Slider didn’t like to talk about where he’d come from. I knew he’d had a hard life before he found the brotherhood, but in true Slider form, he always laughed it off.
“Apparently there’s a sister somewhere out there,” Optimus said, surprising me. “Wrench said a couple months back Slider went to him and asked if he could find her. But he just didn’t have enough to go on.”
“Shit,” I swore under my breath. “He knew he was sick and wanted to find her.”
Op nodded. “Seems that way.”
I looked up, seeing Judge enter through the doorway with Melanie at his side. She was the type of woman I wouldn’t want to fuck with. She held her head high and wasn’t intimidated by anyone, despite the fact that my brothers were glaring at her as she passed through.
I didn’t exactly blame her for what had happened, Simon had those men under his thumb, and they were scared for the people they loved, but they had been given more than one opportunity to look into what was going on and they had failed.
“Isiah got away,” Judge said, his features showing just how angry he really was.
“What the fuck?” Optimus snapped. “I thought you had the place surrounded? There shouldn’t have been any kind of escape.”
Melanie didn’t back away from his anger. Instead, she raised her chin a little higher. “There was an air pad with a helicopter not far from the barn site. By the time we realized they weren’t heading for a ground exit, Isiah’s man and two of the Shadow Syndicate members had bundled him into it and taken off.”
Optimus stood to full height, his body tense and angry. “You’re telling me… that this could have all been avoided. But because you wanted to catch Isiah we had to go along with this elaboratebullshit, causing me to lose one of my men, and risking one of my brother’s old ladies just for you to screw it up?”
The clubhouse grew silent.
Melanie didn’t answer.
Optimus stared her down, the tone of his voice dropping dramatically. “Get out of my clubhouse.”
I gave the woman props for not cowering.
“There will be an investigation,” she said, her voice firm. “There were Shadow Syndicate members killed today. That was meant to be avoided.”
I took a step forward, and Optimus held his arm out across my chest, holding me back. “It’s not our fault the little assholes got fucking scared.”
That was the problem with gangs like this. They took in so many members, mostly young teens who were just looking to be a part of something. They were young and stupid and when it came down to it, they were all out for themselves.
As soon as Simon started shooting, my brothers and I had taken him down. Unfortunately, he managed to get a few shots off before that, and his aim was perfect. I cringed.
The gunshots had scared some of the Syndicate members, and they’d started firing aimlessly in order to protect themselves. It was lucky that we didn’t lose more people due to their stupidity. They, on the other hand, lost three members when we retaliated.
“We’ll be in touch,” Melanie stated, ignoring my protests before turning on her heel and heading for the door.
Optimus waited until the woman was outside before he turned to Judge. “This going to be an issue?”
Judge shook his head. “You all had our weapons. Forensics will confirm that all the bullets that killed the three gang members were ours. There won’t be any blowback.”
Judge was smart. He planned for all outcomes.
“You get all the guns back?” I asked him.
He nodded. “We’ll be heading out now.”
I leaned back against the bar. “Where you going to go now the club no longer exists?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t share that information with you,” he answered, a smirk growing beneath his bushy beard.
Optimus laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re going back undercover?”
He chuckled. “I’ve lived most of my life undercover. Don’t have anyone to go home to, so I’m just going to move on to the next job.”
“What about Mom?” Blizzard asked, moving toward us with his arm around Rose’s shoulder.
Judge smiled. “She’ll get in touch when they’re settled.”
I could tell that Blizzard didn’t like being kept in the dark, but for his mom and sister’s safety, it was better that fewer people knew where they were. Word was going to get around about Satan’s Sanctuary, they weren’t completely out of the woods, but I just hoped the Bureau did a better job of protecting their own than they did of protecting Hadley.