Bash, Volume II (16 page)

Bash

As it turned out, the phone call I got wasn’t the one I expected.

“You with Tink?” asked Dawg.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“I’m in your office, talkin’ to Marlin. I think you need to bring Tink for this. Gonna call Brain when I get off the phone with you.”

Duke was at a big charity auction thing with Gen tonight, and wasn’t to be bothered unless we had to. Calling in Brain was the equivalent of calling in Duke, right now.

“She has to work tomorrow, can’t it just be me?”

“She’s gonna want to hear this.”

I was holding the phone so she could hear, and I explained, “Marlin is with the Disciples. Not the head honcho, but only a step or two down.”

She nodded. “I’ll come.”

Dawg heard her and said, “Make it fast. See you soon.”

Angelica wanted to drive her own bike, but I convinced her to ride on the back of mine by pointing out if she rode with me, I’d have to take her home.

Brain’s bike was already there when we pulled into the parking lot, and Slick motioned us into my office as we walked into the building.

My wolf wanted to attack as we entered and saw Marlin sitting comfortably in one of my chairs, smelling way too calm for a human surrounded by wolves. Instead, I gave them my most menacing look and said, “Okay, you got us. What the fuck is going on?”

“Hear him out,” said Dawg, his face dark.

“One of the boys in custody for the fight with your girl and the DA is bein’ offered a deal by the current
acting
DA.” He spoke slow and steady, held eye contact, and I smelled no fear on him.

“Does Dash know you’re here?” I asked him. Dash was the local leader.

He shook his head. “Dash would have my ass if he knew I was talkin’ to the enemy. I’m tired of fightin’ you, though. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the way I see it, we’d all like to see Pickering sink on this one.”

“What deal are they offering your boy?” Angelica asked, her voice strong.

He looked at me, surprised she’d spoke, and I explained, “This concerns her. Don’t know if inviting her was your idea or Dawg’s, but she gets to ask questions if she’s here.”

“Dawg made the call,” he said, looking at her with interest he hadn’t shown before. “Rumor has it you dated Pickering. That true?”

“Didn’t know he was the DA at first, and we only went out a few times. He’s making this personal, but I have a few aces I can pull, if I have to. What kind of deal is he offering?”

“They want my guy to implicate you, say you been selling for us, and say you and Viper been doin’ the nasty. Turn the MC against you
and
get you in deep shit with the law — two birds, one stone.”

“What’s your play?” I asked.

“The Disciples and MC are never goin’ be friends, but no reason we have to be active enemies. I’m about to make a play for Dash’s job, and forging a truce with the MC will give me substantial backing.”

If Marlin took over the Disciples and wanted peace, this could be a huge deal, but I wasn’t sure Brain could stand in for Duke on something this big.

I looked to Brain in question, and he nodded at me and told Marlin, “I know how much I can agree to. If we need to go farther we’ll have to wait for Duke. You took a risk coming to us, and I appreciate it, but it’ll be one or two in the morning before we can get him here.”

Marlin pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “I’m proposing we split the parts of the city we all want. I need to get something from you, so I’m taking a few blocks ya’ll have claimed — territory we’ve found to be quite lucrative in the past. I’m giving you double the space on your other side, though.”

Brain looked at it and shook his head. “Duke won’t give up the school. We can give you a third of the southern portion you’re wantin’, but the southwestern part, starting from two blocks away from the school, will have to stay ours.”

“We gave you another school, on the western portion.”

“And it’s appreciated, and the only reason Duke will be willin’ to give up territory we’ve bled to keep, in the past.”

Marlin looked at us a few seconds, debating whether to tell us something, and I told him, “I’m aware you got kids at both schools. We know more about your upper management than you think. What’s the rest of your deal, and what’s the yellow hashtag area on your map? No man’s land?”

He shook his head. “At first, yeah, but I’m proposing — once I’m in charge — you only send people there who can come face to face with us and play nice, and I’ll do the same. Locals will see us talking and living together, assume we’re good. Reduce tension, and get the po-po to stop trying to play us off each other.”

Brain nodded. “Yeah, some of the officers seem to think they can get us to take each other out, save them the trouble.”

“Do you have to take the reins before Viper turns down the deal?” asked Angelica.

Marlin shook his head. “Viper’s my boy. Dash doesn’t know about the offer yet.” He glanced at Brain, gave me an appraising look, and then focused on Angelica. “We’re in two factions right now, mine and Dash’s, only Dash doesn’t know how deep the rift goes. Need to clue you in on what the other factions are thinkin’, but I don’t want it to come off as me threatening you. Just want you aware of what they’re planning.”

“Understood.” She held his gaze and I knew her wolf wasn’t far below the surface. Mine wasn’t either, but I was used to these kinds of situations. She wasn’t, and yet she was handling it like a pro.

