Page 14

BULL

Our temporary Church slowly fills up with Bond and Rochelle bringing up the rear. I know she feels guilty that this is all somehow her fault. And while yes, it’s because of her that this skirmish has been brought to a head so quickly, it would have happened eventually anyway. Especially with the information we’d received when we’d spoken to the shop owners and the people from our town. All of them knew of this gang and most had had run-ins with them. When we’d explained what was happening, there had been volunteers to offer help, which we’d declined.

It was bad enough that my brothers and our women were putting our lives on the line; I didn’t want any others on my conscience.

Bond closed the door behind him, and I turned towards the screen that Skinny had set up. There were pictures on there of the main men in the gang with their names under them. Most of them looked drugged up and in ill health, and I hoped that this would help us, although we all knew that if they were high, it could change the entire outcome.

Turning back to the room, I look at Rochelle and ask, “Tell us what you can about this lot and who you think will come with them. Do they have any military training? Anything you can tell us about them will be helpful.”

“I know them all,” Rochelle replies, “They’ll all come except for the one in the third row. He’s different from the others; he doesn’t take drugs, and he manages all their finances. I think if he thought he’d get away with it, he’d take over.”

“Mmh,” I hum as I think over what she’s just said. “Do you know him? Would he speak to you?”

Rochelle looks uncertain. “His name is Dindi. I don’t know if he’ll speak to me. I didn’t have much to do with him. I do know he’s not a thug like the others; he’s educated and thinks things through. He did stop Jared from hitting me once, and he’s always been polite and kind when I’ve had anything to do with him, but,” she shrugs, “I honestly don’t know if he’ll speak to me. Why, what are you thinking?”

“If he’s interested in a coup and taking over, then it might be beneficial for us to speak to him. Make a deal that if he keeps his shit to the city and doesn’t encroach on us, we’ll leave him alone; but if he doesn’t want to take the deal, then we’ll take every last one of them out. He’s got to be haemorrhaging money paying everyone off, and if they’re using more than they’re selling, they’ll be broke before long. But we want inside information on who’s coming and when.”

“You want to make a deal like that?” Cairo looks surprised and a little angry.

I hold up my hand, “I don’t like it any more than you do. But we can’t have a war that’s going to continue forever; we don’t have the manpower, and yes, we have allies, but I’d rather get this over and done with as quickly as possible.

“Now I’m not saying we become best friends with this guy, but if he stays on his side of the country, I’d rather leave it to the authorities and Dex to deal with if they want to. From what I understand, until Jared and Jason, they mostly ran under the radar, and drugs weren’t sold by them; they were the go-between that passed it on. It’s only been in the last five years that things have escalated. So, no, I’m not happy about making the deal, but to keep all of us safe, I will.

“You all let me know what you think, and if you’re happy with it, we’ll get Rochelle to call Dindi, and we can hear what he has to say.”

I look around the table, and while there was some indecision, they know I’m right; we can’t afford to have an ongoing war, and it will be. We need to put this to bed so that we can get our families back and continue to build our businesses. I’d known that Cairo would have a problem with it, having lost his sister to drugs. He hated anything to do with them.

“Okay,” Cairo nods his agreement. “Let’s put it to a vote.”

“Aye,” Blaze agrees, “I’m good with us calling this guy.”

“Aye,” Bond puts his vote in, and so we went around the table until all votes were recorded.

Handing my phone to Rochelle, I tell her, “Call him but put it on speakerphone.”

Rochelle takes the phone and enters the number I give her. We wait while it rings until someone picks up and answers with, “Hello.”

Rochelle takes a nervous breath before she replies, “Dindi, it’s Rochelle.”

“Rochelle, why are you calling me? Do you know how much of a problem you and your father have caused?” His words were harsh, but he didn’t sound it. He sounded more curious than anything, as if he was questioning where her head was at.

Shaking my head, I hold out my hand for the phone, telling her, “Don’t answer him; give it to me, you’ve done your bit.”

“Who’s that?” he growls, “You better not have gone to the cops, Rochelle, because if you have, there’s nothing you can do to save yourself. Jason knows where you are.”

He was starting to piss me off, so I cut him off, telling him, “She hasn’t gone to the cops. Now are you going to shut the fuck up so that we can have a conversation, or are you going to continue to flap your gums? Because if you are, then I’m going to end this call, and you’re not going to get what you’ve been after for the last five years.”

