“That’s what the report says, but a lot was left out. Like the meeting the day before with Kitty.”
“Hold up,” Phantom interjected. “Kitty was in college at the time. Why would Pops be meeting with her? She wanted nothing to do with the club.”
“You’re right. Kitty hated the Golden Skulls with a passion, but she respected Pops and because she was a girl who basically had free reign in the club, Pops knew Kitty knew things.”
“Like who Jessica really was,” she whispered, sitting back down.
“Yes. Pops knew his father kidnapped and raped Cassandra Montclair. He found out shortly after Toxic killed Cassandra and Jessica ran away. What he didn’t know was why. He never understood why his father would risk a war with the east coast club. It made no sense to him. That’s where Kitty came in. As you can imagine, it didn’t go well. She refused to give up any information stating that there was bigger fish to fry and that she wanted no part of it. Pops knew that Kitty knew more than she was letting on. When he tried to persuade her, Kitty said, " Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.”
“Cryptic as ever,” she muttered.
“Pops didn’t know what she meant by that either, but he believed it had something to do with the club’s past. And after he died, that’s when I received the packet. My team and I left the next day. We only had one clue. A storage key. We traveled around for almost a year when we were stopped and damn near killed by the Sons of Hell. They were out on a run when our paths crossed. It was a dicey situation until Bayou took off his cut and threw it at King's feet.”
“Okay?” Phantom questioned, not understanding.
Bayou spoke up. “When a brother removes his cut and throws it at the feet of an opposing club President it means that the brother severs his allegiance to his former club, thereby making him a nomad and untouchable.”
“Okay, but why did you do that?”
“Because while we were traveling, we had seen our club brothers kidnapping, raping and trafficking people and selling drugs and weapons.”
“The Skulls don’t deal in drugs and Reaper has been trying to stop the trafficking. That’s why he severed ties with the FBI.”
“You sure about that?” Shadow quipped. “Or is that what he wanted you to see.”
“What are you all saying?”
“We are saying that the club isn’t what everyone believes. After Bayou threw his cut down, the rest of us followed. We knew it was the only way to walk away alive. However, King had another idea. He knew the Golden Skulls had something to do with his sister’s disappearance. He just couldn’t prove it. Well, with five former Golden Skull members at his disposal, he was in a position to get the information he’d been looking for. But the only way to get us to talk was to patch us in, giving us the protection of the Sons of Hell. So, he did and as a show of good faith, we talked. We came clean with everything we knew up until that point.”
“So, when King showed up here a few weeks ago, he already knew the Skulls were responsible for his sister’s death and he knew he had a niece out there somewhere.”
“Yes. Though he didn’t know that Jessica was with Savage.”
“Bet he hated that.”
“You don’t even want to know the ass chewing I got for that one. King is not someone you cross. Ever.”
“What does King have to do with what’s happening in the club now?”
“Long before you or I were born, there has been a war going on and I’m not talking about the war between the Sons of Hell and the Golden Skulls. I’m talking bigger, with much larger players. Back when William Doherty was running the club, he facilitated deals that set this club on its current path. It wasn’t until Willian was killed and James Doherty took over that he realized what was happening. James Doherty and his most trusted members set out to fix what William Doherty began.”
“Cliff notes version Ghost.”
Nodding, I added. “The only reason we are here is to stop Reaper and minimize the damage his family created.”
“You know what Kitty meant when she said not to trust Reaper.” Phantom asked leaning forward.
“I believe so.”
“Well?”
“It’s a long story, but the cliff notes version is that we believe Reaper never truly severed ties with the Original Seven, but we can’t prove it. There are too many inconsistencies that we can’t ignore. Like Darrin Reynolds, Jeffery Denton and my brother Grimm.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You already know that Reynolds was the club's FBI contact. The club worked in conjunction with the FBI to stop human trafficking. But all those people the club supposedly saved; they never made it home. They’ve all disappeared.” Massacre carefully revealed. “And it wasn’t just them. There were several hundred more that the club had a hand in saving over the years, only to disappear again after being rescued. Not one single person the club saved is living their life free. Wherever they are, they are there against their will.”
“What?” Gadget asked, sitting up straighter.