Asher: Heartless Devils MC (16 page)

“Okay. But I need to hear that from John before the shit starts,” Will said firmly.

“Me, too,” Thomas added. “But for now, we can figure out what the fuck is going on and what we are going to do about it.”

Asher nodded. “Fair enough. Will, I assume your guys didn’t make the hit on Melissa. That’s not really your style.”

“No, man. We didn’t have anything to do with it. You know us… we’re lovers, not fighters. We do our business based on speed and stealth. Making hits is more along the lines of the Demonios. Those assholes shoot first and don’t even bother asking questions later.”

“That’s what I think, as well,” Asher said. “If they made the hit, that almost guarantees that Hamasaki has them in his pocket. But how will we find out?”

Will’s smile never touched his eyes. “Leave that to me.”

“You have a way?”

“Let’s just say one of the Demonios’ ladies has an occasional taste for white meat.”

Thomas and Asher glanced at each other and then snickered. “That’s a dangerous game you’re playing.”

“Yeah,” Will agreed. “It’s what makes it so fucking good.”  

“You know,” Thomas said softly. “This sort of makes sense now.”

“What does?”

“We have been having some problems with our customers and supply chain. Nothing we couldn’t control, but it had been getting harder to get merchandise – more guns hitting the street than we were providing. That sort of thing.”

“Same here,” Will said. “We don’t deal, but getting the smack has been harder lately. No real reason why that we could see. What about you, Asher, the HDs having any trouble with the skin?”
 

“None that I know of, but think about it. Hamasaki went to Thomas first, then you. Then he hits John’s wife. He may have been softening us up. He—”

“Wait!” Jenny called. “That’s it! Hamasaki said he wanted Dad to see enemies all around him! If Dad thought he was being attacked from all sides, Hamasaki could offer a way out. Protection, help, what have you!”

Asher looked at Jenny and nodded. “Makes sense. If Hamasaki could get us in his pocket, in addition to the Trifectas and Bucs, he would have control of drugs, guns, and skin. One stop shopping for all your illicit pleasures. Since we are, mostly, legit now, we are harder to squeeze.”

Will and Thomas begin to nod in unison. “Once he has us all working against each other, he could begin to squeeze us out one at a time,” Thomas said.

“That’s the way I see it,” Asher agreed.

“That fucker. Five years! Five years we have had peace between the clubs, and then this asshole shows up and tries to fuck us all,” Will snarled.

“Do we have an agreement?” Asher asked.

“I’m in,” Will said firmly. “I need to hear that John is on board with this, but if the HDs are in, the Bucs are in.”

“Same here,” Thomas said. “This might actually work to our advantage.”

“How so?” Will asked.

“Let’s plant the story that the HDs are fracturing over the hit against Melissa. Asher has gone rogue and that lends credence to the story. Hell, his own daughter told him to piss off. Sorry,” Thomas added with a sheepish look at Jenny.

“No problem,” Jenny said through tight lips.

“Yeah, I see where you are going,” Asher said. “Hamasaki may make a move. He could try to spin it that they were just supposed to rough Melissa up, not kill her. He could offer up the killers in a gesture of good faith.”

“Yeah, in the meantime, you and Jenny can keep digging. That will leave the Trifectas and the Bucs clean with Hamasaki. We can use our positions to help steer Hamasaki and to collect information,” Thomas continued.

“Nasty,” Will grinned. “I like it. Then we can take turns breaking it off in him.”

Asher laughed. “I like this plan. But when it comes to it, the HDs get to do Hamasaki. Remember, he bloodied us. We owe him.”

“Agreed,” Thomas said. “I’ll just kick the shit out of him, but you can finish him.”

“Agreed,” Will added.

“We need to be careful before we put a bullet in his head,” Will said. “The amount of guns he was talking about bringing in means he has got some serious muscle behind him. More than the Bucs can handle.”

“Yeah. Same here,” Thomas added.

