Page 73 of Exile & Lula
“Fine. I’ll pick Sugar, then. It’ll give him something to do besides try to fuck you.”
“Language,” Nova hissed.
Zodiac waved off her anger. “Stop mothering me.”
“You know what?” Lula announced and stepped back. “I don’t want to be part of this conversation.” Hugging me, she smiled. “You can tell me everything later.”
“Or I can,” Clint said and turned to walk out the door. “You’re the club’s lawyer, after all.”
“And your cousin!” Lula called out before kissing me goodbye.
I followed after Rock and Zodiac as they left Lula’s house and traveled down the front path to the sidewalk. We headed past Pax’s house, where Bebe gardened with Elijah and Jenan.
Clint entered his parents’ house and walked straight to the back doors. Ivy and Shay stood in the kitchen and never reacted to our stroll through the family room and dining room. Two Chihuahuas slept curled up together near the windows, basking in the sun.
Once outside on the deck, Clint took a seat at the long table. Rock settled next to his president while I did the same at the other end with Zodiac.
“We’ve gotten news about several of the men involved in the garage attack,” Rock stated and glanced around as if ready to hit someone.
Clint continued when Zodiac and I only nodded. “Two of the men who hit the parking garage were from New Orleans. We sent a few private dicks to talk to their inner circle. Before one of the fuckers left for Little Memphis, he claimed a woman from Dallas hired him to grab her husband’s girlfriend. Now, that sounds like bullshit, right? No way would an entire team be necessary to grab a normal woman.”
Feeling chatty, I suggested, “It’s possible this guy thought that was the job when he left New Orleans.”
Clint nodded. “We figure the first team was purely expendable and never knew about the second team. The guys from New Orleans rented a sedan from a place near where they lived. They arrived in town the day before and put little effort into planning. The second group was using stolen SUVs from Austin. Their weapons were better. Most were former military. So, we can assume the first group was the decoy team.”
“What does that tell us, though?” I asked when Zodiac remained silent.
“A woman in New Orleans hired the asshole who shot your sister, right?”
“Do you think it’s the same bitch?”
“Possibly. Our private dicks tracked down a security picture of the woman. They found out where she was staying in New Orleans. Her ID and cards were likely fake, but they might bring us closer to her real identity. If we find her, we might locate who sent her.”
Zodiac and I took a look at the security footage on the phone Rock handed to us. The woman fit the description that Nova’s shooter gave us about the person who paid him.
“This is good,” Zodiac said, tapping the screen. “We never found shit about the woman behind Nova’s shooting. Now, we’re one step closer to the Void.”
“We also might have been overlooking the reason Lula was grabbed,” Clint said and exhaled heavily. “We assumed they grabbed our lawyer. But maybe it was about Lula.”
“Because you think the Void’s connection to Little Memphis is about Trigger?” I asked.
“The day Trigger went down was chaos in Little Memphis. His nephew Zombie and another asshole went on a shooting spree at the mall. He wanted to kill Joker’s wife and the women of other club brothers who were viewed as disloyal to Trigger. Bebe and Lula were there that day.”
“But more importantly,” Rock pointed out, “Pax and Ford were the ones who hunted down Zombie. They were loyal to Joker and helped take Little Memphis from Trigger. If someone wants revenge over what happened back then, they’d choose to hurt the men involved.”
Clint continued, “We learned one of the guys killed in Rawlins was a Little Memphis snitch back then. He pointed out anyone loyal to Trigger. It makes sense if this Void asshole is targeting us for personal reasons, that it’s related to Trigger.”
“So, Lula would be a twofer,” Zodiac muttered, rubbing his jaw. “She’s both your lawyer and the daughter of a man behind Trigger’s downfall.”
“Exactly. Now, we might be on the wrong track. It could be completely random. Lula might have seemed like an easier target, or it might simply be her position as our lawyer. She is also the Jokers’ lawyer and represented the old Little Memphis club. Lula has plenty of reasons to be targeted, but this feelslike someone poking at the people responsible for taking down Trigger.”
“And who would seek vengeance for Trigger after all these years?” Zodiac asked.
“Trigger had two sons. Madden helped remove his dad from power and became Joker’s VP. He sent Ryder away after Trigger died. My dad talked to Madden, who claimed to have lost touch with his brother over the years. We’ve got feelers out trying to locate Ryder.”
“If this guy turns up in Texas, I think we have our lead,” Rock said and then asked Zodiac, “Will killing Ryder be enough?”
“I don’t know.”
