Page 2 of Redemption

Sputtering between words, “You can’t do that; it was agreed upon. I need this done before that boy gets it in his head to run with the money. He runs and I’ll never see a dime. Gotta do it while the Mrs. and I are still listed on his trust fund papers. He turns 25 in two weeks. He needs to be dead before then.” There it was. The words I was looking for. He wants his boy dead. How fucked up is that? All for money.

“I’ll do a lot of shit for money. Not all above-board Hogg, but I’d never consider killing my own fuckin kid, no matter how much I hate what he is. If you don’t want to agree to my terms, then walk right out of here and find someone who’ll do the job cheaper. I promise, though, Hogg, I’m the only one who can guarantee that you won’t get caught. Be a shame for your Alpha son, you and your pretty wife to lose out on the money AND spend the rest of your lives in prison.” Taking a step back, I reached into my cut and pulled out my smokes. One flick of my zippo and flame lit the tip of the cigarette. Clip simply leaned back against the wall of the cave again. Clenching his fists over and over. I just shook my head at him.

“Fine, you smug bastard. I’ll meet your demands. 20K and the kid dies. No ties to me or mine and the body needs to be found and identifiable to speed up the paperwork. I prefer it to look like an accident, but I’ll leave that up to you. You’re the one taking all the risks.” He pulled an envelope out of his breast pocket and handed it to me. “I’m going to need this done within the week. Don’t want there to be questions about the timeline for the estate.”

“Just out of curiosity, Hogg, how much we talking here?” Clip had to open his mouth. Not like we didn’t already know. We had Gates pull the trust paperwork from the lawyer’s office before we even voted on how this was going down.

“Five million, not that it’s really your concern. My family deserves that money, my father-in-law never liked me and that’s why he left it to the kid.” Lying bastard, it was ten times that amount, he had another kid, who if he was decent would have gotten part of it too, but nope, the older boy got the business that was standing on its last legs. At least Gramps saw through the veil on that one. “And stop calling me Hogg. It’s disrespectful.”

“Not too concerned with respect. Hogg is your official code name as of now. No more names, no more meetings. Let me know where he’s gonna be and we’ll handle the rest.” I just needed to get out of here. The air was stifling. I needed to get on my baby and ride for a while.

“Gavin is taking Theodore out this weekend to celebrate his birthday. A bit of bar hopping between the 3 bars downtown. In the envelope, there’s a photo of Gavin and one of Theodore. He doesn’t have a phone, so there’s no way to trace him. Make sure your men grab the right kid. Don’t fuck it up.” With that, he turned and walked out of the cave. I held up my hand to Clip so he wouldn’t speak, waiting for Hogg to leave.

Once I got the ‘all clear’ for us to leave the cave, I headed to the entrance with Clip by my side. Leaning my head on his shoulder, I mumbled. “Say nothing until we get to the clubhouse.” A slight nod from him was all the confirmation needed.

Chapter Three

Mako

“Oh, hell no!” Bearshouted as he slammed his fist down on the table. “We ain’t doing this, Mako. NOT HAPPENING!”

“Oh, it’s happening, brother.” I could feel the anger rolling off Bear in waves. If I were a weaker man, his alpha energy would make me tremble as it did for many of our other brothers around the table. With my signature shrug and a smirk, “Just not the way he thinks it will.”

I could feel the tension ease a bit. He was my brother; he trusted me. He. Knows. Me. As disgusting and difficult as it was to explain it all to the club, it was hardest to explain to Bear. He watched his parents being run off the road and killed when he was 13. All because his omega father told an alpha ‘No’ when propositioned at a gas station. The alpha and his buddies in the truck did a whole 5 years in prison for killing both his parents and putting him in the hospital. The courts determined it was his father’s fault for saying no. He should have deferred to his alpha husband to make that decision. I knew Bear’s parents. There wasno decision. His alpha father would have killed the other alpha for hitting on a claimed omega. Fuck, our world was so fucked up. “We need to work out a foolproof plan for this. Get Hogg’s money and get his son the hell out of this fucked up place.”

“How? He’s the fuckin mayor, he’s got connections. He’ll bury us if this goes sideways.” Leave it to Gates to be the voice of reason. “We shouldn’t touch this with a 10-foot pole, Mako. Shoulda just told him ‘No’ man.” Gates leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms across his chest, waiting for a reply. He didn’t speak out often, but when he did, we listened. The man was just that damn smart. Like scary smart sometimes. He could do things with a computer that would baffle the best tech engineers, but he was all ours. Our brother, our info line, our hacker when needed. Plus, he had a heart of gold that was a well-guarded secret

“With as much shit as we’ve got on him, I doubt he’d push too hard in our direction. One wrong step and we let the cat outta the bag in the right direction. The man will spend the rest of his miserable life in prison. His woman has zero standing other than being the greedy whore she is, and him and his son are as corrupt as they come. We can destroy the whole fuckin’ family. Remove the blight from our town.” Just thinking about this whole mess gave me a headache.