“But more than the three of us can handle?” Asher asked.

“Don’t know,” Will said. “I’m just saying that we need to know what we are dealing with here. The last thing we want is the Yakuza or some shit like that coming in here. Those assholes are crazy
as
shit
.”

“I’ve got to run this by my guys,” Thomas said, “but I’m sure they are going to want in on this. But you’ve got to get the HDs on board Asher. Not because the Bucs and the Trifectas can’t take care of Hamasaki on our own, but because I can’t risk pulling the HDs in against us because you have gone rogue. I don’t want a war on two fronts.”

“Same here,” Will agreed, picking up his helmet.

“I understand. I’ll bring John up to speed as soon as we’re done here. If I can’t get him on board, we are no worse off than we are now. But as least we know what Hamasaki is up to.”

Thomas gave Asher a quick nod. “You need an escort out?” he asked the leader of the Bucs.

“No. I think we’ve got it. Your rice rockets are too slow anyway.”

Thomas snorted out a laugh and gave Will the middle finger. “Try to outrun a bullet, you mother-fucker.”

Will laughed as he slipped on his sunglasses. “Try to get a bead on my weaving ass.”

Jenny listened to the banter among the men as the meeting broke up. She was impressed with how Asher, without the backing of his club, still managed to negotiate an agreement with the Bucs and the Trifectas. He listened to their input and made the other two men feel like they were part of the process and, now, each felt like they owned part of the agreement.

Asher was a born leader, easy-going and getting what he wanted without bluster or threats. Unlike her father. 

After Asher shut the door behind them, he turned to her. “That went well. Better than I expected. We might be able to pull this off.”

“If you can get my father on board.”

“Yeah,” Asher said, his smile fading. “I think he will come around once I lay it all out for him.”

“I hope you’re right,” Jenny said softly, though she suspected Asher was going to have a harder time convincing his own club than he did the Bucs and the Trifectas.

Chapter 13

“John. It’s Asher.” Jenny was silent but listening. They had talked about, and delayed, this conversation as much as they could. But after more than four hours of dreading it, they had finally sat down at the small table to face the music.

“You’ve got a lot of balls calling me after the shit you’ve pulled,” her father said.

“I know.”

“Why, Asher?”

“Because, John, Jenny deserves some resolution over this. Because I don’t think you are thinking straight on this. Because—”

“I’m the goddamned President of this club! When I give an order, and the club votes it in, I expect it to be followed! I don’t give a shit what you think, Asher. When you’re the president, you can run the club the way you want, but until that time, you do it my way! Got it?”

“Yeah. I got it,” Asher said, his eyes meeting Jenny’s as his mouth pulled down.

“I want you to get back here. You can plead your case in chapel; bring it up before the Deacons. Bring Jenny with you.”

“I can’t do that, John. I need to tell you what I have set up.”

“I don’t give a
shit
what you’ve set up! You’ve stepped
way
over your authority, Asher! You don’t speak for this club unless I tell you that you do, you got that?”

“John! This Hamasaki problem isn’t going to go away if we don’t deal with it. I talked to the Bucs and—”

“Asher… I’m only going to say this one more time. Get your ass back here. Do you understand me? I told you to investigate Hamasaki, not make deals behind my back and—”

“John, I know, but—” Asher tried to interrupt.

“I told you to keep my daughter safe, and to keep her out of the club’s business.” John continued as if Asher hadn’t spoken. “You have defied me at every turn.”

“John! I’m doing what I think is best for the club! You told me to take charge of this, and I have!”

“No. You are doing what you think is best for you. If you don’t come to chapel, and bring Jenny with you, I will declare you rogue.”

“I’m not
rogue!”
Asher snarled. “I would never turn on the club. You know that!”

“Then what do you call what you’re doing?” John asked, his voice deadly calm, a fact that frightened Jenny more than his bluster earlier.

“Keeping me safe!” Jenny said loud enough for the phone lying on the table to pick up.

