Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Even Hammer. Even knowing the history between him and Claw and Madina. Even knowing Claw’s woman had given birth to Hammer’s twins. Claw had always treated the girls like his own, but now I had to be sure the threat to them was over. Also, I needed to know who in my club could be sadistic enough to contemplate hurting our children. No matter what the reason, that was as step too fucking far. “Hammer terrorized Scarlet. Beat her and threatened to harm Sunshine and Rainbow if she retaliated or left him.” A couple of the men glanced at each other, showing more of a reaction than I’d expected, but more than a few simply gazed on stoically, giving nothing away. “He told her he had someone in the club keeping an eye on the girls. That one word from him and they’d suffer. I’m paraphrasing, but I took it the same way Scarlet did. Hammer had someone in Grim Road working with him to destroy Claw through his children.”
“That’s fucked up,” Spike muttered. “Only a fuckin’ coward preys on kids to get back at an enemy.”
“It’s worse than that,” Dom said, giving me a glance. I nodded. The club needed to know. “Sunshine and Rainbow are Hammer’s daughters. Claw is the one who killed Madina.”
That got more than a few disbelieving grumbles.
“No fuckin’ way,” Spike snapped. “Not possible.”
“Which event are you referring to?” Dom asked. “Because there’s a couple things I had trouble with.”
“Fuckin’ all of it! Hammer would never disrespect a brother by movin’ in on his woman. Madina and Claw had been an item for years before Hammer even patched in.”
“I confirmed the first two with Hammer myself.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Look. I know this is a real dick punch, but the fact is the only innocent parties in all this shit are Scarlet, Sunshine, and Rainbow. Hammer fucked Claw’s woman. By all accounts he loved Madina. Claw and Madina had… issues. I’m not certain what they all were, but I know Madina was unhappy. I wasn’t there when she told him about the babies, but I suspect she was going to leave him.”
“The signs were there.” Bear stroked his beard as he mused. “I remember thinking there was something going on between the two of them, but…” He shrugged. “Not my business.”
“Fuck.” Spike was possibly the most transparent of all of us. His work in Black Ops usually had to do with scouting a mark and planning the strike. Even though he had the training, he wasn’t as experienced with deep cover as the rest of us. “I still don’t see it. Hammer would have taken revenge on Claw directly. Not by going through kids to do it.”
“Think about it, Spike.” Falcon gripped Spike’s shoulder in an effort to calm down the other man. “Claw was the VP. Hammer was a newly patched member. How’s he gonna fight Claw?” He looked up at me. “What I don’t understand is how Hammer could have someone ready to harm the girls if he knew they were his.”
I nodded to Falcon. “Good point. When we took Hammer apart, I got the impression he was so eaten up with hate he didn’t give a fuck. Claw had raised Sunshine and Rainbow as his own. Hammer knew he’d never have their loyalty and love the way Claw did. I think he distanced himself from the fact they were his daughters. He gave away more than I thought he would, and I think that was only because of what we did.”
“Every man has his breaking point.” Falcon nodded like he understood. “Must have been bad.”
“Was.” I barely suppressed a shudder. What we’d done to Hammer… Yeah. He deserved what we did and worse, but I had no idea if I could have done it by myself. If any of us could have. The men of Iron Tzars were pretty hardened and used to torture, but Hammer had been subjected to a special kind of hell. While it made my stomach roil, I still regretted none of it. “Ain’t goin’ over what we did so don’t ask. Like I said. He wasn’t in one -- or even a few -- pieces when we finished.
“So. We have a few things to discover. First, I want a rundown of Hammer’s movements, Crush. I want to know where he was every second of every day in the weeks leading up to him and Scarlet leaving. You can’t find a pattern or a person of interest, go back further.” I gave my intel officer a hard look. “I want everything. And I mean everything. No matter how trivial you think it is.”
“Maybe Hammer was fuckin’ with you.” Spike spoke up again. “Maybe he just wanted you to think there was a problem in the ranks.”