CHAPTER
ELEVEN
Icer
After breakfast,we were rushed into church while Zoey promised she’d probe Letti, find out how and where she was taken so we can take some precautionary measures and figure out if it’s safe or not to send her home.
My vote is no.
I don’t want her anywhere near anything she was around when she was taken since they know the ins and outs of her old stomping grounds. The Onyx pussies are going to be more spiteful than they were before and they’ll try to recoup those we took from them.
I’m sitting at the table, trying not to be distracted by my wandering thoughts when Rip bangs the gavel on the plank, launching our session into action.
“The Dragons have declared war and I’ve accepted,” Rip starts, addressing the room immediately after banging his gavel and calling church into session. “You guys know usually I bring thisto the table for a vote and put out feelers to the other presidents of the Kings. However, they didn’t give me a choice in the matter.”
From the talk around the clubhouse, Jeremiah and Patrick had the kahunas to pick up the phone and initiate threats toward Rip and the club in general. There’s also a rumor going around that a package was delivered, yet nobody knows what the contents were, but whatever was inside, had Riptide stomping around and cursing up a blue streak.
I would’ve accepted too, plus given them a few choice words and threats of my own to top off the conversation.
But again, I don’t have the patience or the wherewithal to sit back with a glass of brandy while they spit bile from their mouths. I would’ve lost my ever-loving shit and gone off on them. That’s why I’m the muscle, not the brains of this operation.
“How’s that?” Indiana asks him, leaning forward in his chair, leveling Rip with a scalding look. Indiana’s been on edge since we found out Zoey and Elodie had been taken, and he hasn’t settled even after rescuing and bringing them back home.
“They took Sphinx’s sister and have used her to keep him in line,” he informs us through gritted teeth. “I don’t know how they figured out he was a King, but they have and they sent me back a piece of him.”
“They sent you back a piece,” I snarl. “What ‘piece’ did they send you, pres?” I knew sending one of our own undercover was a bad idea, but I didn’t voice that loudly enough and I’m pissed at myself for it. One of our own has been permanently maimed and it has my fists clenching on my lap.
Rip looks me dead in the eye before admitting, “His eye,” Riptide says, his skin glowing a translucent shade of nothing. “And a picture of him holding a news article with the date on it as proof of life, zeroing in on his socket that had blood dripping down his face. We accept the war or we continue getting him back one chunk at a time.”
“What else do they want?” Indiana asks, his jaw locking and murder in his eyes.
“Elodie,” Rip reluctantly answers.
The entire room blows up and I toss my chair across the room where it splinters into fragmented pieces. “They aren’t getting my princess!” I roar. “They’re out of their fucking minds if they think that’s gonna happen. We need to save our brotherwithoutgiving them one fucking thing.”
“If it’s war they want, it’s war they’ll get because they aren’t going to lay a single finger on my daughter!” Indiana thunders.
“Agreed,” Riptide says, nodding his head. “But now we need to put the word out that we’re officially at war with the Dragons to the rest of the Kings and start doing some recon.”
“Who’s going?” Indiana inquires.
“Since it’s your daughter, Indiana, and your niece, Icer, I thought I’d let you two pick who is going to man this operation for you while you two stay behind here at the clubhouse keeping her safe,” Rip briefs us. “I won’t be standing on the sidelines, but you two are the ones who are knowledgeable on who can get the job done quicker and stealthier.” It’s our place in the club to train the men, and we’re the ones who’re intimately aware of what they can do and what they can’t.
Indiana and I glance at each other, having a private conversation and nod our heads in agreement. Indiana voices our choices, “Shade, Ozzie, Rebel, and Renegade.”
Rip nods his head and glances around, making eye contact with the men. When they all accept the decision by bobbing their heads, he turns back to me and says, “Sounds good to me because that’s who I’d put in those positions too. Time is crucial here, guys. We need to know where they go, who they see, and where they take a shit. I want to know every goddamn gruesome detail.”
“Everyone else is dismissed,” Slayer says, his chin pointing toward the door. When the rest of our brothers file out, he runs his hands through his hair. “I don’t want to lose another brother, fuck knows we know what we sign up for when we put on our cut, but Sphinx was this close to being patched.” He holds his fingers up where there’s hardly a space between them. “We need to find out where they’re holed up. I don’t give the first fuck if you take Patrick’s mother or Jerome’s father into custody if it brings them out from their hidey hole.”
“I agree with our VP,” I grind out. “And since we found out that Zoey’s parents are in on this bullshit, we could bring them in too and interrogate them.”
“Was going to suggest the same thing,” Indiana conveys. “They know more about the happenings with the Dragons than what they let on.”
“And that church they’re involved with, there’s something fishy going on there too,” Renegade reminds us.
“We can’t take the entire congregation,” Slayer cackles. “Although, it’s not a bad idea. If we get the leaders, Patrick’smother, and Jerome’s father, that’ll leave them without any connections.”
“They’re probably the ones financing them being underground,” Indiana adds.