“Jenny… stay out of this. This is club business,” her father said.

“It’s my business, too! Asher is doing what he is doing because of me! If you’re going to be pissed at someone, it should be me.”

Asher shook his head no. He knew very well what he was setting himself up for when he elected to defy the club.

“Then he is the wrong person for your protection.”

“He’s the only person for my protection!” Jenny snarled. “He is the only person that I feel safe with. I don’t trust anyone else.”

John was quiet a moment. “You’re fucking him, aren’t you?”

“Yes! And I’m going to go on fucking him! Nothing you can say or do will change my mind!”

“You’re dead, Asher. I told you I didn’t want her involved in the club. That includes you taking her to bed. I thought I could trust you.”

“John! I didn’t mean for it to happen! It just did.”

“I’m going to kill you myself.”

“You will have to kill me first!” Jenny sneered. “You don’t own me,
John,”
she said, saying his name in a particularly unflattering way. “I will take who I want as a lover, when I want, and for as long as I want. If you don’t like it, that’s just too bad! You have no idea who Asher is. You should have seen him today! You wanted to avoid war? Asher has prevented one. You want to take out Hamasaki? Asher has given you a way. But you can’t see that! You’re so blinded with trying to protect me and your stupid club, you can’t see him for what he is. He’s your ace in the hole, Dad! But you don’t even know it!” 

There is a long silence before John spoke again. “What have you got?”

Asher laid out the proposed deal with the Trifectas and the Buccaneers and their plans for moving forward. He just needed the club’s blessing.

“That explains a lot,” John said softly. “We have been having trouble with people coming in and smacking some of the girls around. We never could get a handle on who was causing the trouble, or why. But if it was Hamasaki stirring up shit, like he was with the Bucs and the Trifectas, that would explain it. It’s been affecting business.”

“See!” Jenny exclaimed.

“Why wasn’t I told?” Asher asked. “Security is my area, John! Why were you keeping me out of the loop?”

“Because I had a handle on it! Because I had more important thing for you to worry about. You need to come in, Asher. We have to get this shit straight.”

Asher looked at Jenny as she shook her head no. “I can’t do that right now, John. Too much as stake… for Jenny and the club.”

“You’re dead, Asher! I’ll have your heart on a platter, do you hear me?” John roared from the phone.

“I hear you, John,” Asher said quietly. “But I can’t be taken off this right now. I have to see this through. For Jenny…and Melissa.”

There was a long moment of silence, long enough that Jenny and Asher thought her father had hung up on them, and then Kenny’s voice came on the line.

“Asher, you need to come in.”

“Is Dad okay?”

“He had to take one of his nitro pills, but he’s okay now. But you both need to come in. I’ll give you my word of safe passage, Asher. John’s right; we can’t have you making deals for the club like this.”

“But my staying out, being rogue, helps sell the story. Hamasaki is no fool, Veep.” Asher said calmly.

“I know that,” Kenny said. “But we can’t have members working against the club like this. You used to understand that…once. You need to get your head back in the game, Asher.”

Jenny watched as Asher’s emotions played across his face. She could tell his conflicting desires were tearing him apart, and she felt a constriction in her chest for what she had asked of him. But if he were to go back now, her father wouldn’t rest until he had made an example of him. She couldn’t allow that.

“Don’t go back,” she whispered. “They’ll kill you.”

“Asher…I know you are doing what you think is right. But it’s not. If you don’t come back we won’t have any choice but to strip you of your colors. You don’t want that. None of us want that,” Kenny said quietly. “Jenny, I won’t let anything happen to him, okay? We don’t kill one of our own.”

“Asher…I’m sorry,” John’s voice came back on the line, but he sounded weaker. “I lost my temper. Listen to Kenny. You need to come back. You’re the future of the club. Come back, now, and we can talk about what you’ve done, what you both have done.”

