Page 196 of Fury

“I’ll be back tonight, baby,” I whispered.

Grabbing my gun, I left her house, heading for Nebraska. Last night Butler had called me, insisting we meet today. First I went home, changed clothes, switched bikes, checked in with my men, grabbed a cup of coffee, and then headed for the deserted gas stop Butler had told me about on Route 385 by the Dakota border.

He waited for me in the small back lot, leaning against his bike as I pulled in.

I knew what he wanted to talk about, what he needed to know. But I needed something from him too, and he’d been holding out on me, and I didn’t like it one bit.

He stood up and moved toward me as I shut down my bike. We were alone except for a beat-up Dodge pickup, rusted steel drums, and plenty of garbage steaming in the midday sun.

“Finger—”

I raised a hand stopping him. “First, I need something from you.”

“Like what?”

“What the hell did you and Nina get from Reich? That’s why he tried to blow your old lady up. That’s why he came here and ended up taking Tania, laying hands on her, to push you. What did you find in Ohio that you haven’t told me about?”

His lips pressed together in a firm line. “Nina’s been trying to get out from under him for years. He’s been abusing her since she was a teenager, just after he married her sister. He’s fucked up.”

“Tell me something I don’t know, Butler.”

“When I was out in Ohio, she and I hooked up a couple of times, and she gave me some info on his movements. But then she asked me to take her out of there, and the only way he was going to let that happen was if she was my old lady. I agreed to it, figuring it was another way in. After a while of playing it together, I’d help her get lost in California or somewhere out west where he wouldn’t find her. In return, I had her help me get to his pot of gold.”

“Which was?”

“Info on his kinky trade.”

“Kinky trade?”

“He’s running a huge underground operation. By that I mean on his own, not with the Flames. No one knows anything about it,” Butler said, bracing for a reaction from me. I gave him none. “What did the Flames used to do in the old days?” he continued. “Deal in sex slaves, snuff films, kids.”

I crossed my arms. “Those were the way old, old days, and we put a stop to that a long time ago.”

“I know. But Reich sniffed around, found a demand for it, and became a very successful and popular supplier.”

“He found another niche along with the porn, the hookers, and the white supremacy crap,” I muttered.

“Oh yeah. He’s got a lot of clients, big names, big money. He controls all of it, takes care of purchases, money flow, product type and style, you name it. He stashes his money in some high brow investments too.”

“You got proof of all this?”

“He kept all his info on a flash drive. Nina got a copy of that flash drive, and we got the hell out of Ohio and came here. He figured it out, though, and I promised him I’d keep my mouth shut if he’d unblock a deal I was trying to get off the ground with this weapons dealer I’d met in Virginia who he knows. Just one deal to raise some cash for my club. It took forever, he kept stalling, but he finally did me the favor. I needed to impress Jump by bringing some good cash in for my club. I needed back in. Then I was going to—”

“Then you were going to tell me?” My voice surged, drilling into him. “That’s why I sent you his way in the first place, motherfucker.”

“I always intended to give you any information I found, man. That was our original plan, wasn’t it? My sharing with you was his biggest fear, so I used that and held it over his head. Wasn’t supposed to be for long, but then Catch and Nina’s love story fucked everything up the ass, and the end came sooner rather than later. Of course, I didn’t expect him to blow Nina up and on my club’s property.”

“Mistake. I warned you,” I said. “You expect me to trust you after all this?”

He held my gaze. “Yeah, you should. This is good shit. You want this.”

“Don’t you ever fuck with me again. Ever.”

“I won’t. You have my word.”

“You need to hand that drive over to me tomorrow in front of him, in front of everyone there.”

His face hardened. “And I need you to make sure he can’t get to Nina, that he won’t hurt her again.”

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