Chapter 114 Diesel's dilemma
Ryder's POV
I pulled into the abandoned storage facility on the edge of town, the kind of shithole location where people only went when they were doing something they damn well shouldn't be. Graffiti covered every surface, broken glass crunched under my tires, and the whole place smelled like piss, stale beer, and bad decisions.
Diesel's bike was already parked behind one of the units, chrome gleaming even in this dump. I found him pacing like a caged animal, hands running through his hair over and over in that compulsive way that meant he was losing his damn mind.
He looked like absolute shit. Eyes bloodshot and wild, dark circles underneath them like he hadn't slept in a week. Stubble covering his jaw, and his clothes were wrinkled like he'd been wearing them for days. This wasn't just stress. This was a man at the absolute breaking point.
"Jesus Christ, you look like death," I said, killing the engine and getting out.
"Thanks for coming." His voice was rough and strained. "I didn't know who the fuck else to call."
"You sounded like someone was dying on the phone. What the hell is going on?" I leaned against my truck, arms crossed, waiting for whatever bomb he was about to drop.
Diesel stopped pacing and looked at me with eyes that were equal parts terrified and desperate. "I'm fucked, Ryder. Like completely, utterly, career-ending levels of fucked."
"What kind of fucked are we talking about?"
Instead of answering, he pulled out his phone with shaking hands and scrolled through it before shoving the screen in my face. "This kind."
I took the phone and looked at the video. The quality was shit, obviously filmed on someone's cell in dim lighting, but it was clear enough to see what was happening. Diesel pressed up against a bathroom stall wall, pants around his ankles, fucking some woman with the desperate, sloppy intensity that only came from being drunk off your ass.
The camera shifted and I got a clear view of the woman's face.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I shoved the phone back at him. "That's Snake's wife. That's Lisa."
"Yeah." The word came out dead, hollow. "That's Lisa."
"What the actual fuck were you thinking?" I stared at him, trying to process the level of stupidity required to fuck your brother's wife and get caught on camera doing it. "Out of every woman in this goddamn city, you had to stick your dick in Snake's wife?"
"I wasn't thinking! That's the whole damn problem!" Diesel's voice rose, raw with panic. "I was drunk, she was drunk, and we made the stupidest decision of our lives. And some piece of shit caught the whole thing on video."
"Who?"
"Mark Webb. Low-life drug dealer who hangs around that club. He saw an opportunity to make some cash off my fuck-up and he's been bleeding me dry ever since." Diesel started pacing again, agitated and manic. "He started asking for two grand. Then three. Now the motherfucker wants five thousand or he sends the video to Snake."
My stomach dropped. Snake finding out about this would be catastrophic. The guy was already paranoid about Lisa leaving him, already on edge about their marriage falling apart. If he saw footage of his wife getting fucked by one of his brothers in a club bathroom, there would be blood on the walls.
"How long has this been going on?"
"Three weeks." Diesel's voice cracked. "Three weeks of this asshole squeezing every dollar I've got while I scramble to pay him off and pray Snake doesn't find out before I can make this shit disappear."
"And you're paying him?"
"What choice do I have? If Snake sees that video, he'll kill me. You know he will." Diesel stopped pacing and looked at me. "He's already losing his mind over Lisa wanting out. If he finds out she was screwing me? There's no talking him down from that. He'll put a bullet in my head and probably one in hers too."
I thought about Snake's temper, about the rage I'd seen in him when he felt disrespected. Diesel was right. This wouldn't be something Snake would just let slide. This was the kind of betrayal that ended in bodies.
"So what are you asking me for? Money?" But I already knew that wasn't it. You didn't call someone out to an abandoned storage facility just to ask for a loan.
"No. Money won't fix this." Diesel's jaw was set, his eyes hard. "I've already borrowed from everyone I can, maxed out every credit card, sold some of my stuff just to keep up with the payments. But this asshole isn't going to stop, Ryder. Every time I pay him what he asks for, he just comes back asking for more."
"What about Lisa? Does she know?"
"She just found out recently. The bastard sent her a copy of the video three days ago just to prove he could go to any length of I don't cooperate. He did it to show me that he's very serious." Diesel's hands clenched into fists. "She's been calling me constantly, freaking the hell out, begging me to make this go away before it destroys her."
"Her marriage is already destroyed, but Snake is going to kill her if she's fucking other men in club bathrooms."
"Don't." Diesel's voice went dangerous. "Don't you dare fucking judge her.