Chapter 8

Chapter Eight Scar

The familiar buzzof energy and noise that floods through the room brings me another dose of peace.

Already the power of being back in control floods my system as everyone turns to watch Kade and I walk into the room.

“Look who decided to finally show up,” Britt calls out.

I roll my eyes. “I’ve been here. Someone decided to be an ass.”

“How is that different from every other day?” Jade asks, grinning.

Kade and I both flip her off at the same time, but I don’t respond to her. It’s all been a much needed reprieve, the casual banter that is our normal. I didn’t realize just how much it was needed until I could feel some of the worries easing from my mind. But now that we’re in our command center, I’m ready to get back to business. The worries haven’t disappeared, they won’t abate until we have solid plans for our next moves and I know that everyone is on the same page again.

It’s been too long since we’ve all been together and gotten shit done. Especially with just how much we have going on. All the moving pieces finally need to come together.

The atmosphere of the room instantly shifts as I take my usual spot and open my laptop that’s already waiting for me. Everyone falls silent as they watch me. Their expressions reflect the feelings bubbling up inside of me. A fierce determination to finally reap the rewards we have been carefully sowing. Some of us for months, but most of us for years. Almost a decade now.

They do say that revenge is a dish best served cold. Maybe that’s why there are times that I feel as if I’m filled with ice. As if my very blood has frozen over, waiting for these very moments I’m living now. I never thought so much unease would come with the last preparations.

The room mirrors the mess in my own soul. My team is overflowing with their drive to take the next steps, a feral excitement in the air coursing between us all. Almost enough to make the hair raise on my arms. But we aren’t without our grief and anxiety. A constant companion nowadays. I fear the day where we forget the sharp pain of all we lost will never come.

“We have a lot of pieces on the board,” I start as I pull up my notes on my computer. “Too many moving pieces that make it hard to see the bigger picture.”

“Hence the meeting, I suppose,” Joe says.

I grin. “It isn’t just because I missed all your ugly faces.”

A few dry chuckles sound throughout the room as everyone relaxes into their seats, but I don’t miss the varying signs of nerves throughout the room. The cool look in Joe’s eyes as he braces himself for new developments, or the tinge of worry in Britt’s. Holden’s fingers dance over the edge of the couch in a rapid rhythm as his eyes flash between Jade and me. While Mikey is tense at the door, arms crossed over his chest.

Guilt and shame writhe in my chest. We’re in shambles compared to the flawless unit we were before that damned gala. No one else has changed, only me. I swallow thickly, not letting the tears that prickle the back of my eyes to show. I can’t continue to falter. Continue to let everyone down.

“We’re normally better at all working together and being aware of all that’s going on. Ever since the gala, we’ve all been moving in different directions without a center point.”

Luca nods along with my words. “There has been a disconnect between all of us recently.” A few more people nod along with his words. Luca is probably the most informed of all of us. He’s stepped up where I have fallen back, where I’ve been falling apart. He’s seamlessly taken on all the additional duties I normally carry out while I have been struggling to maintain my sanity. While I’ve been throwing myself into digging up every piece of intel I can gather on Donahue, Luca has been overlooking everything else. Including the team and what everyone has been doing. No wonder I feel so out of control. I hadn’t realized just how many of the reins I had passed to him unintentionally. He looks to me and waits for my nod before he continues, “We do have a lot going on, so I think it’s best if each team gives an update.” He gives everyone a moment to interject, but no one has anything to say.

“Let’s start with the fights,” I suggest. “Not including recent misadventures.” I throw a dirty look at Kade who shrugs me off.

“Joe, Ian, Holden, and Ty,” Luca calls. All four men trade looks before Joe takes the lead.

“If we were worried about the recent happenings negatively impacting the fights, the concern was unfounded. We’ve never been busier,” he explains. The fights have always been a huge source of not only intel for us, but also a key piece in the way we network. Most of our jobs come from the fights. It’s the place to go to get in contact with us. As if he’s reading my mind, Joe continues. “There has been some unease over the lack of your presence at the fights. More people are realizing who the right people to talk to are, but since we aren’t taking any jobs right now, it doesn’t do much to help settle the unrest.”

