Page 36 of Blue-Eyed Jacks (Destroyers MC: Skilletsville PA #1)

Skilletsville—Jackson

N onno only let Wolf and Bear remain with me. Shock had all four of his officers. And Nonno not only had his home chapter’s leadership but also two bodyguards to witness. This was going to get ugly fast.

He took a spot at the head of the table, usurping me of my favorite chair without even knowing it. But no one sat.

Without much preamble, he slapped the surface to get everyone’s attention. “First. Jackson, give your president patch to Wolf.”

I’d expected that. I flicked my knife out and tore the vest off to lay it flat on the table so I wouldn’t stab myself while ripping the little rectangle off.

I peeled it away from the final threads holding it and pinched it between my fingers as I put my vest back on.

Part of me didn’t want to let go of the title.

But Wolf deserved this flimsy albatross more than I did.

I handed it to him, warning him with my eyes that he better remember how to be ruthless.

Otherwise, his fate was going to be much worse than mine.

Nonno acknowledged the transfer of power with barely a nod. “Next, regional president. It’s long past due. G’s been pestering me to get this shit over with. Shock?”

My nemesis’s grin turned my stomach. Until Nonno said his name, hope beat in my chest that maybe, just maybe, I was giving up my presidency for something bigger. I swallowed my disappointment and braced for the next insult.

“Thank you,” Shock held out his hand to Nonno.

There was a moment of hesitation. I glanced at Nonno’s face.

If this were a card game, I’d bet all in that he had a shit hand.

One of his tells was that he stared too directly, as if he were weighing the odds against his opponent.

A player with all the right cards wouldn’t need to do that. It told me that this was a farce.

Shock grinned widely as he accepted the small rectangular patch to sew above his president’s patch.

I didn’t smile. The knife clutched in my hand wasn’t nearly deadly enough to kill that motherfucker fast enough. But the tightening of my fist didn’t want to listen to common sense.

I forced myself to lower my hand, fold the blade in, and pocket it.

“Are you going to congratulate me?”

I stared at him, mute. I was done pretending. Done lying. That didn’t mean I was stupid enough to speak my mind. So my lips pressed together. I didn’t frown because I fought to keep the corners from turning south. I finally spoke.

“Are we done?”

“No,” Shock said.

Great . I almost rolled my eyes.

His grin turned into a smirk. “First things first. As regional president, I’m ordering Wolf to pull your patch.”

That bastard . “On what grounds?” I gritted out.

“Because you are a liar. Now normally, we’d like that in a brother. But not when it is directed at leadership.”

My right eyebrow lifted so I could skewer him with the one eye that wasn’t twitching from anger. “You weren’t my fucking boss.”

“Careful. You aren’t patched anymore.”

I was still wearing my vest. I’d earned my spot. And I’d killed for it. If it took killing that bastard and every son of a bitch between me and the MC I’d lived my entire life in, I’d do it. Brother or not.

Nonno broke our staring contest. “Almost seventeen years ago, you said one of our dealers ran. He didn’t. You made it look like he did.”

Fuck .

“You lied to Nonno.” Shock’s smile fell into a grim line. “And, you had one of our feeder chapters lie for you. To me. And, to your former president.”

Christ . Walt was going to pay for my sins.

That’s why Nonno handed that regional patch to Shock.

He couldn’t count on Walt, although the man deserved a shot at the job more than I did.

He’d recruited a new chapter. Preserved our southern border for years.

And, most recently, kept a truce between another major East Coast club and our club.

“Do you deny it?”

Nonno was asking me to tie my own noose.

I took off my vest and handed it to Wolf. “Here. Burn it.” With that, I took a step toward the door.

“Not so fast.”

What now? A beating?

“Blackout your marks.”

Nonno’s order was benevolent. They were within their rights to burn all the Destroyers tattoos on my body from my skin.

“Anything else?”

Shock stepped forward. “Stay away from my wife.”

“Fine,” I agreed.

He tacked on, “And my daughter.”

