Page 33 of Snake (Road Rebels MC 3)
Jace took a step towards me and cupped my cheek. His thumb ran across my cheek, and I nuzzled into the palm of his hand. I could feel his calluses rubbing against me, scratching my skin and, somehow, bringing me some sort of solace.
Some sort of comfort.
“How are you guys going to get out of it?” I asked.
“I can’t give you that information, but I wanted you to know that we were doing it. We’re pulling the plug,” Jace said.
Holy fuck, his touch felt so good.
“You’re never really going to be safe, you know. With The Devil Saints around,” I said.
“I know. Fully protecting our club and their families means getting rid of them. Disbanding them and putting their asses in jail. That’s how this violence will stop. That’s how these threats will cease.”
Just hearing it from him… hearing that confirmation of a theory that was rattling around in my head… was all I needed to shock myself with what I asked next.
“Okay, then. How can I help?”
Epilogue
Snake
One month later
“No deaths, that’s my rule. We talked about this,” Laiken said.
“Babe. There has to be some sort of compromise. We’re cleaning up our act, but this isn’t going to happen all on your terms,” I said.
“Look, I get that you guys are still running some things. You offloaded your drugs into the community, and I turned a blind eye. But there will be. No. Deaths,” she said.
“You know The Devil Saints won’t think twice about killing us,” I said.
“Jace, you have to trust me. If there’s one thing I know, it’s how to beat guys like this. But you won’t do it if you stoop to their level.”
“They came onto our turf,” Fox said. “They raided our fucking shop!”
I clenched my fists together. It was a week ago when we realized the mechanic shop had been broken into. At first, we thought it was dumb kids in the neighborhood, but then we noticed how nothing was actually fucking missing. No idiot would break in and not steal anything. That meant that The Devil Saints had broken in and they were looking for information.
“Do you have proof?” Laiken asked.
“We know it was them,” Hawk said. “You just have to trust us.”
“If you want me to do anything about it officially, you have to give me proof,” Laiken said. “And you can’t just go around killing them because you think they did something.”
“We operate off our guts,” Mac said.
“And I operate off of proof,” Laiken said.
Over the past month, a lot of things happened. I convinced Laiken to help us clean up our act instead of arresting us for what she already knew. She was feeding us information she was comfortable from the department, and in her spare time, she was researching Daniel Carmichael. She was digging into his past, piecing together his childhood, and trying to find ways to pin him to the wall. We all knew we had to get that lawyer out of the picture if we stood a chance of bringing down the Saints, and Laiken’s resources were our best shot.
The condition? No one died in the process.
The Devil Saints were unpredictable assholes. They were trying to do what we had done to them. They were trying to offload some of the DEA heat onto our asses.
And none of us were fucking having it.
“What do you know?” Mac asked.
“Depends on what you’re asking for,” Laiken said.
“Where is the DEA on their investigation into The Devil Saints?” Mac asked.
“They’re starting to figure out that the drugs weren’t connected to the cartel. They can’t establish any cartel runners they would’ve talked to. Eventually, the police are going to figure out what happened. And with your history with the Saints, they’re going to piece together that you guys planted that truck. Now, you’ve gotta help me out here,” Laiken said.
“Where are you on researching Carmichael?” I asked.
“That’s actually going really good,” Laiken said. “He’s taking a lot of shortcuts with his taxes. I’m trying to get his records pulled now, but if I can pin him for anything financial, we can get him into our interrogation rooms and separate him from that pack for a little while.”
“But nothing that’ll pull him away long enough to do any good,” Fox said.
“Is he always his pessimistic?” Laiken asked.
“Ever since I punched him, yeah,” I said.
“You punched him? That’s not very nice,” she said.
“Finally! Someone says it!” Fox said.
Laiken laughed as we all stood around in the shop.
Another one of Laiken’s conditions was meeting the club. The people I was leaving her for a while we were dating, and the people she would now be risking her job for. I was hesitant at first. All of this shit was supposed to keep her away from all of them. Away from the bullshit that was plaguing us. The closer she got to us, the bigger the connection if her captain figured out what she was doing. But that was what she wanted, and I had a hard time turning her down.
No deaths and no more secrets.
I kept secrets from her when I could. Like the rumors circulating about Beast. She never wanted to hear anything she couldn’t prove, so I stuck with her personal rule. But chatter was kicking up about Beast losing his head again. He was striking up another witch hunt for his daughter, and even though we knew he would never find her, his anger was building. In the process of being truthful towards Laiken, we took her to Calista’s grave. Talked her through the moment that Beast rolled up into our compound and shot her right in the back of her head.
She was horrified at what had happened, and the only reason she took us at our word was because of Talon’s first-hand account of the situation.
It had taken her some time to digest everything. The shootout. The death of Calista. Us hiding Beast’s daughter out of his reach. But his anger at the fact that he was losing control of his club was rising, and I could feel a reprise of six years ago coming on.
“Well, I’ve gotta
get back to work,” Laiken said.
“Will you be coming over tonight?” I asked.
“If this conversation’s gonna turn personal, I’m done,” Fox said.
“Anyone have anything else to state?” Mac asked.
“I just have one thing to say,” Hawk said.
“What’s up?” Laiken asked.
“You know that Snake keeps you away from here because The Devil Saints are unpredictable, right?” Hawk asked.
“Snake,” she said, grinning. “Yeah, I know he does.”
“And you know that if they come down that road with guns blazing, we’re going to have to defend ourselves,” Hawk said.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” she said. “What I’m saying is that you won’t be instigating deaths if you want my help.”
“I just… felt the need to make sure that was clarified,” Hawk said. “Because I’m all for this, but not at the expense of not defending my own fucking family.”
“Trust me, I would never take that right away from you,” Laiken said, and Hawk smiled.
“See you tonight?” I asked.
“See you tonight, babe.”
Laiken left the lodge, and Mac turned his eyes towards me. He was studying me as I watched Laiken walk out that door, and the moment we heard her car pull away I knew what he was going to ask.
“You ready?” Mac asked.
“Yeah, tonight’s the night, right?” Hawk asked.
“I still can’t believe that Snake’s doing this,” Fox said.
“Why?” Talon asked. “He’s in love. The fuck’s wrong with that?”
“Yes, I’m ready. But I gotta get out of here and get some things prepared,” I said.
“You’re preparing stuff? Sounds fancy,” Talon said.
“I don’t do fancy and romantic. But I do need to clean,” I said.
“Clean up, maybe,” Fox said, grinning. “But seriously. Congrats.”
“I haven’t done anything yet,” I said.
“But you will. So… congrats,” Fox said.
I headed home to get everything ready for tonight. I cleaned up all the shit out of the house and took out the trash. Readied the bath to be run and changed the sheets on the bed. I had gotten permission from Mac to not go back to the lodge tonight, so long as I checked in every so often. And I was glad.