My fingers tap out an uneven beat as I process that. It’s not something I had really considered these last few months. We’ve tightened ship and pretty much stopped interacting with anyone outside of our circles. The only exception has been Rachel, but word has surely gotten around about her status as a Rose by now.

I shrug. It can’t be helped. We don’t have any room to add something else to our plates. People are just gonna have to survive without us. “Put out word that the only form of payment we are currently taking is information on Romano.”

Joe snickers but nods his head. Should have done that ages ago. It may not bear any results, but it should paint a target on Romano’s back. An even bigger one than what I’ve already put there. Anyone who is desperate for our help will now be looking into him too. It won’t hurt us.

Holden clears his throat. “There’s been talk that St Graves won’t ever be the same after this.”

“It won’t be,” Declan says simply. The silence echoes around us as we all absorb the truth in his statement. We’ve come out from the shadows and blood has run down these streets. We’ve gone too far to go back now. “It may have been our home before, but St Graves is ours now. Nothing will happen in this city without our okay.”

Holden nods. “That’s exactly what people are saying. The Bleeding Roses own these streets and the city will be a death sentence to anyone that dares rise against us. Because of that, we have more people than ever at the fights. More and more fighters are aiming for a card to train with us.”

“Have you given out any new ones?” Kade asks.

All four of the guys shake their heads but it’s Ian that answers, “We have our eyes on a few fighters but we haven’t added anyone since the night we declared war. We didn’t want to risk bringing in the wrong person and we haven’t had as much time to train either. We’d already had a handful of new fighters this year.”

“The young guys?” Kade asks. Something tickles the back of my brain at his question. I can almost remember who he’s talking about but I can’t quite grasp the memory. I know there’s something about them though.

“You’re thinking of Wren and Dean. They’re both high schoolers,” Tyler answers.

Ian continues, “They were the last two fighters we gave cards to. Dean got a card the night Scar went all trigger happy at the fights.”

“And he still showed up to the training?” Ronan asks incredulously.

Ty just shrugs. “Him and Wren are best friends and Wren had already been training with us for over a month.”

Ronan scoffs. “Still, they’re kids. They must have balls of steel to show up after that night.”

Ah, it finally dawns on me. I remember seeing them there that night. They looked to me for a command. They were ready to do whatever I asked of them, even if I could see the fear written plainly on their faces.

“Maybe,” Ty concedes. “Or they just have something worth fighting for.” He trades looks with Ian and Holden and I instantly know they have their suspicions.

“Have they said anything to you about it?” I can’t help but question. We don’t really have the time to be taking on any new problems, but if they’re our fighters then they’re one of ours. Period. We protect our own.

I can’t forget the steely determination in those kids’ eyes that night. If they’re fighting for something or someone, they are ready to go to the very pits of hell to achieve their goal.

“Nah,” Holden answers. “They’re good kids. Diligent in their training, eager to succeed. But they keep their cards close to their chests. I don’t know that they will ever open up to any of us. But we get the feeling there is a very specific reason they are so close mouthed.”

“We can’t know everything that happens. If they need help, we can keep an eye on them but we can’t do much more than that,” Ty comments.

“About that,” Ian interjects, throwing a glance at Jade before he clears his throat. “We had this idea.”

“Go on,” I encourage, curious what it could be. Tyler wasn’t wrong. There’s no way for us to know what’s going on all over St Graves at all times. We have our information network, the fights play an integral part in it, but we also use all of our various businesses to keep our thumb on the pulse of this city. Doesn’t mean we have someone everywhere though. We can’t know every secret. Especially those of high schoolers. That is one area our intel is severely lacking.

“Well,” he hesitates, making me all the more curious. It isn’t like him to hold back when he has an opinion. “We already use the fights for intel, but what if we started using our fighters as well?”

