Page 66 of More Tricks

“Ah, you don’t want to be mixed up in that once Tommy here gets to be in power,” Cognac interjected. “Too many loyalties means one of them will be tested. When it comes down to it, my money is that you’ll pick your brother. Follow this through, then say your goodbyes. They’ll only want to keep you around so they can squeeze you for favors.”

“Man’s right,” Charles agreed. “You needed to prove you could play in the deep end getting in with that group. No need to slum when you’ll be sitting pretty next to your brother.”

Shoving out of her chair, she stood, brushing off her pants like it was a nervous habit. “Welp, I better get to work. This isn’t going to be easy, so I might as well get started on it now. As soon as I have the information you need, I’ll send it through to Tommy. We have secure communication already established. This isn’t information anyone else needs to know.”

Impressed with her turn around, I saluted her and gave her a wink before she left the room. The rest of us got to work on the last bit of the plan before we had to split up and rally our teams. Since my men would be splitting between dealing with Diego and getting Elena, we needed to make a plan to reconnect afterward. As much as we wanted to stick together, it didn’t make sense when both pieces of this plan were so important. I needed men I could trust on the job. This was our future and family on the line.

Chapter twenty-four

Picasso

Looking out over the city as dusk started to fall, knowing that in a matter of hours, we would be declaring war on the second biggest criminal boss in the States was an odd feeling. Of course, it helped I was on the side that was going to win, but it had me thinking back to when I first met Dax. The night I’d learned just how far she was willing to go for the people who were important to her.

We’d argued about the sanctity of life, and she’d been right to tell me to grow the fuck up. The Phantom Saints didn’t back down from a fight. Typically, we weren’t the ones to start them, but we finished them. As a leadership, we found there were better ways, but it hadn’t really been true. If Eagle had taken out all the Mad Dogs like every other MC had before us did, then half this mess wouldn’t have had to be dealt with.

Dax had stepped up and held her end of the deal, putting the Mad Dogs down. Now, it was our turn to return the favor and settle things with Diego De León once and for all. The bastard had gone too far, bringing in my family. They’d never been part of this.

My parents, of course, knew what we were and pulled away from us. Gabby had been the only one to stick by us, helping where she could, but we’d worked hard to keep her out of the thick of things. Legal help and advice didn’t warrant them going after her kids.

Demitri was a good egg, but he wasn’t cut out for being a Phantom Saint, which is why we had him helping in the garage outside the compound. Yet somehow, all of them were being used against us.

The rage I’d seen Dax deal with since they went after Harper, I now understood. You don’t fuck with family unless you’re willing to die at the hands of those who love them. I’d told Dax this before, but emotions don’t make you weak. They can be more powerful when turned into proper motivation, which I had plenty of right now, thanks to the fucking prick who lied and manipulated my niece.

“Hey, you get everything you needed?” Eagle asked, grabbing my shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

I glanced at him and nodded. “I’m no Void or Cognac who likes to take all the fancy toys. Give me a well-oiled gun and enough bullets to do the job, and I’m happy.”

Eagle grunted his agreement. “You have to admit, though, some of those toys are pretty epic.”

“In what situation would we need to use a rocket launcher?” I asked with a laugh. “We’re trying to save Elena and keep the dipshit alive until tomorrow night. I don’t see that helping us in that department.”

“True, but damn wouldn’t it be fucking cool to shoot one off?” Eagle added with a grin.

I shook my head. “You’ve been spending way too much time with Void and Cam. That’s absolutely something they would say.”

“Probably,” Eagle answered with a shrug. “Come on. Everyone is meeting upstairs for the final debrief before we split.”

“We sure this is the right plan? I don’t like the idea of us splitting,” I questioned, sharing my biggest fear in all this with my big brother. “I feel like every time we split, there's a chance not all of us will make it back to each other. You might be my blood brother, but the rest of them are family too. We always say that if one of them died, Dax would lose her shit and never come back to us, but I’m not sure any of us would be any better.”

Eagle didn’t answer right away, just looked out the window at the cars and people moving to and fro, clueless as to what was about to go down. “That risk is something we make every day in the world we operate in. I agree with you completely, we’ve all become a family, and no matter what happens, we’ll deal with it like a family does… together. Shit happens and life is fucked up, but if we have each other’s backs first and foremost, we’ll come out of this even stronger.”

“While that load of bullshit was pretty, it didn’t actually answer my question,” I pointed out to Eagle. “Fuck, let’s just get this over with to get one step closer to ending this whole goddamn thing.”

With a slap on the back, Eagle turned on his heel and headed for the front door, then stopped to look at me over his shoulder. “You ever tell Cam I said that shit about him being family, I’ll ruin every paintbrush you own.”

I mimed zipping my lips and just grinned at him as we headed out. Dax was wrong to think I was the only one who wore rose-colored glasses in life. If Eagle hadn’t ended up in this life, he would have been some great philosopher mulling over life's toughest questions as he smoked a shit ton of weed. Too bad the bastard was too uptight to ever allow himself to smoke the stuff. He was one of those, my-whole-body-is-a-temple bullshit, taking after Mom and her need for order way too much for my liking sometimes. Thank God one of us took after Dad and his more relaxed personality.

Entering the triplets’ place, it was chaos with weapons, ammo, and other supplies we would need for this whole mission. Everyone was dressed in black tactical gear placing the last items they needed into the many pockets on their clothing.

Dax looked up, hearing us enter, and smiled, sauntering over to us. “Where have you two been hiding out?”

“I was talking to Gabby, filling her in on the basics of what’s happening. She’s flying into New Jersey tonight, so when we have Elena, she’ll take her back home. The last thing we need is to save the girl and then have her land back in their clutches,” Eagle shared.

When her eyes shifted to me, I just shrugged. “Just needed a minute to myself to get my head on right for this. Gotta take off the rose-colored glasses and all for this job.”

She reached out and took my hand, giving it a squeeze. “Don’t lose them completely. We need someone with a different point of view to make sure we don’t end up like the bastards we’re going after.”

I pulled her against me and smirked down at her. “Are you telling me that you might have been wrong?”