Black Dogs Motorcycle Club: Full Series Box Set (57 page)

~ SIXTEEN ~

Bridget

Bridget basically pounced on Ghost the second he
showed up to her house, but not in the way he was wishing for.

“We’ve got an in!” she
said to him excitedly when she met him at the door.

“Nice!” he wrapped her in
a hug. “An in to what?”

“To help Toby.”

Ghost’s eyes widened.
“Really?”

Bridget opened her right
fist and presented him with a small, crumpled piece of paper. As Ghost took it
and read it, Bridget explained. “I found this in my bag this morning when I
started taking out all my work to grade. Someone sneaked it in there when I
wasn’t looking.”

Ghost frowned, reading
aloud. “
I got your messages. I can’t run. Please help.”

“It’s Miranda Cary. It’s
Toby’s mom.”

Ghost looked stunned. He
read and re-read the note. “What the fuck? How did you know?”

Adrenaline charging
through her veins, Bridget couldn’t help but pace the foyer. “I noticed Toby’s
anxiety months ago, and I kept trying to contact the Cary family about it, but
I couldn’t ever get a hold of anyone. I figured it was something medical they
didn’t want to talk about and almost had just become used to it until that
silent phone call the other week, which put all this in motion.” She pointed at
the note. “
Someone
had to hear those messages I sent, even if they
didn’t reply. It’s likely that
someone
told Toby to hide and call me
that night, even if he didn’t know what to do about it once he did call me. If
Miranda thought I suspected something was wrong, wouldn’t it make sense that I
would be the one she would have Toby call?”

“Of course,” said Ghost.

“She knows I suspect
something’s wrong with Toby. And I’d bet Cary’s entire fortune that the
housekeeper and the bodyguard told him all about what happened at the grocery
store—including what I was asking about. If Miranda Cary heard some woman
confronted her housekeeper about domestic abuse, it’s not a far leap for her to
realize it was
me
, especially after the phone call.”

“It’s not a far leap at
all, baby,” he agreed. “We’ve dealt with a lot of abusive fucks around the MC
over the years, and they most certainly make it difficult for their victims to
find help. You might be the only person who’s shown any sign that she knows
something is wrong.”

The thought made Bridget
feel nauseous. “That poor woman. She must feel so alone.”

“I can’t believe she wants
to run,” said Ghost, reading the note again. “It’s so hard to get them to leave
most of the time.”

“I was surprised, too. But
if I thought someone could help get my kid out of that nightmare, I’d try
anything, too. She must have had Toby slip this into my bag, just like she
tried to have him reach out with the phone call. It’s sure as hell not a kid’s
handwriting.”

“Agreed. So let’s spring
her out of it.”

Bridget smiled and kissed
him. “You read my mind. Let’s go tonight.”

Ghost laughed, but stopped
when he saw she was serious. “Oh. Baby, that’s not a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“What, just the two of us,
marching up to Cary’s house? ‘Hey, we have this note from your wife, so get out
of our way!’ ” He made a silly noise and a thumbs-down. “Like, I’m super
glad you have so much faith in my martial prowess, don’t get me wrong.”

Bridget wilted. “Well,
when you put it like that…”

“Your gusto is sexy as
fuck, you know that. But we need tactical, Bridget. Cary’s not going to let two
of his most prized possessions just walk out the front door with us.” Ghost
paused, and swallowed uncomfortably. “And if we make a run and
fail
, and
Cary finds out about it, well… we won’t be the ones to suffer for it.”

Bridget’s heart fell. Of
course, Ghost was right. She was being reckless with righteous fury. They would
only have one shot at getting her out safely and cleanly, and they had to be
smart about it. Otherwise, she could trigger an avalanche of violence that she
would never forgive herself for.

“How are we going to match
his firepower?” she said with a hint of despair. “That’s our problem. He’s rich
and powerful and has security and a gated mansion. I can’t even get the
housekeeper to help.”

Ghost rubbed her leg and
shrugged. “We get him out of the house, away from the security.”

