Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83244 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83244 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Ryan was still out there, and I had no doubt that he was hurting over all this. He was hurting because of choices neither Brooke nor I could take back or wanted to take back. Brooke built a home with him, and when they were ready, they would have to figure out the ins and outs of parting ways.
It wouldn’t be easy, and I had no idea when or how it would happen. But for the first time in years, I wasn’t wondering if she still loved me. I knew, and that alone was enough to put a grin on my face as I pushed through the clubhouse doors.
I was immediately hit with the scent of cigarette smoke and bourbon, and silence, something you rarely found at the Fury clubhouse. Memphis and several of the guys were in the bar, huddled up around Drifter, and whatever was going on, it had all their attention.
Drifter was the first to notice that I’d walked up, and he wore half a smirk as he asked, “You remember Pete and the breakfast burritos?”
“You mean the best ones in town?”
“Yeah, that’d be the place.” He cocked his brow. “Well, good ol’ Pete came through this morning.”
“Oh yeah?”
Drifter nodded, “One of his regulars came in this morning. Guy’s got ties to a club over there, and he let it slip that Stone’s shooting wasn’t just some random hit.”
“We already knew that.”
“But we weren’t sure that it was the Coyotes.”
“He confirm it?”
“He did, and he said they were bragging that more was coming Fury’s way.”
I thought back over the last few weeks with the fire at Prez’s barn, Maverick’s accident, Gus’s attack, and then Stone. At first, it seemed like separate incidents, and the fact they happened so close together was mere coincidence. Pete’s info proved that wasn’t the case.
“I take it you passed the word along to Stone.”
“Called him as soon as I got off the phone with Pete. They’re already making plans to put an end to their bullshit once and for all. In a matter of days, there won’t be a Coyote breathing in Kansas City.”
“Same needs to happen here and everywhere else, for that matter,” Prez growled. “I’m sick of these fuckers. I want them dealt with, and I want them dealt with now.”
“We’re right there with you, brother,” Creed answered back. “We thought we wiped them out when we dealt with the scouts.”
“Clearly, we were wrong.”
Those four words changed the conversation. Creed nodded. “We should’ve dug in after the fire. I knew something was off, but…”
“I put club duty in the hands of Sergei and his brothers. That was my mistake, and I own it,” Prez interrupted. “Now, we move on from it and fry these assholes.”
“We have to find them first.”
“I’m working on it,” Shep told him. “But I’m gonna need some help.”
“What do you need?” Grim asked.
“I need a roster or some kind of list of members. Something I can use to differentiate the living from the dead.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Grim replied. “I’ve got some calls I can make.”
Creed nodded. “I’ll make some, too.”
“Hell, everybody make some damn calls. We started this mess.” Prez looked around the room, his voice steady as he said, “We gotta finish it, and to do that, we gotta quit making assumptions. We need every rumor chased down. Every loose end dealt with. If somebody’s out there coordinating attacks on Fury chapters, it’s up to us to find them.”
The room came alive with brothers splitting off into conversations, deciding who was contacting who. I stood there for a second, trying to figure out the best way I could help, and I had nothing. I had no contacts. I had no one to call for help.
Twenty-four hours ago, my biggest concern was meeting my daughter for the first time and whether Brooke would let me into her life again. Now, the entire Fury family had a target on its back. If the Coyotes were really coming for us, they’d made the mistake of a lifetime.
Fury didn’t back down.
If they wanted a war, we’d give it to them.
I overheard Memphis tell Goose, “These Coyote fuckers are smarter than I thought… Separate chapters. Separate states. Same timeframe. It took time to sort all that out.”
“And some brains, too.”
“Which means someone was smart enough not to be standing in that clubhouse when we hit it.”
“Exactly. And that means he won’t be easy to find.”
“And that’s why we have Shep.”
He was right. Shep was our ticket to figuring out who was behind the hits. It would take him some time, but at least now he knew who he was dealing with. And once he got the list of members, he could look for obituaries, arrests, hospital visits, and even family connections to each and every member to figure out who was still breathing.