“You’re
one
girl, all fashionable and shit, damned easy on the eyes, and fuckin’
petite
,” Marlin told her, “and you singlehandedly took down
three
of my guys. Add to that, you seem to belong to Rolling Thunder’s Sergeant at Arms. I can keep the people loyal to me from fuckin’ with you, but there’s a faction lookin’ at you as a trophy right now, no matter your daddy kicked up a shitstorm in Atlanta and you’re s’posed to be off limits. Thing is? They don’t want you dead, they want you chained up in their basement so they can play with you. You are
prime
white meat, girl. Need you to stay out of our territory and be extra careful.”

My wolf came to the surface and I stared at Marlin as I growled. My eyes stayed human, but I knew enough of the wolf peered out, Marlin could see the wildness in me. He lifted his hands to the side as if to show he wasn’t a threat. “I don’t want no part of her, just want to be clear Dash and a few others want to send a message and think she’s the perfect tool.”

“When I was around twelve, I think,” Angelica said, her voice calm and steady, showing no fear at all, “there was another dominant gang in town. In Atlanta. Did you ever hear of The Black Swords?”

Marlin nodded, “Yeah, all kinds of rumors about where they disappeared.”

“The leader threatened my mom, so my dad and a few others took them out.
All of them
except for a few of the newest guys — enough men to spread word of the slaughter, and just how bad it was. It’s my understanding the MC wiped the Swords out in one night. The next day they were just gone. Their bodies were never found.”

Marlin looked to me in question and I shrugged. “Before my time. Probably Brain’s, too. We’d need to ask Duke.”

“No need to ask Duke,” said Brain. “I wasn’t around yet, but I’m aware of what happened. She’s right, and the point is that her dad will go to extremes to keep her safe. From what I hear, they killed twenty-seven men in one night, and told another five or so of the lower level guys if they ever saw their face again, they’d take them out, too. The rest of the crew ended up in Montgomery, joined forces with the Hellions. Bud made sure the ones he took out went through a world of hurt before they checked out, and the ones he let go told the tale. No one bothered the MC for a long while, from what I hear.”

Marlin shook his head as he looked at Angelica. “Nice bullshit story, but no one’s gonna let their twelve year old daughter in on somethin’ like that.”

Angelica shrugged. “Daddy didn’t tell me. He told Mom some of it, and I overheard. I also heard some of the talk in the clubhouse. I was good at disappearing, fading into the background so no one noticed me, when I wanted to know what happened, and I’d
really
wanted to know what happened.”

“Believe it, don’t believe… don’t really give a shit,” I told him. “What Bud did is
peanuts
to what I’ll do if I believe there’s a serious threat to her health and well-being.”

“
That
, I believe — which is why I’m here. I’m tired of watching my guys die, or go missing, or go to the hospital. Three gonna live the rest of their lives in a chair. And the bitch of it is? I swear it looks like you’re pullin’ your punches when you fight.” He shook his head and looked at Dawg. “Even when we shoot you almost point blank, you come back four months later as if nothin’ happened. We can either keep fighting and keep losin’ people, or we can find a truce we can all live with.”

Angelica uncrossed her legs, crossed them the other way. “Your boy, the one they’re offering the deal… I left two alive. If he turns it down, won’t they go to the other?” I wasn’t terribly happy with her in the conversation, but it was a good question.

“Viper’s the one they planted the shit on, prolly ‘cause he’s comin’ up on three strikes, and he’s the one who fired. The other guy ain’t bein’ charged with enough to be offered a deal.”

“So, he’s looking at serious time if he turns down the deal. He’ll do that, if you tell him to?”

Marlin looked at me as if I needed to explain it to her, and I told her, “If Duke tells me to turn down a deal and take more time, I’ll do it. He won’t tell me to unless it’s important, and the good of the MC comes before the good of any one of us. I’m sure it’s the same for the Disciples.”

She looked at him a second, considering, and finally asked, “So, if we can get your boy off without him taking the deal, will it help your negotiation with the MC?”

He lifted his eyebrows as he considered her. “Won’t hurt.”

Angelica looked at Brain and I immediately knew they were talking telepathically. My wolf about went ballistic but I had to control him in front of Marlin. Ten seconds later I realized I couldn’t do it, and my choices were to leave the room or show my wolf’s eyes to Marlin and then have to kill him.

I left the room, slamming the door on my way out.

Angelica

I knew there was a chance Bash would figure it out, but I’d needed to check in with Brain on my plan before I said it aloud, and it was the only way.

Brain made one small change to my idea, and I looked to Marlin. “Don’t know what’s up with Bash, I’m sure he’ll be back soon, though. Meanwhile, I don’t want to give away my cards, but let’s assume I know why Pickering’s under investigation, and let’s also assume I’m the one who made the investigation happen. He made it personal, he started it, but I intend to finish it.”

