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Leo
Rubbing my hands over my tired eyes I leant back in my chair and slowly pushed away from my desk. I had been working on the books for the three strip clubs and the two bars I managed for the club for the last few hours and it was very fucking obvious someone was stealing from us. The total booze bill, the amount we have sold and the recent stock takes did not tie up. I was spending way too much money on booze. It only meant one thing. Someone was stealing from us. Making me look like an ignorant stupid twat.
Not getting away with it on my watch, asshole.
I had a good idea who it was but I needed proof before I started throwing accusations around. Accusing the wrong person would get them dead so I needed to find the true culprit. All I had to do was follow the money trail to find him or her or them. And when I did there would be hell to pay.
Picking up my phone I checked it for what felt like the millionth time today, hoping for a message. But there was still nothing from Reid. Shit. I was worried about him. I had a niggling in my gut that got worse the longer he stayed silent. The only time he had gone this long without contacting me was when he had been reported as MIA. Thankfully he was rescued but was declared medically unfit for duty. He left the country and for all intents and purposes disappeared. Recently I had caught some whispers that something was going down with some of the South African MC’s, but dad and my brothers refused to tell me more. I was going to have to find out for myself, but unfortunately it would have to wait while I tried to unravel the damn mess in front of me.
I was still sitting staring down at my phone when Lure, a club brother and one of my brother Dive’s best friends, knocked on the door jamb of my open door as he walked in.
“Hey, Lure. What can I do for you?” I smiled tiredly as I dropped the phone on my desk.
“Hey, Leo, sorry sweetheart, it’s slice and dice time. I’m here for the phone.” He handed me my new burner phone and scooped up the old one and shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans.
“Renegade set the new one up for you, and it’s ready to go. He asked that you swing by the clubhouse on your way home tonight, he needs a word.”
I frowned. “Do you know why?”
He shrugged and shook his head. “Sorry, babe, I’m not in the loop on that one.”
I sighed. This was going to turn into a late night. “Okay, tell him I’ll come by after I finish up here. I still have a shit ton of work to do.”
“No sweat, darlin’. See you later.” With a wave over his shoulder he was gone.
Turning my new burner on and checking the contact numbers I shook my head. My oldest brother was a control freak. The only numbers were those of the club and my family. My brothers, Renegade and Dive, Dad and Mama and of course Sherri and Evie, my besties. He hadn’t added Reid’s because they haven’t spoken since the day he had refused to prospect with the club for the second time. Instead he had left the US, disappearing for almost a year before he reached out to me. Only to inform me he was prospecting and patching into a club in South Africa of all places. He had refused to tell me which club, only said that they weren’t very dirty, whatever the hell that means. Dad hadn’t said anything but Reid ending up in South Africa had worried him and still did today. As I added Reid’s number I hoped like hell it was still valid because he was using burners as well. I was about to text him when my phone rang. Smiling when I saw the name I answered.
“Hi, Mama.”
“Hi, baby. Ren just gave me your new number. I’m callin’ to remind you about the family barbeque on Saturday. I need you there baby girl.” My Mama twisted my arm with a smile in her voice.
“Ugh. Mama, you know how I hate those things. All those nosy bitches wanting to know my business.” I groaned.
“They’re just concerned about you gettin’ older and about you not takin’ one of the boys as your man. Everyone thought Gear was gonna give you his patch for sure.”
Jesus. The same old story. Gear and I had a thing until I caught him in a threesome with two club whores. I was so freaking relieved to find a quick and easy way out of the biggest mistake I had ever made. I had gladly kicked him to the curb. He might be good looking and quite competent in bed but the bastard had very quickly showed his true colours. He had become super controlling and insisted that I leave my job at the club. According to him it was demeaning to his future position with the club that his woman worked at the strip clubs. The asshole. He was a patched member, not an officer. He suffered from the delusion that he would be elected to a position of power if he became my old man because I was Grave’s daughter, and my dad was the club’s VP. According to his cracked reasoning I was a club princess and that would ensure his promotion. What a dumb dick.
