Chapter Twenty-eight:
present day
Jesse
“Fucking pigs!” Casa growled out. “Knew you dirty fuckers were just as twisted as us.”
I dragged a hand down my face before looking over at Casa and Dom, understanding the shock that covered their faces. For me this wasn’t new news, not really—more like a confirmation. Around three a.m. I had finally realized what the name Razorbacks meant. And it was so obvious I wanted to shoot myself in the fucking head for missing it to start off with.
Razorbacks are pigs—dangerous pigs, to be exact. Ain’t that the fucking truth. But Casa and Dom were new to this loop, and they looked irritated as fuck that pigs were the ones trying to move in on our territory. Pretty sure Parker didn’t know that part, but I could have been wrong. I’d been wrong about a lot of things recently.
“How the fuck are they operating under your noses? Don’t you cops have bureaus to sniff out shit like this?” I shook my head. “I mean, fuck, how are they operating underournoses, for that matter? Barring the run-in the other night, this is the first we’ve really heard of them.”
Parker took a long breath. “From what I know, it started out by pure good luck—bad luck for the Highwaymen, though. We busted a guy of yours a few months back, goes by the name of Skinny, right?”
“What about it?” I asked, already not liking where this was leading.
Skinny had gotten caught by the ATF a few months back and was now looking at serious fucking time in the DOC for his services. Poor bastard had a wife and two kids, too. Of course the club would look after them, but that wasn’t the point. It wasn’t like he hadn’t known the risks, but I still couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.
Parker looked regretful as he continued. “Well, a security guard named Robert Brady used to work the night shift over at the evidence lockup in Atlanta. Stupid fucker had a gambling problem and somehow got the bright idea that he could steal a kilo or two of blow from the evidence lockup that he’s supposed to be watching—the blow that your guy had been caught with when he was arrested. He traded it in with his debtors as a way to clear some of the money he owed. But then he got greedy because he’s making easy money, right? And good money, too. The stuff in lockup is pure and uncut. Dumb bastard is rolling in it before long.” Parker paced the room and shook his head. “Man thinks he’s some kind of hotshot and starts stealing more and trying to sell it on. But all good things must come to an end, and eventually the Reverend got wind of it and had a few words with him—of the violent type, if you get me. Well, Roberts’s body showed up a day or so ago, down by Kenilworth Lake. Turns out, the Reverend switched out Robert for one of his own guys on the payroll, and now the Reverend is taking the drugs.Yourdrugs.”
“And the whole thing’s going unnoticed?” Dom scoffed and looked across at me.
“No, it was noticed, but only by people who didn’t care to look too closely since they were being paid off by the Reverend.” Parker stopped pacing and waited for me to say something, but it took me a moment to gather my thoughts.
“Well, let’s give Hardy a call and get the Reverend taken care of. Never good when clubs go to war, but if the Rev knows those are our drugs he’s selling, then fuck him, right, Jesse?” Casa looked at me and I nodded.
“Fuck yeah, man needs to go to ground,” I replied. “I got another question though, before we speak to Hardy and settle this shit up. How did Butch get involved in this? I know my brother well enough to know he wouldn’t have turned his back on his brothers and gone over to the Reverend. Money just wasn’t important to him—family was. And drugs were never his thing.”
I didn’t doubt Butch for one moment. He’d always been loyal and fiercely protective of those he loved—same as all my MC brothers—but for Butch it was more than that. I was his blood, and there was no way he’d do that to me. I glanced at Dom and knew he wouldn’t do it to him, either.
“The night Butch was killed, he stumbled upon a meet between the Razorbacks and someone else. He said he saw things he wasn’t supposed to see,” Parker said regretfully. “He turned up at my place afterwards, but he wasn’t himself—he was acting erratically, told me he thought he was being followed and he didn’t know who to trust anymore. I told him to call you, Dom, but he said he didn’t want to involve you, especially since you’d argued earlier on. But he did make a phone call to someone, Jesse, someone in your club, and then he left, saying that he was going to meet them and blow this whole thing wide open.” Parker went silent, his head bowed slightly, and when he looked up at me, the pain on his face was almost too hard to look at. “The next time I saw him he was in the morgue.”
The room fell silent, and for a moment I felt numb to everything. Only for a moment, though, and then the familiar pang of rage began to blossom in my chest and surge through me. My mind strayed back to the night that Butch died, and my stomach sank. He had been going to check on our new warehouse. Rider had sent me to check it out, but Butch had taken my place because Laney had been drunk and he’d wanted to clear his head or some shit.
Once again, Butch’s death fell back on me, landing heavily on my doorstep. I should have been the one that stumbled on that meet, not him.
But worse still was that someone in our club had betrayed him. Names popped up in my head, familiar faces flashing before my eyes, but my heart wouldn’t let me pin Butch’s death on any of those men. They were my brothers, my family, and I couldn’t believe that one of them would turn on another. I had thought for a while that morning that it had been Dom that had turned on Butch. They’d been arguing that night. But then I remembered the pain in his eyes at the funeral. The way he’d gone into himself after Butch’s death. His pain was too raw, and too much like my own for it to have been him. Besides, I might have been blind once and not seen the depth of the feelings he had for my brother, but I could see it now.
“Wait, so the Reverend is behind all of this? Behind Butch’s death?” Casa asked, breaking the silence. “And he’s been ripping off our club?”
I looked up sharply, my stare finding Parker, who shook his head. “Not all of it. The Razorbacks and the Reverend are in bed together for sure, but it gets deeper.”
“This shit gets any deeper we’re gonna be sitting side by side with the devil,” Casa replied darkly.
“Funny you should say that,” Parker said sounding hesitant. “The other club that’s involved, it’s your club—the Devil’s Highwaymen. I know that there’s at least one of you that’s turned on your club.”
Casa pulled out his gun at the same time that Parker did, and both men stood glaring at each other with their guns aimed at one another’s heads. I was in too much disbelief to do jack shit about it, despite the fact that there was going to be a river of blood running through that lockup any second.
“You’re fuckin’ lying,” Casa growled out. “Jesse, say the fuckin’ word, brother, and let me end this lying sack of shit! None of our brothers would do that, and this sorry fuck needs to die for saying it.”
“He made a call to someone in your club, asshole! Whoever took that call is the one that set him up,” Parker yelled. “Dumb fuck can’t see what’s right under your nose.”
“And how do we know that you’re telling the truth, huh? You could be making this shit up, for all we know,” Casa yelled back.
“Why? Why would I do that?”
“Dirty cops don’t need reasons.” Casa spat on the floor at Parker’s feet. “But who knows, two clubs taking each other out would make your job a hell of a lot easier. Maybe that’s the reason: we go to war and you get a badge of fucking honor!”
