Page 25 of Scorched King

“Maybe the new club in Seattle?”

“You think someone would give up their spot with us with those fucking snakes? What the fuck?” Axel’s anger was growing with every new possibility.

“Has anyone reported anything about their club? Any new information on them? Their movements.”

Tel shook his head. “We could up our surveillance on them. It probably wouldn’t take much to at least get some eyes on them around the clock.” He punched in some information onto his iPad and he turned it around to show a video feed in front of their clubhouse. “Those idiots picked the worst spot for a headquarters. There’s a million cameras around their location and a fuck ton of traffic for a spy to get lost in.”

“I guess we can’t rule them out, although it does feel wrong. We’ll keep eyes on them and see what, if anything, they are up to.”

“So that leaves fear,” Tel mumbled. “But what could possibly make one of our own that afraid?”

Axel and I exchanged glances. “None of us are immune to fear, Tel. No matter how insulated or confident we are. Shit happens and if any of us have loved ones then we always have something to fear.” My mind wandered to Sasha and the very real fear that had stabbed into me the night of the fire. Her life had been held in the balance for a long while and I’d made some pretty gruesome plans for her killer if she’d died.

But the fact she wasn’t dead didn’t mean anyone was getting a pass from Wrath. The damage to our people and our club had consequences. Fatal ones.

“Then we have to dig deeper. We need to look for anything unusual on the home front. Any odd comings and goings that might point to someone’s loved ones in any kind of trouble. I refuse to believe there is no trail anywhere.”

Axel and Tel both nodded.

“In the meantime, I think it’s time to bring in the club and let them know what we are up to.”

“What? Wait. Won’t that tip him off that we’re onto him?”

“He’d be a fool to think we weren’t. The three of us have been meeting for weeks and all other club business has been put on hold. They are all getting suspicious and it’s going to be far better in the long run if we control the narrative.”

“I don’t know.” Axel sounded doubtful and I couldn’t blame him. But I had a feeling in my gut that wouldn’t let go.

“I get it, but I want this fucker to know we’re hunting him. If it’s fear that motivates him, then let’s scare the shit out of him. We can let the guys know we’re getting close and see what happens. Just make sure we have eyes and ears everywhere just in case.”

“I like it,” Tel said, his fingers flying across the screen of his tablet again. “I’m tired of feeling like we’re spinning our wheels.”

“Then let’s do this now. Call all the guys in and tell them its urgent and mandatory. I don’t give a fuck what anyone is doing. I want everyone but the prospects at this table. If we’re going to make an accusation, we’ll do it together. Our brothers deserve to know the truth.”

“If we scare him bad enough, we might be setting ourselves up for more trouble.” Axel looked concerned as he said, “I can’t afford trouble right now. I have too much at stake.”

“I think we have a better chance at finding this guy sooner rather than later if we draw him out. And I can’t fucking sleep at night knowing there’s a traitor living on my compound. I want him found and taken care of. In the meantime, we take drastic measures to protect the women. We take no chances.”

“Agreed,” both men said in unison.

“I’m sending the text out now,” Tel said. “We should have everyone here within the hour.”

“Good.” And then I could look each one of the fuckers in the eye as we broke the news. With any luck, I’d have my rat tonight.

One by one all the patched in members of the Sins of Wrath motorcycle club filed into the conference room. Bear and Zook had already been in the clubhouse so they were the first to arrive.

“So what’s going on?” Zook asked, taking a seat at my left. As my Sergeant at Arms he normally knew ahead of time when there was a meeting and what our agenda would be.

“Something’s come up that we all need to talk about—together.”

“Okaaay,” he said, looking a little uncomfortable at my harsher than normal tone. I had planned to keep my temper in check, but it was obvious that wasn’t going to be an easy task. “Is everyone coming in?” he asked.

“Yeah. The meeting text went out to everyone so they should all show. Especially since we haven’t heard from anyone who can’t make it.”

Zook nodded, looking down at his phone. “Cash and Cain are both working over at the casino area today so they should be here any minute.”

“How’s everything going over there? Any issues so far?” With everything going on with Sasha and this investigation, I hadn’t had time to check on the rebuild progress in a few days. But I also didn’t feel like I had to. I had a club of good, hard-working men that I trusted to get any job I delegated to them done.

I winced at my automatic faith in my club brothers, knowing one of them wasn’t what he seemed. The thought made my stomach burn. Not knowing which brothers to trust meant that doubtwould poison everything the club did. How could I send anyone on a mission when I couldn’t be sure they all had each other’s backs? One call could put the whole club in danger.

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