by Hope Stone
“But you’re not a doctor or a nurse,” my dad said.
“No, but you are. I am imagining that the truck could go to parks and parking lots and people who wouldn’t otherwise go to a doctor could come and get basic health care. We’d specialize in women’s health.”
My mom was nodding her head. “I think it’s a great idea. Lindsey Shubert from the club just retired from being a nurse for 35 years at the hospital here. Healthcare has changed so much and is really inaccessible for a lot of people these days.”
“What would be the costs involved? Where would you get the money?” my dad said.
“I don’t have that information yet. I still need to do some research and a feasibility study.”
“Honey, I love the idea. So many of the other doctors at our practice are fed up with the healthcare system. You put together a presentation and we can set up a meeting for you to pitch the idea to the partners.”
“Thanks, Dad. I am really excited about this idea.”
Well, I was excited about it earlier. I’d been excited about a lot of things.
Ryder
I had a lot of time to think on my way out to Baker. If you’ve ever driven or ridden from LA to Vegas or back, you’ve probably seen the giant thermometer off the freeway. The town of Baker had been a thriving pit stop for tired commuters for years. The Bun Boy restaurant had a pretty decent burger, and our club used to stop there on our Vegas runs. It shut down in 2013 because the owner refused to pay franchise fees to Bob’s Big Boy. Well, that was the public story anyway. I heard that he was run out of town by bikers because he refused to pay them to stay away because they were scaring off the families.
Across the street was the abandoned Bun Boy Motel. It had always been a shitty place, but since it was abandoned it had become a hellhole for all kinds of illicit activities.
Scorpion was doing a good job of holding on to the back of my bike as we sped along. Having him with me definitely slowed me down, but something told me he would be useful to have around. Besides, he really did seem to care for Lily. Young love and all that shit.
Speaking of love…or something like it…the wide open space of the desert got me thinking of Paige. I’d been thinking about her a lot these days. Too much, really. What if Sofia was right? What if this was my once chance at love again?
What kind of life could I offer a woman like her, though? She was having an adventure slumming in La Playa, but eventually she’d go back to her country club lifestyle. And where would that leave me?
I really didn’t know how it could work out. She’d gone to college and came from money. I was a biker who worked in an auto shop. If she had half a mind, she’d run for the fucking hills and hook up with some lawyer named Biff or Lance or something.
She really did seem to have a pure heart, though, about wanting to help people. Who knows what can bring people together?
I didn’t have much more time to think about it all, because we were getting close to Baker. Off in the distance, I could see a huge group of bikes congregating in the parking lot of the abandoned Bun Boy restaurant. It warmed my heart to see so many brothers coming out to help. I just hoped we weren’t on some wild goose chase—or even worse, were too late.
My bike rumbled to a stop next to the Outlaw Souls. Everyone was there except for Yoda and Padre. It wasn’t like Padre to not be here, but frankly, I had other things on my mind.
“What’s the latest?” I asked Hawk.
He shook his head. “Nothing much. No one has seen El Diablo since yesterday morning, and a couple of his key guys are MIA, too.”
“I think I might know something,” Scorpion said. “I didn’t pay much attention to it, but a couple nights ago, Chanclas and El Diablo were really drunk, and El Diablo was bragging that he was gonna show every MC in La Playa who was boss. Said that everyone in town would fear him and shit like that. Chanclas asked what he meant and he said something about being two fewer souls in Outlaw Souls. I just thought it was trash talk.”
“Who is Chanclas?” I asked. I thought I knew all of the Las Balas patches.
“He came from downtown LA. Didn’t have to prospect. They just brought him right in.”
That made me wonder who he was targeting. Two fewer Outlaw Souls? Maybe I ought to be more concerned about Padre than I was. “Do you have any idea where they could be?”
“Well, the first month or so I was prospecting, they had me drive a U-Haul full of boxes down to an old water tower out here.”
“There’s a couple of them,” Hawk said, nodding to the tall structures in the distance.
“It was the furthest one from the road. As soon as I arrived with the truck, they made me leave. I walked back to the highway and someone gave me a ride back to La Playa.”
“Well, none of this may have anything to do with where Lily is, but I definitely would like to have a conversation with El Diablo.” I turned to Hawk and said, “Whaddya say you and I take a little ride out to the water towers and see if we can find him?”
“Sounds good, brother.” Hawk then turned to Swole and said, “Swole, can you keep an eye on the kid, here?”
“Why, because I’m a woman?” she asked, grinning.
“You’re a woman?” he said. “I never noticed.”
“Fuck you,” she said, laughing.
“You wish,” Hawk replied.
They were busy bantering, and I was busy figuring out how I was going to get El Diablo to tell me where my sister was. I just knew he had something to do with her disappearance.
We’d gone to the first water tower, but no one was there. I was glad it wasn’t July because it gets up close to 130 out here. They don’t call it Death Valley for nothing.
“Let’s head out to the other water tower and see if he’s there.” Without waiting for an answer, Hawk left me in the dust.