“We’d also have to have a
plan for Miranda and Toby after we spring them. Somewhere safe for them to go
while they figure out what to do next; food, clothes, counseling…”

“Right.”

Bridget sighed. “Usually,
these kinds of tactical puzzles get me off, but this is a lot less fun when
it’s not theoretical.”

Ghost squeezed her leg.
“We’ll figure it out. Maybe we just need a few days to think it through. Some
rest and, like, seven thousand orgasms should help knock something loose.”

Bridget giggled and Ghost
winked at her.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been
much of a help on the plan, babe. My mind’s just been wracked with this Lucero
thing.”

“Don’t apologize,” she
said. “It’s not your fault we’re both dealing with intense shit right now.”

“You’re a peach,” he said
and leaned forward to kiss her. “I’m sure I’ll be more use to you after the
tribunal.”

“Tribunal?”

“Yeah, a whole wild pack
of the Black Dogs is coming up here to play judge, jury and….” He trailed off,
and his eyes went wide. Ghost sat up straight. “Jesus tapdancing Christ, that’s
it.”

Bridget looked at him
curiously. “What? What’s it?”

“I know how we’re going to
save Toby.”

~ SEVENTEEN ~

Ghost

The day of the tribunal arrived, and the Black Dogs of
LeBeau met at the clubhouse before they headed out to greet the challenge. The
whole club was making a show to support Tommy and Will, and the placed buzzed
with activity. House mouses shuffled through the crowd, passing out beers and
whiskey shots and joints. Ghost arrived fashionably late, not wanting to get
cornered by anyone who wanted to have a heart-to-heart with him before this
thing started.

Besides, he already had
one of those on his plate, and it was one too many. He and Jase hadn’t spoken
much since the accident. Truth be told, Ghost hadn’t talked to many of his MC
brothers, and it wasn’t just all the glorious time he was spending with Bridget.
His guilt about not stopping Lucero himself before he had a chance to hurt
Tommy made him want to withdraw; his anger at Jase for not listening to him and
protecting Tommy made him want to lash out. Withdrawal seemed like the smartest
choice, given the situation. But if he didn’t fix that wound between him and
Jase soon, it would get infected and never heal, and he didn’t want that.

A few boys patted him on
the back as he entered and passed by, asking around for Jase. He found him
upstairs in the conference room, sorting through some paperwork no doubt Henry
had left for him, spread out on the giant mahogany table. Henry’s molding of
Jase into the future MC president had ratcheted up the last few years,
especially since Jase had married Henry’s daughter. He was hanging out less and
working more on boring shit like this—sorting papers, making phone calls,
writing checks. Jase was proud of it, and so Ghost was proud of him, but Ghost
would never share his interest in traditional authority.

“Oh, hey,” said Jase when
Ghost came in. “What’s up? You ready for this?”

Ghost shut the conference
room doors to block out prying ears and the buzzing din. “As ready as I can
be.”

“You’ll do fine. Lucero’s
a fucking punk.”

“Yes, he is,” said Ghost.
He tipped on his heels a bit and paused. “I wish you’d thought that when I told
you the first time.”

Jase closed his eyes and
sighed. He rubbed the back of his thick black hair. “Yeah. Me too.”

“I tried to tell you, man.
Why didn’t you listen to me?”

Jase lifted his arms and
shrugged. “For all the same reasons I gave you that day, Ghost. It just seemed
like a bad decision to make as a leader. Lucero looked and sounded fine every
time I talked to him that day, and I just… I had to make the call. And I made
the wrong one, obviously. It’s kept me up every fucking night since we got
home.” He sighed again. “I’m sorry. I should have listened.”

Ghost sighed. He was great
at watching enemies in pain and even taunting them while he was at it, but when
it came to his brothers, he just wanted it to be over as quickly as possible.
“I know, man. I know you were just doing what you thought was right. But I
don’t think it’s just you who doesn’t take me seriously around here.”

Jase paused. “Well, you
are kind of a comedian.”

“I didn’t realize that
meant
everything
I said was a joke to you guys.”

