“Sure.” I sat back in my chair and gave him the floor, eyeing Ricky the whole time. Something suddenly didn’t feel right about Jorell. He was too eager to take charge, it seemed, but I figured I’d hear him out. He’d been a great asset to the MC so far. Maybe his eagerness was just a reflection of how long he’d waited to get to where he was now.
“Whatever we decide to do, let’s hold off on it and take time to plan. Let’s not jump into anything. We need to prepare,” Jorell suggested to everyone. Before sitting back down, he added, “I’m only saying that because emotions are running high right now, and I don’t want to see us lose more men by acting on those emotions and doing something stupid.”
“Thanks, Jorell. I think that makes a lot of sense,” I told him as he seated himself again. “Now, let me catch you up to speed with where we are right now. Julia Danvers, the woman who was translating for us with Dimitri, Ivan’s right hand man, is gone. They’ve got her. One of the guys told me so when he grabbed me and told me he was going to take me to Ivan.”
“What did you do to him?” Chase asked.
“Shot him right under the chin, blew his head off,” I answered. “Anyway, we know they’re going to be on Lake Michigan in a couple of days. Ivan has a pretty big deal going down on his yacht with our mayor and a handful of other corrupt politicians and law enforcement officials. And, Jorell, I’m glad you said something, because I really was thinking about running in there with guns blazing tonight just to take them out.”
“Well, what are you thinking?” Ricky asked me.
“I’m thinking we ambush the meeting and just kill everybody,” I told him, “but that’s a knee-jerk reaction to what happened tonight. I feel like there’s a better option. I just haven’t figured it out. But, no matter what we do, I want to rescue Julia.”
“Well, let’s spend tomorrow getting all of our resources together,” Jorell said. “Tonight after this meeting, though, I’m going to start positioning guys so that HQ is guarded properly. We should have seen tonight’s ambush coming a mile away. They don’t need to get the drop on us like that again.”
“Yeah, I don’t think there’s much else to say tonight. Let’s try to get some sleep tonight and make sure everyone who’s with us is safe. Let’s help the families of the guys we lost start making their final preparations. Most of all, tomorrow, we’ll need to start our plan to take Ivan’s punk ass down.” I stood up slowly. “I think we’re done here tonight, guys.”
“Alright, I’ll go ahead and secure the building,” Jorell said, already heading out the door.
“We’ll start contacting families,” Juarez said, and I could see it in his face that he dreaded having to call Cliff’s family. They followed Jorell out of the boardroom.
“Ricky, hang back a sec,” I told him while the others left.
“What’s up, Gage?” He leaned over to me.
“I need you to keep an eye on Jorell, or get an eye on him for me,” I said quietly.
“I’m on it. I don’t trust him either.” He eyed the door while he talked to me.
“Is it just me or does he seem too eager?”
Ricky nodded. He patted my shoulder as he got up, telling me, “Don’t worry about it, brother. I’ve got it all under control.” He walked out, leaving me to sit back down in the president’s chair behind the boardroom table. I sighed and shook my head.
Everything hit me. I’d almost lost my MC tonight, and if I didn’t respond to the attack the right way, I could easily lose my position within it. I had actually lost my girl to Ivan, and the longer it took to get her back, the more danger she was in.
“How the hell did you let this happen?” I asked myself.
To top it all off, I knew that the only way to save Julia and salvage whatever was left of our budding relationship, I had to refrain from killing anyone on the yacht. Julia wouldn’t want me to murder Ivan and his men, despite the fact that they’d endangered her life. She didn’t even want me fighting. She would have been horrified if she’d seen what happened at HQ tonight.
I closed my eyes. The next few days were going to be long and unpredictable. I needed rest to be able to manage. I’d lost a lot of blood, it felt like. I struggled to stand. The pain in my leg pumped and throbbed with my heart, but I knew that if I failed to make it upstairs, I’d either get no sleep or fall asleep right here in the boardroom. I trudged up to the third floor where I wandered to my room at the end of the hallway. I opened the door and climbed into the bed.