Page 54 of Our Tricks

“It’s a free country. You can drink where you like, just make sure to tip the bartender,” Raven retorted with a sickeningly sweet smile before heading over to the man.

Frank walked over to me and dropped off the bucket stuffed full of various beers. “Frank, can I get another beer to drink now? I feel like sitting here for a bit.”

“If something goes down, can you do something about it?” Frank asked. “You look like a mean son of a bitch, but I heard you talking to Suzy.”

“I’m the enforcer for the Phantom Saints MC and husband to Two Tricks, queen of the Hidden Empire. Yeah, I can fucking do something about it,” I bit out, not appreciating his judgment.

Frank’s eyes went wide for a second then he schooled his face. “I see… now it all makes sense. Raven doesn’t offer her help to just anyone. I’ll be right back with your beer.”

“Wait, make it a double of whiskey straight up. Wouldn’t want to waste it if I need to move fast,” I requested.

Frank nodded and grabbed a glass off the shelf, poured the whiskey, and slid it over. “Raven is tough, but everyone has their limits.” With that token of wisdom, Frank moved to check in with the other guests at the bar.

It didn’t take long for the conversation to get heated between Raven and the Suit. Within moments, she was waving her hands angrily, even though they kept from yelling at one another. When she tried to leave, he grabbed her arm, but instantly she whirled on him, slapping him across the face and knocking his sunglasses right off his face. Anger contorted his face as he sneered, gearing up to hit her back when suddenly he froze. His eyes went wide then he slumped forward into her.

After my years of being an enforcer, I knew exactly what it looked like when you plunged a knife into someone. Unsure of where she stabbed him, I was up and out of my seat, grabbing the back of his suit jacket. “I’ve got him. Lead the way to get him the fuck off the main floor.”

Raven slid her still-bloody knife into a sheath on her leg before she motioned for me to follow. Pulling back one of the curtains on the wall, there was a door she opened then waved me through. We were in the office and employee side of the club with a long hall that ran the length of the building with various rooms and offices on the left-hand side.

“Follow me,” Raven ordered as she strode purposely down the hall.

There was another door she unlocked and opened, revealing the poker room where the rest of the group was. They froze at the sudden entrance and probably the fact I walked down the two steps and dropped the man on the floor unceremoniously.

Chapter 20

Dax

My brain was starting to go numb with all the information I was looking through. We needed to narrow down what shipments were normal and which might be carrying the goods. I was cross-referencing that with the information Void had been forwarding me. Letters and numbers started to swim on the page. This was the part of the job I hated the most, but it was also the most important. With incredibly few leads, we had to work every angle we had in hopes it would lead to more information.

The door behind me clicked as the lock was turned then thrust open to reveal Void carrying a limp and bleeding body over his shoulder. Not saying a word, he walked into the room and dumped the body on the floor with Raven coming in behind him after she closed the door.

“What the fuck?” I blurted. “You went for beer.”

“I’d honestly like to say things like this don’t really happen with him, but I would be lying,” Eagle added as he stood to look over the man who was dying, if not already dead. “Should we know this fucker?”

“He’s one of Diego’s men who used to come around and collect his imposed taxes. This time he came in because he knew I was one of those in the city who supported Dax and Tommaso taking over. He told me I’d better fall in line or they’d shut me down for good, pulling law enforcement into it. The motherfucker was going to spill all of my dirty secrets to the FBI since it just so happens some bigwig is in town,” Raven explained. “None of this makes sense. With Diego gone and Tommaso in charge, this shouldn’t be happening unless Diego wasn’t really the one in charge.”

That had me looking at Alvaro, whose face wasn’t at all surprised at what Raven was saying. Instead, he looked like he was sick to his stomach and might lose his lunch all over the table.

“Al,” I snapped, causing him to jerk his head up and look at me. “What the hell do you know?”

“About a month ago, Marco learned that Dad was trying to bring in other players, wanted to get some distance, and have more control over things. On the outside, Diego De León was the man running the East Coast, but it was really Marco Tesoro,” Alvaro explained. “That’s why he wanted Martin to live with him. Marco has no wife, no children, and he wanted an heir. Out of all the children my mother had, Martin was the clear choice to take over.”

Son of a bitch. Taking Diego out didn’t exactly do what I hoped in hurting Marco’s power base. If he had his heir safely in Mexico, then Diego was a loss he could suffer.

“Do you have any contact with your brother?” I demanded.

He nodded, chewing on his lower lip. “Martin always looked after me growing up. He was a good big brother trying to protect me from Franco and Dad. He told me I could come stay with him if I wanted to, but it was too late. At that point, Dad threatened Mom if I didn’t fall in line. Dad knew he couldn’t do anything to Martin, and the only other person I cared about was Mom.”

“Have you heard from him at all since your father died?” Wes asked. “How did you normally talk? Email, chat, phone calls?”

Alvaro typed something into the tablet he was using and pulled up an app I’d never heard of before. “Signal? What the hell is Signal?”

“It’s an app that’s encrypted and password protected that you can use to chat with anyone in the world. Martin said it was the safest way for us to talk and not get discovered,” Alvaro explained.

Wes’s expression got darker the more he looked into the technology. “Shit, everything about this is to make sure it’s secure, untraceable, and backed up on a cloud server so there’s no real way to tell where any of these messages are coming from.”

Grabbing Alvaro’s chair, I shoved it back so he was now facing me as I loomed over him. “I need you to look me in the eye and tell me how far you’re willing to go to keep your mother safe. Is that more important to you than keeping Martin safe?”