Titan’s Creed (7)

7

Cap stood in Hammer’s kitchen as he had thousands of times before, but it was clear in his eyes that this was different. Wraith watched as the man scanned the room and the rooms beyond with a look of remembrance on his face. Wraith had done the same when he stepped foot in the house where he was introduced to his Jewel, the house where Hammer had taught him respect and duty to the club, the house where he kissed Rylynn Creed for the first time.

Nox sat at Cap’s feet waiting to be acknowledged. Cap looked down at the massive mouth wagging a tongue at him, “You want somethin’, boy? You want a treat?” he leaned over to a Snoopy cookie jar and fished out a large dog biscuit and held it out the pit. He patted his head as the biscuit disappeared, “He loved our girl as much as she loves him.” He looked down at the large pup, “I think he would give his life for her, ya know?”

“I know how he feels. I would too.”

“I don’t doubt that, boy.”

Wraith looked away so that his feelings for their girl wasn’t seen, “So, what’s the plan for this meet?”

Cap cleared his throat, leaned back against the counter, then crossed his arms over his chest, “Right, so we are meeting up with their Veep and Enforcer. The VP is Flint and he is Rylynn’s uncle. I want to get confirmation from her own blood, ya know. To see if they know anything about anything.”

“Do we need to worry about the enforcer? Do they know why we asked for a meet?”

“You always have to worry about the enforcer, you know that,” Cap smirked. Wraith caught his meaning since Wraith was the enforcer of his own chapter. “I told Flint that we had a serious matter that concerned Rylynn and he was quick to agree to a meet. We are gonna meet them at the pub on the outskirts of town in,” he looked at his watch, “twenty. We better move.” Cap squatted down and took Nox’s head in his hands, “You’re in charge, big guy. Keep Hammer’s house safe.” He gave the dog a thump and stood. He looked around again to see what he may have missed with the first pass of his eyes, “Gonna miss this house.”

“Why? Won’t it pass to Ry?”

“It’s hers, but I get the feeling our girl won’t be coming back,” Cap looked at Wraith with a hint of a smile, “If you are smart about it that is.”

Wraith cocked his head like he didn’t know what Capt. Jack was trying to say, but he knew. He would give anything to make it so.

“Let’s move,” Cap grumbled as he marched across the linoleum to the garage door. Nox followed to the doorway then sat and watched Cap mount his fatboy. Wraith moved past Nox, who was blocking the door and closed it behind him. He knew the Lynch Men had nothing to do with Ry’s disappearance and, hopefully, nothing to do with Cameo’s plans. It would rip Ry to pieces if her blood had anything to do with the events that ended Hammer’s life.

Cap and Wraith were sitting at a table in the corner of the pub when Flint and a man the size of an oak tree came in. Wraith would lose a hand to hand with the twisted mass of muscle. It was a good thing he was packing.

Cap rose to greet, Veep to Veep, “Flint.”

“Captain Jack,” Flint nodded and took a seat. He looked up at his enforcer and jerked his head towards the chair next to him as instruction to sit. Wraith took his seat as Cap waved to the bar to get beers for them all. “Who are you?” he asked as he eyed Wraith.

“Wraith, enforcer of Titan’s Hammer Mid-West. Who’s the tree?”

Flint looked at his enforcer and chuckled, “This is Grunt. He doesn’t talk much…with his mouth.” They all nodded understanding exactly what was meant.

“Well, we won’t be needed his style of conversation tonight, Flint. I am hoping we will be on the same side in this shit storm.”

A bar maid shimmied her way over with a tray full of beers and an ample amount of tits, “Hi, I’m Amber. If you guys need anything, just let me know,” she cooed as she slid the beers to each of the men. She rubbed her ample breast along the back of Grunt giving Wraith an eyeful of cleavage.

Grunt grunted and Wraith narrowed his eyes at her, “Move on.” Amber bristled at Wraith’s demand and stomped away. “If you want a piece of her it will have to wait, man.” Grunt grunted again and turned his attention to Flint.

Flint gulped some beer and then asked, “Why are we here, Cap? You said it was about Rylynn.”

Capt. Jack leaned against the table and stared down into his beer, “Hammer was taken out a couple days ago and Ry disappeared,” Cap looked at the shocked face of Rylynn’s uncle. “The finger was pointed at you.”

Flint was two seconds from flipping the table when Wraith reached out to settle the air, “We know for a fact who it was and it wasn’t any of you.”

