As Griff pulled on the front door to exit, in stumbled Julio Rivera.

I knew it was him because I’d looked at enough photos of the man, that I’d be able to identify him even if I was drunk.

Griff and I both pulled our guns out and aimed them at him, but he didn’t even try to fight us. He simply held his hands up in surrender.

What the hell?

I pressed my gun against his forehead. “You picked a good place to come, motherfucker. We’ve got the fuckin’ welcome mat out for you today.”

“I’ve got information for you, Mr Cole, and I would suggest you don’t kill me because you are going to want this information.”

“I’m not sure what information you could have that I would want. Really, at this point, all I want is for you to stop breathing.” I grabbed his hand and yanked him past me so I could walk behind him. Once I had my gun pressed to his back, I ordered, “Walk!”

We led him out to one of the back rooms of the clubhouse and once Griff had him tied to a chair, I punched him a few times in an effort to get out the anger burning through me. He’d fucked us over too many times, and I had to restrain myself from punching him until he was unconscious.

His head lolled to the side and blood dripped down from his face onto the floor. He spat out the blood pooling in his mouth and looked back up at me. “I’m done,” he forced out on a heave.

“What the fuck do you mean by that?” Griff demanded.

“Bourne’s threatened to kill my sister if I don’t give him my territory. I’m walking away from everything.”

“Jesus Christ, you two are a fuckin’ class act. I don’t believe you, asshole. I don’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth,” I yelled.

Griff’s shoulders were wound tight with tension, and he’d been holding back, but he reached the end of his control. He punched Julio, over and over, until Julio’s face was unrecognisable.

“Feel good?” I asked.

His head jerked around and his eyes found mine.

Wild.

Feral.

Griff had so much darkness in him that he concealed from the world under a carefully constructed mask, but in that moment, I saw it. Loud and clear.

He took a deep breath. “Yeah,” he grunted.

Julio mumbled something, but his lips were so swollen he could hardly get the words out. Griff grabbed his hair and yanked his head back. “What did you say?” he barked.

Julio attempted to open his lips, but struggled. His breathing was laboured and it was clear he was in a great deal of pain.

Good.

He mumbled again, and again we couldn’t make out what he said.

I clenched my hands, wanting desperately to take that last breath from him, while also wanting to drag his pain and suffering out.

Griff yanked his head again. Harder. “Speak so we can understand you, asshole!”

Julio’s face contorted in agony when Griff punched him again.

“Bourne,” he mumbled, but not so much that we couldn’t make out that word. He tried to open his mouth again, but only ended up pushing out a cry of pain before closing it again. His breathing slowed and I wondered if he was about to lose consciousness. And then he managed to force out more words. “He’s…not…who…he…says…” – he coughed – “…he…is…”

And then his head dropped forward and he passed out.

Griff turned and punched the wall before looking back at me. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“Jesus…your guess is as good as mine.”

“I wanted to kill the asshole, but now I’m thinking we might need to let him live for a bit longer.”

My phone rang.

Blade.

“Tell me you’ve got information that will help us. We’ve got Julio here and he’s just told us some shit about Bourne not being who he says he is, but then he passed out, so we have no clue what he meant by that,” I said, answering the call.

“Bourne isn’t who you think he is, Scott. I’ve just discovered that Julio actually works for Bourne.”

“You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.” All my conversations with Bourne filtered back through my mind, none of them making any sense now.

“They go way back. Bourne had an affair with Julio’s sister when they were younger and they have a child together. Bourne put Julio as the face of his operation and let everyone think Julio was in charge. Once he had South Australia under his full control, he sent Julio to take over Queensland, but somewhere along the way Bourne decided he wanted Julio out. Problem was, he couldn’t just get rid of him because Julio’s men were loyal to him and if they knew Bourne killed Julio, they would retaliate against him.”

“And that’s where we came in…Bourne was using us to do his dirty work,” I said as it began to make sense.

“There’s something else.”

“What?”

“Bourne wants control of your club so he can run the drugs through it. He wants you and anyone else in his way, dead. And he’s in Brisbane now, ready to make that happen. He already took out some of Julio’s men earlier; it seems he’s on a mission to get shit done. You need to make sure everyone is locked up tight while we find Bourne.”

“I’m on it.”

When I ended the call, I said to Griff, “Call your family, brother, and tell them to lock up tight. Bourne’s been playing us and is now after us. I’m gonna call Harlow and then I’ll fill you in.”