23. Matías

23

MATíAS

" N o fucking way!" Joel’s face turned red.

"Not in our gang!"

"The hell you fucking say!"

Several of the men in the crowd yelled obscenities and Ricco cursed. They didn't believe there could be a rat inside Dirty Dogs.

"Quiet!" Rita shouted.

Men continued to shout their disbelief. Esteban's face grew thunderous as he took a step closer to the edge of the platform. Whatever he was looking for in the crowd, he wasn't finding it.

I stuck two fingers in my mouth and gave a sharp whistle. That caught their attention.

Rita glanced down. "Thank you," she mouthed.

"Why do you think there's a rat?" Ricco raised his voice.

Rita quirked an eyebrow. "Yesterday, after we finished our meeting with Matthews, one of our very own men tried to kill Esteban."

Esteban's shoulders bunched as he stared at something at the back of the room .

I craned my head, but I still couldn't see what it was.

"Who?" Joel demanded.

"Rob." As soon as the name left her lips, there was a commotion somewhere behind me.

Esteban pointed. "There! Grab him!"

I pushed through the crowd, shoving men left and right, trying to get to the back. There he was. I remembered this guy from my time with the Dirty Dogs–Kurt. He shoved away from a man trying to contain him and sprinted toward the door.

Putting on a burst of speed. I launched myself at him, tackling him much like I tackled Esteban yesterday, except I let the full weight of my body slam him into the ground. He grunted, and so did I.

The cut on my arm stung as if it tore open.

"Matías!" Rita called. "Take Kurt to the shed." Manny, one of the VPs, came up and helped me off the ground. He shoved his foot on Kurt's back, holding him to the ground until I was all the way back on my feet. Then we picked him up together and I slammed my fist across his cheek.

"That's for making me chase you." I caught him under the chin with my next hit."And that's for being involved in whatever plan that almost got Rita hurt."

"The meeting with Matthews went as great as I could've expected," Rita said from the platform as the men quieted down. "He wasn't hostile. He didn't try to harm us, and we came to an agreement, however, he had information that he shouldn't have…"

That was the last I heard before the door shut.

"So what happens now?" Manny glanced at me over the top of Kurt's head. Kurt was out of it, letting his head hang and his feet drag as we carted him toward the shed. If he'd been awake, he'd be fighting for his life .

The people who entered the shed never left. Not intact.

Like the rest of the Dirty Dogs, I've never had a problem with Manny. Yet in light of everything that had happened, I wasn't sure I wanted to trust him either. Still, you had to give a little information to see how people reacted.

"Let me ask you this, Manny. Have you heard anything? About anyone being angry at Rita for stepping up or Esteban for having her back?"

Manny was older than me by five years. He had a deep scar along his cheek, and his skin was weathered. He'd also been in more fights than half the gang, and when he met my gaze, fury burned in the depths of his eyes.

"What makes you think there's anybody who's upset about Rita?"

"That's not what I asked, Manny. I asked if you'd heard anything." I narrowed my eyes on him.

Manny blew out a harsh breath as he kicked the door to the back courtyard open. The shed was an outbuilding that Javier had always used to do his dirty work. He said he didn't like the mess in the compound. That was the one thing he and my father always had in common, not that there weren't enough crimes that happened inside the mansion, but blood was avoided if possible.

Kurt started to rouse between us. I was tempted to punch him a third time, but we needed answers inside the shed. Manny and I worked together to bind Kurt's wrists and hang him from the hook in the ceiling. I used shears from the table along the wall to cut his shirt off. He needed to have skin exposed for anything Rita would want to do to him.

Once he was secured, Manny turned to face me, swiping a hand through his thinning hair.

"The club is a mess right now. Rita hasn't seen it. She's not been around very much, but since Javier's death, the men are scared shitless. They don't know who's going to be able to take charge of the club and keep everybody in line. Hell, or be intimidating enough to keep everybody else away. These new kids on the block are the worst possible thing to happen at the time of Javier’s death, it just made everybody that much crazier.”

I crossed my arms. "What are you talking about? Rita’s a solid choice. I don't think Joel is terrible, either. But the Dirty Dogs could do better, Man."

He chuckled softly. We all liked Joel but he was no Javier.

Squinting at me, Manny got a glint in his eyes. "You on the other hand..Javier didn't make it a secret that he always wanted you to take his place."

"Don't start that shit," I warned.

He raised his hands. "I'm just saying."

"Well, don't."

Kurt raised his head, looking between me and Manny, then dropped it back with a groan.

"Don't let yourself get too comfortable." Manny kicked his shin.

"I don't know what you're talking about." When Kurt looked up again his eyes were red as if tears were on their way.

"Yeah, right." Manny said. "Then why were you running away from the crowd when Rita was talking about a rat?"

"Look, I'm not the rat. If I were, do you think I would have come to this meeting? I would've known yesterday an attempt was made on Esteban's life. You want to find the rat? Look at the men who aren't here."

I had to give it to Kurt. He did have a point.

The door opened and Rita stepped through, followed by Esteban, then Joel, and Ricco. I wanted to hold out my hand to pull her into my side, but I wouldn't do that to her. Not here. I had screwed up enough and I wouldn't do anything else to make her look weak in front of her gang.

"How did it go in there?" I asked.

Pulling her shoulders back, she glared daggers at Kurt. "It went about as well as expected. About half the men were enraged that someone tried to kill Esteban. The other half believe Rob was working on his own."

The weight of her gaze sliced into me.

