Page 32 of The Devil's Conflict

SNIPER

How is it that every woman that we have gets involved in club business?

The room isdeadly quiet when I walk in with Bullet. I cleaned up the blood on my face, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I get mild black eyes from that punch. I see a few eyes widen when they see me, but no one says anything. Probably because of the dark look on my face, so if it keeps their nosy asses quiet, all the better.

The door slams behind us and Bullet barks, “Cryos, what did you find?”

Cryos immediately brings up a video on the screen. I turn to look at it. “Someone took out the cameras in the front and rear just before the explosions happened,” Cryos announces grimly as we watch the feed go black on the screen abruptly.

“How the fuck did they know where the cameras were?” I demand, looking over at Cryos expectantly.

“Dagger,” King guesses before Cryos can answer. “Wanna bet that in whatever information he gave Dmitri, it included the location of the cameras at each business?”

“Fuck, we never thought of that,” Torque states grimly. “Which means they can tap into all of our shit and see what we’re doing. Who is around and who isn’t. It’s probably how they’ve been staying so many steps ahead of us.”

“No one has hacked into the system,” Cryos snaps, clearly affronted. “There hasn’t even been an attempt, and if there was, I would know about it.”

“I’m not trying to say you wouldn’t, brother, but we all know Vlad has access to people we don’t, including ones that could get past you with enough practice,” Torque points out.

“No,” Cryos says firmly. “There is no way that would be able to happen. They would leave some kind of trace and there is nothing. I think this is simply they knew where to find the cameras, and if we check the location, we’ll find wires cut.”

“We’ll look into it,” Bullet states before Torque can argue anymore. “What that means is that we don’t have any video of who we’re after or who set them off. But I think we all know that it was Vlad.”

“We gave him a perfect target,” Frost points out matter-of-factly. “The majority of us were there, along with the women, and if he or his men were watching, they had the ideal time to get rid of us all at once.”

“Fucking stupid on our part,” Hulk agrees, his mouth set in a grim line. “We’re getting too lax, and Vlad is going to use that to get to us. We were fucking lucky tonight that whoever they sent didn’t know what the hell they were doing and we all got out, along with the customers. I heard the medics say the guy theysent to the hospital is stable and should wake up in a few hours. He was just mostly cut by the falling glass.”

“He’s right. We need to stop congregating in large groups outside the clubhouse,” Bowie agrees. “Here, we’re prepared if shit happens, but outside of these gates, we’re sitting ducks if we’re not careful.”

“Fuck, I’m fucking done with all this fucking bullshit.” Bullet seethes, his fist slamming down on the table. I agree with his anger because it’s burning inside me too.

“If it helps, I might have found something,” Cryos says, clicking a couple more times until an image comes up. “This one is from a camera I put on the light pole at the far end of the lot. Most times I don’t have video on, just stills, since it’s just surveillance to monitor the cars and bikes, but I never told anyone about it besides Bullet. I don’t have video, but I do have a picture and I was able to enhance it…” He lets that hang for a moment as he zooms in on the picture, cleans it up, and we can see two large black SUVs pull off along the road, just out of view of the front door where Carson was bouncing.

Which reminds me…

“Where the hell was Carson when this shit happened?” I asked tightly.

“There was a drunk woman that stumbled out with her friend and almost took a tumble down the steps. Theo corroborated that since he helped them outside in the first place, and Carson was helping the two of them to the car,” Timber jumps in.

“The explosion, from what the Fire Department said, came from the side of the building so there was no way for Carson to see anyone anyway,” Titan adds. “I checked that out. From every angle, other than right on top of them, none of us would have known they were there unless we were doing rounds of the building.”

I nod. “Alright. Probably for the best he was helping the women, because if he was by the door, he’d have been fucked up.” Just the thought has my gut souring. We don’t need the death of a Prospect on our conscience either. Especially considering how both Kaleb and Carson have already been hurt, along with Crypt.

“Any way you can tell who those SUVs belong to?” Bullet asks Cryos.

“No, it’s too dark,” he replies. “But what I can tell you is that they are the same size and appear to be the same make as the one that shot up the bar.”

“That’s enough for me to know Vlad is the one behind this,” Stone states, face hard and grim.

“Suppose this is retaliation because of the pawn shop?” King asks.

“Would make sense,” Torque agrees. “I mean, they’re going to know it was us. Who else would it be? They don’t have any major players against them but us, and since we tipped off the Feds, they probably just assumed it was us.”

“It was probably his new righthand man’s idea, considering his MO for bombing shit,” I point out with a scowl. There’s some agreement, but then I stop and think about that a bit more. “Actually,” I say slowly, my brain turning more and more over what it could all mean, “maybe it isn’t.”

“He likes to blow stuff up, so I would say it is,” Milk says drily.

“Yes, he does, but he never misses,” I argue. “There’s no way that he would have done anything like that messy shit. We would not have walked out of there alive, or in one piece if we did survive.”

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