“I’ll see you in court about that one.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“My lawyer, dipshit.”

His men visibly fluffed up like a flock of vultures readying for battle over my carcass.

“ Your lawyer?” Shock asked. He glared at Wolf to speak.

“You can’t use the club’s assets.”

There. That was the ruthlessness I asked for.

Bear outdid him. “Or any of the businesses.”

Shock practically gleamed with joy as he tacked on, “Or that fancy little house you bummed off Sprout.”

Whatever . I’d made do with much less in my life.

I’d squirreled away assets for over twenty years.

Shock knew about the house in Maine, but no one knew about some of the other holes in the walls I’d burrowed out.

Meeting Kate wasn’t the catalyst, but knowing her and Zoe needed places untouched by the Destroyers’ network made me get creative.

I pulled my keys out. The SUV was leased to the club. “Here.”

“Your bike keys, too.”

Wolf was taking his newfound power too far.

“Fucker.” I threw the second key ring on the table.

There was a little Subaru near the back of the yard, tucked behind a false fence every single prospect strolled past nightly.

At the base of the twisted metal bars and vines that grew hundreds if not thousands of feet a day was a small, grimy culvert.

I’d crawl through it and drive away. I could be five hundred miles from here before any of these assholes figured it out.

Or better, I’d hit one of my rifle stashes and take out every single betraying motherfucker in this room.

They wouldn’t know what hit them as I hunted them down.

They were stupid to let me walk out. And Shock had dug his grave by threatening Zoe.

She was mine by blood. No one was going to take her from me again. Not even Kate.

My scowl went deeper. She’d hate me for this. For giving up on her. For playing the games this club had shoved in my face while she hid all those years.

And for what?

Nothing.

Without this club, without my men, without power, I was just another bitter man chewed up and spit out. One step from a lifetime behind bars. And if I was lucky enough to make it that far, I’d be shivved because of the disgrace they laid on me.

If I were a smart man, I’d remake myself working some fucked up polo-wearing backwater job that never got me much more than an obligatory 401k with junk bonds. I’d die poor and unknown after living the rest of my miserable life, swallowing my pride.

That wasn’t me.

None of this was me. I’d dug my grave by being a smartass son of a bitch who didn’t know how to keep his dick out of someone else’s woman. I’d been warned about this very thing all my life.

But I didn’t regret a damn thing. Nor would I do anything different.

I turned my back on Shock and Nonno. One final insult as I walked out of my throne room.

I barely glanced around the bar as I kept one foot in front of the other.

Any second now, the human sharks circling me would smell blood.

Once that happened, I would face a gauntlet of at least fifty angry men.

I’d betrayed each and every one of them.

For Kate.

For my girl.

For blood.

At the door, I turned back for one last look.

The floor was cleared. Most of the members and visitors opted for the barstools and wooden spools scattered along the rim of the room. I stared at the bare wood where not long ago, Shock had set up his make-shift throne. Where Kate had puked her guts out.

Where, nineteen years ago, I dared to challenge the order of things.

The room was quiet, as if they were waiting for me to say something in a cheap parting shot. Or maybe give an order to test the limits of my fall from grace.

Or perhaps they pitied me.

Whatever .

My palm hit the door as I walked away from it all. My empire, my castle, was a junkyard of broken promises.

I turned as soon as a pile of cars blocked the sight of me from the doors. I knew every inch of scrap in this place. It had been my playground and my life for over two decades. No one knew more about the lay of this land than I did.

The vines covered the culvert nicely but tugged away in a mat that didn’t break apart. I slid into the hole, pushing forward. The darkness inside was so complete it felt like a grave. I could die in here, and no one would find the body. Ever.

Fuck that. I shoved at the vines and muck clogging the other end and pulled myself free. The Subaru waited for me. It had been a piece of junk. It was still one, but at least it worked.

And the bag I’d stowed in the wheel well was right where I left it.

I pulled out the burner phone and fired it up as I changed clothes.

It rang twice. The man on the other end answered with a quick, “Yo, who’s this?”

