Warlords MC: Book 3 – Jack : Chapter 6

The rumbling had been a helicopter.

Jack, Ace, King, and Deuce all stood outside and watched it land in the field across from the house.

Jack was roiling inside and his brothers must have felt the same way. Getting this shocking news ‒ that made all they’d thought they knew ‒ horseshit in the end.

Stone and his men stayed back a bit by the door.

Everyone seemed tense as the person that stepped off that copter had the answers to some burning questions.

Jack still couldn’t put it all together. Their captain was alive? They’d been hunting his killer for four fucking years. The Gauntlet. This reminded Jack that he needed to fill his brothers in on what Jade told him. About the other players and their gun names. He then had a thought. He looked over at Stone. Did the man know what she knew? He shook his head. Well, fuck. Of course, he did.

A man stepped down from the copter and strode forward.

Jack tipped his head back as the sun blazed across the field. He shaded his eyes with his hand to get a better look.

As the man came closer, the brothers all stood very still.

Tall, a bit of gray at his temples. Broad shoulders. Psychically strong but a lean type strong. He strode toward them then stopped a few feet away.

Ace was the first to react. “What. The. Fuck?”

Jack reciprocated this with only a shocked nod of his head.

It was their man. Their captain. Eagle. Alive and a bit older but this was the person that stood before them.

He looked tense. He nodded to each of them. “Boys.”

Jack blinked.

King let out a slew of curse words.

“You are alive,” Ace stated. It was of course, not a question.

He let out a sigh and nodded to the house. “Shall we take this inside?”

Ace simply stared at him. “We fucking mourned you and your family.” He stared into the man’s eyes. “Your family is alive right?”

Nodding, Eagle motioned to the House. “We need to get inside men.”

The brothers grumbled but did as he said and turned to go back in.

Once they all went back inside, the room was utterly quiet until Eagle, as they knew him greeted Stone Masterson, “Hey Pappy.”

Stone nodded. “Good to see you Shay.”

“Why are you calling him that?” Deuce asked.

Jack wondered about this too. Had this man ever told them the truth?

Eagle turned to look at the brothers. “My name was never Ben Overton.”

“We gathered that fucking much,” Ace growled as he looked just like Jack felt. Angry and confused.

“See? I told ya we needed whiskey for this,” Stone interjected.

Shay or Eagle nodded. “Everyone in this room is cleared to hear what I got to say.” He looked around at all the men and he seemed to know every last one of them. “You are all my teams.”

“Well, we were until you fucking died,” King spoke up.

“When you five were given to me…” Shay stopped speaking and looked around. “Where’s Joker?’

Ace stared back at him “Injured and out of the picture right now. Or didn’t you know that too?”

Shay shook his head. “No, I did not. Is he all right?”

“He got knifed back in Braaken,” King explained. “He’s almost well but still on the mend.”

“Never fucking mind that! “Jack found himself yelling. “How is it that you are even here? That you know all these men?” He waved his arm at Stone’s crew.

Shay looked at him with a saddened expression and then glanced at each of his brothers. “Four years ago, Ben Overton died.”

King nodded as he crossed his arms over his large chest. “So we believed.”

“Only, according to Pappy here, that wasn’t your name,” Ace added.

“That is correct. When I got promoted, I was already on a new assignment with you all. They gave me a new rank and a new name. The plan was to lead you all in covert missions. “

“So they issued you a new name back then?” Pappy asked this.

Shay nodded. “From the day I got that promotion. But see you all…” He looked over at Stone’s men. “Already knew me as Shay Montross, so that never changed.”

“But with the Spades, you were Captain Overton, the Eagle,” Ace concluded the obvious.

“Yes, and it would have stayed that way, but…”

“But?” Jack asked.

“This Gauntlet put two and two together,” Shay explained.

“The Gauntlet,” Ace stated. “You mean Oscar Chapman.”

“Yes, but he means Carmine Vance,” Stone interjected. “See, that is who he really is. I spoke of him before. He was our Intel officer after Shay left. The man was a fool, but really, he was always a bad man. He served with Major Wright after he was sent back to the States and got his new name of Chapman as I told you and Major Wright is now going by the name of Harquebus.”

Jack blinked and looked over at Jade.

She nodded.

Shay went on to explain, “I know this may all sound confusing but when we found out that men in our own government and in our military no less were forming a secret group, we then had to change all our plans. The one where I was Ben Overton blew up in our faces as Carmine knew who I was or he found out as did Major Wright who by the way, as Stone just said is really Harquebus .”

“Wait, what?” King asked as he rubbed his hand over his face in complete frustration.

Jack looked over at Jade once more.

She hadn’t taken her eyes off him, she was still staring at him.

Ace noticed this even in the middle of this confusion as he turned and spotted Jade. “So, she is a part of this in some way. Jack said she was CIA.”

“No, no Kid,” Stone interjected. “She’s working with me. She is not CIA.”

“God Damnit!” King exclaimed. “I need a fucking drink or a god damn wall to punch. Nothing is the truth.” He glared at Shay. “We mourned you fucker. We have been hunting your killer or killers for four damn years!”

“Yes, I know. I cannot state how sorry I am about the pain you all went through, but I couldn’t break cover. These men, this group are more powerful than you know. We had to fake my death, so they would not come after me. Well, we intercepted the hitman who was supposed to kill me and my family. After he finally broke and talked, we formed the plan to get rid of Captain Ben Overton. I had no choice. They were going to kill my wife and our kids. You have to understand that here. I know I put you brothers through some shit, but I had no other choice. Also, we had to do that as we do not know who the two other players are. We know of Major Wright, his code name is Harquebus, we know of Carmine, he is the Gauntlet. What we do not know is who the General or the Widowmaker is.

Deuce threw his hands up. “Well, I am fucking lost. I do not know who is who anymore. Especially you Shay, Ben or whatever the fuck your name really is.”

“It is Shay Montross,” Shay told them. “Ben was a cover and he is good and dead, so me and my family could live.”

Ace had been quiet for the last ten minutes. Now, he finally spoke and when he did, he turned to his brothers, “I get it. I’m not saying I am fine with it. Hell, I may never be. But I understand it. If one of us had this happen, and we had to choose between our men knowing, and our family’s lives. What would we choose?”

King let out a sigh. “So we’ve been wasting our fucking time?”

“Yeah, it seems like we did a lot for fucking nothing,” Jack added.

“No, certainly not,” Shay replied as he stared at him, then at Ace, Deuce and King. “You found the Gauntlet and we got Jade here to infiltrate that situation. Then it led us to find out who Harquebus was. None of it was for nothing. These men are so well hidden that someone had to go in. Because while they have been hidden, they have killed many. They have flooded the rural areas with drugs. They are trafficking in humans as well. It is all to fund one thing and one thing only.”

“To take over the government,” Jade added.

Everyone looked over at her.

She bit at her lip and then told them, “I heard it when Gantlet would be on the phone. They are moving to change our government from the inside and I also know that it is not just in the military ranks.”

The men all stared at her.

Ace looked over at Jack.

Jack raised his hands up at him. “Hey, I never got to debrief her.”

“Neither did I,” Stone spoke up as he too, looked over at Jade.

She stared around at the room full of men. “Well, I hate to tell you all this but you cannot do it yet.”

“What?” Ace asked. “Why?”

Jade turned and motioned to the hallway.

There stood little Annabelle. Her eyes were round as she stared around at all the large men in the room.

“Because someone needs breakfast,” Jade explained.