Extreme Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 7) (7 page)

“My God,” Maria whispered, beyond horrified at what Mirrie’s early years must have been like. Maria had always thought that as an unwanted orphan bounced between orphanages and foster homes, she’d had it pretty rough, but it looked like she needed to reevaluate the meaning of that word. “I didn’t – I never thought – Mirrie –”

“We hear you, sweetie,” Naomi said softly. “We get it.”

“Yes,” Sarah said, touching Mirrie’s wrist. “We do. We’ll manage things from here, for as long as it takes for King and his people to fix this mess. We have laptops, we can stay in touch with our guys safely through King and his people, we can work if we want to. We’re grateful to be safe, and no complaints from any of us. It’s all going to be OK.”

“Maybe it will,” Mirrie said, still not really comforted. “But don’t kid yourselves… before it gets even in the
neighborhood
of OK, it’s going to get bad. And when a one-percenter MC is involved, ‘bad’ is the same as saying ‘hell on earth’.”

Chapter Six
Four days later

“Can everyone hear me?” King said, sitting down at the massive table in the back of King’s Garage. “Sound off, guys.”

“Tex and Jack here,” Jack said, his voice warm and clear over the speaker set in the middle of the table. “Honey’s on front door guard duty, so she won’t be joining us.”

“OK,” King replied. “Everyone else?”

“This is Tank and Luke,” came Tank’s guttural growl, his Cajun accent more pronounced over the speaker. “Valentina and Dallas are in position around the house, keeping an eye on the ladies.”

“And at this end, besides me, we have Lilly and Knox,” King said. “Nobody else is back from assignment yet.”

Murmurs of assent came over the speaker now, and King leaned back in his chair, gestured at Lilly and Knox to sit.

“So,” he drawled, already anticipating the answer to his question. “How goes it with Spider and Ace, Jack? Tex?”

“
Jeeeeesus
,” Tex said right away, and King grinned. “Can I switch out, boss? Maybe go and take care of the women? Never-ending and bewildering wedding talk aside, it’d
have
to be better than watching these two.”

“No fuckin’
way
,” Tank and Dallas barked out quickly, and in unplanned unison.

Everyone laughed, even Tex.

“They fighting again?” King said, remembering the confrontation that he’d witnessed outside Spider’s bedroom door a few nights earlier. “Verbal altercations and the like?”

“Nope,” Tex said. “The opposite. They won’t even be in the same room at the same time. They eat in shifts, they watch TV in shifts, they avoid any all contact, even eye contact. Spider gets up early, Ace sleeps until noon. Spider goes to bed at ten, Ace is up half the night. It’s like living with two ghosts drifting around, is what it’s like.”

“And that’s a problem why?”

“Oh, it’s not a
problem
,” Tex said. “I mean, it’s a
hellava
lot better than having to break up fights and constantly step between them. But it’s… well. It’s – what’s the word, Jack?”

“We’re waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Jack supplied. “It’s like an approaching storm, rolling in over the Rockies… you feel it long before it breaks. It’s in the air, King.”

“What is?” King asked. “I still don’t get what we’re talking about here.”

“I’m not sure yet.” They heard Jack shift his weight back on forth. “Something.”

“Something bad?” Knox asked. “Pistols at dawn in the field outside kind of stuff?”

“I dunno,” Jack replied. “On the whole, I think not. I think it’ll be alright in the end. But right now, they’re like two animals circling each other, watching and waiting, but for what, I don’t know. Maybe softening and a chance to talk at long last. Or maybe the polar opposite… maybe weakness and a chance to go for the jugular.”

“Great,” King muttered. “Leave it to Ace to make shit more difficult.”

“Oh, it ain’t
Ace
,” Tex said, catching them all by surprise. “Ace is making an effort. Or at least, he was, until yesterday. I think yesterday, he kinda gave up a bit because Spider’s been such an asshole to him.”

“You’re kiddin’,” Tank said. “
Ace
wasn’t bein’ the dickhead?”

“Nope,” Tex said. “He was trying. Like really
trying
. He made coffee for Spider a few times and brought it to him, and Spider ignored it. Ace tried to start a few conversations with him, just about general stuff, and Spider ignored him. Ace came down to dinner when Spider was eating and asked to join him, and Spider ignored him, so Ace left. Ace apologized to Spider at least three times, and Spider –”

“Ignored him,” everyone said.

“Saw that coming, huh?” Tex said. “Yep. So you get the picture.”

