Captivate Me (4 page)

Listen to me, turning into a fucking pansy. I shake it off, needing to keep my focus on the club.

The floor above me makes a noise. I know the ol’ ladies are up there, getting ready for Dagger’s welcome home party, but it’s grating on my nerves. I look at the time.

“Fuck,” I groan, needing to get upstairs before Bella gets here.

I make my way up and hear Bella’s frantic voice. “Where’s Buzz?”

Fuck, I’m too late. I take the stairs two at a time, hoofing my ass fast.

“What’s going on, Bella?” Pops asks. Shit, he’s gonna be pissed.

“Buzz told me that I needed to get here now, so I did. What’s going on?” Her voice is panicked as I move as quick as my body will let me.

I burst through the basement doors and move directly to Bella. I scoop her in my arms and hug her tight. I place my nose in the crook of her neck, needing her scent to get me through the next few moments. I never wanted to admit it, but just her smell sends a calm through me. Never once has shit like that happened.

“Buzz?” Pops asks from behind me.

I pull away just as Breaker pulls Bella to his front, wrapping his arms around her. I breathe out deep, knowing my brother has my girl. He’ll protect her with his life. Of that, I have zero doubt.

“We need church. Now,” I say, turning to Pops.

Everything in the room comes to a dead halt, and all eyes are on me: brothers, ol’ ladies, even club mommas.

Pops’ eyes narrow, and those little lines around them become more prominent. The vein in his neck begins to tick, and I know I’m in deep shit. Calling my girl before telling the brothers is going to cost me dearly. I knew it, and I’ll take whatever they give me for it.

Pops raises his furious gaze to Becs and lifts his chin. “Church, now.” Pops’ voice rings out across the room.

Ma slides up to Pops. “You want me to cancel the party?”

His eyes shoot to me, looking for answers, trying to gauge the weight that I’m about to drop on them. I lift my chin in answer, not saying much with everyone around. This is club business, and there are too many ears.

Pops looks away from me, obviously reading my seriousness, and tells Rhys, “Call Dagger and tell him to get his ass here.”

Rhys lifts his chin and grabs his cell.

“Party’s not happening,” Pops orders.

Ma nods her head and moves to the ol’ ladies.

“Move,” Pops barks at all of us.

I rush over to Bella and give her a kiss on the lips. “No questions, just stay with Angel and Princess.”

She nods, and I kiss her once more before lifting my head to my brother who follows me into the meeting room.

“Shit, let me grab my laptop.” I rush downstairs, grab it, and come back up.

The air in the church meeting room crackles with intrigue as I take my seat at the end of the table. The guys stare at me, waiting for answers as the energy zaps through the space. It’s also as if the pictures that hang on the wall are staring, waiting for the bomb to drop.

Pops moves to the head of the table as Cruz shuts the door and takes his seat. Pops slams the gavel, his poignant stare coming to me.

“Why do I have a woman in my clubhouse because a brother called her here, and it wasn’t for pussy? Then you wanna call church before a party with no explanation. So, yeah, Buzz, how about you talk, son, and you talk quick.”

“I know who it is,” I tell him.

“Talk,” he demands as the tick in his jaw becomes more prominent.

I place my hands on top of the table, no waver in my voice, no fear—never any fear. Ravage, we fear nothing. “It’s Ransom. He’s the motherfucker behind everything.”

The guys all start looking at one another, trying to gauge my accuracy.

“You know this how?” Pops asks, sitting down in his high-backed chair and leaning into it.

I open my computer, intent on showing him exactly the information I figured out.

“Just tell us,” Pops orders.

I look up at his damning expression and push the computer in front of me, not touching it. I simply look right into Pops’ eyes and speak with confidence. “Joey’s computer system was very fucking sophisticated. So much so I kind of wish the fucker hadn’t killed himself so he could have taught me some shit.” Pops clears his throat, and I get down to business. “Joey’s boss was Ransom. On his computer were wire transfers from accounts linked to Ransom and him, and they were off shore. They were buried under so much code that only someone like me would be able to find it. I can pull it up. It’s clear as day. Before Joey’s death, Ransom paid him over a million dollars.”

“Where the fuck did he get that kind of money?” Rhys asks with his arms crossed over his chest. That man is always pissed off—well, except when Tanner is with him. That’s the only time I ever see him not on edge.

