Page 51 of Brand
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Brand
We now had tension all around. It was hanging thick in the air that filled the clubhouse. Everyone that knew what was going on was walking around on edge.
This included me.
Iron informed us that no one was happy about the pause in shipments, but left it at that. This had only left me with a million questions in my head. Did we need to watch our backs with the Russians and Irish now, too? I hoped to God not.
Pissed as hell and not one to lay down and take shit, Iron came up with a plan. One that I was currently not only in on, but apart of as well. And I couldn’t even say that I wasn’t happy about it. The detective was about to see how pissed I could get. I’d already decided that I wasn’t going hold back. I got that his life had been shit, but I not only needed answers, I needed him to feel it in his bones that he couldn’t fuck with us and get away with it.
I didn’t dig into this part of me very often. I could count on one hand how many times I’d gone full dark. I may have been the fun, easygoing one, but never let the dimples fool you, if you went after the people I cared about or harmed them in any way, I’d bring the devil out and let him play.
And that was what Detective Mullins had done. He’d known about what was going on, and instead of stopping it, he used it to his advantage. I shouldn’t have been the one in jail last night, it should have been those assholes that opened fire on Cami.
As I sat there, ready and waiting to go, I could feel my eyes grow dark. Tonight there would be no playing around.
“Let’s roll,” Iron said, walking to the front door with wide, purposeful steps.
I jumped up and fell in line behind B-ry and Cable.
Hours later, I was crouched behind a wall in a pitch dark house, my hairs stood on end as the key clicked the front lock open.
I would have liked to tell you that we timed this out perfectly, but that wasn’t the case so much. In fact, we’d been waiting there a good three hours before headlights had turned into the driveway indicating that it was finally time.
Three hours.
That was a lot of time to sit there in near silence because we were trying to keep conversations to a minimum. Three fucking hours of thinking about Cami and how this life had screwed me yet again. How I’d found the most amazing woman who just felt right and before I even had a chance to let myself believe that she wanted to be with me, it was all gone. With atext, no less. A few emotionless words and I felt my heart shatter.
Yes, I was a sappy fuck, I wouldn’t ever try to deny that. When I said I was all in, that I wanted it to mean something, I had never spoken truer words.
The light cut on and I could clearly see a relaxed Iron looking like he’d made himself at home on the detective’s couch, arms spread out along the back and one foot casually rested on the opposite knee.
“The fuck?!” Detective Mullins barked and from the shift in of the fabric of his suit, I imagined he was going for his gun.
“I wouldn’t,” was all that Iron said.
“Well, shit,” he mumbled and I knew that B-ry had walked up behind him.
“Have a seat.” Iron nodded to the leather chair across from him.
The detective finally stepped into my view as he took a seat. I could see he was holding back and the clenching of his jaw was a dead give away. I rose, not making a sound so he didn’t know that I was there. With his back to me, I studied him as best as I could. He was trying to play off the cool demeanor, but I saw the tightness in his shoulders.
“We got a problem. And I don’t like problems,” Iron said. He nodded to me, letting me know that he was the one talking, but he would follow my lead. The move was so slight that I wondered if the detective had even taken notice of it. I gave a jerk of my chin, telling him to go on. “You came after my boy with some bullshit charges. More importantly, you knew what was going to go down and you let it happen. So, in a sense, you threated my club. Big fucking problem, right there. You know how I handle problems like that?”
His tone was cool and cold at the same time. If I didn’t know the man so well, I might have felt the ice in my veins.
I stepped up, gun gripped in my hand and brought it up to rest against the side of the detective’s head. He actually winced when I cocked it. My body was in his peripheral, but my hand wasn’t. He couldn’t see that my finger was resting along the side of the frame and not actually on the trigger.
I was dark, but I wasn’tthatdark. I had no intentions of putting a bullet in him right then, not like this, and I knew Iron wanted the same thing. Scare the shit out of him, yes, but kill him wasn’t in the plan just yet. We’d give him a chance to say his peace and make this right.
His fingers tightened their hold on the arms of the chair, the nail beds turning white. He was surrounded, Cable having come out and taken to my side. He wasn’t going anywhere and he knew it would be dumb-as-fuck to try anything.
“You’re fucking stupid for coming here like this. Pulling a goddamn gun on someone with a badge. I’ll take you all down.”
“No, you won’t,” Iron said. “If you’re lucky, you’ll be alive tonotfollow through with that threat. Who shot up the shop?”
“I don’t know. I only knew it was going to happen. One of the guys on the Gang Task Force has an informant. He came to me with the info, knowing that I have my eye on your club. But he wouldn’t give me any other details.”
