Page 47

Dante

“Is that him?” Crash asked as we brought the bikes to a stop.

“That’s him,” Vienna confirmed, leaning forward to rest his arms over the handles of the bike. “They have him doing the same run every day.”

“What’s he doing?”

“Collect money as far as I can tell.”

“Here?” Zach asked incredulously. I understood.

We were on the outskirts of Leeds, which meant this was our patch.

The Rough Riders had no business dealing here, but they had slowly but surely crept closer and closer with their drugs.

It's not a business I liked fucking around with. But I understood drugs made the club a lot of money, so we kept it going, dealing here and there. We had been slack, probably not being as frequent as we should have been. Maybe this can be something Monster can take over now that he is a fully fledged member of the club. But that didn’t change the fact that right now, our customers had gone elsewhere, and the Rough Riders had been more than happy to pick up the slack.

“How many do they have?” I asked.

“A couple dozen,” Vienna replied with a twist of his lips.

“Shit,” I spat. “And they trust a prospect with that level of responsibility?”

“I guess they were hoping if the prospect got caught, we would assume they were acting without the president’s permission.”

Fucking hell. Our prospects didn’t so much as grab an extra pint from the bar without checking that they weren’t needed by Crash first. If the Rough Riders expected us to believe that one of their prospects was dealing hard core drugs without the president knowing, we may as well just declare all-out war now, because clearly they have no control over the club, if that was the case.

“How do you want to deal with this?” Zach asked.

“You two keep watch,” I said, nodding to Crash and Zach. “Ven, you flag him down. Ask him about scoring a deal. I’ll come out when he’s not expecting it and deal with it.”

Crash nodded his approval. I knew he wanted me to slowly start making the bigger decisions, so I hadn’t run this past him beforehand.

Ven and I were more than capable of handling this alone, and it was clear to everyone that Ven would be the VP when I took to the head of the table.

We needed to do this without the other two.

“Sounds good to me, VP,” Zach said, and kick-started his bike, roaring off to keep a watch on the corner for any cops. Crash nodded his head at the both of us and sped off in the opposite direction. We’d meet up with them when this was over.

“Ready, Ven?”

“See you soon, brother,” he grinned, shrugging off his patch and handing it to me. He left his bike next to mine as he set off on foot to speak to the prospect.

I watched from the shadows as Ven approached the prospect and spoke to him. They were both looking around, making sure no one was listening in, until finally, the prospect nodded, and they both headed in my direction.

“Who are you dealing for?” I heard Ven say, doing a brilliant job of twitching and fidgeting, as though he was strung out on a comedown.

“My boss prefers to stay anonymous.”

“I dunno, man. I’ve had some bad shit before. There are certain people I won’t deal with.”

The prospect laughed, looking Ven up and down. “I don’t really think you’re in a place to be picky. Beggars can’t be choosers.”

“Doesn’t Marius usually deal here?” He said, referring to one of the members of the Rough Riders.

“You know Marius?” The prospect asked in surprise.

“Look at me.” Vienna stopped and gestured up and down his body. “Does it look like this is my first hit?”

“I suppose not,” he grinned back. “Marius got a promotion. He’s in production now, that’s all I can say. I’m taking over for a while.”

“Production?”

“Trade secret,” the prospect said, tapping his nose.

“Is that so?”

I crept towards them as they continued talking, moving on to discuss how much Vienna wanted, and how often he was looking to buy.

I stuck to the shadows, keeping my head low.

If the prospect was to look up, he’d just see another man walking the streets.

As they rounded the corner to an alley, I picked up my pace, hearing the engines from Crash and Zach as they approached us, having kept an eye on us too.

They cut the engines short, and, still on the bikes, scooted them over to the exits of the alley.

The prospect didn’t so much as look up. He was so confident that the Rough Riders would keep him protected, it didn’t even occur to him to be concerned about the roar of motorbikes that could be heard. He probably thought it was his own brothers.

I walked over to them, nodding at Ven as I came to stand at the prospect's back.

“Rider,” I said, making him almost jump a mile in the air.

I grabbed him, wrapping my arm around his mouth as my hand clamped around his neck.

In one quick move, the knife came out of my pocket, and I sliced his throat, holding him tight and steady as he thrashed against me.

As he stilled, I lowered his body to the ground and cleaned my knife on his patch.

“Ven, dump him in the bins.”

“Got it, boss,” he said without hesitation. It was broad daylight, and whilst most people had the common sense not to go entering any alleyways in sketchy neighbourhoods, there was always some idiot with a big mouth just around the corner. We knew we didn’t have long to get the fuck out of here.

“I’m going to race to Greasy and get a change of clothes. I’ll meet you there.”

