Desolation Road (Torpedo Ink 4)

Absinthe shook his head and leaned back a little in his chair, watching Savage with cool eyes, trying to find a way to help him. There was always a pathway, but in opening it, that connected them, and Absinthe had more than once spent months trying to get images from Savage’s mind out of his head.

“Czar is working on a plan to take all of them down—the corrupt attorneys, the judges involved, any cops, all of them,” Absinthe said. “Thanks, Savage. I appreciate the offer. Once she’s sitting right here with me, I’ll feel a whole hell of a lot better.”

“Just understand the offer’s always on the table. Send me the green light and I’m on it.” Savage started to rise.

Absinthe leaned forward and he sank back down. “The Venomous club is really working to chip away at the Diamondback territory here in Northern California. Do you think they’ve really grown big enough to challenge them and no one has noticed?”

Savage shook his head. “Diamondbacks are the biggest club out there. They have chapters all over the world. They aren’t the bloodiest by any means, but they have more chapters and more members than any other. The Venomous club is a gnat flying around.”

“Czar said two of the three nightclubs were being negotiated for purchase by the attorneys for the Diamondbacks and the Venomous club attorneys swept in and made a deal that fast and took it out from under them. Both clubs, same time. Same seller owned them. He signed the deal and got out of town. Far more money for him too. That was on the Diamondbacks for trying to force the strip club owner to sell to them far below what the clubs were worth,” Absinthe said.

“True,” Savage agreed. “But the real question is, how did the Venomous club know to swoop in and take the deal?”

“That is a damn good question.”

“I think so too,” Savage said. “I don’t know, Absinthe, but it seems to me, ever since we took that job and ran across the Ghosts and the Russian’s assassins, we’ve run into more and more snitches. Not in our club, but I think other clubs have them planted in them.”

Absinthe took a sip of his coffee. It had grown cold. He’d never liked cold coffee and he pushed the cup away. Shit. Savage was right. “You think the Russian has someone in each of the clubs feeding him information?”

Savage took his sunglasses out of his pocket and shoved them on his nose, hiding his glacier-cold eyes from the sun that was now permanently out. “No, he wouldn’t waste his manpower that way. He would use his men to come at us, because he’s a fucking pedophile and loves little kids. That means we aren’t going to stop until we find him. He has to find a way to get someone in with us. No, someone else is looking to get an ‘in’ into the clubs.”

“The Ghosts,” Absinthe guessed. “They’re just a bunch of dumb fucks looking to make money off the clubs. They have no idea who the Russian is or who the supposed hit men they use are. They’re playing with fire and eventually, they’re going to get burned. You can bet the Russian knows who they are. It’s the Ghosts buying off snitches in the clubs.”

“Has to be. They have money and they’re paying the weak links in the clubs for information. Get the right intelligence on them, or use the right bribe.” Savage shrugged. “The Diamondbacks are a big club. That big, you’d like to think all the brothers are solid, but it only takes one bad one and that one can bring a lot of good brothers down. Who owns the other strip club?” he added.

“The Venomous club rent it from a woman named Haley Joico. She has a very big insurance policy on the building and had a sit-down with the Diamondbacks recently. They wanted to buy it from her, and she refused to sell. She wouldn’t sell to the Venomous club either. Both clubs got a little rough with her, but she didn’t cave. According to Code, she inherited the club from her uncle and she’s trying to make it work for the women who work there. He had one of the few places with a good reputation for his girls. Good pay, safe work environment, that sort of thing.”

“I take it we’re not burning that one to the ground,” Savage said. “Does Code know what the club manager is doing with it? If the Venomous club is running the place, how did they manage to wrest it out of her hands?”

“He’s looking into that. It wouldn’t make sense that she refused to sell and then turned around and rented it out, leaving her girls in the club’s hands anyway,” Absinthe said. “Czar wants the information before we head out.”