Wrecked (Devil's Horsemen MC Book 1)

by Brook Wilder

  But a chance encounter with Grant Travis had changed all that.

  And now I belonged to a family, a brotherhood that had each other’s back, regardless of the situation. I served them loyally and without hesitation, working my way up in the ranks to be one of Grant’s trusted go-to men when he needed something carried out.

  The door opened, and I exhaled a breath as Grant stalked into the room, walking over to his collection of liquor that he was known for.

  “Whiskey?” he asked, his back to me. “Or something stronger?”

  “I’m good, thanks,” I said as he poured himself a glass.

  He chuckled as he turned to face me.

  “Too much alcohol last night, eh? I heard you took two of our lovely ladies’ home with you.”

  I grinned.

  “They were twins. Twins always stick together.”

  Grant let out a laugh, shaking his head as he rose his glass toward me.

  “Touché, Zack, touché. I forget what it means to be young and full of cum.”

  I gave him a nod, looking at the president of the DHMC who had somehow held the position for twenty years. He had survived numerous attempts on his life and had always come out on top, and in today’s world that was a feat that could not be rivaled. With the other gangs closing in on Cibolo, we were fighting on a daily basis.

  One of the most recent skirmishes had been just the day before, when me and a few other members had gone south in search of a rogue biker who had decided to sell his secrets to the highest bidder. Little had we known that the members of the Caballeros de Los Muertos gang were manning one of their secret hideouts for their greatest trades: humans.

  It had taken a great deal of explanation on my part to get us out of there with no bullet holes, though my neck had still tingled with concern as I had ridden away.

  Hence the twins last night, ‘given’ to me by one of the other men who had been present as his show of gratitude.

  I hadn’t turned them down.

  Grant let out a heavy sigh as he collapsed in his chair, his drink still in his hand.

  “You know, there are days when I wish that I had stuck with what my parents had wanted me to do.”

  “What was that?” I asked, curious.

  “A doctor,” he laughed, shaking his head. “My father was a doctor, my mother a nurse. It was only fitting that I go into the medical field. Funny how life takes a turn, isn’t it?”

  I nodded. Had Grant not taken me under his wing and made me a part of this brotherhood, there was no telling where the hell I would have ended up at.

  More than likely prison.

  “I’m sure you are wondering why I brought you in here today,” Grant finally said. “I need a favor.”

  “You got it,” I said instantly.

  Grant looked at me, a wry grin on his face.

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that,” I answered evenly.

  I owed him my life and a great deal more.

  “I’ve always liked you, Zack,” Grant said slowly. “So, I’m hand-picking you for this favor. If you fail me, I can’t guarantee what I might do. Do you understand?”

  I nodded. I knew that we all lived by the seat of our pants around here, and if I failed Grant, I would want him to kill me.

  Good thing I never failed.

  Grant stared at me a moment longer before looking away, staring at the wall.

  “Hayley has gone missing.”

  I loosened a breath. Hayley Travis was well-known to the clubhouse. She had her father under her thumb, and there wasn’t anything that he didn’t give her.

  That, and she enjoyed the attention of the men at the clubhouse. While no one was brave enough to touch Grant’s daughter, she loved to tease them to the brink of nearly doing so, only to see what her daddy would do. She had tried it on me once or twice, but I had scared her off each time. I had no interest in getting tangled with her.

  That would be a sudden death.

  Now, though, she was missing, and Grant was going to send me to find her.

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah,” Grant said, shoving a hand over his thinning hair. “She’s been gone two days, and nobody has seen her. I’m afraid that… hell, I don’t want to think about it. She’s got to be somewhere, and I’m betting you can find her.”

  “I will,” I said, clearing my throat. “Any idea who has her?”

  “The Caballeros de Los Muertos is a good guess,” Grant sighed, the thought etched on his face. “I… hell, I pissed them off last week, stopping one of their shipments when they crossed our path.”

  I was surprised, but not at all shocked. We typically didn’t get involved with another’s shipments, unless we wanted a full out war.

  “So, you think this is retaliation?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” he shrugged, rubbing a hand over his face. “Her mother wants me to go to the cops, but I don’t need the cops sniffing around here, not focusing on finding her and more on busting me.”

  I understood that. While we weren’t one of the harshest clubs, we still dealt with some illegal shit that would land all of us in prison for quite a few years. The cops in the area, including the feds, had been itching to nail something concrete on us for years, but every time one of us was caught on something petty the legal counsel Grant employed got us off scot free.

  It drove the local cops insane.

  Grant looked over at me, and I saw the emotions flickering in his eyes.

  “Go find my baby and bring her home, Zack. Alive or dead, I need to have her home.”

