Chapter 42: The Devil’s Reward: Chapter 41

I glare at my son, though he ignores me and continues to stand sentry over me. “Would you go the hell home?” I demand. I’m tired, sore, and pissed as hell. None are a good combination for anyone who gets between me and what I want. And what I want is my son to go home, shower, and stop looking at me like I’m going to die. I’m alive and kicking, and I plan on staying that way. Not that Stone believes me.

“I told you, I’m fine,” he snaps back at me, eyes exactly like mine flashing in irritation. “And until this mole is caught, you’re not being left alone.”

I finally convinced King to go home to shower and get something to eat, which he did reluctantly. Sage briefly woke up earlier, which is a damn good sign, and is now sleeping again. Torque did the same now that Izzy is awake and Hulk is guarding her door. Now to get the hard-headed one to do the same.

Sometimes I think his mother knew how much of a headache he was going to be and chose his name aptly.

Rose still hasn’t woken up, and I try not to worry. The doctors have assured me she’s going to recover, but she needs time to heal. Being an older woman—and just wait until I tell her he said that, she’ll have his balls—she’ll take a bit more time to recover. But until she finally opens her eyes, I won’t be able to relax. It’s pissing me off that I can’t get out of this bed because I’m too weak and strapped to so many damn machines. I want to be beside her, but instead, I have to watch her from a few feet away.

For that alone, I’ll kill the bastard who put her here.

“Your mother is fine, Stone,” I tell him firmly. “I’m here and—”

“You’re in the bed next to her, Dad,” Stone snarls. “If something goes wrong, or if our mole comes in and tries to finish the job, it’s not like you can get up and save her.”

“Are you saying you don’t trust Hulk or Crypt?” I ask him carefully. “That you don’t think they can protect us?”

“We don’t know Crypt well,” Stone reminds me. “He only got here a few days ago.”

“And yet, he’s stepped up, just like Shadow said he would. He’s former Special Forces, son, and he’s deadly. Hulk is too, and anyone who thinks to get past that giant will end up tossed out the window.” I sigh. “Stone, go home, shower, eat, and get some sleep. I’ve been watching over your mother for thirty-plus years, and I’m not going to stop now.”

He opens his mouth to argue, but then the door to the room opens and has him swinging around on full alert. I bite back a smirk when I see who it is. Stone relaxes slightly, but not completely as he looks at the stunning redhead coming into the room. Syn looks at Sage first, her concern for her best friend clear, and then she moves to me, completely ignoring Stone who steps back to let her closer.

She leans down to kiss my cheek, a rare gesture for her. I haven’t known Syn to be outwardly affectionate, but it’s clear by the lines of worry on her face and the dark circles under her eyes that she hasn’t been sleeping much. “I heard you were awake and terrorizing the nurses,” she teases. “I had to come in and see for myself.”

“I hate hospitals,” I gripe.

“How are you feeling?” she asks, eyes assessing.

She’s not a cop, but she has some good instincts. She’d be hell on wheels if she ever decided to join the force. Lucky for us, that’s not something she wants to do. “Like I got hit by a car,” I tell her dryly.

Her lips pull back into a smirk. “Nice to see that your sense of humor is intact,” she drawls. She glances over at Rose, and her lips thin. “Any word on when she’ll wake up?”

“Doctors are hoping tomorrow, but they said it’s hard to tell with these kinds of things. But everything looks normal, and they took out the breathing tube earlier. Now it’s just a waiting game,” I explain.

She nods. “Rose is too stubborn to let this keep her down for long, so I bet she’ll be opening her eyes earlier than that,” she predicts.

“Speaking of stubborn,” I say with a pointed look at my son.

Syn turns and looks at him, mouth pulling down in a frown when she takes him in. He crosses his arms over his chest and glares at her. The tension between these two is off the charts, and I don’t quite understand why my son is fighting it so hard. But, I know better than to stick my nose in or he’ll dig in his heels. He’s a lot like his mother that way. Still, I can give him a little nudge once in a while.

“You want me to take him out of here?” Syn asks me.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Stone says coolly.

“Yes, take him out,” I tell Syn, ignoring him. “He’s stinking up the damn place, and if I have to look at his mug for much longer, I’m going to end up right back in a coma.”

Stone glares at me, and Syn chuckles. “On it. Come on, big guy, let’s get you out of here and back into the real world.”

“Forget it,” he says, not moving.

Syn’s brow arches, gunmetal blue eyes cool and sharp. I settle back into the bed to watch the show. This ought to be good. “You’re going if I have to drag you out of here,” she warns him.