"I think you and I both know there are too many coincidences." I stepped back to stand next to Esteban. He glanced at me. I wouldn't call his expression friendly, but it was missing the hate he'd been carrying. I'd take it.

He nodded in solidarity and I returned it.

Ricco huffed, but Joel stepped forward.

"What about these two?" I stared at Ricco and Joel as Rita glanced at them. "Can they be trusted?" I took a half step toward her.

"What do you mean, can I be trusted?" Ricco boomed. He pointed a beefy finger at me. "I have supported you from the very beginning. Do you think that I would do something to jeopardize the Dirty Dogs?"

"The one thing I know right now, Ricco, is that Rita isn't safe and we’re not going to trust anyone until she is," Esteban said as he puffed up his chest. The way he squared off with Ricco and Joel, he craved to shield Rita with his body. It was written all over his face, but he remained behind her.

Rita still hadn't answered, and when I dropped my gaze back to her, she still watched Joel and Ricco.

"They can stay," was all she said .

Joel and Ricco weren't happy with that answer, but they didn't argue.

Then she walked close to Kurt. His breathing turned ragged as he held her gaze.

"Strange seeing you here in this situation." She tapped her finger on her bottom lip. Her gaze slid over to the tables that lined the wall. The inside was like any other shed with all the tools hanging up or set out that one might find in any gardener's arsenal. "You were one of Papá's biggest thorns in his side. So, I'm not surprised after all."

"I'm not a rat, Rita." He tried to convince her as he tugged on his arms. The chain holding him up rattled.

Rita walked over to the table and picked up a set of pliers. Slapping them against her palm rhythmically, she returned to Kurt. "You're not the rat?" she asked.

"Hell no," he said, puffing out his cheeks.

"Convince me."

I raised my brows. I hadn't realized Javier had let her in on the interrogations. I’d been in a few myself, for men that never left breathing, but Rita had never joined us.

Yet, she was solid and steady. She didn't even seem to twitch at the thought of hurting him. Although, she did always have a mean streak.

His eyes widened and he glanced around from person to person. Whatever was going through his head, he was panicking.

Rita slapped the pliers on her palm one more time then reached out and clamped it on his nipple.

"Ah!" he screamed as she twisted so hard his skin seemed to tear. I winced. My father had been ruthless and sadistic, but I never saw him go for the nipples.

She stopped twisting but still held his nipple clamped in the pliers. "Why did you run? "

He made gasping noises but words never formed.

"Your balls are going to be next. Those will burst like sad little grapes. I'd answer if I were you."

Joel held his stomach, a little green in the face as Ricco stared at the wall. Esteban watched Rita with a fucking hard on.

All right, the kid was growing on me. It helped that he wasn't trying to drive me out of town anymore. Or toss me over a cliff.

I grinned. Esteban caught me looking at him and he raised his brows in question. I shrugged.

It had been long enough that I could joke about my death now, if only to myself.

"Esteban," Rita said. "Take down his pants."

Kurt twisted to the right and left, throwing his knees up as if that would save him. Esteban gripped the band of his jeans when Kurt screamed.

And screamed. His pain pushed his voice higher as tears leaked from his eyes.

"Okay! Okay!" He panted once Esteban stepped back, understanding it for the near miss it was. If he was stripped, Rita would have latched onto his balls and not let go. I'd seen her do it more times than I could count in the clubs and that was without her tools.

Releasing his bloody nipple, she stepped back. "Go on."

"I was out the other night, before Javier's funeral. Tiago was with us. Rob too." His breathing became more erratic like he was more afraid to tell her the truth, but didn't want his balls crushed.

"If I have to ask again, I'm going strip you and you won't get an opportunity to speak."

Swallowing, he continued. "Tiago and Rob were best friends. I don't know what happened after I left, but you know that, right? That they were friends?"

"Everyone in the Dirty Dogs is friends," Esteban deadpanned.

"Yes, but we still have cliques like school kids!" Kurt almost shouted. "Tiago, he was talking about how this was an opportunity to make the Dirty Dogs feared again. He said...He said–"

"Spit it out." Rita opened the pliers and stepped closer.

"He said that since the Institution fell, we'd lost our spines. Then this new club rolls in and tries to take over our best businesses, the ones we didn't want to leave–" Kurt cut himself off like he realized what a mistake that was.

Rita hummed, her voice dropping low with emotion. "Interesting. I hadn't realized that so many people have issues with the way Dirty Dogs is going." She glanced over her shoulder. Joel and Ricco refused to meet her gaze.

They knew. But were they part of it?

"Tell me more," she purred, leaning into him.

He pulled his head back as far as he could with the way he was strung up. "It's not everyone. It's not even me! I just like to keep my head down! I like being included. That's it."

"What did Tiago and Rob say?"

"That..." Kurt gulped, glancing at everyone in the room but Rita. "That the only way to move into the future was to clear the past. They wanted to get rid of you because you are part of the old Dirty Dogs."

"Because Javier is my father," she concluded.

He nodded in jerky motions.

"That doesn't explain why you ran."

His face scrunched up as sweat rolled down his face. His perspiration and fear perfumed the tight humid space.

"There were only a few men there. All of them are either dead or missing today. I knew it would look bad. I didn't want anyone to accuse me."

"How would we have known?" Esteban moved beside Rita. "How the hell would we have known about that conversation, if you hadn't told us? We wouldn't have known you were there."

The blood drained from Kurt's face. "There was one other person there."

"Who?"

"One of the men from the new club."

That motherfucker, Matthews. He knew about a coup and he didn't say a goddamned thing other than not to trust anyone.

I was going to pay him a visit this time. By myself.