About half a mile up a narrow dirt road set among cacti and bushes was the second tall water tower in the Baker area. From a distance I could see two bikes and felt confident that it was El Diablo and that guy Chanclas.
The closer we got, the more my confidence melted like ice cream on a 130 degree day. The first bike was El Diablo’s all right. I’d recognize it anywhere. But the second bike was also one I’d recognize anywhere—from my own workplace. It belonged to Padre.
My first instinct was to think that maybe Padre had been taken hostage by El Diablo. But as I approached, I saw that they were standing side by side talking. Padre was here of his own free will.
As soon as El Diablo heard us, he jumped on his bike and raced off. Hawk waved at me and followed El Diablo, leaving me alone in the middle of the desert with Padre.
My bike slowed to an idle. “What are you doing here, Padre?”
He looked sad and old as he shook his head. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“You didn’t mean to come out here? How did you get here, Padre?” I was getting concerned. He wasn’t making sense.
“I rode here.” He shook his head again. “It wasn’t supposed to happen. He was only supposed to scare you.”
“Scare me? Who was supposed to scare me?” I really wished I knew what the hell he was talking about.
“El Diablo. I didn’t mean for him to…”
The reality of what was going on started to seep into my brain, but it couldn’t accept it. “Tell me what is going on, Padre.”
“You were stealing from me, and…”
“I wasn’t stealing from you,” I corrected, “but go on.”
“And I wanted you and the others to know that disloyalty is punished. El Diablo owed me a favor from that time with the cops and I called it in. I told him to grab Lily and just hold her for an hour or two. When you discovered her missing, then you’d learn a lesson in loyalty.”
The rage that rose inside of me was sudden and fierce. The man I considered a father figure after my parents had died betrayed me by hiring some thug—a sex trafficker—to kidnap my little sister as a lesson. I was going to kill him.
>
I lunged off my bike and reached out to grab his neck. I had weapons, but I wanted to feel him choke under my hands.
“Ryder! I didn’t mean it. He was supposed to bring her back. I swear!” His eyes were wild with fear but I didn’t care. Punches started landing on his old face.
“You motherfucker. You gave my baby sister to a fucking sex trafficker and believed him when he said he’d bring her back? You’re as stupid as you are old.”
Padre wasn’t fighting back but was in a defensive posture with his arms up. “That’s why I came out here. To get him to release her. I went to the warehouse last night to try and stop him.”
I stopped punching him. “Wait. You were at the warehouse? When?” We were at the concert last night. I saw him at the convention center.
“When you guys were all inside. I said I had to take a leak…”
Oh my God. “So you started the explosion?”
“Yes, it was supposed to be a couple of little explosives. Just to distract him so he wouldn’t kidnap Lily. I changed my mind and didn’t know what to do.”
I wanted to start kicking him, but it’s no relief to beat a defenseless old man, so I stopped. “Where is she, Padre? Where is my goddamn sister?”
“I don’t know! He just said he had her and another girl hidden away until sunset and then the plane from Colombia would come to take them.”
That meant we had about five hours to find Lily and Bailey before they were transported to South America to God knows what fate.
I grabbed Padre by the collar of his jacket. “If I don’t get my sister back, I am going to kill you personally. I will fucking kill you.”
“I know. I’m so sorry, Ryder. So sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t mean shit. Get my sister back.”
Paige
My eyes were involuntarily closing as I sat on the couch with my parents. My cell phone was clutched in my left hand and I kept checking it every two minutes, hoping to hear from Ryder.
“Honey, why don’t you go up to your room and get some rest?” my mom said.
“No, I’m okay.”
“You most certainly are not okay,” my dad said. “You’re passing out. How long have you been awake?”
“Twenty-eight hours.”
“That’s it. You’re getting some rest.” My mom stood up and extended her hand. “Give me the phone. I’ll watch it to see if we get any calls.”
“No, really. It’s…”
“Paige Melissa. Listen to your mother.”
“Okay. But I’ll keep the phone.” I had a password set and really didn’t want my parents snooping around my phone. Ryder and I had activated each other on Find My Friends on our cell phones and I wanted to be able to track where he was while he was looking for our sisters.
“I’ll lie down, but only for an hour or so.” I headed toward the stairs. “You guys should take your own advice. It’s been a long night for all of us.”
Fifteen minutes later, I was lying on the full-sized bed in the bedroom I’d grown up in. It seemed like a lifetime ago that I stared at the NSYNC posters and dreamed of being a veterinarian. Instead, I was a waitress who couldn’t get another job.
“Shit!” I’d forgotten that I was supposed to work this afternoon. I grabbed the phone and called work.
“Tiny’s,” barked the voice on the other end of the line.
“Martha, it’s Paige.”
“Yeah?” Martha Jiminez was a woman of few words.
“Look. I’m having a bit of a family emergency and I can’t come in for my shift.”
“And by ‘family emergency’ you mean you were at that concert last night?”
“No. It’s…it’s my sister. She’s missing.”
“Oh. Well, that’s different. I can get Rocky to work a double. Keep us posted, okay?” Her voice sounded strange when she was being empathetic. It was like she didn’t know how to do it.