All the guys’ penetrating stares would make a normal man quiver. I’m no normal man, so I meet each of them dead-on. “That, I don’t have an answer for, but lucky for us, there are files dedicated to Babs, Rabbit’s crew, Paine, and the T-darts, proving the connection to Ransom. All the pawns in Ransom’s game.” I look at Pops. “Want me to go step-by-step or just give you the short version?”

“Step-by-step, boy.” His intensity grows with every word I say.

I suck in a huge breath. “Alright. Joey documented everything on that computer. The why is up for debate. If I had to guess, it was for blackmail later on because, when I say
everything was documented,
I mean, phone conversations, money transfers, screenshots, pictures, videos, actual documents—you name it, he found it and kept it.”

The guys say nothing, so I continue, “The first documentation came from videos of Babs’ jealousy over Princess having the brothers of the club talk to Liv about altering the books, those same books that got Princess in prison for over two years. Then there are later video clips of the plot to use Mel and Cooper to trap Princess and take her out for good.”

“And this leads back to Ransom how?” Cruz growls.

“Ransom paid Babs several visits where she spent a lot of time on her knees.”

Cruz stiffens. “You’re fuckin’ shitting me,” he growls, and I can read his mind.

“Nope. Need to sweep X hardcore and make sure all the bugs are gone. And yes, Babs was fucking Ransom, too.”

“There’s video of Ransom and that bitch?” Rhys asks.

“Yep, and so much more.” I turn back to the brothers. “Ransom and Babs worked out a deal where she would have Ransom’s backing on taking out Princess should she need it. On the flip side of that, there’s a video of Ransom ordering his crew not to help Babs in any way, shape, or form. To keep himself clean and under our radar, Ransom talked Babs into getting Rabbit to take out Diamond, stating that
if Rabbit took out Diamond, he could have a shot at our territory
. I believe those were his exact words, which was all smoke and shit.”

I suck in a breath. The air in the room grows electric at the mention of the loss. A few of the brothers shut their eyes, remembering Diamond and the moment he passed away. Diamond was our president who was shot to death during a meet with Ransom and Rabbit. It shook all of us to the core.

Pops’ hands come down on the table hard, shaking the wood. “They were fucking with us then, during that meeting with Rabbit when everything went to hell. Why the fuck would Ransom be there with bullets flying?”

“It was all a setup, a ruse that Ransom came up with to make sure none of this shit fell back on him,” I respond.

“I find it fucking difficult to believe that he was okay with bullets flying at his head,” GT cuts in, anger pulsing off him from being shot alongside Diamond. “Surely, he wouldn’t want to risk getting hit with one.”

“True, but according to the tape-recorded conversation between Ransom and Rabbit, it was staged, and the main objective was to take Diamond out. They accomplished that, and Ransom made it look as if he were under attack, too. Therefore, none of us would come to the conclusion that he was behind it all.”

“In other words, Ransom was using Rabbit as a puppet?”

I draw my hands into fists. “Him and Paine and the T-darts. All of them.”

“How in the fuck do they come into play?” Becs asks, rubbing his hand over his head. No doubt, all of this shit is way too much to take in. Fuck, it’s overloading me, and I’ve known for a few hours. They’re just hearing it, so processing it is going to take a while.

“Paine was smarter than Rabbit on the money trail. There were only a couple of transactions documented. There were two distinct videos, but I was still leery of the connection between the two of them. Joey, on the other hand, had birth certificates.”

“What the fuck does that mean, Buzz?” GT asks angrily.

“It was all in the family. Paine is Ransom’s cousin,” I state.

The air in the room compresses as the anger pulses off the brothers. Looks of shock, awe, anger, and even pain of reliving Diamond’s death encompass the space.

“You’re fucking shitting me.” Cruz slams his fist hard on the table, making the entire thing vibrate.

“Nope, and since Paine already hated Ravage for taking his father’s land from him, Paine was an easy mark for Ransom. Joey had small parts of meetings documented between the two.”

GT shakes his head. “Then where the fuck did my angel come into play in all this shit? She was fucking kidnapped and almost ...” He trails off, unable to say the last of it, and I can’t blame him.

