Command (Storm MC #7) Read online

  “Fuck, did you kill Rogue?” Blue asked, his voice strained.

  I eyed the cop, not willing to admit anything in front of him.

  Carter raised his brows and said, “I reckon he did, so there goes our lead on Bourne.”

  I held up my hand. “Wait one fuckin’ minute. Can one of you tell me what the fuck you’re talking about.”

  They exchanged a look before Blue finally shed some light on what they were up to. “Carter is Miranda’s brother. I asked for his help when I learnt Marcus was working with Bourne to find me and also to get Storm back into the drugs. We’ve been working together to bring Bourne down, but the asshole covers his tracks so damn well, we’ve struggled.”

  “Up until now,” Carter drawled. “Rogue was wanted in Queensland on some charges and I was cutting a deal with him. In exchange for information on Bourne, I would work to drop some of the charges.”

  “Rogue was working with Bourne?” I asked.

  “Rogue was working with everyone, Scott. Whoever paid him got the information. He didn’t care who he told what to, so long as he got cash for it,” Blue explained.

  “Fuck,” I muttered, stunned at his double crossing. “So you’re after Bourne, not Julio?”

  “Bourne wants Julio dead. He wants control of Julio’s territory. I want them both dealt with. My investigation of Bourne has been on my own time because it’s in another State, but now that Julio is dealing in Queensland, I’m investigating him on work time, and am hoping to get to Bourne that way,” Carter explained.

  “Jesus, it’s a fuckin’ mess in my head at the moment,” I said. “All this double crossing and secrets.” I eyed Carter. “Why are you telling me all this? Aren’t you investigating me, too?”

  Carter ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “I’m going to be real honest with you, Cole. Your father was a piece of shit and when he died, I celebrated with drinks. It was one of the happiest days of my life, knowing that the man responsible for my sister’s death was dead. Then I got lumped with fucking investigating that death when Rogue turned up with his bullshit information, accusing you of killing Marcus. My partner is all over that investigation, but I’m not. Now that Rogue is dead, I’ll be doing my best to shut that down. For all I care, you could have tortured your father for a year before killing him and I wouldn’t give a shit. And so long as Storm keeps its hands clean of drugs, I don’t care what else you do. But next time you want to suffocate one of my informants, give me a head’s up, so I can get the information out of them that I need before they die.”

  I wasn’t sure what to make of him, and I sure as shit wasn’t admitting to anything, but I was ecstatic to hear he’d be ending the investigation into Marcus’s death. The less I had to worry about, the better.

  “Where does this leave us?” I asked, ready to get back to Harlow, but needing to know what lay ahead.

  “As I suspect you already know, Julio has gone missing. Bourne’s left Adelaide and is heading to Brisbane from what I have been told, but he’s not here yet. I want you to let me know if you hear from Bourne. I believe he’s coming here to kill Julio, so I need to know when he hits town.”

  I held his gaze, and lied to his face. “I’ll be in touch if I hear anything, but for now, I need to get back to the hospital.”

  No fucking way was I giving up Bourne. To do that would mean also giving up my opportunity to kill Julio, and I wasn’t giving that up for anyone.

  That honour would be mine.

  16

  Scott

  I stared out the window of the clubhouse office and contemplated everything I knew, which seemed to change so often I wasn’t sure what to think.

  I’d spent the night with Harlow at the hospital last night and done my best to focus on her and put what Carter and Blue had told me, out of my mind for the night. The doctors had agreed to let her go home this morning and once I’d gotten her home and settled, she’d told me to leave and take care of Storm business.

  I loved that woman.

  I loved that she gave me the space to do what she knew I needed to do.

  I’d been at the clubhouse for the past hour with Griff, J and Nash, going over scenarios for how to deal with Julio. We’d worked out a plan, but then Carter had called to let me know four of Julio’s men had been found dead. That information confused the fuck out of us.

  I turned to face them. “Who would be killing Julio’s guys? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I don’t get it either,” J replied, looking as confused as I felt.

  The rumble of pipes caught our attention and I turned back to the window to see five bikes making their way into our driveway.

  “King’s arrived,” I said. “Maybe he can shed some light on this.”

  I sure as fuck hoped so.

  We made our way outside and watched as he walked our way with a grim look on his face. He’d brought Kick, Hyde, Nitro and Devil with him. His go-to guys when shit was going down.

  He knows something.

  “How’s Harlow?” he asked.

  “She’s doing good today.”

  He nodded. “Thank fuck for that.”

  “Tell me what you know,” I threw out, fed up with not knowing what he knew. Someone had clearly told him we needed help, and I wanted to know who it was.

  He slapped me on the back and walked me inside. “I can’t. Not yet, anyway. But as soon as I talk to my source and confirm some things, you’ll be the first to know.”

  “So, what’s the plan?” Kick asked.

  “Before we go through that, I discovered last night that Marcus was the one who snitched on your club ten years ago,” I said to King.

  “Who confirmed that?” he asked.

  “My uncle.”

  “Good to know, but I wish to fuck I’d known before he died. We would have enjoyed the payback.”

  “Yeah, you and me both, brother,” I muttered, thinking about what I now knew of my father. He would have deserved everything King would have done to him.

