Page 43 of Brand
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Brand
All playfulness aside, there was stuff that needed to be dealt with. Serious threats against the club. And I didn’t even know which end we were getting hit from. Shit had gone sideways in the blink of an eye. A local gang had targeted us out of nowhere and we had no idea if we were the only ones. Then there was Detective Asshole who clearly had it out for us.
The air in church vibrated with an antsy aggravation. I hated sitting still but I knew this was important.
I’d found out what happened to Connor when I got back last night. I was lucky that Iron didn’t keep me long and in fact, he forced the information down my throat at a hurried pace. I wouldn’t say that without Connor on the force that we were screwed, it just meant that we’d have to be a little more cautious and constantly watching our backs. It wasn’t anything new.
Cable had been tasked with digging up whatever he could find on the detective. Anything that might help us get out of the situation we were currently in with him. Hey, we weren’t above blackmail as long as what we found was something dirty. We wouldn’t threaten or harm the innocent. Ever. So, all we needed was one little thing.
The cameras came up with enough to get me off the hook, but not enough to point the finger at Detective Mullins. I couldn’t tell if he was smart or just lucky.
Either way, I didn’t care right then, because I was out and the charges had been dropped. Not surprising to me the cocaine they “recovered at the scene” happened to disappear after Iron showed up with the footage of the shop.
“I’m shutting down the Irish and the Russians for the time being. I’ll be letting them know that as soon as we’re done here. I’m taking B-ry, Knight, Sketch, and Mouse. Brand, you need to head to the shop and take care of all that shit.”
I gave Iron a nod. I was tired but knew I wouldn’t be seeing my bed anytime soon. I figured I had gotten two hours at most last night. A smile tickled my lips as I thought about how I wouldn’t trade the lack of sleep for the world.
Damn Cami. That woman was amazing. There were times that she took me by surprise and I loved it. I liked the way she was around me, whether it be in the shop around people, or when it was just us. It was obvious that she was trying to break out from her parents’ grooming and rules. But she wasn’t doing it in a spoiled, rich girl, ‘I need love, notice me’ kind of way. She was truly trying to find a way to be herself.
Fuck, she was beautiful. And I loved having her in my arms, I knew that even with the short time that I had been allowed to have her there. It made me want more, like every single night, more. Even if she did elbow me in the ribs a couple of times. That girl slept like she was fighting something.
“Find anything Cable?” Iron’s voice snapped me back to attention.
“Ten years ago, his wife and child were killed in a shootout between two motorcycle clubs. His kid wasn’t even a year old.” Cable paused, his lips turning down into a sad frown. “This happened down in Texas. He’d been on the force for two years, married for three. From what I can tell, he took a leave of absence then came back swinging. But since he was young and didn’t have a leg to stand on in the department, he didn’t get anywhere.”
“Well, that’s something. I can understand it a little more now. Don’t make it right, but it’s better than dealing with some asshole just on a power trip,” Iron said, his face mimicking the twinge of sadness we all felt right then.
I understood it. The man lost his family. But that didn’t mean he should go after us simply because we were a motorcycle club. I hated it. Though, to be fair, we were outlaws. And to defend my club and my brothers, I would be the first to step up and say that we were maybe more towards the good side of the wrong. I know, that made zero sense. An outlaw was a fucking outlaw, right? I’d seen this club do a lot of good in the few years I’d been with them. I wasn’t saying that outweighed the bad, I was simply saying that we had rules, ways we did things to make sure no innocent people got hurt. And we would never willingly start something or so much as pull our guns if there was a chance that an innocent could get caught in the crossfire.
Sure, mistakes happened, but we worked hard to keep those mistakes to a bare minimum. And despite being a bunch of gun running criminals, we were the first to step up if there was a need for help.
No, I got it. This didn’t make us good no matter what sliding scale you used. But I had to believe that there was a whole lot of white mixed into this black. That we treaded on a lighter side of gray.
“They happened to be walking down the street when the two clubs started shooting at one another. Mullins was shot five times but survived after three surgeries to remove all the shrapnel around his spine. His wife took a bullet to the head…”
Cable didn’t need to go on, and I was glad that he hadn’t. Maybe I saw the detective in a new light, but it still didn’t mean that what he’d done was right.
I couldn’t make up for what had happened, for all the loss he had gone through, but neither could taking down people for no other reason than because they wore a cut and a patch.
“Alright, I gotta sit on this a while. As pissed as I am, I think it’s best to handle this with kid gloves. Just gotta think of the right way to do that,” Iron said. “So, I’m going to assume that he is going after O’Shay because of his association with the Irish, and their association with us.”
“Does O’Shay know any of this?” I asked.
“No,” Iron answered, his gaze a bit distant. “I don’t think so. If he does, he didn’t let onto anything. Now, as far as this attack goes, we need to be on guard. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it one fucking bit. I’m not sure if they knew you were there or not. Maybe it was meant to send a warning. They did it after business hours and maybe it was just bad luck that it happened to be the night you stayed behind. I don’t know. But I’m gonna fucking find out. I imagined if they wanted you dead that they would have walked right in there and popped you in the head.”
Yeah, that was true. D13 was no joke and it was widely known what happened to people that crossed them. Only, I didn’t think that we had. So that was why the attack didn’t make sense to me and I was sure Iron was thinking the same thing. There was something bigger at play here and we needed to get to the bottom of it.
Maybe I shouldn’t have let Cami go. It was foolish on my part. Truth was, I’d been so blinded by how right and normal it felt being with her that I kind of temporarily forgot about how bad it was outside of that room. Not completely, I mean I knew the shop was fucked up and I wanted to keep her away from it, but somewhere in my mind, I didn’t think that her going home was something I needed to worry about.
“Brand?” My eyes snapped up to meet Iron’s after he called out my name. I hadn’t meant to get lost in my head. “We’re not going to have problems with Cami, are we?”
I shook my head, confusion causing my brows to pinch tight. I couldn’t see where we would. For one, she didn’t know anything at all. And two, she didn’t seem like the kind of person that would cause trouble even if she did.
“Maybe not so much with Cami, I mean, that girl did hide your gun—on herself, might I add. I mean her family.”
I was still lost. I had no idea what he was talking about. It was clear that Cami came from money, but I didn’t see how her family had anything to do with what was going on. And, no I wasn’t stupid, I didn’t imagine her family would open their arms and smile to Cami being with a biker. But I couldn’t see where that wouldn’t have any effect on the club, it would be more of a personal issue to deal with.
