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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Declan

“All right, sit down and shut the fuck up!” Pres roars. “I want answers, and I want them fucking yesterday!” He looks around the room at each one of us. “Someone explain to me how the fuck Thomas escaped not only his cell, but the basement, and this goddamn clubhouse with no one noticing? How is that even possible with all the fail safes we have on the property?”

Hawk’s shoulders tense. He’s got his laptop open with Ghost sitting next to him on his.

“I had Wyatt go through the cameras. They were cut off at eleven p.m. The last bit of movement near the basement was Sadie and Jayde coming out of the bathroom laughing and talking with each other. But nothing on the basement door or inside the basement itself. The last footage of Thomas showed he was lying on his cot with his arm over his head, sleeping. He’d been in the same position for a while.”

“How do you fucking explain it then, Hawk?”

“I don’t know, Pres.” Hawk looks up at me. “I’m thinking it’s those Trident fuckers or Parisi. It’s the only thing that makes any sense.”

“Trident?” Gabe’s eyes snap to mine. “What do you know, Declan?”

“Fuck.” I scrub my hand down my face and drop them to my hips. “I made a deal with a friend, Kayce Eaton. He owns Trident Elite. He and I served together years ago. Anyway, I found his business card in Violet’s apartment after she disappeared and asked Hawk to reach out inconspicuously.”

“And?” Mack chimes into the conversation, looking pissed. As he should be. I asked Hawk to do something that could’ve had blowback on the club without checking with Pres first—and it might have.

“Hawk tapped into their security system and left a message asking Kayce to reach out to me. He did. Then he had Violet brought to me.”

“And so, what? We think they let Thomas escape as a payment or a ‘fuck you’ for Hawk breeching their system? Did they know we had a prisoner down there?” Jameson asks, glaring at the both of us.

I shrug. “I don’t know what they know about the club or who we have on the premises. We didn’t discuss the club, only Violet and her son.”

“But he works with Vincenzo Parisi.” Hawk says it so easily, like he’s ordering food at a restaurant and wants to add a little something extra to his plate. Almost like he was saying, “Hey, while you’re at it, just add a little pineapple to the plate.”

I turn my glare on him, and he shrugs. “It’s not a small thing to overlook, Dec.”

“Did you talk to Violet and find out what her involvement with Parisi is? Maybe this was the payment she owed him? Did you consider that?” Gabe turns his ire on me, and all heads snap my direction. I throw my hands up to keep the room calm while I explain what I do know.

“Yeah, I know what she gave Vincenzo as payment to help her and Carter escape her asshole husband.”

“Annnd …” Jameson drags out.

“She collected some evidence Swanson had planted that would incriminate Parisi in a crime he actually didn’t commit.”

“How can you be sure he didn’t?” It’s Mack asking now, and not looking the least bit convinced.

“Violet heard Swanson telling his boss about his plan to frame Parisi,” I explain. “I only have Violet’s word on the matter, but Parisis accepted it as payment in order to put Carter and Violet under his protection.”

“And what does she owe him for this latest adventure?” Gabe asks, exasperated. “What’s she doing for him in return for helping her friend?”

“He made her contact Kayce and set up a meeting with him.” I sigh. I run through the story about how Violet’s asshole husband hurt Carter and her meeting Mili and the men of Trident. I give them everything I can without exposing Violet too much. “Violet has never breathed any of this to anyone else except to those who helped her escape, and now me. So, I’d appreciate it if you’d all keep this shit to yourself. She feels ashamed enough for letting it happen for as long as she did.”

“It’s not her fault her husband is an abusive piece of shit. She did the right thing getting them out of there,” Caleb comes to Violet’s defense. I nod my agreement with his statement. “It’s club business now.”

It doesn’t leave this room.

“Okay, but you said Matteo brought Violet out to the cabin then took Kayce to meet Vincenzo, right?” Jake asks. “How do we know they weren’t conspiring to free Thomas after they left you there? I mean, it makes sense. You would be preoccupied with your woman, and you said you were told to stay there for at least three days. Maybe they planned it that way.” Jake looks around the table.

“What difference does it make that Declan was away?” Gabe snaps. “Whoever it was got past all of us. We had a fucking party going on last night. No one even noticed he was gone until early morning. I don’t see how removing one club member would be so significant in planning an escape!” Gabe roars. “What about everyone else who was here? The rest of the club, and why didn’t my goddamn alarm system alert anyone of the breach?”

The vein in Gabe’s temple is visibly throbbing. If he doesn’t calm the fuck down, his damn head’s going to explode.

“The cameras were cut after the girls left the bathroom. The living area was loud, and brothers were drinking and shooting the shit with the club girls or their women, but it was nothing too chaotic or overly loud,” Hawk says. “The prospect was at his post on the front gate. No one came or went through the gates until Sadie and Jayde. They left a half an hour after the cameras kicked off. Then Ethan took Sky home. Jake and Avery were only ten minutes behind them. The rest of us crashed here. Nothing was out of the ordinary, Pres. I’ve gone over it all a thousand times.”

“Then how did he get off the fucking property?” Gabe shouts again, shoving his hair back with his hands. “Who was supposed to be watching the cameras?”

