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“Menace is on board.”
I sighed and fell back into my chair. “Thank fucking God.”
Leo chuckled through the phone. “I figured you would be relieved by that. I was gonna make you wait a couple more days, but I thought I would let you know right away.”
“Well, the club and I appreciate that.”
“I’m sure you do. Though you’re gonna have to wait a little longer until I get the information you need. He was eager to work for me, but I could tell that there was some hesitancy there. Menace isn’t a stupid man.”
I knew he wasn’t. Hell, he had managed to kill Leona without leaving any fucking evidence. “I trust you’ll know how to handle him.”
Leo chuckled. “I’ve dealt with men like him before. Give me three weeks tops, and you’ll have everything you need to take him down.”
“Thank you, Leo.”
“Anything for a friend of my nephew. Though, to be fair, I’m more fond of you than I am of my knucklehead nephew at the moment.” Leo sighed. “In my absence, Marco has managed to anger a lunatic, destroy one of the estates, but also fall in love and become a father.”
My eyes bugged out. “He managed to do all of that while you’ve been gone?” I laughed.
Leo chuckled. “My nephew is an overachiever, it seems. Though he’s handling it all well, it would have been better if the estate didn’t have a huge hole in.”
“Win some, ya lose some,” I mused.
“Oh, I almost forgot. I put some feelers out to see if I could help locate your rogue president. As of right now, the only sighting of him I can find is up in Michigan, but that was a couple of months ago.”
I sighed. “I think I know about that, too. He made a stopover at a club we’re connected to, but he was gone before we could even think about getting there.”
“I might have to have a talk with this Barracuda if he ever shows up. I’ve never known a man who is capable of disappearing like he has.”
That was the fucking truth. Barracuda had turned fucking invisible, which was surprising with his distinctive looks and demeanor. Normally where ever he went, people took notice. “He’s a fucking ghost right now. Losing Leona really fucked with him.”
“Understandably,” Leo murmured. “Losing the ones closest to us takes more out of us than we know is possible. I’ll be in touch about Menace.” Leo ended the call, and I tossed the phone on the table.
“That wasn’t either good or bad,” Playboy remarked.
I shrugged. “It’s good he’s made a deal with Menace, but we’re gonna have to wait longer for anything else to happen.”
Rebel leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “You know what I don’t get? Barracuda is gone. No one knows where he is, but yet he pops up at the Kings of Vengeance for a night, and then he’s fucking gone again.”
“It’s like he wanted to be seen there.” Jet pointed his finger Rebel. “Like it was a message or something.”
“But what message? He showed up, asked for a place to sleep, and then he was gone by fucking morning.” If he were going to send a message, it would have been nice to have a clear one.
“Maybe the message was to just let us know that he was okay.” Six-Gun shrugged. “I mean, that sighting did give us a little hope for a while. We, at least, knew he wasn’t dead or hurt somewhere.”
“So, when the hell is the next message going to come?” I asked.
“Maybe soon? That sighting was about three months after Leona died, and now it’s been about three months since then.” Jet counted on his fingers. “Yeah, we’re at about two and a half months since we heard him being up in Michigan.”
I sighed and leaned back. “Well, then let’s hope Barracuda sends us another sign soon because I’m back to thinking the fucker is dead in a ditch somewhere.”
“We still hitting up Rain’s house tonight?” Rebel asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. We gotta figure out what the hell she knows before we toss her to the side.”
Rebel nodded. “Well, I say we hit up her house tonight, but I’m not sure that we are going to find anything.”
“Why is that?” Playboy asked.
Rebel knocked his knuckles on the table. “Because she isn’t going there. Not after work, and not anytime during the day.”
“Then where in the hell is she going?” I asked.
“A house over on Barter street. Small house, but it’s on a large lot on the edge of town. The past two nights, she’s been there, and when she leaves, she comes straight to the club.”
“You see anyone around the house?” Six-Gun asked. “Does she got a new boyfriend already?”
Rebel shrugged. “She could. Whoever lives there isn’t out and about when I’m there, but when Rain leaves, so do I, so I don’t know what’s going on all the time over there.”
I nodded to Mace. “After we take a look around Rain’s house, I want you going over to the house on Barter and watch it. Let me know what and who you see.”
Mace nodded and gave a salute. “Fine by me as long as I still get to take part in a little B&E tonight.”
Jet bumped knuckles with Mace. “Right on, brother. It’ been a hot minute since we’ve been able to have a little fun.”
“The fact you fuckers think breaking and entering is fun speaks volumes on how fucked up you are.” I shook my head.
“Hey,” Mace called. “You shouldn’t knock people’s kinks.” He elbowed Jet. “I saw that on the internet the other day.”
“That’s talking about having a toaster shoved up your ass, dipshit, not about breaking and entering,” Six-Gun laughed.
Mace sat back, shocked. “Did you just say a toaster? Is that code for a big cock, or am I losing my grip on being in the know?”
And this is where the meeting ended before shit really went off the rails. “You guys can talk about shoving toasters up your asses on your own time.” I stood and looked around the table. “We’ll leave in fifteen minutes. Jinx texted me that Rain was at work, and he’s keeping an eye on Memphis, Raelyn, and Mitzy.” Jinx really had his hands full, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“We’re gonna have to buy Jinx a bottle of whiskey after watching all of the ol’ ladies,” Playboy laughed.
“A fucking case,” I grunted. “Get ready and meet out front.” It was time to start eliminating possibilities of where Tank might be and just fucking find him.
*
