Page 68 of The Kings of Kearny

“Let me send a few Specters with you,” Liam said, voice low. At that moment he didn’t look like one of the most dangerous men in the state; he looked like any anxious father might when their kid was heading into trouble.

“And have someone say I can’t fight my own battles without my father backing me up? Pass,” Jakob said. “Plus this is Kings business. Let us try to handle it first.”

Here again was the reminder of past military experience. We’d been taught from day one of basic training to handle all our problems at the lowest level possible. One of your fellow soldiers being an asshole to you? Find a way to get them to stop. Only if you can’t do that do you bother your sergeant with your bullshit.

Liam nodded, still tense. “You’ll keep me in the loop though?”

Jakob shot him a sideways look. “As long as you promise to stay out of it until I ask for help.”

The tension finally broke as Liam grinned. “I promise.”

An hour later, Jakob and I climbed into a nondescript minivan that had been gathering dust in the Larsons’ oversized garage. The Mustang was great if you wanted to get somewhere fast, but it had limited trunk space and no air-conditioning, and today was supposed to top out near one hundred degrees. While I’d spent more time with Gran, Jakob and Liam loaded up the van. Afterward, they switched out the license plates on it, and miracle of miracles, I managed to keep my nosy mouth shut instead of asking why.

I tugged my seat belt on and glanced into the rear of the van as Jakob drove us down his parents’ long dirt driveway. The back seats were folded into the floor, and a stack of oversized duffel bags full of God knew what sat behind us. I lifted my gaze to the side panels. Several circular metal patches stood out against the paint. The longer I stared at them, the more I began to suspect that they covered up bullet holes. Beneath them, a white spot smeared across the carpet in the way back. It looked like someone had dumped a gallon of bleach there to get rid of a bloodstain.

Please don’t let us get pulled over,I prayed. The only thing that could make this thing look more suspicious was a Free Candy sign plastered over the side of it.

“What’s with the bags?” I asked.

“Killing two birds with one stone,” Jakob said. “We’re going into Kearny. We might as well drop some shit off for my father.”

So, guns or drugs or some other illegal Specter/King business then. I turned back around and watched the flowing field of grass out my side of the window. Part of me had been worried that the duffels were full of weapons for us. I’d been with Gran and Jennifer while Jakob and Liam made a game plan for today, and I was still clueless as to what we’d be doing in Kearny. Spying on Magnolia Hills? Tracking down the assholes who put Dr. Perez in the hospital?

Jakob’s phone rang, and he lifted it from the cup holder between us and brought it to his ear. “Where is he?” he asked, not even bothering to say hi.

I could barely hear the muffled answer, let alone make out the words.

Jakob frowned. “We’ll be in Kearny in an hour. Let me know if he moves before then.” With that, he hung up.

“Let me guess. That was the King you have watching Magnolia?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No. The person I put on Redding. He’s over in Weyhome now.”

I frowned, absorbing the news. “Isn’t Weyhome where the Jokers are from?”

“Yeah, and he just walked into their clubhouse. Motherfucker isn’t even trying to be circumspect.”

“Is the person you have tailing him going to be safe there?”

“She’s ex-HUMINT,” he said. “She’ll be fine.”

HUMINT was short for human intelligence, the military’s version of spies, people who went into enemy territory and blended in with the locals, all so they could feed information back to headquarters. Spying on a rival motorcycle gang would be a walk in the park for a woman with that kind of background, and I relaxed a little into my seat as we made our way up the drive.

“So, what are we going to do?” I asked.

“We’re going to go drop this shit off,” Jakob said, thumbing toward the duffels in the back. “And then we’ll wait to hear where Redding heads after he leaves Weyhome.”

“Are we going after him?” I asked.

Jakob shook his head. “Not yet.”

I turned back toward the window, mulling everything over. Something about this whole situation felt just a little... off, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. My mind kept circling back around to Daniel King. Why was Jakob so focused on Redding instead of him? I hated enigmas, and Daniel King was a giant one dressed up in leather. One minute he breaks into Jakob’s apartment and makes cryptic comments and the next, he’s slapping him on the back at the bar. Then he’s bitching Jakob out over the phone, and just a few hours later, he’s acting all buddy-buddy at a party. His abrupt shifts in behavior were bizarre. Unsettling. Jakob said nothing the man did ever made sense to anyone else, and now I wondered why. Was Daniel King just paranoid? A mastermind? Or a fucking whack job?

Even with the mounting evidence against him, Jakob hesitated to condemn the man last night, and God only knew what he’d told Liam while I’d been with Gran. I couldn’t wrap my head around Jakob’s reactions. It seemed so obvious to me that Daniel King was involved. The man had served with Redding, and now here Redding was, working for the Jokers to destabilize Kearny.

Daniel Kinghadto be working with him. Maybe he was sick of heading a subchapter of the Specters, beholden to Liam. Maybe he wanted to lead his gang without any oversight. Of course he wouldn’t tell Jakob about what he was up to; Liam was his dad. Of course he’d bitch Jakob out for getting involved; he was probably scared Liam was going to find out about his treachery. So why was Jakob giving him the benefit of the doubt? Why was he so goddamn loyal to a man who treated him like absolute shit?

I wanted to turn to him and demand answers, but if my past inquiries had taught me anything, it was that Jakob clammed right up every time I mentioned his evil overlord.

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