Jase frowned. “It’s not,
man. Is that what you think?”

“That’s what it feels
like,” admitted Ghost, crossing his arms. “I’m good for killing and I’m good
for a laugh, but if either of those two things aren’t the goal, then no one
seems to give a fuck what I have to say.” Jase opened his mouth to protest, but
Ghost raised a hand to stop him. “I get now that part of that is my fault.
Obviously, I’m the funniest person any of us know, but… funny isn’t always the
thing we need.”

“No one’s asking you to
change, Ghost.”

“I know,” he said. “It’s
my choice. And it’s not just for you ugly jerks, either.”

Jase smiled at him. “A
certain Viking mistress got you taking things a bit more seriously?”

“I have no comment on the
matter,” said Ghost, shifting on his feet.

Jase laughed. “Good God,
that’s a first.”

“Look, there’s one other
thing we have to work out here. We’re gonna have to lie to the tribunal.”

“What?” said Jase, his
expression falling. “Why?”

“We can’t tell them you
dropped the ball,” said Ghost, gesturing to the table full of paperwork.
“You’re riding the gravy train to CEO town or whatever here, Jase. Rising to
power is hard, and it doesn’t take much to fuck it up. This could fuck it up
for you, and it shouldn’t.”

Jase pursed his lips and
looked away. “Well, maybe it should. Maybe I’m not cut out to be a leader. I
failed Tommy by not listening to you. Who says I shouldn’t get punished for
it?”

“Me,” said Ghost. “Tommy’s
hurt, Will’s hurt, we don’t need you getting shit on too. I know you did your
best, and everyone knows you’re a goddamn good leader. I’ll take this hit for
you, bro, because I know you’re going to run this place smoothly one day.”

“Ghost, you don’t have to
do that. I don’t have a goddamn problem taking whatever punishment I’ve
earned.”

“Yeah, yeah. Save the
tough guy routine for Maggie, I’m sure she loves it,” said Ghost dismissively.
“Thing is, I fucked up too, Jase. I let you talk me down from my instincts. I
didn’t trust myself. I could have done a lot more to stop Lucero and protect
Tommy, and I didn’t, because I let all this worry about you guys thinking I’m a
joke get to my head. So I’m going to go in front of that tribunal and do my
best to make sure Lucero gets the blame he deserves, and I’m going to protect
your future crown at the same time. It’s my mess to clean up.”

Jase gave him a secretive
smile. “Should I say something about saving the heroic martyr routine for
Bridget?”

“Oh, she’s definitely
going to love it,” agreed Ghost. “She thinks I’m the bee’s knees.”

“And at what age did she
get her head injury?”

“
Ouch
,” said Ghost,
and gripped his stomach in mock pain. “Campbell, you’re a savage.”

Jase laughed and clapped
Ghost on the back. They shared a quick, tight hug before they rejoined the mass
of brothers downstairs for a quick beer before they left.

The tribunal was too big
to hold in the LeBeau clubhouse. So instead, a veritable army of Black Dogs on
their bikes descended on the local LeBeau Masonic lodge. Henry had given the
town’s authorities ample warning about the tribunal before it happened, as well
as doing his duty to spread the gossip around Dot’s Diner, so the huge parade
of strange bikers rolling through town like thundering vengeance had a curious,
but unconcerned audience of civilians.

The lodge had a large,
beautifully-decorated auditorium used for ceremony and ritual, and it was in
here that the men all filed and took seats in the velvet-lined stadium chairs.
On the floor, three tables had been arranged: two shorter ones each, reserved
for the conflicting charters, and one long table across the way reserved for
the members of the tribunal, who held the fate of the accident in their hands.

Ghost sat with Henry at
the table reserved for the LeBeau chapter, listening to the murmuring chatter
as the room filled up with six charters’ worth of Black Dogs. Eagleton was the
only charter whose entire active membership was present; everyone else sent a
representative crew of three to four high ranking men alongside the club
presidents. All told, there was nearly thirty Black Dogs gathered in the small
auditorium seats. It was the presidents who would sit at the table of judgment,
and neither Henry nor Shaun would have a say in the decision.

