Dark Fall (Back Down Devil MC #3)(20)

He pushed and walked. Blaine lingered back a few seconds.

“But what did it taste like?” Blaine yelled. “There’s different kinds of *, man.”

The entire bar now looked at Erik as he walked by. He felt like smacking Blaine again. This time he could knock him right in the f*cking mouth and take him out. But there was something bigger to take care of here.

At the door to the meeting room, Erik reached out and grabbed Blaine. He pulled Blaine to where they were almost touching nose to nose.

“Not a word,” Erik said. “Got it?”

“Mark my f*cking word,” Blaine said.

“Everything good here?” a voice asked.

Nate was like a giant, thick with muscles, chains dangling everywhere, a pissed off look permanently attached to his face.

“Just great,” Blaine said.

Erik opened the door and once he, Blaine, and Nate took their seats, the table was full. Smoke hung in the air as Gaige inhaled on a fresh cigarette. There were beer bottles all around and Miller stood behind his chair gripping the back of it.

“Are we ready?” Miller asked.

The entire table got quiet and nodded at Miller.

“First things first,” Miller said. “Last night we had a meeting with Strokner. Didn’t get a whole lot from the man, but enough to know that shit is deep. On the way out of there, there was some business to be dealt.”

Eyes were upon Erik. Erik looked at Griffin. “Got something to say?”

“Nope,” Griffin said. “Heard you were protecting our President.”

“Not just that,” Miller said. “He saved a little kid. Heard from Chief today that the kid’s father was wanted for attempted murder in three states and had intended on taking the kid to his apartment and then going back to kill the kid’s mother. You saved that boy, Erik. Be proud.”

Gaige clapped and whistled. The table followed suit. It pissed Erik off. He wasn’t some comic book vigilante *. All he had wanted to do was fight someone and he had done just that.

“That’s enough,” Erik finally said.

“Strokner made it clear that this is serious,” Gaige said. “Shay, you have to think long and hard about your past, man.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

“Someone is coming for you. Old fling? Old business dealing? Something hiding in your closet, bro?”

Shay looked around the table. “When you live my life, all you have are enemies waiting.”

“I think that goes for all of us,” Nate said.

“Guess my enemies have more balls,” Shay said.

The table chuckled. Then everyone looked at Erik, remembering the outcome of the bombing.

“I don’t think it’s f*cking funny,” Erik said. “You need to think, Shay. You need to really figure this out. Take a night off of * and find out who did this.”

“You think it’s that easy?” Shay asked. “You know what I did for a living to survive?”

“I don’t give a f*ck. How does that sound?”

Shay stood and pointed at Erik. “You took that bomb, brother, and I’m sorry for that. But I didn’t put the f*cking thing in the car.”

“Sit down!” Miller yelled. “Christ. Erik and Blaine went to dig a little today. What did you guys find?”

Blaine looked at Erik and winked.

Erik found some *…

“Those two guys at that garage are f*cking morons,” Blaine said.

“I don’t care about that,” Miller said. “I want information.”

“They saw a man at the auction,” Erik said. “Black car, black suit. Talking. That’s when it was done. They knew Shay was getting that car. They planted the bomb there and it was set to go off with the intention of Shay driving the vehicle.”

“A black car, black suit,” Miller said. “Maybe it was Strokner.”

“Doubt it,” Gaige said. “Strokner had nothing to do with us until…”

“Until,” Miller said. “He blames us for the death of his daughter.”

“Holy shit,” Griffin whispered.

“I’ll kill him,” Blaine said.

“I’ll f*cking kill him,” Shay said. “I had nothing to do with his girl being shot.”

“It wasn’t Strokner,” Erik said as he pounded a fist to the table. “They told us something else."

“What?” Miller asked.

“The guy in the black suit had a gold tooth and a scar on his neck.”

“Fuck,” Gaige whispered. “Not Strokner.”

“Shay?” Miller asked.

Shay shook his head. Erik watched him, unconvinced.

“So we have nothing,” Blaine said.

“No,” Miller said. “We have places to go. Things to do. Gaige, I need you to get another meeting with Strokner. Maybe this gold tooth and scar will help him remember something.”

“Man, we’re getting in deeper with Strokner,” Griffin said. “I don’t like it.”

“Nobody does,” Gaige said. “But we have to find Jonesy. We have to find out who tried to take out Shay and almost killed Erik. I don’t care how we do it.”

“He’s like a squirrel, man,” Griffin said. “Keep feeding him and he’ll keep coming back.”