Angel: RBMC: Ankeny IA

by Kristine Allen

  I called again. Venom tried the prospects. His eyes told me they weren’t answering either.

  “Angel?” Korrie asked with terror in her eyes as she raised a trembling hand to cover her mouth.

  “No answer,” I finally admitted. Goob and I looked at each other. “Go!” said Venom as Raptor, Goob, Chains, Ghost, and I darted for the door. Korrie was running after us. We stopped at the elevators as I turned to her.

  “Babe. Need you to stay here.”

  “No. No way,” she argued.

  “We’re wasting time,” Ghost warned, holding the doors open. I gave in, knowing it was a bad idea. Finally, we all got in and the doors closed. Not wanting to wait for the elevator’s slow descent, but unable to take the stairs, I impatiently hit the button several more times, angry that it didn’t do any good.

  The whole time, Korrie was whimpering, “Oh God, oh God, oh God.”

  We burst out on the first floor.

  After grabbing Korrie’s hand, I dragged her along as we ran like hell for the bikes. That time, she didn’t hesitate a second before launching herself behind me. We roared out of the lot and hauled ass down the road.

  Praying for no cops, we flew. It took us about half the time to get back as it did to get to the hospital. When we arrived, it was to find the gate wide open. The guard shack appeared deserted.

  “Shit!” I shouted behind my visor. Ghost waved us on as he pulled over by the shack. Not knowing if it was safe, I shook my head. We all skidded to a stop near the gate.

  Cursing the fact that there was no cover, I grabbed Korrie and brought her inside the empty guard shack. She clutched the front of my cut before I could walk away. “No, Angel. No! I’m not staying here. Please. Let me go with you. Please!”

  “Listen to me!” I gave her a slight shake as I gripped her upper arms. “I have no idea what we’re walking into. I don’t want to risk our son’s safety because I’m worried about you. Lock the door. It will only slow someone down if they tried to get in, but it’s better than nothing. Hide under the window and keep quiet. Can you do that for me?”

  Tears trailed down her face as she nodded. Her eyes didn’t look like she was going to be able to hold it together, and I prayed I was wrong. I needed to know she was as safe as she could be. If it wasn’t my son’s safety at stake, I’d stay with her myself. Knowing I should’ve fought harder to make her stay at the hospital, I pressed a kiss to her forehead and left her to join my brothers.

  And prayed like hell to the Creator that my son was safe.

  “Fallen Angel”—Poison

  When Angel told me to stay behind, I almost lost my shit. There was no way. That was my baby, and I wasn’t waiting behind.

  But on that same note, when he told me to wait in the little building they had by the gate and explained why, I knew I didn’t want to risk my baby’s safety. At least I was here if he needed me. Even if everything was fine, I’d be here to hold him.

  On the verge of screaming, I refused to consider that he might not be okay. Resting my head on my raised knees, I tried to breathe slowly.

  I couldn’t believe someone had tried to steal Kira and Voodoo’s newborn baby boy. I couldn’t even imagine, but what I was feeling at that moment had to be pretty close. Not knowing if my son was safe was torture.

  “Please, God, let him be okay. Please God,” I whispered to anyone up there that was listening.

  Every little creak of the shed from the wind had me nearly jumping out of my skin.

  Trying to think of anything I could do, I remembered my phone was in the inside pocket of my jacket. I pulled it out and tried to call Lynda myself. No answer.

  I sent a text. No reply.

  Knowing it would likely be a hopeless cause, I couldn’t sit there and do nothing, so I tried again. And again. I even called Jasmine, knowing she’d stayed behind.

  When I was about to give up, the phone stopped ringing. Pulling it from my ear, I looked at it to see if I’d lost the call. The call timer was still counting.

  “Hello? Jasmine? Is that you? Are you there?”

  Silence reigned, and I debated hanging up. Maybe it was a bad connection.

  Maybe she’d gone out somewhere and had poor signal.

  “Hello?” Still nothing.

  I hung up and called Lynda again. Same thing. “Lynda? Trace? What the hell?” I whispered. “Trace! Talk to me!”