“Calm down, son. We’ll find him.” Caleb tries to comfort Gabe.

“I had the system open on my phone like everyone else. I was out partying with the club girls, same as the rest, Pres. Normally, I’m alerted to any issues with the system. I don’t know why it didn’t this time. I’ve been trying to figure out how we were locked out all fucking day,” Hawk snaps.

“Watch your fucking tone,” Gabe growls. Both Jake and Mack move to stand between the two, ready to break things up should they need to.

Jesus. Seems like just about every time we meet for church, there’s a fight brewing lately.

“What if he’s not off the property?” Ethan speaks up for the first fucking time.

“Come again?” Pres asks, leaning his arms on the table.

“I said, what if he’s not off the farm? Did we check everywhere?” Ethan shrugs. “I mean, it’s a large property. Lots of places to hide. Shit, Sadie and Sky have told me stories about how you all used to spread out all over the fucking place as kids playing hide-n-seek. Thomas would know those hiding spots too, wouldn’t he?”

“We’ve combed the farm,” Caleb says. “He’s not on the grounds. He may have been for a short while after escaping, but there’s no sign of him now and Pres has all the prospects, even the new kid Trevor, patrolling and checking shit on rotation.”

“Okay, so back to the original thought,” Mack suggests. “What if Hawk is right? What if your buddy at Trident helped Thomas escape and took him to Parisi for a trade? They’re trained military experts. They could’ve easily gotten on and off the farm if they could disengage Hawk’s system, right?”

Scratching my chin, I nod. “They could’ve, sure. But I don’t believe it’s them.”

“Why? What proof do you have that they wouldn’t?” Jake glares at me. “They’re mercenaries, right? They work for money. And we all know Parisi is fucking loaded.”

“My gut tells me it’s not them,” I argue.

“But what if you’re wrong?” Jake pushes.

My anger is rising with every second of this conversation. “Tensions are high and we’re all looking for answers, but my gut tells me it’s not Kayce. He helps people get out of shitty situations. He doesn’t help shitty people who deserve to be locked away.”

“But what if Kayce owed Parisi a favor?” Jameson asks. “Could it be they owed Parisi, not Violet? Maybe that’s why he had her set up the meeting. They drop her off with you at the cabin and then they meet somewhere else and work out their plans to take Thomas and fuck over the club in the process. We all know Parisi didn’t want Gabe to kill Thomas. He needs him alive for some reason, otherwise Thomas would already be fucking dead for what he did to my dad and Maggie. He deserves to rot in hell, and I would happily send him if Pres hadn’t said no.”

Jameson’s red-rimmed eyes turn to Gabe. “We’re fucking blood. You and me. I don’t count Thomas as my blood after everything he did. But you and me, we’re real family. We should’ve fucking killed him when we had the chance. We owed it to them to avenge their deaths. If we had, this wouldn’t be an issue.”

“I had my reasons. And like it or not, I’m still the goddamn President of this club. I make the decisions,” Gabe yells. “You think I didn’t want to kill him the moment I saw him? I see Maggie’s face—the blood on her shirt, in her hair—as she laid there dead in my lap in the middle of the fucking road. Every. Fucking. Night. But Thomas is somehow connected to Eleanor and Cusenza, and I want them just as bad for the part they played in fucking up our lives. My wife. My daughter. They deserve to be avenged, I agree. But we don’t even know if Thomas was fully responsible or if he was just another fucking pawn in the grand scheme of things.”

“And you’re forgetting the other piece of this puzzle.” Gabe leans his elbows on the table, gripping his head in his hands, then scrubbing them down his face. “My mother,” Gabe says softly. “How do I kill my brother? My blood. Her son. Without being one thousand percent sure that he was the one who did all this shit? What if it was Nate, like Thomas said? What if someone else made it appear to be Thomas calling the shots? And I kill him? And I’m fucking wrong. How do I ever hug my mother again?” Gabe’s voice cracks ever so slightly, but I hear it. “So no, Jameson. I hadn’t killed him yet, because I have to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was Thomas’s fault before I put a bullet between his eyes and have to face my mother with his blood on my hands.”

The room is damn near silent, thick with tension and regret. We’re all wound tight and pissed as shit. There’s no good response to what both Gabe and Jameson are saying. They’re both right. If Thomas is at fault he deserves to pay, but without solid, indisputable proof, Gabe can’t, in good conscience, order him to death.

I clear my throat and raise my hand to speak.

“Kayce has always been a loyal friend to me. He wouldn’t double-cross me or use me to pay his debt. He may be an asshole, but he’s loyal to his core. He’s never let a brother down. He’s not like me.”

Jake looks at me suspiciously. “What do you mean? Who’d you leave behind?” he asks.

“Everyone. Kayce and I were on several missions together. We lost a lot of our men. I lost my wife. And when I got home and realized the devastation my job had caused not only for myself but for the families of all those who died beside me, I left it all behind. Kayce, Tate, Angie, all of it. I let them all down. I gave up. Not Kayce.” I explain further. “He tried to get me to come back to work for him. To continue to fight the good fight, only with no strings attached. We could pick our own missions. Get paid what we wanted. Same old shit, but on our terms. But I didn’t want that life anymore. I found the club instead.”

