Blizzard (The Brotherhood Journals #1) (32 page)

“Someone needs to explain what the fuck is going on,” Optimus boomed, the sound of his voice echoing through the trees that surrounded the house.

I couldn’t even form words.

My mother stood at the bottom of the staircase, her eyes shining with tears. She ignored Optimus for the minute and focused everything on me. “I wanted to tell you.” Her voice was small, slightly broken. Not the woman who had stood at the gates of the compound less than two weeks ago and held her chin high as she asked for help.

“Tell me fucking what?” I managed to finally grind out between clenched teeth. “The fuck are you doing here… with the
fucking police!
”

She wasn’t wearing her leathers and there were no bikes to be seen. Her pants were fancy, black and business like.

“Let’s go inside, there’s a lot we need to talk about and I can’t explain on my own.” She stepped to the side and held her arm out. Her words were spoken like she’d rehearsed them a thousand times like she needed to practice for this precise moment.

Deacon stood to the side, studying us carefully. No doubt wondering what we’d do.

Op and I both turned to Leo, our Sargent at Arms, who I had no doubt would have been scanning the house and the area from the second we pulled up.

This may have been my mother, but we all knew something was going on here that wasn’t right. The only people I trusted were my brothers.

They were my family.

Not her.

“There’s a couple people inside. I saw their shadows move past the window,” Leo explained, his eyes still studying the house.

“Judge and Skins are inside waiting. It’s only them.” I felt as though she was telling the truth. But I was once again second guessing my instincts. She had something she was hiding and I hadn’t seen it.

Deacon stepped in, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Go inside, Jackie. It’s not safe for you to be out here, just give them a minute.”

My mom opened her mouth as though she was about to say something to me, but I turned away, giving her my back and moving closer to my brothers. It wasn’t subtle. I was showing her that I was with them, not her.

Slider and Eagle kept their eyes on her but stepped in closer too—a protective move.

It wasn’t long before I heard footsteps followed by a softly closing door.

“Stop being such an asshole and come inside. Listen to what they have to fucking say.” Deacon’s tone hit me hard and I spun around, stomping straight toward him like a bull who had seen red. Someone grabbed my arm just before I reached him, and held me back from the swing of my fist that I had already lined up in my head.

“Don’t tell me what to fucking do, cop,” I sneered, spitting at his feet.

He just snorted, unwavered by my angry outburst. “Fine, Blizzard. Stand out here and fucking sulk like a child. But I’m telling you now, you’re going to want to hear what they have to say if you want to keep your family safe.”

“They couldn’t even keep their own motherfucking family safe!” I yelled. Optimus pulled me back toward my brothers, but I fought against him. I wasn’t about to let this asshole down talk me.

“Enough!” Judge’s voice made me stand a little straighter. He stood in the doorway. He wore light denim jeans and a button up shirt with his sleeves rolled up to his forearms. He looked a lot more muscular than I remembered.

The police badge that hung from the chain around his neck, sitting just below his beard and sparkling in the sunlight was what made me want to pull my piece and shoot him where he stood.

Op choked, “Cops? You guys are cops?”

“Yeah,” he said seemingly bored by the response. “Now get the fuck in here before I let the kid here arrest all you assholes.”

Pulling his handcuffs from his belt, Deacon smirked and twirled them around his finger.

“Arrest us, and we’ll expose all of you,” Slider shot back.

Judge just grinned. “Expose me, and I’ll tell all your brothers how much you love having a finger in your asshole when you fuck.” Judge stepped back inside the doorway, but his shadow still loomed there, waiting for us to make a move.

“I… I…” Slider stammered, his ever-present grin, completely wiped. Leo attempted to keep a straight face as he patted Slider on the back but no luck.

“Let’s go,” Op said sternly, heading for the stairs. I took a deep breath and followed behind him, my other brothers at my back.

Leo cleared his throat. “So… Is it your own finger, or hers?”

I couldn’t help but crack a grin as I climbed the stairs. There was scuffling behind me and a few muttered words. We’re walking into God knows what, and our SAA is here cracking butthole jokes.

This isn’t how I intended to spend my day.

We took seats around Deacon’s huge dining room table. Judge sat with my mother and Skins across the table from Optimus and me, while Deacon and my other brothers leaned against the walls and furniture.

I eyed Judge’s badge. “What division are you with?” He wasn’t just a police officer, I knew that much.

“Federal.”

I raised my eyebrow. “As in ‘
Bureau of Investigation?
’”

He dipped his chin in acknowledgment.

Skins was the only one of the three still dressed in his club gear. With the tattoos and the look he had going, I couldn’t imagine him in anything else. But I knew he was one of them too, or he wouldn’t be sitting here.

“This doesn’t make any sense.” My anger was building by the second and I was struggling to keep it at bay.

