Page 51 of The Devil’s Escape (The Devil’s Soldiers #7)
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
HULK
Utter chaos and confusion.
I’m not entirely surprised when I find that it’s not just Bullet waiting for me but Sniper, King, Torque, Viper, Bowie, and Frost. “Who’s watching the Misfits?” I ask as I shut the door behind me.
“We’ve got Titan, Carson, and Timber all down there now,” Bullet replies. “They’re doing a lot of screaming and yelling, but it’s a mix of at us and at each other. We took all their phones and anything else they could possibly use to get a message out or call anyone. We can’t take the risk.”
Perfect segue into what I need to tell them.
“I heard something earlier that I need to tell you about. I couldn’t mention it earlier because of Church and then all the shit that happened.
” I quickly recount the conversations I heard when I was in the stairwell, and I see the tension increase on my brothers’ faces.
Yeah, they don’t like any of it either. “Looks like we definitely have a traitor in our own club.” I glance around at everyone in front of me.
I trust every single one of them, so I know I don’t have anyone to worry about, but the others, that’s a whole other story.
“Fuck, this is fucking bullshit,” Viper hisses, scrubbing a hand over his face angrily.
“So, one of our guys is working with Vlad to get us out of the way for the Misfits? What kind of fucking bullshit is this? How can this be happening? After Dagger, all of this shit was supposed to be put to rest so we could focus on going after Vlad without worrying about our own backs being stabbed.”
“So, who is left for us to look at?” Sniper asks.
“The only one who Cryos identified as being a possible problem is Kaleb because of a connection his brother has with some drugs and other shit going on. Everyone else has come up clean.”
“Kaleb hasn’t been in the clubhouse all day, and he’s not part of anything that would really give him access to what we’re doing.
Plus, we don’t share club business with the Prospects outside of what they need to know,” King points out.
“And Kaleb has been working his ass off to get his patch and I just can’t see the kid doing something to lose that. ”
“Even if Vlad was holding his brother over him?” Bowie asks.
King frowns at that, but he doesn’t argue, looking contemplative.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on him a bit more since Cryos brought it up,” Bullet announces, “but there isn’t much I can see that would make me think he’s part of this.
The kid works hard, keeps his head down, and he’s not showing up in places that he shouldn’t be, or acting like he’s listening in on things.
I also purposely had Shadow put him on certain rotations that would put him working closely with one of us, but around the Misfits at the same time, and he never so much as looks or talks to them.
Ace tried to talk to him once, and Shadow said he said he was patrolling and had no time for talking and walked away. ”
“Do we dare bring him in and ask him?” Frost wonders. “I can find out what he knows easily.”
“We’d risk being wrong and him upping and leaving, thinking that after all this time, we don’t trust him.
He’s been hurt taking care of our women, and that has to count for something,” Torque reminds us quietly.
“I trust my gut, and it is telling me that Kaleb isn’t part of this.
” He looks away, with a contemplative look on his face.
“Oh, I love it when Torque thinks,” King jokes. “Come on, big brother, get the gears turning in there and spit it out.”
Torque flips him off absently but doesn’t even look at him. Instead, he looks at Bullet and suggests, “What if all this shit is to take the heat off someone else?”
“What?” I ask, confused.
“Look, if we have a traitor in our midst, after everything that happened with Dagger and Matthew, then they want to make sure that they’re not going to be thought of twice.
Squeaky clean, but they know all of our histories.
Kaleb has mostly kept to himself, but he told me before that he had issues with his brother.
It could be that someone else overheard him mention it at some point, and they realized they had the perfect scapegoat.
The Prospect with a junkie brother? Perfect person to set up to take the fall and have us looking at him instead of inside our own men. ”
“It would make sense,” Bowie agrees. “None of us wants to think that one of our own is betraying us. So, you go after the younger members, or the Prospects. Or, if it’s one of the newer patched members, then you’re not stupid enough to try and frame a senior member.
You go after someone closer in rank to you, or under you. ”
“Cryos said that none of our own men have anything that would suggest they were working with the Misfits or Vlad,” Bullet states. “So either someone is really good at hiding something, or he knew that Cryos would look again and he made sure that there was nothing to find.”
