Revenge (10 page)

“Look, give Devil a chance. You’ve never been his
biggest fan, but please, give him a chance. He’s got his club in his best
interests.”

“Exactly, Tiny.
He’s got his own interests for his own club in his thoughts.” Alex
pulled up outside of the curb where the graveyard was.

Murphy was stood with his arms around a sobbing Tate.

“Here we go,” Tiny said.

Cops were inside the graveyard talking with the
priest.

“Who would do such a thing?” Tate asked, crying out.
When his daughter saw him, she ran into his arms. Holding her tightly, he
kissed the top of her head as he looked toward the mess. “I hate whoever did
this. Tell me you’re not going to let it stand.”

“I won’t, honey. I promise you that I won’t let this
stand.” He stared at the mess before him. Gonzalez was going down, but he was
going to do it with time and patience.

“She didn’t even get a chance to put her flowers down.
It was like this when we got here,” Murphy said.

Shaking his head, he spun Tate away from the scene.

“The cops have already talked to her.”

“Get her out of here, Murphy. Make sure she’s taken
care of.” He handed his daughter back to her man and turned to look at the
graveyard. Gonzalez hadn’t done this with his own two hands. He’d sent someone
to do his dirty work. The games were going to start. This one move was sure to
set about the war.

****

“You did it?” Gonzalez asked. He sat in his hotel room
in Piston County smoking a cigar. Ronald was preparing them some food while
they waited for the news of what Butch had done.

“Yes, I did it.”

Gonzalez chuckled. “I have to say I’m surprised. I
didn’t believe you’d fuck over someone’s grave.”

“This was a fucking test, asshole. If I didn’t do it
you’d think I still had some allegiance to The Skulls. I did it, and now you
know I can be trusted. You can start trusting me now.”

It was a good argument. Gonzalez had set the wheels in
motion for Patricia’s graveside to be ruined. Whether Butch did it or one of
his own men, didn’t matter to him. Now, Butch was on his side, and he could use
him to get deeper within The Skulls. Gonzalez wanted them all to hurt before he
finally killed him. Where was the fun in simply striking out? There was no fun
unless he caused a little bit of pain.

“Okay. I’ve got a cop on the force in Fort Wills. His
name is Andrew Bolton. He’s reliable and is helping me gain another search
warrant for The Skulls’ compound. I want Devil and Tiny divided. I don’t like
them being together. If you want to save yourself from being put in jail, talk
to him, and he’ll tell you when he’s going to hit out. I’ll be in touch with
more information when I’m ready.”

Disconnecting the call, he stared at Ronald.

“Are you going to approach Gash?” Ronald asked.

Since Homer had been killed, the company had been a
little lonely. Ronald was great, but he wasn’t like Homer. Ronald hated hurting
people Gonzalez wanted to be hurt in a specific way.

“Nah, I don’t need Gash to get what I want. All I need
is to strike when they least expect it. Now,
Tiny’s
pissed and will spend time hunting for the man who desecrated his wife’s grave.
Let’s see, it’s time to hit Devil I think. Andrew’s going to help split them
apart with another raid on the club. It’s all
coming
together. They may even kill each other, saving me a job. It wouldn’t be as fun,
but it would still be done.” Gonzalez ran a finger over his lip while he
thought about what to do.

“I’ve got a friend I can bring in,” Ronald said. “He
makes Homer look like child’s play.”

Pulled out of his thoughts, he looked at Ronald.
“In what way?”
Gonzalez asked.

“Homer was willing to hurt and kill women within a set
time. My man is willing to do a lot more damage. The bastard gets off on taking
a woman by force. The Skulls and Chaos Bleeds are devoted to their women.
Getting to them is a lot easier than getting to the men. Angel, Tate, Sophia,
Lexie, all of them are the weakness that we can use with the right man.”

Gonzalez held his hand up. “I’ll think about it.
What’s the guy’s name?”

“Everett, that’s all he goes by. You won’t find him in
the system. He doesn’t work for anyone but himself.”

“Will he get any job done that I set him?” Gonzalez
asked.

“For a price he will.”

Sitting back, Gonzalez started to think about what he
could do with a man willing to do anything.

“Call him. I want him available when the time is
right.”

Getting up from his seat, he moved toward his bedroom.
With Ashley gone and all of his women earning money, he was feeling lonely.
“Ronald, while you’re getting your guy
get
a woman for
me. I’m bored and want some entertainment for the night.” He closed the door to
his bedroom. Smiling, he walked toward the window overlooking the night.
Everything was coming together slowly. He didn’t have a complete hold over Ned
Walker, but the more threats he put on The Skulls the bigger the chance he had
of taking on Ned and Vegas. Some of the men he had on his payroll were no
longer taking calls from him. It didn’t bother him. All of his men were known
for being busy. There wasn’t much he could do to stop it. Slowly, he was going
to get exactly what he wanted. He just needed to be patient.

****

Butch ran fingers through his hair. Cheryl rubbed his
back, but he didn’t need or want the attention. His love for her was absolute.
What he did today didn’t deserve her love, but he’d gotten something out of it.
A guy named Andrew was on the force, and there was another raid that was set to
pit Devil and Tiny against one another. He could stop this from occurring.

“Tell me what’s wrong?” she asked.

“I need a minute.”

“You’ve been acting strangely for awhile.” She climbed
off the bed to kneel on the floor in front of him. He didn’t deserve her. “I
can see something’s eating away at you. I don’t know what it is, but you can’t
keep hiding from me.”

“I’m not. I’ve told you everything I need to tell you.
I’m not going to put you in danger with everything. I’ll tell you what I can.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, baby. I can’t tell you what’s going on right now.”

