“Well, you best get to diggin’. You and Menace both need to find everything you can on this guy because I don’t want any of this coming back and biting us in the ass.”
“You got it.”
Menace turned to Riggs as he said, “I’ll get my laptop from the truck.”
With that, Menace stood and walked out of the church’s conference room. Tensions were high as we sat there waiting for him to return. Viper was still reeling from hearing about Drake being at the Manor. I was, too. I found it hard to believe Kiersten had never mentioned him to me. She might’ve truly thought it wasn’t worth it, or she simply didn’t think she could trust me with the information. Either way, I intended to find out. Once Menace returned, he and Riggs set to work on finding out everything they could on Drake. They were still going at it when Viper said, “We’re going to need to make some changes around here. We can’t afford to let anything like this happen again.”
“What kind of changes do you have in mind?” Blaze asked.
“Well, there’s already been one big change.” Viper leaned back in his seat. “Kiersten’s girls won’t be selling on campus anymore. All distribution will be through us. That should help eliminate unnecessary exposure, but we need more eyes on this place or possibly a few more hands. We’ll have to replace Timms and possibly add another.”
Everyone’s attention was drawn over to the doorway when we noticed Braylon standing in the doorway with Doc. He looked like hell. His arm was bandaged and in a sling, and he had a significant limp from the graze on his thigh. He must’ve picked up on the fact that he shouldn’t have been anywhere near motorcycle clubs when they were in church because he said, “I don’t mean to interrupt whatever y’all got going in here.”
“You’re good.” Hawk nodded his head toward Bray’s shoulder. “You making it alright?”
“Yeah. I’m good.” Braylon glanced over at Doc as he said, “Thanks to him.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“I wanted to apologize for my fuck up tonight. I let myself get distracted, and it cost us.”
“Distracted how?”
“Mia had come into the office.” His eyes dropped to the ground, and guilt marked his face as he admitted, “We got to talking, and one thing led to another. Next thing I knew, the fire alarm went off.”
“Damn, Bray,” Widow fussed. “You’re better than that shit.”
“I know. When I said this shit was on me, I meant it. I fucked up, and if you want me to call it quits, I will. I have that coming.” He cocked his head to the side and sighed, then looked Viper in the eye. “But I want to be here. I owe it to Kiersten and myself to make amends for my mistake. So, if you’ll give me a chance and stick it out with me, I’ll turn this thing around and do right by all of you.”
“No one’s showing you to the door, brother. You’re in this with us, and together we’ll find a way to make sure this sort of thing never happens again.”
Relief washed over Braylon as he said, “I truly appreciate that, and if you are needing a few extra hands, I have a few ex-military guys I could get in touch with. I’m sure they’d be more than willing to come give us a hand.”
“We might just do that, but for now, you go get some rest and tend to those wounds. We’ll get those names from you when you get back on your feet.”
“Okay, thanks. Sounds good.”
When he and Doc started to leave, I got up and rushed over to them. “Where’s Kiersten?”
“I checked her out and sent her back to her place,” Doc answered.
“Okay, I’ll go see about her when we get done here.”
“Good deal. Hopefully, she’ll be out like a light by then. Poor kid was pretty shaken up, so I gave her something to help her sleep.”
“Thanks, brother. I appreciate you looking after her.”
“No problem at all.”
Without saying anything more, Doc took hold of Braylon’s arm and helped him over to his place. I walked back to the table and was just sitting down when Menace turned to Viper and said, “There isn’t a lot about this guy. Looks like his folks died and left him some property just east of Murfreesboro. Not a big place, but if there’s any truth to all the bullshit he was feeding Kiersten, it could be where he’s growing his product.”
“What are you waiting for? Load up and go check the fucking place out.”
“And if we find anything?”
“Take care of it.”
Menace didn’t have to ask any further questions. He knew Viper’s expectations, and Viper trusted us to carry them out. I got up, and with Lynch and Widow close behind, we all followed Menace and the Fury boys out to the parking lot. Since our SUV was still parked out behind the property, we had to track down Duggar and get him to drive us over to it. Once we got to the truck, he headed back to the Manor, and we loaded up and followed Riggs and Blaze to Drake’s place. Thankfully, it didn’t take long to get there. Daylight was quickly approaching, so we didn’t have much time to fuck around. As soon as we were parked, we started up to the front steps. There wasn’t much to the place. Just a two-bedroom farmhouse that hadn’t been updated in at least twenty years. The yard was overgrown, and there were old tires and tools scattered around the dilapidated garage. The front door was wide open, so we had no trouble getting inside. It had an old, musty smell, and like the outside, the place hadn’t been taken care of. There was trash scattered about, and the furniture looked like it had been thoroughly abused. We searched the entire house and didn’t find a damn thing, which led me to ask Menace, “Are you sure this is the right place?”