I breathe in deep through my nose. “Paine’s a twisted fucker and didn’t go by Ransom’s demands. According to phone calls between the two, Ransom was livid with Paine after taking his own path. That included Jace being Angel’s neighbor and her and Shaina’s kidnapping. Ransom threatened to find him and take him out, but we got to him first.”

“Fucking hell.” Pops swipes his hand across his face. “What else?”

I cross my arms over my chest. “You’re not going to fucking believe this one.” I shake my head, not even believing this one myself. “Rocky.”

Rocky is the fucker who hurt Princess in jail then showed up on Ravage’s doorstep as a prospect. He was an undercover cop.

“What the fuck?” Cruz’s anger cascades across the room like a strong wave.

“He was on Ransom’s payroll, too. Ransom paid him in-house to keep an eye on Princess. Not only that but Rocky wasn’t only feeding information about Ravage to the cops; he was sharing with Ransom, too.”

The air in the room feels stifling as all the brothers take in what I said. My eyes dart to each guy, watching as they process. It’s a lot of information, and the web is spread so far it’s difficult to compute.

“Show me,” Pops says.

I rise from the table and hook my computer up to the large screen I installed on the wall. I proceed to show each of them every bit of proof I have. Tons of cursing and disbelief come out loud and clear. It takes over two hours to go through everything, including the audio clips. In the end, it’s all laid out for the guys as clear as day.

After closing my laptop, I sit back in my seat, unsure where this will go. I wait.

“Fucking hell, we just met with that prick a few weeks ago,” Rhys grumbles. “He was doing this the whole fucking time?”

“Why?” GT asks. “Why go through all this shit?”

The guys look to me for answers, but in all my fact-checking and analysis, I never found an explanation. I can’t figure out the history to cause this level of devastation. So many different directions, but no direct connection. The only thing I can think is the one word that stuck out to me like a sore thumb.

“Does Tink mean anything to anyone?”

Pop sits up. “What, son?”

“Tink. It was on the computer, and some files were attached to it, but none of them made much sense. They were vague and undescriptive, like Joey knew something but didn’t know. It’s the only thing that stood out to me.”

“Fucking fuck me,” Pops says, swiping his hands over his face.

“Care to explain?” GT says, glaring at Pops.

“Well, son, I can answer that for you.”

GT’s eyes penetrate his father’s, urging him on.

“Your mother is Tink.”

I’m taken aback by this information. Never once has it been said that Ma and Ransom had a connection, and by the looks on all the brothers’ faces, I’m not the only one in shock.

“Ransom had your mother first. He called her Tink. I wanted her. She wanted me. I took my woman. I thought that shit was water under the bridge, considering the knockdown, drag out fights Ransom and I had back in the day. Apparently, he’s not over it. He wants payback for something he already lost a long time ago.” He runs his fingers through his hair and pulls at the roots. “Fucking hell. He wants Ma back.”

“All this fucking time and you didn’t bother to tell me?” GT asks, leaping up from his chair, that same vein ticking in his neck like his father.

“Rhys, Dagger, Becs, and Zeb knew. It wasn’t something I hid, but there was no reason to tell you guys. That shit was over and done with.”

GT glares. “Or so you thought.” He is no doubt remembering the hell his woman went through. Can’t blame him for that.

“Son, I didn’t know this shit was coming to bite us in the ass. I thought it was fucking over with.” Pops’ eyes pin his son to the spot, but GT doesn’t back down.

“You should have told us,” he fires back.

“This is fucking done with, GT. Not another fucking word,” Pops demands.

Even though GT is furious, he quiets himself as we wait for Pops.

“Last meeting, Ransom told me he was out of town for a few days. Cruz, Rhys, and Buzz, you find out if that is true. You find out where he’s gone. If he’s back, then find out where he went. Becs, Zeb, Tug, and Breaker, find out what we have stockpiled and make sure it’s all ready to go. We’re taking this fucker out,” Pop announces, and I have to say, I feel the relief that this shit will be over mixed with the anticipation of a fight. I’m certain it won’t be an easy one, though.

The door swings open as Dagger limps into church. “Give me a fucking chair,” he groans, and Rhys gets one for him. He collapses in it, breathing heavy. He just survived a heart attack and a broken arm from falling off his bike, so it’s understandable. “What’d I miss?” he asks, looking around the room at our glum faces. “Fuck.”