ChapterTwelve
The main camp was less than a mile off, so it didn’t take us long to get there. I was the first to stalk into the hodgepodge of canvas tents despite Josh wanting to take the lead. I probably should have let him, but, flanked as I was by my men, I hadn’t cared to let him try to smooth the situation over. Of course, I promptly ran into two people who shouldn’t have had their asses near the place, let alone be fraternizing with the squatters.
“Excuse the fuck out of me, Tanya and Not Tanya, you lost?” Not Tanya had the look of someone that knew they were in the shit, but Tanya had apparently gotten into whatever they were partying on because she just shrugged before winking at Lochlan. Blood boiling, I started toward them until Josh looped an arm around my waist.
“Sevey, they’re not prisoners, and they’re not what we’re here for,” Josh hissed at me before turning on his sheriff’s routine. “I need to speak with whoever is camping by the fence line back a ways.”
“We’re allowed to camp, officer,” a man, a bit older looking than me, said as he came out from one of the tents. “Just like we told the old man this one sent out, it’s public land.”
My brows went up at the news. The only ‘old man’ would have been Doc, not that he’d been ancient, but I’d never sent him. Tee was supposed to handle that. A sinking sensation hit my gut as I rapidly processed everything, while Josh passed me off to Jesse and demanded to see the trespassers. There were a half dozen people around the central campfire, but there was evidence more had been there recently. From one of the dirt bikes I recognized, I figured it was likely they were still around somewhere.
“They aren’t here, went on a run for supplies, but I’ll tell them you stopped by and need a word with them.”
“They’ll be having more than a word with the sheriff. Private property has been destroyed, and they’ve set up camp on it.” Lochlan wasn’t at all amused at the brush off, and he’d apparently had enough of letting Josh deal with it. “We need names and someone to come clean it up. Now.”
The man only smirked, but I’d had enough myself, shrugging off Jesse’s arm before pinning the nervous Not Tanya down with a glare. “Sheriff, I’d like to press charges for theft as well. We don’t sell bottles of alcohol out of the bar, and we’ve recently had quite a bit go missing from the storeroom. Tanya is drinking from one of them now.” And she was.
The woman had the audacity to roll her eyes before smarting off. “I bought this at the liquor store, you crazy bitch,” she slurred. “You’re just pissed one of those men you’re hoarding wanted to fuck me.”
Lochlan tensed, but I shook my head at him. I had believed them when they said they weren’t interested in her or her friend. With a smirk, I pointed out the stamp on the bottom of the bottle when she tipped it up again. “You see that mark on the bottle? That means it’s distilled and distributed to the L&L chapters only. You can’t buy it at any liquor store, and you certainly can’t buy a bottle of it from my bar.” Looking over at Josh, I raised my brows in question. “Possession of stolen goods is grounds for arrest, is it not?”
With a sigh, Josh nodded and radioed in for backup. “While we wait, I need identification from everyone here, starting with you,” he said, pointing at Tanya.
“Hey, I didn’t fucking steal it! Bronco gave it to me,” she insisted, finally realizing she was in trouble, then she turned and yelled for the man in question.
I grunted in surprise as that’s not at all who I’d expected to be there. Then it dawned on me that unless he’d borrowed the dirt bike, I had more than one of my officers fucking me over. “Where’s Tee? I know that’s his dirt bike over there,” I accused, going with my gut.
“I’m right here, Sevey,” my vice president said. There was regret in his voice but resolve in his eyes and defiance written all over his posture as he came at us from the side, gun in hand.
Josh immediately called in the situation as he, and the rest of us, pulled our own weapons. “Put it down, Tee,” he demanded while edging back to keep everyone in the camp in his sights. “Everyone just calm down and put the guns away.” I highly doubted he really thought that would work, but regardless, I wasn’t putting a damn thing away when one of my longtime friends was pointing a fucking gun at me.
“Sorry, sheriff, Sevey, we won’t be doing that.” My disbelieving gaze went to Albany, who was coming from the opposite side. Did my whole fucking crew turn on me?
To make matters worse, several of the camp residents pulled their own weapons, though they weren’t pointing them at anyone from what I could tell out of my peripherals.
“Guys, what the fuck is wrong with you? Put that shit down!” I was busy trying to push my fear and betrayal down and figure out how to defuse the situation when Tee went off.
“What’s wrong with us? You’re the one that decided to be a dictator, Prez. Did you ever stop to think maybe some of us didn’t want to go legit? You’re pretty much the only one that can handle your pet project with the sheriff here, so the rest of us are supposed to be what, your grunts? I’ve done everything for you for years. Who took care of the club and bar while you had a baby? Who was always there to help you when you needed it? I didn’t want to be part of your fucking women’s power, bullshit Lipstick and Leather club, but I did it for you because you were convinced it was a great opportunity. And it was, I’ll admit that, so I went along with it. But then you came home knocked up from a one-night stand with stars in your eyes about the man you’d met.
