Naked Dirty Love (8 page)

Trey’s hand wandered behind his back to locate his Glock pressed against his back, but he slowly brought it back down to his side. “Yeah, I know. I can’t resist gettin’ into trouble. I came to Black Oak and I’m on your territory wearin’ my cut but I swear to you—this was my only destination. I just wanted to say goodbye to Keri.”

Marian stared at him suspiciously before glancing at Jake. “If he was just payin’ his respects…”

“Fuck that, Mari. This piece of fuckin’ shit is the reason she’s dead—”

“Yeah, you can blame me,” Trey interrupted rudely, his temper flaring in anger. “I shouldn’t have taken her with me to Belfast but I didn’t fuckin’ kill her! No, your old man did that shit so if you have a problem—you wanna
really
blame someone?
Nel
was the one who put the dumb Irish fuckers on our tail. They didn’t even know they were shootin’ his daughter. I woulda gladly taken that motherfuckin’ bullet but they aimed to
murder
her.”

Jake glared at Trey with dead blue eyes. “You’re not lyin’, are ya? I know the part my old man had in her death but he said it wasn’t intentional.”

“I don’t think it was intentional on Nel’s part—he wasn’t there, remember? But thee fuckers who took the job knew
exactly
what they were doin’.” Trey walked closer to them until they were a few feet away. “Listen, I’ll get in my Escalade and get the fuck outta your territory. The Saints and the Knights—we got business together. Nothing you do to me would be worth it.”

Jake shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t I fuckin’ know it? You being old man Cox’s son, I’m not fuckin’ touchin’ ya with a ten-foot pole. Did I wanna shoot ya in the kneecaps after you shot Brooklyn and put his dumb ass in the hospital? Fuck yeah, I did. I’d shoot your ass now but Nel would murder me himself. Is it true about you guys takin’ over what used to be Carlito’s score?”

Trey smirked. “Is that what Nel told you? If it he did then you already know the answer. Eyes and ears—they’re everywhere, bro. I don’t talk shop outside chapel if you know what I mean.”

“I’m not your motherfuckin’
bro
. You may be Dizzy’s lost boy but you don’t mean shit to me. So go ahead, cry over my sister and get the fuck outta my town before I change my mind and shoot you on principle alone. That wasn’t okay what you did to Brooklyn and you know it. Now, everything just goes away. That shit ain’t right—”

“No,
bro
, what
ain’t
right is that piece of shit threatened my sister in L.A. while she was mindin’ her own motherfuckin’ business.
That’s
what isn’t right. If he’d kept whatever shit he wanted to say between him and me—you and I wouldn’t be exchangin’ words now,” Trey said coldly. “I wouldn’t have had to leave the motherfuckin’ country from
tryin’
to end him when he fuckin’ told my sister he would kill her if she wouldn’t tell him where I was. She didn’t know—hell, she’s not even
in
this world. You don’t
threaten
my blood and think nothin’ happens!”

Jake’s eyebrows furrowed in annoyance as he replied, “Yeah, I know all about what happened. He told me and what he did was stupid but…we had info on that pretty boy rock star she married.”

Trey took a step back and threw his arms up in exasperation. “They weren’t even datin’ back then, let alone married, so that isn’t an excuse.”

“Yeah but…now they are. And since you were brought back from Belfast, shit’s changed. Now your sister
is
part of our world. Her hubby’s a Saint, ain’t he?”

Trey’s jaw ticked as he mashed his teeth together. “I don’t know
what
Linx is to the club. I do know he plays a mean bass for Winter’s Regret and it’s pretty cool to have him as a brother-in-law.”

Jake laughed out loud as he shook his head. “It’s like that, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s like that.”

Marian squeezed his shoulder. “We gotta go, cuz.”

Trey stared him down as Jake pointed his index finger in his direction. “Get the fuck outta my town, Lennon.”

He mock-saluted and reluctantly turned around, walking back to his Escalade. “Take the Bullets Away” played on his phone; he grabbed his Samsung from his pocket and answered the call.

“What’s up, K?” Trey greeted, using Cillian’s road name initial.

“Change of plans. We need you to get back pronto,” Cillian replied quickly in his slight Irish accent.

“On my way back now. Give me about twenty. I’m in Knights’ territory—I gotta make my way back.”

“See ya soon.”

Trey slid his phone back into his pocket.

Shit had just gotten real and his own feelings didn’t matter anymore. All he could think about was the club—he had to focus. It was the only way he was going to get over Keri’s death and move the fuck on.

“A
s you fellas can see, neither the Prez nor any of the Originals are here but don’t think for a second
they
haven’t sanctioned this,” Cillian said, his voice strong and authoritative.

Trey sat in the chapel along with Cricket, Bookie, Quinn, and Kink. All five men stared at the man who would one day take over the gavel from Dizzy. He had almost as much power as his father and they all knew whatever he discussed with them was the final word on the subject. “What’s goin’ on? I thought we were waiting to hear back from Emilio,” Quinn spoke up. He wasn’t usually known for being assertive—he and Ronan were twins and he’d taken his brother’s absence from the club the hardest. However, with Ronan gone, the guy seemed to have found his balls, along with his voice.

Cillian glared at them with hard, crystal blue eyes. “What do you think the bastard would do?
 
Kill his flesh and blood? This isn’t television and we know how he feels about family. No way in hell is he gonna take Carlito out but he’ll stall the fuck outta us and
pretend
like he’s doin’ somethin’.”

