Page 43 of Beast

“What did you find out about it?” Lars asks, instantly switching to business mode.

“It’s one hundred percent synthetic.”

“And the effects?” Gambit asks.

“Designed to mimic the real stuff but it’s unstable. The high won’t be as clean. Users can expect varying reactions.”

“Similar to what?” I ask, trying to gauge what we’re dealing with.

“If MDMA and GHB had a baby and dipped it in cocaine with a bump of meth, this is what it would look like. Users start to feel good, feel horny, get hard, then the nightmare kicks in, the agitation, the over confidence, the paranoia, followed by a plummet in mood and alertness. Finally, if they’ve consumed enough, their respiratory system fails and they die.” He puts the dish on the counter. “And if that’s not bad enough, it’s highly addictive. It makes heroin and meth look like nervous school kids.”

Fucking great.

“Has Bram been able to find anything that ties this to the Psychos?” Lars asks me. “My gut tells me they’re responsible, so it’s only a matter of time before he finds something.”

Fucking Psychos. I’m going to bring the hammer down on their drug trade and pulverize it until there is nothing left.

“Unfortunately, time is not something we have a lot of,” Opie says. “If this is out on the street, then we’re going to see more than one dead girl in an alley.”

I clench my fists, and I’m seeing red that someone is killing our townsfolk and using our logo to do it. There is a lot of trust behind that logo. A clean escape. A safe high.

“I’m calling Church,” I growl.

Gambit steps forward. “It’s Viper’s night. He needs this. They all do. And if war is coming, which it sounds like it is, then this might be the last night they get to enjoy for a while.”

I look at the dirty yellow powder. “We need to take action now.”

Lars frowns. “You want to take a battle to the Psychos tonight? You’ve got a bar full of half-cut bikers.”

“He’s right,” Gambit says. “Bear and Balls are already through a bottle of Jack each. And Sticky just fell down the stairs. Ain’t one of our brothers okay enough to take on the Psychos tonight. We need a plan as much as we need the brawn.”

“And right now we have neither,” Lars adds.

They’re right. As much as I want to storm the Psychos clubhouse and burn it to the fucking ground, this situation requires strategy.

“Okay, we let our brothers have tonight. But tomorrow, we take the next step.”

“Which is?”

“I don’t give a fuck how hungover everyone is, we’re going to spread far and wide until we find whoever is dealing this shit, and when we do, we’ll ever so politely make them take us to the source.” And byever so politely, I mean we’ll hang them over the side of Deadman’s Bridge by the feet until they give up the name.

Waiting goes against my better judgement. But I need the power of the club behind me. And right now, that power is three sheets to the fucking wind.

Tomorrow, I’ll call Church.

We need to get this shit off our streets and I will stop at nothing to make it happen.

CHAPTER 17

BELLE

“So,you’re the reason my cousin has been sneaking out at night.”

The voice comes from behind me, and when I turn around, I come face to face with Annika. Up close she is even more beautiful. But her icy blue eyes are hard and suspicious as she looks at me.

“I’m Belle, it’s nice to meet you.”

She offers me a closed-lip smile, but there is no warmth to it. “It’s true then? You and Beast are a thing?”

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