Page 29 of Snake (Road Rebels MC 3)
We all sat down and took some breaths so our tempers could cool down. I gathered my thoughts and tried to figure out the best way to begin this conversation. I was wondering how the fuck I could make this work with Laiken. How in the world our two lives could collide.
I loved her. I loved her with everything inside of me. But with the DEA and The Devil Saints swirling with shit around here, I didn’t see how it was possible for us to be together.
My mind was failing me. This didn’t have anything to do with numbers or figures. This had to do with lives and livelihoods and handcuffs and drugs. This had to do with loyalty and keeping my mouth shut. This had nothing to do with anything I was comfortable with, and it pissed me off even more.
We all knew if the DEA could get The Devil Saints away for good, then we would be good. But it felt like they were trying to take down two birds with one stone. They had all they needed in order to take down their club, but for some reason, they were waiting it out. Why? Why had the
y not just arrested them for having the fucking drugs in the first place? One reason could be that with this cartel bullshit, they were trying to backtrack to the source. Cut off the supply of drugs coming into Nevada as well as take down their club. But if they kept digging down that rabbit hole, eventually we would come up. Whether they figured out we planted the drugs or whether they figured out we ran drugs ourselves, it was going to get messy.
Either way, we were all going to be in the middle of it.
The only way things would be safe is if we got out of drug-running altogether. Cut our ties, shut down our trade routes, and fucking laid low. The more bullshit and baggage we could unload, the better. But I wasn’t sure how the club was going to take that.
Drug-running wasn’t the bulk of our monetary income. It was a side-business, but it was lucrative. It was a combination of the drug running the mechanic shop and the bar that was our main business. The drug running was something we could do in a hurry when we needed quick cash. There had been small talk for a while about us finding something other than drugs for income but during church, we never fully voted on anything.
But now, we didn’t have a choice. Our women were involved. Gemma and Sydney. Emery and Laiken. They were all involved with this no matter how much we tried to shelter them from it. Their safety was left in the palms of our hands, and every time we tried to divert it only brought down more head on our heads.
The only way to really pull this off now that the DEA was sticking around was to start doing things a little more legally. At least until they could get out of town and take The Devil Saints with them. The question was, could I convince the club to do that? Even if I brought the girls into the picture, I still didn’t have a unanimous vote. I could maybe sway Mac even though he didn’t have a woman he was taking care of, but Fox enjoyed the drug running. He was good at selling, and he got kickbacks for being so good at it. We all knew, but it was never talked about. It didn’t impact the money in our pockets, so we paid the man more money since he was better at it.
And his arguments alone told me he’d vote ‘no,’ and the whole idea would be trashed.
We had other streams of income. We had the bar, and if we opened it up to the public, instead of just club members and associates that could rake in some decent money. We’d have to stop serving minors in order to really make it work, but that wouldn’t be anything anyone would kick up a stink about. No one was thrilled that the bar served minors in the first place, but we let it slide because the bar was how we initially cleaned our drug-running money. It was our ‘payment’ to those in the club that worked it.
Turning our backs on shit like that.
If we off-loaded all the drugs we and find another source of income, we could make this work. If we stopped running the drugs, then the bar would be legal as fuck. We could pool our money and open another one in town, which could very well make up for the loss of profits we would see without the damn drugs. It would put space between the kids some of the guys were having and those activities, and it increased the chances that the DEA would look elsewhere when they couldn’t connect us to any drug-running.
It was the only shot I had, so I had to make sure I convinced them this shit was a good idea.
I knew Sydney would love the club to be safer. Both for Emery and for Hawk. There were too many times this past year where Hawk had lost his head and almost gotten caught, and Syd wasn’t happy about it at all. And with my sister hanging around Talon, she needed extra protection. I still had the ability to keep her away from this shit, and this was how I could do that. If Gemma was really going to choose Talon to spend her life with, then I needed to make this place safer for her. I needed to start accepting her decisions instead of getting her to conform back to mine.
If I wanted her safe, this was how it had to be done.
Everyone cool?” Mac asked.
“I’m good,” Fox said.
“Me, too,” Talon said.
“I’m still gathering my thoughts,” I said.
“Good, because I’m still ready to kill you,” Hawk said.
“You better shut that fucking mouth of yours before I shut it for you,” I said.
“Everyone needs to calm the fuck down!” Mac roared.
It had been a long time since we’d had a cool-down session like this. Usually, we could all get together, spit it out, then get back on our way. But tensions were running high, and that was partially my fault. I had to accept responsibility for that before I could expect anyone to go along with my plan.
“I’m sorry I raged on you, Fox,” I finally said.
“What?” Fox asked.
“I said… I’m sorry I knocked your pussy ass to the ground.”
