Page 62 of Vengeance

“Understood.”

“Why don’t the three of us step outside, and the rest of your guys take a seat and watch the show?”

“You sure?”

He nods and looks to his men, giving them a reassuring look. “Yeah.”

“Okay, boys, take a seat. Pay for a lap dance, if you want. And make sure to tip the strippers and the waitresses.”

His men seem excited and unfazed by the suspicion of the rest of the men in the strip club, and they take empty seats. The six men walk outside, and once the door shuts, Jennings breathes a sigh of relief to see no one waiting in the parking lot. He half-expected to find a bunch of Slashers laying in wait.

“What can we do for you?”

“It’s more of what we can do for you,” Dax says. “We’ve heard rumors about issues you have with the Irish. We’d like to offer our assistance.”

VP narrows his eyes. “And what do you need in return?”

“An outlet for my anger, for one. Killing Irish bitches who target women would be nothing short of cathartic for me. But we also want to make a gun connection. It took us a bit, but we finally got out from under drugs. It became high risk, and we lost a couple of our men to the disease of addiction. They took the order of not using your own product as more of a loose suggestion, and we had three overdoses.”

“Why do you need an outlet? Got deep-rooted anger issues?” Diesel asks.

Sniffling, Dax rubs his nose and looks past them up at the cloudless sky. “I lost my girl two years ago. Died in a house fire while I was on a drug run.”

“He hasn’t quite stepped out of the anger stage of grief,” Finnegan says.

“Which works well for you, if you want our help, because I’m ruthless. Some might say I’m rather reckless. There’s nothing anyone can do that would hurt more than coming home to a burned down house with my girl left inside. I’m probably not quite to the level of crazy of your Black Valley President, but I might give him a run for his money,” Dax says. “If you don’t want our help, totally cool. But we figured we see what we could make happen.”

Jennings looks at VP and Diesel before looking back at Dax. “Mind if we talk about it and get back to you?”

“Totally fine. Mind if we stick around and watch the dancers?”

VP chuckles. “Sure.”

“You may have just made friends for life in there,” Mac says and walks towards the door. “There’s nothing our men love more than tits and pussy. The only thing better is if you got into porn instead of stripping. They’d be your damn dogs.”

“Too much red tape,” Diesel says. “But don’t think we didn’t look into it.”

The Hellraisers walk inside, and Jennings looks at his men. “What do you think?”

“I get the feeling it’s legit,” VP says. “And if he lost his wife, he’s got a lot of shit to work through. It could really benefit us if we have someone like that on our side.”

“What if it’s just a ploy, and they’re working with the Slashers?” Diesel asks. “Are we asking the enemy to climb into bed with us?”

“Well, we can have Brock look into them and see if there are any connections to the Slashers. But I recall hearing about Dax’s girl. I didn’t know much about him or his club, but maybe it’s worth looking into the fire, too,” Jennings says. “If we get into bed with them, we gotta know if we’re gaining another enemy because drugs could explain a house burning down.”

VP nods. “I hear you. I still get the feeling they’re on the up and up. Maybe call it the same type of sixth sense my daughter seems to possess, but I hear you.”

They walk inside, and the tension hasn’t dissipated from the rest of the Drifters. They stare at the Hellraisers, but to their credit, the new faces are completely engrossed in the performance on-stage. When the Drifters see Jennings nod at Dax, they seem to deflate a little and relax. Jennings finds his seat as Tess stands to use his lap as her own chair again.

“What was that?” she asks, her voice low.

“They want to offer their assistance.”

“In exchange for what?”

“Connections,” he says.

Her eyes look into his. “What’d you say?”

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