“If he’s such a great friend, and you trust him, then reach out to him. Get Kayce to come here and let us see for ourselves that he’s not the person who’s fucking around with the club,” Mack suggests.

“Do it, Dec. I want to talk to him. And afterward, I want a sit down with Parisi,” Gabe agrees.

“I’ll get on it, Pres.”

“Now, what are we doing about this dirty ass cop and your ol’ lady?” Gabe switches subjects and again, all eyes are glued to me. “And what do we have on the guy we found snooping around in her apartment?”

There’s a rumble of curses throughout the room.

“The intruder wore a mask, so I didn’t get any hits on facial recognition, but he’s definitely not the husband,” Hawk says.

“How can you be sure?” I ask.

“A cop would be more strategic about breaking and entering. If he’s looking for something specific and wanted it to look like a random robbery, most likely he’d tear shit up to scare Violet. Obviously, the asshole has a mean streak a mile fucking wide.” He looks up at me, regret on his face. “I pulled some of her records once I cracked the fucking virus I found on my laptop. He used Violet as a punching bag on a pretty regular basis.”

“And no one ever reported this fuck?” Mack growls. “Who the hell is he that the law he works for won’t even reprimand him? He’s meant to protect and serve, not abuse and torture.”

“Easy, Mack,” Gabe urges. “He’ll get his dues, but first we need to make sure Violet and the kid are safe and taken care of.”

“I’ve got that covered,” I assure them.

Gabe smiles at me. “I’m sure you do, but they’re family now, which means she’ll be getting a whole lot more than just your big ass watching over her.”

The room fills with chuckles and whispered comments.

“So, what do we know about the guy who broke in?” I turn the conversation back to Hawk. I need to know who I’m hunting.

“Not much. He seems more like a stalker or admirer than a robber. He was touching her things like they were precious to him. Smelling her perfume. Sniffing her undergarments.” A deep growl rumbles in my chest.

“Looks like I’m killing two fuckers.” I mean to say it to myself, but Caleb hears me and chuckles.

“How about we don’t start counting body bags just yet, huh? You might scare the poor girl away if she sees this side of you too soon,” he says.

“She could try to run. But I’d find her ass and drag her back,” I tell him, my voice like steel. “I’m not letting them go. Violet and Carter are mine. End of.”

“Is there anyone else who could be looking for her? What about the bikers from Baron’s Edge? Do we have an ID on them yet?” Gabe’s putting it all out there for my brothers. All the shit I’ve been keeping to myself. I can feel the air thicken as they all stare at me for explanations. We’ve had a lot of secrets come to light here lately, and I’m sure finding out I’ve been keeping shit to myself will not go over well.

“Fuck.” I breathe. “I don’t have a definite answer, no, but I have an idea.”

“Go on, share with the class,” Jameson taunts.

“Violet said Swanson was working for someone else. Someone higher up. They wanted to frame Parisi to get him out of the way. Then Violet’s doctor friend and Kayce were working to shut down a trafficking ring. Kayce intercepts cargo containers full of women and young children, and the doctor helps fix them up and get them settled,” I explain. “A group of bikers roughed up the doctor to send a message to Kayce to stop fucking with their business.”

“And you think this is all connected … how?” Ethan asks, his eyes bouncing between me and Pres. Pres nods, giving me the go ahead to voice what we’ve discussed.

“I think it’s all connected to Marco Cusenza.” No sooner do the words leave my mouth, the room erupts in people shouting.

“Fuck!”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“How? What’s the connection?”

Everyone’s voices sound off at the same time with questions and curses, all pissed off and ready to tear shit apart.

Gabe slams the gavel against the table shouting at everyone, “Calm the fuck down.”

We’re all settling back into our seats when Pres’s phone rings. He pulls it from his pocket and checks the screen. Normally we wouldn’t pay attention to our phones in church, but with everyone on high alert and Thomas on the loose, it could be one of the prospects or Garrison with pertinent information.

Gabe puts the call on speaker.

“Yeah,” He answers.

“Gabriel.” Vincenzo Parisi’s voice comes over the line and everyone in the room goes still.

“Speak of the devil and he will appear,” Hawk mumbles quietly. Gabe glares at him, telling him to shut up. Hawk shrugs, not fazed by Gabe’s irritation.

“Vincenzo,” Gabe says, his tone flat. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Vincenzo chuckles on the line. “Hmm. Not sure you would consider a call from me a pleasure, but I figured since you were less than pleased last time I came to see you and didn’t announce my intentions, I would give you the slight courtesy this time.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m going to be at your gate in five minutes. Instruct your men to let me through. We have important matters to discuss.” That’s all he says, then hangs up.

“Fucking hell!” Gabe shouts. “Get me a prospect on the line, now.”

Hawk dials Mason and puts him on speaker. “Yes, sir.”

“Mason, Vincenzo Parisi is on his way here. Let his car pass when he arrives.”

“Yes, sir.” He hangs up.

“For my sanity’s sake, someone go get me a fucking drink,” Gabe groans.