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“Cali is—“
“Safe here with me,” Sully said. “I’ll keep her good and distracted while you’re busy. Got some new rom-coms on some of the streaming channels I’ve been meaning to watch,” he added with a smirk.
Only Sully could admit shit like that and not have anyone bat an eye.
“Callow and Nave will be here too,” Fallon reasoned. “If that’s not enough, I can call some others in, just to be sure.”
“I’ll hang,” Dezi offered.
“And I’ll have Voss come back too. She’ll be safe,” Nave promised.
Knowing they were right, that she was in the best hands possible, I gathered Perish and the twins, and set off across Navesink Bank in the club’s SUV, wanting to keep as low of a profile as possible as we sorted this shit out.
Luckily for us, Jax was every bit as obsessed with his work as his father had been during his reign, and after dealing with the guard outside, we made our way into the underground fight club.
Perish let out a low whistle as he looked around.
No one expected a luxury bar type establishment in the basement of an old school.
“Jesus Christ,” Jax said, coming out of the office, his sleeves rolled up, gaze sliding up the long length of Perish. “The fuck did your mom put in your bottle, Miracle-Gro?” he asked, making Rune snort out a laugh.
“Jax…” I started.
His gaze cut to mine. “Yeah, just one minute,” he said, pinning Perish again, his keen eyes taking in Perish’s prison-fit body, the scars smattering across his knuckles. “Ever give a career in cage-fighting any thought?” he asked.
“Jax,” I said more firmly. Only to have him ignore me again.
“You could clear a cool couple grand a night,” Jax continued trying to court Perish into the cage. “Your club might be holding some grudges, but I’m sure we could all act like adults and—“
“Shut the fuck up, Jax,” I snapped. That got his attention. If for no other reason than no one talked to him like that. “Recruit on your own time, not mine,” I demanded. “I’m here for a reason.”
Jax watched me for a second, his expression unreadable.
“Alright. What do you want, Brooks?” he asked.
“Have you seen these men?” I asked, flashing my phone at him, after having snapped pictures of my laptop screen.
“Even if I had, why would I—“
“Because they killed my best friend. Because they’re after my girl. Because I will drag your ass into that cage and beat the shit out of you if I need to if you don’t.”
His brows rose at that, his lips quirking up ever so slightly.
“Maybe I should be offering you a job too. It’s always the quiet ones with all the rage,” he said, addressing the twins. “Alright, well, maybe I know them.”
“There’s no maybe about it. My girl saw them here at the last fight.”
“Did she now?” Jax asked, interest piqued. “And who is your girl?” he asked.
I wasn’t proud of the couple of pictures I’d snapped of Cali when she wasn’t really paying attention. But at least they came in handy now as I found them and turned the phone toward him.
“I remember her. Was she your girl then?” he asked. “I might have been considering taking her home after.”
“She’s mine now. So stay the fuck away from her. But she was here. And she saw these fucks. I know you keep meticulous records. Who do they work for? Where do I find them?”
“This one is the only one who placed a bet,” he said, taking my phone and scrolling back to Ryder’s picture. Ryker or something like that. I’d have to look.”
“Ryder,” I corrected.
“Right. Ryder. Nice watch. Big stack of cash. That he lost. And wasn’t happy about. Had to have him and his crew escorted out. Dante,” he called out, then waited for a giant guard in all black to come out. “Ryder, the fuck you had to escort out at the last fight.”
“What about ‘em?” Dante asked.
“Weren’t they hollering shit about their boss on the way out?”
Dante snorted. “Yeah. Fucking pathetic.”
“Who was it?”
“Landon. Landon Fisher.”
“You know who that is?” I asked.
“Just some local gang. Bunch of fucking middle class kids whose lives were too boring, I guess, so they decided to become criminals. Why?”
“Where do they operate?”
“The fish store,” Dante said, shaking his head. “Think it belongs to one of their families or something. But that’s where they hang out.”
“Fish store?” Rune asked, brows furrowed.
“When you lived here, it was still a restaurant,” I explained. “Over by the old toy store. Any idea how big of a crew it is?” I asked.
“No more than maybe eight of ‘em. Think they were all on the same baseball team in school.”
“Okay. One last question. Any idea who this is?” I asked, holding out the picture of the victim.
To their credit, neither Jax nor Dante seemed impacted by it.
