Chapter 133
-Hailey-
I was wound up so tight I thought my spine might snap, so when the vibration started it felt like an earthqu
The buzz was obscenely loud.
Every nearby head snapped toward me.
Damn. Apparently everyone in the building had learned that my phone never rang with good news.
My hand was a traitor. It jerked toward my pocket on instinct before I could stop it. I fumbled a bit, then finally dragged d vibrating phone out.
Logan was on top of me. Crowding me. He didn’t look at the phone, though. He looked square at me.
“Who is it?” His voice was low. A controlled detonation.
“I don’t- I don’t know-” I stammered. My heart was hammering against my ribs like it wanted out. I started to stand up. take the call in the hall, to get away from all these staring, waiting eyes.
But when I got a clear look at the screen, my heart rate slowed. “Oh! It’s-
“Sit down,” Logan commanded. It wasn’t a suggestion. It was an order from the Vice President of the Warriors MC. “Answer it. Here.”
I sank back onto my stool, my legs unable to hold me. With a sigh that felt like it came from the bottom of my soul. I swipe my thumb across the screen and lifted the phone to my ear.
“Sam?” My voice came out thin and reedy.
“Hailey,” Officer Andrews said calmly. “Are you in the clubhouse? I decidedly do not want to know why this gate is locked. But these guys out here won’t let me in. Is Logan there? I need to talk to him. To.. to the club.”
This was so bizarre
three seconds.
–
so utterly disconnected from the terror I’d been expecting — that my brain short–circuited for a full
“Yeah,” I managed to croak out. “Just a second.”
Logan was watching my face with narrowed eyes, trying to read the confusion that must have been plastered all over it. He leaned in closer, looming over me.
“It’s… Officer Andrews,” I murmured, looking up at him. “She’s outside the gate.”
Logan’s brow furrowed. “What the hell does she want?”
“I know this is… highly irregular,” Sam said in my ear. “And I’m probably going to regret this until the day I retire. But it’s important.”
I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it, then looked up at the ring of faces surrounding me. “Well? Someone go let her in!”
I watched Talon nod to one of the prospects at the door, and a minute later he was holding the door open for Sam.
She wasn’t in uniform. She was dressed casually, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses. And her presence alone felt like a
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cold splash of reality in the middle of our chaotic nightmare.
Her posture was relaxed, but her eyes were scanning the room, assessing everyone.
20
She gave me a small smile, took off her sunglasses, folded them, and hung them on the neck of her t–shirt before speaking
“I’ve got some news,” she said calmly. “And I might need to call in a favor,”
Her tone had an edge to it that made my stomach twist. Whatever this was, it wasn’t good news.
Talon gave her a slow nod. “Logan. Ledger. My office.”
Logan’s hand rested on the small of my back again as we followed Talon and Sam down the hallway. I could feel the unease radiating from him. We did owe her a favor after everything she’d done for us, but he didn’t trust this.
Sam perched on the edge of a chair in front of Talon’s desk as Ledger pushed the door closed behind us. She didn’t waste any time.
“We’ve got a situation. A new… organization. They’re operating with a level of sophistication we haven’t seen before. Not around here, anyway. They’re moving product – high–grade, pharmaceutical–grade shit – into the city through channels we’re having trouble tracking. They’re not using the usual pipelines.”
Logan and exchanged a look with Talon.
“They Russian?” Talon asked.
“Likely,” she said. “How’d you know?”
“They’ve been on our radar for a bit.”
“Not surprising,” she sighed. “The operation has the fingerprints of organized crime from that part of the world. Cold. Efficient. They’ve completely bypassed the existing… structures.” She meant the other drug movers. The established gangs.
The area had a new apex predator, and it was scaring the hell out of everyone beneath it.
“What kind of product?” Ledger asked.
“Meth. Mostly. But we’ve also seen Fentanyl. Cut to kill. It’s not street–level stuff. It’s wholesale. Pure. They’re not selling it to junkies in back alleys… they’re supplying the suppliers. They’ve changed the entire ecosystem overnight.”
A cold knot tightened in my stomach. Fentanyl was no joke.