“What’s he
doin’
to buy time?” Trey questioned as he shook a Camel out of his pack and lit the cigarette with a chrome lighter.

“According to the great and fearless leader of
Aztecas Infierno
, Carlito was actin’ on
his
orders. We know this is bullshit because the Knights who’ve personally met with Carlito have emphatically stated he was actin’ alone. He pointed out, on numerous occasions, to Jake and Marian that they were doin’ business with
him
—not the cartel and not the MC.” Cillian sighed and sat down in his usual spot, avoiding the Prez’s chair.

“Okay, so what does that mean? The last time we saw his fuckin’ ass, Ronan and me was helpin’ Kink bring Chantal back to the club. My dumb ass sister was there and now she’s knee-deep in shit she don’t fuckin’ understand. Stupid bitch—just like her fuckin’ whore mother,” Cricket complained bitterly.

“Yeah, I know,” Cillian continued. “Fortunately, we won’t be meetin’ on no fuckin’ yacht though. We’re supposed to help the Glendale charter oversee a shipment Carlito is deliverin’. We’ll test the product then and there. We know he’s been cuttin’ that shit with meth so we catch him red-handed—”

“Wait a minute,” Trey interrupted. “No disrespect to you, seein’ as you’re gonna be leadin’ us all one day, but if Emilio’s been in touch with his son, don’t you think he’d make sure the product is what we’re expectin’? Do you really think he’d be that dumb?”

“Brother, we
know
he’s that fuckin’ dumb,” Kink replied. “Just as you were makin’ your way to the club, I got a call from Jake. The delivery went down as always—no hitches. You
honestly
think he’s gonna sit on all that meth and make a clean delivery? No fuckin’ way.”

“Trey’s got a point though,” Cillian said before he dragged on his cigarette. “The way I see it, even if it is what we’re expectin’ when we show up—he’s not lookin’ to see any of us, and he knows he’s busted. He can’t keep playin’ us like he has. Maybe he sells the cut coke to another buyer, maybe he fuckin’ eats the cost—I don’t give a shit. I want that motherfucker to know we’re watchin’ him.”

“Speakin’ of…I been listenin’ in on some local biz we got goin’ and the cops found drugs on some high school kids.” Bookie swigged from a bottle of water and placed it back on the table. “We know the kids around here like a little bud but we’re not talkin’ about that. They found some hardcore shit - heroin and coke. Looks like the kids were lookin’ to get wasted.”

Cillian glared around the table. “Where the fuck did this shit come from? Don’t tell me Sheriff Rawlins thinks it came from us? We don’t fuckin’ shit where we eat.”

“Nah—they ain’t lookin’ at the MCs,” Bookie continued quietly. “They called in the Feds and, apparently, they spotted some
vatos
around the high school. Definitely
not
local. They were all pimped out and shit in their ghetto rides listening to some loud ass Tejano rap or some shit. Anyway, they think the cartel’s finally moved into the charming communities of Pine Bluff and Birch Tree.”

Trey shook his head as he smirked. “They may not be lookin’ at the MCs now but they will be sooner or later. Everyone knows the Saints do business with the cartel, but the Bastards won’t touch them with someone else’s dick. When the parents start complain’ at town meetings about how little Johnny was a straight-A student until he discovered smack or coke, who do you think the cops are gonna be shakin’ down? We gotta nip this shit in the bud with motherfuckin’ quickness.”

“Or what?” Kink asked rhetorically.

“You think we got an issue ’cause Carlito is cuttin’ our shit with meth? Wait until you have a whole list of citizens wanting the Saints and Bastards outta their goddamn towns—fuck the consequences. They don’t understand we’ve been the muscle that’s kept them safe all along. The cartel would’ve destroyed this bum-fuck area a long time ago but the MCs are a necessary evil. We keep this place tolerable, a nice place to live. We go and the cartels move in - making this like the border towns in Texas, Arizona, and California.” Trey dragged from his cigarette and exhaled wordlessly.

All his brothers looked around the table, nodding. Cillian glanced upwards, a look of exasperation on his face. “Fuck me twice and die. I gotta talk to Dizzy about this shit now ’cause if I go to Glendale, I’m gonna kill that motherfucker. Fuck the consequences, fuck a motherfuckin’ war. That
pendejo
thinks he’s gonna take over
our
fuckin’ town? He’s got another think comin’ ’cause I’ll kill that bastard, his father, and his cross-dressin’ uncle too. I will eliminate
Aztecas Infierno
.”

“Yeah but you know how the cartels work, Killer. They’re like the goddamn Islamic terrorists—you cut off the head of one hydra and two more pop outta nowhere,” Trey stated. “Besides, can you really do that to Maureen? Carlito is a lot of things but he’s still blood.
Bad
blood, but we got the same shit pumpin’ through our veins he does. All we can do is hit ’em…hard. Send a message we won’t be takin’ any more
vatos
out of SoCal and for them to go back where the fuck they came from. Then tell Carlito to call his fuckin’ soldiers off. He needs to shit or get off the pot and stop fuckin’ with us. If he wants a war, he should fuckin’ start it already but no one fucks with
our
town and gets away with it. We let him do that and the whole situation is just gonna escalate. S’all I’m sayin’.”

The VP stubbed his cigarette out in a glass ashtray and breathed loudly. “We leave tomorrow night. The delivery is in a couple days and with the weather bein’ what it’s like, we gotta ride through some snow, brothers. If we hurry, we can miss most of the worst shit and be chillin’ in Glendale by Thursday. Everyone cool with that?”