SWNOVELS The Devil’s Reward: Chapter 3
Our mole’s days are numbered, and it’s going to be damn satisfying to catch him.
I huff out an annoyed breath at the number of emails sitting in my inbox. Do people not have enough to do without pissing me off? With this whole mole problem, the last thing I want to deal with is a bunch of rich assholes wanting twenty-four-seven protection services because of some perceived threat. Half of them won’t be anything more than paranoia, but I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Still, the amount of work coming our way is starting to be more than we can handle. Meaning I need to enlist some more brothers, or we need to hire civilians not associated with the club. Neither option is ideal, especially since pulling more brothers in takes away from other businesses, and also could bring our mole right into the mix. Civilians could work, but that would require vetting, and that is another type of headache.
Instead of worrying about it, I get to work on the emails, forwarding any I think others can handle. I’ve learned that delegation is a life saver.
“We need a receptionist or something,” Viper groans as he walks into my office. “I have so many fucking emails I can’t even do my own work.”
I nod in agreement. “I know the feeling. Who are we going to get though? We need someone with clearance.”
“Could ask if Rose could fill in until we find someone,” Viper suggests. I give him a bland look, and he grins. “Yeah, I know, I wasn’t going to say anything, but it’s her, Sage, or one of the club girls. Sage, well, I don’t think this is her idea of fun. She’d spend more time taking pictures than doing actual work. And I really don’t want to deal with any of the club girls over here.”
I groan and run my hand over my face. I love Rose, but she is a handful. Not to mention, she and the rest of the coven, as Torque calls them, usually all end up in the same place. Truthfully, I don’t have the time or patience to deal with that headache. Still, how long could it be?
“Or,” Viper continues, making me look up at him. “I had another idea that might be an option. Not sure if you’d agree, and we might need to run it by Bullet, but I can’t see why he’d object.”
“What is it?” I ask impatiently. God, the man doesn’t look like a talker, but he can take forever to get to the goddamn point when he’s on a roll.
He ignores me but thankfully gets it out. “Well, I know someone over at the VA hospital, and they were telling me they hired a few social workers to help arrange housing and employment for freshly discharged vets. Maybe we could approach them and see if they could send any people our way. Give them a list qualifications we are looking for, honestly, it’s a win-win. We get help, and vets get jobs. Depending on who they are and how they work out, we could introduce them to the MC.”
I think it over, and I have to agree it’s a damn good idea. Helping other vets is a passion of mine, though I’m not open about it. I quietly donate and do things to help, but this could be beneficial for not only us as a business, but as a club. There are a lot of men and women out there looking for the same things as me when I got out. Some more than others, and we could weed out any who don’t fit.
“I think Bullet would be good with it,” I say. “Reach out to your contact and see if they’re interested. If they are, they can send us the information and go from there. We can bring it to the club at the next Church.”
Viper steps further into my office and shuts the door. I don’t react to the abrupt motion, because I have a feeling I know what he’s about to say. “What are we going to do about our mole problem?” he asks as he moves to take the seat across from me. “This bastard isn’t stupid, so he knows we’re on his trail. If he’s got anything stashed in the clubhouse, he already moved it, or is trying to.”
I’ve been thinking about that very thing. So much so, I only got a couple of hours of sleep last night. It’s not my first near sleepless night, and until this is handled, it won’t be my last.
“I say we use what we have at our disposal,” I tell him, leaning forward on the desk and looking him in the eyes. “We’ve got our very own K9 trainer next door. I bet they are also trained in detection.”
Viper’s brow arches in surprise. “You want to use Syn and her hellhounds to sniff out our mole?”
“In a way. Our mole has been working with Dmitri. He’s getting something out of the deal. And because he injected Izzy with a speedball, I bet it’s either pussy or drugs. Maybe both. Pussy can’t be hidden in the clubhouse, but drugs can be.”
“You think he’d be stupid enough to hide something like that in the clubhouse?” Viper asks.
“He could have moved it,” I acknowledge, “but it’s only been a few days since the attack on Izzy, and with the heat around the clubhouse, he might not have had a chance yet. Now is the perfect time to catch him.”
Viper slowly nods. “Could have her look at the outbuildings too. If I was this asshole, I wouldn’t leave that shit lying around. Makes more sense to hide it in one of the buildings that no one uses.”
I nod in agreement. “You got a point. First thing we need to do is run this by Bullet, and if he agrees, we bring in Syn.”
“Who’s going to tell Stone his woman is about to be sniffing around his drawers?” Viper snickers.
