No matter how tight Hawk and Tack were, that was the damned truth. Then again, well before Cherry, Tack had made a play for Hawk’s now wife and the mother of his three kids. A play that was almost successful. Shit went down to make them brothers, but even brothers fought. Especially when women were involved. Both men were good with what they got. But no man ever let that kind of shit go.

“Someone talked, gave up Heidi,” Hop put in.

“The one you tried to turn,” Hawk replied to Hop.

“Could be any a’ them. They all knew she gave it up to Joker,” Snapper told Hawk.

“Right, and he was lookin’ for a way to send a message and, I’ll repeat, his return play was that,” Hawk growled.

“Chaos made their play. They can’t back down, Hawk, and you know it,” Brock cut in. “And somethin’ had to give, we all knew it,” he said this looking at his partner and fellow cop, Mitch Lawson. “Valenzuela is greedy but he’s careful, and we’ve all been lying in wait with nothing happening. He’s gotta be tripped to make a mistake. Chaos pushed and we gotta hope he’ll fall. For now, bottom line, no one is responsible for that woman in the alley except Valenzuela. Any of us could take that on, because all of us were a go with Chaos pushing. We just didn’t know how Valenzuela would push back. It sucks, but this is war, and these fuckers don’t fight fair. Not even close. So we gotta suck it up and keep on our path. Vigilance. Information. Message. Now can I go home to my wife?”

“I know I’m goin’ home to mine,” Tack said.

Lawson looked to the heavens.

He wasn’t on board, Joker knew. Then again, he was a straight shooter. Or as straight as he could be, possed up to a commando, an ex-DEA deep-cover agent, and a biker with a mission.

But as much of a straight shooter as he was, he was a better man. A man who took his brothers’ backs no matter what that meant.

So he might not be on board, but he was along for the ride.

The men broke up, but Joker caught the glances between the brothers, these emanating from Tack and his lieutenants, Hop and Shy.

No words were exchanged, but Joker knew.

Heidi might have been what Heidi was for reasons she had to be that.

But she’d backed Chaos, she was theirs.

Now she was dead in an alley, her baby dead inside her, with words carved in her skin.

So the expanded team had the goal of vigilance, information, and message.

But Chaos just added vengeance.

Several of his brothers stuck close to Joker as they walked to their bikes.