Walk Through Fire (Page 115)

He couldn’t. He hated it. But too much was riding on it for all of them.

So he had to bury it.

“Joke told me,” he grunted, and returned Tack’s steady gaze before he went on. “This shit is takin’ a long time. We got no in with Valenzuela’s crew. Not even insider gash he sells who gives shit info for a ton of cake. Lucas and Lawson are gettin’ more than us but what they’re gettin’ is mostly dick, too, and we got more pains in the ass patrolling more territory and keepin’ an eye on our women.”

This wasn’t lost on any of them. Months ago, when they heard that on the street, their reputations had taken a hit and with it, the respect they’d earned, they’d pushed Valenzuela, claiming more turf, growing that from the five-mile radius around Ride that they’d patrolled for years to ten.

They’d also done other shit, like brothers moving out to beat the absolute snot out of the man who shared that he thought Chaos were pussy.

The message had been relayed. No one else had fucked with them.

But looking after more turf took more time. More patrols. More manpower.

Valenzuela landed dealers and whores on their patch regularly, so it wasn’t uneventful but it still was a pain in the ass.

“This is why I called you here,” Tack said.

“We’re all here now. You gonna give us that?” Boz asked.

Tack looked briefly to Shy before he announced, “Got a girl on the inside.”

“Who?” High asked.

Tack didn’t answer High.

“You need to keep your shit,” he warned Shy.

“Oh fuck,” Shy muttered. “Natalie?”

Christ, High hoped not.

Natalie was the one who got them stuck in this mess in the first place. A friend of Tab’s so deep into Valenzuela for blow, she couldn’t pay her debt and Valenzuela got creative. This meant she was going to work a porn set, not doing that manning a camera.

For Tabby, Chaos had intervened before she made that debut. When they did, they bought Valenzuela’s displeasure and more of his attention.

It had been a while with both sides butting heads but not much happening.

High didn’t like living with that shadow.

One way or another, he wanted it done.

But he didn’t trust Natalie. She’d fucked their shit, got sober for a nanosecond, then fell into the junk again. No one had seen her in months.

If Tack sent her in, he’d be surprised at his brother’s play. Tack above all the brothers knew they shouldn’t hang anything on a junkie who wouldn’t deliver. And Valenzuela liked Natalie less than the brothers did.

“Rosalie,” Tack said.

High straightened and moved slightly closer to the huddle as the room went alert.

This was because Rosalie was an ex of Shy’s. A sweet girl. Like Millie, born an old lady, though quieter than Millie, less ballsy. Still, Shy introduced her to the life and you could see she took to it, and Shy, right away.

He’d dumped her for Tabby and that might not have been fun for him, but it wasn’t ugly. She got burned by him but word was she held no ill will.

Actually, no one held ill will.

And Rosalie was another way High didn’t want to see this shit with Valenzuela done.

“What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” Shy bit out toward Tack.

“You ended it with her, brother; she got in with a Bounty,” Tack explained.

High could see that, seeing as Rosalie was an old lady, and when Shy dumped her, she was this without an old man.

The Bounties were another MC. Chaos had Denver central as well as claiming south Denver, Englewood, Lakewood, and Littleton. The Bounties were East Denver, including Aurora.

The Bounties were outlaws to the bone, like Chaos, and they were a decent club. Good men. But they didn’t run a Club business like Ride, so they all had jobs. This meant they dipped their wicks into extraneous shit to make extra cash.

Recently, that extraneous shit became serious.

And part of this was that they’d made an alliance with Valenzuela that earned them Chaos attention and caused friction between two clubs whose members got along, and if they didn’t, they gave each other a wide berth.

“As you know, when we pulled out of security, Bounty picked up some of that for players in town,” Tack went on. “As you also know, part a’ that was them pickin’ up some business with Valenzuela. Rosalie didn’t know about either. That is, until Snapper caught sight of her with her biker. Snap wasn’t around when you were with her. Shot a picture of the biker when she was with him. Showed it to Roscoe. Roscoe knows Rosalie, had the idea. He made the approach. She was not pleased when she heard what was goin’ down with the Bounties doin’ that shit for Valenzuela and she says she’s in to help.”

“She’s not in to help,” Shy shot back.

“We’ll keep her covered, Shy,” Tack told him. “You know that. Snap is on her, with Roscoe and Speck at his back and hers.”

“She’s not in to help,” Shy repeated, his tone deteriorating.

“Calm, Shy,” Hop warned. “You think we’d take her on if Snap didn’t have her covered?”

“Snap doesn’t have shit,” Shy clipped to Hop, then looked to Tack. “She ain’t takin’ cock to serve Chaos.”

“Can’t claim pussy that’s no longer yours, brother,” Tack stated, heat building behind his words, which was understandable since his daughter had Shy’s ring on her finger and his kid in her belly and he was throwing in for another woman.

“Rosalie isn’t pussy,” Shy returned. “She’s Rosalie.”