Page 73 of Flint

Bulldog shrugs. “Give me a week to finalize it.”

“Okay, next order of business. Duke.”

The entire table groans. We’ve been after the asshole for five weeks now, and we’ve got nothing. No one is more frustrated than me.

“Flint, tell the boys what you found,” Law says, letting me take over.

“Right. Well, as you know, Kitten kept files on every document she looked over. More times than not, she would put them on a flash drive and take the shit home to work on. She did that with Duke’s, and when Larry told her to get the file, she hid the drive, not liking how things were going. She forgot about it till the day of the fire and thankfully got her memory back to go claim it a second before it went up in flames.”

“Talk about lucky timing,” Domino pipes up, and I’ve got to agree. Love how the world works sometimes. Just like I also love how I got my girl. Don’t like seeing her hurt, but if I had to do it again, I’d gladly make her endure it all just to end up with her. Best times in my life right now, and I know it’s just the beginning.

“Needless to say, she isn’t into going back to work anytime soon, so she opened up her own accounting system, which is mostly just club accounts, and it’s been working out for all of us, if the increase in your bank accounts is anything to go by. In her spare time, she’s been going through the books and trying to figure out what it is Duke was hiding. While we might not know where he’s hiding, what we do know is he was making some serious cash on the side to get started in something he didn’t want his president to know about.”

“Why not just go to the Devils’ prez and tell them like it is?” Jumper inquires.

Law’s the first to shake down that idea. “Won’t work. The clubs have never been on friendly terms. It’ll be our word against their own VP, and no one takes outsiders’ words compared to their own unless they’ve got proof. Right now, we’ve got speculation at best.”

“Right, so I started digging into what he could want that his boss doesn’t. Psy will sell almost anything: drugs, secrets, guns, you name it. Only thing he ain’t willing to get into is the skin trade.”

“What about the trailers we found Chains’ old lady in? He was down for that,” Kooper asks, and I see Chains tighten his fists from the corner of my eye. He doesn’t like the memory, not that any of us do.

“Honestly, don’t know if he ever knew.” Law shakes his head as he continues. “When I reached out, it was Duke who spoke up. He could have been hiding that too. That’s the only thing that never felt right about that connection, and this would explain it.”

“You think Duke is going in full-time, then?” Jumper directs the question at me.

I shrug. “Makes sense. It costs a bit to get a start-up if you want to make a name for yourself. He could have gotten a taste for it when he was working with Officer Dwayne, and it’s the only thing I can think of that his boss wouldn’t be down for. Or that he would go behind his back on.”

“So what’s the play?” I appreciate that Casper is letting me run this. Duke is my number one target. No one goes after mine without a bit of payback. Club knows he’s my kill, even if Casper is the one who usually carries out our dirty work.

I smile as I lay my plan out. “How does the club feel about throwing a bit of a welcome home party for Mad Max here?”

“How’s a party going to work?” Kooper looks to those at the table for an explanation, confused as fuck.

“We put a call out that the club’s interested in making extra cash, see what kind of players it brings in. We keep the doors to our house a bit locked up, so we’d need to hold the party off-site so as not to draw the eye of those who’d wonder why we’re suddenly making a play. We’ve never been in the skin business before, but we’ve also never made it clear that we oppose it completely. Everyone knows we respect our women, but I think if a few of us show an interest, we might pull a string or two to get some eyes our way.”

“Hmm, we’ll need someone we trust to pull this shit off. Club can’t just come out. Who you got in mind to make the call to start this shit?” Bulldog speaks up.

“Gideon.”

“You think he would set shit up?” Chains asks as he eyes Law.

“Doesn’t hurt to ask,” I say with a shrug. Honestly, what do we have to lose?

Law nods. “Fine, I’ll ask. No guarantees. Club would owe him one, and that would be two groups at the end of the day.”

“Worth it in my mind if it gets me closer to Duke so I can kill the son of a bitch,” I growl.

“Guess it ain’t up to me, then. Think what we all need to know is, Max, are you ready for a bit of fun?” Law turns to look at the newcomer, and then we all do.

The guy smiles for the first time in three years, and the boys and I do the same.

Shit is about to get fun, indeed.

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