I cock my head to the side as I study him. “In what way?”

“Have them keep their ears to the ground in their day to day lives. Report back to us. We are up to almost forty fighters now, all from different walks of life, all over the city.”

All the guys start smirking as they look to me. I respond with a chuckle. “It is a treasure trove.” One unintended side effect of all this has been the colliding of all our different avenues of business. Where we used to try and keep each one in its own lane, there are a lot more benefits to having those lines start to blur. Giving us more options and things to work with.

“The idea is that once we get it going, people will start to actually use them as points of contact to inform us who needs to be marked for death.”

Risky. But I like it. “I’m intrigued. We’d have to work out a system so those marked don’t realize they have been.” I tap my nails against my laptop without typing anything. “Step one, get the fighters on board to listen and report. In the meantime come up with any further ideas on how to implement the rest.”

He nudges Jade as he answers, “We’ll get on it.” A blush rises on her cheeks and she refuses to meet my eyes. At my arched brow, Ian chuckles. “It was her idea.”

I grin before turning my attention back to Joe. “Anything else we need to be aware of?”

He shakes his head in answer. “I think that’s everything.”

It’s not surprising it took us that long to get through talking about the fights, but I’m more relieved than ever that we decided to do this today. I already feel more settled and in control than I did this morning.

Before I even have to ask, Mikey continues the discussion. “We’re hearing all the same things from our spot.”

Ronan grunts in agreement. “Even our new artists are fully booked with people trying to get in good with The Bleeding Roses.”

“The new sign looks good though,” Britt says.

My mouth drops open briefly before I throw my head back and cackle. “You didn’t?”

“Oh, they did.” She grins emphatically, pulling out her phone as she does. “Sending photos now.”

“I fucking love it.” Everyone laughs as they look at the new sign hanging over the tattoo shop that now reads Bleeding Ink with roses that look eerily similar to the ink that now marks the bodies of everyone in this room.

Mikey rubs the back of his neck. “We thought it was funny, but we didn’t think it would act as such a beacon for business.”

“No kidding,” Ronan snorts.

I grimace. Even through the jokes, I can see the exhaustion lining their faces. Not that any of us are free from that. “How’s the other side of things?”

“It’s slowed down since the auction,” Mikey answers and I breathe a sigh of relief. “We’ve had a few rats we’ve had to clean up, but not as much as before.”

Noah nods. “Since the shutdown of Steel Roses, we haven’t had any new plants in our legitimate businesses.”

I can’t say I’m surprised. That was part of the whole reason we decided to shut down Steel Roses for now.

“Mainly people trying to infiltrate the fights and we’re seeing a few crop up around Thorns, but not on the staff.”

Rachel sits up a little straighter at the mention of her headquarters. She hasn’t been back since we lost Alec. A sharp pain spears through my chest at the thought of him. Against my will, my eyes flick to the board that still has all of our points from the game we’ve now abandoned.

I can almost hear his laughter in the echoes of the defining silence. The space where he’s missing is the loudest thing in the room. The rush of guilt is almost enough to make me gasp for air as I meet Rachel’s eyes and see another piece of her crumble away.

The room collectively holds their breath as she sags into Jade’s side. J is quick to wrap her arms around her, holding her together with pure force if nothing else will work. She catches Kade’s eye over Rachel’s head and nods for him to continue.

He clears his throat. “He’s right. Things are going almost too well at Thorns on the business side of things. No one has questioned our role there or our authority. It’s been running smoothly, all things considered.” He finishes with a cough as he catches the way it sounds.

Jade throws him a dirty look and he gives her a sheepish one back. I bite my lip as I consider his words. I hadn’t really thought to stop and think about it, but it is odd how easy the transition has been.

Rachel doesn’t run her operations the same way we do. We’ve vetted some of the people who work under her so we know what she values. She’s meticulous in her background checks when bringing someone on board, but her circle of trust went no further than Alec. They’re a business, not a family.