I could kick my own ass for ever hooking up with him. Because that’s all it was as far as I was concerned. A month long hook up that I now regret. The final nail in his coffin was finding out he’d been screwing the club whores the entire time we had been together. And that was a total turn off for me, not only did he make me look weak but there was no way I was sharing my life with a man who had side pieces. There had been enough of that drama in my own family, thank you very much.
If the old ladies were flapping their jaws about Gear and I it meant he still hadn’t gotten the message that I was no longer interested in him. I had to nip this shit in the bud. Holding on to my temper I calmly laid it out for my Mama.
“I’m not interested in Gear, Mama. I was stupid to start something with him because he’s a cheating bastard and a controlling dick. I made a mistake and now he thinks he owns me. I assure you he doesn’t. I will never wear his patch and I don’t want anyone else’s either, so you can pass that on to those nosy bitches.”
“Damn, baby girl. Ella called to tell me her old man had heard that Gear had warned the single brothers away from you. Told ‘em he was gonna claim you in front of the club, and you were gonna be wearin’ his patch real soon.” My Mama’s voice had become soft and worried. Her southern accent becoming even more evident.
Shit. Shit. Shit. This wasn’t good, not good at all.
“Shit, Mama, do you think he’s going to try and force his patch on me?” I asked with worry streaking through me. I was worried because unfortunately that shit happened in some clubs, so far not in ours, but you never knew when some crazy dick would try his luck.
She snorted angrily. “Your Daddy won’t allow that shit to fly, baby, and neither will I. You’re free to choose the man you want to tie your life to. No one is goin’ to force you into a relationship. Not on our watch.”
“Good, I don’t want anything to do with his controlling ass.” Mama hummed, agreeing with me but not putting it into words. The perfect old lady.
My mama was the best Mama and old lady ever. I love my dad but he had been a total dog when he was young and stupid. My brother and I were proof of his stupidity. Our parents had gone through a very rough patch after our brother Raigan was born and had split up for about a year. Dad apparently went crazy when she left him, he drank and partied indiscriminately. Reid and I are the result of that time. After Mama took his cheating ass back she adopted and raised us, along with her own two boys, treating us as if we were her very own babies. My half-brother, Reid, and I were born five days apart to a club girl and to a hangaround. Reid’s biological mother, a club hangaround, abandoned him at the hospital and he was given to Daddy and Mama as a new born. My club girl mother hadn’t told anyone she was pregnant. She went home to have me but died due to complications during my birth. My grandmother took me in but seven months later she suffered a massive stroke and that’s when my dad found out about me. His name was on my birth certificate and Child Welfare called him. Mama said she took one look at me and fell in love. She raised Reid and I as if we were a set of twins. She was our Mama and we had known no other mother but her.
Mama wanted to come home to get away from all the bad memories that surrounded them. Dad immediately agreed and brought his family to the States to give the two of them a fresh start. Once we got here he patched over to the Shadow Wraiths MC in Savannah, Georgia, and has been happy as a clam ever since. Their fresh start had worked. Our parents were still totally and very publicly in love with each other.
Our Mama had very nearly lost her mind when instead of prospecting with the club Reid had enlisted in the Marines. She was shattered when he was reported missing in action but she never lost hope, and when he was rescued she was right there beside him throughout his recovery and while he was going through rehab. When he eventually came home she looked after him and drove him to his therapy appointments until he was well enough to take care of himself.
And then he suddenly disappeared.
Reid’s disappearing act had hurt her deeply but she had given him the space he needed. She had known that at some stage he would contact me, all she asked was to let them know if he was okay. When he eventually contacted me I had bitched him out and then convinced him to call Mama. Now he called her once or twice a month for a chat but it wasn’t enough. She was his Mama and needed more from him. Hell, we all needed more from him. And it worried me that neither one of us had heard from him in the last two months. The bastard had refused to tell me where he was in South Africa or which club he was with so it made it a little difficult to trace him. Believe me I tried, but I hit a brick wall on that one.
