Page 17 of The Devil's Ice

Frankly, Scars did himself, and he shook off his feeling of worry and foreboding. Travis Denton and Matt ‘King’ Kingston went way back, and Denton had stoutly vouched for his law enforcement buddy Derrick Bale. They were both highly-trained professionals, and they had experience that went beyond even The Road Devils with a military background. Denton and Bale wereconnected, man, and Scars had to be reassured that he had these two on his side.

“I don’t see how it does any of us any good for me to know things about the situation that you don’t,” Scars said. “I also want you guys to know because Wolf and King brought in some outside help, and that makes me feel a bit uneasy about a couple of things. I totally respect their authority and skills – butno wayI trust them like I trust you, and I figure ifthey’rein the loop, thenyouare too. For me, that’s a given.”

“OK, Scars,” Jinx Thompson said quietly. “I think you know that we’d appreciate that. It’s not easy not knowing what’s going on.”

“Damn straight,” Kansas Milligan piped up. “The guessing and speculation isworsethan the reality.”

“Well,” said Cowboy McDermott with his trademark irreverent grin. “At least Ihopethat reality and the truth are better than the disaster shit that’s been going throughmyhead.”

All the men nodded, still staring at their new President.

“OK, then.” Scars cleared his throat. “So, this is the deal, the whole unvarnished truth. You guys all know Travis Denton, King’s cop buddy out in Salt Lake City? The one who helped bust up that cult that Elle was in?”

They nodded again, their eyes all flicking to Viking at the mention of the nightmare that Elle had escaped, barely in one piece.

“Sohe’sgot a buddy who also works for the police department in Utah, and his specialty is MC’s. His name’s Derrick Bale, and he’s been keeping an eye on Crusher and his boys for going on ten years, ever since he got promoted from Homicide to heading up the Gangs unit. This guy knows The Highway Hellions better than anyone, so with Wolf’s consent, Denton and King brought Bale into the mix.”

“Seems smart,” Cain McGuiness said. “No doubt the intel this guy provided is invaluable.”

“It was, but more thanthat,” Scars said. “Bale has a man on the inside. A confidential informant.”

There was a stunned silence, then Kansas sputtered, “A CIinsideThe Hellions?”

“Yeah.”

“Holy shit,” Holt Gibson muttered. “Maybeleadwith that next time, Innis.”

“Yeah, sorry.” Scars managed a tiny grin as he saw a bit of the tension leave the other men’s faces. “I don’t know what Bale has on this guy, but Icansay that Bale has contact with one of Viper Grant’s boys… and so he has eyes on Wolf. Indirectly, but still.”

“Wolf knows who the CI is?” Cole Porter said. “The two of them can cooperate inside the MC?”

“No,” Scars said. “That was the one stipulation – non-negotiable – to Bale offering his help: Balecan’tgive up his CI. Hell, nobody inside thegangs uniteven knows who it is. The guy is high up in the MC, he’s on the executive committee itself. He clearly fears for his goddamn life every minute of every day, and he’s beyond paranoid that some corrupt cop will rat him out to Viper for a nice payday.”

“I can see that,” Cole agreed. “Especially with Viper just taking over. He’ll be looking at everyone closely, testing their loyalty to him. Every MC in the goddamn country knows about what Dawson did to Wolf, starting a splinter group and stabbing him in the back, so every President is watching their people now.”

“Exactly right,” Scars said. “So the CI is reporting to Bale, who’s then filling in Denton, King, and me. And then I’ll tell you everything that I know, as I get it.” He shrugged, looked around the room again. “It’s short and sweet, but that’s it. For now, anyway.”

“OK, well…” Saint Yearwood huffed out a breath. “That’s a hell of a lot better than I’d been thinking, that’s for sure. Having the man inside with Wolf changes things. I mean, for me, anyway.”

The men all made sounds of assent, but Ice didn’t join them. He was standing at the very back of the room, his massive arms crossed. He never talked much at these club events at the best of times, and after his behavior at thelastgroup meeting, when he’d told Wolf to fuck himself, he’d been laying low. He was now thinking that had been aseriousmistake.

Layingtoolow, maybe. Shit. I should have met with this Bale guy… gotten my own read on him. Too fucking late now. Wolf is gone and I missed my chance.

“So.” Scars raised his voice over the relieved chatter. “That’s all I got, guys. We need to get ourselves back on track mentally, starting now. We’ve got businesses to run, and people to take care of. I know that Wolf’s going to be telling Viper everything about Dawson Kinney’s customers and plans and logistics – the CI will share with Bale what Viper does with that information, and the authorities will be able stay one step ahead of any deals or activities, and get every one of those boys in handcuffs. Remember, the long-term goal here is to take down The Highway HellionsandThe Blood Crew, hopefully at the same time.”

“Hell, yeah,” Viking muttered. “That’ll be one hell of a happy day, when Wolf helps to do that. Then he can come home.”

“Agreed,” Scars said. “But the big thing to keep in mind is that Wolf isn’t alone over in Utah, and me and King are in touch with the local law enforcement. Wolf has an ally inside the MC, and he has cop protection outside.”

“Never thought I’d see the day when I was happy to be cooperating with cops,” Jinx remarked dryly. “But here we are.”

“Bullshit, Mr. Ex-lawyer,” Cowboy teased him. “You used toloveworking with cops.”

“Shut up, McDermott.” Jinx flapped a hand at him. “Stop reminding me.”

“Before we get back to work, I have one other piece of good news,” Scars said. “Something a bit different.”

“Yeah?” Cole said. “What’s that?”

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