He sneers at her. “I’d like to see you try, woman,” he taunts. “You don’t have your dogs to help you now.”

The smile on her face is slow and holds a dangerous edge, and I see the flash of uncertainty in Stone’s eyes before he hardens his expression. “I don’t need my dogs to make people do what I want, Stone,” she says serenely. “I’m not a cop, but I have a lot of training, and some of that training involves knowing just how to touch you—pardon my pun—and have you dropping like a stone. Then I’ll have one of those big brutes out there carry you out. Won’t your brothers just love to see that? I bet the nurses too. If anyone has a phone, you’ll go viral in ten minutes or less. So what’s it going to be? You can go with me willingly and I take you to the clubhouse so you can clean up and eat, and then I bring you back. Or, I’ll do what I promised, have them dump you in my car and I take you to my place and lock you in the damn barn until you come to your senses.”

I have to bite back a laugh. Damn is she good. She knows Stone won’t want that to happen, even if he fights her the whole way. When these two finally get their heads out of their asses, it’s going to be explosive.

Stone’s expression turns into a taunting smile. “If all you wanted was to get your hands on me, baby, all you had to do was say so,” he leers at her, giving her a lewd once over. I roll my eyes, knowing it’s a front. Though right now, he’s lucky his mother isn’t awake.

“You and your tiny dick will have to wait for another time, and a more willing partner,” she says easily. “Now, say goodbye to your father and then we’re going.”

He looks like he wants to argue some more, so I growl, “Go, Stone. And that’s an order from your President, not your father. I’ll be fine, and I’ll make sure you get a call if your mother wakes up before you get back.”

His jaw clenches, but he nods, turns on his heel, and stalks out of the room. “I’ll see you later,” Syn says before she follows him out, gaze determined and back straight.

Hulk pokes his head in and smirks at me. “Called in the big guns, huh?”

I grin back at him. “She showed up so I used the tools at my disposal.”

“Hammer’s here. You up for him?” he asks me. I nod.

Moments later Hammer walks in and I can see that he’s had a rough time. His clothes are wrinkled, and his face is showing more lines than before. “I told you not to do this shit to me again,” Hammer says gruffly as he comes to stand by my bed.

I chuckle. “Funny how the past seems to be coming full circle,” I muse thoughtfully, looking at my oldest friend. We’ve been through a hell of a lot together, and I’ve always counted him as my best friend. When the other brothers left or died, Hammer was constant. He’s an uncle to my boys; he’s fought and joked with Rose, and he was the first to have my back when I brought up the idea of taking the club legit when Bull was still running things.

I’d hate to think that he’s the mole, but I have to consider the possibility. It’ll be a stab in the back of the biggest kind, but being President means I have to consider every option. Even those that will hurt the most.

Hammer sighs. “It’s been more than thirty years of a good life in this club, being on the up and up,” he agrees. “Hard to believe we’re dealing with this shit. Again. And this time, our foes are both in house and outside. Makes me wonder sometimes if going legit was the right thing.”

My senses sharpen at his words. “You think we should have stayed an outlaw club?” I ask carefully.

He scrubs a hand down his face. “I don’t mean it like that,” he gripes. “But if we were, we would have a network of people at our disposal to find this son of a bitch. And our mole too. Now we’re on the right side of the law, and it makes it harder.”

“I wouldn’t say we’re on the right side completely. We have a fucking hacker for fuck sakes.”

He shakes his head. “You know what I mean. But there’s no changing it now, and we just have to work with what we got.”

I study my friend. He looks worn out, not just by this, but by life. “You having doubts, Hammer?” I ask him.

“About the club? No.” He looks at me, gaze weary. “I’ve lived my life this way since I was a kid. Grew up in it, and it’s the only life I know. But this whole mole business has me thinking that in the old days, we’d have just torn the place apart until we found him. None of this cloak and dagger bullshit. Had enough of that with Bull and all the ways he used to sneak around. I guess I’m just a tired, cranky old man now.”

“You are old,” I agree, and he flips me off, making me chuckle. “I agree the whole thing is a fucking mess. We’ll find him though. And then we’ll show him who we were before we went legit. I think I can still remember some of the old techniques we used to use to get information.”

Hammer is silent, and then he looks over at Rose, lips thinning. “Fucking bastard tried to run the women off the road, and that’s just fucking wrong,” he growls. “Rose and I have had our moments, but she’s my sister in everything but blood, Bullet. You know that. And going after her is a direct insult. When we find this bastard, I’ll be using a few of my old techniques as well.”