“You think you can get my boy off, even if he doesn’t take the deal?”

“I’ll certainly give it a shot. The assistant DA is in charge on this one, but Pickering has a bunch of cops who do what he says. They don’t know he’s on the way out, apparently.”

“What you got on Pickering?” he asked me.

“Abuse of power, amongst other things.”

Marlin looked to Brain, and I knew Marlin needed to deal with him, not me. Brain’s gaze met mine as he said, “Go calm the beast. I’ll explain things to Marlin.”

I followed Bash’s scent trail to a supply closet, and turned the light on as I stepped in and closed the door behind me.

Bash’s eyes were all wolf, and I looked down the instant I saw them. “It happened when I was fourteen, and it was an accident. My dad went ballistic until we explained how it happened, and then he let Brain live. We used it while he was my bitch, but then agreed to never use it again once he got his patch. I didn’t even know if it would work anymore, but I needed to run an idea by him before I gave it to Marlin.”

“My wolf isn’t okay with him being closer to you than us.” His voice sounded as if he’d been eating gravel, which meant the wolf was doing more of the talking than Bash, at the moment.

I kept my eyes down as I told him, “Dad tried to break it but he couldn’t.”

“How the
fuck
does that kind of thing happen by accident?”

I could hear and feel the strain he was under to stay calm. If he ever insisted I show submission outside of sex I’d fight him on it, but times like this, I’d gladly show it to help him out. I leaned against the wall to make myself a little shorter as I looked at his feet and explained, “He was helping me with my trig homework — we started around ten at night, and it was after one in the morning and I was still lost. Usually, thirty minutes and I understood, but trig was hard for me. Calculus was a piece of cake, but trig…” I shook my head. “I don’t know, it’s like he
pushed
the concept into my head, without words, and from that point forward we could talk telepathically. If there was a blood exchange we didn’t do it on purpose. My left elbow was scraped, his knuckles were beat up, and it’s possible they touched enough to initiate some kind of binding, but we didn’t say an oath, or do anything else to create one.”

He didn’t say anything, and I pointed out, “If you and I oath to each other as part of a relationship ceremony, we won’t be able to play around with Dawg anymore.”

“Why’d you keep it from me?”

I looked up, caught his gaze, and looked back down. He wasn’t ready to move to another subject. “Brain and I haven’t used it since he was patched. I didn’t even know if it was still there.
Honest
, Bash, it never occurred to me I should tell you, because I didn’t think of it.”

He took a breath and shook his arms, flexed his fingers. I did that sometimes, too, when I wanted to remind myself I was human — when I needed to make sure the human part of me stayed in control. Finally, he said, “The man can probably accept that, eventually… not sure the wolf can, though.”

I was quiet while he worked it through, and he finally asked, “Will you accept punishment, from the wolf?”

“What does he want to do?”

He shook his head. “I’ll keep it under three minutes, but he needs to be sure you know he owns you. You’ll probably have to shift to heal, and then he’ll take you in wolf form, probably.” He sighed and added, “And a week without an orgasm, but that’s from me.”

Three minutes. He could put me through a world of pain in three minutes, but I knew Bash wouldn’t let his wolf kill me. Three minutes, and a good fucking in wolf form, probably with a good deal of biting, and it would be behind us. Except for the orgasm denial part, and I was hoping he’d let that part go. “Yeah. Three minutes in human form, and then we let the wolves sort it out.”

“And
then
a week with no orgasms. Gonna want you bound to me, too, but we can discuss the logistics later.”

I shook my head. “If we do a binding it’s going to be because we’ve decided it’s time, not because I have some accidental thing with Brain from long ago. We both know he’s hot and heavy with Harmony. I’m not ready to agree to a week without an orgasm, either.”

He tilted his head. “We’ll discuss those things later, when we have more time. For now, you’re with me when we go back. I let you sit on your own before, but my wolf needs to claim you, now.”

I followed him back in, and let him pull me into his lap when he sat. I spoke up a few times to ask a question, but let the guys talk, mostly. It’s hard to come off as a strong female when someone’s petting you in his lap like a child, but I let Bash get away with it because I hadn’t told him about the binding I had with Brain. If he’d had one with another woman and hadn’t told me, I’d be upset, too. I knew it was innocent, and I was pretty sure Bash believed it was innocent, but I also knew it was the principle of the thing.

When Marlin left, Brain asked if he could follow Bash and I to my apartment to talk.

“No,” Bash told him. “You and I’ll talk later, but Angelica needs her sleep — she has to work tomorrow.”

He took me home and slept beside me in the bed, but I could feel the distance between us.