WOLF: An Evil Dead MC Story (The Evil Dead MC Series Book 4) (11 page)

CHAPTER SEVEN

Cole stood by his bike in the gravel parking lot of what once was The Pony, one of Nevada’s most successful brothels. A brothel the Evil Dead MC owned. Well, not outright on paper. Their ownership was buried in dummy corporations a mile deep.

“Let me bum a smoke,” he asked Red Dog, who dug a pack out of his vest and shook one out. So much for trying to quit. At this rate, he was going to have an ulcer as well. Pulling his silver Zippo from his pocket, Cole lit the cigarette up, drawing hard. He flipped the lighter closed and shoved it in his pocket, letting the smoke expand in his lungs and the nicotine flood his system like sweet nirvana. Blowing out the smoke, he said, “Thanks, Dog.”

They both watched as Crash approached them from the rubble of the gutted building. Beyond him, Cole could see Mack still standing talking with the Fire Marshall.

Crash reached them with the update. “He says it’s definitely arson. And the way he’s questioning Mack, I’m betting he thinks it’s an inside job.”

Cole exhaled and squinted at him through the smoke. “So, they think we burned our own goddamn business down? A business bringing in a ton of money? For what? Insurance money?”

Crash shrugged. “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just telling you what he’s thinking.”

“And does he know what and where it started?”

“Says it was at the back of the rear wing, where the lighting was probably the worst.”

Jason walked up and Cole turned on him. “I thought we had security cameras?”

“We do. But we also have a ton of customers coming and going at that time of night. We don’t have someone staring at the monitor non-stop. Dolly and I are busy with customers and payments and keeping the Johns in order.”

“I thought we had dogs. What happened to the two Dobermans you kept out back?” Cole prodded.

“They found their bodies behind the building. They were shot.”

“And you didn’t hear that shit?” Cole snapped.

Jason held his hands out. “Look, everything happened so fast. One of the girls reported hearing something, but then the smoke detectors started going off, and then building started filling up with smoke. People were panicking, and we were just trying to get everyone out.”

Cole ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “You do a good job, man. I’m not trying to blame you. I’m just fucking pissed.”

“What’s the next step? You planning to rebuild?”

“Not sure. Mack’s gotta work that out with the state licensing board, I’m not sure how it all works. Maybe they’ll let us set up something temporary and keep the girls working. Maybe not.”

Jason nodded.

“They all doing okay?” Red Dog asked.

Jason shrugged. “They’re all pretty shook up. Dolly’s with them. The Red Cross is putting up some of them temporarily down at the Kingman Motel.”

Cole lifted his chin toward Jason. “Give us a minute.”

Jason nodded at the look Cole gave him that meant he needed to discuss club business, and that wouldn’t be happening in front of him.

When Jason walked off, Cole’s eyes swung to Crash. “They recover the safe?”

“It’s buried. They’re pulling it out now.” He nodded back toward a couple of firemen working through the debris.

Cole nodded. His mind went over every enemy they had. Burning the place to the ground was a little drastic for a pissed off client or jealous boyfriend, but not outside the realm of possibilities. But Cole couldn’t help thinking this had to be directed at the club. If someone wanted to hit them where it’d hurt, this was definitely a way to do it. Financially, it was going to be a major hit.

“You thinking this is connected to Temecula?” Crash asked in a low voice.

Cole’s eyes swung to him. “If somebody is wanting to fuck with us, they’re doing a damn fine job of it.”

“If there is a connection that pretty much rules out another cartel in the Temecula hit. There’s no way a cartel would bother with this.” Crash nodded toward the rubble.

“So who does that leave?”

“Another club, I’m guessing.”

“But which one? DKs? Death Heads?”

Just then Green came hopping on one foot across the parking lot toward them.

“Oh, look. Here comes Peter Cottontail,” Red Dog bit out with a grin.

“I stepped on a motherfucking nail!” Green shouted.

Dog shook his head with a smirk. “You dumbass.”

****

“We have to text the guys. We can’t wait any longer,” Angel insisted as they rode the elevator.

“Speak for yourself,” Mary looked over at her with a ‘not-on-your-life’ look. “I’m not telling Dog a thing. How stupid do I look?”

“Come on, Mary. We agreed,” Shannon insisted. “We have to tell them all at once, otherwise they’ll hear it from each other, and it’ll just be that much worse when we get home.”

“You’re joking, right?” Mary gave her an arch look.

“Just get your phone out. If we’re going down for this. At least we’re going down together.”

“Why can’t we just tell them when we get home?” Natalie asked, biting her lip.

“Natalie, are you worried about Mack?” Angel asked with a teasing look.

“Of course not! It’s just, well, we just arrived and I was hoping we’d get at least one day in before we were all ordered home.”

“They can order all they want. We’re here, and they’re there. What can they do about it?” Shannon insisted.

“I wouldn’t underestimate them. The only thing we’ve got going for us is that they don’t know where we are,” Natalie murmured.

“Exactly, so why are we texting them?” Mary whined.

“I just can’t lie to Cole,” Angel insisted. “I have to tell him.”

Mary let out a heavy sigh. “Oh, all right. But don’t say I didn’t warn you if this all blows up in our faces.”

They all pulled their phones out and typed off a text. Then they looked at each other.

“Ready? Set? Send.”

“Five bucks says our phones all go off before the elevator doors open,” Mary insisted, watching the numbers illuminate as they climbed to the eighteenth floor.

“I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we all turn them off, and let’s go get drunk?” Crystal suggested.

“Excellent plan!” Shannon concurred, shutting her phone down and tossing it in her bag.

****

After hours standing in the hot Nevada sun and smelling the burnt remains of the Pony, the boys had finally finished getting shit in order, loaded up and pulled out.

