Page 16 of Hawk (Road Rebels MC 1)
“Why the fuck didn’t I hear about this then?” Mac asked.
“Good question,” Talon said.
“I figured it could wait until our next session this weekend,” I said. “Until I saw a fucking black sedan outside of my house this evening.”
Not completely true, but Syd did say one of them cropped up. I wasn’t sure if it was the same one, but I had the boys so rattled it wouldn’t even matter.
“You think they fucking spotted you when you were tailing them?” Snake asked.
“Even if they had, I had a helmet on, my jacket, and jeans. They’ve wouldn’t of known who I was, especially since I switch out the license plates on my bike every so often,” I said.
“Fuck!” Mac exclaimed. “Was it the same sedan?”
“Didn’t see the license plate on the one the one outside my place, but I figured it was enough information that it couldn’t wait,” I said.
“You’re fucking right,” Mac said. “All right, so now we gotta figure out how the fuck to get these guys off our trail.”
I breathed a silent sigh of relief. They weren’t going to ask any more questions, which meant I could keep Syd’s name out of it. I saw Talon looking at me a little oddly, but I tried to shake it off. Talon was paranoid as it is, so he was probably starting to wonder if I was cooperating with the DEA.
So, I decided to abate his worries.
“And Talon, before you even fucking ask, the answer’s no,” I said.
“Of course Hawk’s not cooperating,” Snake said. “Shut the fuck up, Talon.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Talon said.
“You never fucking have to with those wild eyes,” Mac said.
“So, Mac. What do we do?” I asked.
“We could try to lose them. We’re far enough out from the shipment to where we could redirect.”
“We’d have to pull the money from those guys’ bank accounts. Issue refunds,” Fox said.
“Or at least get them temporarily transferred, which’ll raise red flags,” I said.
“And pulling the money from their accounts will be even more suspicious,” Snake said.
“We could divert and get the shipments ourselves,” Mac said. “Somewhere remote. Somewhere no one would think to look. We could do all of that without having to go back to that warehouse where they’re fucking snooping around.”
“Where would we redirect? Those drugs are already on their way in. We’d have to radio out to them, and that risks interception,” Fox said.
“Yeah. If the DEA is expecting us to panic, they’ll see that coming from a mile away,” Snake said.
“Well, you assholes got any better ideas?” Mac asked.
“I’d like to know how they fucking got onto us in the first fucking place,” Talon said.
“You know it’s been all over the news. Shit with the Iron Souls,” Fox said.
“You think they’re checking into everyone with all that shit going down?” Snake asked.
“And don’t forget, we almost got fucking caught last time. That already put us on their radars. Then the Iron Souls go and fuck up shit in our neighbor state. I’m honestly shocked they weren’t here sooner,” Mac said.
Holy fuck, as the conversation went on, I became more and more relieved. Mac was keeping his head on straight, especially with Talon ready to pull the trigger. The last thing I needed was to throw Syd into this fight. The last thing I needed was for them to figure out she was the one that brought the DEA into town.
We sat around for two hours shooting the shit when it came to plans. We tried to find ways to postpone. Divert. Reroute. Anything we could do to try and get the DEA off our tails. I was secretly hoping they would just follow Syd out of town. Just long enough for us to get this fucking shipment in. Then I could go after her. Track them down. Help them in any way necessary.
Maybe even tell the club she was back in town and that I had a beautiful daughter I wanted them to meet.
But until we could get through this shit-- until I could volley both sides of this-- she was on her own.
Then again, that’s kinda what she’d always wanted anyway.
“So, we can’t reroute. We can’t divert. We sure as hell can’t go through with the shipment as planned. What if we just turn their heads another way?” Fox asked.
“Whaddaya mean?” Snake asked.
I saw the look come over Fox’s face and I knew exactly what he was thinking. It was the same look we all got whenever we thought about that night. That gruesome, bloody night that forever changed the course of my life, the course of Sydney’s life, and the course of the club’s life forever. I could see the hurt and guilt in his eyes. How he wished he could’ve done more for his fallen family members. We all felt guilty. We all visited that makeshift cemetery a few miles down the road. We all harbored and held close some sort of guilt.
We all suffered from some form of anxiety over it.
We all secretly wanted to get revenge for what The Devil Saints had reigned down on us that night six years ago.
“We could put them on the Devil’s tail,” Fox said.
“That would take some serious planning,” Mac said. “I’m not sure we got that kinda time.”
“But it would work. You know damn well that The Devil Saints ain’t got no morals,” Talon said.
“You got any plans going on in that head of yours?” Snake asked.
“Matter of fact, I do,” Talon said.
“Spill it,” Mac said.
“We’ve had a feud with them for years. Even before that night, we never got along. They treat their women and children like shit. Use them as fall guys and shields. They set them up for failure and ain’t got no issues taking what they feel is theirs,” Talon said.
“We get it. They’re scum. What’s your plan?” Fox asked.
“If you’d shut up long enough, I’d get to it. You guys talk enough for all of us, so sit down and listen,” Talon said.
I had to say, I was impressed with how he was handling this situation. Fox and Snake grumbled, but Mac was definitely impressed. We all sat back in our chairs and let Talon go on his little rant, but when he got to the good stuff, he really delivered.
“I happen to know The Devil Saints were behind us almost getting caught last time,” Talon said.
“You what?” Mac asked.
“I do some snooping in my spare time. Looking for ways to get them back for what they did to us,” Talon said.
“You know that ain’t safe. That could bring wrath down on the whole fuckin’ club,” Snake said.
“Yeah, well. It’s better than sitting around and doing nothing like you guys enjoy doing. I don’t have concrete proof, but I did overhear some conversations one time,” Talon said.
“And where did you hear these… conversations?” Mac asked.
“In their bar. It’s amazing what they don’t recognize if you just don’t wear your cut and fucking put some sunglasses on. They’re so hot on themselves they don’t even give ya a second look,” Talon said, grinning.
“What did this conversation entail?” I asked.
“They were talking about how our routes had become predictable. Talked about how hiding the drugs in the auto parts containers was smart, but how often we used the trucks on our routes wasn’t. One of the guys even laughed about how it was easy to sink the police on our tail because our bikes are modified to be so damn loud,” Talon said.
“Holy fucking shit. They looked at our merchandise,” Mac said.
“How much you wanna bet they took some of it, too?” I asked. “And that’s why we were three boxes short the last time Talon did inventory?”
“My thoughts exactly,” Talon said.
“I’m still wondering why the fuck you didn’t voice them when you needed to,” Mac said.
“I was about to, but then we started up with this whole other shipment, and I got distracted," Talon said, shrugging. “We made the course corrections, I knew who took the shit, so now’s our
chance to get them back. Both for our stolen property and our fallen comrades.”
