Chapter Seven

Reynolds

“W e’re shutting down all our businesses this weekend because...?”

“Everything except Obsidian Security,” Ghost announces to the room full of bikers. “We’ve gotten word that our clubs are bugged.”

“There’s no way anyone got inside Oasis without us knowing,” Blaze grumbles, skeptical.

“If we find any bugs, we’ll be kicking everyone off the approved list and starting fresh,” Steel adds, his tone hard.

“Why would someone bug us?” Venom asks. “It’s not like we’re involved in anything worth knowing.”

“Unfortunately, that’s not true,” I say. “Obsidian Security has a high-profile client we’ve been working with.”

“Not to mention that Knox is still running security at the Mayor’s house,” Taylor adds.

“Technically speaking, the Mayor is no longer the Mayor as of last month,” Knox says from Taylor’s phone. He’s currently out with Freckles and the kids. “Besides, if they wanted to spy on Bobby, then they would have bugged his house and not our clubs. The man doesn’t go anywhere.”

“Alright,” King says. “Then who is your client?”

King turns to Taylor, and I sit back and wait for his decision. I trust everyone in this room with my life, but our current client has asked for anonymity.

And for a very good reason.

Currently, Hayes and Mitchell are sitting with him at a safe house about three hours from here.

“Damnit,” Taylor mutters, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you, but knowing only puts you in danger.”

“Wait, are you in danger?” Knox screeches.

“Whose in danger?” I hear Elijah ask.

“I’m fine, baby boy,” Taylor soothes. “But there is always risk with this job.”

Steel narrows his eyes, clearly not satisfied with Taylor’s answer. “That’s not good enough. If there’s a threat hanging over this club, we need to know.”

Taylor exhales sharply, running his fingers through his hair. “Look, I know how this sounds, but this isn’t a situation where knowing helps. In fact, it could make things worse. You know as well as I do that information is leverage, and I don’t want to put any of you in the crosshairs.”

“That’s the problem, though,” Steel shoots back. “If the clubs are being bugged, we’re already in the crosshairs. You think the enemy gives a damn about who knows what? If they’re after something, we’re all part of the game now.”

Knox, still sounding rattled, speaks up, “So what do we do? Just sit here and wait for them to come for us?”

“Who’s coming for us?” Once again, Ihear Elijah ask.

Before Taylor can respond, I lean forward, locking eyes with Steel. “We’re handling it. That’s all you need to know right now. And Knoxy, please calm down and stop asking questions in front of my boy. You’re scaring him.”

“Sorry,” he responds. “I wasn’t thinking.”

Steel glares at me, but I don’t back down. I can feel the weight of responsibility pressing down on my shoulders, but if we spill too much, we risk more than just our own lives.

“We only want to protect our family,” Taylor says.

Steel’s glare softens just slightly, but the tension in the room is thick enough to cut with a knife. “Family, huh?” he mutters, his eyes flicking to Taylor and then back to me. “We protect our own, that’s what we do. But we can’t protect them if we don’t know what the hell we’re up against.”

I grit my teeth, the faces of Freckles, Jessica, and Eli haunting my thoughts. The thought of them being pulled into the chaos makes my chest tighten. “You’re not wrong,” I say quietly. “But this client, this situation, it’s more dangerous than anything we’ve dealt with before.”

Before anyone can respond, Taylor’s phone buzzes on the table, the sudden noise jolting us all. His face is stoic as he glances at the message. “It’s Hayes. He’s not supposed to contact me for another hour. Don’t hang up, baby boy. I need to answer this.”

Taylor is on his feet in an instant, pacing back and forth as he answers the call. “What is it?” he barks into the receiver, his face tense.

The room falls into a thick silence as Taylor listens, his jaw clenching tighter with every second. Finally, he nods and mutters something under his breath before ending the call and putting Knox back on speaker. He turns to me, his face grim. “We’ve got a problem.”

Steel crosses his arms. “Bigger than the bug?”

Taylor nods, his eyes flicking between me and Steel. “They found the safe house. Hayes says they barely made it out.”

“Shit,” I whisper, rubbing a hand down his face. “Are they alright?”

“They’re alive,” Taylor answers. “The client got shot, but Hayes says he’ll survive.”

“Who got shot?” Knox cries out.

“Wait, someone got shot?” Eli squeaks.

“Damnit, Knoxy,” I growl.

“Sorry,” he whispers.

“I need answers…now,” Ghost orders.

Ghost stands tall, his shoulder wide and his eyes blazing, as he looks at my best friend.

“I know,” Taylor answers. “This isn’t just about security anymore. They know who we are, and if we’re being bugged, this has crossed into club business.”

Ghost shifts his weight, his eyes burning into me as I feel the weight of his authority settle in the room. He’s the presidentandnever one to shy away from a fight. This is no different. The club’s safety is on the line. Taylor’s right. Time to bring the rest of the Obsidians into play.

I stand, my mind racing. “What are our options?” I ask, my voice steadier than I feel inside.

“We’ve got to relocate the client,” Taylor says. “That safe house was the only livable one we have. The rest are little shacks that haven’t been stocked in years. We need someplace new.”

“Where?” Steel asks, his tone sharp. “If they knew about your safe house, they’ll have eyes on any other property you have.”

Taylor nods grimly. “Exactly. Which is why I think we need to move them somewhere no one would expect.”

“Club territory,” Ghost says, his voice low but commanding. “Bring them to one of our strongholds. King has one close by.”

“That’s a risk,” I say, glancing between Taylor and Ghost. “If the enemy is smart enough to find a safe house that wasn’t tied to any of us, then they can do the same thing to any that we have tied to the club. They might not hesitate to come after the Obsidians.”

