Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Havoc

N eveah walks in with Conan and Hoops, our food in her hands, just as I’m heading into church.

“Eat without me. I’ll reheat mine after.”

I signal for Dice to keep an eye on my woman before I head into church, Conan following behind me.

“You’re cutting it close,” I tell him.

“Your woman distracted me.”

I sigh. “She has that effect on people.”

I leave him and take my seat at the head of the table, still feeling weird about it.

“Alright, assholes, sit down,” I shout as the others filter in.

Once everyone’s settled, I begin. “First up: Blade, Conan, King and Inigo are going away for a couple of weeks, so leave them the fuck alone unless they reach out. Honestly, I’m not sure Blade even knows what a vacation is.”

Blade flips me off, but he’s grinning while he does it.

“As president, I want to say enjoy yourself, Blade. You’ve more than earned it. But if any of you need us, we’re a phone call away. If you go running to Carnage first, though, you’ll hurt my feelings.”

Inigo chuckles, and Conan just smiles.

“What about Conan’s treatments?” Probe asks.

“Just finished my first round, so I have a few weeks off until the next one starts. Can’t say I’m looking forward to it. I end up puking more than Sunshine does.”

“If fighting were easy, we’d all be soldiers. But if anyone can beat this, it’s you.”

“Oh, I will. I just hate puking,” he complains, making the others murmur sympathetically.

“Where’s Hannibal?” Inigo asks.

“He had something important come up.” I hold my hand up when they start to argue because you better have a damn good reason to miss church. “Trust me, he’s exactly where he needs to be.”

“You know what’s going on with him?” G asks while the others study me. “He got a call the day Amity and I were run off the road. He hasn’t been himself since then.”

“It’s not my story to tell. Let him figure his shit out and come to you himself. Just be the brothers he’s going to need you to be.”

“Well, that’s not fucking cryptic at all,” Circus complains.

“You’re all a bunch of nosy bastards. Forget about Hannibal for now. I want to talk about Khan.”

“That fucker contact you yet?” Blade leans forward.

“Last night.”

Capone snorts. “Took him fucking long enough.”

“I expected him to hold out longer. He’s pissed. He tried to hide it, but I know that man better than he thinks. He’s mad as fuck he’s got two men missing. Why? I don’t fucking know. He knew he was sacrificing them. Neither Acid or Knuckles were the sharpest tools in the shed, but he was fine losing them if it meant taking me out in the process.”

When G looks like he’s about to say something, I shake my head. “I know you and Amity were hurt. I’m not taking that away from you, but Khan won’t give a fuck about that.”

“So what did he say?”

“He congratulated me, threw in a couple backhanded compliments, and a mention or two about Lola’s pregnancy and how it’s going, obviously knowing Blade would have told me about it.”

“That motherfucker,” Kruger curses.

“Nah, it was good because I felt nothing hearing it. A couple of months ago, I would’ve lost my shit. But now?” I shake my head. “Driller’s welcome to her.”

“Gotta say, I liked Lola when you were with her,” Toot says. “But the chemistry between you and Tinkerbell over the last couple of weeks… I only gotta walk past you, and I get a damn boner.”

Mac groans and smacks him on the back of the head, and Midas laughs.

“My old lady catches sight of your boner, Toot, and I’ll cut it off and feed it to you.”

He just grins at me, unapologetically, as I steer the conversation back to Khan. “He wants a sit-down. Didn’t say what for, though. He wanted me to ask, but I just didn’t give a fuck.

“Still, I can’t say I’m not curious. We all know this isn’t the last we’ll hear from him. I was loyal to Khan for a long fucking time, but that man I swore to serve… he’s gone. I don’t know this Khan. He’s just a shadow of who he used to be. A smart man would walk away while he still can, protect his club, knowing how close he is to losing it. But Khan’s not smart anymore. He’s digging his heels in. He wants something—I just don’t know what.”

“He probably thinks he can control you. You went to prison on his orders, remember,” Inigo points out.

“It’s not something I’ll forget,” I reply. “It’s easy to look back and say it was the wrong move, but I didn’t have many other options at the time. Besides…” I spread my arms wide. “I’m the king of the fucking castle now, so it all worked out.”

“And that’s what’s really pissing him off,” Mac says. “That despite everything, you managed to one-up him.”

“He’s acting like a fucking five-year-old, not the president of an MC,” Kruger growls.

“You have a plan?” Midas askes.

“I want to set up a meeting, but not here like he wanted. Back at my old club.”

Kruger rubs his hands together. “A little salt in the wound? I’m down for that.”

“Glad you agree because I want you with me, Kruger. G, you’ll hold down the fort here with Hannibal and Midas. I’ll take Mac and Toot as well, and Crane. Crane?”

The man who’s been quiet this whole time looks up from where he’s sitting, and I can see the anger on his face. “It’s a sad fucking day…when brothers have to turn on brothers. I thought we’d dealt with all that shit when Bear died. Now Khan’s following in the same fucking footsteps. We can’t let him get away with what he did to G or our girl Amity.”

“And we won’t,” I tell him. “I want you with me because I’m bringing Nevaeh, and I want someone—specifically you—watching her back.”

G whistles. “I still can’t believe Tink’s your old lady.” He shakes his head and huffs.

“You think taking her with you is smart, Havoc? It’s gonna get ugly. And if anything happens to Tink, Amity will?—”

“Nothing’s going to happen to her. I’ll talk to Nevaeh first, and if she’s against it, I won’t force her to go. But I’m hoping we can go and show a united front.”

I look to Conan. “Call Carnage and give them a heads up. I’ll give Orion a call myself when we get back. I think it’s time I spoke with him as the new president anyway and I need to let him know what’s going on. It would be just like Khan to fuck with our allies to try and isolate us.”

“Shit, I never thought about that,” Blade grumbles, rubbing his hand over his face.

I look at Mac and Toot. “I want bugs planted, cameras if possible—anything you can do to get me eyes and ears inside. Kruger, I want you bad-mouthing our former prospect Hicks. That way, if we decide to send someone in pretending to be him, we’ve already set the stage.”

“And anyone you can’t stand, Khan’s gonna want on his side.” Kruger nods in understanding.

“Exactly. Now, if nobody has anything else they need to discuss?—”

“Tink,” G speaks up.

“You got a problem with her being my old lady?”

“As long as you treat her well, why would I?” He shrugs, but I can tell he’s still got his reservations. “My old lady, on the other hand, might have something to say about the fact she missed out on you giving Tink her cut, especially since she was kept in the dark about you two.”

I groan. “On a scale of one to ten, how pissed is she?”

“Eleven.” I groan again. “But she likes you for her, so that’s something.”

“He did ride to her rescue when G and Amity crashed,” Circus adds.

“Plus, he pulled you and Amity up a fucking cliff. That had to earn him some brownie points, right?” Probe jumps in.

“The man has a point,” Inigo says before frowning. “Did I just agree with Probe?”

Probe flips him off.

“Alright, children, can we go now? My woman brought me food, and I’m starving.”

Conan looks at me and shakes his head. “Yeah, about that…”