Sitting there looking at my silent phone I decided that when he called I would insist on him coming home for a visit. He’d been away far too long, almost four years too long. We were his family and I wasn’t going to allow him to ignore us any longer. All that stupid shit he had in his head needed to be cleared out. He always thought dad loved our brothers, Rhys and Raigan, more because Vivienne, our Mama, was their biological mother. But he didn’t. He loved us all exactly the same. We were his kids and that was that as far as he was concerned.
Reid needed to come home and sort out the stupid shit between him and our eldest brother, Rhys. Better known around here by his road name, Renegade. Their shit had gone unresolved for far too long now. If he wasn’t going to come home I was going to go see him, beat the shit out of him for worrying our Mama, and then drag him home.
With my mind on other things I had lost track of what Mama was saying but she was still going on about the barbeque.
“I just wanted to remind you of the barbeque and let you know what the ol’ ladies were yakkin’ about. Dive and Ren are comin’ to dinner tomorrow night and I’m expectin’ to see you here too.”
“Okay, Mama, I’ll be there.”
“Good. Have a good day, darlin’.”
Then she was gone.
Setting my phone down I pushed it away and pulled my laptop back in front of me and started working on finding the proof I needed to nail the asshole who was stealing from the club. I had scanned every single receipt and invoice into my laptop and had been checking every single one against the stock takes. It was brain numbing work.
Who the thief was to the club wouldn’t lessen the punishment for stealing from them. They were going to lose their shit when I brought this to their attention. Especially Maniac, our Prez.
Shit. I just hoped it wasn’t going to blow back on me because I had missed it.
I ate my dinner at my desk and kept working, ignoring the muffled thumping of the bass as my girls worked their asses off in the club at the front of the building. I was so used to the noise I could work without it bothering me at all. It was close to twelve when I finally had all the proof I needed to, maybe, nail Lucy to the cross it seemed she had built for herself. Stretching the ache out of my shoulders and back I sighed. Now I had to take this to the club. Maniac wasn’t going to be pleased that close to 150k had gone missing over the last eighteen months. And none of us had noticed.
And that was the kicker. I hadn’t noticed and it was my damned job to notice, but neither had anyone else. And that was what worried me. Why hadn’t we noticed the discrepancies? They weren’t glaringly obvious but they were there.
Sighing I slipped my laptop into its protective sleeve and slipped it into the big bag I carried around with me every day. My back did not thank me for lugging it around.
Bruiser, one of the brothers on duty, followed me out to my car and waited until I had it started and pulled out of the employee parking lot behind the club. I didn’t waste any time driving to the clubhouse. The sooner I delivered the bad news the better.
I slowly drove through the gates under the watchful eyes of the brothers on duty and up the long curving drive towards the clubhouse. It was completely hidden from view by big trees that overhung the narrow road and cut off the moon’s silver rays. I had my window down and drew the lush smell of vegetation into my lungs. I loved the smell of cool night air. It reminded me of long ago nights playing out here with my brothers and the other club kids. Good times.
The clubhouse was brightly lit as I drove up to the front door and parked my car in the spot reserved for family. Glancing at the bikes parked in a line I grabbed my bag, got out of my car and looked up at the white painted building. It was an imposing building with pillars and shit to make it look like a plantation house, but it wasn’t real. There were no windows in sight, only the huge front doors with the Shadow Wraiths MC proudly displayed above it.
Blowing out a breath I walked up the stairs and pushed the right hand door open and was slightly shocked that there wasn’t a party in progress. Yes, the music was thumping and there were men drinking and laughing scattered around the room, but noticeably absent were the club whores. Not a single one in sight.
Oh shit. That wasn’t good.
Stepping inside I let the door swing closed behind me. I was thankful I had cleaned up a bit before leaving my office. My hair was pulled back in a thick braid down my back and I wore faded blue jeans with a plain black t-shirt, and my favourite boots, nothing dressy or sexy what so ever but I was put together enough to talk to the prez. I ignored all the eyes that swung my way and searched the room for my brother, Renegade, or Ren as we all called him. I reported directly to him and I had to inform him about the shit show first. Not that he didn’t know what was going on, he did. I just hadn’t had any proof to give him before. Now I did.