“Then we show them what happens when they mess with us,” Ghost growls, his fists clenching at his sides. “This is our house. No one threatens us on our own turf.”

Steel steps forward, his gaze serious. “If we bring them into club territory, it’s all hands on deck. Every brother needs to be prepared for a fight. Is the client worth that kind of heat?”

Taylor doesn’t hesitate. “Yes. The man holds information that could take down powerful players. The people after him aren’t small-time. They’re dangerous, organized, and they’ve got resources.”

I take a deep breath, trying to push aside the doubts swirling in my head. Bringing this heat into our world is risky, but leaving the client out there, exposed, feels like a death sentence. Not only to him but to any potential victims these fuckers go after.

I look at Taylor, the final decision weighing heavily on our minds. He stares back, his expression unreadable. “It’s your call,” I say. Ghost may be our club’s president, but Obsidian Security is Taylor’s baby. He started this business, and the final decision is his and his alone.

“I’ve told you from the beginning that your security business will remain yours when you merged with our club,” Ghost says. “And I stand by that. But if you bring this to our doorstep, I expect full transparency about your client and the people after him. And you better be damn sure you’re ready for any fallout.”

Taylor nods, and I take a deep breath, knowing there’s no turning back. “Alright,” he says. “We move the client to club territory. Full lockdown.”

Ghost steps forward, his hand clapping on Taylor’s shoulder. “Then we handle it like we always do. As a fucking team.”

The room falls into a tense, charged silence as everyone prepares for what comes next.

“Alright,” Taylor sighs. “Two weeks ago, we received a request from an old buddy of mine who works Interpol.”

Taylor’s eyes darken as he continues. “He needed off-the-books protection for someone under international surveillance. Someone important. A whistleblower. We weren’t told the full details at first, only that this guy had dirt on a network of powerful players, and they wanted him dead before he could testify.”

Ghost narrows his eyes. “A whistleblower? You brought someone like that into our world?”

Taylor holds up his hands. “I know what you’re thinking, and I wouldn’t have agreed if I didn’t believe in what he’s doing. He’s got information that could topple organized crime operations across Europe and beyond. If this falls into the wrong hands, entire governments could get exposed for turning a blind eye to trafficking, arms deals, hell, things we can’t even imagine.”

Steel curses under his breath, pacing the room. “And now they know where he is.”

Taylor nods grimly. “That’s why the safe house was hit. These people don’t miss. They’re precise, they’re deadly, and they’ve got resources we don’t even know about. It didn’t take long for them to track him here.”

“Hell, they might not even know who we are,” I say. “They might have their very own Knox who tracked his face or some shit.”

“True, but not likely,” Taylor says. “These guys are Knox on steroids. They’ve probably had eyes on our client the entire time. I would bet my life that they know everything about each one of us.”

The weight of Taylor’s words sinks in, thickening the already tense air.

“We’re in deep now,” I say, my voice low. “And if they’re after him, that means they’ll come after us next. Maybe we should take this far away from Obsidians. We can head to Ohio and lay low for a while.”

“Not happening,” Ghost says. “We’ve made the mistake of not helping someone in the past, and she was hurt. We’ve changed our ways. We’ll handle this as a family. But next time you decide to protect someone that could cause an international war, fucking warn me. Alright, it’s as simple as this, before we move this person to one of our safehouses, I want the entire family on lockdown. I want the women and children at King’s. Once they’re in the bunker, I want no traffic to or from it until I give the all-clear. Mitchell and Hayes need to be pulled and placed with the women. Taylor, you and Reynolds stay with your client. The rest of us will stay here and make noise. I want eyes on us and not at King’s. Steel, hire someone to search all of our clubs for those damn bugs. Knox will help from King’s if you find anything.”

Ghost looks from me to Taylor, his jaw clenched. “Get every brother on high alert, fortify the clubhouse, and lock down our perimeter. No one in or out without clearance.”

King steps forward, nodding. “I’ll handle the lockdown at my place. Reynolds, Ghost, Venom, get your women and kids there as soon as possible.”

My heart lurches knowing that my job has put them in danger, but I nod all the same.

“And I’ll get in touch with some of my contacts,” Knox adds. “See if anyone’s heard whispers about this hit.”

“There’s a hit? What’s the mean?”

I watch a slight grin appear at the corner of Ghost’s face as Elijah pipes up once again. That man has plans for my boy.

Taylor exhales slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. “There’s one more thing you all need to know.”

I turn to him, feeling a knot twist in my gut knowing what he’s about to reveal.

Taylor hesitates, then speaks. “The client… he’s not just some whistleblower. His real name is Mark Paston.”

Ghost freezes, the small smirk replaced with valid concern “Paston? You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“No joke,” Taylor says. “Interpol has been after his father, one of the biggest organized crime bosses in Eastern Europe, for years. This guy’s not just blowing the whistle. He’s betraying his own blood. And that makes him an even bigger target.”

A low growl rumbles in Ghost’s chest. “So we’re protecting a damn Paston? Do you know what you’ve done, Taylor?”

Taylor’s expression hardens. “I know exactly what I’ve done. And I’m telling you all now, if we can pull this off, we’ll have the power to take down some of the worst criminals on the planet. However, if you want to back out and keep Obsidian out of this, we’ll make it happen. It’s not your job to do mine.”

The room falls silent again, the gravity of the situation sinking in. Protecting Paston wasn’t just about guarding one man’s life, it’s about surviving a storm we never saw coming.

Ghost speaks first, his voice firm. “Then we don’t half-ass this. We see it through.”

I glance at Taylor, my mind racing. The lines we’re about to cross might be ones we never come back from. But there is no other option. That was decided the moment we accepted the job.

“Let’s move,” Ghost says, standing. “We don’t have time to waste.”