“Thanks, Martha. I will.”
I barely had time to hang up the phone before sleep overtook me.
When I woke up, my mind forgot what was happening and my body remembered being in my childhood bed. My eyes were closed and I could smell the familiar scent of pancakes and bacon coming from the kitchen. I could hear kids playing outside on their bikes and the sounds of a ballgame on TV.
I was just a carefree teenager, sleeping in on a Sunday afternoon. Bailey was probably in her room…
Bailey! The reality came flooding back to me. Bailey was missing and I was lying here in my bed dreaming of pancakes. What was wrong with me?
I grabbed my phone and my heart sank. No messages from Ryder.
“That’s it.” I sat up and smoothed my hair. “I’m going out there. I’m not going to sit around here like some teenager. I may not be able to do much, but it’s better than sitting around here.”
“Won’t you at least eat before you go?” My mom was stress cooking. She’d made pancakes and bacon, blueberry muffins, lemon scones, and was now in the middle of making a chocolate cake. “I just need to keep busy,” she’d said when I raised my eyebrows at the buffet in the kitchen.
“I don’t think I can eat, Mom.”
“Take a few muffins. The girls are likely to be hungry when you pick them up.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that there was a real possibility that I wouldn’t be bringing them home. She didn’t know the kind of people we were dealing with.
One look at my dad’s face and I could tell that he understood. He stood up and walked over to the desk in the living room and grabbed a set of keys. “Take the Audi, Paige. You’ll get there faster.”
Dad was right. The R8 was such an amazing machine that I barely felt the 110 miles an hour I was going. The stretch of highway on the way to Baker was deserted this time of day, and if I did happen to get pulled over, I’d explain that my sister was missing and ask for a police escort. But pretty much everyone sped along this part of the desert.
Feeling the engine rev as I switched gears, I thought of Ryder. It was no wonder he’d fallen in love with motorcycles. Being the one in control of a powerful engine definitely helped when you felt out of control in life. He’d gotten into it when his parents were killed, and I was feeling it now, worried about Bailey and Lily.
It was shocking, really, how quickly Ryder had become part of my everyday life. I found myself thinking about him all the time. I’d smile when I remembered something funny or witty he said, and my heart lifted every time he walked into Tiny’s. I’d only lived in La Playa a few weeks, but in that short time, that hunk of a man had wormed his way into my life.
As I wrapped my hand around the gear shift, I found myself looking forward to getting my hands on Ryder. It had been a long time since I’d been with a man, and I was long overdue for some loving.
Was it really love, though? We didn’t exactly run in the same circles. I couldn’t really imagine bringing him to the club or having dinner with my parents. I had to grin imagining him at the Schweigers’ summer barbecue. “So, Ryder? What do you do for a living? You’re a mechanic? And a biker? How interesting. I think I see someone I need to speak to.”
I didn’t see any way that Ryder and I could have a long-term future. He didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who wanted 2.5 kids and a big house, complete with driving carpool and Girl or Boy Scouts.
Would I be willing to give all of that up to be with him?
My phone dinged with a text message. I changed lanes and then pulled off to the side of the road to read it. There was no way I was risking an accident in my father’s $150,000 car.
Lots to tell you when I see you but no word yet on the girls. I know who has them and why, but not where. I’ll text when I know more.
I sat there for a moment and wondered if I should tell him I was on my way. No, he’d probably tell me not to come. Turn around and wait at home. But he wouldn’t say that if I were already there.
Putting the car in gear, I turned the radio on. In about an hour, I’d be one step
closer to finding my sister.
Ryder
I was so pissed off I was shaking. Of all the things I could have imagined, Padre being responsible for Lily’s disappearance was not even on my radar. The only reason I didn’t kill him right then and there was because I figured I’d have a better shot of getting her back alive if I didn’t. But, so help me God, if one hair on my sister’s head—or Bailey’s, for that matter— was harmed, I would kill that motherfucker with my bare hands.
The guy was obviously losing it mentally, because the man I knew would never have done something like this. His judgment was clearly way off. But that was a different issue for another day. Right now, I had five hours to find my sister, otherwise I’d be spending the rest of my life in South America trying to find her there.
I headed back to the Bun Boy parking lot to see if Hawk had any luck chasing down El Diablo. When I got there, the whole damn place had turned into some kind of tailgating party. The clubs had supposedly come to “help,” but instead were drinking and smoking weed, blasting music, and basically partying.
Fortunately, the Outlaw Souls were taking it seriously, and when I pulled up to the corner where everyone was gathered, I found Scorpion, Swole, Trainer, and Chalupa looking at a map of the nearby desert.
“Hey Ryder. I’m guessing you had no luck?” Chalupa asked.
“Where’s Hawk?” Scorpion wondered.
I wasn’t really sure how to answer that. Did I tell them that I’d found Padre and that he was responsible for this whole mess?
I didn’t want to, but I pretty much had to.
I paused for a moment, thinking about how to say it. “I didn’t find Lily or Bailey, but I did make a very upsetting discovery.”
