Crash (Brazen Bulls MC #1)(78)

The young patch sat forward. “It took a while, it was years back, and Texas records are hard to get hold of. But the short of it is, yeah. All true. He did time for burglary the first time, but that was a plea deal. The police report detailed what he did to Willa. Same thing the second time, but that time he did hard time for hurting her. She had a restraining order, too, for all that did. Anyway, all true.”

“Nobody thought she was lying, Sarge,” Simon interjected. “We’ve all met her. We believe you. She’s not Dahlia. But all that makes it even worse that we didn’t have somebody on her.”

“I know. My bad. I was…I made a mistake.” This was not the room to admit that he’d caved to his old lady’s will. Not on an issue like protection.

“It would’ve been a hardship to lose manpower,” Delaney said. “We shot Rad down when he wanted to go for this guy at the start, remember. We said that Willa wasn’t close enough to be family. Fuck, I said that. I was remembering Dahlia and not putting stock in this problem. Nobody knew this guy was on Willa yet. I think we’d’ve shot Rad down if he’d asked to put coverage on her. The prospects did their checks, like they do for all the women. It wasn’t enough. So let’s set aside the blame here. Blame doesn’t give us a plan.”

“She’s a little warrior, though, huh? Turned that * into shredded meat.” Gunner laughed and turned to Rad. “You definitely traded up, Sarge.”

“Away from this table,” Delaney cut in, refocusing the discussion, “Rad did it. You all know the story. Anybody got a problem with it?”

Nobody did.

“Simon, Gun, Ox—no trouble with the disposal, right?”

“No, Prez.” Gunner grinned. “Didn’t even mess up my pretty face.”

“No word on the police band about anybody spotting the wreck,” said Apollo.

Ox spoke on that. “Where we put it, could’ve burned out and nobody the wiser.”

“That’s a problem, to my thinking,” Rad said. “A dead Rat could just be unlucky. But a missing Rat last seen in Tulsa could be a problem.”

“We don’t know what they know.” Dane tugged on his beard.

“No, we don’t,” Rad agreed. “My thinkin’ is we have to be ready for them to come lookin’ for him. That’s why I wanted his kutte. If this goes down as an accident or a mad hitchhiker or somethin’, the evidence is burned away, so they won’t know if he had his kutte. But if this comes to a head between the clubs, we have proof it was our call and not hers. It was the Bulls protectin’ our people. If the Rats have any sense, then that’s a negotiation, not a war.”

“Rats got no sense,” Becker muttered. “They’ll pull some sneaky shit and catch us with our pants down.”

Delaney sighed. “Enough. We can’t plan shit against a threat we don’t understand. If she’s safe, we can focus on the Russians and give the Rats some time to show their hand. Rad—we need to put Willa under cover for a while, till we can see if there’s blowback. If the Rats know about her, they’ll probably go for her first.”

“That’s what I was thinkin’.” And the thought made Rad’s insides burn.

“Why don’t you take her up to the cabin?”

The club had a cabin up in the Osage Hills. It was pretty nice. They used it for recreation, weekends away, hiding out when things got hot for one of them, and storage for part of their club gun cache.

“Too far, too remote, Prez. If they find her there, she won’t have enough between them and her.” Except for Ollie. Who was formidable, as Rad knew intimately well. “I’ll put her at my place.”

“How’s that better?” asked Griffin. “If they’re a threat to us, it’s because they know she’s with you.”

That was a point, and anyway, Rad’s house was a shithole. He was barely there anymore, and that was the way he liked it.

“Here. Here is where she’s safest.” Simon looked across the table at Rad. “The clubhouse.”

She would absolutely hate that, but Simon was right. Here at the clubhouse, she’d be surrounded by patches and a high fence.

He wondered what Ollie would think about all this.





CHAPTER TWENTY



“You know, that new shop down the row from mine did this thing with their floor,” Joanna offered, studying the page of paint samples Maureen had handed her. “This kind of concrete stain, with patterns. Could we do something like that?”

“That oddball place that did graffiti on the windows?” Maureen looked aghast.

Willa knew the shop they were talking about. She loved it. They sold a wide selection of Doc Martens and had fantastic jeans. She’d been there just a few days before; she’d seen Jesse watching her when she’d come out.

For the most part, she’d been sitting quietly, listening to Maureen and Joanna throw out ideas and sketch out plans. She’d met and had some brief chat with both of them before today, and they’d been friendly, but she wouldn’t have said she was their friend yet, or vice versa. Over the years, Willa had become slow to call people friends. It didn’t matter that she was Rad’s old lady; she hadn’t found her place in the clubhouse or among club people yet—and she was definitely not comfortable enough to offer decorating opinions.