Chapter 16: Edge

16

EDGE

" T hanks again for your help," Phoenix said when we arrived at Luca's estate.

"We were happy to help," Luca said. "But I'm afraid I have some bad news."

"He's dead, isn't he?" Phoenix asked.

Luca nodded resolutely. "He lost consciousness in the car and died a few minutes after we got him downstairs."

"Did he say anything of value?"

"Possibly," Luca said. "He was spouting off the usual threats. ‘You'll pay for this,' and so on. During his tirade, he mentioned his son knew where he was, and their club would come looking for him if he didn't return."

"Yeah," Phoenix said. "I figured as much. Well, if you'll show us where he is, we'll take him off your hands."

"Right this way," Luca said and led us to a basement that was set up similar to the one at the clubhouse.

Muzzle's body was resting on a metal table and haphazardly wrapped with a tarp.

"Let's get him ready to transport."

Carbon and Duke moved to the table. Carbon dropped his backpack on the ground and pulled out a roll of duct tape and another tarp. They made quick work of wrapping the body and sealing the ends to prevent any leakage of blood or other body fluids.

When they finished, they picked up his body and carried him out through a different exit, placing him in the covered bed of a truck one of the brothers had driven to Cedar Valley.

Luca handed a large envelope to Phoenix. "These are the personal belongings we found on him—wallet, keys, cell phone, etc. I turned his phone off as we were leaving the diner."

Phoenix took the envelope and extended his hand to Luca. "Thanks, man. We owe you one."

Luca chuckled. "I believe you owe me two, but who's counting?"

It took me a moment to realize he was referring to providing a safe place for Byte and Gabby to stay as the other favor we owed him.

"You're right. It is two. We'll be happy to fulfill that debt whenever needed," Phoenix vowed.

"I hope it's never needed, but I have no doubt that I can count on you."

Phoenix nodded in acknowledgment before he turned his attention to the rest of us. "Let's roll. We've got a busy night ahead of us."

I headed for the truck with Muzzle's body and offered to drive. Since he was technically my problem, I felt like I should take responsibility in case we got pulled over or somehow discovered on the way back to Croftridge.

Phoenix shook his head. "I don't think so. You may not realize it, but you're too wound up to drive." He handed the keys to Carbon and clapped me on the shoulder. "But you can ride with us."

Before we left Luca's property, Phoenix reached into the envelope with Muzzle's things and pulled out his keys. "Looks like he was driving a Ford. I need two of you to go by the diner, locate his vehicle, and drive it back to Croftridge."

"What about the cameras?" Shaker asked.

"Depending on where he's parked, it might not matter, but I'll text Byte and make sure they're off."

"We'll go," Dice said and gestured between himself and Ink.

"Ride with Dash and Duke and follow them back in Muzzle's car," he instructed. "I want everyone else to head back to the clubhouse. And for fuck's sake, don't speed."

With that, everyone dispersed while I got into the truck with Phoenix, Shaker, and Carbon. Once we were on the road, Phoenix turned in his seat to talk to me. "Obviously, Evie's going to find out her father's dead. Do you think she can handle knowing she's the one who killed him?"

"I don't think she'll have any issues with it. There was no love lost between them, and she acted in self-defense. He wasn't there to make amends with her, and she knows that."

"I'm not sure how we'll end up handling this, but I know for damn sure we won't be delivering him to the Mad Dogs and telling them the truth. Will she be able to keep this to herself and lie to the cops if necessary?"

"I think so," I said. "I can't say for certain without talking to her, but I think she'd do whatever is needed to protect herself and the club."

"Talk to her and be sure before you tell her any details," he said.

I nodded in understanding. "Will do, Prez."

He opened his mouth to say something else when his phone dinged with a text message. "They found the car and are on the way back to the clubhouse."

I felt a slight sense of relief at hearing they got his car, but we still had a lot of things to take care of before I could breathe easily. First and foremost was figuring out what we were going to do with Muzzle's body.

When we arrived at the clubhouse, Carbon parked the truck in the back, and we left the body where it was for the time being. "I don't see any reason to risk spreading his DNA around the clubhouse if we don't need to," Phoenix said as we followed him to church.

Once everyone was seated, Phoenix called the meeting to order. "Since everyone here is up to speed, I'll get right to the point. We need to decide what we want to do with Muzzle's body and car. I have some ideas, but I'm open to suggestions."