There’s no reason for anyone to be understanding about what her loss would mean to her. To be understanding about outsiders coming in and taking over the day to day operations. Even making calls without her approval. Ryder and Kade have had full authority without her around. To have met no resistance raises some red flags.

“Nothing out of sorts has cropped up in the numbers,” Rachel says softly. “I have been reading your reports and tracking the projected numbers. Everything is exactly where it should be.”

The words sound like they should be a good thing, but I can hear the skepticism in them. She expected for there to be some pushback, she even went as far as to warn the guys when it was decided they would step up for her.

“We’ll keep looking into things, but anything specific you want us to watch out for?”

Rachel hums under her breath as Jade rubs her hand up and down her back. There’s a lot Rachel hasn’t opened up to us about, but I get the feeling Jade has gotten at least some of it out of her.

“My father’s men,” she finally answers. “I had expected them to start acting out with Alec gone.” Her voice barely rises above a whisper as she admits to this. “It was never me my father planned to have succeed him.”

We’d had the feeling that was the case based on the information we had gotten out of her when she was first interested in Jade.

“Was it Alec?” Tyler asks, earning a hard smack in the chest from Holden. At least someone in that trio has some sense of decency.

“Ouch! It was just a question!”

“An insensitive one, you prick,” Holden scolds.

Rachel chuckles, pain and humor evident in equal measures as she does. “It’s okay,” she soothes, placing her hand on Jade’s arm. Probably stopping her from throwing something at Ty. “It’s nice to hear his name,” she admits before clearing her throat. “But no, it was Nic.”

The whole room grows tense and I practically snarl at hearing that fucker’s name. Rachel places her hands in the air to placate us. “He never tried to steal it out from under me. He never even wanted it.”

I roll my eyes and give Noah a meaningful look. He winks in acknowledgment before turning his attention to the computer in front of him. Apparently we need to keep a closer eye on dark and douchey than I thought.

“They settled for Alec and I because they had no choice, but they never liked the way he deferred to me.”

Ian scoffs, “And they liked dark and douchey because he refused to?”

Rachel snorts, sounding more herself than she has in ages. “Nic wouldn’t know how to defer to a bus even as it ran him over.” She sighs and shakes her hair from her bun as she sits up a little straighter. “I expected them to start trying shit with him gone and my not being around. I was even hoping for it. We’d been trying to weed them out for years.”

It’s the closest she’s ever gotten to admitting why she runs the business the way she does.

“Instead they’ve been on their best behavior,” Luca summarizes. “Keep a closer eye on Nic’s movements.”

“Already on it, boss,” Noah answers, ignoring Rachel’s protests. She sputters out her disbelief and rolls her eyes.

“He has been a dick,” Jade attempts to console her.

She ignores her, turning her attention back to me. “What about our biggest problem? Do we have more on Romano? How are we tracking him? What can we do to help?”

“Slow down there, Rach,” Declan teases her. “There hasn’t been much activity in the elite social circles. It seems as though the West Coast circles are tightening and hunkering down. Waiting for the storm to pass. At least as far as their criminal behavior goes.”

“Romano’s presence was stronger on the East Coast,” Luca explains. “He’s taken a hit to his reputation and business overall, but he hasn’t been wiped from the map yet.”

“We’re using that to our advantage though,” I start in order to answer her other questions. “It means we still have a list of known associates that we can monitor and track.”

Noah stands up and my eyes are immediately drawn to him as he takes over. “We know Donahue is helping hide him, but we also know from Charles he wouldn’t do that out of any sense of loyalty. There has to be something in it for him.”

“If he’s still bringing in money, he still has value rather than just being a liability,” Declan summarizes.

“Exactly,” Noah agrees. “And we all know money is traceable. We just have to sort through the records and find the right lead.”

Rachel and Jade both sit up a little straighter and I give them a nod of acknowledgment. “That’s where we could use your help. We need you two to start going through the records that we’ve been able to collect from Romano and his associates and see if we can find any hint on where he could be.”

