Page 81 of Vandal Unbound

“You think when we’ve gotten home, and calmed down, and maybe eaten something other than pie, and slept, we can have a do-over on this reunion?”

I kiss the back of her hand. “Absolutely.”

24

VANDAL

“You sure you’re gonna be okay?” I ask Daisy for the hundredth time.

Havoc and I took his truck to the airport, so he came with me to drop them at their apartment to pack. But my heart is split. I want to be here to keep them safe, and I also want to be in the clubhouse to understand why the heck that guy was hanging around in plain sight.

“Go,” she says, looking at Rainbow and Tango, two old-timers Knox sent to give her cover, and the two prospects. A combination of youth and experience in four bodies to watch the exterior corridor. “We’ll be ready and packed by the time you get here.”

I reach for her, wrapping my fingers around her wrist. “Stay inside until I get back.”

“I will.”

I kiss her. Again. It’s like she’s a figment of my imagination, and I have to touch her just to prove she’s real.

“Okay,” Havoc says, with a humorous groan. “We need to go, Van.”

“Later.” I release Daisy. “Bye, Els,” I shout into the apartment.

“Bye, Vandal.” The shouted reply comes from inside.

Both of us smile at that.

I spin on my heel, and we head down the stairs to the truck.

“Ridge and Sunny have some important questions to answer,” Havoc says. “How could they not have figured out he was a spy?”

We climb into the truck and head back to the clubhouse. “In fairness to the two of them, we didn’t know what his tattoo was.”

When we get to the clubhouse, the guy is exactly where Knox said he’d be: handcuffed to a steel chair in one of the old storage buildings to the left of the compound.

His face is already bruised, his lip split open, and his shirt has been ripped off his body to reveal the ink on his wrist that frightened Daisy.

Knox has his arms crossed over his chest. “Says his name is Cristian. Thought you might want to talk to him first.”

I appreciate the gesture. It’s a way back in to finding my feet. And it’s something connected to Elsie and Daisy’s safety.

The guy squints up at me, then grins. “You the big guy that fell? Word is they put your ass down like a domino.”

It’s the wrong move because it’s not going to get the reaction Christian wants. A couple of the brothers shift behind me.

The old version of me might have exploded. But the time I spent with Doc taught me an important lesson. Confidence is quiet, but insecurity needs an audience.

So I grab another chair and sit down in front of him, so close that he can feel how coldly calm I am.

“Yeah. They dropped my ass, ‘cos there were five of them and a van. But guess what. I’m still standing. It won’t take five of my brothers to break you, because my methods are a lot worse than yours.”

For the first time, uncertainty flickers across his face.

Deep down in my gut, a moral quandary stirs. Can I really inflict what’s happened to me on him? Am I just perpetuating violence for violence’s sake?

But then I remember why I’m doing this.

Alvarez came onto our turf, demanding recompense from someone who wasn’t one of ours, holding us responsible for the debt someone else had made.