Page 16 of Bound by Passion (Ravage MC)

Micah nodded and turned to his screen, tapping a button on it. Touchscreen. Gotta love technology. When it works right, that is.

“Deke and I’ve been digging.” He nodded to Deke then pulled up the picture of the cop. “Chief Thompson. Thirty-four. Divorced with one kid. Ex-wife lives in Tennessee with their seven-year-old boy Ron. He bought this house.” The image of a light blue two-story home popped up on the screen.

“Four-four-seven-three Briar Lane up in the hills of Sumner. Purchased with a loan from Bank of Sumner with a deep down payment of twenty large cash.”

Deke jumped in. “Searched the money, and it appears on paper he got an inheritance from an aunt on his father’s side, but the actual aunt didn’t have much money. She miraculously came into some serious cash before her death, giving it all to Thompson and not her brother.”

“What the fuck? Dirty money?” Cooper asked, and I shrugged.

“That’s what I’m thinking,” I replied.

Deke continued. “Tried followin’ the money and how the aunt got it, but there are no viable records showing where the money even originated. What I did find was small deposits every few weeks, but nothing that put up any red flags, and the deposits were all cash so it was untraceable. Thompson put the twenty K down on the house and still has over fifty saved. At least that I know of. He could have more stashed somewhere.”

“Fuck,” Cruz growled. “Dirt. Want to know exactly where that fuckin’ money came from. Do the governor and Chief have a connection?”

Micah flipped to another picture on the screen, showing seven men all in combat gear. Micah pointed to the man two in from the left. “This is our governor.” Then he pointed to the man at his side. “This is Thompson. Served together. Air Force.”

Cruz chuckled. “Pussies.”

“There’s a bigger picture here, then; these two just wanting to take us down,” GT responded. “What about the governor?”

Micah clicked a campaign picture of the asshole in a blue suit and tie, his blonde-haired wife in a dress, their three children and their two dogs right in front. The “perfect” American family.

“Clean. It was as if someone scrubbed all his information to make him look perfect in the eyes of the public. But these are preliminary.” Micah continued, “Deke and I have some feelers out on the web because if someone cleaned it, then they had to be damn good, or they made a mistake somewhere and we’ll fuckin’ find it.”

“Right,” Cruz said, scrubbing his hand over his face. “Micah, Raid, Deke, Buzz, anything you can find on these two. Their families. Go all the way back as far as you need to. I want files so thick on these two that we know when they’re shitting.”

I lifted my chin in recognition.

“The rest of you, get all the stock from the barn, silo, garage, store; anywhere else we have our goods and get them here in the locked vault under the barn. Make sure we have enough firepower inside the tunnel connected the clubhouse to the vault just in case.Weneed that shit hidden. Only carry on you what you need. We don’t need any eyes on us that will try to take us down,” he ordered.

“We need to move to biometrics to get into mission control and the vault. Must have two or more fingerprints and eye recognition in order for them to open. The vault I’m not worried about just because of how well it’s hidden. The mini vault in the rocks of the tunnel will need it too,” I added in.

“If they get a warrant and find anything on the premises, they will tear it up,” Cruz stated. “Do what you have to do to get shit hidden. Mission control can be blocked off from the entry except through the closet on the second floor of the building. You can do your tech shit there. But no one will know it’s there or have access to anything.”

Over the years we’d made slow and steady improvements to the compound, creating ways to get around the buildings without actually being seen above ground. True. One could get from the clubhouse to the newer living quarters, but from there you could get to mission control, and from there over to the barn which led to the silo.

It had taken a lot to get it figured out, but there was one good thing about this property that my father and none of that generation knew about. It already had some underground tunnels. They were dirt and literally carved through the ground. When we were kids growing up here, we were sneaky little fucks and found them.

After telling our parents, they thought it had to do with prohibition at the time, selling alcohol without anyone knowing. Of course, we did all the shit teens do in the “secret” tunnels. Drinking, smoking, and even fucking with chicks blindfolded.

We reinforced the tunnels and then cut some off completely, so you just ran into dirt. It was almost like a maze. If you didn’t know where you were going, you’d get lost. Which was the entire point.

Normally we didn’t keep all of our stock in one place, but I got what Cruz was thinking. Thompson would probably start with our stores, strip club, laundromat, and storage units before having the balls to come here.

And if he didn’t find anything suspicious at those places, he’d have no probable cause to come into the compound. Smart.

Luckily, we’d just had a huge shipment go out, so our stock wasn’t as high as it normally was. That would definitely help.

“Come on,” Micah said, clasping my shoulder as I rose from my seat. Cruz gave us orders, and we needed to carry them out. “We need to start workin’. It’ll take all of us to bust through on this one.”

Leaving church, we grabbed our phones that were on the table. I put mine in my cut. “A challenge.”

Micah smiled. “Fuck yeah. Love those.”

On a chuckle, we made our way to mission control.

These two were going down. No matter what I had to do. No one fucked with my club. Or my brothers.

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