Page 43 of Cold Fury
The blood is pounding in my ears as I stride down the hall toward the apartment where I left Kat. Quietly, I turn the knob and stick my head inside. She’s asleep, knocked out on pain meds and exhaustion from her ordeal. (And the sedative that Wishbone, our medic, gave her.)
I want to talk to her. I need to sink myself deep inside her, to feel the realness of her. To feel the moment where we’re both so lost in each other nothing else matters. She’s the only thing that can calm me down right now. But I know right now what she needs most is rest.
So instead, I pace angrily through the clubhouse, practically jumping out of my own skin, until an hour later, when the Bastards assemble in the chapel.
We’re all sitting around the big table. Reed, Country, and Bleach tell us they have found evidence that the Eagle’s Talon are due to take possession of a shipment of drugs tomorrow, and the location where they’ll stash the shipment until it can be sold.
We argue about what to do with this info. Then Norse leans forward.
“Law of conservation of our energy,” he says. “We move on them when they have the shipment relocated. We grab the drugs, destroy them. That puts them in deep-ass shit with the cartel.” Norse snorts. “That should distract them from Kat for a while. Meantime, we get to watch the show and plan our next move.”
“Fuck that,” I sneer. “That’s coward shit. If we know where they are, we meet them, surround them, and end them all.”
“Fury, man. Listen to Norse.” Magnus interjects. “We’re playing the long game against the Talon. You go in there hot now and blow shit up, it won’t do what you want it to do. You want revenge.” His eyes gleam. “Shoot higher. Shoot for vengeance.”
I ponder his words after church is over. The club voted to do what Norse proposed. I still want to go in and take no fucking prisoners. I’ll go it alone if I have to, but for now, I’ll grudgingly accept this, because it’s movement forward.
The men know that she’s my old lady now, in every way that matters. And knowing Kat is safest here has influenced my choice. Going it alone means I can’t be everywhere at once. I hate to admit it, but I need my brothers with me on this. I need my club.
Speaking of brothers. Knowing that this shit is about to blow up means that Kat is about to lose her only brother, either figuratively or literally. I just hope I don’t lose her in the process.
The only reason Quad isn’t already dead right now is that he’s her brother. Killing him would ruin her emotionally. It would wreck her.
He’s a fucking piece of shit, but he’s her only family. If I shed his blood, I know I’ll be shedding hers, too. She’d never forgive me. Even if I’m doing it for her.
Sorrow and grief for my woman start to mix inside me with the anger. Pretty soon I’m shaking from it. My blood churns in my veins, cold fury simmering white-hot inside them.
Jesus, I need to hold it together for her. This shit ain’t gonna end well. I can feel it.
Mack is nursing a beer next to me at the bar as I sit in silence, turning it all over in my head. I’ve known him long enough to recognize when he’s wanting to say something to me.
“What?” I snarl.
He doesn’t flinch. “You don’t want Kat to suffer from the fallout to all this,” he comments. “I get it.”
“Fuck,” I spit, slamming my bottle on the bar. “If he wasn’t her brother, he’d already be dead.”
He turns to me with a gleam in his eye. “What if we feed them to the law?”
I stare at him. “The fuck do you mean?”
One corner of his mouth tips. “Johnny Carlton,” he says.
John Carlton is a buddy of Mack’s and mine from childhood. These days, he’s a rising star in the Minneapolis PD. You wouldn’t know it from the uniform he wears, but he was pretty goddamn wild in high school. Time and circumstance being what they are, he wound up on one side of the law, and Mack and I ended up mostly on the other. We haven’t seen him in a few years.
“We want to crush the Eagle’s Talon,” Mack continues. “You know the cops should have reasons for wanting the same thing. The reasons don’t have to be the same for us to both get what we want.”
“Fuck that, Mack. Work with the goddamn cops?” I shake my head in disbelief. “Even if it could work, you think Magnus and Norse would ever go for that?”
“I think Magnus is a pragmatic motherfucker.”
“Listen to you with the ten-dollar words.”
“No, hear me out.” He drains his beer. “We steal the Talon’s shipment so they can’t sell it to their buyers, which means they’re on the hook for the money with the cartel. The cartel is now on their ass. But then, feed the Talon’s asses to the cops. They get hauled to jail. They can’t operate from inside, but they also can’t hide from the cartel’s connections, either. They’re sitting ducks for Sinaloa to pick them off one by one in the slammer.” He spreads his hands wide. “We don’t have to do anything, just watch and wait.”
My jaw works as I consider what he’s saying. It’s not as satisfying as beating them all to death with my own hands. But getting Kat’s brother out of the way and behind bars makes him pay for his sins without making her suffer the pain of seeing her brother killed by my club.
Fuck.