I look at my friend, and my gut tells me it’s not him. He’s right, he and Rose have had their tiffs, but I’ve stayed out of it for the most part. Rose can hold her own, and Hammer has never stepped over the line. They fight and laugh, but they always make it right with each other. At one point, I know my best friend had feelings for Rose, but he never crossed that unforgivable line. I can’t see him wanting to kill her.

I sigh. “It’s a fucking mess, Hammer.”

“Sniper called Church, and Dagger, Medic, and I went and checked out that old farmhouse that Bull used to use. We found no evidence that it was being used, but then Medic found a hidden doorway in the floor. I knew it was there, but couldn’t remember where it was.”

I nod, though I already know what he’s going to tell me. Still, I keep my face hard as I ask, “Did you find anything down there?”

He nods. “We know it’s been used. Found a fucking bucket full of waste down there. Stank to high heaven. Dagger just about lost his lunch. They’ve been holding people and their stash down there, but they’ve upgraded the old vault.”

“You think they know about the other places?” I ask him.

“If they know about that one, then I have a feeling,” Hammer says grimly.

“You know where Bull might have hidden that information?”

He shakes his head. “I remember him walking around with a black book at times, so I guess he could have written it down there, but we never found one. Not after the war on the streets, or when we tore the clubhouse apart to get rid of anything that was his.”

I purse my lips thoughtfully. “You think he sent it somewhere?”

“Or burned it.”

He has a point. Still, for someone to know about that location all these years later, it’s doubtful. “I think our mole got ahold of it, and that’s why we can’t find them. They’re using Bull’s old hideouts. The ones no one knows about. Most of them are probably underground, in old places. Old bomb shelters or some shit.”

“Bull had an extensive network, so I doubt that he kept those places just around town. He probably had them all over the damn state,” Hammer says thoughtfully.

“So who would he have sent it to?” I wonder, mind working. “He had women and the club girls, but none of them stuck around for long.”

“All his supporters are long dead, so that’s probably a dead end. And none of them had families or women then, either. Too focused on living the good life and fucking everything in sight.”

He has a point. I huff out a breath. “It could be that someone found it by accident,” I say after a moment. “During the move, possibly, when we moved to the new place.”

“The mole did start to show his face around then,” Hammer agrees, perking up. “Could have gone to check out the old spots, and when he did, realized he had an opportunity to make some extra cash and shit. Then sold us out to the damn mafia.”

He’s making some good points. I huff out a breath. “We don’t have squat. Fucking Bull, he’s still fucking us even from the grave,” I growl in irritation. My fist clenches on top of the bedsheet.

“He always vowed that he would haunt us,” Hammer says with a sigh. “Guess he’s trying his best.”

“He always used to say that he liked to play to people’s vices,” I recall. “Said that whores, drugs, and guns were only a few of the things, but they were what made the world go round. Made it profitable. Always hated when he said shit like that.”

“Because he’s right?” Hammer asks quietly.

I’m quiet for a moment. “No, because he didn’t know the true meaning of life,” I reply. I look over at Rose. “The world goes round because of the people we have in it. The club works better than it ever has because we’re a damn good unit, and Bull lost sight of that. He saw us as his personal army to do his bidding. To make him as much money as he could, and to give him the power he craved. But he lost it all because of that. Until now, we’ve had a damn good life with our club the way it is. Profitable, and with the respect of our community because we do the good shit and not the bad. I’ll take that any day over what we used to do.”

Hammer is quiet, thoughtful. “And this mole either hasn’t realized that or doesn’t want to be a part of it,” he mutters. “He’s a part of our club, pretending to want the same things, but is really turning his back on us, and putting on a face.”

I nod. “I want to find him, Hammer, and I want to show him why we left that life. Make him realize how big of a mistake he’s made in joining Dmitri. Then we’ll send him to meet his maker and hopefully, he’ll rot in hell with Bull and the rest of them.”

Hammer nods his agreement. “We’ll get him,” he agrees, clapping me gently on the shoulder. “We’ll get him and we’ll make him pay.”

I hope like hell he’s right because I will settle for nothing else. He’s going to pay for what he did to my Rose. I look over at her, seeing the woman that’s made my life so much damn better. The very reason I wanted a better life in the first place. For her, and our family.

Because without her, I would still be in that life and I would either be in jail or dead. I won’t let this mole, or Dmitri, make the sacrifices we’ve all made in vain.

If Dmitri wants a war, I’ll give him one. We’ve won before, and we can do it again.