The room fills with a thoughtful silence as we all get lost in our own thoughts. Trying to find someone who doesn’t want to be found isn’t really an exact science. It’s following a lot of leads that mostly lead to dead ends. It’s noticing patterns and being able to read between the lines of information.

“Is it possible he’s in your hometown, Scar?”

Noah’s spine snaps straight as his body fills with tension at Tyler’s question. I take a deep breath and look around the room to realize he wasn’t the only one to react that way.

“It isn’t likely,” I answer. “We’ve narrowed down where he could be and while Eastvale is on the list, Donahue isn’t one to keep a ticking bomb in his backyard. He’ll be where they control the authorities, and their power is well known, without being too close.”

“Charles thinks the same thing,” Noah adds. “His father isn’t willing to invite trouble. He’s far more meticulous than even Romano was at the height of his power.”

I hum my agreement and quickly change the topic and my fingers begin to twitch at my sides. “What about the business side of things?” I address the question to Luca.

He tilts his head to the side and studies me for a moment before finally answering. “Everything is moving faster than anticipated. We had accounted for more trouble than we’ve been running into. It seems just about everyone supporting Romano really has cleared out of these parts. For now at least.”

I take a moment to study him. There’s no lie in his words, not that I can sense, but there’s something I’m missing. My eyes flash around the room and all five of my guys are looking anywhere but at me. All holding entirely too still.

“That’s good news,” I say, my voice lilting at the end in my hesitation. Luca’s easy grin does the opposite of calming my suspicions. Since when does he grin so freely? I start to question him more on what progress has actually happened in the clubs but stop when I feel my phone vibrate. A quick glance down at it drives out any curiosity about what the guys are up to.

My neck cracks as I jerk it to the side in my irritation. “What the fuck does he think he’s doing here?” I demand of no one in particular. My eyes are drawn to Rachel at Jade’s side.

“Speak of the douche and he shall arrive?” Kade jokes, but it doesn’t mask the raw fury burning behind his green eyes.

Rachel groans and Jade pulls her tighter into her side. “Don’t tell me,” she whispers.

“Okay, we won’t,” I agree chirpily. My eyes cut to Kade. “Cut him off at the driveway and then at the knees.”

His knife is already in his hands before I even finish the sentence. “Your wish is my command,” he sings as he heads to the door.

Declan and Luca trade looks but neither seem all that inclined to interfere as they normally would. Ryder is just a step behind Kade, a matching pair of blades in his hands. My smile grows wider even as Rachel curses behind me and Jade’s giggles fill the air.

“You guys can’t actually kill him,” Rachel chastises.

“I don’t see why not,” I argue. “He doesn’t do anything for us. We have more friends than him too.” I weigh that sentence in my head. “Probably,” I amend. I don’t actually know what he’s all involved in. We hadn’t had the need to really delve into his past, that changes now. “It’ll still be worth it,” I decide. What’s a few more enemies to add to the table? “With his personality, I’m sure he has more enemies than friends. You know what they say about the enemy of my enemy and all that.”

Rachel is the only one to roll her eyes at me. That, more than anything, shows how much he’s pissed off everyone in this room. She shakes her head at me, before dropping her gaze to the floor. “He’s still Alec’s brother.”

Fuck. She knows none of us can say shit to that. The entire room holds their breath as I sigh. “He’s still a prick.”

“He’s still a prick,” she agrees, her hurt and confusion marring the sentiment.

“Let him in, I guess,” I concede. As much as I would love to burn him at the stake, it would only hurt Rachel more. I really had thought their shared grief would help mend the damage from their pasts. I thought he was stepping up to be by her side after the funeral. I never thought he would abandon her. Blame her. Fucking destroy the little bit of hope she had left.

Kade and Ryder fall back into their seats as Noah takes over getting the door. I watch as Rachel shrinks into herself with every step he takes out of the room.

Is it too late to change my mind?

He would make such a pretty corpse.