"Before we do anything with him, we need to remove the bullets from his body," Carbon said.

"Can you take care of that as soon as we're finished here?"

Carbon nodded. "Consider it done."

"Since we have a car and a body to get rid of, what about sending him off the side of a mountain? There are plenty of places that would be too hard to reach if anyone were to come looking," Dash suggested.

"Yeah," Duke agreed. "And we could rig up something to cause it to explode or catch on fire when it hits the bottom."

"Hell, we could just set it on fire before we push it over," Badger said.

"Yeah, but we need to be careful, so we don't accidentally start a wildfire," I added.

"Do any of you have a specific place in mind?" Phoenix asked. "I'd like to check it out and get this show on the road before that body starts stinking."

"I know a place," Shaker said. "It's rocky, so there's little chance of starting a forest fire. But it's on the outskirts of Croftridge, even farther away from Cedar Valley."

Phoenix leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I don't think that will matter if no one can get to the body. Muzzle went to Cedar Valley to get Evie. She's with a member of the Blackwings. It's entirely plausible that he drove to Croftridge to look for her."

"You don't think his car being found at the bottom of a ravine in Croftridge will be problematic for us?" Carbon asked.

"I don't think it matters if his car is found or not, let alone where . We're going to have a problem with the Mad Dogs as soon as they realize he isn't coming back. The question is: do they know they're going to have a problem with us?"

All eyes turned to me. "I guess it depends on how they found her. It's entirely possible someone saw us together, but I haven't noticed anything suspicious or out of the ordinary when we've been together."

"What about that guy that got into it with the old guys at the diner?" Dash asked. "Do you think he's connected to this?"

"Even if he is, I wasn't there that morning."

"But we all were the next day," Badger pointed out.

"It doesn't matter right now," Phoenix said. "If they don't know, they'll figure it out soon. We need to stay vigilant and anticipate retaliation, but we'll get to all that later. Let's go take a look at the place Shaker suggested and see if it'll work for us."

To avoid drawing attention to ourselves, only Phoenix, Duke, Carbon, Shaker, and I went to scope out the location. It was in a fairly remote area near the top of one of the many mountains surrounding Croftridge. The curve in the road looked unsuspecting at first glance. However, the first section of the guardrail was missing, making it easy for drivers to misjudge the curve and go over the side.

"How in the hell did you find this place?" Phoenix asked Shaker.

"Keegan thought she saw a car one day when we flew over the area, so I circled back around to take another look. There are several vehicles down there."

"Really? I've never heard anything about accidents in this area," Phoenix said.

Shaker shrugged. "If that missing guardrail is any indication, I'm guessing no one knows. There are no skid marks or anything that would suggest accidents are happening here."

"Well, it's going to stay that way for a while longer because we sure as shit aren't reporting it."

"Agreed."

Phoenix stepped back and surveyed the area. "If we come up the other side of the mountain, we should be able to put him in the driver's seat and send him right over the edge without any trouble."

"And the fire?" Duke asked.

"We could toss a Molotov cocktail through the window before we send him over," I suggested.

Phoenix clapped his hands together and nodded once. "Yes. I like it. Okay, let's get back to the clubhouse and get to work. I want everything to be ready to go by eleven."

With that, we loaded into the SUV and drove back to the clubhouse with a solid plan in place. Before I got started on my assigned tasks, I went to my room to call Evie and check on things in Cedar Valley.

"Hello," she answered on the second ring.

"Hey. How's Irene?" I asked.

"She's doing okay. She was in a bit of pain earlier, but they gave her some medicine, and she's sleeping now. How are things there?"

"Fine," I said and took a moment to choose my next words carefully. I couldn't tell her exactly what was going on, but I didn't want to outright lie either. "I'll be at the hospital first thing in the morning. I'll fill you in on everything then."

"Oh, okay." I could tell she wasn't happy with my response, but I couldn't very well tell her over the phone that her father died and we were tossing his dead body and car off the side of a mountain.

Instead of trying to reassure her, I changed the subject. "Any news on Bart or Tony?" I asked.

"Neither of them has friends or family to speak of, and they both had Irene listed as their emergency contact. It took some doing, but we finally got one of the doctors to come in and talk to Irene. Tony has a broken arm and a concussion. Bart also has a concussion and a couple of broken ribs. They should be able to go home tomorrow and are going to stay at Tony's house to help each other."