  “I’m sorry, Trace can’t come to the phone right now. If you’d please leave a message at the beep, he might never get back to you,” said a sinister, raspy voice on the end of the line. Then the call ended.

  Heart rate shooting through the roof and terror clawing up my throat, I tried not to scream.

  “Angel With Scabbed Wings”—Marilyn Manson

  “No sign of anyone outside except a dead prospect,” said Ghost as he reappeared by us. We all nodded tightly. Chains cursed. Goob was pissed, but silent.

  “We’re gonna find whoever did this shit,” I told them as I fought to hold my cool.

  When the chapter had converted the large metal barn into our clubhouse, they’d positioned all of the windows in the clubhouse up higher. Maybe not super safe in case of a fire, but manageable. They were up higher to prevent easy access by someone that tried to storm the fortress, so to speak.

  I’d never been more glad for that, because it also meant if there was someone in there, though they may have heard our bikes pull up, they likely couldn’t see which direction we were coming from.

  We cracked the back door a hair. Raptor breathed slowly and sat with his eyes closed a minute as he cast his inner hawk into the building before he murmured, “Prospect injured or dead behind the bar. I don’t see anyone else inside.”

  “No one?” I asked, sick to my stomach.

  His expression was my answer.

  We worked out a hastily prepared plan and spread out to enter both the front and back doors on the off chance Raptor was wrong.

  When we opened the door cautiously, Ghost disappeared. It didn’t take long before he reappeared and confirmed what Raptor had already seen.

  “There’s no one but the prospect inside. He’s alive, but unconscious,” he said with a furrowed brow.

  “No! You’ve got to be shitting me! No way!” I tore down the hall and slammed the door open to first Jasmine’s room, then Korrie’s room, before I burst into Trace’s room. The empty room mocked me as fear and rage clawed up my throat.

  My instinct was to destroy anything I could get my hands on. I kicked the card table, scattering cards through the room.

  “Bro! Chill! Korrie’s still in the shed. We need to go get her. Maybe they escaped over to the farm,” Raptor shouted as he entered the room.

  “Shit. Korrie.” My heart shattered at having to tell her. Pivoting, I passed Chains leaning against the wall with a look of shock on his face.

  As I rushed to the front door, it slammed open. Everyone drew their weapons and had them ready to fire but dropped them when we saw it was Korrie.

  From her stricken expression, it was apparent she somehow already knew.

  “Angel?” My name came out as a question and a prayer. Wrapping her in my arms, I held her as she fell apart. Through her crying she told us about the call.

  “We’re going to get him back, baby. I promise.” Though the words poured out of me, I wondered if I’d made empty promises. Scanning the room, I saw Raptor and Ghost on their phones. Goob and Chains looked like they wanted to obliterate someone. I was on board with that completely.

  The hollow feeling inside was eating away at me. I had no idea where to start. My thought processes were fucked.

  “Why?” Korrie sobbed over and over.

  But I had no answers.

  “They may not be wearing their shitty cuts, but those are the Bloody Scorpions,” Venom ground out as we watched the surveillance videos for the third time.

  “How can you tell?” Raptor asked.

  “That guy right there,” he said as he pointed at Facet
’s screen. We all looked at the image that Facet had frozen. The guy Venom had indicated had a bandana over his lower face but there was a tattoo partially visible over it. The prospect that survived hadn’t seen anything. One minute he was restocking, the next he was waking up with us.

  “The tattoo?” Chains asked.

  “Yeah. It might be a coincidence, but I doubt it. If Voodoo was here, he’d be able to verify that it sure as hell looks like Skid,” Venom said as he clenched his fist.

  “The guy that shot him?” Phoenix questioned.

  Venom nodded.

  “When will they be home?” Kicker asked Venom. He hadn’t ridden with us to the hospital earlier because he’d had a cold and didn’t want to risk giving it to the baby. He’d left the clubhouse to pick up his prescriptions and came back to chaos.

  “Kira was discharged this afternoon, but they wanted to keep the baby overnight to make sure there weren’t any complications from his near-abduction. Her and Voodoo are rooming with the baby.” I ran a hand roughly over my mouth after I explained it to Kicker.

