BEAST (A Coyotes of Mayhem MC Novel) (Motorcycle Club Bad Boy Romance) (15 page)

“What’s the good news, Stone?” I asked as soon as he picked up the phone.

“No good news, brother. I’m busy planning a funeral at the moment. Those fuckers got to Womp last night. Broke into his house in the middle of the night and shot him while he was sleeping like the bunch of pussies they are. His wife and kids heard every fucking thing,” he replied, struggling to keep his emotions in check.

“What the fuck? Who is they?”

“Who the fuck do you think Beast? It was the fucking Aces. This was a very clear message. They know you’re around and they know we’re onto them. This was a fucking warning to us to back off.”

“Motherfucker!” I balled my fist and punched a hole in the concrete wall. “They think this is going to make us back off? I’m going to kill those slimy assholes myself!”

“The fuck you are! Are you fucking retarded, Beast? Don’t you think that’s exactly what they’re hoping for? If they can draw you out into the open, they’ll either kill you or have you locked up. Either way, they fucking win. You’re just gonna stay right where you are until this shit blows over.”

He had a point. The worst thing I could possibly do would be to show my face in public. It didn’t matter how pissed off I was or how my need for revenge was going to eat at me. I had to have faith that my club would be able to handle things in my absence. That was easy to do. My family was filled with my brothers who would do whatever they had to to bring those assclowns to justice. It just irritated me to know that I wouldn’t be there to see it.

Just because I couldn’t be there in person didn’t mean I couldn’t take part in planning what we should do to the Aces. In fact, I had a brilliant fucking idea. I already knew where we could find some of the Aces quickly. Assuming they weren’t just there for a short time, there were at least a couple members taking up residence in my house. No doubt they were hoping that I would sneak into the house where they could use the element of surprise to ambush me. They had no clue that I was already onto them.

If we were going to make any progress on getting to the bottom of the situation we found ourselves in, we needed to get to the president of the Aces. The problem was, he was so far underground that only a few of his guys even knew where he was. That was total bullshit as he was supposed to be their leader. Leaders don’t fucking hide when shit gets rough. They stand up for their club. Not this guy, though and that says a lot about his character. In order to get to him, we were going to have to go to more extreme measures.

“I’ve got a fucking idea, Stone,”I said. “We need to get their president out in the open so he can feel how real all this heat is. Once he feels the heat, he might turn over like the pussy he is.”

“I’ve already thought of that. Nobody can find the bastard. Trust me, we’ve been looking.”

“Hear me out, we already know these cocksuckers are in my house. Why don’t you have the prospects watch my place from a distance for a while and let you know what the police activity is like. Figure out when they’re coming and going. Hell, they may not even be watching the house at all now since my face is all over TV. Have them watch and report back to the club.”

“I can do that. What do you suggest we do after that?”

“Well, if there ain’t no pigs watching the place, send as many of the boys into my house as you can and take whoever is inside. Don’t kill them unless you absolutely have to. They’ll be much more valuable to everyone alive. Grab them as quick as you can and get them out of there, take them to that old pole barn off of Old State Road and hold them there. Once you have them, put the word out to the Aces that the only way they come back alive is if their president shows his face and starts fucking talking.”

“Beast, I like the way you think brother. I’ll start putting it together. Stay by your phone. I’ll call you back in a bit.”

After setting my phone down on the table, I looked up to see Paige standing there smiling at me. That smile quickly turned to a look of concern as she looked down to see my hand badly swollen and bleeding.

“What in the hell happened to you?” she asked, realizing she’d already answered her question when she saw the wall.

“Just got some bad news from Stone. The Aces got to our treasurer and murdered him in cold blood. All of it’s my fucking fault. They’re trying to flush me out in the open so they can get to me.”

“Shit babe, I’m so sorry. I’m sure it’s club business now so you can’t talk about it and that’s fine. I just want you to know that I’m here for you if you need to talk. Let me take care of that hand for you and let you know about the visit with the attorney today.”

Paige went upstairs and grabbed a first aid kit, a baggie, a towel and some ice for my hand. As she cleaned me up, she told me all about what the lawyer had told her and what he was going to try to do to help prove my innocence. She seemed hopeful after the meeting but I wasn’t quite so sure. If my club wasn’t able to find out where this scumbag was, I had serious doubts that anyone working for an attorney would be able to force that weasel out of whatever hole he was hiding in. I couldn’t dwell on that, though. It was out of my hands. Everything was out of my fucking hands and I didn’t like that. I’m very much a hands on person and all I wanted to do was lay my hands on any member of that piece of shit club I could find.

The whole situation with Womp had my head all kinds of fucked up and Paige could tell. She didn’t say anything because she knew that anything she said wouldn’t make a bit of difference. Instead, she put her arms around and pulled me in close to her, allowing me to rest my head on her shoulder. I didn’t realize it before that moment, but it was exactly what I had needed.

A few hours later the phone rang and it was Stone on the other line. He had talked with a few of the guys about the best way to handle the situation. He was going to bring up my idea to everyone at church the following afternoon and they would vote on how to proceed. Even though I was on the run, I was still a fully patched member of the club and I was going to be allowed to vote by proxy. Stone already knew exactly what my vote was.

Paige hung around as long as she could before she finally had to get back home. As much as I wanted her to stay with me and keep her as close as I could, I knew that wasn’t possible. I was already asking so much of her with all the bullshit that I drug her into. The least I could do is allow her to keep what little bit of a normal life she still had left away from me.

