“Took me a while, but I finally got a better low-down on her.” Data, the cyber guru of the group, had been working on digging up Angel’s past since they’d hired her. Apparently, he’d finally struck gold.
“Give it to me.”
“You’re not going to like it.” When Cain held his gaze without saying a word, Data raised his eyebrows but continued. “Girl was either a house mouse or a patch chaser. I can’t decide which. Though several patched members brag about having her, no one can give me personal details. The only one coming close is a guy named Gremlin. Whatever she is, she wasn’t anyone’s old lady or even claimed by any one guy.”
Cain recognized the name. “Which club?”
“Kiss of Death. Small club in Nashville.”
“Gremlin’s old man is the president. Slash.”
Cain knew of the man. His club was one of the worst Cain had ever come across. The men in that club did everything from drug runs to human trafficking to just beating the shit out of any man, woman, or child they came across. Word had it they even had a pedophile ring. The worst of the worst. They were brutal to their women and kept a tight rein on their territory. Any children born into that group either toughened quickly or didn’t last long. What in the world was a woman like Angel doing with that kind of MC?
“Fuck,” he swore under his breath. “She a spy of some kind?”
“Can’t say for sure, but my gut says no. Mostly because of the inquires I saw Slash had made once I started diggin’.”
“Slash know who’s doing the diggin’?”
“Cain,” Data gave him a wide, superior grin. “Look who you’re talking about.”
“He say what he wants with her?”
“Only that she’s property of the club he wants returned.”
“Property of the club?” Cain had to think about that one.
“I know. Odd. The tone I got was more that she’d left without permission, but that could be a misdirection. Only thing I know for sure is that Slash wants her back and will come after her if he finds out where she is.”
“You think she knows they’re lookin’ for her?” Cain had already dismissed the possibility she was a spy. Angel was many things, but she wouldn’t make a good spy. Unless she was a much better actress than he thought. Cain was a good judge of character and, like Data, his gut said she wasn’t an intentional threat. Which left another problem.
“I doubt it, but you know any club looking for an errant member won’t let it go. Not a club like Kiss of Death.” Data was following the same line of thought Cain was.
“So, the question becomes do we cut her loose or take her on?”
“A question for you and Torpedo to figure out.” Data said, raising his hands in surrender. “Above my pay grade.”
“Fuck,” he said again, turning to go back into the clubhouse. As he expected, Torpedo was waiting in the great room where the club held parties and meetings with other clubs. The man always seemed to be able to read his mind.
“Something brewing?”
“We may have a problem.”
“Has to be the woman.”
Cain raised his eyebrow, not slowing his pace down the hall toward the infirmary. “What makes you say that?”
Torpedo snorted. “It’s always the woman. We need Pops?”
“Yes.”
Cain was aware of the other man taking out his phone but didn’t wait. He made his way back to Angel and Mama. Best to get this over with quick.
* * *
Mama had put Angel through a battery of tests. Her touch was careful. Gentle. She’d been more than kind as she’d asked Angel exactly what had happened, keeping everything as clinical as possible. When Angel had let a few tears fall, the older woman had wiped them away gently and hugged her, assuring her she was safe now.
“I’m so stupid,” Angel muttered as she pulled on the T-shirt Mama had given her to go with the gray sweatpants. Her clothes weren’t a total loss, but they needed mending and she was grateful she didn’t have to wear them home. Mama had also given her socks and canvas shoes. If only she’d had this outfit on instead of those stupid heeled sandals, she wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with.
“Nonsense, child. You couldn’t have known something like this would happen. Cain will make sure it will never happen again.”
“I got that when he killed one of the guys who attacked me.” Angel wasn’t sure she’d ever get over that sight.
“Well, what did you expect? They disrespected a club in that club’s own territory. They knew better and attacked you anyway.”