Lucero and Shaun mirrored
Ghost and Henry’s position at the other table, and Ghost did his best to ignore
them. The room buzzed with conversation until the six presidents of the
tribunal were settled at the long table. Ghost had never met any of them
before.

In the center right chair,
a tall man with a silver pompadour and sideburns tapped a gavel on the table
until the room fell quiet. When he spoke, he sounded like the reincarnation of
Johnny Cash. “Thank you all for gathering here today. And we’d especially like
to thank Mr. Henry Oliver, second generation founder and president of the
LeBeau chapter, for making arrangements to have this tribunal in such a lovely
place.” He gestured to the auditorium. “I’m Myron Daughtry, second-generation
founder and president of the Williamsburg chapter. We haven’t had a chance—or,
I guess, a reason—to gather like this in some time. I wish the reason today was
more positive. We have two hospitalized Black Dogs and two charters trying to
decide where the blame for this lies. Henry has asked for this tribunal in
order that we can come to the fairest arrangement based on the facts available
to us.”

Ghost shifted, already
uncomfortable and bored. He did not like formal shit like this, even when his
ass wasn’t on the line.

“What we’re going to do is
hear testimony from the Dogs that were present for the accident that day, and
some secondary testimony from members who were on the run but did not
physically see the crash. The tribunal’s members will have the chance to ask
questions of each witness, and the president of each witness’s charter will act
as their protector to object if they feel a line of questioning is
inappropriate. Once this is finished, the six of us will deliberate and make
our decision, and our decision is final. Both charters must abide by the ruling
to the letter, or face sanctions. Our brothers gathered here today will witness
the testimony and ruling to ensure the integrity of the organization is upheld
with our decision.”

Henry and Shaun both
verbally agreed to the tribunal’s terms. First up, one of the other tribunal
members read off a printed transcript of Tommy’s testimony, which the members
had gathered alongside Henry earlier in the day at the hospital. In a monotone
voice, the tribunal member read off what Tommy had remembered: that the drive
was mostly boring; that he had followed Ghost around an old VW bus into the
left lane just before the crash; and that the crash itself happened so fast, he
wasn’t sure what caused it. He remembered hearing Ghost brake, and when he
turned to look why, he saw the van bearing down on him at a sharp angle, headed
for the highway median. Tommy knew he was too far up to try Ghost’s maneuver
and brake; his only shot was to accelerate and try to out-run it, but he had
been just a tick too late. He didn’t remember anything after that, and he
didn’t remember seeing what was happening inside the van at all before or
during the crash.

Next, they called Will up
and offered him a polished wooden chair to sit on. He faced the tribunal, his
back to the table where Ghost sat. His right arm was still posted up in a
sling.

“Tell us what you remember
from the accident,” asked Myron.

Will cleared his throat
and, Ghost could tell, was working to raise the volume of his typically low,
soothing voice. “The run had gone very smoothly up until the accident. We had
no issues or red flags. I rode in the passenger seat while Harvey Lucero drove,
and it was our vehicle that held the merchandise. I remember answering Ghost
and Tommy on the radio about something incidental—I think we had been talking
about food. The thought made me want to check exactly how far out we were from
Burling, so I pulled up the GPS to get a look. From there, I just remember…
Sounds, flashes.”

“Anything you can give us
would be useful,” said Myron.

“Squealing tires. I heard
metal crunching. The next thing, I was coming to, and my whole body felt like
I’d been put in a blender. I heard Ghost tell me I was all right. I remember
Jase Campbell speaking to me at one point. And then all I remember is the
hospital room and my wife.”

Members of the tribunal
scribbled. One of them asked, “Did you notice anything worrisome about Lucero’s
behavior leading up to the crash?”

“I can’t say that I did,”
said Will. “He was certainly a bit testy, but it was an early job and I figured
he wasn’t a morning person. Honestly, we didn’t speak much on the drive.”