Meeting his eyes across the room I nodded then made straight for where he was sitting at the end of the bar. Unfortunately I had to pass right by Gear. And typical of the bastard he grabbed my arm and tried to pull me into his lap as if I was a club whore. I resisted and tried to yank my wrist out of his grasp. But the bastard tightened his grip and it freaking hurt.
“Let me go, Gear.” I snapped at him as I pulled against his hold.
“Never, you are fuckin’ mine and I’m never lettin’ you go. And I thought I told you not to wear your hair like that, I don’t like it.” He snarled as he tried to jerk me to him but I had planted my legs wide and dug my boots into the floor. Over his head I saw Ren virtually catapult himself away from the bar and storm our way.
I yanked my arm to try and get away before Ren reached us and Gear’s stupid friends laughed like it was a huge joke. They instantly shut up when the crack of a coldly furious voice froze all sound and movement in the common room.
“Gear! Hands off. Right. The. Fuck. Now.” Maniac’s voice boomed through the watchful stillness and the asshole had no option but to let me go. But he did it slowly, too slow for our president’s liking apparently.
“Fucker, did I not just give you an order? Are you goin’ up against me, Gear? You testin’ me, motherfucker?” Maniac was suddenly right next to me slinging a heavy arm around my waist and jerking me away from Gear to put me behind him.
Oh fuck. Oh shit.
Gear shook his head as he jumped up and his little group consisting of new patches and hangarounds did as well.
“No, Prez. I was just teasin’ my woman.” He tried to play it off as Ren, Dive, Lure, Breaker and Magic formed a half circle behind them, ready for anything. Dad stood beside Maniac, his arms crossed over his chest, his face expressionless but his eyes were burning with rage. He stood silent as his president handled the situation.
“I’m fuckin’ tired of havin’ to tell you that when a woman in this club says no then it is no and you walk the fuck away. She’s not your fuckin’ woman and Grave warned you that she’s off limits to you and your pussy friends but you don’t fuckin’ listen. Now you get to learn that lesson the hard way.” Maniac glanced at Dive, my brother and the club’s enforcer. “Dive, take care of this shit while I talk to Leo. And throw those hangaround fuckers out the gate while you’re at it, they’re no longer welcome here.”
What the hell was going on here? I asked myself silently. Maniac had never stepped up and taken my back against Gear before. I hadn’t even known that my dad had warned him to stay away from me. This was new and huge.
Slinging his arm around my waist he led me to his office with my dad and Ren following us. Once inside he let me go, waved me to a chair and sat down behind his desk. Dad sat down next to me while Ren made himself at home leaning against the wall next to the door.
“Ren tells me you found our thief.” His dark eyes held mine as I nodded.
“I did and you’re not going to like it. It’s someone who has your trust and...”
He didn’t give me time to explain. “Stop with the explanations. Just give me the proof and the name.”
I took the USB out of my bag and slid it across the desk towards him. “It’s all on there. We’ve lost close to 150k over the last eighteen months. It started off small eighteen months ago but over the last six months the amounts have virtually tripled.”
“Who?” He snarled.
Shit. He was going to explode because Lucy was his favourite girl. She has been with the club for many years and was in a position of trust. She ran ordering for the clubs and bars and a few other businesses, as well as serving the club as a club girl if and when they needed her. But she has been exclusive with Maniac for a while now. Mama had speculated that he was about to make her his old lady and she had been pleased because she liked Lucy and she liked her for him.
I drew in a deep breath then gave it to him. “Lucy.”
His stunned silence was freaking scary because He was never at a loss for words.
Rubbing my hands over my tired eyes and face I looked up and into his coldly furious eyes. “I’ve known Lucy for most of my life and this makes no sense at all. She’s not a greedy woman. Once I started looking for the missing money it was so damned obvious that it felt like it had been set up for me to find. All I had to do was follow the bread crumbs scattered along the way.”
“Are you tellin’ me you think someone set my woman up to take the fall for this shit?” Maniac’s voice had dropped and turned icy and rough.
I didn’t say anything, just nodded. And holy hell he called her his woman. Mama was right. She was going to be so pleased if he gave her his patch.
