Starting Over (17 page)

slender biker off to the Prospect.

They gathered Flats and Bam, and Ben when he returned from dropping Pauly onto

a bunk. On the way outside War called out to Billy and Pete to come with them. They

took both War’s and Race’s trucks fil ed with bikers to give statements about the last

time anyone saw the deceased men. The sooner everyone gave statements, the

sooner the case would be closed, so Race decided to get it over with.

He called Goody over to him as the rest of the men gathered their coats and walked

out into the sunny cold air.

“We left River upstairs in my room. When she comes down wil you show her where

the food is and if she wants to bitch about last night, I’d appreciate it if you could calm

her down. I don’t want to leave her like this, but we need to get this out of the way to

keep the heat from showing up at our door later on.”

She grinned. “You two fucked River? The little woman from the bar? That’s so

cool. I can get her outfitted for working the floor.” She bit a long acrylic nail while she

thought. “Okay, I might need to get creative for clothing for her, if I remember right, she

is pretty short but curvy. Right?”

Race counted to ten before answering her.
Fuck
, “Look, she isn’t working the bar,

not tonight, not ever. You can have Joey and Elton get her stuff from the back of that

White Durango in the lot. They can leave her stuff outside of my room. They are not to

open that door for any reason. Warn them that I won’t be nice to anyone that bothers

River. She’s mine and War’s woman. Pass that around if you don’t mind, I don’t want

to have to hurt someone because they didn’t know better than to move in on our

property.”

If he hadn’t been in such a hurry, he might have laughed at the look on Goody’s

face when she heard him claiming River publicly. “Thanks, we’l be back in a few hours,

so I’d appreciate it if you could make her feel welcome.”

Her head nodding up and down was good enough for him, and he hurried outside to

get the show on the road. The sun was shining bright, and the snow and ice were

melting at a rapid pace. The puddles of slushy shit were a pain, but knowing the

weather would warm up a little was a welcome thought. Winter in southern Ohio was

mild compared to some of the places he’d been to in his travels. Snow didn’t come

down in foot deep measurements, it usually came in a few inches at a time. They

normally got plenty of black ice on the roads, and cold wind that would cut through a

man, so a warmup into the thirties would be welcome.

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Starting Over by Ryder Dane

Walking into the sheriff’s office made the hair on his arms stand up. War hated the

cops, all of them. Even the ones that he tolerated. Donny the cop wasn’t a bad guy,

too bad he was sworn to loyalty to the other side. He might have made a good brother.

The state boy sat in on the questions and listened as each biker recounted his

whereabouts the night they knew the accidents had occurred. When it was his turn, the

local boy left the room, and War wondered what the fuck they wanted. He wasn’t good

with setups, and he smelled a skunk in front of him.

“Look, they were drinking, and when men get together, we challenge each other,

you know that, so why the cozy chat setup?”

The cop stared at the file in his fingers and opened the cover. “I have no doubt that

the men were tanked up when they went over that embankment. That’s not what I want

to discuss. Word on the street is that you boys are trying to buy businesses, and front

as legitimate business people. I want to get the story straight from the source. The fire

at the old clubhouse was convenient for you and Race, and now the death of two of the

Breed’s chapter presidents seem to be a bit fortuitous for your plans, wouldn’t you say?”

This asshole was closer to the truth than was healthy, but War shook his head.

“Are you fuckin’ kidding me? That fire took out over fifteen people, and the reason that

the national prez got toasted was because of his arrogance. Several of us, myself

included, yelled for him to get the fuck away, and he ignored our warnings for them to

move. Short of running through the flames, there was nothing I could do. Race was on

the other side of the building with me because we saw the women that belong to the

club just standing around about twenty feet from the fire. We grabbed them and kept

them moving before the tank blew.”

He cocked his head sideways and scowled. “You know all of this already. Why

don’t you just tel me what you want, and I can tel you what you want to know, or I can

even get up and leave this building.”

The boy in blue sighed. “Okay, were you aware that Prowler, also known as Dean

Capozio, was related to the Vinchy Group?”

War shrugged and began to stand. “I don’t know what you are trying to say here.

I’ve never heard of the Vinchy Group. What does that have to do with Prowler’s death?”

“We think the deaths of your biker brothers might not have been an accident. We

think that somehow, some way, the Breed has gotten in trouble with the Hierarchy of the

Vichy family. If you think of the logic, our assumption is reasonable. Sit down, and I’l

tel you what we are thinking.”

This line of thought was fascinating, and as long as the Breed wasn’t under scrutiny,

fuck yes he’d agree the Easter Bunny had laid in wait for the chance to get even with

the Breed for rabbit hunting and eating his relatives.

“We had a deal going with Wolfman and one of his associates, a man that he cal ed

Zero. He had been giving us information on the Vichy representatives that certain men

in your organization obtained high grade blow from a source in South America, to sell in

the urban areas of several large cities. Wolfman was dead before we got the

information about the next shipment. We thought that three years of hard work went to

hell when it was confirmed that Wolfman was expired before we could get anything. We

knew that your friend, Prowler, was one of the contacts, so it was a fairly simple thing to

go back over the tapes and find out that Prowler and company were the “go-to” people

to obtain the drug of their choice.”

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Starting Over by Ryder Dane

He spread out several gory photographs for War to see. “We figure that Wolfman

double crossed them, never actually believing that they could reach out and touch him.

The club presidents were just fodder, but fodder that could implicate the killers. They

had to go.”

