Lynch's Rule (Ruthless Sinners MC 9)

“You hired Sophie?”

Menace didn’t miss the tremor in Jagger’s voice. None of us did. We all knew it was a sure sign that Jagger was about to lose it, and that couldn’t happen—not until we knew where to find Sophie. Menace kept his voice low and steady as he warned, “Easy, Jagger.”

“Damn right I did! I played the same fucking game you did, but the bitch refused to fucking help me.”

“That wasn’t her job!”

“The fuck it wasn’t! You should’ve made her! You should’ve—”

“I didn’t know you’d fucking hired her, and even if I did, I wouldn’t have asked her to cross a line like that. Not for you. Not for anyone.”

“You could’ve done something to get me out of here!”

“You got it all wrong, Tully. You’ve got ten years left of your sentence. You’d need all kinds of pull to get out of this fucking place, and I don’t have it. If I did, I sure as hell wouldn’t have spent four fucking years in this godforsaken place.”

“But you got out, and—”

“We’re going in circles. For the love of God, just tell me how I can get Sophie back!”

“I’m done. I can’t do it anymore. I won’t.” There was a dramatic change in Tully’s tone as he explained, “I’ve prayed night after night that one of the beatings would go too far, and that would be the end, but it never happened. I’m a fucking mouse in a goddamn lion’s den, and none of them want to give up their toy.”

“You still haven’t told me what you want from me.”

“I want you to make it stop!” Tully demanded. “I want you to do whatever it takes to make it all just stop.”

“There’s only one way out of this, Tul,” Jagger answered flatly, leaving no doubt to what he meant. “You made sure of that when you had our strip club blown to bits and raped one of our girls. And if that wasn’t enough, you killed one of our prospects and had Sophie taken.”

Before Jagger could finish his thought, Tully interjected, “I never told him to rape the girl.”

“What?”

“I just told him to rough ’em up a bit, but that was it. Didn’t tell him to kill your prospect either.”

“Didn’t tell who?” When he didn’t immediately answer, Jagger pushed, “Didn’t tell who!”

“Give me your word that you’ll make it stop. However that may be, I need your word. It’s the only way I’ll tell you.”

“Fine! You have my goddamn word! Now, tell me who!”

“It was Booker and his brother, Kordarius.” The second I heard Kordarius’s name, I knew we had him, and Tully knew it, too. From that point on, he didn’t bother holding back. “I called in a favor—one I’d been saving for something like this, and they stepped up and got the job done.”

“This Booker fella and his brother... Did they work alone?”

“Couldn’t tell ya.”

“Which one of them has Sophie?”

“Couldn’t tell you that either.”

“Fuck, Tully. What kind of show are you running here?”

“The kind that got you here. That’s the only thing that fucking matters to me!”

Menace turned to Shotgun and Hawk, and like they’d read his mind, both immediately stood and started out of the room. Menace leaned forward and spoke into the mic as soon as they left. “We’ve still got Kordarius. Just hang in there. We’ll get him to tell us where the brother is.”

Jagger’s voice sounded muffled like he was covering his mouth as he whispered, “Just make it fast. I got a feeling we’re running out of time here.”

I understood Jagger’s urgency. This Booker motherfucker raped Misty and killed Collins without being told to do so. We couldn’t take any chances on him doing the same to Sophie, which meant Shotgun had to get Kordarius talking. It wasn’t going to be easy. He’d already proven that he’d withstand the pain for his brother.

The thought concerned me enough to ask Menace, “You think Shotgun can get him to talk?”

“Oh, yeah. He’ll have the guy singing like a fucking canary.”

“You sound pretty sure of that.”

“’Cause I am.” Menace turned his computer screen towards me. “I found his kid.”

We weren’t the kind of MC that hurt women or children, but it wasn’t above us to use them as an incentive. I just hoped Kordarius would take the bait and tell us where we could find his brother and Sophie before something happened that we’d all regret.

My curiosity was starting to get the best of me when Country leaned over to me and whispered, “I’m gonna go check in with Shotgun and see how things are going with Kordarius.”

“Good, I’m going with.”

Country motioned over to Viper, letting him know what we were doing, and then we both stood up and quietly stepped out of the room. Neither of us spoke as we walked down the hall and out to Shotgun’s holding room.