Page 52 of Cold Fury

25

FURY

“I’m gonna kill him,” I shout, gripping the table in the chapel with both hands, so hard that I’m surprised the wood doesn’t splinter. “I’m gonna find Kat. And I’m gonna kill him.”

“Ooh. Let me come,” Rael hisses, a gleam in his eye. “I love a good death.”

Hooch isn’t hard to find. Two of us in my truck, two in a car, Mack, Black, Rael and I head to his address in Richfield, which Elmo finds for us in a matter of minutes. No alarm system, no security at all except for a fake ADT sign outside his front door. It’s almost too fucking easy. I’m amped up enough that I pull up outside his house and am kicking his front door in almost before the rest of the men are in position.

Hooch is in his living room, on a sunken-in couch. He jumps up when I kick through the door, and moves to grab the gun on the side table next to him, but I’ve got my piece aimed right between his eyes before he can get to it.

“Sit the fuck back down, you motherfucker,” I seethe. “Over there on the chair.”

I keep the gun trained on him as he moves over to the knockoff La-Z-Boy with a sneer that’s mostly bravado. When he’s sitting in it, I sidestep over to the side table and grab his pistol, shoving it into my waistband.

“What’s the matter, pussy?” he spits out. “You lose your little girlfriend? She ain’t here.”

There’s a noise toward the back of the house. “Mack?” I yell.

“Yep!” the call comes back. “Secured the perimeter.”

“Check the rest of the house.”

“There’s no one else here,” Hooch snickers. “She ain’t here. I told ya. She’s somewhere probably gettin’ a train run on her.” His sneer widens. “Bet she likes it.”

My jaw clenches. My fingers itch to turn the gun around and pistol-whip him with it. But I can’t waste time right now. I need every second laser-focused on finding out where Kat is. The rest comes later.

Rael comes into the room from the back of the house. He comes to stand next to me, gun also drawn. “This him?”

I nod, then turn back to Hooch, who is staring at Rael, eyes wide. He looks like he’s seeing a corpse come to life, but he can’t quite believe his eyes. “Who’s this asshole?” he says uncertainly, blinking.

“You’re fucking lying, Hooch,” I shoot back at him. “If she ain’t here, you got her somewhere.”

Hooch forces his face into a cocky grin. “Hey, Halloween’s not for a while yet, faggot.” He smirks at Rael, then drags his eyes back to me. “I ain’t lying. I don’t give a shit about that bitch anymore. She’s damaged goods. This is on you, you dumb motherfucker. She’s paying for your club’s fuck-up with her pussy.”

I freeze. “What are you saying?”

Hooch huffs out a laugh. “I’m saying your girlfriend is paying back what you fucking stole from the Talon.”

As I stare at him in disbelief, Hooch tells me that Quad sold Kat to pay for the drug shipment we blew up.

“You owed the Talon. Quad took what had the most value to pay them back,” Hooch leers. “Fresh pussy. Quad gave his own fucking sister to Sinaloa. You didn’t want it to happen, you shoulda thought twice about fucking with the club. She belongs to Hector Loera now. No way you can even get near her.”

Hector Loera. I know the name. And nothing I know about it is good. If he has Kat…

Jesus.

“Where can I find him?” I demand, coming closer. “Where is Loera?”

Hooch lets out a crazy shout of laughter. “Are you fucking kidding me, you dumb son of a bitch?”

This time, I can’t control it. I grab his own pistol out of the waistband of my jeans and wind up, smashing the butt of it across his jaw with such force that his head snaps sideways on his neck. Blood and spittle go flying with a couple of teeth. The solid crack of bone tells me I’ve broken his jaw.

“This doesn’t get better for you, Hooch,” I rasp. “You tell me where they are. Give me something.”

Hooch’s eyes water with pain, rivulets streaming down his face. His jaw hangs at a lopsided angle. He swallows a couple of times, as blood and saliva leak from one side of his mouth. “I ain’t a weak bitch,” he mouths, grimacing with the effort. “You can’t break me. Besides, I’m a Bloody Scorpion now.” It’s almost impossible to understand his slow, labored speech. “This?” He points to his jaw. “This is a fuckin’ birthday present you just gave me. You understand that? You fucked with me, now you got the Scorpions on your ass. You just made the worst goddamn mistake of your life, you motherfucking piece of shit.”

Rael steps forward. Before I realize what’s happening, his arm shoots forward, his hand grabbing Hooch’s face in its iron grip. Hooch lets out a scream of pain that dies in his throat as Rael’s eyes lock onto his. Mack strides into the room as we witness something that looks almost like Rael is looking into the motherfucker’s soul. It’s indescribably chilling.