War wasn’t sure what to say, “Wel damn, how did I miss seeing this happening?

We should bring Race in here for this discussion.”

The cop shook his head. “No need, my partner has informed him by now. You

guys need to keep your heads down, at least for a week or two. If they believe that

more of you were involved, it could get nasty quick. The only reason I’m telling you this

is because my supervisor said that since our contacts are dead, the second incident

might have been accidental, but it all adds up to be an almost unbelievable coincidence.

Just watch your back, man.”

War stood and nodded, “I assume this information comes with a price tag?”

The cop shook his head. “No price tag. It would be nice if you let us know if you

hear anything from someone in the Vichy Group though. They are going to want that

delivery line to stay open, and my money says they wil be looking for contact.”

The logic was amazing, considering the Vichy family could have made the move,

but hadn’t.

“I know this information will fall in the unbelievable category, but for what it’s worth,

Race and me have made it known that we want the Breed to move out of the

pharmaceutical business, it might cause a small faction to disagree with our thoughts. I

know that no one has contacted me, and if they’d contacted him, I would know about it,

so if they did cause all of the carnage, then they killed their last mule and might as well

cut their losses.”

He left the cop sitting there when he walked out of the room. Once Race and the

rest of the boys met them out by the trucks, War waited until everyone but him and

Race had taken seats in the vehicles to talk privately.

“We got a rat, but the cop handed us a golden ticket, a get out of suspicion card.

Did you ever hear about a possible Mob connection?”

Race was shaking his head and looking around the parking lot. He turned his back

to the building and said, “Later, but they’re fishing, you must have gotten the Good Cop

side of things and I got the hard assed motherfucker that tried to make me confess to

something I had no part of doing. The brothers gave their statements then lawyered up

when the pissants started tossing around accusations. So fuck them, we’re done here,

and if they want to talk to any of us again, they can do it through the suits.”

War considered what Race just told him, “You know something? I think their rat

was one of the boys that died in that unfortunate accident. Do you remember how

Drake glared at us like tel ing us to fuck ourselves? I’d bet a few hundred that he

decided to act the psycho so you’d do him outright. I never saw him acting fucked in the

head like that before, he knew he was meeting the reaper, probably decided to do it in

one piece.”

Race thought about it, and nodded his head. “Could be, we’l discuss it later. Right

now, I think I’m hungry for a taste of River. I’ve been thinking about her all morning, and

I’m thinking that we need to explain the situation. She needs to know that she’s our

property now, and I hated to leave it to Goody to spread the word. We need to take it to

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Starting Over by Ryder Dane

church and let the brother’s know that she’s ours, see who objects to it. Not that I give a

shit, not giving her up, but we have rules.”

War agreed. “We should probably get her a gift or something, you know, to make it

official to her. We should maybe stop in town while we’re out and pick up something to

give her when we get back to the club. She’s likely to be pissed that we left her like

that. Women like romantic shit. We should be able to find something.”

They gave Bam the keys to Race’s truck and the brothers piled into the double cab

to return to the club. War and Race took his truck into town. It was a good opportunity

for them to talk without ears possibly listening in to the conversation.

Race grinned, “I’ve got a few things for her already, did you know Georgia started

sel ing sex toys?” War looked interested so he gave him a rundown of the things he’d

purchased earlier. “I got two different sized butt plugs, and some of those metal balls

the Chinese used to give their ol’ ladies when the men went off to war. And since I

already have handcuffs, I bought some of those clamps for her tits, and several bottles

of lube. She’s so fuckin’ small, I don’t want to hurt her, so I picked up plenty of the stuff

in different flavors too.

“Seeing her juice sliding out after that few smacks on her ass about did me in. Our

girl has a liking for having her ass spanked, and I have a liking for smacking that ass, so

she’ll fit right in between you and me.”

War nodded. “We need to make the quarters at the winery bigger if we plan to stay

there for any length of time. You know how women are, they collect a bunch of crap

and make a man happy to see the doilies and afghans on the furniture and shit. That

building that sits out behind the warehouse? We might want to look into renovating that,

structural y the place is sound, but it’s gonna need a lot of work to make it into a home.”

He glanced at Race.

“We need to be sure that this is what we both want. River is a little bitch at times,

but I don’t want to see her get hurt. I’m ready to commit to the long haul with her, and I

actually like the idea of the two of us being there for her. I think about how fragile life

can be at times, and I like the idea that she won’t be left alone to fend for herself if

something happens to me.

“Before you start ragging on me about love and shit, look at yourself. If you aren’t

ready for the relationship to stick, then you need to back off. As soon as I saw her, I’ve

wanted her. I actually like her personality, fuck, man, how many women do you know

that would come after her brother’s kil er without backup, and marginal skil s? I got

respect for the little witch.”

Race nodded his head. “Yeah, I get you, and I get what you’re saying. The thing is

I feel pretty much the same way about her that you do. She’s right about one thing, we

have a weird connection or some shit. I wouldn’t think about sharing my woman before.

I’m not talking about the whores and passarounds, I mean
my
woman. Believe it or not

I had the same thoughts about her not being alone if one of us died.” He looked out of

the side glass, checking the rearview mirror before continuing. “I can’t bust you about

the love and heart shit because I figured that out last week. Fuck, man, when Les said

they left Glimmer in the bar, my brain clouded red, all I could think of was rushing over

there to keep her from being upset when she found a dead biker. I was afraid she’d be