Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Havoc

I lean back in my seat, watching Byte and Ferris watch Elmo, who’s going through everything he’s got.

“There’s been some discrepancies, and I’ve brought them up with Khan a few times, but he keeps telling me not to worry.”

“When you say discrepancies…”

He sighs and hands me the papers. “Somehow, we’re missing close to ten grand every month.”

Byte curses, and I lean forward to look over the reports.

“Khan had me stop doing the accounts monthly and instead wanted them done quarterly, then last year wanted them done annually. It makes it harder to track shit because I have more to go through, but I’m a tenacious fucker when I need to be.”

“I take it you didn’t know about this?” I say, looking up from the papers at the other two men.

“No. I had no fucking idea,” Byte growls.

And Ferris just shakes his head.

“If that was me, I’d be pissed and want to know who the fuck took the money.”

“So what does that tell you?” Mac asks, already knowing the answer.

Elmo looks like he’s been punched in the gut, but Byte’s pissed. “That Khan’s the one taking it. Son of a bitch.”

“Why, though?” Toot asks. “Is he spending it on blow and women?”

“Good question,” I say, turning to Byte, Ferris, and Elmo.

The three of them look at each other.

“Look,”—I put the papers down—“I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I don’t trust you. How can I, when everyone here was more than happy to let me take the fall?”

“We didn’t know,” Elmo growls.

“What?”

“None of us knew what the fuck was going on. Khan and Driller weren’t saying anything, and Lola was MIA. Khan said you got into trouble but wanted to keep it quiet until you had a plan. We were fucking pissed, honestly. We were your brothers, and you shut us out. It went against everything the brotherhood stood for. We didn’t know what happened until you were sentenced, and then you refused to see anyone but Gunther. We wanted to visit anyway, but Khan said we should respect your wishes and leave you alone. When we pushed, he ordered us to stay away from you.”

“That fucking motherfucker,” Kruger snarls.

I don’t even know what to say. I should’ve fucking known.

“That’s not what happened, though, is it?” Elmo sighs.

“What exactly did Khan tell you?”

“He said you insisted on taking the fall for Driller to keep him out of prison, and then once you were out, we were never to mention it.”

“How fucking convenient,” Mac scoffs.

“Khan ordered me to take the fall. Said if I didn’t, I’d be kicked out of the club in bad standing. He needed Driller for the Fargo deal, and I was expendable. I was under the impression that you all knew what was going on and agreed and just chose not to visit me when I was locked up. I only found out about Driller and Lola a month before I was released, when Blade came to offer me the president position.”

They’re all quiet for a moment, like my words hit them harder than they expected. Then, without warning, Byte picks up his chair and throws it across the room.

“Those motherfuckers,” he snarls as Mac and Toot jump up and move around the table to restrain him.

“You really didn’t know?”

Elmo shakes his head. “I knew something was off, I just didn’t know what.” He runs his hands through his hair, looking like he might throw up.

Ferris stares down at the table. He must sense me watching him because he looks up, his jaw tense, fire flashing in his eyes. “I wanna request a transfer.”

I suck in a sharp breath.

“Can’t stay in a club when there’s no trust,” Byte adds, shaking off Mac and Toot and heading over to pick up his chair.

“I think a lot of brothers will feel the same way when they find out,” Elmo says numbly, still reeling from the shock.

I look at Kruger, who shrugs, before turning to Mac and Toot. They’re thinking the same thing I am—can we trust these guys? Five minutes ago, I would’ve said not a chance. But now…

“I’ll be straight with you. I’m still not sure I trust you. A lot’s happened. But I get what you’re saying. The truth is, Khan’s poison, and I’m here to figure out how much of the club he’s corrupted.”

“I get it,” Byte says with a harsh laugh. “I wouldn’t fucking trust me either.”

Deciding to test the waters, I tap my fingers on the table and steer the conversation to the brothers sent to kill me. “What can you tell me about Acid and Knuckles?”

“They haven’t changed, if that’s what you’re asking. Still have their noses up Khan’s ass. But you know Khan—he loves brown-nosers, so it works.” Elmo shrugs.

“You know where they are?” Mac asks.

“They went nomad after we heard you were out. Khan said you had some beef with them and thought it’d be better to get them outta the way while you got settled. We didn’t know you weren’t coming back, though.” He snorts.

“As if you’d come back,” Ferris mutters, shaking his head. “Fuck me. I can’t believe this shit.” He sighs.

“Khan told you they went nomad, and that was it?” Toot asks, and they all shake their heads.

“What did Khan tell you was the reason we were coming?”

Byte clenches his fists. “Said you wanted to make peace with Driller and Lola.”

Kruger whistles. “The man lies as easily as he breathes.”

“None of you thought it was fucking wrong that Lola and Driller were together while her old man was inside?” Mac crosses his arms.

Elmo frowns. “Driller told us you broke up with her when you were sentenced. Said you knew something was going on between him and Lola and didn’t want her waiting around.”

I huff out a laugh. “And Lola backed that up?”

