Desolation Road (Torpedo Ink 4)

Czar nodded and looked around the oval-shaped table. Including Czar, all eighteen of the original charter members of Torpedo Ink were seated for the meeting, along with Gavriil and Casimir, the two newer fully patched members. Both were Czar’s birth brothers, and both had attended one or more of the four schools in Russia Sorbacov had set up to train children to become assassins for their country.

Czar believed in getting right down to business. “The Diamondbacks have reached out to us and asked us to help them with, and I’m a quoting, a ‘small’ problem they have. According to them, the Venomous club has been encroaching on their territory just this side of Sacramento. They bought a strip club there they knew the Diamondbacks were in negotiations for. This is the third club they’ve moved on in the last few months and stolen out from under them, meaning the Diamondbacks didn’t offer enough money and gave the Venomous club the opportunity to take it. Again, according to the Diamondbacks, Venomous is running drugs, particularly heroin and cocaine, through these clubs. We know that the Diamondbacks have the territory and they aren’t partial to sharing or to having any other club come in and start cutting up their territory.”

“Interesting,” Code said. “I get notifications any time Jeff Partridge’s name shows up—he’s president of Venomous—and he was in a photograph on a realtor’s website in Fort Bragg. I just noted it and moved on. I’ll have to go back and pay more attention. The fact that he was photographed with a realtor out of Fort Bragg means they could be looking to buy something in this area. If that’s what he’s doing, they’d be encroaching on Diamondback territory in this county as well.”

Czar looked around the table, his gaze touching on Alena, one of the only two fully patched female members. “You need to be very careful of the relationship you have with Pierce, Alena. Always remember, he’s a Diamondback. Just as you’re fully loyal to Torpedo Ink, he’s loyal to them. You always, always have to watch your back and protect your identity and your life at all times.”

She nodded. “I’m aware.”

“You’re still doing it—looking for that adrenaline rush. Maybe all of us are. We lived so long in crisis, on the edge, we think we need that intensity of staying there, balancing right there on that edge, to feel like we’re alive, but we have to find a way to stop. All of us do.”

Absinthe looked down at his hands. Every member of Torpedo Ink was so fucked up. They’d been that way since they were children. Czar had been made responsible for them at the age of ten years old. He’d been their parent, their instructor, their savior, all rolled into one. He was still that. He’d been a child raising other children in the worst possible environment, doing his best to keep them alive and keep them human. He was their moral compass back then, and was still leading them now.

“I’m aware, Czar,” Alena admitted. “He’s an addiction. A thrill.” She sighed. “Okay, more than that to me, although I know better. And I know nothing can come of it. I’m ultra-careful. I promise. I never go near his other club members.”

“Keep it that way. Don’t let him lure you near them. And you never slip away from your guards. You understand me?”

“Ice has made that very, very clear, Czar,” Alena said, indicating her older birth brother.

Absinthe glanced at Ice. Ice and Storm, Alena’s twin brothers, watched over her even more closely than the other members of the club did. Ice’s face was set in stone. He didn’t like the relationship any more than the rest of them did.

Czar took Alena at her word. That was one thing about the club members—they didn’t lie to one another. They had a code and they followed it to the letter. It was how they survived and how they lived. They were changing, trying to evolve, trying out a new way of living, but they kept to their original code. Anyone joining Torpedo Ink was expected to live by that same code, and if they betrayed it, the penalty was death. They had to live that way from the time they were children because they knew if they didn’t, they wouldn’t survive; they’d lost too many others to the other side.

“Essentially, the Diamondbacks want us to remove the managers of all three clubs permanently, both the night and day managers, and burn the clubs to the ground. Once Code establishes that Venomous did in fact encroach deliberately and are bringing in drugs, I have no problem with the request, although I don’t want this done where there can be any blowback to us, so we plan carefully, and where we can’t be seen by anyone,” Czar continued.