Page 93 of Edge

“It’s just a standard meeting. Everything will be fine,” I promised and placed a kiss on her lips.

“Do you know what this is about?” I asked Dice once we were on our way over to the conference room.

“Exactly what you told Evie. Going over everything and tying up loose ends.”

“What loose ends?”

“Gary,” Byte said.

“He’s still around?” I asked. I was more concerned about what happened with the Mad Dogs and hadn’t given Gary a second thought.

Dice chuckled. “Yeah, he is. When we got back yesterday, Phoenix told Gary he was too tired to figure out what to do with him and that he’d have to wait until today. I thought the man was going to shit himself right then and there.”

It didn’t take us long to get over to the conference room, but I wasn’t surprised that we were the last ones to arrive.

As usual, Phoenix didn’t beat around the bush and got started right away. “We need to decide what to do with Gary. Killing him isn’t an option I want to entertain but letting him go or turning him in for the fire are possibilities. Thoughts?”

“If we turn him in, we run the risk of him telling the cops everything we did to him, as well as everything that happened with the Mad Dogs. That could bring unwanted attention to Muzzle’s disappearance and Hound’s death, which would muddy the already choppy waters between us and the Mad Dogs,” Dash said.

“Yeah, but if we let him go, he could go straight to the Mad Dogs and tell them we made him tell us everything, which ultimately led to a confrontation between us that resulted in their president’s death,” Duke countered.

“We didn’t kill their president. Their vice president did,” Shaker said. “I don’t think there’s much he could tell them that would warrant a response from them. Everything he was hired to do wasn’t sanctioned by their club. If you get down to it, Gary’s loose lips turned out to be beneficial for their club.”

“So you think releasing him is the way to go?” Phoenix asked.

“I think it’s the better of the two choices.”

“Gary has been scared shitless since he’s been here. I think he’ll agree to whatever we ask of him if he gets to leave here in one piece,” Carbon said.

“Of course he will. The question is: will he keep his word once he’s gone?” Badger said.

Carbon chuckled and cracked his knuckles. “I’m sure we can come up with a way to guarantee his silence.”

“We already have one,” Byte said. “We have video evidence of him starting the fire at the diner. We also have a voice recording of him admitting to accepting money for a job he wasn’t licensed to do and illegally tracking down Evie.”

“That should work,” Phoenix said. “Does anyone disagree?”

When no one did, Phoenix told Carbon to bring Gary into the room. “We’ve come to a decision on what to do with you,” Phoenix started.

“Please, man, don’t kill me,” Gary begged. “I’ll do whatever you say.”

“Good. So, here’s the deal. You are on video starting the fire at the diner. We also have a recording of you admitting to starting the fire, hacking into traffic cameras to track people, and continuing to work as a PI after your license was revoked. We’re going to let you go, but if you so much as breathe a word about any of this to anyone, I’ll make sure the evidence we have falls into the right hands.”

“I won’t say a word. I promise.”

“Yeah? What are you going to tell Hound when he asks why you didn’t show up at the meeting yesterday?”

“I don’t know. I’ll tell him I got arrested or something. Yeah, that’s it. I was arrested and had to spend the night in jail.”

“And when he asks you to continue working for him?”

“I’ll tell him I can’t. That it’s too much of a risk. I’ll cut ties with him. I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”

“What happened to your hand?”

“Fishing accident.”

Phoenix nodded. “Let me be very clear. Don’t mistake this for an act of kindness. I’m letting you go because it’s what’s best for me and my club. If you cross me, I won’t hesitate to eliminate you.”

---