“Dammit,” King said. “I get that Spider’s pissed, but you’d think he’d at least be civil at this point, for everyone’s sake.”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “You want me to talk to him? Tell him to grow the hell up?” He paused. “Though maybe a tad more nicely than that?”

“Nah,” King said. “Give them a bit more time to figure it out on their own. So long as there isn’t blood on the walls, leave them to it.”

“OK.” Jack sighed. “Like goddamn kindergarten, I swear to God. Except that average five-year-old is slightly more mature than Spider at this point.”

“Give them some space,” King said.

“There’s nothing
but
space between them,” Tex pointed out. “But they can carry on doing that for as long as they want. Fine by me, though I’d
still
rather be watching women pick out wedding dresses.”

“And how are the ladies doing?” King said right away, missing Naomi so much at this point, he actually ached from it; some parts of him ached more than others, he had to admit. “How’s my girl?”

“They’re actually really good,” Dallas said. “They’re handling it all just fine, but they’re asking if they can talk to their men. You got the burner phones handled, King?”

“Yeah. Lilly sorted all that out this morning.”

“I’ll be dropping the phones at Curves tonight,” Lilly said. “I already gave King his, and Jax said that he’ll distribute the rest of them to the guys. You guys all set at your end?”

“Yeah,” Dallas said. “Selena got the phones for us, and the ladies already have them. They’re just waiting for someone to call them now.”

“Tell them to hang on one more day,” King said, squeezing the cell in his jeans pocket, already planning to call Naomi s soon as this damn conference call was over. “They’ll talk to the guys soon.”

“I will,” Tank said. “Anythin’ else, boss man? Any word on what Nails and Joker have been up to these past few days? Any sense of the MC’s activity and movements?”

“Hell, yeah.” King’s voice hardened now, and everyone snapped to attention. “And the word is that they’re doing exactly
nothing
.”

A tense silence followed his words. Then Tex said, “How the actual fuck is that even
possible
?
No way
they’re sitting around singing Kumbaya and making peace with what happened, getting in touch with their feelings and working on forgiveness.”

“Clearly, that’s not what these whack-jobs are doing,” King said. “No, they’re plotting and planning – but they’re doing it in a way that they’ve never done it before. They’re doing it quiet and slow. They’re doing it
smart
.”

“Well, that’s worrying,” Dallas said. “Personally, I like my MC members as stupid as hollowed-out tree stumps. I don’t like when they actually have custody of more than one brain cell between the lot of ‘em.”

“I’m with you, man,” Tank said. “I think we all are.”

“Well, we always knew that Nails was a whole different breed, King,” Jack reminded him. “He’s not a hot-headed moron like Trigger, and he’s not able to be manipulated like Ace. He’s cool and cunning, and most of all, he’s patient. He can wait until the exact right moment, and when it comes, he’ll have everything planned, step by step. He’s formidable, and we need to change our expectations of attack. He’s not going to kick in the front door with guns blazing, just spraying bullets and hoping that something hits. That’s what Trigger would have done within an hour of hearing about Kirk, and it’s what Kirk would have told Ace to do… but that is
not
Nails’ style, and that’s why we haven’t heard a peep from the Fallen Angels in almost a week.”

“So how then?” Tex said to him. “What should we be expecting?”

Jack was silent.

“C’mon, son,” Tex said. “Give us some of your freaky profiler shit. What will Nails do?”

“Honestly?” Jack said heavily. “He’s going to do something that nobody will see coming, and he’s going to catch us all by total surprise. He’s not even going to do anything as basic as sneak in a secret window. No, he’s going to pop up from a hidden room in the basement that none of us fucking even knew was
there…
because it’s a room that he’s going to have tunnelled right under our damn feet as we stood there looking out the window, without us having a clue he was even in the house. He’s laying the groundwork
now
, guys, and it’s a brilliant, diabolical labyrinth. It’s unpredictable and it’s unforeseeable, and we’re way at a disadvantage here.”

“So what I’m hearing is that we’re totally screwed,” Tex said, trying to sound joking and totally failing. “Is that right, Jack?”

“Not
totally
,” Jack said. “But still screwed pretty goddamn bad, for all of that.”

**

Nails Paxton stared at the pictures in front of him, considering all his options, weighing all the pros and cons. From across the table, Joker Kane sat and watched his new Prez thinking, wondering where the ax was going to fall. He’d been watching the man think for the past hour, ever since Doc had finished giving his brief on the people in the pictures, and even though Joker wasn’t a patient man, he was ready to sit here for another hour. Or two. Or a fucking day, if that’s what it took… because when Nails finally swung that ax, it was going to be lethal.

