“Now we need to decide on a suitable location to lure him. Any suggestions?” Venom glanced around for responses.
“What about the warehouse that always seems to pop up in any kind of shit that goes down?” Squirrel offered.
He was referring to the warehouse where the Bloody Scorpions tried to trap Voodoo and where they had made the exchange for Jasmine, Trace, and Lynda.
“I mean, the neighborhood near it is older and the residents don’t seem to get involved in things that don’t concern them. Of course, we’ll go in slick—no colors to advertise who we are if anyone does take notice,” Squirrel reasoned. He had a good point.
Kicker questioned Squirrel’s idea, asking, “Why couldn’t we save a lot of hassle and simply lure him here?”
“Because we don’t know how this is going to go, and I’d prefer not having him here if things go south,” Venom explained. “There are too many variables. We don’t know what all he’s capable of.”
“Hell, if things go south, we may not be alive to worry about the property and the hog business next door. Also, would you rather put people in town that live near that warehouse at risk?” Kicker argued.
Hawk had inherited the hog farm and the property the clubhouse sat on from an uncle or something, I couldn’t remember. He initially planned to sell it, but when we found out that hogs will eat a human body without batting an eye, we decided it would be a valuable addition to the “cleaning” business we had. The only part of a human a hog won’t eat is the skull, but if you crushed it, the fucking wild boars we raised for game ranches sure as shit gobbled them up. We owned a company that did biological cleanups—both legitimate and code for an assassination. Basically, our club took out the trash—the creeps who defiled women and children, or generally got away with heinous crimes yet found a way to get off on technicalities. Then the trailers we used to transfer the hogs were modified to have both false bottoms and a false front that made for great transporting options for the weed we distributed to states that hadn’t legalized it. And the farm was a great way to launder money, to boot.
“What do you all think?” Venom again scanned the room for answers.
“I still say not here. We have employees at the hog farm that have no idea what we really do. We don’t need to drag them into it or put them in unnecessary danger,” Voodoo argued.
“True,” I agreed.
“Yet we still need to bring him back here to the slaughterhouse,” Kicker shot back. “I just feel like we should keep all of this close to home. There has to be some excuse we can come up with. Hell, we can tell the employees that we have repairs to do or a special hog buyer that’s coming in who wants to remain anonymous, and we tell them we’ll cover the animal care in-house for the night.”
“He might have a point,” Venom agreed as he stroked his beard thoughtfully. “That would save us from having to drag shit all over the place and back.”
“Whatever works. So, when do we lure him to the slaughterhouse?” Squirrel asked.
“We’d have to make sure we’ve got everything set up and ready to go,” Voodoo reluctantly conceded.
“Where will Chains set up if we do it here? The hopper silos are the tallest structures, so he could probably use the catwalk that connects them.” I was trying to work out the logistics in my head.
“We can run it by him tonight when he brings Jasmine and little Ehria Angeline home,” Angel suggested.
“Sounds good. Now, we haven’t discussedhowwe get him here.” Venom tapped the table as he looked to us for ideas.
“Too bad he doesn’t have a cell phone,” Blade drolly mentioned. “We could call him and have Sabre ask for a meeting.”
“Maybe it would be a better idea for Sabre to lead him to the warehouse after all. He knows we’re all here. He’s got no reason to follow anyone here because there’s too many of us and the property is well-protected,” Hawk mused.
“Why don’t we just summon him?” Angel quietly asked. All eyes turned to him. “Then Chains could be in the corner of the slaughterhouse and tranquilize him at close range.”
Venom looked at Angel like he’d lost his mind. “How the hell would we summon him?”
Angel blew out a heavy breath, then cast a glance at Voodoo, who pinched his nose and swore.
“It’s helpful if we know his name,” Voodoo stated, “but it’s not necessary. Because he drew blood on Soleil, and Angel healed her, we can likely summon him by his energy.”
“Jesus, I don’t even want to know how you two know this,” Hawk said sternly to Voodoo and Angel. Considering he was Voodoo’s stepfather, and Angel had been Voodoo’s best friend growing up, Hawk was likely wondering when all the demon summoning had happened.
“I went through a rough time after my mom died. Let’s just say I was a little vengeful.” Angel shrugged unapologetically.
“I really don’t need to hear more.” Hawk rested his head on his hands as he massaged his temples.
“Well, I think we need to know if it worked and how you got rid of it afterward,” Facet cautiously added. “Was it the same ritual as what I found?”
“Not exactly. He left of his own accord because we refused his terms,” Voodoo admitted.
“I should fucking hope so!” Hawk shouted, shooting a glare at them. Everyone jumped a little because that was so out of character for Hawk.