Flint settled slightly, “Is she dead?”

Cap and Wraith shook their heads. Cap looked to Flint, “She is gone and in a safe place. Only one person knows her location at this time. She was able to tell us who did it, man. It was a traitor in our own house.”

Flint down his beer and slammed the glass down, “Who the fuck put a target on my club? What happened?” Wraith and Cap had Flint and Grunt’s full attention as they explained everything they knew at that point. Confirming that Rylynn was indeed safe and that none besides those four men knew she was alive.

“We called this meet so that I could warn you and to try and stop any blood shed between our clubs. I know Hammer and Keys had put a truce in place for Rylynn’s sake. Your Prez has kept his end and we are trying to honor Hammer’s pact with the Lynch Men.”

“We don’t want no blood war with you either. So, what’s what?” agreed Flint.

“Have you gotten word about any shit going down? Anything that made your ear itch?”

Flint looked to Grunt and Grunt snorted and then leaned into the table. He dropped his elbows to the table making the wood groan at the weight and then began to speak. His voice was as deep as you would imagine coming from a man his size and then some, “I caught wind of cartel activity in the area. We’re talkin’ women, weapons, and drugs. They are the fucking trifecta.”

“The Titan’s aren’t into women or drug movement. What the fuck is Cameo up to with them?” Cap asked no one.

“From the info Ry gave me, it has to do with money. She said she and Hammer were looking into a money trail she found doing the books. She had changed all the banking passwords and locked down accounts that morning,” Wraith looked around the pub to ensure no one was within ear shot. “She has proof and the paper trail with her. She said Cameo and Pez came looking for her that night because she was the only one that could have made the changes to the accounts.”

Grunt drummed his fingers on the table, “You know who the fuckers are that did this, and they are still breathing. You going weak? Do you need us to clean your house?” Wraith’s nostrils flared and fists curled at Grunt’s accusation.

Cap thumped the table, “First, put your dicks away, we aren’t interested in a measuring contest. Second, Cameo is alive because we need to see how far this goes, and third, Rylynn is a mutual concern and that is they only reason we are sitting here with you. We could have allowed Titan’s Hammer to hunt down every one of your brothers on a lie told by a traitor, but we are better than that. Got it.”

Flint pulled Grunt back away from the table, “So what do you need from us? This is my niece we are talking about.”

Cap tapped the table and then leaned back into his chair, “We need recon. We can’t rely on our own until we know who is on the gravy train with Cameo and Pez. We need to know who they are working for, what the end game is, and how we can stop it before it completely takes down the club.”

The four of them spent the next hour planning how to take down the inner workings of the cartel and the connection to Titan’s Hammer. Cameo would live long enough to see the empire fall, if Wraith had anything to say about it. Rylynn would stand eye to eye with the men who killed Hammer and decide the manner in which they would suffer and bleed out.

Cap finished off his third beer and leaned back in his chair eyeing a group of women at a booth across from where they sat, “We will keep each other informed of what is going down, yes?” The table of men agreed to work together. To MC’s working in tandem to save one woman that connected them all. “Good. Now, I see my activities for the remainder of the evening bent over that table over there,” he smirked as a red head turned her eyes to him. “Boys, you are on your own.” Cap slid his seat back and made a bee line to a prime piece of ass across the room.

Flint shook his head then finished off his beer, “The ol’ lady is waitin’ on my ass,” he mumbled as he stood. “Take care of our girl, Wraith. She is all I got left of my brother.”

Wraith saluted him with his mug, “Always.”

Wraith watched Flint leave, Cap grind with the red head on the dance floor and Grunt eyeing up Amber. Wraith wasn’t playing the pussy game. The only one he wanted was sleeping in his bed too far away.

Grunt slid his seat back, grunted and tapped his thigh, and before Wraith could wonder what the fuck he was seeing Amber was perched atop Grunt’s leg. He had seen enough.

“Later, man. I’m out.”

“Awe, come on,” whined Amber, “I have a friend over there that would be happy to make you smile,” she giggled as she pointed to a stacked blonde leaning against the bar pointing her tits in his direction.

Wraith looked at the blonde and sneered then looked at Amber, “No.”

Amber grinned wider, “Do you wanna play with us then?”

