Bones waited at the front for us. “Hey, let’s head upstairs and go over what you know,” he said, cutting to the chase.
We moved quickly to the meeting room and sat down. I was rethinking my need for a drink. I wanted a clear head to think about things.
Bone sighed as he sat down in the chair. “Okay, we are having this little impromptu meeting, tell me what’s going on, Numbers?”
“We have a mole. Mia is working for Doc,” I announced.
“Get the fuck out of here! How do you know this?” He looked stunned.
“A text message I saw on her phone from Doc talking about finding out information on us. They are after us,” I declared.
Bones ran his hand over his beard for a minute, not saying anything.
Smoke was up and pacing the room, deep in thought.
The news had thrown everybody for a six.
“Okay, let’s wait for the guys to show up and we can get started with a way forward out of this mess. I’m so sick of Devil Riders. Dammit, Snake!” Bones slammed his flat palm on the table in frustration.
I nodded. “We do have a plan. We talked about it, and they aren’t getting anywhere. The patrols from the cops have helped. They tried that tactic to get the cops on our ass, but it didn’t work because they’ve been driven out by them in the same breath,” I justified. “We haven’t had any dealers pop up at the casino in the last week. We just need to have better awareness, and to divert the cops’ attention to the Devil Riders. They’re trying to irritate us and delay our progress. That’s clear, but we are smarter than them, and they also know this.”
“That’s very true. Let’s talk it out with the guys and see. How are you feeling about everything? I know you really liked her. Are you sure about what you saw?” Bones said.
I knotted my hands up into balled fists and released them. I was still having a hard time dealing with the fact the blow came from Mia. “I’ll get over it, but I didn’t expect it from her,” I added bitterly.
“You never know,” Bones said. “She might have some valid reasons. Think back to how you got here, Numbers. For some reason, I can’t shake it might not be what you think, or at least there’s more to the story.”
Both Smoke and Bones were voices of reason planting seeds of doubt in my mind, but as far as I was concerned ? Mia Copeland and I ? whatever we had cooking was done.
Most of the guys rolled up within the hour and I relayed the information to them. We worked out collectively that we would stay the course and not budge from our plans. We were at the club for over an hour hashing plans out.
As I walked out of Wheelz and into the blurry heat of Holbeck, a message came through to my phone.
Sorry. Please forgive me. I have to talk to you. Call me. Mia.
I swallowed down the bitter pill of betrayal and swiped right to put the message in the trash. As far as I was concerned, I couldn’t trust her again.
My heart ached a little bit, but never again…