Turning to my dad he raised an eyebrow in question. As the club’s VP my dad was his president’s right hand and his sounding board. They were a great team.
“I agree with Leo. This is too fucking obvious, Prez. Pinning this shit on your woman makes you look weak. Makes it look like you have no control over your club or your woman. This could be someone making moves to challenge you for the gavel and to take over the club.” My dad laid it out for his president.
“Ren, what’s your take?”
“Leo’s got it right, Prez. You know what we’ve uncovered and this shit just confirmed our suspicions.” Ren didn’t change his position but I knew my brother and knew he was ready for anything as he leant against the wall.
Maniac had a finger on the USB and was moving it in tiny little circles on his desk. Then slapping his hand down over the USB he looked at me and smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile at all.
“Thanks for comin’ to me and layin’ it out straight, darlin’. I appreciate you standin’ up for my woman when everything points to her bein’ our thief. Not gonna forget that.” He sighed. “But while sayin’ that, we’re gonna let this one play out. Lucy is gonna fuckin’ hate my guts and have my balls when this is done but to flush the fucker or fuckers out we’re gonna have to make it seem like we believe she’s our thief.”
Shaking my head I violently disagreed. “No, no, no, no. You can’t do that, Prez. She’ll hate us, and she’ll hate you if we pretend not to believe her. And I’m not good at lying to my friends. She’ll know I was lying to her. Don’t do this to her. What if she leaves the club?”
Dad interrupted before Maniac could say a word. “She’s not going fucking anywhere except his bed. And you won’t be here for her to question you anyway. I’m sending you after Reid. I need you to go out there and find him. Your Mama and I haven’t been able to reach him for months now. Your brothers and I can’t leave with all this shit happening with the club, but you can. The other reason is I want you far away from that little fucker out there, I don’t trust him and his fuckin’ shit for brains friends. They are planning something and once we deal with it there will be no blow back on you.”
I ignored the mention of the asshole. “I don’t know where he is in SA or which club he patched into, Dad. He refused to tell me and he hasn’t contacted me in almost two months, same as you and Mama. I tried to call him earlier but all I got was that ‘number no longer in service’ shit message. He must have a new burner and hasn’t been able to call me with the number. I’ll go, but I first have to get shit sorted for Jamie to take over from me before I can leave. Okay?”
The three of them nodded in agreement. Something wasn’t right here but I knew they wouldn’t tell me anything. It was obviously club business.
“If you could get me more information on which club he’s at it will help my search a hell of a lot when I get there. And now I’m going to go home because it’s been one hell of a long day.” I pushed up out of my chair and reached for my bag but Maniac put his hand on top of it and drew it towards him. Sliding my laptop out he set it down on his desk then handed me my bag. I stayed silent throughout.
“You’ll get this back tomorrow along with whatever we have on Reid. Lure will be followin’ you home. You let him do a walk through then lock up tight and set your alarm. You get me?” He ordered.
Oh yes, something was definitely going on. “I do, Prez.” I said quietly.
Bending down I gave my dad a tight hug, did the same to my brother, and because Maniac did not allow anyone to touch him without an invitation I just waved goodbye. But he beckoned me over, pulled me down for a hug then tapped my booty and pushed me towards the door. Totally surprised and stunned I scooted out the door. Lure was leaning against the wall outside the office, obviously waiting for me.
“Hey, darlin’. You look fuckin’ bushed, let’s get you home, ‘kay?” He said softly as he a draped an arm around my shoulders and led me through the unnaturally quiet common room, where everyone avoided looking at me, and outside to my car. As I walked through the common room I looked for Dive and Gear but didn’t see either of them. Gear’s friends were no longer around and neither were Breaker and Magic and a few of the older patches.
Sitting in my car I waited until Lure was on his bike before I drove down the road, his headlight following me all the way home.
He would not let me into the house until he had done a complete walk through then he stood on the front veranda and waited until he heard the loud beeeeep of me setting the alarm. Only then did he walk down the steps, got on his bike and rode away.
