Page 80 of Static

"No way. We need to get together, Brother."

"That's actually why I'm calling. My club is down here helping some friends. They're having a bit of trouble with a corrupt district attorney."

There was silence on the other end of the line for a few breaths. "Tell me more, Man."

Lock nodded and Cynic gave him a quick rundown. "Now we've got this prick threatening women and children associated with the club and not enough men to watch over them. My prez and theirs were hoping maybe we could get a little back up?"

"How about this? Ruck and I will come over and meet with you guys."

"You sure he'd be alright with that?"

There was a snort on the other end of the line. "You know Ruck. All I have to do is tell him some fuck face is threatening women and kids and he's there."

Cynic let out a relieved breath. "Thanks, Kilo. Seriously, we'd appreciate that. All this shit is popping off now. How long before you think you could make it over?"

"Tomorrow work for you?"

"It does," Lockout answered. "I'm the president of The Vikings, Tucson Chapter. I'm damn appreciative that your club is even willing to hear us out."

"Nice to meet you, Prez," Kilo said. "We're all one big family, even if our clubs don't know each other yet. Something tells me that's going to change in a hurry. We'll ride down tomorrow, be there around eleven."

"See you then," Cynic said. "I'll have a cold one waiting." He cut the connection and shot his cousin a shit-eating grin. "Told you I had friends."

"Luckily for us they aren't imaginary," Toxic muttered.

"Priest, can you get us a rotation of men over here? No less than three at a time until we get this all figured out?" Lock requested.

"Yeah, I'm on it, Lock."

"That means we're going to have to sit on our fucking hands for a few more days," Lock told us. "We're going to be spread too thin to go after the next place that Fremont's using. But I'm not fucking leaving any of our people vulnerable."

"I can make the phone calls," Rip offered. "To the families. Just get me lists of whoever needs to be warned."

"Thanks," Lock told him.

"Everyone needs to keep their fucking head on a swivel. With Fremont joining this game, it's going to get ugly before the end. I don't want to lose anyone because they made a goddamn mistake. Got it?"

"Got it," we echoed.

"I'll take first watch," Priest said.

"I'll stay with you," Idaho told him.

"Me too," Butcher growled. "I'm sort of hoping those assholes come back."

I grinned over at Butcher. He was itching for a fight. Or more likely a mass casualty event. You could see it building each day. He was getting more and more tense. He was going to explode soon, and I almost felt fucking sorry for Fremont and his crew because they were going to be the target of his fury. In reality, we needed to end this before he got to that point. Half a police force and a DA getting killed wasn't going to be as easy to walk away from as one dead cop.

It didn't matter that I'd killed Hughes in self-defense, if it came to light, I was fucking finished. My career would be over. I'd be lucky if I still didn't end up doing time. The fact that I was betting on Fremont cleaning up that particular mess didn't sit well with me, but I didn't have the ability to do it myself. I wasn't above using Fremont's desperation for my own ends.

Especially not when Hughes had been the one to throw the first fucking punch. Those other assholes with him had waited for his cue. He was directly responsible for his own damn demise. They'd assumed because I wore a suit, and that they outnumbered me five to one, they could easily kill me. I'd proved them wrong. But it was another nail in our coffin if this didn't play out exactly the way we needed it to.

CHAPTER 28

Static

The next morning, we watched as two men parked next to our bikes. Cynic moved forward and exchanged back-slapping hugs with one of the men and then fist bumped the second. I grinned while watching them. I imagined that Toxic was exactly like Cynic at his age. They both had that outgoing, open nature that pulled people in. Only Toxic mostly used it now to pull in women and booze.

"Everyone, this is Ruck, the president of the Saint's Outlaws MC in Phoenix, and Kilo. He's the road captain for the club," Cynic announced as they approached. He went through and introduced every one of us by name as well.

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