“Your worst nightmare. Code black.”

In the background noise, I could make out Hickey’s fingers hitting a keyboard.

“Where are you?” I asked.

“In the war room. Shock just left.”

“Nonno still there?”

“Yup. He’s doing shots with Wolf. What happened inside?”

“Fuckers stripped me.”

Hickey snorted. “Called it.”

“Yeah, you did. Kate and Zoe get out?”

“Yup. Speck says they left about fifteen minutes ago.”

Damn, Tits worked fast. “Good. You got a bead on them?”

“They’re heading west on the interstate.”

West ? What the fuck?

“Who let them out the gate?”

“Fucking Hammer.”

They’d begun to call the prospect Hammer because he was dumber than a box of them. “Call Tits.”

“Dude, Wolf is not going to thank you for that.”

“Don’t care. I wanna know why they’re going the direction they’re going.” I expected south. Tit’s home chapter was that direction. South and east.

“Fucking bullshit,” Hickey muttered under his breath.

“You’ll be free of it soon.”

He didn’t bother to reply, opting to concentrate on the other call. There was a brief exchange back and forth, then Hickey swore.

“What?”

He asked, “Are you sure?”

“Am I sure about what?” I asked.

“Not you, Tits. She says her girls haven’t moved yet.”

“What the fuck are they waiting for?”

And shit . If Kate and Zoe had left already, who had them? “Wait a minute, get Hammer on the line. Find out who the fuck was with Kate and Zoe, what they were driving, and—”

“J, on it. Hammer says they were in one of Shock’s vans. He figured you planned it that way.”

“Dumb ass.” I cursed the day we opened the doors to that idiot.

Hickey broke into my diatribe. “I know you’re not calling me that, right?”

I tried to keep my shit together. “Hickey, we need a plan B or C right now. Either Kate and Zoe went off on their own, or someone took them. If it is the latter…” I swallowed.

My throat closed up on the words I couldn’t move from my brain into speech.

The next sound out of my mouth was something between a croak and a whimper.

“Hang on, I’m looping in Sprout.”

Great, another idiot.

“I need backup and a location. You said the interstate, right?” I got in the car and dug between the seats for the little box with the key.

I drove over the weeds and gravel behind the lot and onto a small access road.

I was on the interstate and running at five over the speed limit before Hickey got me dialed into a GPS signal heading west. Despite my speed, assholes were still passing me.

They didn’t have to worry about mismatched plates, fake registration and insurance cards, or cops with long memories and even longer grudges against me.

“Sprout says he slipped Danielle’s GPS inside Zoe’s hood.”

Hell to the yes. “Tell him thanks.”

They kept a running tally of locations, and I was closing in on them as they exited the freeway and paused for a grand total of two minutes at a Walmart.

I’d barely missed them. But the turn-by-turn directions Hickey gave me were shit.

I got fucking turned around twice when he led me under the freeway with no on-ramps.

“Dude, look at a fucking map or something.”

“I’m trying. But you wanted this kept under the radar. I don’t have help here.”

The rage threatening to erupt got bit back down. “I know, you’re trying.”

Sprout got on the call. “Turn right; half a mile, there’s a ramp heading east.”

“I don’t need to go east.”

“I know, but if you get on it, then keep right; it circles to the other side of the bridge and then you can go west.”

Finally, someone with a plan.

“Ask Hickey if he still has a good signal.”

“Affirmative.”

Thank God. But my signal wasn’t as good. No sooner than I got on the interstate, Kate got off it.

At that point, I lost Hickey’s updates in the no-man’s-land of steep hills and even deeper valleys. It wasn’t until I hit a peak about five minutes later that I found out I didn’t go in the same direction they did. Both Hickey and Sprout worked to get me pointed toward them and back on their tail.

I’d make up the lost time and get to them. Then, find out if this was Kate’s idea or someone else’s.

Which scenario would be better? Kate ditching me because of all the fucking around I did, or someone kidnapping her?

I’d like to think that ditching me was the better choice.

But my dumbass heart didn’t.