I was freaked out by this latest state of affairs at the club and the very first thing I did was take my gun out of the gun safe. Once it was loaded I slipped it into the back of my jeans. I had been too complacent lately, but no more, I wasn’t going to go anywhere without being armed until I left to go and find Reid.
After a long hot shower I pulled on sleep shorts and the faded black t-shirt I had stolen from Reid when he went on his first deployment and got into bed.
My last thought before I slipped into sleep was about my brother and why I hadn’t heard a word from him in so long. It wasn’t like him at all. I was so damned worried about him.
Reid and I had been born so close together we were more like twins. We had shared everything as we grew up and were each other’s best friend. He had started changing after he became a Marine. He hadn’t really talked about his deployments before he got hurt and not at all afterwards. I understood that the injury to his brain and the subsequent torture he had endured had robbed him of some of his memories and that it had made his temper much more volatile. But he was still my brother and my best friend in the whole world. I would not give up on him. I was going to kick his ass for disappearing on me yet again when I saw him.
I woke up gasping, crying, and dripping with sweat, the horror of the dream still clear in my mind. It had felt so damned real. In my dream Reid had been riding and his bike had suddenly veered off the road and he and the bike had gone flying through the air. The horrible dream played over and over in my head. I knew, deep in my gut I somehow knew, my brother, my best friend and other-mother twin had been badly hurt.
It was the last part of the dream that stayed with me though. The part where he had spoken to me. He had been standing in a bright green field and smiled at me, his hazel eyes, so very much like dad’s, no longer shadowed, they were clear and happy.
“I’m free, little sister. I haven’t felt free in a very long time but now I do. I love you guys, even fuckin’ Ren. I’ll always be close, Leo, always. Love you little sis.”
That was the part of the dream where I woke up and the tears just kept on coming. Hugging my cushion to my chest I sobbed for my lost brother. Sobbed because I had this horrible feeling I wasn’t going to see him alive ever again. His crazy laugh, his incessant teasing, his instant dislike of anyone I dated, his short temper, his weird neatness, I missed all of it. I wanted him to come home. I needed him to come home.
My brother was loyal to those he loved and respected and even though he had refused to prospect with the club he had respected my dad and his brothers for their choices.
The Shadow Wraiths MC was a one percenter club but the Savannah chapter wasn’t as deep into the bad stuff as some of the other chapters. The national president left the choice up to the president and brothers of the individual chapters. Publicly Maniac and the brothers walked a fairly straight path but behind closed doors their path wasn’t as clear and they weren’t averse to stepping over the line into the dark. Their main business was gun running but every now and then they would take on protection runs if the money was right.
The shit between Reid and Ren was most probably a stupid misunderstanding and neither one of them would give an inch and resolve their shit. What if my dream was real and it was too late? How would it affect Ren if Reid wasn’t with us any longer?
Fuck, I couldn’t even think the d word.
I had to calm down the hell down. It was just a damned dream. Just a dream.
Checking the time on my phone I groaned. According to my phone I’d had exactly four hours of sleep and I knew there was no way I would be able to go back to sleep again.
Getting out of bed I dragged myself to my home office and started the task of arranging for my assistant, Jamie, to take over from me as soon as possible. I knew I wouldn’t be able to leave right away but I was going to do my fucking best to leave before the end of the week.
And until I knew exactly what was going on with my brother there was no way I could tell anyone about my dream. And why would I anyway? It was just a dream, nothing more.
All I had to do was get to South Africa, somehow get an appointment with the president of whichever club he had patched into then ask him which chapter Reid was at. Not an easy task at all. Hah! Try almost impossible.
Once I find him I was going to give him hell for not getting in touch. And then I was going to persuade him to come home for a damned long visit.
And if the worst had happened...
No way was I going to allow him to be put into a deep dark hole in a strange country far from his family, lonely and forgotten.
Never.
Never.
Never.
Reid hated small dark places after the shit that had happened to him in Afghanistan.
He always said he wanted to go out in flames.
If the worst has happened I was going to see to it that he got his wish.
My brother would go out of this world like a fucking Viking of old.