  Griff stepped in, eager to get today underway. Fuck, we all were. “Julio’s gone into hiding so we need to flush him out, and then we want him dead. Fucking around trying to get shit smoothed over before we kill him is holding us up too much, so we’ll just deal with the fallout once it’s done.”

  “To be honest,” I added, “I think his crew will fall apart once he’s dead anyway. Bourne seemed certain there would be a lot of blowback, but I don’t see it, or at least, I don’t think it would be anything we all couldn’t handle now that you guys are here and Blade’s guys are on board. And I just got word that four of Julio’s guys have turned up dead, so we now have less to deal with anyway.”

  King frowned. “Any idea who killed them?”

  “No. It’s odd,” I said.

  He pulled his phone out. “I’ll make a call; I may know who it is.” He walked outside to make his call in private.

  While he was gone, we divided up the list of places to check for Julio between everyone we had. Blade’s men were also out looking, and I hoped to have Julio by the end of the day.

  As everyone began breaking away to head out on their search, King came back inside. “I’m gonna go see this guy and try to get the information out of him. As soon as I have any new info, I’ll call you.”

  Griff and I watched him go. “Jesus, you’d think he could share what he suspected with us,” Griff muttered, clearly as frustrated as I was.

  “You’d think so, but he always has kept his cards close to his chest, I guess.” I stretched the kinks out of my back as I thought about Harlow. Once we had Julio and all this crap sorted out, I was making good on my promise of a proposal. But fuck if she thought I would wait to get that ring on her finger. As soon as she said yes, I’d be walking her down the aisle and calling her Mrs Cole.

  “I’m just gonna check in with Harlow and make sure she’s okay before we head out,” I said as I grabbed my phone and walked out to the clubhouse bar.

  She answered on the
first ring. “Hey, baby. Is everything going okay?” I heard the concern in her voice. My mission today was to wipe that concern from her mind.

  “It’s all good here. You feeling okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m good. Mum and I are just going over the café insurance paperwork, and Scarlett is here giving Wilder a hard time. It’s kinda fun to watch.”

  I’d asked Wilder to keep an eye on them today. I was kicking myself that I hadn’t asked him to watch out for her all this time, rather than getting Rogue to do it.

  “I’m just a phone call away if you need me, sweetheart.”

  “I know,” she said, softly. “I love you, Scott.”

  And there was my reason for everything.

  Her faith.

  Her trust.

  Her love.

  “I love you, too. I’ll call you in a few hours and check in again.”

  After the call, I was even more determined to find Julio and right all the wrongs we had at the moment. And regardless of all the shit Storm had been through over the last couple of years, I would build it back up to be the strong club it had always been.

  “You ready to go?” Griff asked a few minutes later when I found him in the office.

  I nodded. “Let’s do this, brother.”

  The clubhouse was eerily quiet as we walked out of the office. It was unusual for there to be no one around, but between sending members out to search for Julio and others out to keep an eye on our families, there wasn’t anyone left to stay at the clubhouse.

  As Griff pulled on the front door to exit, in stumbled Julio Rivera.

  I knew it was him because I’d looked at enough photos of the man, that I’d be able to identify him even if I was drunk.

  Griff and I both pulled our guns out and aimed them at him, but he didn’t even try to fight us. He simply held his hands up in surrender.

  What the hell?

  I pressed my gun against his forehead. “You picked a good place to come, motherfucker. We’ve got the fuckin’ welcome mat out for you today.”

  “I’ve got information for you, Mr Cole, and I would suggest you don’t kill me because you are going to want this information.”

  “I’m not sure what information you could have that I would want. Really, at this point, all I want is for you to stop breathing.” I grabbed his hand and yanked him past me so I could walk behind him. Once I had my gun pressed to his back, I ordered, “Walk!”

  We led him out to one of the back rooms of the clubhouse and once Griff had him tied to a chair, I punched him a few times in an effort to get out the anger burning through me. He’d fucked us over too many times, and I had to restrain myself from punching him until he was unconscious.

  His head lolled to the side and blood dripped down from his face onto the floor. He spat out the blood pooling in his mouth and looked back up at me. “I’m done,” he forced out on a heave.

  “What the fuck do you mean by that?” Griff demanded.

  “Bourne’s threatened to kill my sister if I don’t give him my territory. I’m walking away from everything.”

  “Jesus Christ, you two are a fuckin’ class act. I don’t believe you, asshole. I don’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth,” I yelled.

  Griff’s shoulders were wound tight with tension, and he’d been holding back, but he reached the end of his control. He punched Julio, over and over, until Julio’s face was unrecognisable.

  “Feel good?” I asked.

  His head jerked around and his eyes found mine.

  Wild.

  Feral.

  Griff had so much darkness in him that he concealed from the world under a carefully constructed mask, but in that moment, I saw it. Loud and clear.

  He took a deep breath. “Yeah,” he grunted.

  Julio mumbled something, but his lips were so swollen he could hardly get the words out. Griff grabbed his hair and yanked his head back. “What did you say?” he barked.

  Julio attempted to open his lips, but struggled. His breathing was laboured and it was clear he was in a great deal of pain.