Jenny began shaking her head. “I can’t, Dad.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t trust you right now. I’m afraid this is just a ploy to get me away from Asher.”

“You need to think about what you are doing,” John said, his voice going hard again. “Melissa never wanted you involved in the club. I agreed with her. I have done everything I can to distance you from the club’s activities. If you go through with this, you could forever be linked with the Heartless Devils. Is that what you want? How many times have you shown your disdain for the club? How many times have you made it clear you want no part of what we do? Are you willing to risk jail? Are you willing to risk being killed? That’s the path you’re on, Jenny, and you know it.”

Jenny thought for a moment. What her father said was true, but after the death of her mother at the hands of a gangster…no! She wanted justice, and if the law couldn’t touch Hamasaki, then she would…by any means necessary.

“It’s a risk I’ll have to take,” she finally said.

“I guess that’s it, then,” John said quietly. “We’re coming for you, Asher,” he warned. “I have been giving you some space, some time to get your head straight. But if you are going to continue on this path, you leave the club no choice.”

“I guess I don’t,” Asher murmured. “I’m sorry, John. I never intended to hurt you or the club.”

“Yeah,” John said, his voice flat and unemotional. There was a moment of quiet, before Asher’s phone bleeped, signaling the end of the call.

“Fuck…” Asher sighed as he leaned back in the chair.

“I’m sorry I dragged you into all the drama,” Jenny said softly. This was all her fault. If it weren’t for her, Asher would still be a respected member of the Heartless Devils.

“I knew what I was doing,” he replied, his eyes going to the phone still on the table. “John has changed. I don’t know if it was his heart attack, the loss of Melissa, you nearly dying…or what. But he isn’t the way he used to be. He was always careful to look after the clubs interests, even above his own, but now it’s like the fire has gone out of him.”

“Kenny seemed to be onboard with him.”

“Yeah, but you heard him. He backed John, but he didn’t like it. I want to back John. The club follows his lead, but if he doesn’t get on top of this Hamasaki situation, there is going to be no club left to lead.”

“Maybe I should go talk to him. He won’t hurt me.”

“No. We’re in this together now. What we do, we do together.”

Jenny rose from her chair and lowered herself to the floor beside Asher. “I’m sorry,” she said as she laid her head on his leg, just to feel close to him. He had given up everything for her.

He gently pulled away from her, stood, and pulled her to her feet and into his arms. “I’m not.”

“But your club.”

“If we solve this Hamasaki shit, they will see it was for the best.”

“And if they don’t?”

He smiled down at her. “I still have you. Maybe I can be your bodyguard and assistant, or something, when you become a big-shot, high-profile lawyer. I work cheap.”

Jenny snickered. “Protect me during the day, warm my bed at night? That sort of thing?”

“If that works for you.”

She reached behind his head and pulled his lips to hers. “You’ve done pretty well so far,” she whispered just before their lips touched.

She pulled back from the kiss, her blood already rushing. Asher had given up everything that was important to him for her, and done it without hesitation or resentment. She realized that, compared to the other lovers she has had, he stood head and shoulders above them all, not only physically, but emotionally and in maturity, as well. She realized that, with Asher, she had taken her first
man
as a lover, regulating all those before him to mere boys.

She stepped back from him, watching his eyes, seeing strength, confidence and a self-assurance there. She smiled and took another half-step back before she reached to his hand and pulled him with her down onto the bed. As he rolled her over and pinned her down, he stared deep into her eyes, almost as if he were reading her soul. She met his gaze, allowing him to see that she intended to grow and mature, to become the woman he deserved. As he lowered his lips to hers again, she could feel the girl in her shatter like an inward looking mirror as the woman lurking inside struggled to break free.

As they kissed, he felt some indefinable change come over Jenny. It was in how she kissed him, in the way her hands caressed him, and how she seemed to…
something
. It was unique in his experience, but it was almost as if some inner power was pouring out of her through the kiss, a power that was charging him up and giving him strength.