Page 56 of Ride Forever
“Just what we need,” someone muttered. “Another secret fucking past.”
“Fortitude is a family,” Chaser stated. “ThisFortitude. And true family doesn’t keep secrets.”
I smiled up at him, proud of his strength and resolve to stand up to these men. This story wasn’t about me. It never was. It was about Chaser. I was just lucky to be a part of it.
“Before I came to Fortitude, I was an FBI agent.”
The room erupted, and several guys stood, including Ratchet.
“What?” he exclaimed. “Are you fuckin’ serious?”
“I was an FBI agent, but the system screwed me over,” Chaser went on, holding up his hand. “I was working undercover in the Hollow Men’s ranks, but they worked out who I was…and kidnapped my wife.” Several men sat down at this, their faces turning white, and several pairs of eyes glanced at me. “They refused to help, so in a moment of desperation, I went to Marini. That turned out to be a stupid idea because he did shit…” He took a deep breath. “I stood before King and pleaded for her life, but he killed her anyway. I was stuck. The FBI hung me out to dry, and Marini forced me into paying a contract he deliberately never fulfilled, so I shut down. I killed for him. No one ever confirmed it, but you all knew who I was. I was the Fortitude hit man. The shit kicker. I did it because I had nothing else. Everything was taken away from me…” Chaser glanced at me. “Until I met Sloane.”
I flushed as I felt the entire roster of Fortitude MC turn and stare.
Chaser swallowed hard before he continued. “After I came to Fortitude, I forgot about the revenge I wanted for my wife. I forgot what it felt like to have someonecare. I relished the kill. I liked not being able to feel the pain anymore. I was broken…until Sloane put me back together. So who am I? FBI? Assassin? Biker? Fucked if I know.” He shook his head. “But what I do know is how to fight, so that’s what I’m going to do. Now I fight for Sloane. I fight for Fortitude. And I fight, not only for my forever but yours. The Hollow Men are going down. Rocket and the renegades are going down. And I’m going to make King suffer for what he did to my wife and for what he’s threatened to do to Sloane. He’s going choke on his own blood just like Madison did.”
The room was silent for so long I couldn’t tell which way things were going to fall. The mention of the law had put everyone on edge, but the fire in Chaser’s eyes when he vowed the ultimate revenge was chilling. I knew what he was capable of, but these men didn’t. He’d kept himself apart for years, hiding his true nature, but now it was all coming out.
“We’ve tried to do it on our own, but we failed. That’s why I’m asking,” he went on. “We can’t take these sons of bitches down without you.”
The bikers glanced at each other as if they were deliberating telepathically. There was so much I still didn’t understand about biker code of conduct. Fortitude was a democracy now, but that didn’t mean they would help us because Gasket said so.
Please, please, please…I crossed my fingers and my toes.
“Then let him choke,” Hopper said, rising to his feet. “No one threatens a member of Fortitude and gets away with it.”
“Let him choke,” Spike said, adding his voice.
“Let the motherfucker choke!” Ratchet shouted.
One by one, the men of Fortitude MC stood, adding their consent, thumping their feet on the ground. I slipped my hand into Chaser’s as I rose.
“You’ve got a way with words,” I murmured into his ear.
He grunted and leaned into me.
“This is the job to end all jobs,” Gasket said. “The Hollow Men and their Hollow Riders are our enemies. They threaten not only our lives but the lives of those we love. That shit doesn’t fly in my club.”
“I’ll say,” Ratchet drawled.
“So how are we going to take down these assholes?” Watts asked. “They’re out of our league. This is mafia shit, man.”
“We’ve got an ex-FBI agent on our crew,” Hopper said, glancing at Chaser. “He’s got the training, right?”
Chaser nodded. “When I was undercover, one of my objectives was to obtain access to a server that held the Hollow Men’s operational data,” he explained. “It was always going to be a long shot, but by working my way up the ranks, they would’ve eventually trusted me, and then all I had to do was wait for my chance.”
“Computer shit?” Spike asked. “None of us know anything about servers or data.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Chaser said. “I’ll take care of it. I knew the encryption key was always held by King, and the passwords changed every thirty minutes, but I wasn’t able to confirm the rotation.”
“That was a long time ago,” Gasket said. “What makes you sure it’s still the same?”
King held an access key? I racked my brain, trying to remember everything I could about him from that interrogation room. His power had almost overwhelmed me, but I’d been lucid enough to study his appearance and stature.
“Wait,” I said. “What does this key look like?”
“It could be anything,” Chaser said. “With the advances in technology, it could be concealed in anything.”