Twenty minutes later, the six bikes rolled into a gas station to fill up before heading back up to San Jose. They all dismounted.

Wolf pulled the nozzle from the pump, unscrewed his gas cap and shoved the end in the tank, squeezing the handle. His eyes slid to Green where he stood one pump over and had begun rambling on some random topic, like he often had a tendency to do. Leave it to Green to start-in yammering on about something no one gave a shit about. Like his favorite brand of waffles, or why dog’s drool.

“Do you believe in auras?” Green asked.

Wolf gave him a look, which didn’t shut him up, not that it ever had.

“I watched this show about it the other day, and it said the color of someone’s aura reveals what they’re really feeling.”

Before Wolf could respond, Green’s attention was distracted as a car pulled up, and a hot blonde got out. The girl began pumping gas and Green, abandoning his conversation, wandered over to flirt with the woman.

Shaking his head at Green’s totally
un
surprising behavior, Wolf turned away to talk to Cole. “So, Jason’s gonna call you with an update tomorrow?”

Cole glanced over. “Yeah. After he meets with the County Sheriff and the District Attorney.”

Wolf nodded. Then a commotion drew his attention. Glancing back, he saw the woman Green had been flirting with duck into her car and come out with a handgun which she aimed over the roof of the car toward Green.

“Get away from me or I’ll shoot your junk off!” she yelled. Then she jumped in her car and sped away.

Green shouted after her, “We’re soul mates. The sooner you figure that out the less creepy I’ll seem.”

Wolf held back his laughter long enough to call out, “Hey, Green.”

“What?” Green replied, still staring after the disappearing car.

“I think her aura was a bright shade of ‘
fuck off and leave me alone’
.”

The guys all burst out laughing.

“I think she liked me,” Green said, still staring.

“I’m no expert, but when a woman threatens to shoot your dick off, I’m pretty sure it’s time to back the fuck off,” Cole chuckled.

“Wolf, think I can track her down by her plate number?”

Wolf rolled his eyes. “Let it go, bro.”

Red Dog shook his head as Green walked past him back to his bike. “Some of your behavior is completely embarrassing, but highly entertaining at the same time. So, keep it up.”

Cole snickered, “Why can’t Green find a girl? The mystery continues.”

Green slammed the cap back on his gas tank. “Screw this, I’m goin’ inside and getting me some snacks.”

“Get me a pack of smokes and a water, will you?” Cole shouted after him.

Red Dog chuckled. “Better give him a list or he’ll end up in the booze aisle.”

Green’s response was to keep walking but lift his arm up, flashing them all the finger over his shoulder.

Crash chuckled at that as his cell phone went off. He pulled it from his pocket, looking at the screen. Incoming text from Shannon. He smiled as he swiped his thumb over the screen to open it. The smile on his face faded as he read it.

“Jesus Christ.”

Cole frowned over at him as he screwed the cap on his gas tank and hung up the nozzle. “Problems?”

“It’s Shannon. She’s in Vegas.”

“Vegas? You know about that?”

“Hell, no.”

“What’s she doing there?”

“Apparently a
girl’s
weekend.”

“Girl’s weekend?” Cole straightened. “Fuck, Angel better not be with her.” Cole’s cell went off, and he yanked his phone out, looking at the text he’d just received. “Goddamn it.”

Red Dog looked over. “What’s goin’ on?” A moment later he was pulling his own ringing cell out of his pocket. He looked at the screen and roared. “Mary’s in Vegas! What the fuck!”

Mack chuckled as he leaned back against his bike, shoving his sunglasses up on his head. “That’s what you boys get for goin’ soft on your ol’ ladies. They think they can get away with pulling shit like this. Those three loose in Vegas; that ought to be good.”

Cole glared at him. “Shut the fuck up.”

Wolf looked over at Red Dog, frowning at the look on his face. “You okay brother?”

Dog turned away, growling, “Shit like this makes my eye twitch! Leave me alone.”

Mack continued to laugh until his cell chimed an incoming text, and the shit-eating grin on his face faded. He whipped his phone out, read the text and growled, “Goddamn it!”

“What was that you were saying, Mack? Something about not being able to control an ol’ lady?” Wolf taunted with a grin.

“Shut up, Wolf. Thank your lucky stars you don’t have one.” Mack ran his hand down his face and growled. “I can’t believe this. Natalie told me she was painting the hallway this weekend.”

“You sure she didn’t say painting the
town
this weekend?” Wolf continued to torment.

Crash looked at Cole. “Women are such better liar’s than us.”

Cole growled back. “They don’t lie better, they just lie so much bigger.”

Red Dog added, “Yeah. A man’s lie is like ‘I was at Joe’s house’. A woman’s lie is like ‘It’s your baby’.”

Wolf chuckled.

Crash grinned over at him. “I wouldn’t be so quick to laugh, Wolf. Crystal’s with them.”

Wolf’s smile disappeared.

Mack threw his leg over his bike and lifted it off the kickstand, growling, “All the shit we got going down right now and they pull this stunt? Wait till I get my hands on that woman. Let’s go.”

“Where? Back to San Jose?” Green asked as he walked out with an armful of assorted snacks.

“No, dumbass. Vegas.”

“Vegas? We’re really going to Vegas?
Ooow, slots!
I’m in!” Green tossed the snacks to the ground and jumped on his bike.

“How far is it?” Mack growled at his VP.

Cole was already pulling it up on his phone. “From here—close to three hundred miles.” He slid his phone in his pocket. “We can be there in about four hours.”

They all mounted up, firing their bikes up and a moment later, they roared out onto the street, one hoard of angry, pissed-off bikers.