Page 43 of Bruised MC Bear
20
Angel
Angel tooka seat in the wooden Adirondack-styled lean-back chair. Her hands pressed tightly to each of the wide armrests, eyes narrowed as she waited for an answer. Kade had informed them that his club, the Nevada chapter of Satan’s Hellcats MC, had no idea about any hit against her or Axe. He had excused himself to speak with Kit Reese, the President of Arizona’s MC by the same name, and returned with the same story. Angel wasn’t buying it for a second. If this guy thought he was getting away with anything, he had another thing coming. She had spent too much time being pushed around, grabbed, clawed at, dodging bullets, forced to wear men’s underclothes and no shoes, and too far away from her pets. Someone needed to pay.
She rolled her shoulders, ready to press for details.
“So let me get this straight, Kade. You and this Kit character have the run of Arizona and Nevada for all the activity going down for the panthers, and neither of you has any idea who’s been terrorizing your brother-in-law and me within the boundaries of your territory? Right in your own backyard?”
“Yeah, Kade. Answer the lady’s question.” Axe leaned back against part of the sliding door that opened out into the backyard.
Nancy was in the doorway with her hand resting on his shoulder. They looked a lot more like family now. It was nice to see them all cozy after the initial freeze-out, although she couldn’t wrap her brain around how Nancy’s husband could be a top guy in his organization, and not know what was going on under his nose.
Kade shook his long, jet black, wavy hair and pulled it away from his face. “The Nevada and Arizona chapters are not behind this,” he insisted. He reached into the top pocket of his red polo shirt and pulled out a hair band, which he wrapped around his folded, messy bundle of hair.
“Don’t you see how that makes you look? And I’m talking about your credibility, not your man bun,” she said, not even caring that his wife was standing right there.
“I’m not sure why you believe I should know everything about every panther who crosses into Nevada. Ditto for Kit in Arizona. People relocate all the time, and there’s Vegas. Who can get a handle on that place? I’m telling you we’re not involved, and what I’ll do is give you my word that no one in my MC will lay a hand on either of you. Let’s get focused on figuring out who may have done this. Other than the Louisiana plates you saw, did you notice anything else about them?”
“They were definitely panthers,” Axe offered.
“Were the ones who attacked you wearing any patches?”
Axe looked out in the distance, trying to think. “No. None of them. I can’t say for sure about the ones in the Camaros or on bikes later on.”
Kade gave Axe a puzzled look. “Wait, Camaros? Are you sure?”
“Of course we’re sure,” Angel piped up. “What do you know about them?”
“That Italian son of a bitch. It had to be Giovanni’s guys. The last time we met that thieving piece of shit, two of his guards drove Camaros.”
“Hang on. Who’s this Giovanni person?” Angel asked.
“Bad news,” Axe answered. “An Italian mob schmuck from the east coast. A greedy, underhanded, and vengeful control freak piece of shit. He fucked with the wrong people, though. Ended up shot by his own boss for trying too damn hard. I just don’t get why he’s that interested in targeting me in particular. I’d understand if he put Silas on his hit list, given that Giovanni blames him for Sabrina leaving his sorry ass.”
“Who knows? If it’s him, we can start talking to some people.”
Axe motioned to Kade. “Wasn’t he told not to step foot out west ages ago?”
“He was, but the bastard has still been trying his usual sneaky shit. Were those Camaros decked out in custom chrome finishes?”
“Could be. It was dark out. Hey, we could go find out. My bet is they haven’t fished those cars out from where they crashed last night.” Axe rubbed his grizzled chin as he pondered something. “How about it, Kade? Feel like crossing enemy lines and looking into it with your Beartooth brother-in-law?”
Kade glanced over at Nancy, and they exchanged some kind of silent husband and wife communication. “Sure, why not. I just have to let my VP know what’s up. Things got a little hairy after Kit got shot through the neck. You bears probably didn’t even know about a couple of deserters in his ranks, and the odd ones who wanted to take over for him, showing up from California, Utah and even as far as Kentucky and West Virginia.”
“I’d bet that went over real well,” Axe muttered.
“Kit almost had a full-scale mutiny on his hands. Tensions were running high while he was recovering, not to mention your sister was less than thrilled about it, figuring I would be next.”
Nancy stepped past Axe, and stepped over to Kade. She put an arm around her husband, kissing him on the cheek. “Thank God that whole drama calmed down, honey.”
Kade ran his hand down her back. “For real. After that, Kit’s Sergeant at Arms, Jasper, went missing. Kit didn’t think much of it for the first few days. The man was loyal to a fault, so they figured he was just taking a few days off to see relatives or something. A few days later, Kit got a call from one of Giovanni’s guys, basically admitting he had Jasper and wanted to do an exchange. Jasper’s life for Sabrina.”
“What? Did anyone tell Silas about this?”
“We didn’t need to. Jasper found a way to escape, and Kit told Giovanni he’d take down every member of Giovanni’s family if he ever tried anything like that again.”
“It sounds to me like he’s still up to his fucked up tricks, maybe with Angel and me this time.”