  Hell, I hoped it wasn’t the latter. Without another word, I walked out of the office, my stomach churning at the thought. While Hayley was a pest, she was still a somewhat innocent young woman caught up in a mess all because of who her father was. I knew Hayley was tough, but being in the hands of the Muertos would make anyone crazy.

  Rolling my shoulders, I walked through the clubhouse and out to my bike, knowing where I was going to start my search. There was one person who knew Hayley’s whereabouts better than anyone else, including her father.

  The ride over gave me time to think about my next moves and what I would do to bring Hayley home. I had given up a great deal of myself to be part of this brotherhood, to be seen as someone that they could trust, and I wasn’t about to give that up as well.

  Grant had been clear about his intentions if I didn’t.

  I pulled the bike up to the small house not far from the clubhouse, shutting off the engine and looking at the façade for a moment. She hated living here, and she had no qualms about telling anyone who listened. Her father lived behind the clubhouse, in a large house that couldn’t quite be considered a mansion, though I had seen the interior.

  More money had been put into that place than I would ever see in my lifetime.

  But here, I believed, she was just refusing to accept that her father would make her stay here, in this house.

  Not that she did for the most part. No, Amy Travis spent much of her time at the clubhouse, trying to prove to her father that she could hang with the rest of us. We all knew it, and I suspected that Grant did as well but refused to subject his oldest daughter to the harsh biker world.

  Grant was likely going to lose that hold on her one day.

  Climbing off the bike, I walked up to the door. The door opened before I could knock. Amy stood in the doorway, dressed in a tiny tank top and ripped jeans. She was a beautiful woman and, as much as she hated it, was off-limits just like her sister.

  “Zack,” she said with a smile. “Funny seeing you here.”

  “Amy,” I acknowledged with a grin. “Can we talk?”

  She eyed me before stepping out of the way, allowing me to walk into the house. I had been here many times before, dumping Hayley off when she’d had too much to drink and didn’t want to take her home to her parents.

  “Have a seat,” she offered, pointing to the leather sofa in front of the TV. “You want a beer?”
/>
  “Thanks,” I said, walking over to do as she had asked.

  Amy walked into the kitchen and emerged a short second later with two beers, handing me one.

  “What brings you over this way, Zack?” she asked, perching herself on the couch’s arm. “Surely not for pleasure.”

  I grinned and took a swallow of the beer, letting the cool liquid slide down my throat. It was hot as balls outside today, the ride over nothing but a blast of hot air the entire way. The chill of the air conditioning started to cool me down and I looked over at her.

  “I’m here because of Hayley.”

  Her grin faded, and she looked away, tapping one long fingernail against the bottle.

  “Why?”

  “Your father wants me to find her.”

  “Shit,” she whispered, running a hand through her long hair. “Doesn’t he know I’m handling it?”

  I drained the bottle before setting it on the coffee table.

  “What do you mean you are handling it?”

  She looked over at me.

  “I went to the cops this morning. They are assigning someone to look into it.”

  “Shit,” I swore. This was the one thing that Grant hadn’t wanted to happen. “What the hell, Amy?”

  She stood up, tear in her eyes.

  “I want to find her, Zack. I-I didn’t know he was going to assign you, or I might have not done it, but she’s out there somewhere, and I… what if she’s dead?”

  I heard the pain in her voice and lost some of my anger. She was scared. Hell, I would imagine Grant was as well.

  “It’s fine. I’m sorry. I can see why you did what you did.”

  “I didn’t want to,” she said in a little voice, looking nothing like the strong woman I knew she portrayed. “But I didn’t have a choice, Zack. The officer… they are going to do it under wraps. They promised me.”

  I stood, cracking my knuckles. Just fucking great. A cop sniffing around the business. That’s all I needed. Well, I would handle them. Most of the cops were on Grant’s pay roll anyway, and all it would take would be a bit of scaring to have them look the other way while I dealt with this myself.

  And if they sniffed too hard… well, I couldn’t be responsible for what might happen.

  “You’ll call me if you get any word, right?” I asked Amy.

  She nodded, gripping her beer.

  “I will. Even if the officer calls me, I’ll pass it along to you. I-I’m glad he gave this to you.”

  I nodded and walked toward the door.

  “Stay out of the way, Amy. I got this.”

  She followed me to the door, her fingers drifting the back of my shoulder as I reached for the door.

  “You sure you can’t stay for a little while, Zack? I can help relieve some of that stress.”

  I laughed.

  “Amy, you know that’s not going to happen.”

  “Just thought I would ask,” she muttered as I pushed open the door. “Stay safe, Zack.”

