Page 33 of Battling Aries

“Vulture, we got a number for him?” Viper asks and pulls his cell phone from his pocket.

When we’d designed the clubhouse, we’d taken pointers from Gadget, who made sure they could have their phones on them while in church and not have to worry about bugs. We might be new to the area, but the Devil’s Riot MC has gained a name foritself in working with the Russians and taking out cartels and even a satanic cult. We won’t be fucked with. Not in the least. Someone comes at us, we’ll make them wish they hadn’t.

The same goes for this very situation.

“Yeah, I got his number.” Vulture calls out the number for Viper.

Viper puts his phone on speaker and sets it down in front of him.

“Who is this?” Izaiah answers on the fourth ring.

“Viper, President of the Devil’s Riot MC Mississippi Charter,” Viper informs him. “We need to talk.”

Izaiah doesn’t say anything for a long while, and I thought he might have hung up. When he finally speaks again, he sounds slightly annoyed. “I was wondering when you might be giving me a call. You can tell your tech man to stop trying to get past my firewalls. All he’s doing is causing headaches for me.”

I look to Vulture to find him frowning at the phone.

“How do you know it’s my man fucking with your firewall?” Viper demands.

“Because I’m smarter than him, and he’s got a signature.” At least Izaiah is honest. “Now, to what do I owe this call? Let me guess. You’re calling because of a certain woman who has the voice of a siren when she sings.”

“I take it you know the woman which you mentioned?” Viper asks, eyeing me closely.

“That I do,” Izaiah confirms. “I also know that the man who claims to own her has not only a bounty on her, but also he called to ask a favor of me which I’m not entirely inclined to give to him.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because the nitwit annoys me.” He snorts through the phone. “How about this, you meet me in thirty minutes over at the fight club, and I’ll tell you what else I have to share.”

“You want to tell me why I’d want to meet you?”

This is something I’d like to know as well. What is Izaiah up to?

“Let’s just say, in this, yet again, we share a personal interest. Thirty minutes?”

I don’t see how we shared one before. Then again, Izaiah benefited from us taking Dominic out of the equation.

“We’ll be there,” Viper agrees. He snatches up his phone, disconnects it, and tosses it back on the table. “Looks like we’re gonna have to find out in person.”

“I don’t like the idea of leaving Rory here while we go and meet with him,” I state.

What if it’s all a trap?

What happens if we go out there and Roger’s men attempt to get in here to take her from me?

“We’re not all going,” Viper states, eyeing me. “You, Cyprus, and Wolf are going with me. Everyone else is staying here.”

I nod, agreeing. Kevlar will look out for Rory and make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble.

“I’ve got a question that no one seemed to ask or have answers to yet,” Wolf states.

“What?” I ask, looking at him.

“How did Rory escape the clubhouse? We need to know about the vulnerabilities surrounding us for future reference.”

I forgot about that.

“I was able to figure that out,” Vulture says. “I’ll explain it quick so y’all can get to the fight club. She got out to the back of the property. From what I was able to get on the video feed, she climbed a fuckin’ tree and jumped over.”

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