“Becker.” Sam sounded frustrated now, “He’s the reason I’m here. He was myopic. He was so focused on building a case against your club, he pulled resources from every other division. Now Narcotics is a ghost town, and trying to get people moved back over there is a paperwork nightmare. So these new guys? They’re operating with impunity.”
I saw the looks exchanged around the room. Everyone was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“I helped you with Becker once,” Sam continued. Her voice dropped, becoming more desperate. “I stuck my neck out. Now I’m asking you… I’m asking the Warriors… for help. This isn’t a police operation. This is me. I can give you locations. Times Movement patterns. But I can’t stop this. My hands are tied. You… your hands aren’t.”
Her proposition hung in the air. A cop was asking an outlaw motorcycle club to do her job for her. And she had no clue usat we were already neck–deep in Anatoly’s shit pile.
Talon’s eyes swept over Logan, whose expression was a thundercloud of grim satisfaction, then to Ledger, then to me, and
then back to Sam.
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“We’ll take the information,” he said. “When you do on your end as your busions. What we do on curs as ours?
“Underwood” Sam said, relieved the looked down a Talon’s deck, at the map that was still spread across it “There’s a warcticante off the 12. The old Faber textile budding They’ve been wing it as a staging area
Logan stopped pacing and glared at Talon and Ledger. How the hell did we not know out that? How did the fuckin LAW know about that, and we dider
Neither of them responded, but Logan was already moving toward the door pulling it open
“VIKTOR” He hollered out into the clubhone. A minute later, Viktor was stepping through the door.
Logan barely waited for him to fully enter before launching into it. “You know the old Faber textile building
Viktor’s expression didn’t change. “Da”
“Apparently it’s being used as a staging area, Logan growled. “You tellin‘ me you didn’t know about that?”
Viktor shrugged. “I have been occupied His eyes flicked to me before returning to Logan. “But yes, I know the place. Good location. Close to rail lines, Close to the docks, Back entrance hidden by trees.”
The way he talked about it made my skin crawl Casual Familiar. He’d definitely been there before.
Sam shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Her cop instincts were clearly warring with the reality of her surroundings. She hadn’t expected to be sitting in a room with a Russian crime bos.
She cleared her throat and stood up. “Uh, okay. Does someone want to fill me in on what’s going on here? I’m assuming you’re Viktor Ivanov?” She turned to Talon. “Why is the clubhouse on lockdown? How much do you guys know about this new organization? Are you involved?”
I watched her face as the realization hit her. Her profesional composure wavered for a second, and I saw the woman underneath. The one who’d risked her career to help us.
Now she was standing in a room with Viktor Ivanov. A man whose name alone carried enough weight to make her palins
sweat.
I didn’t blame her, Viktor had that effect on people.
Talon leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers in front of him. “Officer. you came to us for a reason. Now you’re here, and it’s clear you’re realizing you’ve stepped into something a lot bigger than you anticipated. Let’s cut the pretense. Do you really want to know more? Or do you want to walk away now?”
Sam hesitated. Her gaze darted between Talon and Viktor. She sighed. “I can’t let this go. But I need to know what I’m walking into. If this new organization is connected to Viktor if the Warriors are involved. I need to know.
“Because if I’m going to keep bending the rules for you, I need to know I’m not stepping into quicksand.”
I couldn’t help but admire her honesty. She wasn’t trying to play games or dance around the truth. She was laying it all out there, and it was refreshing
Viktor’s expression still didn’t change. The man was made of stone. “Anatoly is not my man. He is now my organization. He is a parasite. And he will be dealt with”
Sam blinked, clearly not expecting that level of candor from a man like Viktor. “Anatoly,‘ she repeated. “Is that who we’re dealing with?”
Logan turned to face her. His green eyes were blazing. “Yeah. And he’s been fucking with us for weeks. He’s been inside our
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fucking walls.”
G
G
Sam looked at the floor. “Inside your walls? If he’s that entrenched, this is bigger than just a few drug operation The
“Personal,” I murmured from the corner. “It’s personal.”
Sam’s eyes met mine for a second before Logan spoke and she turned back to him.
“Yeah. It’s a lot fucking bigger. Welcome to the shitshow, Sam.”
And then, like fate itself was laughing at me, my phone buzzed again. But somehow, this time, no one heard it beat me
Good. Finally.