“Mama,” she said, looking her in the eyes. Angel knew she looked haunted. There was no way to hide that. Not from this woman. Mama and Pops both had a way of putting everyone at ease so they confessed their innermost secrets. “I’m in trouble. I knew better than to take up with another MC, but I did anyway.”
Instantly, Mama’s features hardened. “Explain, child.”
Angel winced. This was the whole problem. If she told anyone in Bones why she was running, they could very well reach out to Slash or Gremlin. “I can’t risk it, Mama. If Cain sees it as playing nice with another MC for favors, it’s my life.” She put her head in her hands. “I’m so screwed!”
“You’re gonna to have to do better’n that.” Cain. He stood just inside the doorway with Torpedo next to him. Pops moved in behind the two other men and crossed to Mama, putting his hand on her shoulder. Strangely, Angel got the feeling he was preventing Mama from doing something, not supporting her.
Angel looked up at Cain. She knew she was defeated. “Are you going to make me leave?”
“Depends on what you tell me.” Cain’s voice was soft. Matter of fact. “Best get it all out. You have one chance. I want the truth. All of it.”
Angel wanted to cry but knew better. These people weren’t her friends. They could give two shits what her problems were as long as it didn’t affect the club. She was in big trouble. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mama pick up a syringe, but she made no move toward Angel. Pops tightened his grip on her shoulder. Angel met her gaze and knew Mama and Pops were as big a threat as any of the club members.
“I was finishing up my grad work at Belmont University when I met Gremlin. We went out a few times, but nothing too heavy. I was beginning to really like him. One night, at a bar near campus, I was with him. I’d had a little too much to drink, and he offered to take me home. I trusted him. He’d always been nice, if a little vulgar occasionally, but then, so was I. It was playful flirting. I thought. Only instead of taking me home, he took me to their clubhouse. Kiss of Death is the name of the club. I found out later Gremlin is the son of their president.” She winced, turning her head a little. “That didn’t keep him safe from Slash’s wrath when he found me there, though.” Slash had beaten the living daylights out of Gremlin.
“I take it Gremlin didn’t have permission to bring in a new girl.” Cain said.
“I have no idea. I was drunk when he brought me there. More so than I should have been. I’d only had a couple of drinks. No more than usual. During the night he kept giving me more and more to drink. I’m pretty sure more than one of them had sex with me over the course of the night, though I’m not sure how much was real and how much was my imagination. I was terrified! I don’t want to know, either. I could barely turn over let alone fight them off. Besides, I was drunk out of my mind. I’m not even sure how he got me to drink as much as he did or if any of it was even real. He could have drugged me. I could have passed out and hallucinated. I just remember someone handing me a glass every now and then and telling me to drink. I was so thirsty and dizzy I couldn’t think beyond the liquid in the glass.” She shuddered, taking a breath, mortified but too scared to leave out anything. When Cain told her she had one shot at this, she believed him.
“Anyway, when I was finally able to get my wits about me, I’d been there something like three days. I figured that part out later. Slash had beaten the crap out of Gremlin and the rest
of the club had been…” She couldn’t say it. Taking a deep breath, she plowed on. “So I pretended to still be intoxicated and stumbled outside early one morning when everyone finally bedded down for the night. I pretended like I was going to be sick and then bolted. I wasn’t with them long, but long enough to know I never wanted to see any of them again. I went to the first pharmacy I could find and got a Morning-After pill, then got the hell out of Nashville.”
“Did you go to the cops?” Torpedo sounded as scary as Cain.
“No. I just wanted gone. Besides, I figured going to the police would only make them angrier. At least by just leaving I thought I had a chance of getting away from them.”
“Say we believe you,” Mama said, her fist still clenched around a syringe. Angel had no idea what was in the thing but she doubted it was a tetanus shot. “Why would you willingly head back into another club?”