“I didn’t realize there were multiples, though. Never would have guessed that one after all the times you told me to take my companions elsewhere.” All the accusations and scorn in his voice pissed me off, but they also gave me a sense of guilt. He’d obviously kept this shit bottled up until something set him off. “I thought I’d gotten a second chance when your baby daddy died. That you’d eventually come around, and I’d be there. Figured I might have to compete with the sheriff, but setting him up with someone else should have been easy enough. It’s not like he’s been abstinent while he chases after you. You’ve just been oblivious to it all. But then here they come,” he spat out, pointing a finger at Loch and Gus. They had his death in their eyes as they closed ranks around me, on high alert in an eerie way that lent credence to their former career as a special teams unit.
“You barely put up a fuss before you welcomed them and their buddies in, made it clear they were above me. Me. The one that was there for you and Opal when they weren’t. So, when you poked at me for not clearing this lot out, because I have a life and get busy too, I ran to do your bidding—like always. Turns out, their leader here found out about our operation and wanted in on it before you decided you wanted to go legit. Planned to blackmail you into letting them stay in the back end of your property so they could take over the smuggling while you acted as their front. Seems I might not have had the ladies where they should have been when you were handing off a few documents, and they shared their knowledge.” Tee paused to smirk at the man who, from the unpleasant glare he was giving the traitor, was just beginning to realize he had no idea who he’d gotten into business with. If my vice president had been so quick to turn on me without an ounce of guilt, and jeopardize victims we’d helped, the leader of their camp should surely expect the same treatment. “So, instead of trying to get rid of them, I struck a deal. I’d keep the supply coming, and distribute it as always, while I worked on getting rid of your men and getting us unaffiliated from the ridiculous club you talked us all into joining. Go back to how it used to be. When you weren’t a stick in the mud, and we didn’t have to give a huge portion of our earnings over to dues every year.”
I think most, if not all of us, were shocked by the words all but tripping out of his mouth. He was a complete stranger to the dependable man I’d known for so many years.
“So you decided to fuck me over and manipulate me to get your way? Why did you drag Albany and Brandon into this shit, Tee? You know you didn’t have to do this, right? I would have let you leave if you’d asked, or tried to figure something out if you were unhappy. We’re friends, for fuck’s sake.” I was more than a little butthurt by their betrayal, and I feared the worst was yet to come as not a one of them looked interested in putting their guns up.
“Friends, Sevey? Really? I wanted more than your friendship, but I was willing to settle for it until you let these dicks all but take over.” He gestured to the guys, but the barrel of his gun didn’t move back; he kept it trained on Loch’s chest. I found out then that I could be more afraid than I had been. I didn’t think he’d actually hurt me physically, but the men were another story altogether. Hoping to work a different angle, I tried to appeal to my enforcer.
“Albany, seriously, is this necessary? I know Brandon was upset about the transition, but why are you here? Am I really so terrible that you need to kill people over it?” When he blanched and darted a glance at Tee, then back to me, struggling to keep his panic down, I felt my heart break. “You killed Doc, didn’t you? Why?!”
I blinked back the tears that clouded my eyes as he spilled his guts. “It was an accident! I swear it was. He came out here to deal with the situation, thinking Tee was slacking off on getting to it. Found him and Bronc trying to talk me into joining them. There was a shipment being divvied up, and it looked really bad. He took off to tell you and I-I—” He shook his head and dropped the arm holding his gun. “I caught up to Doc at the turnout where cell service comes back in before you lose it again. He’d pulled over and had his phone out. I just wanted to talk to him, explain that I hadn’t done anything. For whatever reason, he reached for his pistol, but I got mine out first. Tee found me a few minutes later… I didn’t have a choice, Sevey. I didn’t want to go to prison for an accident.”
Strangely enough, I believed him. But at that point, it didn’t matter. We could hear sirens coming up the access road from the opposite side of my property. A couple of the squatters that must have been hiding out in the tents took off with bulging backpacks over their shoulders, presumably to hide, or steal, the product they’d planned to move. With the imminent arrival of what had to be the entirety of the Charity Falls Police Department coming up the road, hell bent for leather, I couldn’t say I blamed them.
“What the fuck?!” Tee yelled, redirecting his aim to the camp leader who shrugged like he’d had no part in their actions. I didn’t think the man expected Tee to turn and fire on his people though. “You’re fucking dead! Bring my shit back now!” One of the young men made it to the treeline, but Tee wasn’t a bad shot. He managed to hit the other, who crumpled to the ground, screaming, while clutching his leg.
At that point, his action started a chain reaction of trigger-happy people out for blood. With Tee no longer focused on us, I quickly found myself relocated well away from the worst of it as Josh yelled a warning to the combatants. I missed most of what happened, though I fought against Jesse to get loose when I heard his cry of pain.