“No one has seen this Theodore kid in over 5 years, man. No medical records, passport or ID on him. We know nothing about him other than what Hogg told you. Last time anyone lay eyes on him outside that house was the old man’s funeral. They pushed him from the car into the church and pushed him from the church to the car. That’s it. He might as well already be dead, brother.” I knew Gates had dug as far as he could on the computer. Now we were coming face to face with someone who might as well be a ghost. I wasn’t completely comfortable going into this, but there was no way in hell I was going to let thatbastard kill someone, anyone, over fuckin money. Everyone has a line they won’t cross. Well, most people have one anyway. This was mine. Not everything I did was completely legal, but I’ve never done or let physical harm come to anyone over something I did. My grand dad didn’t, my father didn’t, I’d be damned if it started with me.

Taking the envelope with the information Hogg gave me from my cut, I tossed it on the table towards Gates. “That’s him and the information. Get it done. Bring him here and put him in the guest room upstairs. We’ll explain everything to him and go from there. Meeting adjourned.” I was done with this shit for now. I needed a drink and maybe a blow job. Not necessarily in that order.

I walked into the bar from the back of the clubhouse to find one prospect tending the bar for the night. “Beer”. He nodded his head. I waited for him to pop the top and set it down. I sat on my stool at the end of the bar. “Perks of being Prez.” my dad always said. No one sits in your seat.

Trying to relax and ease my mind as I scanned the bar, I felt a familiar peace roll over me. This was home. These men (and women) were my family. It was my job to keep them safe. Bear sat next to me. “Beer, prospect.” More of a grumble than actual words. Then again, none of us had difficulty understanding him. It was just how he spoke.

Bear stared at the wall covered with bottles behind the bar and huffed a laugh. “Lording over your kingdom again?”

“Fuck you, man.” He could always make me smile when I needed it, and he always knew when the need was there.

“Nah, I got no interest in being anybody’s alpha hole.” The laugh came from deep in his belly.

“I got no interest in your smelly ass alpha hole, ya dumb fuck.” I couldn’t stop the laughter in my voice. He always knew when to start his shit with me.

“Seriously, though, Eddie. You good man? It looked like you wanted to kill someone. You can’t let this shit get to you, brother.” There were times I felt like I hated this fucker, if for nothing else but how well he knew me. Friends for over 25 years could do that to people.

“Yeah Nate, I’m good man. You know how it is. Just gets to me when some asshat alpha wanna be using his designation to bully and hurt people, especially those weaker than them. I mean, Jesus, you saw what Gates got. Fat fuck is worth 25 mill himself and he wants to off his kid just so he can pad his bank account with more money. His fuckin kid man. His omega kid. You shoulda seen his face when he had to admit his kid was an omega. You woulda thought the kid was a leper licking every donut on the tray.” So much for trying to relax.

“I get it, man. I do. Women and omegas been at the bottom of the barrel for a long time. I’ll be the first to tell you they don’t deserve it. Some fucked up shit went down a lot of years ago and now we’re all paying for it. Shifters paid, women paid, hell brother… we’re all still paying. All we can do is the best we can and help those we can. Look around Eddie. Your Gramps built something great. A home, a SAFE place for everyone. Biology doesn’t dictate what goes on here. WE DO.” Not the first time I’d heard the speech, and it wouldn’t be the last. Once again, it was just what I needed to hear in the moment. He leaned over and elbowed me in the ribs. “Speaking of holes, man, Owen is checking you out again. You should hit it, man, hit it hard.” He knew that wouldn’t happen. I didn’t dip my dick in the pool where everyone else swam, but he pushed it anyway. Bastard.

“Nah, head is one thing, ass is another. I ain’t going there and you know it.” I chuckled as I smiled in Owen’s direction. He was a cute kid. Been through hell but doing so much better since he showed up at our door a couple of years ago. No more beingforced to do anything he didn’t want to do. Still, he apparently wanted to do it all. Better yet, wanted it all done to him.

“I’m headed up to bed man, I got planning to do. Have a good night, brother.” Bear patted my shoulder and turned to leave.

Bear leaving evidently gave Owen the green light to saunter on over to me. He stood on his tiptoes and lay his head on my shoulder. “Hey Mako. Want some company?”

“I was thinking about it.” I turned to him and gave him my best smirk.

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