I smirk. Stone and Syn, Sage’s best friend and the club’s neighbor, are trying damn hard to avoid each other. Stone doesn’t trust she’s not a cop, and Syn is pissed he can’t understand she isn’t. She’s a dog trainer, but she trains K9s for different police departments. She and her K9s, Ebony and Loki, were instrumental when Dmitri was after Sage. Loki took a bullet trying to prevent Dmitri’s goon from taking her, and Ebony took down another asshole when we tracked them.
Stone, being the stubborn asshole he is, can’t see past the possible cop connection. For some reason, he thinks she’s going to bring down a raid on the clubhouse, exposing our secrets. Though, now that I think about it, if the cops did raid us, we could have a problem. Especially if our mole is hiding drugs around the clubhouse.
Stone is going to have to get over whatever aversion he has so we can figure this out. Not to mention, none of us have missed the chemistry between them. There’s a betting pool for who’s going to cave first. My money is on Stone. But he is his father’s son, and he’s as stubborn as a damn goat when digs his heels in.
“You going to call Bullet?” I ask Viper, changing the subject.
Viper nods and pulls out his phone. “I’ll call him and then my contact at the VA hospital. Might as well get this shit together. I’ll let you know what they both say.” He stands and heads out, phone already to his ear as he walks down the hall to his own office.
I put it out of my mind and get back to work figuring out how the hell I’m going to find people to work all the jobs we have coming up. We have a few day protection jobs, but most of them require surveillance for a few days prior, if not a week or two. I might have to bring Sniper in on a few of these.
Sniper moves between businesses as we need him, but lately he’s been running the bar that the club owns. The manager we hired quit a few weeks ago, and we haven’t found a replacement yet. Normally we would have a brother do it, but Twigs is young and a bit of a space case, and Dagger prefers to stay behind the bar and not deal with the paperwork. Still, they could do without Sniper for a few days, and I’m sure Rose or Bullet could step in to help if needed.
Viper is the money guy out of the two of us, and as the club’s Treasurer, it makes sense. I’m not sure how that turned into me coordinating schedules, but this is exactly why I agree with his assessment we need a receptionist. I’m spending far too much time on this and other tasks. Hopefully, he can find some good people. Otherwise, I’m going to have to break down and steal Raven away from Wolf and his tattoo shop.
Raven Dixon has been adopted by Rose and Bullet as a surrogate daughter, though she’s dating Sloan Lincoln, one of the richest men in the state, and possibly the entire country. Sloan’s family has become close to the club, and with their connections, business is booming. Raven, however, works as a receptionist and piercer at Fire and Ink Tattoo Shop, and she’s a spitfire.
She’s a five-five waif with dark eyes and black hair. Looking at her, you’d see an edgy woman, but when she pins you with those eyes, you know she’s got a side of crazy and an unmistakable stubborn streak that sends lesser men running the other way. Viper once had a thing for her, but when Sloan came along, he stepped aside.
Still, it makes me wonder what would happen if I had to steal her away from Wolf and Talon for a couple of weeks. Though, I have a feeling that if I try to steal Raven, I might have more than one person pissed at me, including Raven herself.
I look up when I hear Viper coming back down the hallway. He shuts the door behind him and says, “I talked to Bullet and he gave the go-ahead on both Syn and the VA. I’ll ask Sage for Syn’s number and get in touch with her to find out if she can help.”
“Bullet gave you permission to tell her what we’re looking for?” I ask him in surprise.
He nods. “He trusts her, and honestly, after everything that went down with Sage, he knows she’s got a damn good shot at figuring out who our mole is. If she’s willing, I’ll get her and the dogs started on the outbuildings. We need to make sure we do it when people aren’t around.”
I nod. “Mid-day is usually safest, and we can send off any stragglers on an errand or whatever. Let me know what Syn says and then we’ll figure out when is best. We need to do it soon though, like you said.”
“I’m on it. Oh, and I talked to my contact at the VA hospital. They were happy to send our name to the social workers as potential employers. We might get a few calls with questions from individual social workers, but it should be pretty straightforward. We are under no obligation to hire anyone they send our way, but they ask that if we interview someone and they aren’t a good fit, we let them know. They give the vets guidance on interview skills, and our feedback will help them find the right placements for us and others.”
“Sounds like a plan. Hopefully, they send us some good people, because we need a few.”
“We’ll get Cryos to run them, but I’ll give him a heads up on anyone so he can put that on the top of the list.”
With a solid plan, I’m feeling a hell of a lot better than I was last night. Some of my anger has dissipated, leaving mostly anticipation. Our mole’s days are numbered. The hunt that’s coming is going to make catching him that much sweeter.
And if he ends up with a few extra holes from Syn’s hellhounds? Even better.