Page 15 of Hollywood

That’s not at all what I wanted to hear, especially fresh out of prison. But he was my oldest and best friend. I didn’t want this kind of trouble but like my dad always said, trouble had a way of finding me. “Details,” I demanded.

Slate nodded. “EverTech is a tech company in name only. The LLC has been registered all over the country for a little more than a year, getting big investors involved who never see any returns beyond a few hundred grand before all contact is lost. By my estimations they’ve netted about twelve million dollars.”

“Shit. How could they scam so many wealthy fuckers, and no law enforcement was onto them yet?”

“Easy, nobody has reported it, at least not in any way that would trigger an investigation. There’s chatter online and I dug into the victims to confirm it, but for some reason they’re not reporting it.”

“Some reason?” I snorted and shook my head. “Probably the threats to their loved ones, just like the ones they sent Winston.” The threat to Winter was exactly the reason Winston had involved me, and I wouldn’t stop, I refused to rest until I knew she was safe.

“That’s not all,” Slate said, his tone full of regret. “They have ties to organized crime.”

Rocky sat up taller, “Anything specific?”

“Not exactly but I’ve been tapping into Winston’s security footage as well as his neighbors. I figured I’d see who, if anyone, has been watching him or Winter.”

My patience wore thin waiting for Slate to get to the fucking point and I told him as much. “What did you find?”

He flashed an arrogant smile that pissed me off even though I knew it meant he’d found something. “Glad you asked, Hollywood.” He tapped a few buttons on his laptop and the screen behind Diesel and Rocky, slid up as grainy footageappeared. It was clearly Winston’s neighborhood, and the same dark Charger showed up on the block day after day. The man kept his head down as he lurked around Winston’s house at different times of the day. He looked in windows, tested door locks and even slipped inside a time or two.

“What the fuck,” I shouted, no longer able to control myself.

The man looked around as if he was waiting for someone but no one else ever came. But finally the man slipped up and showed his face. “Recognize him,” Slate asked, his voice deep and serious.

“Just tell us who the fuck it is,” Rocky growled.

“It’s Justin Tamazaki, member of the Jade Devils MC.” Slate’s voice was slow and steady as he filled us in. “They dabble in a little bit of everything from weapons to drugs and even pussy, but they specialize in romance scams, pop-up Ponzi schemes and things like that. They don’t have a big presence anywhere, but where they have something of a presence coincides with what we know about them.”

“I know ‘em.” I didn’t know them well, but they had an impressive presence in prison and what little I knew about them, wasn’t good. They don’t fuck around. Trying to build a name for themselves, they embraced being ruthless. I glanced at my club brothers and said, “They kill without regret, and they don’t have a problem doing it for every little thing. During my time in the joint they killed a couple of guards, more inmates, and had the warden’s wife kidnapped just to make a point.”

“It’s worse than that. They never give the money back,” Slate explained. “And they kill anyone who gets too close to finding out the truth. Whatever the fuck the truth is.”

A heavy silence fell over the room as everyone processed Slate’s words. My fists clenched under the table because I knew it was bad fucking news. My anger bubbled just below the surface, knowing this fight with the Jade Devils would be a big fucking problem. I would never break a promise to Winston or Winter, which meant I couldn’t let anything happen to them.

“What the fuck do we do with that?” Gio’s frustration echoed around the room.

“The only thing we can,” Slate offered. “Find out who exactly is behind this while we keep Winter and her father safe.”

I appreciated that he was keeping his priorities straight, Winter and Winston were what mattered right now. Still, my heart pounded at the mention of Winter’s name. She was in danger through no fault of her own and she was starting to mean a lot to me, more with each passing day. She was smart and fierce, too fucking tempting for her own good.

It wasn’t smart getting too close to her, for a variety of reasons, but the more time we spent together, the more important she was to me. I’d do whatever it took to keep her safe because of Winston, but now I knew that I had to keep her safe.

For me.

“I’ll keep Winter safe.” My voice was deep and forceful as it boomed around the room. I ignored the anger and chaos andworry that swirled through me and focused on what mattered. “And anything else I need to do to find these fuckers and keep Winston safe.”

Slate nodded and his gaze slid to Diesel and Rocky. “You need to be extra careful. It looks like these guys do their research and they won’t hesitate to use her as leverage against Winston. Or you.” His words weren’t meant to tease or taunt me, but it was clear I hadn’t been as slick about my feelings for Winter as I should have been.

I wouldn’t let any fucking person use Winter for anything. I wouldn’t even think about her being caught in the crossfire of this mess, created by Winston, and probably worsened by us until it got better. She deserved better than that in life. Hell, she deserved better than me and one day soon I might remember that. For now, I wanted her and I would treat her as if she was mine. “Where do the Jade Devils operate?”

“Parts of Chinatown mostly. They have a stronghold there but they’re in a constant battle with the Yakuza for parts of Little Tokyo.” Slate blew out a long breath. “Anywhere there are Asians, you can find ‘em.”

That wasn’t surprising but it also wasn’t as helpful as I hoped it would be. “Can you find anything we can use as leverage against them?”

“I’m on it,” Slate assured me. “But they right a really fucking tight ship. It’s going to take some time.”

Diesel got to his feet. “Let us know the minute you find anything we can use to make this problem go away.” His gaze settled on me. “Keep Winter close and see if Winston can find somewhere else to stay for the time being.”

I nodded even though I knew that was a battle I’d never win. “He refuses to leave his home, and he won’t take a leave of absence.” The stubborn bastard refused to do anything to help himself. “They beat the fuck out of him sometime recently. He has a black eye and bruises all over his chest and back. He thinks this is his fault.”

---