“Cryos can find anything, so whoever it is has to know Cryos well enough to know what he’d be looking for,” Viper agrees. “Cryos mostly keeps to himself. Who hangs around with him?”
“He’s been talking and hanging out with Timber, Twigs, Milk, and Titan lately,” Viper answers after a moment’s thought. “Milk annoys the shit out of him to learn how to code and hack, but Cryos mostly ignores him.”
“You think Milk is using that to get close enough to see what Cryos is doing?” I ask, finally putting the puzzle together. Damn, I’m normally a lot faster at this shit. I don’t know if that’s the head injury or the fact that Avery fucked the brains right out of me. Either way, I need to focus.
“It’s possible. He’s often in Cryos’s space, bothering him, asking him questions. Cryos kicked him out the other day for daring to touch papers or something on his desk, and Milk’s been avoiding him since then.”
“We need to talk to Cryos,” Sniper agrees, looking at Bullet.
Bullet says nothing, his blue eyes cool and hard. I can’t make out what he’s thinking, but he’s not jumping at this, which sets my sixth sense going. What’s he thinking? What does he know that we don’t?
Finally, Bullet says, “Leave Cryos to me. Sniper, will Milk talk to you without being suspicious?”
Sniper’s eyes narrow slightly. “Yes, but what aren’t you saying?”
Bullet doesn’t answer for a moment, his eyes sweeping quickly over us, as if trying to decide whether to tell us something or not. Shit. Finally, he replies, “I have someone looking into Cryos.”
“Why?” King asks, sounding surprised.
“Because Cryos is the only one who hasn’t been looked at,” I state, catching on quickly to what Bullet is implying.
From the look of shock and then understanding on their faces, I think it’s dawning on the others, too.
“Cryos looks into us and everyone else, but he’s the only one that no one has ever questioned because we just inherently trust him. ”
“And who has better access to get information and skew it to throw us off his trail,” Bowie finishes. “Damn it, why did none of us think of that before?”
“You think he’s been working with Dagger this entire time?” Frost wonders.
“No,” Bullet finally says. “If anything, this is recent, if he’s involved at all.
I’m not saying it’s Cryos, but I got thinking and reached out to someone I know and trust with the skills to get past whatever firewalls and other computer shit that he has going.
I haven’t heard back from them, but I won’t assume that’s because of anything bad, but more that they have to take their time and be careful. ”
“Maybe we should prod them, considering what’s now going on,” Viper suggests grimly. “Especially now with the Misfits about to be a major pain in the ass.”
Bullet nods. “I’ll nudge them, but I won’t rush something.
For now, we act as if Cryos is on our side and not involved.
Too many variables are going on here, and we need to be smart and careful.
I know in my gut that Vlad is going to strike soon, and we need to be ready for that, but keep an eye on our own backs.
Shadow and Stone are both on their way back now, and when they get here, we’ll be back up to full speed. ”
“Both of them are going to shit bricks when they find out everything that’s been going on,” Viper predicts.
“I’ve been keeping them apprised,” Bullet assures him. “They know what they’ll be walking back into.”
“Have you heard how their women are? And Macy?”
“Shadow said Macy is alright—just scared. Peyton’s friends are going to stay with the family and act as guards until we get everything here sorted out.
Macy’s resilient and already taking bribes from the guys for her pictures,” Bullet adds with an amused smile.
“Pretty sure that one’s going to be a hustler the minute she’s old enough to understand what it means.
As for Syn, she’s been cleared and the hospital sent her home.
She’s on bed rest for a few more days, but the baby’s heartbeat is strong and there are no signs she might miscarry.
Brady and Carter Lane have called in help from some of her former Fed clients to keep an eye on her.
They’re playing this off as someone trying to eliminate anyone connected to a local Fed case that unfolded in her area during her time there—and the Feds seem to be buying it. ”
“At least we know they’re all safe,” Sniper chimes in.
“Just a quick question, though, and don’t take this the wrong way,” Torque suddenly asks, “but if we’re worried that Cryos might be dirty, are we sure having this conversation in a clubhouse where he has numerous cameras and audio equipment all over is a good idea?”
Shit.