Page 2 of Banner

Pushing up from my desk I move to the window and look out over the warehouse floor.

What a clusterfuck.

* * *

As I roll through the clubhouse gates, I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket.It stops only to start right back up again, making the pit in my stomach feel heavier.

This can’t be good.

Twisting the throttle, I quickly weave through the shipping containers that serve as protection between us and the outside world, around the clubhouse, and coast into my spot next to the door.

The vibrations quit momentarily but start up again as I pull my phone from my pocket.When I see Dragon’s name flashing across the screen, I know he’s not calling with good news.“Yeah?”

“Harbor Patrol just intercepted The Lucifer,” he says in a panic.

My head whips around to the mostly empty parking lot behind me and I frantically look for my brother’s bike.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

It’s not here.

“FUCK!”I roar.

Jumping off my bike, I sprint as fast as I can across the forecourt to the warehouse that serves as my personal workshop.

“Pay them, Dragon.Whatever they fucking want—pay them!”I shout down the line as I burst through the freezer door, dodging slabs of meat hung from the ceiling on hooks.

“Banner,” he sighs into my ear.“There’s nothing I can do.The Coastguard is already on scene.They’re going to seize everything, brother.Going toarresteveryone.”

That isn’t acceptable.I have people on my payroll tohandleshit like this.

With shaking hands, I punch in the security code on my workshops door.My heart is threatening to beat out of my chest as I yank it open, skirt around my desk, and roughly shake the mouse to awaken my computer.

“Come on, come on.”I growl impatiently.

Once the screen flickers to life, my fingers fly across the keyboard.The Lucifer’s onboard camera slide across the screen frame by frame.

“Where are you?”I whisper as the screen cycles through different angles on The Lucifer.

I fall heavily into my chair when I spot him.“Fuck!”There, on his knees in the middle of the deck is my brother with his hands clasped behind his head.

“I’m sorry, Boss,” Dragon says, reminding me he’s still on the line.

“Call Bianchi.It’s time he earned that fucking retainer.”I disconnect the call and whip my phone across the room.

Shit!

* * *

Seated at the head of the table, I try to keep my shit together as Link brings the brothers up to speed.It's not lost on anyone how much of an epic shit show today has been.

“Find anything?”Haze grunts.As enforcer his solution is always to take out the problem and bury it in the Hudson River but this is too fucking big.Too many eyes are on us.

Dragon shakes his head in the negative but his fingers never slow as he types furiously on the keyboard.He's been lurking in the city' private servers for anything that could explain what the fuck they have and how we can use it to get Ghost out.

“Doc, what'd they say at the jail?”Kane looks to my pop for answers.

I listen as pop relays what the lawyer had to say.The short of it, is things aren’t looking good, but we won't know anything for sure until he's arraigned.

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