  I didn’t answer, walking out to the bike and climbing on. It would be easy to take Amy up on her offer, knowing there would be no strings attached. She would likely be fucking amazing in bed, but… hell, I enjoyed my balls and was keen on keeping them. I might be Grant’s current favorite, but I was in no mood to push my luck.

  Gunning the engine, I pulled out of the driveway and headed south, toward Muertos territory. If they did have Hayley, I would have to go into the fray to find out information on her. I would have to put boots on the ground, by myself, to find out where they might be hiding her and what they wanted. They hadn’t taken her without planning on using her against Grant.

  I would need to find her before they started doing so.

  I just hoped I didn’t get myself killed in the process.

  Chapter Three

  Sydney

  I checked my gun before sliding it into the holster strapped to my ankle, pushing my jeans down to cover it. I couldn’t very well wear my side piece and badge where I was going, but I wasn’t stupid enough to go in there empty-handed.

  Actually, if the chief knew what I was doing right now, he would likely hang me by my boots. I was taking a huge risk going into this place without backup, but I couldn’t afford for them to be tipped off.

  So, I was going in as a girl looking for a good time. To play the part, I had forced myself into a tight-fitting shirt that showed off some of my best assets, the jeans molding to my ass likely to draw some sort of attention from the bikers. I had let my hair down and even applied just the barest touch of makeup, something I rarely did anymore.

  After all, criminals could care less what I looked like, and the Texas heat was libel to melt the damn thing off before the end of the day.

  I drove past the biker bar before parking the jeep down the road a way, not wanting to call attention to myself. I didn’t own a bike, nor did I care to ride on one, so my jeep was the only option I had to keep the suspicion down.

  That, and I had to keep my nerves at bay. I was nervous, more so than I thought I would be. Up until now I hadn’t taken on a case by myself, nor had I decided to throw myself into this sort of danger just to break a case. I was a good cop, one that followed every direction to the tee, and had been known to be the rule-follower all through the academy. I didn’t like shaking things up and kept it as real as I could.

  But this… I felt like I was out of my wheelhouse. Sure, I had been around bikers in my teenage years, seemingly unable to not be around them, given our small town.

  It didn’t mean I had talked with them. Or pretended to flirt.

  Squaring my shoulders, I started the hike up to the bar, noting several bikes out front. I was going to start with each gang until I heard something about Hayley and, given the history between the DHMC and Caballeros de Los Muertos, it was a good one to start with. The Caballeros de Los Muertos were known for their human trafficking, not only from Mexico, but also from the US into the Mexican country. While the border patrol struggled to control the trafficking, it still was a rampant business, one that made a lot of money.

  I hated it. Of all the things that went on in my hometown, I hated the trafficking. Innocent lives destroyed as they were grabbed off the street and forced into the sex slave industry. Families ruined, innocence lost, and suffering that was unimaginable to the everyday human being. I had worked on more than one detail that had brought in a victim of sex trafficking, and to see the suffering in their eyes nearly tore me apart.

  It was one of the reasons I had come home to Cibolo.

  Drawing in a breath, I pulled on the handle of the door and walked into the dimly lit building, the smell of unwashed bodies and beer assaulting my senses. The building itself was crude and warm on the inside, with the laziest of fans attempting to circle the air above me. There was music pouring out of speakers mounted to the wall, tuning out the sound of the pool table in the back. The entire place was smoky, and I found myself blinking rapidly to dispel the tears that gathered in my eyes.

  A tired-looking woman in a tube top and jeans eyed me as I walked up to the bar, seating myself on one of the worn stools there.

  “Are you lost, honey?”

  I shook my head, giving her my best sly smile.

  “Lost? Depends on your definition of lost.”

  Her gaze narrowed, and she leaned forward, placing her hands flat on the scarred bar.

  “If you are here looking to get into trouble, I suggest you leave. These men will eat you up and spit you out before you have a chance to blink. Take my advice, honey, get the hell out of here while you still can.”

  “Who’s this, Brenda?”

  Brenda swore under her breath as I turned to face a huge man with a shit-eating grin on his face, most of his teeth missing from his mouth. His nose was crooked, and there was a deep scar down the side of his face, disappearing into a scraggly beard that covered the lower half of his face. He wore the colors of the Muertos, and I sat up straighter, giving him a saucy smile in return.
<
br />   “I’m Paula,” I cooed, sticking out my hand. “Brenda was just getting me a beer.”

  “On the house,” the man said as he fell onto the stool next to me. “I’m Pablo and I run this joint. Brenda’s my old lady.”

  I kept the smile on my face. If I could have run into anyone during this covert operation, I couldn’t have picked this one out any better. I tapped my fingers on the bar, inching them ever close to the arm that Pablo had rested there.