“And if that woman right there is the one who can provide it?” Savage asked, indicating Tawny.
“Then you need to get it from her.” Czar was implacable.
“Fuckin’ great,” Savage muttered.
Plank and two other Diamondbacks arrived with two more women. It was clear that Czar was meeting the president of the Diamondbacks at the location and Alena just happened to stumble onto it.
“How are you going to play this?” Savage asked.
“Plank has to be made aware that there could be an assassination attempt on him. He’s heard the rumor, and Tawny put it out there that Alena might be the one to make the try,” Czar said. “Lion and Shark are both here. I wanted to make certain Shark was here at least. Plank’s going to think I’m crazy when I tell him some of the women might be under the influence of a suggestion.”
Maestro and Keys joined them, coming in from another direction. Keys grinned at Czar. “They’ll all be afraid of demanding blow jobs even if they say they don’t believe you.”
Steele and Ink came up behind them. Ink gave a little shudder. “So much for thinking I might find the woman of my dreams.”
“She’ll take your fucking balls off,” Steele said. “Wouldn’t you be a pretty boy then?”
Reaper and Maestro dropped back to protect Czar while Savage and Keys stayed at his side. Savage didn’t like having to be put in that position, but there was nothing else for it. He had to be the one to play this through. Pierce was once more in the spotlight with Tawny. The woman was trying to cuddle into him, whispering into his ear, pulling at him and pointing to the darkness where the music was the loudest.
“Czar,” Plank greeted. “Got your message. Sounded urgent.”
Czar nodded as they shook hands. “Yeah, this is going to sound so sci-fi and bizarre, but we have more than one source, and I didn’t want to take any chances. There is a hit list for certain, you knew that going into this.”
Plank swore, turning his head to look at his second-in-command, Judge, and then Lion and Shark, who were on either side of him. “I knew it. I fuckin’ knew it.”
“Someone has gotten to the Venomous club and slowly been destroying them from the inside out. He’s taken them over, so he’s running things behind the scenes but making it appear that it’s business as usual,” Czar said. “He gives orders, and those orders are followed.”
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” Plank said.
“You, Judge, Lion and Shark for certain are on the list, as well as Savage. This is where the sci-fi part comes in. Some of the women here have been given a suggestion, much like a hypnotic suggestion, to offer a blow job, which is not unusual on a run. At some moment during the blow job, she will suddenly pull out a gun or knife and kill him. She won’t remember the suggestion or even know she had that suggestion in her memory. That’s not to say there aren’t backup hit men waiting in the wings.”
Plank stared at Czar as if he’d grown two heads. Then he turned that same stare on his brothers. “Holy fuck. If someone is capable of doing that, we could be in deep shit.”
“Especially, Plank, if they were able to get to your wives.” Czar delivered the bad news quietly.
Plank swung back around. “No way. No way could they do that. How? My old lady would never betray me. Not in a hundred years.”
“I told you, she would never know. He’d meet her through a mutual friend like Tawny, have a casual conversation with him and he’d plant the suggestion. That’s how it’s done,” Czar persisted.
Judge shook his head. “I don’t see how. I’ve been to those shows where someone is hypnotized. They have to volunteer and be agreeable to be put under.”
Czar shrugged. “I’m just giving you the information we’ve uncovered in our investigation so far. That’s what you asked for. It’s still ongoing.”
“Don’t be so quick to judge,” Lion interrupted. “I know it can be done. Planting a suggestion. You have to be really good, but it can be done.”
Shark nodded. “Why go after the Venomous club, Czar?”
“I believe they’re using that club because it’s big enough and has enough chapters to undermine other clubs. It’s chewing away at Diamondback territory. Venomous is making alliances with Headed for Hell. They can start slow, with patience, moving their pieces on the chessboard to get what they want. Did you take notice of how many pawns they sacrificed in Sacramento? They didn’t care how many of the Venomous club members died. If the club presidents were concerned, that would never have happened. You don’t treat your brothers like that.”
Deliberately, Czar misled the Diamondbacks into thinking the enemy might be more than one person. They didn’t know for certain if Campbell was working alone to undermine the Diamondbacks or if he had partners. That was what they were there for. Savage had to start extracting information. Unfortunately, their most likely informant was Tawny. None of them liked the idea of taking the data from a woman, but they needed it, and they needed it fast. Code was working overtime to get everything he could, but he was one man, and there were a lot of clubs to cover.