Page 22

Sypher

July 22, 2024, New York City,

After that fateful day when Dante walked back into my life, I didn’t waste time before buying my own place, because there was no fucking way in hell I would ever allow my brother to walk in on us again. Once was bad enough. As it was, Ace still couldn’t look me in the eyes.

Fucking pussy.

I also made damn sure Dante knew who wore the fucking pants in our relationship, because I gave him no room to argue and had his apartment packed within days, which caused an argument he quickly lost. Now ensconced in my building that I anonymously purchased from Montana, which gave me the perfect view of Stone House from across Central Park. I couldn’t wait for him to learn that when he looked out his bedroom window at night, he would see me staring right back at him.

It was the little things that made me happy.

While I continued to plan and gather information that would help bring down Pandora and the Trick Pony, Reaper took the Golden Chair back and Remi returned home. Now that she was secure, my plan was a go, and everything was slowly falling into place.

A few days ago, Reaper informed me he got word that Devlin Scott was in Destiny, California. Upon confirming this, I promptly dispatched my brother and his team to guarantee the man never saw daylight again. With Devlin Scott now dead, there was nothing to stop me from enacting part two of my plan. The problem was, I could only get access to the Trick Pony’s lesser files and, while those were incriminating enough, it wasn’t enough.

I needed concrete proof, a smoking gun I could deliver into the FEDs fucking hands that would ensure they wouldn’t overlook what I fucking knew they already suspected and did absolutely nothing to investigate. I also needed to ensure that both clubs survived and stayed off the FEDs radar if my plan failed. To make matters worse, the ghost files Pop left behind were revealing what I had already suspected.

The Golden Skulls and the Soulless Sinners were connected.

In fact, they were the same damn fucking club. But more importantly, the blood connection between the two stubborn presidents would blow the lid off everything and ruin all my plans if they found out before they were both on the same page. I needed both Montana and Reaper to take down Pandora, whoever the hell she was, because I fucking knew when she learned what I had planned, she would come for me and make it her life’s mission to kill me.

Which was something else I had to prepare for.

What I also knew about the bitch was she was the true mastermind behind everything, the Society , the pedophile farms, the war between the clubs, the Trick Pony, everything. She was also the cunt who tortured and raped Dante.

For that alone she would die, if it was the last thing I ever did.

But before I could allow that to happen, I needed to get into that fucking off-site military installation because I knew the fucking bitch wouldn’t think twice before ordering their deaths.

There were so many moving parts, at times it felt like my head was spinning. It wasn’t easy keeping everyone’s secrets. Bad enough I was keeping pertinent information from Reaper, but it was the only way, until I could firmly answer every question both of them would inevitably throw at me, because when the time came, what I had in my head was the only thing that would save me.

Groaning, I sat up, wiping my hands down my face when I heard a knock at the door. Getting up, I trudged over to it and flung it open, only to stumble back several steps before falling on my ass in shock.

“What the fuck?!” I roared, blinking several times, trying to get my head to assimilate who I was seeing.

I mean, logically I fucking knew.

I knew from the moment I breached Pop’s ghost files, but it was an entirely different thing to see with my own eyes.

The last time I saw her, I was barely twelve. My mom and dad were still alive, and I was oblivious to everything around me.

Yet, there she stood, smiling down at me, her hand extended.

“Wow, you grew up, Danny.”

Reaching for her hand, I scrambled to my feet and sneered, “What the hell are you doing here, Tyrant? If anyone were to recognize you, everything we’ve worked for would go to shit.”

“Yeah, well about that,” Mia, Reaper’s half-sister, Ghost’s dead wife and mother to Rebekah shrugged. Mia was shot in the crossfire when Darrin Reynolds walked into the California clubhouse, crazed out of his fucking mind, demanding Remi back. In the end, Remi emptied a clip into the motherfucker, killing him, and the club rushed Mia to the hospital where Healer, the club’s former doctor and Society sympathizer, informed the club she had died on the table.

How she survived was still a mystery, but knowing Mia, it was a story all on its own.

“The plans have changed. They sent me here to break the news. They thought seeing me would soften the blow, so to speak.”

Mia Caroline Doherty was respectively the biggest pain in the ass around. The stubborn woman refused to listen to anyone and created trouble everywhere she went. Hence the club name, Tyrant. Yet, looking at her now, I could see something different about her. A strong resignation that solidified her resolve.

“They need you to move up your infiltration timeline. They need her out of that facility immediately.”

“Why? What happened?” I stiffened.

There was no fucking way.

It was impossible.

I didn’t have nearly enough information yet, plus the teams weren’t ready.

“We got word that George Stone contacted one of his sons before he died and ordered him to finish everything. Don’t know what he meant by that, but it can’t be good.”

Marching over to my computers, I sat. “Do you know which son?”

“Yeah, about that. When Max finds out, he’s gonna fucking go postal.”

“Who?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at her.

