“Are any of our guys, or any of Arson’s guys, unaccounted for in the hours before or after Cobra and Hulk would have gone out there?” I ask Cryos.
Cryos shakes his head. “All of our guys are showing their phones to be where they said they were going to be. Either with their women, at the clubhouse, or in the case of Frost, checking out one of the other locations on the other side of town with Silver.”
“And we’re sure Silver was with him?” I ask.
“Frost never said he wasn’t,” Viper confirms. “When Bowie called him, he said that Silver was with him and they would head back as soon as possible.”
“Alright, so we can rule Silver out as being in on this,” King remarks.
“Not yet,” I correct him. “He might not be the one to knock him out, but that doesn’t mean he’s not involved. He’s not happy that Thea proved to be smarter than him in figuring out those journals. He’s ego-driven, and that is going to be a blow. Especially when he makes a big deal about having such high smarts.”
Sniper scowls. “Fucker glared at Thea earlier and I barely managed to keep from punching him. He saw me coming and walked away. Coward,” he adds with a sneer.
“Brother, where you’re concerned, I’d be a fucking coward too,” King jokes lightly. “But yeah, if anyone had the smarts to pull something like this off, then it’s Silver. Though it strikes me that he won’t do much without Arson’s okay.”
“Arson took Silver under his wing when he first joined the club,” I inform them. “Pretty sure he sponsored him and then helped him rise in the ranks. So if Silver is involved, Arson will be too.”
“To play devil’s advocate, we don’t know it is them,” Stone points out. “We’ve had one traitor already, and for all we know, Vlad was able to find another one.”
Just the thought of it burns my gut. Anyone who would still go with Vlad or follow a plan that Dagger set forth after he killed Hammer will suffer a worse fate than any of the others did. I’ll gut them myself.
“We already vetted all our own brothers and the prospects,” Cryos reminds him. “And all of them came up clean. And Crypt and Theo are our newest and they weren’t even in the country then when this all happened, so we know they’re clean.”
“Just because we cleared them doesn’t mean they haven’t turned since,” Shadow cautions him. Cryos nods slowly, but his expression is sour at the thought that someone would be able tohide something from him again. “And they were talking about repayment. Someone owes the Russians money, so we need to figure out who might be having a problem.”
“I’ve already started running checks on all the Misfits and our guys again,” Cryos says, looking at me. “But it’s going to take time. That’s a lot of people and data to go through. And while our shit is easy enough to find, the Misfits are used to hiding things so the law doesn’t find anything if they’re raided, which means it’s going to be harder to sort through.”
“Keep on it,” I order him. “Until then, we need to keep our eyes and ears open. My gut is telling me it’s something to do with the Misfits, but I’m not going to rule out our own guys other than those in this room.”
Cryos nods. “If there’s anything, I’ll find it.”
I look at the others. “Anyone sees anything, texts only, no conversations for now. Keep your phones on you at all times. We don’t want someone getting a hold of it or seeing something they shouldn’t and tipping them off.” They all nod. “Good. Now, we need to figure out how we’re going to find Hulk. Those fuckers have him, and if they haven’t killed him already, they won’t keep him alive forever.”
“Do we think they’ll try and ransom him?” Sniper asks grimly.
“Doesn’t seem to be Vlad’s style,” Shadow points out. “If anything, he might keep Hulk alive to draw us in and try and take us out as we try to get him back because he knows that we’re not going to leave him behind.”
“Hopefully, Bowie and Frost will be able to find something soon,” Viper says. “If anyone can track him, it’s them.”
“What was the point of taking him though?” Stone asks, leaning forward. “What does Vlad gain?”
“Maybe he’s trying to figure out what Hulk knows, which would be what the club knows,” King suggests.
“I don’t want to suggest this, but it has to be said,” Viper says carefully, and I see him glance quickly at Sniper, who instantly stiffens, his face darkening. “Vlad tried to take Thea when everything went down, and he didn’t get her. What if he’s going to try and trade Hulk for Thea?”
“Fuck,” Sniper hisses, jumping to his feet to pace through the room, clearly agitated. I understand it. His brother or his Old Lady. That’s a kind of choice no man wants to have put in front of him, though I know what the answer will be. What any of our answers will be.
“We’re not going to allow anything like that to happen,” I say firmly. “Hulk won’t want that. I also think that Vlad knows it too. He knows we’re not going to give up one of our women. It goes against everything we stand for. Hulk would kill himself before he’d allow Sniper to make that choice. I think our traitor gave them a heads up where they were going, and they saw the opportunity to grab one of us. Either for information, ransom, or just to see if they can lure us in.”
“You think they’re going to try and set a trap for us?” King asks.
I nod. “He knows we’re going to go looking for him. It could be a way to lure us out and pick us off. They might kill a few of the Misfits to blend things in so we don’t suspect that we’re being betrayed, but they won’t kill the people giving them the info. Especially if that person is close enough to know the information of where we’re sending people.”
“We could set a few traps of our own,” Shadow suggests, a cool smile sliding across his face. “We give some coordinates that we’re sending people, make sure a few of them are wrong, and see where Vlad and his men end up.”
“We’d have to warn our brothers though and we can’t do that if one of them is in on this,” Stone reminds him.
“No, but we can make sure that the ones with the wrong coordinates have one of us who can be trusted with them so that no one gets caught by surprise,” Shadow answers.