Elmo sighs. “Lola’s changed. She doesn’t talk to any of us. Keeps to herself. Only comes around when Driller wants her here.”

“Can’t say I feel sorry for my cheating ex. She made her bed.”

“There was no breakup, was there?”

I give Ferris a look, and he shakes his head.

“Gotta say, though, finding out my brother was banging my old lady and that she was pregnant felt like shit. But knowing they were playing happy family, and none of you blinked… You knew me. You saw us together. Do you honestly think I would’ve stepped aside for Driller?” I scoff.

At least the three of them have the decency to look ashamed.

“I should really thank them, though. If it wasn’t for them hooking up, I wouldn’t have Nevaeh.”

“I gotta say, Lola and Nevaeh couldn’t be more different.” Byte grins.

“Yeah, in more fucking ways than you know,” I growl, and the smile falls from his face. I sigh. “Look, I can’t tell you everything right now—not until I know for sure who I can trust. But you should know—if you back Khan, I’ll take you down with him.”

I turn to Ferris. “I’m not transferring you—not yet anyway. But if you want to prove your loyalty, I need eyes and ears. I’ve only been here a day, and I already don’t like what I’m hearing.”

“The missing girls aren’t us, Havoc. I know you have no reason to believe us, but we’d never be involved in that.”

“I’m sure you believe that, Elmo. But if you’re as clueless as you say, then a lot of shit’s already happened right under your nose, and you missed it.”

“Taking girls is on another level, though. We’d never miss that,” he argues.

“We were called here because of Acid and Knuckles. Khan says he sent them to welcome me home, and now they’re missing.”

“But that doesn’t make sense. Out of all the brothers, those are the last two you’d want to see, not counting Driller.” Elmo frowns.

“Exactly. But he sent them, and they did head down my way, but it wasn’t to welcome me home. They thought G was me and ran him and his old lady off the road. Almost killed them both. They came back, and when they saw they were still alive, they started shooting. G was unconscious, and Amity threw herself on top of him. She took a bullet protecting him.”

When Elmo opens his mouth, I hold up my hand. I’m not going over this shit again. I can still hear Amity’s voice, trying to hold herself together in a fucked-up situation she should never have been in.

“Now, Acid and Knuckles aren’t missing—G and I showed them our special kind of hospitality after they admitted Khan sent them to kill me.”

Mac cuts in, his voice cold. “You breathe a word of this to anyone outside of this room, and I’ll come back and kill you all myself. My loyalty is to Havoc. I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the rest of you.”

“We won’t say anything. You have our word,” Ferris says. “I’m guessing you’ve got a plan, and I know we won’t be told shit. I get it. But when this is all over, we’d like a chance to make things right.”

I knock on the table before standing. I’m not promising anything. “Give me everything you have here and send the rest to G. I don’t care how small or insignificant it seems—I want to know everything. Khan can’t stay in power, but if there’s a chance he knows anything about the missing women—and they’re alive—I won’t risk them. I can’t take out Khan until I know for sure what happened to them.”

“I’ll dig too,” Byte says. “Now that I know what I’m looking for. Khan told me it wasn’t our business, but I don’t give a fuck. Even if he’s innocent of this, someone out there has them.”

“Run everything through G. I want this done clean. We can’t afford any mistakes.”

“You got it.”

I head to the door, and they all follow me. My phone chimes, so I pull it out and see a message from Crane.

On our way back. Your old lady got some of the town folk to talk. You’ll want to hear this.

“Change of plans. I need this room. Crane and Nevaeh are on their way back—send them in when they get here.”

None of them argue. They leave with a nod and a look of shame that isn’t theirs to carry if they were kept in the dark. Once they’re gone, I close the door and lean against it as the guys go sit back down.

“Apparently, my old lady got some people in town to talk.”

“Of course she did. Her daddy’s a preacher. She must’ve inherited some of his ‘confess-your-sins’ magic to make people want to spill their guts to her,” Toot says with a grin.

“You keep your sins away from my woman, Toot.”

His grin turns cocky, but he doesn’t say anything.

“You believe them?” Kruger asks, nodding to the door and changing the subject.

“My gut says they’re telling the truth. And if they don’t know, then my guess is most of the others don’t either.”

“Not sure you’ll have to deal with Khan when they hear the truth. They’ll probably handle him themselves. He’s made a fucking joke out of all of them.”

“On the bright side, I don’t think you’ll have a problem changing the leadership,” Mac says. “I was worried they’d fight for him. But if they lose faith in him when they find out that everything he stands for is a lie—and that he’ll turn on them in a heartbeat to suit his needs—they’ll vote him out in a second. The only question is, who’s gonna take his place?”

“Nobody,” I answer. “Not from here, anyway. I want the men to follow the rules and respect their president, but this just shows that following someone blindly isn’t the way to go. We’re an MC, not a fucking cult. Do you think G won’t call me out? Or Midas or Hannibal? Even you three would question my decisions if you felt you needed to. There’s a difference between loyalty and stupidity, but these guys are fucking sheep.”

