“It’ll take a while for us to get it back up and running,” I point out.
“Yeah, good thing for insurance, otherwise this would be a bitch to fix when we’re already bleeding more money to other things.”
I get what Lucifer’s saying. The club just handed over a lot of cash to Fallen Meadows to start everything up for our part of the ranch. Della had already pointed out the area she wanted the dude ranch, and we were all waiting on a surveyor to come out and check out the property. Once we got the all-clear, construction would begin. The plan was for the dude ranch to be functioning within six months, a year at the latest.
Della had surprised me more by designing the logo for it with the same branding sign Tormentor made for the ranch. It looks the same, just added in the dude ranch part. She wanted to start advertising it right away and get people excited to book their time at ‘Playing Cowboy’.
Everything she’s been working on is behind the scenes, and prepping for it all, as the time comes, she’ll be able to run with it. This is just another thing about the woman I absolutely love. She doesn’t just sit and wait around. She focuses on what she can do in the here and now.
Hours later, my brothers and I finally move to sit around the table in church, the door closed, each of us with coffee in hand. None of us has slept, and we’re all dragging.
But regardless, that didn’t matter. Not when every one of us is rightfully pissed. Anger over what happened fills us all.
“Dread, pull up the feed for us,” Lucifer orders, getting right to the matter at hand.
A minute later, footage from tonight is playing on the flatscreen against the far wall for us all to view. My blood boils hotter as I watch the feed through the end.
“Whoever the fuck this person was, they were smart enough to keep their features concealed,” Dread grumbles, pausing the feed to enhance on the person in question. “It’s obvious whoever this person is, it’s a man. More than that, watch how they rush out of there and into the cargo van.”
“License plate?” Tormentor asks.
“No plates on it,” Dread states zooming in on the back of the van.
I didn’t like the fact we weren’t going to be able to get to the bottom of this quickly.
“Are we thinking retaliation?” Shade asks.
“Unless this is some fucked-up bullshit prank, it has to be,” Mammon retorts.
“Who would do it, though?” Tormentor demands.
“The only thing we can do is rule out the possibilities.”
“I hate to think it, but could this be blowback for Della standing up for Shadow against Deputy Norton?” Phantom asks.
Fuck.
I look at the feed again, focusing on the concealed man throwing the Molotov cocktail into Rodeo Roundup.
Could it be Norton behind this shit?
“I’ve been keeping an eye on that whole situation, regarding Norton,” Dread announces. “Can’t be him. Norton was fired the day after Della got in his face. After that, he packed up his shit and moved to Blackcreek with Marcy. Seems whatever Senator Ricks said to him, spooked him enough not to come after Della.”
“The fuck?” Nightmare sneers. “What the fuck is that shit about?”
“Don’t know, don’t care.” Dread shrugs. “All I know is it’s not him. So, that’s nixed one problem.”
“What about the last protection run?” Shade mentions. “Those two women we escorted for Esparza?”
“I’d have to call Esparza and find out, but we handed them off to the Grave Prowlers MC, who would make sure they were moved farther into hiding.”
The Grave Prowlers MC were allies of ours. We had no issues with the other club. Like ours, they had legit businesses, including a mortuary each club owned. My brothers had handed them off to Steel, and his men in Mississippi, who then took the package further up the coast to the North Carolina Charter who would take it from there.
“Think a call to Steel or Smoke would help? I could even reach out to Fool?” I ask. I know Fool. Not well, but I knew he was former military and now a member of the club. His brother, Hazard, was the Virginia Charter’s Enforcer.
“Fool was with Steel and his men. Him and his brother Hazard,” Shade grunts, giving us the details of those they met with.
Steel’s the President of the Mississippi charter, and Phoenix, being his VP, had been at the meet up along with Fool and Hazard. Since they were in town, they offered to take the package up the coast to Brim’s club in North Carolina. It makes sense they’d do it. Less headache for everyone involved.
