“What about her cousin?” I asked.
“The other one? Someone else was handling that. I don’t know.”
Standing, I asked, “So it wasn’t even about them? You just used them to track us?”
“And the rancher.”
“So, you were working for someone, a different rancher. Is that it?”
“We don’t work for nobody.” Sweat rolled down his face. “We were offered some money to handle that guy’s load.”
“You only in Cincy?”
“We’re everywhere, man,” he said with a bloody grin.
“Not here, though,” Eagle said. “We ran you fuckers right out of town.”
“Can’t speak for this area. I wasn’t down here until this assignment. But best believe, for every one of us you kill, two more join. You fucking clubs with your rules and codes are outdated, man. You’re a stain on the life,” he said with a sneer. “Hellbound Heathens are gonna restore what it used to be like. We take what the fuck we want, when we want it. And whether you want to admit it or not, you wish you could live like that. But don’t worry…we’re all hellbound in the end.”
With the pliers still in my grasp, I shoved them right into his eye socket, sending him backwards with a howl.
They were just using the women to get to us. And he confirmed what we thought: They were just a gang of lawless assholes, willing to pillage or deal with anyone.
“Kill me, asshole. You promised a quick death,” he spat out as he rolled on his side, holding the pliers coming from his eye.
“Promised?” I chuckled. “I don’t make promises to heathens. But don’t worry. You’ll meet your destiny soon enough.”
Chapter 25
Rooster
After a long night in the shed, we finally headed in when the shift for the watch changed. Sparrow had been fast asleep, and when I saw myself in the mirror, I was glad for it. I may have gotten a little carried away with those fuckers. But they were trying to take my woman. Whether it was just to get to the club didn’t make a difference to me. They should have known not to fuck with us to begin with, and fucking with women, especially mine, was the dumbest move they’d made. They’d met their destiny because of it.
From what Red explained about how it all had gone down, Sparrow probably knew those assholes were around here somewhere. Whether she realized they were on our property and weren’t immediately taken out wasn’t certain, but some things we didn’t discuss. She didn’t need the details. She knew me and my brothers would protect her and that’s whatmattered.
It still got under my skin that anything happened at all, and that I wasn’t there to save her. But Red handled business and made sure she was safe.
Hawk and the others had arrived earlier and once he knew what we’d already gotten out of them, he let me finish the job.
Sitting in Church after everyone had cleaned up, rested a bit, and eaten, we waited for Hawk to give us the next moves.
He’d had a rough few months since his pops was taken out, but I believed Raven would be proud. He sipped his whiskey as we sat quietly. Finally, he said, “So those idiots were just here for payback for their botched job, and they’re no longer a problem.”
We all nodded, and I clasped my hands together, looking down at what just hours ago had been bloody but now only had a few cuts and some bruising. I’d had worse, and probably would again. Those dipshits weren’t half as tough as they thought.
Hawk continued, “The old warehouse we found turned out to be a storage house for them. We still don’t know for sure if they have a base camp anywhere. Macon’s gonna keep a watch on the place. We ran the Heathens out of Atlanta, took out a chunk of their riders on that run with Sawyer, and just busted up their storage house. Macon already had his guys clear it out. I’m not sure we need to worry about them, but best not to let our guard down.”
“So those guys didn’t mention a rebuild?” I asked. “One of those idiots we had here said they were everywhere.”
Hawk traced the rim of his glass tumbler with his finger. “Maybe they are. Or maybe he was talking shit ‘til the very end. Like I said, we need to be mindful of any presence of them. I’ve spoken to the other chapters. We all have IT monitoring and we need to move fast if we see one of them around. But for now, they’re not a valid concern.”
“Without the Heathens, how can we find the trafficking ring?” Eagle asked.
“Or Raven’s killer?” Falcon asked.
Hawk’s icy gaze narrowed as he looked across the room at the banner on the wall. It had our patch displayed proudly at the top, and below that, the names of all our fallen brothers. Most were downed by a motorist, a few from the effects of the life stopping their heart, but some were due to club business. Raven was the latest addition to the memorialized ranks, and his was maybe the hardest to swallow.
He wasn’t in the midst of a deal. No business gone wrong. No bad blood being dealt with. No, he was riding home with his Old Lady, Mama Hen, after a long night of work for her at the strip club. Some fucking cowards clearly put a hit out, and we were still struggling to make connections to learn who. Every time we got one step closer, that lead fizzled out. We found the rat, but that led to more questions than answers.
