Wild Fire (Chaos #6.5)(50)

“He was pretty tweaked he’d been hauled in by Chaos. Can’t say he spilled right away, but eventually he was cooperative and absolutely not at one with her shit landing on him, or their racket, in any way. So, yeah.”

Fuck.

“You cut him loose?” Dutch asked.

“Pretty certain we got all we could from him, so again, yeah.”

“Right.”

“The kid?” Rush asked.

“You line ten thousand men up that all meet the same description, he’d pick the fucker out in five seconds flat.”

“So we need to be all over that warehouse when you said we can’t be all over that warehouse.”

“Nightingale is on that. Vance, Luke and Roam met the kid, witnessed his break, and not surprisingly, man hours loosened up. They’re all in. They’re setting up surveillance equipment as we speak.”

“Fuckin’ great,” Rush said.

“Yeah.”

“Between us on her and Nightingale on that warehouse, we’ll get him, Dutch,” Rush said.

He hoped so.

“Yeah.”

“Catch some sleep. Wanna meet with you tomorrow, set a schedule of who’s on her, who’s on security for Carlyle and his mom and sister.”

“Time?”

“Whenever. Your call.”

Dutch studied Georgie, who was off the phone and concentrating on eating and not falling over.

He got that.

You could run a marathon, and if you’re fit, probably paint your bedroom after.

But emotion will suck it all out of you every time.

“I’ll text you in the morning,” Dutch told him.

“Right. Cool. Later.”

“Later, Rush.”

He disconnected, tossed his phone on the counter and asked, “Well?”

She looked up to him and watched him take another huge bite before she spoke.

“Well, taking nothing away from the fact that I think Carolyn genuinely does probably love your brother, and that was part of why this morning was off-the-hook, it’s clear another part of it is that she’s in some financial trouble and Jagger was her bid to freedom from that. With him out of the picture, she went to our mother, who shot her down, and was desperate enough to break the silence with Dad, who’s now entirely freaked out.”

“Did he shoot her down?”

“He asked her to come and talk to him. Something she did. And since he hasn’t seen her in a while, and she’s lost some weight, and was tweaking, he asked pertinent questions he knew the answers to. She lied. He cottoned onto that too. So, yes. He shot her down for money to buy coke or whatever else is at issue. But he offered to pay for rehab. She refused.”

“Shit, baby,” Dutch whispered.

She looked to the pizza and grabbed another slice, saying, “And now Dad’s mad at me because I admitted I knew there was a problem and I didn’t let him in on it.”

Uh…

No.

“Fuck that, Georgiana,” Dutch clipped.

She again gave him her eyes. “I know. He’s just worried. He’ll get over it.”

“The last time you ate her shit happened this morning, baby,” he warned her.

“Okay, Dutch, but what if her financial situation involves owing money to a dealer?”

Dutch drew in breath through his nose.

The reason why dope was zero tolerated by Chaos was not solely because that shit was fucked up and they wanted no part of it.

It started back when Tack’s sister overdosed.

The Club dealt.

His sister dead, Tack went on a mission and he recruited brothers to that mission, and this mission was to get that shit, and all the other, out of the lives of Chaos.

The final battle sparked when Tabby’s best friend, who was a junkie, got in over her head and the Club intervened to get her out of a very bad situation.

Carlyle, they were on board.

Carolyn, they would let swing.

And not just because of the dope.

Because she’d played a brother.

Even knowing this, Dutch offered, “You want me to ask around, darlin’?”

“I don’t want you eating shit because of this either,” she mumbled irately, and took a bite of pizza.

“And I don’t want you worried,” he returned.

She chewed, swallowed and refocused on him.

“I’m going to have a conversation and share this with her. Share that this is what she’s saddling me with. Mother with. Dad with. This gnawing worry. And I’m going to tell her this one time, I’ll intervene with Mother, Dad, and pitch in myself if she promises to get her shit straight. But if she can’t, we’re done. At least I am. I’ll be out. For good. I can’t let this infect my life like that. Of course, there is no way I can just switch off the love and worry I have for my sister. But she doesn’t need to know that.”

“That’s a very mature response,” he told her.

“It’s big words,” she replied. “I’m totally going to go back on it.”

Dutch started laughing and hooked her with an arm to pull her to him.

He could finish eating with her tucked close.

So could she.

“So…Carolyn down,” she put a line under it, sharing succinctly she was done talking about her sister. “What do you have?”