“I pay you to make sure I still wake up in the morning,” Roman replied. “Make sure this doesn’t get worse. We can talk compensation when it’s all over.”
The line clicked. Call over.
Blackjack set the phone down between us and stared at it for a moment like he wanted to crush it in his fist. “Roman not knowing scares me more than him potentially lying,” he said.
I nodded. “Means someone under him thinks they’re smarter than him.”
“Or someone thinks he’s gone soft,” Blackjack said. “Either way, the ground just shifted under everybody’s feet.”
He picked the phone back up and scrolled again. “Now we call Liberty,” he said.
Even just seeing her name flashon his screen changed his face. Not softer, exactly. Just different. Like a man remembering there was a time before this life, and that had teeth too.
He hit dial. The ring barely finished once before she answered.
“You’ve got nerve, Alice,” Lady Liberty said. Her voice crackled through the speaker like a lit fuse. Low, sharp, a little amused. “Took you long enough.”
“Riann,” Blackjack said. “You heard.”
“Hard to miss,” she said. “One of your boys eating asphalt on my roads, screaming in on an ambulance I didn’t authorize. One of my girls at the hospital parking lot saw the cut under the blood. Devil’s Aces patch on a stretcher doesn’t exactly blend in.”
I ground my teeth. The idea of Miami bleeding out on a gurney under fluorescent lights, strangers’ hands on him, all while our patch screamed his identity, made me want to put my fist through a wall.
“I needed to get eyes on the situation before I called,” Blackjack said.
“You needed to control your mess before it hit my doorstep,” she corrected. “You failed. I’ve got sirens in my streets, uniforms sniffing around, and rumors flying about some blackout bike that crashed like a bat out of hell.”
Her tone wasn’t just pissed. There was a sliver of concern under it, buried deep.
“I need to check on my man,” Blackjack said. “We’re riding up.”
“No,” she replied sternly.
Just like that. No discussion.
“You and your pretty little army stay in your sandbox,” she went on. “I can’t have a full club rolling through my territory. You bring a patch parade up here, the cops will be on you before you even park, and every pair of eyes from here to the Pine Barrens will clock it. Too much attention.”
“He’s ours, Riann,” Blackjack said. “And he’s hurt.”
“I’m not saying you don’t lay claim,” she said. “I’m saying you don’t cross my line with every swinging dick in a leather vest. You get one man. One only.”
Blackjack’s gaze slid over to me. We didn’t need words. I nodded.
“I’ll send my enforcer, Jersey Boy, at dawn.”
Silence on the line for half a breath. I could picture her on the other end, weighing that. Jersey Boy. The one they sent when peace talks ended.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on with you, Alice,” she said at last. “But this smells worse than usual. And I’ve seen you up to your neck in some ripe shit before.”
“This isn’t our usual,” Blackjack said. “We took on a job at the docks, same as a hundred times before. Except this time the drop was hot, the contact never showed, and we think Philly mercs turned up wearing Steel Serpent cuts.”
“Steel Serpents,” she repeated. “Haven’t heardthat name in years.”
“Seems like tonight’s a reunion night,” I muttered.
Blackjack continued. “We grabbed the cargo. Put it in a hole. Thought we had time to sort it out. Now that cargo’s turned into a magnet for bullets and one of mine is on your streets bleeding.”
“You still haven’t told me what’s so special about the damn bike,” she said. “Why’s everyone sniffing around it like it’s the last bone in the yard?”
