“You were very clever, but I’m so much fucking better,” Glitch remarks smoothly, drawing a glare from Cryos. Glitchgives him a cool smile. “And, it just so happens my Old Man here has been in your very position, and he has connections to get information for me that I don’t want my name or signature associated with.” Then she looks at Silver, and her smile sharpens, her bright blue eyes flashing in a way that has the man shifting slightly. Damn, she’s small but she’s terrifying. “You managed to surprise me, but I was getting close to figuring it out. If we didn’t have to get here so quickly, I’d have had it within hours, but lucky for you, I guess, you get to be a surprise. However, and I stress this with the utmost importance, you will not mention that we were here. I have already wiped us from any feeds, and any of the agents and shit already on their way here, they best be informed as well. We will not be mentioned in any way on any paperwork or public record of any kind, or you’ll have an issue far bigger than your boss, do you understand?”
“Are you threatening a federal agent?” Silver returns evenly. He’s trying not to act intimidated, but even I can see that he’s not sure who this woman is, but he’s not liking the implication.
“Why, I do believe I am,” Glitch answers sweetly. “And you can’t do shit about it. Would you like to know why? Perhaps the name Pargali rings a bell?” Silver immediately stiffens, and his eyes immediately move over the group, pausing on the Devil’s Predators just long enough that I look at them too. None of them gives anything away, but the menace rolling off them is clear enough. They’ve all banded together in a tight unit, other than Taz and Karissa, who are still with our hostages.
Again, who the hell are these guys?
“Got it,” Silver says stiffly. He glances at the Dragons. “I’ll include them in that as well, considering you’re tied to them.” Glitch doesn’t react, just stares at him. It’s then that I realize something.
“You’re the voice that I heard when I was in the stairwell,” I blurt out, glaring at him. “You’ve been changing your voice.That’s why I didn’t recognize it when I was listening.” Then I slice my gaze over to Cryos and add, “And now I know who you were talking to.”
Silver shrugs. “I’ve been undercover long enough that I’ve just naturally adopted the accents and voice, but every once in a while, it slips out.” He looks around and his eyes lock with Arson’s betrayed, hate-filled ones.
“You motherfucker,” Arson spits. “You fucking set this whole fucking thing up. I never should have fucking trusted you. I took you in, treated you like a son, tried to marry you to my daughter?—”
“You tried to force your daughter to marry me by slapping the shit out of her and telling me to rape her,” Silver snaps, disgust brimming in his voice. “We’re just adding that to the large list of your crimes that you’ll be charged for.” He looks at Whiskey, who is wisely remaining silent, but his eyes are furious. Silver’s eyes turn and move to Angel, Sting, Diesel, and Dozer, who all stare at him coldly. “You’re going to have to answer for some shit too, but I kept tabs on what you were doing, and I’ve gotten the DA to agree to deals for you if you choose to accept them.” None of them speak, but I can tell they want him to fuck off.
Hell, I want to as well. He might be a cop, but he’s Silver. Arrogant, thinking that he’s done people a giant favor when all he’s done is fuck over the people who helped us. I don’t feel like getting my ass arrested, so I’m not saying shit.
“I will say, though,” Silver continues, looking at Nikolai, who is still kneeling in the dirt, “that you all made getting this guy a hell of a lot easier. I’d rather have had Vlad with him, but didn’t see the headshot coming. We’ve been trying to get your ass for a long time.” He laughs mockingly. “And you jumped at the chance to use and discard us to get what you wanted here, didn’t you? Saw it as the perfect chance to manipulate Vlad into usingus, too. Act like you hate MCs when you want to use us for all your dirty work.”
Nikolai says nothing, his face stony. Silver had better watch whatever he’s saying because the man is liable to die an untimely death if Nikolai can figure out a way to get it done. Even in prison the man is far more powerful than even this cocky prick can understand.
Silver’s attention turns to Bullet. “I’ve also negotiated a deal that your club will be left out of this entire shit storm that’s about to come through.” He tries to make it sound like he’s the one we should be thanking. Fucker. I hate him more with every breath. “But you’ll be expected to testify in exchange. I might even be persuaded to give your Old Lady a deal so that she’s not charged with assaulting a federal agent with…Oof.”
The punch to his face has him falling back onto his ass, and Bullet steps over him with a look promising death as Silver lies there, sprawled and looking stunned. “You’re lucky we don’t fucking kill you,” Bullet hisses. “And I will kill you if you so much as breathe my Old Lady’s name. Or any of the women in this club. They are fucking off-limits. That’s how this shit works and you fucking know it.”