Grunt didn’t like that idea any more than I did when he dropped her off his knee. “My cock doesn’t share space with another fucking cock, bitch. Looks like I will be lookin’ somewhere else for pussy,” he growled. The blonde was on him before her friend could pick her ass up off the floor.

Wraith sniffed at the display the women were putting on. Amber puffed out her lip and slid her hands up Grunts arm and the blonde’s begging for another chance, making it known that she would be happy to share his cock with her friend. How many times had he done the same? How many times had Rylynn? He shivered off the idea that his Jewel would ever play the game. She was his Jewel after all.

Wraith walked away without as much as a single regret. He made his way to the parking lot to his bike. He was on the road within a few minutes and pulling into the garage twenty minutes later. Nox greeted him at the door and followed him to Rylynn’s room. He peeled off his cut and hung it from her headboard and then kicked off his boots. He dropped down onto her bed and pulled out his cell. Her face lit up the screen when he unlocked it. It was a profile of her when she wasn’t aware that he was taking her picture. Whatever she was looking at had made her smile wide. Her eyes sparkled with joy. He wanted to see that look again. He wanted to see that look on her face when she was seeing him.

“Hey, you. What are you doing?”

“Lying on your bed. You?”

Rylynn giggled, “The same.”

“Is that so. You naked?” he groaned at the thought of Rylynn spread out on his bed.

“Nope. Are you?”

“Maybe, but I’m not alone.” He heard Rylynn gasp at the thought that he wasn’t alone in her bed. It made him happy. “I don’t think Nox would be cool with my junk hangin’ free with him right next to me.”

Rylynn released the breath she had been holding with a sigh, “Oh, yeah, it probably wouldn’t be wise to do that.”

“How are you, Jewel?”

“Tired. You are a fucking pig, Willem Ferro. Your mama would be so disgusted with how you have been living. Gross, Wraith, straight up pig sty.”

Wraith smiled at her attempts at setting him straight, “I’m no house keeper, Jewel. If I wanted it cleaned up I could have had a club honey come in and do it, but I didn’t want any of them in my place. They would have thought I was interested if I did. Fuck that! Consider yourself lucky, Jewel, no women have been in that bed. Except you.”

“Um, well…that’s good to know. So I don’t have to do a flea bomb or get a hazmat suit when washing your sheets then,” she stammered. Wraith could hear the relief in her voice. He could hear her smile. He wished for the hundredth time that he was there with her. “So, um, what’s going on there? Have you figured out anything? Did you get the email?”

Wraith wanted to be able to tell her, but club business is club business and she knew it. “Club business, babe. You know that and yea, I got the email. I’ll admit I have no fucking clue what I’m looking at when I scan it.”

“Club business? Are you fucking kidding me, Wraith? This is about me. Why can’t I know what the fuck is going on?”

“You know club rules better than anyone,” he bit out. “You know I can’t and won’t talk about what goes down with the club. Just know that Cap and I are on it and we reached out to your uncle Flint.”

“Argh! Fine!”

Wraith tucked his arm behind his head and smiled knowing she was frustrated, “Got your panties in a twist, Jewel?”

“You are a jack-ass, Wraith,” she huffed.

He smiled, “How’s that? By doing what I’m supposed to do? I will do whatever it takes to protect you, lil girl. You are m…our priority.” She was his priority. He needed her safe. He needed her protected. He needed her.

“You know how I feel about being left out. I always hated it when Grandpa used the ‘club business’ crap when shit was going down. I know more about the club than most of the brothers, but I’m not allowed to know what’s going down with me.”

“That pretty much covers it.”

“You’re a jerk, Wraith,” she grumbled. “Oh, and…I don’t want you bring any honey’s to my house! It is a skank free zone. Got it?”

“No skanks in Rylynn’s house. Got it,” he grinned. “Only Rylynn can be in Rylynn’s bed with me.” Wraith heard her gasp as he chuckled to himself, “Night, Jewel.”

Wraith sat up and plugged his phone into the charger on the nightstand. Nox was snoring at the foot of the bed by the time Wraith stepped out of the shower with little more than a towel and water droplets coating his skin. He thought about putting on some shorts, but his rock hard cock wasn’t going to have it. He had jerked off in the shower to the memory of Rylynn beneath him so many times before, but still no relief. He wanted her anyway he could get her. He slid between her sheets and pulled the pillow tight to his head. He could smell her, honeysuckle and vanilla, and his cock jerked at her memory, again. It was gonna be a long, hard night.