He went silent for a minute, and I heard a door close, and then the background noise that had been there disappeared. “I’m listening,” he informs me.

I don’t beat around the bush; we don’t have time to mess around, so I get straight to the point, “Rochelle tells me you’ve got a brain, don’t take drugs, and have ambitions to take over the Black Mambas.”

He hesitates before answering, “Maybe.”

“Well, I have a proposition for you. We’ll take care of your current problem, but I want something from you in return.”

“I’m listening.”

“I want you to tell us when Jared is on his way here and how many of them. We’ll take care of that problem for you, but in return, you have to promise to stay away from this part of the country. You leave my town, its people, and my family alone. That includes Rochelle, Daisy, and Rochelle’s father. If you come anywhere near here, go after any of my family, or sell your poison anywhere near our town, then this conversation never happened, and you’ll wish you’d never been born. Am I clear?”

Dindi is silent on the other side, and if it wasn’t that we could hear him breathing, I’d wonder if the line had been cut when he suddenly speaks, disbelief in his tone, “Let me get this straight, all you want from me is when Jason leaves, the amount of men he has with him, and to not go to your side of the country once you’ve taken care of his fucking arse. That’s it?”

“That’s it,” I agree. “We don’t need a war that’s going to go on indefinitely; we have families here, a town to build, and businesses to get off the ground. We want this sorted as quickly and quietly as possible. And from what I understand, you have a business to grow and a family of your own to keep safe. This way, we both win.”

“Huh,” Dindi huffs out a breath, “I checked you out when we found out where Rochelle was. I know your backgrounds. I’ve not said anything to Jason. If you get rid of his arse, you have a deal. I’ll not be bothering you and yours. Although you do owe us some compensation for the warehouses you blew up.”

Grinding my teeth at his audacity, I ground out, “Listen here, you motherfucker. We could have blown them all and could still do so. You think we don’t know where they all are? The ones we blew were to send a message. Now you have a choice. We can work together and each go on our way, or once we’ve taken care of Jason, me and my brothers will come back and finish the job we started this morning. Only we won’t stop there; we’ll dismantle it from the inside out, starting with you.” I pause, “You have a choice, cocksucker; make it now. You say you’ve done your homework on us, then you know we don’t say what we don’t mean.”

“He’s leaving tonight just after midnight, and he’ll have twenty men with him, all armed and probably high. Let me know when it’s done.” With that, he ended the call.

“Huh, I guess he didn’t want to go to war with us,” Blaze mutters. “Cheeky gobshite asking for compensation.”

Looking at the others around the table, I take Noni’s hand and give it a squeeze. “Let’s go over our plans, then catch some sleep,” I tell them.

Two hours later, we’d gone over the plans with a fine-tooth comb, and we all knew what we were doing. The women would, for the most part, be kept out of the fight as they’d be on the roof of the hotel spotting for Jill, who showed us that she was more than capable. Skinny and Josie would be in the veterinary office and would be feeding us intel from the cameras that Skinny had set up all around the property.

We were as ready as we were going to be; all we had to do now was wait for them to arrive.

It was time to call an end to Church. Banging the gavel on the table, I looked at each of my brothers and then at the women who were slowly filtering into our midst.

“Church is done. We’ve done what we can when it comes to plans. Take your time and get some rest. We’ll meet back here at ten tonight.” Standing, I pull Noni up with me. I need to hold her and beg her to be safe because I can’t imagine my life without her in it. As we walk out of the hotel to our home, I send a little prayer up to Gwen, asking her to look after Noni tonight. Later that evening, after I’d lost myself in my Old Lady’s body, I wondered if I’d made the right decision.

“It’s going to be okay, Bull,” Noni whispers, running her hands through my hair as the sweat cooled on our bodies. “You’ll see, you and the boys have planned for every eventuality, and me and the girls aren’t helpless. We’ll be okay.”

“I hope so, love. You’d better make sure your arse is safe, and you’d better not have a scratch on you when all this is said and done. I couldn’t take it if you were hurt,” I whisper against her throat.

“Same goes for you, big man,” she replies just as softly.

I had a feeling that my brother and Bond were having similar conversations with their women.