CHAPTER 20

PAIGE

I’ve often heard it said that no news is good news but that sure didn’t feel like the case to me. Every day that went by without a call or update from the attorney made me more anxious. I thought back to a lot of the crime shows that I’ve watched over the years and tried to replay some of the harder cases in my head. How did they find these criminals? However they did it, I was hoping his attorney would be using all the same tricks, and then some. Worst case scenarios plagued my mind as I thought about all the trouble he’d be in if they didn’t find the alleged murder victim who was able to phone in an anonymous tip.
Anonymous tip, my ass!

I felt so bad for Beast. He must have been going crazy in Ashley’s basement. He would never tell me that but he didn’t have to. I could see it in his face. He felt trapped, and he really was when you think about it. He may not have been in the custody of law enforcement but he wasn’t free. He was merely being held prisoner in a basement instead of a jail cell. Sure, he had the ability to leave whenever he wanted but it wasn’t like he could get far. His face and hair are very unique; he would be spotted very quickly, especially with how much his face has been plastered all over the news. His only choice was to sit and wait.

When the lawyer finally called, I fumbled with the phone so much that I dropped it on the floor. I was physically shaking as I prepped myself for what he was about to tell me.

“Please tell me you have some good news for me,” I said as soon as I was able to hit the talk button on my cell phone.

“Actually, there are some things I need to discuss with you. How quickly can you make it into my office?” he asked, his tone somber.

“Is everything okay? Can’t you just tell me now?”

“This would really be better discussed in person. I’ll be here all afternoon. It would probably be best if you came right now.”

“Okay, I’ll head right over.”

None of this sounded good at all. It reminded me of when you have tests done at a doctor’s office. If the results of the test are good, they’ll usually call you up and tell you. If the results are bad, however, you seem to get that dreaded phone call asking you to come in and discuss them with your physician. That’s what the conversation felt like to me.

As I hung up the phone, I couldn’t help but feel defeated. Something must have gone extremely wrong. I wanted to call him back and ask to him to at least give me a hint as to what he was talking about but I realized that it wouldn’t do any good. I’d either annoy him, or sound like a babbling idiot.

I got dressed and into the car as fast as I could. There was a nauseous feeling in my stomach that was only made worse by the heat inside the car. I cranked up the air conditioning as high as it would go but it was no use. Anxiety was getting the best of me. There were several times on the trip where I had to pull over on the side of the highway because I thought I was going to get sick. Fortunately, I never did.

Speeding down the highway, I made it to Tucson in record time. It’s amazing that I didn’t get pulled over somewhere along the way. As soon as I got into the parking lot, I skid to a stop in the first spot I saw and ran inside the building, still trying to catch my breath as I told the receptionist I was there to see Nolan Retter. He was already out of his office and on his way to the front desk by the time his name escaped my mouth.

“Come on back here with me Paige,” he said, motioning for me to follow him. I walked quickly behind him as he ushered me into his office and signaled at which seat he wanted me to sit at.

“Would you like something to drink before we get started?”

“No, I don’t think I can wait anymore. Just tell me what’s going on.” I was trying to keep it together but I was on the verge of tears.

“Okay then, let’s get started,” he said as he walked around his desk and took a seat in his oversized leather chair. “So, I told you when you were last here that I was going to have some of the guys that work for me try to locate this, Creed, gentlemen. Well, they were unable to do so.”

“Oh God, I knew it. I knew this was going to be bad. This is really bad.”

“No, hold on just a minute. You have to let me finish. When my guys couldn’t find him, I turned to a couple of old private investigator buddies of mine. They’re actually retired police detectives who know all of the old tricks and the new ones as well. They were able to track down your murder victim,” he said, making air quotes with his fingers when he said murder victim.

“That’s great news! So what do we do now? Do we just turn it over to police and get Beast off on this thing?”

“Oh no dear, it isn’t that easy. We didn’t exactly go about all of this the legal way. My guys currently have the guy holed up in an undisclosed location. They’re concerned about retaliation by the club that they won’t even tell me where they are right now.”

“But why? If they have him, why not turn him over to authorities?”

“It’s because they have to make entirely sure that they’ve got the right guy first. It’s going to take a lot of proof to prove to the feds that this guy, who is obviously alive, is the same guy as the one in their murder investigation.”

“I don’t understand. Isn’t having him enough proof?”

“Normally it would be, but this is a special case. This guy has changed his appearance, and not just on his face, but his body too. He had work done to alter his fingerprints. In fact, he was on his way back from Mexico when my guys got him. They almost didn’t because they were sure he wasn’t the guy they were looking for. If it hadn’t been for the swelling in his face, they probably would have let him go. The swelling was a tell-tale sign of plastic surgery.”

Oh my God, did I just fucking hear him right?
“What happens now?”

“What we’re waiting on now is DNA results. They’ve sent some DNA samples to a lab that we use who gives us complete confidentiality. As soon as the results come back, we can talk about the next steps.”

I felt so relieved. I knew that we weren’t at the finish line yet but I could actually see it for the first time in this whole situation. I sat back in my chair, allowing myself to relax for the first time since my phone rang.

“I’ve been so nervous all morning. I wish you would have just told me that over the phone.”

“That’s actually another thing I need to speak with you about. You need to be really careful about who you talk to and where you go. The authorities have placed a tap on your phone and can hear all of your conversations. Any phone calls that we have from now on will be very short and will consist of me asking you to come to the office. We’ll discuss everything here. I don’t want you calling Beast or the girl he is staying with until I give you the go ahead. I also don’t want you discussing this case with anyone at all.”