Chapter Twelve

Falcon

“Look, man. Believe me or not. But I’m telling you, Joilyn is working with the CIA to get inside Grim Road.” We were outside the Salvation’s Bane MC compound in a yard where they had parties with other clubs, or friends and family. Whatever the occasion. Rattler braced himself with his palms flat on the surface of a nearby picnic table and hung his head. I knew the feeling. While I didn’t want to marry Joilyn anymore, that didn’t mean I didn’t still care about her. This whole other side to Joilyn was throwing me, but I thought there were still glimpses of the young woman I’d known and had thought I’d wanted to spend my life with.

“Did she admit to that?”

“She didn’t have to, Rattler. She didn’t even try to deny it. She wants the three of us to be a team. She doesn’t understand they’re manipulating her to get to us.”

“Or maybe she knows and doesn’t care.” Rattler shook his head. “You know how that place is. They get you isolated from everyone and everything you’ve ever known, then make you rely on them. On your handler. Whoever they tell you to trust. Deep down, you know something’s wrong, but you can’t place it. Before you know it, you’re a lifer. You’re in that middle place where you’re a true believer. Just far enough up the food chain to have some authority but not far enough to realize everything they do has three or four different agendas, each one acting like a cascade until the end is reached.”

“Yeah,” I said, throwing the toothpick I was chewing on to the ground. “And the end result is never anything you’d have agreed to if you’d known what was happening.”

“Christ, what’s she gotten herself into?”

I tilted my head to the side just as a man walked out of the clubhouse. Finally, a place to focus my anger. I lifted my chin in the man’s direction. “Ask Scout.”

Yeah. That might have been the exact wrong thing to say. Rattler pushed off from the table and stormed off toward Scout. The other man gave him a wary look that morphed into resignation. Then Rattler swung a haymaker at Scout’s face, connecting with a crunch .

Scout grunted and blood spurted from his nose. I tensed, not sure if I would have to pull Rattler off Scout or help Rattler beat Scout to a bloody pulp. Could go either way.

“You son of a bitch!” Rattler bit out, getting up in the other man’s face. “If I find out you had anything to do with this, I swear I’ll fuckin’ gut you!”

“It’s exactly as I told you. When I figured out who she was and what they had her doing, I did my best to intervene. But they already had her part way in and I didn’t even talk to her until a couple weeks before she was fully embedded. That was all the time I had and she didn’t trust me yet. She wasn’t gonna take my word over the people she’d been training with for a year.” Scout brushed at the blood dripping steadily from his nose with the back of his arm. “All I could do was keep her as safe as possible on this end, wait for things to happen, and minimize the damage.”

“You coulda pulled her out.”

“You think I didn’t try?” Scout spat blood and brushed at his nose again. The blood still leaked in a steady drip, but was slowing. “I tried to get them to stop the raid when she called it in. Children in the compound we hadn’t planned on being there should have been enough to at least delay the start.”

“Why didn’t they?”

“Because whatever their ultimate goal, they deemed it more important. And no, I don’t know what the goal is, but staging this scale of an exercise tells me it’s not something I want to even contemplate where anyone can hear me.”

“And when everyone realized the place was on alert?”

“Again, I tried. I went so far as to disobey direct orders and got myself physically restrained. Then, after, Joilyn went dark. I got reassigned. Only, I kept an eye on the compound and established Joilyn was still there.”

“And you didn’t tell anyone? That she was alive?” I could tell Rattler was still pissed and I wasn’t sure if Scout’s explanation was helping or hurting.

“No. I had no idea what they’d do, but I knew they wouldn’t want to take a chance she’d blow the whistle on a covert CIA operation in fucking Oklahoma.”

“So you just waited. Hoping she’d contact you.”

“No, Rattler. I didn’t just wait. I contacted her. I let her know I wasn’t working through official CIA channels and that our connection was secure if she decided to trust me. It was weeks before she even acknowledged the message. When she did, she only said, ‘Acknowledged.’ All I could do was wait.”

“Christ.” Rattler scrubbed a hand over his face. I knew the feeling.

“This is way the fuck above my paygrade.” I pointed at Scout. “And fuck you anyway. You’re good in a fight, Scout. Why you workin’ for the spooks?”

“I have my reasons. But mostly it’s to find the agents they left behind. Those men and women belong at Grim Road, Falcon. Joilyn does too.”

“Not until I can be certain she’s on the up and up.” I shook my head. “Who’s to say one of those cascading agendas didn’t include you bringing her here? You may not even know it.”

“Fuck!” Scout gave a rare display of temper. I’d only met the guy a couple of times, but I knew him by reputation. Word was he was always cool under fire, so for him to have this explosion of temper, no matter how mild, told me he hadn’t thought of this. “Have I been leading them straight to former agents trying to hide?”

“We need to talk to Thorn here at Bane and Rocket at Grim.” I pulled Rattler farther away from Scout, using the distraction to diffuse the situation as much as I could. “Joilyn has to have someplace to go until she figures out what she wants. It can’t be Grim and I don’t think Thorn’ll want her here.”

“I can find my own place to stay.” The three of us turned to see Joilyn standing next to a palm tree in the yard. She was smoking a cigarette like she hadn’t a care in the world.

“Joilyn, we’ll figure it out.” Rattler stepped toward her, but she flipped her cigarette aside and turned to leave. “Joilyn!”

“I don’t need your help, Ruben,” she called over her shoulder. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Stop, Joilyn.” Rattler followed his sister. “Just come back and let’s talk.”

“Nothing to talk about. I have my life and you guys have yours.”

“There’s no reason we can’t all still be a family. I can help protect you, but you’ve gotta give me something.”

“I don’t have to give you anything, Ruben.” Joilyn’s voice was cold. Not at all like the woman I used to know. For the first time since she’d come back from the dead, I could see the real woman. The woman she’d become. “I had a job to do and I did it. Getting inside Grim Road was a pipe dream, but I was game to try.” She threw us a grin over her shoulder. “So long, guys.”

“Come on, Joi,” Rattler yelled. “Come home. We’ll figure it out.”

“I am going home, Ruben.” She glanced at me and I caught a glimpse of the woman I’d left behind when I went into the Marines. Then her expression morphed into one of complete indifference.

She took off at a jog away from the clubhouse and through the gate. No one stopped her leaving. Rattler looked torn, but also resigned.

“I can’t just let my sister walk away, Falcon.”

“You can’t keep her if she don’t want to stay, man.”

“Christ,” Rattler swore and took off after Joilyn.

She was safe. At least, as long as the agency didn’t decide she was a loose end they needed to tie up. I pulled out my phone and shot off a text to Rattler. I’d support him with whatever he needed, but I couldn’t follow Joilyn. She wasn’t my problem and I had my own woman to worry about.