“We’re going to be married.” She cupped his face,
forcing him to look at her. “Keeping secrets is not the way to make a marriage
work. Please, let me in.”

He rubbed his eyes. “I fucked up, Cheryl.”

“How?
You’re part of The Skulls. You’ve proven your worth. Why could anything
be going wrong?”

Staring into her eyes, he knew in his heart he couldn’t
keep the truth from her anymore.

“I took a job from Gonzalez, and now I can’t see a way
out.” He did it all for Alex, but it didn’t stop him feel any less dirty.

She frowned. “What?”

“I had to prove to Gonzalez that I was against The
Skulls. I was given the job of desecrating Patricia’s grave.” She gasped even
before he finished. The disappointment was clear in her eyes.

“You wouldn’t.”

“I didn’t have a choice. Alex doesn’t know yet. I’ve
got to tell him the truth, and to be honest, I don’t want to. He was so fucking
pissed.” He rubbed at his eyes. If he’d not been asked to try and get into
Gonzalez’s graces, he wouldn’t have to deal with this.
You also wouldn’t know that Gonzalez intended to start another raid on
the club.
It was hard to be happy about the small bit of information he
knew when he’d done something awful.

“Wait. You’re working for Alex to become a spy for him
against Gonzalez, and he doesn’t even know you were the one responsible for
doing what you did? He knows you have to do stuff like this.”

He nodded. “I didn’t get a chance to tell him. There
was nothing I could do. It’s not going to stop him from being pissed.”

“I can’t deal with this. None of this makes sense.
You’ve got to tell Tiny the truth about Alex, Gonzalez,
the
Savage Brothers. You’ve got to tell him everything. You could be killed for
this. You could be killed if you’re found out.”

Butch shrugged. “I’ve got the guarantee that you’ll
live.”

“No, I don’t accept that. It’s not right, nor is it
fair.” She pulled away and started to pace in front of him. “You can’t risk
your life for me or for Matthew. This is hurting you, Butch.”

“You don’t have a choice. This is something I did, and
you’re just going to have to accept it.”

He stood up.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to tell Alex I’m the one who had to disturb
his sister’s resting place.” He put a hand on the door. “And I finally got
something out of Gonzalez. I guess
it’s
a little tit
for tat.”

“Don’t do this, Butch. If you loved me, you’d back off
and stop this.”

Her words cut to his heart.

Glancing over at her, he shook his head. “It’s because
I love you that I’m doing this. Baby, I can’t back out now. I’ve already done
what needed to be done. There’s no backing out until Gonzalez is dead.”

Closing the door behind him, he walked toward the main
part of the club. With both The Skulls and Chaos Bleeds crews in residence, the
clubhouse was back to being livable. Gonzalez had paid a bunch of cops to come
and trash the place while he’d been out of the club. He found Alex at the bar
drinking.

“I need a word,” he said, noticing the way Devil was
watching them.

Alex turned to him. His eyes were red-rimmed, but no
tears were present.

“Do you really want me to talk now? I’ve had to deal
with a lot of shit today. I’m not in the best moods to be talking or chatting.”
Alex downed a shot of brown liquid.

It hadn’t taken Tiny long to get the alcohol back in.

Closing his eyes, Butch blew out a breath. “It’s today
that I need to talk to you about and something else.”

Alex stared at him then nodded his head.
“Fine.”

Another shot was downed, and they moved outside.

Glancing around the compound Butch made sure they were
all clear before talking. “Gonzalez ordered me to prove myself.”

“So.
It’s what we want.”

“He told me to do that to Patricia’s grave today. I
was the one who desecrated her stone.”

At his words, Alex stared at him silently.

The fist landed in his gut as Alex lashed out. The
other went in his face. Collapsing to the floor, Butch coughed as the pain
traveled through his body.

“I know why you did it, but you touched my sister.
Warn me before you do shit like that.” Alex’s fists were tight to his side. The
anger emanated from him, and he looked ready to strike once again.

“I tried. You weren’t answering your cell.” Coughing,
Butch curled up. The agony from the beating of being voted back in mingled with
the punches from Alex, and the pain intensified.

“Fine.
You better get us something on Gonzalez, as otherwise I’ll fucking kill
you myself. There are limits, and he crossed the line with touching my dead
sister’s memory.”

“I did get something.” Butch got to his feet, trying
to ignore the pain.

Alex glared. “Then spit it out. I’ve not got all day.”

“There’s a guy on the force in Fort Wills. Andrew
Bolton. He’s looking to organize another raid on the club.”

“What else?”

“Gonzalez wants to create a rift between Devil and
Tiny, hoping they’ll kill each other before something else happens.”

“If we take out Andrew, Gonzalez will know we’re onto
him.”

“Then we make sure Andrew meets an accidental death,
say a fire, or a car accident,” Butch said, already planning the next step.

“Good work. I’ll make sure to deal with Andrew. Let me
know the next time you get a hit like that. I don’t want to have to be getting
a call.”

Alex stormed back inside the clubhouse. Butch was no
longer in doubt. If The Skulls found out about his helping the Savage Brothers
MC then he was dead no matter what.

Chapter Four

Several days later the sun was shining outside, and
the heat was gracing them with its presence for the first time in what felt
like weeks. Eva, Lexie, and the men were arranging the tables outside to
welcome Gash into the fold. Nash, Steven, and Whizz were going to get Gash from
the prison.

Glancing over the door, Eva saw Angel standing on a
chair with Lash holding onto her waist as she started to pin up the welcome
home sign.

“It’s looking good.” Eva held her thumbs up for the
couple to know she was talking to them. All the kids were inside the play area
Tiny had built in the compound. Tate was looking over them. She wasn’t too
traumatized by what happened, and Murphy kept a close eye on her.