“Do you know who you want to fill the role? Because whoever you choose will have a hell of a time. They’ll need thick skin. After a betrayal like this, it makes you question everyone. Trust me, we all felt it after what went down with Bear,” Kruger states.

“Oh, I know.”

He looks at me for a moment before cursing. "Shit, right. Sorry, Havoc. I forgot."

“No worries. But yeah, I have someone in mind. I just don’t know if he’ll go for it yet. I need to think about it some more. This place needs to be whipped into shape, and the last thing I want to do is put someone in and then have them change their mind six months down the line.”

I’m saved from saying anything else when there’s a knock on the door. I turn and pull it open.

“Hello, caveman.” Nevaeh grins before jumping into my arms.

She wraps her legs around me and holds me tight as I carry her inside. Crane follows us in, and I hear him close the door behind us.

“You okay?” I ask, looking at her.

She lifts her head scrunches her nose. “I think I messed up, and I’m scared you’ll be mad.”

I brush her hair over her shoulder and sit down with her in my lap. “I can’t promise I won’t get mad, but I swear I’ll never take it out on you. The last thing I want is for you to be scared to tell me things. I'd never hurt you, you hear me?”

I know the others are listening, but I don’t give a fuck. The last thing I want is for Nevaeh to be afraid of me.

She nods.

“You won’t ignore me, though, right?” she asks softly.

I frown, wondering where this is coming from. “Cupcake, I couldn’t ignore you if I tried.” I make a mental note to revisit this later, but now’s not the time or the place.

“Okay.., so...um…I told them you were planning on getting rid of Khan and Driller.” She bites her lips and tenses, but doesn’t say anything else.

I look at Crane, who’s watching Nevaeh with a soft look. “What happened?” I ask him.

“Folks are scared,” he says. “Like Mac and Toot said, and the ones that aren’t are pretty fucking pissed. The club basically told the town to fuck off and said the missing girls aren’t their problem. When they pointed out that some of the girls were last seen here, they were threatened. Folks want the club gone. There’s definitely no love lost there, that’s for sure.”

“They call the cops?” Kruger asks.

“Not sure if the sheriff’s on the club’s payroll, but the guy’s near retirement and likes to ignore anything that might actually involve work.”

“So, no help from him, then.”

“If it’s the same guy that was here when I left, then no. Jenkins was a lazy bastard back then. If he’d done any work, he would’ve known I wasn’t guilty.”

“He probably knew. He just didn’t care.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me.” I sigh. “I want to leave as soon as possible. I don’t know which brothers are loyal to the club and which are loyal to Khan.”

“I feel like I missed something,” Nevaeh says, looking up at me.

“I’ll fill you in when we get back home. I want to call church and let everyone know what’s going on first.” She opens her mouth, but I cut her off before she can say anything. “All I can say is that it seems Khan’s been lying and keeping shit to himself. And the brothers we talked to are pissed.”

“Do you believe them?”

“My gut says yes, but I won’t risk your safety on a feeling.”

She smiles softly as she cups my cheek, and I lean down to kiss her just as her phone buzzes. She rolls her eyes, ignoring it, and places a loud kiss on my lips.

I grin down at her before looking over at Crane. “You got a contact? I want to keep them in the loop as much as possible. I don’t want them thinking we ignored what they said and bailed.”

“I got a couple, yeah. But there’s this guy, David. He seems to be their unofficial spokesperson. I’ll let him know we’re leaving, but we’ll be looking into the girls’ disappearances and be back.”

I nod as Nevaeh’s phone goes off again. But before she can pull it out of her pocket, it starts pinging rapidly, making me frown. “What the hell?”

“Relax, caveman,” she says, and I chuckle as she pulls out her phone. “It’s just a bunch of notifications from Instagram. Let me just look quickly.”

I watch, confused, as she checks her phone and freezes. “Fuck.”

“What’s wrong, baby?” I ask, but her eyes remain glued to the screen.

“Did Tinkerbell just swear? Aww, our baby’s all grown up,” Toot teases, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye.

Finally, she looks up at me, her face pale, biting her lip. “Looks like my real identity’s just been revealed on a much bigger scale than I expected. Oh, God… my dad is going to kill me.”

“Nobody’s touching you,” I tell her. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.” But even as I say it, her phone continues to ding.

She puts it on silent before closing her eyes in defeat. “Well, the cat’s out of the bag now.”

“How did it blow up like that? Seems kinda random,” Kruger says, frowning.

She shows him a picture on her phone, and he chokes, his eyes widening. He looks at me quickly before I take a look. It’s a photo of Nevaeh at the airport with a huge guy smiling down at her. A surge of jealousy runs through me.

“That’s the Ambros you were talking about? Ambros Deveraux?” Kruger asks, his voice filled with shock and awe, grabbing my attention.

Nevaeh nods slowly.

“Why does that name sound familiar?” Crane asks.

“Probably because he’s the current UFC heavyweight champion.”

I look at Nevaeh, who blushes.

“I think I’m going to start chaining you to the bed.”