Page 85 of Truths

Her eyes find Dallas “Chicago” Smith. “Remember Arizona?”

“How could I forget?” Chicago asks with a laugh.

“That's what the Slashers said. They were always going to fuck over the Russians. We assumed it meant whatever deal the RIOhad worked out with them, but what if it was deeper than that? Ivan could have been working with them to fuck over the entire organization... that would explain why he didn't want to help. Why he'd have them take me. And if he did frame Dimitri, it would explain why he needed a fall guy.”

Psycho nods his head. “If they'd succeeded in getting us away from the RIO, they'd be weakened without their largest customer. Ivan could take over the RIO and work with the Irish to make himself money, making a competitor an ally.”

“What do you know about Ryan?” she asks.

“A lot and probably not enough. Why?”

“Any chance he's Irish?”

Dani snaps her head up. “His mom's side is. Full Irish. Her maiden name was... shit. It was something.”

Brock walks out and comes back with his laptop, and he starts typing at the table. Jennings nods to her. “You're thinking there's a link between the head of the Kingsmen and the Slashers?”

“It just... I don't really believe in coincidences. This seems far too opportunistic to have Ivan in a Kingsmen house with Scarface. It could be, but how did they come across each other? Is there awe hate the Driftersgroup online that they managed to join or something?”

“Holy shit,” Brock says. “Ryan's mother's maiden name is... get this: O'Malley. Ryan and O'Malley are cousins.”

“Theory time. Ryan wanted to take Dani as payback for dumping him when he was in prison, so he created his own club from behind bars. Freakish and crazy, but kind of impressive. He chats up his cousin, the man affectionately known as Scarface, and learns about the Slashers trying to take down the Drifters because of his deal with a Russian. The Drifters who have Psycho as a President, and Ryan wants in. It becomes the perfect trifecta of hell.”

Shaking, Dax nods his head. “It sounds plausible.”

“It's all conjecture, but it makes more sense to me than it just being a weird coincidence that they all magically found each other after working their own agendas separately,” Lex says.

Kicking the wall with his heavy boot, Psycho growls again. “I want blood.”

“Not eyeballs?” Lex jokes.

He laughs and slowly deflates. “I love how much he hated eating those.”

“How many did you end up getting through?”

“Half a bag.”

She dry heaves and shudders. “That was so gross.” Looking at Dani, she smirks. “He made Scarface eat the eyeballs of his dead men. I watched one, and it was enough to make me never want to eat hard-boiled eggs ever again.”

“Well, that answers the question from earlier about his road name,” she admits, a smile on her face Lex believes she’s the only one to have seen recently. “What's weirder is that he was the sanest member of the Outlaws.”

“That's scary,” Shep says.

“Come on, Dani,” Lex says, reading the room as she hops off the table and holds out her hand. “Let's go get a drink. Or seven.”

Kissing Colt on the cheek, she takes Dani's hand and walks out of the Chapel.

“I don't really drink. Not more than a glass of wine or two.”

“Well, you can watch me drink because I feel the need to forget all about the shit we learned today.”

“Cool,” she says with a shrug.

Chapter Thirty-One

Griffin's Beach

Dax

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