crooked cop in more than twenty-four hours.”
“We need to hit this motherfucker from all sides,” Diesel said, punctuating the words by smacking the table in front of him. “We need to leak info to the local PD down in Georgia and get them looking into Diego for real. Make him think Halloran’s double-crossed him.” His gaze was fixed on some spot in the middle of the table. “And use any other intel we uncover to fuck with the business, even if it means pissin’ off a cartel boss.”
Rocky nodded. “Yeah, we need to make sure all this shit hits that fucker at once. We need to intercept a few drug shipments he’ll be forced to explain, while the cops start asking loud questions about that dead girl.”
“Girls,” Slate corrected, his tone grim. “Halloran looked into the disappearance of five teenage girls that he managed to connect to Diego. The evidence is there but it’s notbeyond a reasonable doubtthere.”
The room fell silent, as if each of us was finally coming to terms with the kind of asshole we were dealing with. This wasn’t just a criminal, this was a bad fucking dude, and the world would be better off if he was buried fifty feet deep.
“That motherfucker,” Rocky grunted, slamming his fist on the table hard enough that it echoed.
My thoughts went straight to Macy, to how close she’d come to being another dead girl in what looked like a long line of them. If she hadn’t run, hadn’t survived from one spot to the next with Halloran on her ass, her name and face would be in that file.
I’d never have known.
She was stronger now, I reminded myself, and thought back on the way she’d found her strength last night. She dove into action, no longer that frozen little girl too scared to fight back. “Can we send that info to the cops in Georgia from Halloran’s email?”
Slate nodded. “Exactly my thoughts.”
“Does Diego’s boss know what he’s up to? Halloran seems to think he’d have a problem with it.” Diesel was already thinking four steps ahead.