"So, they're both going to be out of work for a while?"

"Sounds like it," she said. "Irene wasn't happy about it, but she agreed to keep the diner closed tomorrow."

"We'll get things figured out in the morning."

"That's what I told her, but you know how she is."

"Well, try to get some rest, and I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay," she said softly. "Be careful."

"Always," I promised and ended the call.

Leaning back against my headboard, I closed my eyes and sighed. Even though we had a handle on the situation for the time being, I knew there was more to come.

Since I didn't have time to dwell on it, I got to my feet and went out back to search Muzzle's car. I wasn't looking for anything specific, just doing a general search to see if there was anything that might be useful, particularly since we were expecting future dealings with his club.

"Gross," I grumbled to myself as I tossed yet another bag of fast-food wrappers onto the ever-growing pile. The man was a fucking pig. His car was filled with trash, and it smelled like sweat, smoke, and something rotten.

Other than a gun and some meth, I found nothing of significance inside the vehicle. The trunk, however, was another story. I opened it, saw what was inside, and immediately closed it before running back into the clubhouse.

"Prez," I said and tried to catch my breath. "Found something in the trunk you need to see."

Phoenix, Badger, and a few other brothers followed me out back to Muzzle's car. Without preamble, I opened the trunk and stepped to the side.

"Fucking hell," Phoenix grimaced. "Do you—?" he started and covered his mouth. "Do you know who that is?"

"I'm pretty sure it's Marcy, the waitress who works the evening shift at Irene's."

Phoenix gestured for me to close the trunk. "Well, I don't think that's coincidental."

"Me either," I agreed.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled heavily. "I knew this had been too fucking easy. Give me a minute to think."

"I don't see how this changes anything," Badger chimed in.

"How so?"

"She's dead," he said simply. "We can't change that. She can go over the edge with Muzzle. Her death, or disappearance, will go unsolved or be linked to the attack at the diner. Either way, it has nothing to do with us," Badger explained.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Phoenix said.

Badger grinned. "I usually am."

"Yeah, yeah," Phoenix said and shook his head. "Let's get this damn show on the road. I don't like having dead bodies on the property."

"It'd be weird if you did," Badger said.

Phoenix cocked his head to the side and gave him a strange look before he laughed.

"You can say it. I'm right again," Badger joked.

"Not happening," Phoenix chuckled and motioned with his hand. "Come on. We've got shit to take care of."

Much sooner than we initially planned, we were on the road and headed to Muzzle's final destination. I was driving Muzzle's car with his dead body in the passenger seat and Marcy's body in the trunk. Over the years, I'd done a lot of unusual things related to club business, but driving a stolen car with two dead bodies inside was by far the most disturbing. And it was definitely something I never wanted to do again.

Every time a pair of headlights approached, it felt like my heart stopped, and I held my breath until the car passed and I could no longer see the taillights. By the time we reached the location, my heart was racing and I was covered in a light sheen of sweat.

"You okay?" Carbon asked.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead with my sleeve. "That fucking sucked."

"I bet," he said and slapped me on the back. "You did good though."

"Thanks, I think," I said and covered my mouth with my hand. Suddenly, I felt like I was going to vomit.

"Nope, not happening," Carbon said right before his open palm connected with my cheek. My head whipped to the side as a stinging sensation blossomed on my face.

"What the fuck, man?" I yelled and lunged forward to grab him.

He easily dodged me and held his hands up in surrender. "Anger and adrenaline supersede nausea. We can't have you spewing your DNA everywhere."

"You two knock it off," Phoenix ordered. "Let's get this shit done."

We got to work and placed Muzzle's body in the driver's seat while making sure the window was rolled down. Then I put the car in neutral and closed the door. When everyone was ready, I lit the end of the rag sticking out of our homemade fire starter and tossed it inside. "Now!" I yelled, cueing the guys at the back to start pushing. The car went over the edge with ease. We heard several loud crashing and banging sounds before silence once again filled the night air.

"Let's go," Phoenix said and clapped me on the shoulder as he passed.

I followed him to the SUV and climbed inside, sighing in relief when I took my seat. I knew it wasn't over, but getting rid of the two dead bodies made me feel a lot better.