“I’ve got this,” he nodded. “Go.”

I spun on my heel and headed towards Crash.

“It’s done,” I murmured as I passed him without slowing my movement.

I handed him the knife in one smooth gesture and continued walking.

If I was caught with blood on me, at least they wouldn’t have the murder weapon.

If Crash was caught, at least he wouldn’t be covered in blood.

We both went in the opposite direction, knowing without saying a word that we’d catch up later.

It didn’t take me long to reach the Greasy.

We had a change of clothes in a shed at the back, so I quickly shrugged out of my clothes, bagged them up, and sent a text to James and Shawn to come and collect them.

They were the last two remaining prospects until Noob decided what to do, and they knew the protocol well.

They’d get this sorted – probably more efficiently than usual, since they knew all eyes were on them with Monster being promoted and Noob having fucked up.

As I pushed my way into the cafe, I cursed under my breath, noting that Spunky and Beth were already here, and they looked pissed.

“What can we do you for, VP?” Spunky said, stressing the ‘VP’.

“You finally decided to shift your bony ass and prop up the bar somewhere else?” I said to her, eyeing her in disgust.

“There’s a more welcoming atmosphere here.”

“Oh good, you’re getting the message then. I was beginning to think you’d never click on. Two beers, Beth.”

Spunky had been hanging around the club for years now.

It was her hope that if she slept with enough of us, one of us would eventually make her an old lady.

None of us were that fucking stupid. We slept with the club whores because it was easy access at any time of the day, but none of us were even considering them as anything more than a quick fuck.

Spunky had become more and more a pain in the ass with every passing year. We kept her around because when push came to shove; she did as she was told. Especially because she knew I was sleeping with her sister, and she wouldn’t do anything to jeopardise her sister’s potential old lady status.

“We’re out of beers,” Beth said apologetically, just as Vienna walked into Greasy.

“Beth,” he said firmly. “Don’t fuck around when it comes to booze. Two beers.”

“You need your guard dog to speak for you?” She said, finally looking at me, a flash of hurt in her eyes that she quickly disguised.

“It’s been a long morning, Beth,” I sighed.

“Why don’t you have a beer at home with your old lady?” Spunky all but spat at me.

“Because I want one here. So I’m going to give you two choices. You give them to me, and Ven and I will sit in that booth over there and not bother you. Or, you don’t give them to me, and we come back here with the actual guard dogs and set them free on you two bitches. Your choice.”

“Typical,” Spunky coughed. “You’re not shit without your weapons and protection, are you, Da—” She didn’t get to finish. I shot out and backhanded her across the face hard enough to send her flying off her seat.

“Beers, Beth. Last time I ask.”

Spunky held her cheek and looked up at me, spitting at my feet. “Fuck him, Beth. You’re well rid of scum like that.”

“That’s enough,” Vienna snapped. He jumped over the bar, grabbed two beers, and handed one to me.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Beth hissed, stepping out of his way.

“This,” he grinned. He grabbed hold of one of the snooker cues off the wall – Beth always had them on the wall to make sure people paid for their games – and began smashing bottles one by one.

The girls screamed, ducking from the flying glass as he took long swings at all the bottles.

Some of them he hit one by one, others he got behind and swooped them all off the shelves in one smooth sweep.

He knocked the expensive liquor to the floor, smashed the taps off the bar, and didn’t give up until every last bit of alcohol was in a broken slop on the floor.

“Is there anything else you’d like to get off your chest, or are we free to enjoy our beers now?”

“You’re fucking insane!” Spunky spat.

Vienna hopped over the bar and crouched down low in front of her, resting his arms on his knees.

“Maybe so, princess. But do you know what else we’ve always been?

Loyal. Not once have we ever fucking turned you away, or been rude to you.

No matter how you acted, we protected you and stayed loyal to you.

And now you’ve fucked it,” Vienna said coldly.

“I’m sorry,” Beth said softly, looking down at the floor, refusing to meet our eyes.

“You should be,” I said coldly. “You still owe us payment from last month,” I reminded her. I had been on my way to collect payment when I had set sights on Rachel. “And it doesn’t look as though you’re going to be able to make payment this month, either.”

“Dante—” she began, worry flaring in her eyes.

She knew we didn’t give a shit about the money.

But for her, without us, it meant no protection.

The Rough Riders were known to hang about near here, too.

The only thing stopping them from coming into Greasy was that they knew we were never far away. “Look—”

“I’ve nothing more to say. I’ll ring you in a few days for the cash.

Your sister has made it more than clear we’re not welcome here anymore.

” I downed my beer and headed for the door.

“And Beth,” I said, pausing and throwing her a glance over my shoulder.

“You better have the money. Any agreement we had before is finished.”