Rod (17 page)

“No, I don’t.
 
But I can go undercover for you and see what
I can find.”

“You’d go to their club and sniff out
information to help me find my daughter?”

I look him dead in the eyes and say, “Of
course I would.
 
Messing with someone’s
family is just something you don’t do.
 
With your daughter’s help, we can get this cracked.”

Ronan looks to Trish and tries to gauge
whether or not he wants her to involve herself in this.

He nods his head in agreement.

“As penance for the deceit, I will help
you in any way that I can,” I tell him.
 

“It’s going to get dangerous, especially
if they find out you’re helping out the Dragons.
 
You could always take your punishment and
high-tail it to
Hayleysville
and let the chips fall
where they may.”

“I need to stand up and face this like a
man.
 
I hope you’ll allow Trish to
help.
 
I won’t put her in any danger, I
promise you that.
 
And she was the one
who gave me the courage to come forward.”

He nods in the affirmative and Trish
smiles.
 
I can tell that she likes being
in on the inside loop.

I stand up and Ronan follows suit.
 
I extend my hand and give him a firm
handshake.
 

I believe this will make amends.
 

Before we can leave the office, Ronan
says, “Set something up with your father to meet him.
 
Tell him you’ve got names of some of the
members and there’s a few who will switch sides.”

“He’ll eat that right up. We’ll come up with
a list of fake names for him.
 
When I
call him, he’ll tell me to get my ass out there pronto,” I tell them.

“Good, good,” he says in response.
 
“Get on that today.
 
Let me know if you can sniff out anything
about Sasha.
 
I’m worried sick here and if
Seth has anything to do with it, I’ll kick his ass from here to Ohio and back.”

“I can’t say that I blame you, man,” I
tell him.
 

“One more thing,” he starts.
 
“I’m
gonna
head to
the Sheriff’s department and see if they have any leads.
 
Mickey’s in charge for the time being.
 
I need to be available on all fronts if
something turns up.”

“No problem, man, I’ll report to Mickey,
but I’ll text you directly if it’s something to do with Sasha.”

“You’re alright,” he tells me as we part
ways.
 

Trish and I walk out of his office and out
of the Lair.

I turn to her and ask, “
Wanna
go back to my place to work out the details?”

She smiles, telling me, “Sure, let’s go.”

We get on our bikes and ride back to my
place.
 
Once there, we park our hogs out
front and walk upstairs.
 
We go inside
and take notice that we’re alone.
 
I grab
a notebook and push her for some fake names to write down.
 

“How about Jonas Roberts, Phil
Mittinson
, Leo Hubbard, Woody Jensen, Jake Clinton, and Lee
Holt?” she suggests.

I nod in agreement, smiling at her
creativity.
 
“You’re good,” I tell her.

She smiles in return.
 
“Tell your dad that you got the information
from me because my dad won’t let me in the club.
 
Maybe even suggest that he could let me in
his,” she tells me.

“That is an excellent idea,” I offer.
 
“He’ll love that, for sure.”

I pull my cell phone from my jeans pocket
and dial up my father’s number.
 

“Shh,” I tell Trish.
 
“This needs to sound real.”

“Hey pops, I got
somethin
’
for
ya
,” I tell my father as I begin pacing the
floor.

“Yeah, what’s that? I
ain’t
got all day,” he tells me.

“We’ve got them right where we want them,”
I say quietly.

“Fuckin’ A,” he says with a proud
inflection in his voice.
 
“Come to the
club, son, we have much to discuss.”

“I’ll be there,” I say, disconnecting the
call.

“Think he bought it?” Trish asks.

“I think so, he’s not too bright,” I tell
her.

“I’ll write down the names we talked about
so you can take them to him.
 
I’ll put a
star next to the ones that could be convinced to switch sides.
 
Should we throw in a real name to be on the
safe side?” She questions.

“Yeah, one of those shady
motherfuckers.
 
How about Boris
Cardov
?” I ask.

“Alright, I added him to the list.
 
You can tell your dad that I wrote the list
down for you to get back at my dad.”

“That might actually work,” I say, folding
up the list and stuffing it into my pocket.

She puts her arms around me and squeezes,
and I gather that this is true emotion without expectations, something I never
could imagine I’d feel.
 
I lean into her
pretty face and kiss her gently.
 
She is
a beacon of beauty and all that’s right in the world with a kickass body and a
princess attitude.

“I need to get out of here.
 
I’ll let you know what I found out – in
person,” I tell her.
 
“I can’t risk
calling you when I’m at their hangout, it’s too dangerous.
 
When I was there, my father’s goons roughed
me up because they thought I had a gun.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” she says in
response.
 
“Is he insane?”

“Yeah, probably,” I tell her.
 

We walk down the stairs and through the
place to the front door.
 
I offer her a
tender kiss as I run my fingers through her hair.
 

“We’ll be in touch soon,” I promise.

“We better be,” she nudges me.
 

We leave on our bikes, each of us parting
ways in different directions.