Silver’s face turns bright red and he spits, “You fucking idiot. The deal is fucking off. You think you can just?—”
“He can do just that,” Simba barks sharply, stepping forward. The power coming from this man even has me shifting back a moment. “You got three of his men killed, and you put the lives of their women and children on the line all to further your fucking career. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, you have no power here. Your badge doesn’t mean shit. We have ways of making sure that nothing that happens here today will go any farther than this moment. Do not fuck with me.”
Silver looks like he’s considering doing just that, but he must decide against it, because he gets to his feet and brushes himself off, but says nothing in response to Simba’s clear threat.
“How long until your Fed buddies get here?” I ask.
Silver glances at his watch. “Probably in the next five minutes.”
“Good.” I move forward and slam my fist into his face, sending him falling to the ground again. Then I move to Nikolai and do the same, making him grunt but remain upright. “That was for all this shit you did to Avery,” I hiss at the Russian and then hit him one more time. “And that is for what you did to me. I’d rather you die, but that’s not in the cards right now.” Then I move down to Arson and slam my fist into his face twice in quick succession, grab his hand—the one that he struck Avery with—and with a quick technique I learned from my time as a soldier, I break his hand, making him scream in pain. He holds it against his chest as he tries to valiantly breathe and moan through the pain, but it doesn’t quite work. “You touched my woman,” I tell him darkly. “You’re lucky I haven’t chopped it off.” Then, just so he doesn’t feel left out, I slam my boot into Whiskey’s gut, making him gag and sputter.
I step away and I see the approval on Rose’s face as she stands near Bullet, and when I look around at my brothers, they have the same look.
One by one, the brothers come up, doling out their own punishments. Silver says nothing, unmoving, and Cryos merely hangs his head, no doubt knowing what might be coming next. I have shit to say to him too, but it can wait a second.
When everyone has had their turn, Bullet finally turns to Cryos. “Why?” he asks darkly.
Cryos sighs heavily, before finally lifting his head to look Bullet square in the face. “The Feds never wanted me to leave, so they agreed that I could go as long as I worked for themwhen I could. So I did jobs on the side for them. No one here ever questioned me, so I could do my shit without any of you knowing. I kept the club out of all of it, but it…it was good to do things like that again. Then, when shit started going down with Dmitri, I had no choice but to fill them in. My handler already knew the Russians were sniffing around, but no moves could be made until they could figure it out. So I worked with the club to uncover Dagger, and funnelled the information to my handler for safekeeping. When we found out about the journal and all the hidden places, I knew that this was their only chance, and I told them that.” He wets his lips before adding, “It was my job, Bullet. You have to understand that.”
Bullet slams his fist into Cryos’s face, and he falls to the ground, clutching his now bleeding nose. He doesn’t even try to get back up. “You used us. Betrayed us,” Bullet hisses, enraged. “You took everything we stood for and sold it off for recognition for your fucking inflated ego. You are no better than Dagger. You put us in danger. I don’t buy that you only sent information. You’re too fucking smart. You knew what was happening, and instead of helping us, of letting us know, you kept it to yourself and protected yourself and this fucking Fed over the men who supported you when you had nothing. Who gave you a fucking family and everything else you could fucking want. Did you know that they put a fucking gun in that cell? Did you?” he roars when Cryos remains silent.
Finally, after a tense silence, Cryos gives a small nod. It’s a punch to the fucking gut. He knew what would happen. He let his own brothers fucking die.
“Did you know what happened to Hammer? Did you see it?” Bullet demands again. “Did you see that Dagger was the one to kill him?”
Slowly, Cryos nods. “I had cameras all over the place, and I found it one time when I was walking along the perimeter. I tookpictures and sent the information to my handler. I needed him to add it to the file against Dagger. I didn’t know that Hammer was going to be there. I didn’t know he was going to follow him. I saw it happen, sent the footage, and then erased it.” He lets out a cry of agony as Bullet kicks him in the face with his boot.
“I hope you fucking rot,” Bullet hisses. “I hope you spend the rest of your miserable life paying for every fucking second of what you caused and aided in. Their blood is on your hands. Hammer, Carson, Titan, Milk, and Timber. All of them fell trying to protect you and this club, and you spat on them. Don’t you ever come back here. Don’t ask for anything from us. You no longer exist. You no longer breathe the same air we do. You’re dead to us.” Then he looks at Silver. “Get him and the others out of our sight. You can handle cleaning up all this bodies and shit you caused too.”
“That’s not?—”