“The children,” Angel said quietly. “I just wanted a way to support myself until the end of the school year when teachers were being hired. Homeschooling three children seemed like the perfect option. Once I found out they were living with a club and had no discernable parents, I had to make sure they weren’t being mistreated. I knew all three had been through something terrible from the first moment I met them, but after a few meetings with them, I knew it wasn’t from this club. They look to all of you like you can walk on water and they expect nothing less, not like they fear you.”
Mama visibly relaxed. Pops let his hand fall to his side and gave Angel a curt nod. Torpedo looked at Cain, who shrugged.
“The first thing she said when I told her I was taking her to the clubhouse was to not let the children see her so they wouldn’t be scared. What do you think?” Cain was clearly asking Torpedo. As club president and vice president, they would assess the situation then bring it to the greater group. Angel knew her fate was being decided right before her eyes.
“I’ll brief the others,” Torpedo said. “We’ll discuss it then decide if she’s cut loose.”
“What does that mean?” Panic seized Angel like a vice. “Cut loose as in you’ll let me go? Or cut loose as in you’ll turn me over to Kiss of Death?”
Cain looked at her then. His eyes were as chilling as ever, but something else glimmered in them she couldn’t quite define. Something that scared her almost as much as the thought of being back in the hands of Kiss of Death.
“We’ll let you know when we’ve put it to a vote.”
Angel couldn’t stifle the little sob that escaped her. “You can’t turn me back over to them. They’ll kill me.”
“No, Angel,” Cain said, taking a step toward her. “They won’t. A woman like you they’d keep. Sounds like that’s what they had planned from the beginning. Gremlin just didn’t get the go-ahead on the plan or the woman from Slash. Once they had you, though, there was no way they’d have given you up.”
“You think they’re coming for me?”
“I know they are. They just haven’t found you yet.”
Angel knew she needed to get scarce. If she wanted to live, she needed to disappear and keep her head down. She knew she couldn’t have lived with herself if she hadn’t at least checked out the arrangement with Cliff, Daniel, and Suzie. Those kids had been through at least as much as she had. Probably more. She’d done the right thing but it might be her undoing.
Cain turned to Mama. “Don’t let her leave until we straighten this out.”
“Cain,” Pops said. “She’s got a good heart.”
“That might be, but she’s in the wrong place. I have to put the good of the club ahead of any outsiders. If Kiss of Death is a danger to us, we may not have any choice but to turn her over, or at least put them on her trail.”
“You believe she’s telling the truth?” Angel wasn’t surprised the question came from Mama. The woman wasn’t what she’d seemed at first. Which was just one more thing that frightened her about this situation.
“On the surface, yes.” Cain’s gaze never wavered from Angel’s. “She’s confirmed everything we dug up on her. The circumstances will need to be looked at, but I think that will be easily accomplished. Once we do, we’ll decide what to do with her.”
That was all she could take. Angel broke down into sobs. She was on the floor a moment later at Cain’s feet. “Oh, God! Please!” Her behavior was mortifying but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “I can’t go back to them. Please don’t send me back! I’ll disappear! I’ll never mention you or the club or the children to anyone. I’ll just be gone. No one will ever know I was here.” She clung to Cain’s pants leg, tears streaming down her face. “I can’t do what they’d make me do! I just can’t!”
“That’s enough,” Pops murmured gently, pulling Angel to her feet, wrapping an arm around her. Mama patted Angel’s shoulder. “Do what you need to do, Cain, but work this out.”
“Fuck, Pops! Just… fuck!”
“You’re an intelligent man. Work it out.”
Angel found Cain’s eyes, looking at him, wanting to look into them before he left to decide her fate. There was a hardened resolve there, one she couldn’t decipher. He’d already made up his mind. For good or ill, this man knew her fate.
Chapter Four
Cain stalked into the meeting room. As far as he was concerned, this was a mere formality. He needed the approval of the club for this, but approval or not, Angel was staying. Hell, who was he kidding? Angel was his. He wasn’t making her leave, and he damned sure wasn’t turning her over to Kiss of Death. He would protect her with all the weight his colors afforded him. If that meant dragging Bones into a war with another club, he couldn’t think of a more worthy reason. Anyone who went against him could get the fuck out.
