Page 24 of Apple of His Eye
Instead, I put my phone in my pocket and head downstairs to Code’s IT-Wonderland. No joke, that’s what he calls it. I’ve never understood my brother, but his gift for everything technological has been one of the biggest modernizations the Jackals implemented when I became MC President.
It wasn’t too long ago when Shakespeare and I talked about modernizing some aspects of the club, when we took on the leadership roles after our father’s. We knew the benefit outweighed tradition. Especially for situations like this one, because the shit we’ve learned about Raymond was literally only one click away.
Raymond is a Wolf—literally. He’s a patched member to a rival club, the Demon Wolves, from a county over. While we’ve had no real beef with the group, it appears as though they’ve slowly and quietly been encroaching into Jackal territory.
“Rough night?” Code asks the second I open the door to the dimly lit room.
I grunt in response, taking the seat next to him. We might be brothers in real life, but he knows better than to put his nose in my shit. Though, the way he’s looking at me, he’s heard what went down at _name of strip joint_.
“Don’t start…”
“What? I wasn’t going to say anything,” he smirks with a not so innocent shrug. “It’s just, well, I heard you got quite a show tonight.”
“Atticus,” I growl, using his government name as his last warning. Brother or not, he’s the one Jackal I won’t hesitate to plant on his ass and claim it was caused by brotherly love.
“What the fuck are you doing, Kohen?” I glare at him, refusing to give him any kind of satisfaction. “I mean, if you don’t want the girl, there are men here chomping at the bits to put her on the back of their bike.”
“Fuck you and fuck them.”
“You claimed the girl, but we all know you haven’t laid a finger on her.”
“I’m not talking about this with you—or anyone.”
“You’ve been acting like an asshole, and not just to the Jackals, but to Snow as well.”
“Why the fuck does everyone keep calling her Snow?”
“Because she’s like Snow White, running from her wicked stepmother. But instead of the seven dwarves, she lives in a club full of badass bikers who will lay down their lives for her.”
“Do you even remember how Snow White’s story went?” I ask, not wanting to say the most important part of the book, because I’ll be damned if I speak that shit into existence. Snow White almost died and the dwarves couldn’t save her.
“Yeah. She takes a bite of a poisonous apple and falls into a deep sleep. And then thePrincecomes along and plants a fat-ass kiss on her, waking her up.”
An apple… the thought stirs something inside and I remember the small charm always dangling from the chain around her neck. It’s of an apple.
“Tell me what you found about the Wolves.” I clip, changing the subject because the comparison is too close for comfort.
“I’ve had some of my guys running recon,” Code says, shifting away from a jovial good time guy to the techie nerd with a dark side. Shit’s happening in Jackal territory and before we do anything rash, we need all the information. “We’ve got some hidden cams and bugs in the areas they congregate the most.”
“Tell me we’ve got something to go on.”
“It’s not just drugs passing through our little town here,” he murmurs a second before the dark grainy video plays. I can’t make a lot of the details out, but there is a dark van parked outside an old warehouse on the east side of town. A man gets out, walks around it and disappears.
“What’s he doing?” Code opens another video, this time from an angle on the other side of the van. We see the same man appear at the backend of the vehicle. He looks around and opens the side door.
One by one, smaller figures appear. They stand in a straight line. One man waves his arms around, like he’s telling them what to do. A new person appears, exiting the warehouse. He stalks toward them with some kind of assault rifle in hand.
The line moves, left leg, then right left. They move in unison. But that’s not what catches my eye. It’s the very last in the line, the one who looks like they are being pulled along against their will. The one fighting the pull of the others in front of them.
“They’re attached to one another at the ankle,” I breathe and Code pauses the video before clicking a few keys and his mouse. The video zooms in and he drags the image down with his mouse, stopping at their feet.
“Tell me I’m not seeing what I think I’m seeing.” He zooms out again and clicks play. We watch eight women disappear into the building, the gunman following close behind.
Eight.
This can’t be happening. Not on Jackal territory.
“Is there anything else happening at that warehouse?” Code fast forwards, and we watch the driver get back into the van and drive off. Hours later, a different van drive up and we watch the women walk from the warehouse and load into it.