Page 74 of The Devil's Ice

“OK.” Wolf finally relaxed, accepted the fact that he wasn’t going to get the whole story right now. “You can fill me in on the drive back to Colorado.”

“You know it,” Scars said. “We’re gonna see you soon, Wolf.”

“In a few hours.”

The call disconnected, and now it was just Wolf and Bones staring at each other warily across a concrete cell.Thatwas when Wolf started to actually take the other man in, started to notice things that had escaped him when he was full-on shocked and in defensive mode.

Bones was getting up there in years, Wolf knew, though he wasn’t totally sure how old the man was… maybe pushing sixty? Maybe a bit more? Wolf had heard the lore about Bones’ skills and kills with toxins for decades now, and the man had surely perfected his style over time, through trial and error, and practicing it over and over again. And if he’d just wiped out half of his own MC in one fell swoop – by poisoning their air – then the man hadn’t lost his touch.

But what Wolf saw resting on and weighting down Bones wasn’t age, and it wasn’t regret, and it wasn’t exhaustion… it was something else. There was a strange metallic-gray sheen on his skin, like what you saw on rotting meat – and that was when Wolf knew what was going on here.

“How long?” he asked Bones.

Bones looked puzzled. “How long what?”

“How long do you have before whatever the disease is takes you?”

“Holy shit, Connor.” Bones managed a tiny grin. “How thehelldo you know what you know?”

“Dunno. So… how long?”

“The doctor says less than a year. Probably closer to six months.”

“Cancer?”

“Yeah. Stomach.”

Wolf grimaced. “That’s gotta be excruciatin’.”

“It will be, soon enough.”

“Ahhhhh.NowI get it.”

“I bet you do,” Bones said with a genuine smile now. “But just for fun, why don’t you tell me what you think I’m doing as we’re getting these kids ready to go… let’s see how close you get to the truth.”

“You don’t touch ‘em,” Wolf snapped. “On our side or no, you fuckin’ stay away from these babies. You can pack up all their clothes and food, but that’sallyou do.”

“Understood.” Bones walked over to the far corner of the room, started putting everything in the cardboard box that Preacher had brought the babies in. “So… what do you know?”

Wolf paused, as he realized that there was nothing between him and the door; he could knock out Bones, steal his phone and vehicle keys, lock him in here, call Scars and the boys, and go meet them without this asshole’s help. It was allpossible, and Wolf seriously contemplated it for a few seconds.

But then it came to him that Scars had clearly made plans with Bones, and Wolf didn’t want to fuck anything up by going rogue. No, he’d trust his men and King, and he’d go along with what he’d been told to do.

So he went over to the bed, checked on Charlie and Judge. Unbelievably, they’d slept through all of the conversation, and he was grateful: if he could get them to their Dads in just a few hours, their little existences could get back on their proper trajectories. All of this Hellions bullshit would have just been a blip in their lives, one that they would have no memory of, and not suffer any damage from.

“Well,” Wolf said, to keep the conversation going. “I figure that you’re old-school like me, and you’ve got a problem with Viper involvin’ kids in his personal vendettas.”

“I sure do.”

“He was a fuckin’ wild card, huh?”

“He was.”

“When did he turn on his own club?”

“A few days ago,” Bones said heavily, not even asking how Wolf knew that this had happened. “Some of our guys have gone missing, but the word is that they’re dead. They disagreed with Viper’s tactics, or messed up a job, so they had to go.”

“And you think you would have been next?”

---