“Dakota Stone.”

“Oh shit,” I groaned, sighing as I slumped back in my chair. Out of all George Stone’s sons, Reaper hated Dakota the most because that stupid fucker laid hands on Remi when she was at her most vulnerable.

“Exactly,” she said, reaching behind her, removing a file before handing it to me. “So, I’m here to help you do damage control. That’s everything we know about Dakota Stone. If you can’t stop him, Danny, they want her contained by any means necessary before Dakota learns where she’s at. Because if he gets to her before we do, he will use her and force the Bloodletter to choose a side, and you don’t need me to tell you what that means.”

No, I didn’t.

From the moment I learned she was alive and well in the off-site military facility, I started creating a timeline of sorts leading up to her supposed death. From what I could gather, shortly after Bullseye left for the Marines, Jekyll and Vain, brothers in the Black Vultures MC, kidnapped his mother. Only they didn’t kill her like everyone believed. Instead, they handed Donna off to Reed Scott, who whisked her away to the undisclosed military facility. Their plan was to use Donna to infiltrate the Russian Bratva and bring her brother Maxim to heel, but Bullseye’s mother flat out refused. For years they tried to break her, but the woman never uttered a single word, no matter what they did to her. As far as I knew, she hadn’t spoken a single word since her abduction.

Looking at the file, I muttered, “And he’s okay with that?”

“Fuck no,” Mia snarked. “He’s fucking losing his goddamned mind. For years we’ve tried to get her out of there, and every time we’ve failed. We can’t get past the fucking gates before the place goes into lockdown. They know we know she’s there, and the motherfuckers laugh their asses off every time we fail.”

“Well, I hate to pile on, but the team isn’t ready. Like you, we still haven’t found a way in yet. That facility is a fucking fortress. I can’t find a way around the biometrics to get into the building.”

“Well, maybe these will help,” she said, placing two small glass containers on my desk.

Gulping, I scooted back as I stared at the eyeball and severed finger.

In a shocked tone, I asked, “What the fuck, Mia?! Who?”

Mia grinned evilly and said, “Don’t ask. It will give you nightmares. Let’s just say he no longer has need of either of those.”

Shivering, I just nodded.

The woman was fucking scary.

“So, where’s the little man?” Mia asked, looking around my new place.

“Out getting shit for Danika’s room. He wants everything ready for when we bring her home.”

“Place is a bit high class, isn’t it?”

“Dante has specific tastes.”

“I see that,” she said, picking up a cashmere throw pillow before putting it back exactly as she found it. Leaning against the couch, she asked, “Tell me the truth, Danny. How do you really feel about all of this shit, Dante, the kid, everything?”

Taking a deep breath, I turned in my seat and sighed. “I don’t really know. I haven’t had time to stop and think about it. I know Dante is mine. Every time I look at him, he makes everything better. He makes me happy, and can we just agree that I really haven’t been happy in years? I can be myself with him, and he accepts me, flaws and all. I’m not perfect, and he knows that. He gets me while others don’t.”

“And his daughter?”

“Never thought about being a father, but she’s half Dante and looks exactly like him. God, Mia, they are the spitting image of each other. The second I saw her little face, I never felt anything so primal, so feral before in my life. I can’t really explain it, but that little girl is mine and nothing, no one, will stop me from returning her to Dante. She belongs with us.”

Mia smirked. “So, you planning on making the city your home, or are you going to take the little family back to the sticks?”

“I can work anywhere, you know that, but with Dante in the Soulless Sinners and the table right here in the city, along with the majority of my clients, it seemed easier to make roots here. I know my family won’t like it, but I’ve made my decision and I’m happy with it.”

“Babe!” I heard Dante shout as he walked in the front door, loaded down with bags. “You would not believe what I got for our little girl. I swear I bought out FAO Shwartz. They had the most amazing—”

Stopping dead in his tracks, Dante dropped his bags and stared blankly at the woman next to me.

“Dante, this is Mia Doherty or Tyrant as the club calls her. She was just leaving. Weren’t you, Mia?”

Mia shrugged, walking toward the door, only to stop next to Dante.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Dante.”

He gulped when she leaned closer and grinned.

“Be a sweetheart and pass along a message for me, will you? Tell him his little nightmare is ready to play.”

With that, Mia kissed Dante’s cheek, laughing happily as she left me alone with my scared and unmoving lover.

Getting to my feet, I stared at Dante, who hadn’t moved from his spot. “How do you know Mia?”

“I don’t. We haven’t met formally.”

“She seems to know you.”

He nodded almost imperceivably. “Why was she here?”

Cocking my head to the side, I deflected and asked my own question, “What are you hiding, Dante?”

Snapping out of whatever daze he was in, Dante spun around and headed for the door.

“Where the hell are you going?”

“Clubhouse. Mercy called me.”

Before I could call him out on his lie, he bolted, slamming the front door as he rushed from the apartment.