Page 6 of Treachery

Frost glanced up, glared at him, then tossed the broken glasses on his desk as Locust dropped into the chair opposite him.

Locust didn’t envy Frost, who’d been busy as fuck trying to integrate the businesses and brothers from the Bone Dogz MC from Erie, New York, who’d agreed to patch over into the Unchained after their leadership went to shit. Rather than disband their brotherhood of six, they came to the Unchained MC seeking a second chance at a lifestyle they loved. They knew they couldn’t carry on the way their previous prez had been running things, and none of them were keen on being prez, so they handed everything to Frost to deal with. The man had taken on too much, but he’d known he could depend on his officers to help with the load.

Officers like Locust, who’d been given an assignment he’d been more than happy to complete…and it had become as complicated as fuck.

“Meet the sister, get her to trust you, find whatever you can on that fuck of a brother of hers…do whatever you got to do, brother….”

Once again, his thoughts on Nadia, his phone burned a hole in his pocket. First, he’d talk with Frost, then he’d go find her and make her explain why the fuck she was ghosting him all of a sudden. That shit wasn’t going to fly with him—he didn’t give a fuck that their “relationship” started out as a duty to the club; it was more than that now. Not that Nadia knew anything different.

Hating the rising tide of guilt in his guts, he focused back on his prez.

Frost glared harder, grunted, then replied, “Mad Dog fucked everything to shit.”

Mad Dog was the Bone Dogz former prez, who was sitting pretty in maximum security after he got himself caught hauling drugs in his truck, with two dead bodies in the back seat.

“Need any help?” Locust asked, knowing Frost was still digging through the shit pile Mad Dog had left behind when he’d betrayed his club.

Frost sighed. “You got enough on your plate, brother—speaking of…you got the signatures?”

Nodding, Locust pulled the folded-up envelope from his kutte pocket, tossing it on the desk.

“Everything’s signed, dotted, and ready to go. Masters says he can have the first prototype made in three weeks, which is a week sooner than his initial quote.” The club had several legal businesses, including a garage. Tornado, before he’d become an Unchained, had graduated from MIT with a degree in engineering. The genius had designed a part for the diesel engine that would allow it to run more efficiently, and because he was Unchained, he wanted the club to benefit, which meant they patented the part, and were now in the initial processes offabricating it. They were going to make money, hand over fist, and Tornado would get a large percentage of that. The fucker was going to be a rich man pretty soon, but you wouldn’t know it to look at the brooding bastard lately.

Frost nodded. “Fuck, at least something’s going right,” he replied, a hint of weariness in his voice.

As far as Locust knew, Frost was only dealing with the Bone Dogz bullshit, but that weariness in his voice, and the guardedness in his expression and bearing, there had to be something else going on.

Before Locust could ask, though, Frost continued, “Let Cluster know to watch for the first shipment; we want to start trials as soon as possible. Can’t let this shot at millions just sit there gathering dust.” His gaze sharpening, Frost sat back, planting his hands on the armrests of this decades old desk chair. “Speaking of millions, you get anything from that woman yet?”

That woman?

“Nadia. She has a name, Prez,” he snapped, his mouth moving before his brain could crank. At the scowl on his prez’s face, Locust sighed. “Fuck, sorry about that, I’m just anxious as fuck about the whole thing.”

Frost arched an eyebrow, but at least he dropped the scowl. “That mean you don’t know where the money is?”

Shaking his head, Locust replied, “There’s nothing at her place. She doesn’t have a safe deposit box, and she hasn’t mentioned a storage unit where she’d keep anything. Her place is nice, though, and she’s got that new car, but she doesn’t dress fancy or buy anything expensive. She still stocks up on ramen noodles, and bulk buys her favorite shampoo when it’s on sale. If she’s got the money, she’s hiding it real good.”

Nadia’s stepbrother, road name Ratchet, was a former Bone Dogz MC member, who’d been put in charge of transportingmoney from Erie to Allentown. Mad Dog wanted to purchase meth using club funds, but he didn’t want his officers to know about it. So, he called on one of the newer members, a tweaker, who would do anything for a score. Ratchet was supposed to move the cash, but he never showed up to the drop off; he’d run with over a million dollars of Bone Dogz MC money, money that now belonged to the Unchained.

Frost was keen on getting that money back, but he had to find that fucker, Ratchet, first. It was by pure luck that when Redtube, the club computer guru, did a deep dive on Ratchet—real name Elijah Tate—he learned that Ratchet had a step-sister who’d moved to NEPA from Saratoga Springs three years ago.

After that, Frost sent Locust to check out the sister, and, if possible, get close to her. And that’s exactly what he’d done. He’d set up their “accidental” meeting on the side of the highway by carefully creating a slow leak in her tire, he’d charmed her, he’d asked her out on a date, and they’d been connected at the hip since then. It was going on five months now, and though he’d been doing his duty as club enforcer, looking for the money Ratchet could have left with her, he was also falling hard…for his mark.

There were rules against that—never fall for your own con, right? He wasn’t supposed to actually feel attraction for her, or want to be with her, or worry about her, or be possessive and protective of her—it was all supposed to be for show. Get her to believe what he wanted her to believe, get close, get the information or the money, then ghost her.

But things got complicated real quick.

It was all kinds of fucked up, but he was nothing if not loyal to the Unchained, so he’d do what needed to be done to fulfill his obligations, complete his assignment from Frost, and hopefully, Nadia would never find out.

It started as an assignment, but now he wanted to keep her.

He just needed to be careful, because if she ever realizedwhythey met andwhythey were together, she’d never talk to him again—and he’d be fucked if he couldn’t be with her.

She belonged to him, and he wasn’t going to let her go.

Frost heaved a sigh, his gaze scouring Locust’s face, and he must’ve seen something there that made him wary.

“You’ve got a problem, brother?” Frost asked, his ice-blue eyes glinting.

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