Page 29 of B-ry
“I was made. They drugged me and I was held captive and tortured for days. They knew who I was, well, who I was with really. They knew I was a member of the Steel Paragons. That part still baffles me. I think there is something I’m missing but I haven’t been able to figure it out. Anyway.” He took in a deep breath then carried on. “I managed to escape. I later found out that the men that had taken me were taken out after I’d gotten out. But the leader, Keften Jugovac, had managed to flee before Hunt and Silas were able to get to him.”
Interesting.
I wouldn’t have doubted the club called in the Hunter when they felt they had exhausted all their resources to find Bocca. But the Silas thing threw me. Why had they called in a contract killer? It made sense, sure. I wanted those fuckers dead too. But as a club, that wasn’t really how we handled things. We had always been more hands-on and make sure the job got done types. Fuck with one of us, you fuck with us all. And you for damn sure will pay the price for it.
I wanted to ask but decided it was best to bite my tongue for the moment.
Then Bocca broke into his nerd side, going on about Keften Jugovac and how he was a small time skin-trader that seemed to be trying his best to grow.
That last part didn’t surprise me. Sick fuckers always got greedy. It was never enough for them and once they figured out how easy it was to snatch and sell, well, all they had to do was expand their clientele. Made me fucking sick. And to think that all that shit happened to Bocca and none of us fucking knew about it.
I couldn’t tell what I was more pissed off about, the fact that they kept this shit to themselves or that this guy was still out there. Well, clearly it was the latter because that was worse. But I couldn’t deny that my trust had been shaken a bit. Not in my own chapter though.
If I took a step back I would have seen that I was being a hothead and getting pissed off when it was obvious that they were just trying to do what they thought was right. It was true what he’d said about us. We were still new and working on getting our legs under us. We had a lot more to deal with here on the coast and were still currently working that all out. We not only took in the majority of the merchandise that the club traded off, but we held and worked the deals with the other outlaws here in town.
“I want you to look into this too,” Bocca said pinning Cable, our resident nerd, with a hard stare. “Maybe you can find something.” Bocca shook his head like he was at a loss with this whole search thing.
“Yeah, got it,” Cable answered sitting a little straighter. There was something that made him seem like a little puppy that had been thrown a bone at that moment.
“The rest of you,” Axe said stepping up and taking over again, “I want you to be on the lookout. Before, Keften seemed like he kept his business close. His dealings were with local people. But with the huge dent we’ve put in his operation, I wouldn’t doubt it if he turned to other avenues. You have the port here. Keep your eyes open is all I’m sayin’.”
“You got any indication that he’s moved down here?” Iron asked as soon as it seemed like Axe was done talking.
“No,” Axe said. “There have been some tips… or what have you, that Bocca has received from some of his sources. There have been hints that Keften has popped up all over the lower east coast, but nothing concrete. Lucy is on this too and she hasn’t been able to find out much.”
“And not a single clue to how you were made?” Iron asked, his brows pinched together ever so slightly. Not like he was accusing Bocca though, more like he was trying to work it all out in his head.
The man was one that had to have all the information, had to be able to see everything from every possible angle there could have been. He didn’t like surprises and I wouldn’t doubt he was feeling much the same as I was at the moment. A little bit hurt that we’d been left out and a little bit pissed that it had taken this long to find out.
“No,” Bocca said then let out a sad almost frustrated sigh like he was pissed that he didn’t have the first damn clue as to how it had happened. “I keep going over it and over it. I didn’t know anyone there, not personally. And these are the types of people that don’t really pay attention to uslow-level biker types. I went in barely looking like a biker anyway. Everything I worked out to get myself in was good, no one could have traced that back to me. The only people that knew were the club and Lucy.”
“Lucy?” Cable raised a brow then realized that he had said that out loud.
“Yeah, she was the one that brought the auction to my attention. She asked if the club could look into it. She didn’t have much and it was right when she was getting ready to take off on her honeymoon. I didn’t tell her that the club was a little shorthanded at the time because I didn’t want her to stay behind. That and I figured I could handle it by myself. I should have been able to…”
None of us said it, that question that lingered in the back of our minds. The one where we wondered if it was Lucy that could have been the slip. And it sucked to think that because she was pretty close to the club. She was also Axe’s old lady’s best friend from what I’d gathered. She was tight with us and I think we all trusted her. I know I did. Cable sure had a high respect for the woman. And it seemed like she and Bocca were super close. So I hated that that thought even flickered in my head.
And as quickly as it was there, I did my best to push it aside, because there was just no fucking way.
“There’s something I’m missing,” Bocca said, capturing my full attention again. “Or someone. I don’t know. But I’m going to figure it out.”
I had my doubts. If this person, as he thought it was, had been kept hidden this long, then it wasn’t like they were going to pop up out of nowhere. I mean, it seemed like they couldn’t even find this Keften Jugovac guy who happened to be the one that ran the thing.
This was all a mess. One that frustrated me but I sure as shit was going to take it seriously.
Axe waited to see if anyone else was going to say or ask anything. After a long silence rang out, he nodded for Iron to end the meeting.
We all headed down to the lounge and shared a few beers. Things weren’t as laid back and joking as they normally were and I could tell that the other brothers knew something was up. We’d fill them in later but now was not the time. I was sure Iron would want to have a meeting with just us before we revealed anything.
“You didn’t know any of this?” I asked Brand once we had a moment alone in the corner.
His eyes got a faraway look to them as his brows pinched tight like he was trying really hard to think. Like maybe there had been some clue that he missed.
“No,” he said in almost a hurt tone.
“You think Lake knew?”
Brand and Lake came from the mother chapter. Though this happened after they had moved here, it still made me wonder if their connection was close to their roots. Not that it would have mattered, we were all essentially one. But this, I could admit that this had started to place a rift within the club as a whole.
