I would be lying if I said I wasn’t shocked as shit that McGraw didn’t tell them his source was my brother. Not using Noah as bait to get them to talk. All I knew was that Noah hadn’t dragged the MC name or their involvement in Mia’s disappearance through the mud. Just mine. It didn’t mean I wasn’t fucking waiting for the other shoe to drop. My hands were tied, I couldn’t rat out my baby brother, even though he pretty much turned my ass into the pigs.
Delivering my balls to McGraw on a silver fucking platter. The MC would have crucified Noah for turning his back on not only a brother, but also his VP. There was no way in hell I would ever allow that to happen. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter, though. He turned his prospect cut in the day after our fight. Standing up to Pops, letting him know that things were different now, he was different. Our old man didn’t even put two and two together on why Noah looked exactly how I fucking did. Beat up to shit. I guess he was too consumed with trying to make this problem go away. Noah walked out of the clubhouse that day and hadn’t returned since. At least that’s what Diesel and Ma told me.
Ma knew I was in hiding, she knew what went down between Noah and me. She was our mother, I didn’t expect her to take sides. Especially since Noah had been staying at her new place by the beach. Not far from Mia’s mom’s restaurant. She officially left my fucking cheating bastard of a father. I wasn’t surprised in the least. Their marriage had been over for fucking decades. Only difference now, it was on paper.
Stacey and Laura helped her buy the four-bedroom, three bathroom colonial home set back from the beach. She told me I was welcome to come home anytime I wanted, stating there was plenty of room for Noah and me to live under the same roof with her. It was why she bought such a big house. We’d always have a home and bed to sleep in, no matter what. She even gave me a key. I just think she hated being alone. I knew it hurt her, knowing her sons were fighting against each other. When all she wanted was for us to stay united and have one another’s backs. We were the only family we had, and she reminded us of that often.
“I know I left that fuckin’ disc Martinez gave me under the mattress in my room at the goddamn clubhouse. I hid it there the day I had to report back to base.”
“I already told you! I tore apart your fuckin’ room! It’s not there!”
“Then someone fuckin’ found it and stole it!” I abruptly stood, pacing around the room. “It’s my fuckin’ fault. I should have checked that disc fuckin’ months ago, but I had to report back for duty. Then Mia got knocked up, then the fuckin’ shootout and puttin’ her into hidin’. It’s been one thing after a fuckin’ another. I was goin’ to check it the day Martinez sent that text message, but I hauled fuckin’ ass over to Ma’s house cuz of their fuckin’ dinner! Thank God for that or Ma and Mia could be dead.”
“We’ve been lookin’ in the wrong places, pointin’ fingers at the wrong fuckin’ people. When we shoulda’ been lookin’ at our own. And this just fuckin’ proves it! You didn’t look at that disc cuz you didn’t think it had one fuckin’ thing to do with this! I followed your orders and our fuckin’ Prez’s, cuz I knew you had a shitload on your plate with Mia. Which is why you weren’t thinkin’ straight. Tryin’ to keep her safe. I get that. Which is why we gotta talk, now.”
“So fuckin’ talk. Ain’t goin’ anywhere. I’m listenin’.”
He didn’t falter. “Think about it... from the second your old man took Mia and brought her to the clubhouse, he had you by your fuckin’ sack, and you know it. Why would he just take her? Huh? Not tell any of us? How did he even know where to find her? Why look like the fuckin’ hero? When he should have been fuckin’ fightin’ by our sides? For his goddamn club?! He don’t give a shit about her! He’s proven that time and time again. He did it to have your loyalty when he don’t fuckin’ deserve it. That shootout was bullshit in the first place! Why come to your house?! A home you’re rarely at and your father hasn’t stepped foot in for who the fuck knows how long. That was personal, it didn’t have shit to do with our MC.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, cocking my head to the side.
“You know it, Creed! It was a setup, bro. So was that ambush at the safe house.”
“Naw, that was my fuck up. I let her outside, knowin’ it would lead to no fuckin’ good.”
“I call bullshit! Even Doc smelled a fuckin’ traitor that night. That’s what Prez wants you to think! That safe house has been in our MC since before we were fuckin’ born. He was waitin’ for you to slip up, do somethin’ that would give reasonin’ for a shit storm. Not to mention that safe house was out in butt fuckin’ Egypt! No one would be able to find that place. Can’t even stumble upon it, unless you already knew it was there. All this shit started at that first meetin’ when he shot Striker in the fuckin’ head all those years ago. A man who’s been his best friend since they were kids, is all of a sudden a fuckin’ traitor? No fuckin’ way... eat my ass and suck my cock. That’s some bullshit right there.”
My mind immediately started reeling with everything he just said, mainly because it made so much fucking sense. Every last bit of it.
“This ain’t got shit to do with territory, with Sinners Rejoice, with nothin’ that concerns the Devil’s Rejects. It’s about your old man! It’s been about him since day fuckin’ one! He wants us to think it’s the MC. And he knows we’ll believe it cuz he lives and breathes it... until it comes down to savin’ his own fuckin’ ass! And it’s not just about him. It’s about you, too! We just need to figure out what the fuck he’s hidin’. And who stole that fuckin’ disc. It will clear your name from spendin’ life behind bars and possibly throw in our Prez instead.”
“Jesus Christ... you’re right. You’re so fuckin’ right.”
“It’s go time, motherfucker. You’re in hidin’ now, perfect time to find out the truth. No one will suspect anythin’. We ride together, and we fuckin’ die together, brother. I’ll be right there by your side. Just need to figure out where to start.”
“I know where. Suit up, Diesel. We’re goin’ to fuckin’ Hell.”
And he was known as...
El Santo.
I never thought it would take three fucking months to get a meeting with El Santo. I had never met the motherfucker, but that didn’t mean I didn’t know who the fuck he was. Everyone knew him by reputation, but only a hand full of people knew the man behind the name. Especially the corrupt.
Men just like me, but far fucking worse.
Diesel and I pulled up to the underground club around midnight, parking our truck in the shadiest fucking area of Miami. We’d been on the road for eleven and a half hours, only stopping for food and gas. Pissing on the side of the road when need be. We couldn’t risk me being seen since I was still in hiding.
The bouncer eyed me up and down, from my combat boots to my cut, to my fucking leather jacket. “We don’t accept your kind here,” he sneered, making me want to knock his goddamn teeth out.
I cocked my head to the side, gritting out, “We were fuckin’ invited.”
“By who?”