  Good.

  He mumbled again, and again we couldn’t make out what he said.

  I clenched my hands, wanting desperately to take that last breath from him, while also wanting to drag his pain and suffering out.

  Griff yanked his head again. Harder. “Speak so we can understand you, asshole!”

  Julio’s face contorted in agony when Griff punched him again.

  “Bourne,” he mumbled, but not so much that we couldn’t make out that word. He tried to open his mouth again, but only ended up pushing out a cry of pain before closing it again. His breathing slowed and I wondered if he was about to lose consciousness. And then he managed to force out more words. “He’s…not…who…he…says…” – he coughed – “…he…is…”

  And then his head dropped forward and he passed out.

  Griff turned and punched the wall before looking back at me. “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “Jesus…your guess is as good as mine.”

  “I wanted to kill the asshole, but now I’m thinking we might need to let him live for a bit longer.”

  My phone rang.

  Blade.

  “Tell me you’ve got information that will help us. We’ve got Julio here and he’s just told us some shit about Bourne not being who he says he is, but then he passed out, so we have no clue what he meant by that,” I said, answering the call.

  “Bourne isn’t who you think he is, Scott. I’ve just discovered that Julio actually works for Bourne.”

  “You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.” All my conversations with Bourne filtered back through my mind, none of them making any sense now.

  “They go way back. Bourne had an affair with Julio’s sister when they were younger and they have a child together. Bourne put Julio as the face of his operation and let everyone think Julio was in charge. Once he had South Australia under his full control, he sent Julio to take over Queensland, but somewhere along the way Bourne decided he wanted Julio out. Problem was, he couldn’t just get rid of him because Julio’s men were loyal to him and if they knew Bourne killed Julio, they would retaliate against him.”

  “And that’s where we came in…Bourne was using us to do his dirty work,” I said as it began to make sense.

  “There’s something else.”

  “What?”

  “Bourne wants control of your club so he can run the drugs through it. He wants you and anyone else in his way, dead. And he’s in Brisbane now, ready to make that happen. He already took out some of Julio’s men earlier; it seems he’s on a mission to get shit done. You need to make sure everyone is locked up tight while we find Bourne.”

  “I’m on it.”

  When I ended the call, I said to Griff, “Call your family, brother, and tell them to lock up tight. Bourne’s been playing us and is now after us. I’m gonna call Harlow and then I’ll fill you in.”

  He nodded and we both made the calls we needed to.

  “Hey, baby,” Harlow answered a moment later.

  “Harlow, I need you to make sure the house is locked up and you stay alert. There’s a guy looking for me and I’m concerned he may come there.” I tried to keep my voice free of the tension I was feeling, but I needed her to take this threat seriously, so I was firm.

  “Okay…how worried should I be?” She sounded like she was biting her lip.

  “You’ve got Wilder there with you, and I’m going to try to send someone else as well.”

  “I think we’ll be okay. One of your Adelaide guys just arrived to help Wilder, so -”

  I cut her off, frantic to know the name of the guy. “Who?”

  “I’m pretty sure Wilder called him Bourne.”

  Icy fear slid down my spine as my world spun.

  I can’t lose her.

  I can’t lose our baby.

  “I’m coming now, Harlow.” I hung up without waiting for her reply.

  I promised her I w
ould always protect her.

  I promised her I would marry her.

  I intended to keep those promises.

  17

  Harlow

  That was odd.

  I stared at my phone after Scott hung up on me. “Weird,” I said as I placed my phone on the table.

  “What?” Scarlett asked as she made coffee for Wilder and Bourne.

  I frowned as I recalled the abrupt way Scott ended our call. “Scott kinda just hung up on me. It’s so out of character for him to do that.”

  She shrugged. “Seems like he’s got a lot of pressure on him at the moment.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” He really did. But my man knew how to handle his shit, so I was still a little thrown by what he’d just done.

  “I want to apologise again for running out on you yesterday.” She’d already apologised twice so there really was no need.

  “Scarlett, even if you hadn’t run out, Rogue would probably still have shown his true colours, and the fire would have still happened, so none of it was your fault. Okay?” I’d seen a whole new caring side to her, but she needed to listen to what I was saying and stop saying sorry.

  “Okay¸” she murmured.

  I was about to say something else when a fight broke out on the back verandah. Wilder yelled something at Bourne who then shouted back. And then it sounded like a scuffle and perhaps a punch up.

  Scarlett and I hurried outside to see what was going on. Just as I exited the house through the back door, Bourne knocked Wilder unconscious with a punch to the head.

  “What are you doing?” I screamed, panic bubbling up.

  Bourne’s eyes came to mine, and in that instant, I realised he was not a good man. He pointed a gun at us, and barked, “Get the fuck inside.”

  “Jesus,” Scarlett muttered, “Do you attract assholes or something?”

  “It would appear so,” I agreed as we walked back inside. I fought to remain calm on the outside because I refused to show him any fear, but on the inside, I was scrambling to come up with an escape plan.

  Bourne had already been inside when he first arrived, so he knew the layout of the house. “In the lounge room,” he ordered, and we did what he said.