Page 186 of Fury

“What’s up?” asked Drac getting off his bike that he’d parked alongside mine at the Broken Blades clubhouse.

We’d come to southern Nebraska to have a chat with Notch. Had the Broken Blades been the ones responsible for the bomb in Nina’s car? That was the general consensus. They were pissed off at the Jacks and at the Flames not only for destroying their deal with the Calderas Group, but for a number of their members being arrested and a lot of their property seized (the underground warehouse was still safe, luckily).

I wasn’t convinced they were the ones responsible for the car bomb. Why would they target Nina? Why not plant a bomb on a Jack’s vehicle or bike or even at the clubhouse itself? Going after an old lady was just not done, unless she was some kind of traitor, and that was real old school. Then again, Nina had a Flame connection, Reich being her brother-in-law. Were the Blades taking care of two birds with one stone here to keep the Flames off their ass?

“I just heard that Reich and his old lady are in Rapid City to see Nina in the hospital,” I said.

“Terrific.”

“Been trying to call Butler. I wanted to give him a heads up, but he isn’t answering. Fuck it.”

“We’re going to have to pay Reich a visit at the hospital, huh? Give him the brotherly welcome,” Drac said.

“Oh yeah. We should,” I muttered under my breath. “Thank fuck I have you to remind me of my manners.”

“You’re welcome.” Drac let out a snort.

“Let’s get this shit done.” I strode over to where Notch and three of his men waited for us.

Notch only scowled at me. He had pronounced eye sockets and a long nose, wrinkly, pasty-white skin, and long thin dark hair that stuck to his head. He was the Child Catcher from “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” a movie I’d often watched at the neighbor’s house when my mom would pull her disappearing acts. The Child Catcher had spooked me, made me actually shudder and hide under the covers at night. But boogey men in the dark and vile monsters didn’t scare me no more. Notch only disgusted me. Instead of an English accent, he had a southern one, but he was just as snide, just as hostile, and as freaky as that movie villain of my memory.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” he said, chewing tobacco, his lips twitching under the movement. “Although, you coming here is sullying my property.”

“What’s left of it. Ain’t much.”

“Whose fault is that?” He spat on the ground.

“Yours, for shitting on it for so many years,” I replied. “Didn’t appreciate what you had, didn’t handle it right. Your problem. Now it’s come to this. I’m here to offer you an out.”

“Sweet. I ain’t buying.” He covered his balls with a hand, a smirk on his ugly, thin face. The tall, bulky guy at his side, Pick, remained grim.

Was Notch just being cocky or cock sure?

The sneer on his face stretched from self-satisfied smirk to all out taunt. “Keeping the Flames of Hell away from my club is high on my list of priorities.”

“You don’t want to give in to me. I get that. But this is your only way to survive. I’m not demanding total annihilation here. Patch in. You know you need to. You know it’s the smart move. The strong one. You inviting outsiders into our territories is a huge mistake. You can’t see that, you’re an idiot.”

“Fuck you.”

Drac let out a heavy sigh, more like a grunt.

“You set the bomb in that old lady’s car at the Jacks?” I said. “Because you know she’s a Flame by family. Not to mention, Jump is dead because of it,” I said.

Notch crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing. “Why the fuck would I do that?”

“You’re pissed at them, pissed at us. Who the hell knows how your rancid brain works?”

He laughed, a lazy, wheezing sort of laugh, an I-got-nothing-more-to-lose-by-fucking-with-you laugh. “Oh, I like your compliments so early in the morning, I do.” He ran his tongue across his yellow teeth. “Someone set off a fire in our junkyard last night. Fucking with our business. Today’s Jump’s funeral, and I’m thinking the Jacks’ are playing games with us, but this ain’t high school, and I ain’t playing. Why don’t you let them know for me, huh, seeing as to how you all sniff each other’s panties now?”

My phone vibrated in my back pocket.

Catch. He’d called twice before, but I didn’t want to interrupt the articulate poetry that was Notch. I’d left Catch holding down the fort while Drac and I were gone. In fact, I’d been giving him plenty of extra responsibilities lately, plenty of short term runs out of town in order to keep his head in the game. He was like a caged tiger, and I didn’t want him going off again. Not now. He needed to feel the hum of work filling him, steering him. So far so good.

I lifted my chin at Notch. “You’ll come crawling to me real soon. And it’ll be too late.”

“Yeah,” he returned.

I aimed a look at Drac, and we both stalked off to our bikes where I dialed up Catch.

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