  “I’m sorry, Prez, but I need a few minutes,” Goob said as he stood from the table. His eyes were red, but he’d remained stoic until that point. It was then that I saw the tremble in his gray beard and the uneven breaths as he fought for composure.

  “Yeah, brother, no problem. Take as much time as you need. We’re gonna get this worked out,” Venom reassured him. The older man nodded before taking his leave and closing the door with a soft click. I felt his pain deep as fuck, but I needed to hold my shit together.

  “What about your ol’ lady? How’s she handling this?” Raptor shot a glance my way. I’d yet to formally claim her due to everything that had been going on, but the words weren’t needed. Everyone knew we were two halves of a whole. She was the only one who needed convincing, but after this, I didn’t know what the future held.

  “Not good.” I’d given Korrie something to help her relax and sleep, because she’d been a shattered basket case. She’d sobbed until she puked. Everything that had come out of her mouth was unintelligible. It had gutted me seeing her like that.

  “How about you? Do you need to go check on her?” Venom was giving me an out to privately break down, if I needed it.

  “I’m good,” I muttered, though it was far from true. Honestly, I was barely holding my shit together. My son and my sister were missing. Two of the three most important people in my life. It was like being trapped in a nightmare and unable to wake up. Like I’d been sliced open and had my guts strewn to kingdom come.

  All eyes on me, I cleared my throat. “So what do we do?” I needed a plan, because I was about to tear out of this place and start decimating everything in my path until I found my son and my sister.

  “I think we should ask Madame Laveaux.” Jameson had been quiet until that point—silently listening and observing. All eyes turned to him.

  “I think he’s right,” rumbled Hawk, and he stroked his beard thoughtfully.

  “Hawk? You want to go talk to her? It’s your mother-in-law. Or I can. It’s up to you,” Venom said, giving Hawk the option since she was his family.

  “I’ll go,” Hawk offered as he stood. He quietly left the room.

  “Why wouldn’t they have called us with whatever demands they have?” I asked, not really wanting the answer.

  “Maybe this isn’t about bartering,” Kicker said as he tapped his fingertips on the table.

  “You think this is retaliation for their members we killed when Voodoo’s biological father fucked with us?” Ghost piped in.

  “Possibly,” replied Kicker.

  “But Trace is just a kid, and the women are family members. What the fuck is wrong with them?” Phoenix asked. Regardless of our ruthless nature, women and children were off the table. Then again, the Bloody Scorpions never really played by any rules.

  “We’re talking about the Bloody Scorpions. Nothing about those twisted fucks has ever made sense,” said Ghost, practically reading my mind. He had a personal grudge against them from years ago that he never talked about. I also knew what he wasn’t saying, and it almost had me crawling out of my skin.

  The Bloody Scorpions were rumored to have dealings with human trafficking.

  “After this? We take them out. Every last one of those pieces of shit,” Phoenix said as he slammed the side of his fist on the table.

  “Agreed,” said Ghost.

  “Easy, we can’t go running off half-cocked. We need to find out where they have Trace, Lynda, and Jasmine. Once they’re safe, then we can proceed, but we need to vote on it. We’re talking about a serious mess.” My stomach cramped at Venom’s words, because I hated that he was right.

  “You already know my vote,” I ground out.

  “And mine,” seconded Ghost.

  With a chorus of affirmative responses, the vote was cast.

  “Then we get our family back and we end this.” Venom’s tone was dark and final. “Until we figure this shit out, we remain on lockdown.”

  The door to the chapel swung open. Madame Laveaux regally stood there waiting. I’d met the woman on numerous occasions over the years, and she always sent a shiver of awe through me.

  “What can I do?” she questioned.

  “We’d like you to try to see where they’re being held or anything that might help. I know it’s a long shot, but we’d appreciate anything you can give us, ma’am. We would be willing to compensate you for the use of your gift.” Venom was accordingly respectful of the powerful voodoo priestess.

  “Pssh,” she scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. You are all my family. I’ve never charged you before; I refuse to start now. I’ll need use of Voodoo’s temple.”

  “Hawk? Can you please escort her to the temple?” Venom asked Hawk, who nodded without hesitation.