I was thankful when Optimus took over.

“You asked us for help. You came to us. Rose risked her life to get your daughter back. We risked ours going in after her.” Op’s fist was clenched tightly on the table. “Now explain to me why the
‘F-B-fucking-I’
is asking for our help to bring down a group of dangerous douchebags when y’all could blow the fuckers up and sweep that shit under the massive rug that you call
the system
.”

I had to laugh. Op was angry and where I was losing my mind trying to get my head around what the fuck was going on, his shit was on point.

My mom twisted her hands nervously, but Judge just nodded his head.

“You’re right, that’s exactly what should have been done.”
Well, that was unexpected.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time. I've been undercover for longer than you’ve been alive.” He scrubbed his hand over his beard. “Sending people in after Lane had too many risks. We’ve spent so long getting to where we are that the possibility of them putting two and two together and finding out who we really were wasn’t one we could take. We gave up seeing our families every day, fuck, even once a year, so we could make a difference in this country. To see that destroyed in one swoop…” Judge shook his head.

I saw his position. These people gave up their lives in order to lessen crime. They might not get it all, but they did enough to make a difference. The Brothers by Blood dealt in weed here and there, some guns on occasion, but we discouraged the hard stuff. It changed people, it made them angry and violent and feigning for their next fix, which meant they would do anything to get it.

Anything.

And that wasn’t what we were about. We believed in family and the brotherhood. Helping each other stand when we were weak. That’s how we made it through. Not some white crystals that removed your problems for a few hours, only to have them come back, even more fierce and aggressive than before.

Clearing his throat, Leo broke the silence that had filled the room. “What exactly is it that you do?”

“We remove the dirt. It’s obviously not news to you that there are clubs out there trafficking women and filling the streets with toxic substances,” Skins explained, speaking up for the first time. “Sending in undercover agents isn't new. Which unfortunately meant that it was getting harder and harder to get men inside without someone within the club to vouch for them.”

This was true. A lot of clubs now made it compulsory for new members to be known by someone within the club before they can be brought into the fold. Even with a man like Wrench, who had the abilities to find extensive information on people, there was still a possibility of deception.

“Starting a club of our own took away a lot of the suspicion. We have authority to make deals with other clubs. We don't care much for the little people, we use the information to take down the head of the chain.” Judge talked casually like he was sitting at the table with a group of friends, discussing the latest movies or television shows. “That way, we know they are dealing with so many different clubs or gangs that the blame could fall on any one of them.”

It was smart, I had to give them that.

Putting an agent in a club was dangerous because the majority of the members could have known each other for years—since they were kids even. The finger would so easily be pointed at the member with the least connections.

“And Jackie’s place in this whole thing?” Op asked the question I couldn't.

I wanted to know, but I knew the answer may be something I didn't want to hear.

Judge looked to my mom who nodded before taking a large breath. “I was initially sent to the Brothers by Blood to get information. We had word that drugs were coming in from Mexico, but they weren’t crossing the border. They were taking them out on boats and bringing them into small ports on the coast of Florida that weren’t as vigilant, then tracking them up through Alabama.”

I noticed the difference in her as she spoke. This wasn’t the woman I thought I knew. This was the Federal Agent, who knew exactly what she was doing and was sure about her facts. She held herself a little stronger, more sure of herself, like this is what she was made for. This was who she was.

“At that time, the Brothers by Blood was the biggest and most well know club in that state. And we figured if someone were pushing shit through, it would be you or you would know about it.”

I saw Optimus nod out of the corner of my eye. It surprised me. It was well before our time. “They knew about it,” he confirmed. “But it wasn’t us.”

My mom smiled. “So we found.”

“Woah. That doesn’t explain you ending up with Dad and sticking around for fourteen years.” I tapped on the table. It didn’t make any fucking sense.

“I fell in love with your father.” Her voice was soft and her gaze staring at the space behind me like she was watching a moving playing on the wall. “They tried to pull me out, but they forgot that I knew things that they didn’t want a motorcycle club to know. I threatened to tell, hoping they wouldn’t call my bluff. If I’d admitted to what I was doing there, the club would have killed me.”

It was a harsh reality, but it was true. More so back then than it was now. We had cleaned up our act, learning how to make money out of legitimate businesses had overtaken our need to run drugs to survive.

“I handed in my badge. They left me alone.” She shrugged like it was nothing. Like she hadn’t made one of the hardest decisions in her life, simply because she fell in love with the wrong man. “When I had you, Hands started drinking more and more. It spiraled out of control and I was beginning to get scared. He hit me a few times. Always told me I was spending too much time on you and not giving him the attention he needed.”

I frowned. “I don’t remember you spending a lot of time with me. You were there, but not like the other kids with their parents.”