That
was worth waiting for.

Joker had had to learn quite a bit about waiting over the past few days, much to his initial chagrin. The truth was that if he’d had his way, he’d have marched out of Ace’s place that day that he’d found those fucking pictures on that drive, and he’d have emptied the club’s armoury, and he’d have called in Jensen’s people and every single MC that the Fallen Angels were owed a favor from – and then he’d have gone to King’s Garage and shot the doors off their goddamn hinges. He’d have blasted Matt Fucking Kingston in the face right off the bat, then methodically gone about killing every single member of his infamous and elite King’s Men group… whoever they were. Oh, the MC knew a few of them, of course, but surprisingly few. Those assholes were good at covering their tracks. But Joker would have shot first and asked questions later, and if a few customers of the garage had gotten dead in the mess, well… tough shit.

And all of
that
would have just been for starters, of course. Just a calling card. Next he’d have twisted and tortured a few of the team members into giving up Ace Cuddy’s whereabouts. And if they didn’t crack, Joker was sure that someone would have a phone with a helpful call history. Or a kid that they didn’t want drowned in the family bathtub. Or a spouse whose car brakes they didn’t want to ‘fail’ on a steep hill. Or a parent that they didn’t want smothered with a pillow.

Everyone
had someone that made them vulnerable, something that could be held over their heads – even that human mountain King and his merry band of hard-ass special-ops types – and this was what Nails was looking for now.

Joker could respect this approach, actually. The difference between him and Nails was that Joker would have looked for the vulnerability later, almost as an after-thought, while Nails was using it as a starting point. Joker still wasn’t sure that this was the way to go, but he’d raised his objections as VP, been shot down by his President, and his role now was to respect his leader’s decisions. To be staunchly loyal and to have Nails’ back – and unlike that cocksucker Ace Cuddy, Joker
was
loyal. To the death, if necessary.

And considering the absolute shit-storm that Nails was planning to unleash, it just might be necessary this time. Joker had survived an entire lifetime in the MC world… and he’d always known that he’d die in it, one way or the other. And if he died in the process of taking down that traitorous faggot bastard Cuddy, then Joker would eagerly step right on up and make that sacrifice. Hell, he’d be
honored
to die while taking his ex-President’s life.

In a way, he felt like this was what he’d been born to do, what his life in the MC had been grooming him for.

Like killing Ace Cuddy was his destiny.

Nails suddenly slammed his hand down on one of the pictures; Joker jumped, startled.

“This one,” Nails rasped.

Joker leaned over to look at the picture, and was stunned at his Prez’s choice. That was
not
the way that Joker would have gone, if it were up to him.

“Yeah?” Joker said carefully, determined to show no disrespect, but still feeling the need to check in. “You sure?”

Nails nodded, his cold blue eyes brooking no dissent or argument. Joker looked back down at the picture, trying to find the logic in this choice, but it escaped him. Kidnapping a man was
always, always
harder than kidnapping a woman, and that was just a basic fact. Men fought back harder, they were stronger, and
this
guy was athletic and muscled from his daily workouts at The Rock, the local gym known for its martial arts and boxing classes. Why Nails would want to grab
this
particular guy when there was a soccer mom and a parent stricken with cancer to choose from was beyond Joker.

“Alright,” he said, keeping his voice neutral. “Is it OK if I ask… if I ask?”

“Why him, when there are easier targets?”

“Yeah.”

“Because it’s not about
him
,” Nails said. “
He’s
not the target.”

Joker didn’t get it, not even slightly; he stayed silent, confused. Nails saw that, and he knew that elaboration was required for his Veep.

“Look, he’s a tool, man. An instrument to abuse and exploit,” Nails explained. “He’s just something that we’re using to get to who we
really
want.”

“Who’s that?”

“His girl.”

“And who’s
she
?” Joker was perplexed. “And how can she help us get to Cuddy?”

“I’m not saying anything about her yet, since I have one thing to confirm and lock down. I think I’m right, and once I’m sure that I am, we’re going full-steam ahead.”

Joker was dying to ask… like, actually
dying
to ask. But one look at his Prez’s steely gaze shut his mouth hard and for sure. There was no more information to be had here, and he’d best back down. Gracefully admitting temporary defeat was yet another new experience for Joker, one that he’d never really had before Nails, and he disliked it about as much as being forced to be patient.