Page 40 of The Devil’s Escape (The Devil’s Soldiers #7)
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
HULK
Their audacity has no limits.
The divide in the room is clear, with the Misfits sitting close together at the end of the table, while we’re at the head.
My club welcomes me with smiles and claps on the shoulder, though that soon stops after the second wince of pain that causes.
“Shit, sorry, man,” Milk apologizes, dropping his hand quickly. “Just glad to see you’re back.”
“All good,” I assure him, sitting between him and Bowie. Bowie nods at me, but I can see something on his face that most might miss. His eyes hold mine for a second longer before he turns his focus back to Bullet, who has sat at the head of the table, silencing any chatter.
“Alright,” Bullet states firmly. “We have shit to figure out and?—”
“Sorry to interrupt, Bullet,” Arson suddenly interjects. “But it seems you have a couple of brothers who haven’t taken the time to attend Church.” He glances pointedly at the empty chairs that Stone and Shadow would have filled.
Bullet’s eyes narrow slightly at Arson’s implication. “They’ve been excused with permission from me,” he states simply.
“Really? You’re going to just excuse two men from attending Church at an important time?
” Silver snorts. “Or, what, you’re just expecting our club to pick up their slack?
” His eyes move over all of us. “Or are all of you just okay with two of your brothers leaving when we’re fighting against the Russians and expecting us to pick up their work too?
It’s a slap in the face to those of us that have been working our asses off to protect all of you and your club.
” There’s a round of low agreement from the loss of their brothers, with Arson being the only one silent.
Though his expression is clear enough that he agrees.
The audacity of the Misfits is unfathomable to me, though after what I heard, I can see why. They’re trying to drive a wedge. They’re trying to divide us until we finally crumble and give them what they want.
Our club. Our territory. And all the businesses that we’ve built.
They want it all. And they want to do it with Vlad and any of the other MCs he’s also working with.
I itch to call them all on it, but that’d be tipping our hand, and also possibly starting an internal war in this room where some of us might not make it out alive.
Our military training is helpful, but the Misfits are a wild bunch, and they’re unpredictable.
“I will gladly take up any extra work for my brothers,” Viper says calmly, and so simply, that it silences the Misfits.
“Just like I know the rest of us will as well.” All of us nod, and I can see Silver’s eyes flash, and his mouth pinch.
He’s not pleased that we’re taking the wind out of his argument.
“What could be more important than being here?” Arson asks simply.
“We don’t owe an explanation, Arson,” Sniper tells him coldly. “You know that. Their President has deemed it worthy of them being allowed to be out of Church tonight, and that’s where the question stops.”
“The fact that you’re daring to question me on it is an insult, Arson,” Bullet states harshly.
Arson’s face darkens, but he’s fighting to hold on to his anger and not cause everything to blow up in his face.
“Both their women are having trouble with their babies. Stone’s Old Lady may lose my first grandchild, and Shadow’s Old Lady is pregnant with twins and is high risk at the moment.
They’ve gone to be with their Old Ladies and will be back tomorrow, barring any major complications.
Or would you have rather I’d let them be distracted and worrying about their women and unborn children? ”
I look at Arson, and I can see that he’s trying to keep his expression stern, but Bullet’s answer has made him look like a complete asshole. “No, obviously not,” Arson says tightly. “I apologize if I’ve offended you, but I’m sure you can understand how we might look at it.”
“I see it as a blatant question of my leadership of this club,” Bullet snaps, letting just enough anger out to make his point.
“You and I will sort that out later, but right now, the only thing I want to focus on is our plans to find Vlad and take them out before they come after us. You’re on thin ice, Arson, and I’m about to send you and your men home because I’ve had about enough of your attacks and demands on how we run our club.
The only reason I haven’t before now is because of our alliance, and I understand that you want your shot at Vlad for what they’ve done to one of your men.
I’ve given you plenty of chances, and one more problem or question, and you can go home.
” He lets that sit for just long enough that we can all see the implications sink in for Arson and the rest of them.
“Let’s get back to figuring out where Vlad might be hiding.