I could see Fox’s eyes flaring up, but then Hawk stepped in.
“That’s as good of an apology as you’re getting from Snake,” he said. “Take it or leave it.”
“I just wanna know why the fuck Snake called ‘church,” Talon said. “Gemma’s not feeling well, and I need to get back to her.”
“What the fuck’s wrong with my sister?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you after church,” Talon said.
“I said I wanna fucking know now.”
“Snake, cool your jets. You’ve flexed your dick enough today. Now, tell us why you’ve called church, or conclude this bullshit so we can all get back to the lodge. I’m hungry,” Mac said.
“That’s never good,” Hawk said, mumbling.
I had to tell them everything. About Laiken. About my feelings. I would have to divulge our entire history. Talk to them about when we were dating. In order for them to be on my side, they had to know the whole fucking story. All the way up to this afternoon. And they would probably hate me for it. Curse me for fucking around with a cop. But I loved this woman, and I trusted her, and I knew she wouldn’t bring heat down onto until she had proof.
And I knew she didn’t have that.
“It’s gonna be a long session, okay? I just… need you guys to listen,” I said.
“Snake, you good?” Hawk asked. “You’re looking pale.”
“Should I get snacks for this lovefest?” Mac asked.
“No,” I said. “But you are gonna have to keep an unbiased mind about what I’m going to suggest.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Talon asked.
“It means I have an idea about how I’m gonna get what I want, get you what you guys want, and get the fucking DEA off our backs. But it takes a story and time to tell it,” I said.
“Fine,” Fox said. “What’s this story?”
“It starts with a woman named Laiken,” I said.
“It always does,” Hawk said.
“You get her pregnant or some shit?” Mac asked.
“No, you asshole. I fell in love with her.”
Chapter 26
Laiken
I walked out of Jace’s home and got back into my car. I could feel his dried come sticking to the side of my fucking leg. I couldn’t believe what was going on. I couldn’t believe what I had just found out about Jace. He was a fucking outlaw belonging to one of the gangs my police department was researching. What the hell had just happened? How the fuck had I not seen this any sooner?
I got into my car and headed back to the police station. I took the long way around, taking some time to clear my head. For the first time in my entire life, I was lost. I was lost on what to think, I was lost on what to say, and I was lost on what to do. Memories of the old Jace came crashing back to me, and I smiled as I drove around town. I found myself driving by our old hotspots. Like where the diner used to be or the park we used to make out at.
I drove by the alley where I first had sex with him. The place where I had first become addicted to him. I drove by the movie theater he took me to whenever I wanted to go out on a date, and I parked in the spot his bike always took up. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, not caring who the hell looked inside. I was consumed with thoughts of him. How he used to smile at me
and how gentle his voice used to sound in my ear.
I love the memories I had of Jace. They weren't tainted with the information I now had on him. I could still look at him through the lens of a younger me and see the man I have fallen in love with. The young boy who was still blossoming in his life. I recounted our steps, the places we went to around town and the darkened rocks we would sit on whenever he would take me on bike rides towards the desert. I looked for any signs. Any clues that could have pointed me towards the life he had been leading at that point. I remembered all the times I ever made love to him and tried to see if I could smell him out. Smell the leather on his skin or the drugs on his fingers or the smell of musky cologne as he rode with a group of men from coast to coast.
But there was nothing. There were no warning signs that he was a part of a gang trapped within the confines of my memory.
I was angry at myself. I was better than this. I knew that I could sniff out criminals better than this. I could put pieces together better than this. But the truth of the matter was, my captain had no pieces. The DEA had no pieces. They had drugs that routed back to a cartel that funneled similar drugs into the country. They had pictures, they had probable cause, but they had no proof. The only proof they had was the truckload of drugs found outside The Devil Saints compound... and no arrests had been made. DEA Special Agent Monaco could say whatever the fuck it was she wanted.
There was something very, very wrong with this entire situation.
The Devil Saints should have been arrested on the spot. The moment those drugs were found outside of their compound, every single person present should have been arrested. The DEA still could have conducted their investigation into the cartel once they found that the drugs in the back of the truck were cut similar to the shit being shipped into the country. But no arrests had been made.
Why the fuck not?
One thing I knew about criminal organizations was that the best ones who indulged in the seediest operations could afford to hire the best lawyers. That was where I needed to start. I needed to start by figuring out who the hell represented The Devil Saints. I needed to dig into their past. If Jace was right about how shady they were and if my captain was right about how disgusting they were, then there was a good chance cases had been brought against them before. There was a reason the DEA was going so hard for them. Hell, The Iron Souls had no charges brought against them before the DEA descended into their lives, and they made them a national witch hunt.