I leave the dirt roads behind me as I race
to
Hayleysville
.
 
It’s a short trip as I ride to the hangout belonging to the
Deathdealers
.
 
I pull
up outside of the club and park my bike in the back as I’ve done in the
past.
 
I don’t want to change anything
up, so I go through the motions.

I push the door open and walk inside,
throwing my arms out for the inevitable search.
 
My dad eyes me from the bar.
 
He
sits there with two men, one overweight guy and the other scrawny and dirty
looking.

I walk over, tap my father on the shoulder
to say hello and order the barmaid to get me a beer.
 
She slides one in front of me and I snatch it
up and down the whole thing in one gulp.
 

“A chip off the old fucking block,” my
father says with pride in his voice.
 

“Another!” I command the barmaid.
 
She sits another down on the bar and I scoop
it up and drink it with nearly the quickness of the first.

“We need to talk,” I tell my father
quietly.
 
His face appears more weathered
than usual and I wonder how that’s even possible.

He stands up, puts his arm around me and
says, “So you got something for me?”

We walk away from the counter, both of us
with beers in hand.
 

“I do,” I tell him.
 
He grins.

“Well, out with it,” he yells.
 
“I’m not into fucking guessing games, son.”

“I’ve got some names for you.
 
That bitch daughter of the president really
hates his fucking guts.
 
She told me she
wanted to join a different club just to spite the old man,” I tell him.

“Is that right?” he says looking
completely intrigued.

“Yeah.
 
I didn’t tell her anything about this club.
 
I didn’t know how you would feel about that.”

He leans in closer.
 
“Is she fucking hot?”

“She sure is – she’s beautiful,” I tell
him in all honesty.

“Bring her in.
 
If she’s good enough for my boy, I’d like to
take a crack at her.”

I realize that he’s completely serious,
but I can’t get angry.
 

“Fuck yes,” I tell him.
 
We clink our beer bottles together and he
throws his at the fireplace.
 
He already
has a fire in his eyes and he lights up.

“I got these names for you,” I tell him as
I reach into my pocket for the crumpled piece of paper.
 
I unfold it and extend it to him.
 
He reaches for it and scans it.
 
He’s pleased.

“Good work,” he says, smiling.

“There are a couple of guys on the list
that’ll change sides,” I say.
 

“Good
good
,
that’ll be good for our next step.”

“What’s the plan?” I ask.

“Next, you sneak around and confirm this
shit.
 
Just because daddy’s little girl
tells you this information is right, it doesn’t mean it is.”

“Yeah, good point,” I say, punctuating the
statement with a gulp of my beer.

“You should bring her in here soon, I’d
like to see if she’s our type of club member,” he tells me, with a wink of his
eye.
 

“I’ll let you know if I can sneak her
outta
town to get her here.
 
With the other daughter’s disappearance, the president has been up
everyone’s asses.”

“I get that, son, see what you can do,” he
tells me.

“You got it,” I say.
 
I really can’t imagine bringing Trish into
this place.
 
I can only picture her in a
huddle in the corner as my father rants and tries relentlessly to have his way
with her.
 
The thought infuriates me.

I hang out there until I deem it safe to
leave.
 
Fights break out here all of the
time and I don’t want any part of that.

Hours pass and I’m three sheets in the
wind.
 
I gather that I will need some
food before I take off to Hinton Township.
 
I feel the urgent need to leave this place behind in the dust and find
solace in Trish’s arms.
 

The club begins filling up with prospects
who all get a pat down on the way in.
 
My
father doesn’t trust anyone and thinks that his position of president in the
club could be taken from him at any time.
 
He watches over his goons as they all party and yell.
 
He’s pleased.
 
I feel a tightening in my stomach as if the other shoe is about to drop,
but I don’t know why.
 

Prospects sneer at me on the way in as
they pass the pat down guy.
 
I walk out,
but sneer back at them to let them know that they would do well not to mess
with me.
 

On the way out, I hear a scuffle breaking
out in the club.
 
Two rough looking
characters are going at it as I peer through a crack in the door.
 
One is a tall, older guy with long black hair
and the other a lanky dude with leathery skin covered in tattoos.
 
The rumble happens to make me wish I am far
away from this place.
 
From the outside,
I can hear beer bottles breaking, loud music, cussing and a woman
screaming.
 
It’s par for the course with
regard to this club and I know in this moment that I am making the right
decision in working with the Dragons.

I think back to spending time with the
Dragons and even in their darkest hour, nothing could quite compare to the
ruckus inside my father’s club at this very moment.
 
It’s an all-out brawl in there and I ask
myself over and over how I could involve myself with criminals and hooligans.

Walking around to the back of the club, a
man confronts me.
 
I don’t know his name,
but I see him around every once in a while.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asks
with a devious grin on my face.

“Any fucking where I want to,” I tell him
snidely.
 
I opt not to show weakness in
this situation as it comes to mean you become a target of threats and
violence.
 
I front on this guy like I’ll
get off of this bike and whoop his ass and he throws his hands in the air to
indicate his defeat.