” He looks at me. “Hulk, do you feel up to telling us what your thoughts on a few things might be?”
All eyes are on me. “I’ll tell you everything I can.”
Bullet nods. “Good. What do you remember from the night you were taken?”
“I remember Cobra and I were walking toward one of the locations that Sniper’s woman figured out.
When we reached it, I saw a door hidden in the side of the mountain.
I vaguely remember people walking out of it.
Two men, but it’s fuzzy. After that, I only remember turning my head to ask Cobra something, and he wasn’t there.
Then I got hit on the head, and it was lights out, and I woke up in Vlad’s cell.
” I look at Cobra, who is watching me with cool eyes.
“I’m sorry I didn’t hear anything, man.”
It’s a deliberate lie, but one that we have to keep going. We need them to think that I didn’t hear or see anything that involves their club.
“They caught me by surprise, too,” Cobra rasps with a nod. “I didn’t even have time to yell out. They must have had people watching for us.”
“That tracks, considering Vlad would have known that we found the other places,” Viper agrees.
“He’s not just going to let us waltz up to his operation, and his men are probably going to be making sure that they are on high alert and hiding to make sure we don’t get too close.
We’ve disturbed them enough already, and with Hulk getting out, Vlad is going to be even more careful than before. ”
“We need to figure out where Vlad is hiding. What does this have to do with Hulk being captured?” Silver asks, tone bored. “I mean, unless he outright told him, this is a waste of time. We need to make a plan.”
This asshole is pushing on my last nerve.
Instead of anyone answering him, Frost says, “We searched the place where we found Hulk, and most of it is only soldiers' quarters and a few cells and a kitchen. There are no offices, no rooms that make us think that it’s where Vlad or even Nikolai are in most of the time.”
“You think there’s a second place they’re using?” Viper asks.
Frost nods. “It makes sense that they want to keep things separate. They also seem to like to have one location as a decoy of sorts.”
“It also is the perfect setup, just in case the Feds or some enemy comes along to come after him, they’re out of the line of fire,” Bowie agrees with a nod. “The entire same method with their secret stash houses.”
“So, what, you think he has this other house that he’s staying in close by?
” Angel asks, leaning forward and bracing against the table.
He looks curious, like his mind is already going a mile a minute and trying to figure out what this might mean.
Or perhaps he’s wondering if this is a way for him to figure out what we know.
I don’t know if he’s the voice I heard in the hallway, but at this point, I can’t rule any of them out.
“It would be on brand from what we’ve seen,” Sniper agrees.
“What about the journals? Did your woman find anything that suggested there’s a second location?” Dozer, one of the Misfit’s Enforcers, asks.
“She’s not found anything that would suggest it, but she’s still working on things,” Sniper replies.
“She’s got about another five pages, but most of it is just scribbles and not really code.
It’s almost like things were added in later, but the writing is the same all the way through, so it looks like Bull was getting a bit sloppy toward the end. ”
“When shit was going down way back when, he probably was trying to find new locations and adding them in quickly so he didn’t forget about them,” Bullet suggests.
“What if the place that Vlad is staying in wasn’t an actual location in the beginning?
” Torque wonders. I look at him curiously, and I see Torque’s head tilted back, staring up at the ceiling, and I can see him thinking hard.
“What if when Dagger was dealing with Dmitri and gave him the journal in the first place, he told him about one of the locations that he knew was secluded enough for them to build on? It might have been part of his deal with Dmitri. Or, it could be that Dmitri found a spot and that’s why we don’t know about it.
It’s not in the journal because it’s not a place that Bull found, but Dagger did when he came back here. ”
“You’re giving this Dagger guy a lot of credit,” Whip, the Sergeant-at-Arms, remarks.
“I remember him,” Arson rumbles. “He was a sneaky fucker back then, so I’m not really surprised he was a traitor. He was a cocky prick too.”
“It’s been what, ten years since you last saw him?
” Sniper asks in annoyance. “He was a cocky prick then, but he grew out of it as he got older. Considering everything, it’s not surprising that he was able to hide shit as much as he did.
But there’s no point in looking at him because he’s dead. We made sure of it.”