  “Thank you, Madame Laveaux,” I said softly. She stepped forward and laid a wrinkled but bejeweled hand on my head. For a moment she paused.

  With a kind smile, she slid her hand down to cup my cheek. “Your son has an exceptional gift.”

  I closed my eyes and nodded. “Yes, I know.”

  “Hmm. More than you realize.” With that cryptic message, she spun in a swirl of deep red fabric, leaving behind the light scent of lavender and maybe clove. She barked out, “Hurry, Hawk. Time’s wasting.”

  While we waited for Madame Laveaux, Venom called a break, and I went to check on Korrie.

  As I quietly entered the room, I took in her sleeping form bundled under the covers. Her chestnut hair was splayed across the pillow, and her dark lashes feathered over her cheeks. I sat on the bed next to her and fingered the silky ends of her fiery hair.

  “I love you,” I whispered. Years ago, I knew being with me might end up being dangerous for her, which was why I’d never contacted her after the night of my mother’s funeral. But never in a million years had I envisioned something like this.

  I prayed for the safe return of our son and silently made her the promise to go to the ends of the earth to find him. I also prayed that being with me didn’t put her in further danger—that I’d always be able to keep her and Trace safe in the future.

  Shame and self-condemnation filled me that I’d allowed him to be taken. My chest caved at the agony his absence was causing. It was crazy how I’d always said I didn’t want children but so quickly couldn’t imagine my life without him—and didn’t want to, either.

  Letting her sleep, I silently left the room. Then I sought out Venom.

  “Prez?” I said as I looked in his office, where he sat at his desk deep in thought.

  “Yeah? What can I do for you? Is Madame Laveaux back already?” he asked, and I shook my head.

  “No, I wanted permission to take a few of the brothers to go look for them. I can’t sit here and wait. I need to do something.” My nerves were rapidly fraying with the helplessness that was burning though me.

  He sighed and ran a ringed hand over his head. “Yeah. Take three brothers that are willi
ng to go. I’m not assigning anyone, just whoever wants to go. Leave enough here to protect the compound. We’re going to have to take shifts.”

  “Roger that,” I replied and spun on my heel.

  Ghost, Chains, and Phoenix went with me. We drove over to the Bloody Scorpions clubhouse and parked a block away. We went in closer on foot. Ghost went in cloaked, but there was no sign of the women and Trace. There was also no sign of Skid.

  “Shit, now what?” I asked as I ripped off my beanie and ruffled my hair in agitation.

  “The only thing we can do is drive around in hopes of catching a glimpse of Skid or a sign of the women,” Phoenix said with fire in his eyes.

  Chains slammed his fist into the side of the building we’d parked near. “This is bullshit! We should burn that fucking clubhouse to the ground!”

  Phoenix raised a brow to me in question. My eyes narrowed at Chains, then returned to Phoenix. “No. Not until we know where they are and we get the go-ahead from Venom and Raptor.”

  “You sure?” he offered again.

  “Much as I’d love to say yes, I know I can’t,” I said with a sigh.

  “Then let’s hit the road. We’ll drive around and see what we see.” I was pretty sure Ghost knew we wouldn’t see anything but was appeasing my need to be active. There was no way we could hope to cover every mile of the Des Moines metropolitan area and Ankeny. We all knew it.

  I nodded, and we climbed in the truck to drive. It was better than nothing.

  Dawn was starting to peek when we pulled back into the clubhouse lot, tired and defeated.

  Squirrel, Blade, and a prospect were on guard duty inside. Asses dragging, we quietly headed to ours rooms to get a few hours of sleep.

  Kicking off my boots, I curled around her body. A soft mewl escaped her as she snuggled back into me, then dropped off again.

  Lost in my thoughts, I drifted to sleep.

  “Where Angels Fear to Tread”—Bryan Adams

  I’d never been so terrified in all my life. Part of me wished I hadn’t been so damn stubborn and had gone with to see the baby. Instead, I’d had to argue with Chains about riding on his bike. Except if I’d done that, my nephew would’ve been here alone with a sweet but damn near crippled older woman.