“We’re not cutting her loose, are we?” Torpedo had run with Cain since their days in the Navy. If anyone knew him, Torpedo did.
“No,” Cain said. “I don’t know if I can make a convincing argument for the others.”
“You making her yours?”
“I am.” There was no hesitation when Cain spoke. Just saying it hardened his resolve. “She’s mine.”
“Not sure she’ll go for it.”
“She doesn’t have a choice.”
“Cain, you can’t use this as a condition of her safety. She’ll hate you forever.”
“Then I’ll just have to make her want to be with me, won’t I?”
Torpedo snorted then clapped him on the shoulder. “That you will, brother.”
Torpedo had put out the word. Club members filed into the meeting room one or two at a time for the next thirty minutes. Not surprisingly, every single one of them was close. No doubt they’d heard about the problem with Scars and Bars and were closing ranks.
All the patched members sat around talking. Any prospects present waited instructions. Cain looked at each of them -- member or prospective member alike -- as he sat down at the big table where the club conducted business. All of them were good men. Several of them had been in the service with him. Those who hadn’t, worked assignments with him through the contracting company he now owned. All of them had killed, but never indiscriminately. There was always a justifiable reason, and that reason researched thoroughly unless someone was in immediate danger. Since their solutions to those types of problems tended to be permanent, they had to be sure of what they were doing.
“I’ll cut straight to the point,” Cain said. “Angel Black is on the run from a club in Nashville called Kiss of Death.” There was silence, everyone giving Cain their full attention. “During his search, Data discovered Slash, the president of Kiss of Death, wants her back, that she’s property of the club and didn’t have permission to leave. She says Gremlin, son of the president, took her against her will.”
“Any truth to her story? I mean, was she taken against her will?”
Cain looked to Data, giving him every opportunity to tell them Angel was lying.
“I’m pretty close to confirming her story. A few members I talked to tried to make her ou
t to be a patch chaser, but she was only there a few days and was drugged the entire time.”
“You’re sure?” Cain said, pinning Data with his gaze. “You found all that online?”
“Dark web chats. They think they’re safe so they talk more freely than they would otherwise.” He tossed several pages of printed chats in the middle of the table. “It’s all there. Everything I found. Short of it is, that girl went through three days of hell. She told the truth about that, so I’m inclined to believe her when she says she’s here because she wanted to make sure the children were in a safe place.”
“Wait. What?” Bohannon held up his hand. “She thought we were harming the kids?”
“She didn’t know,” Cain qualified. “Apparently, she was looking for work until schools were hiring teachers. She came across us, found out the kids were in the care of an MC and took it upon herself to make sure they weren’t being harmed. Likely, she thought it suspicious they were being homeschooled instead of going through the system.”
“Fuck.” Bohannon was nearly as upset as Cain. The men met gazes and Bohannon relaxed. “I’ll risk war with anyone who’d kidnap and drug a woman to hold her prisoner.”
“Are we even sure if they know where she is?” Goose, one of the Army Green Berets in the group, asked.
“Not likely,” Data said. “Yet. From what I can tell she’s been careful, but she didn’t stay off the grid completely. She’s used her debit card a few times. Since she’s been working for us, she’s been able to use cash, but if they’ve got anyone even decent at working computers, they’ll find her.”
“Is there a point to this meeting other than information sharing?” Bohannon wasn’t vice-president, but he was usually the one who called Cain out when he knew Cain had already made a decision before a meeting. He didn’t do it with malicious intent, only to keep Cain honest.
“Bastard,” he muttered. “This is why no one calls you Bohannon, like you preferred. In that TV show, Bohannon was as much of an asshole as you are. I could easily see you killing a man in a fucking confessional booth same as he did. You’re just as cold-hearted as he was.”
Cain (Bones MC 1) Page 3
