by J. J. Baxter
Looking determined, she opened up her laptop, typed away at the keys, sending a message to her employer telling her that the job had been done.
“We have to get out of here, Angelina. We’re not going to find anything else here that can help us. Grab the laptop and let’s go.”
She looked at me confused. “We can’t just give up now.”
“Who said anything about giving up? If we’re not going to find our answers here, then we’re going to have to go directly to the source,” I said, hoping Valkyrie had gotten a location out of the man we held in the basement of our clubhouse. Scorpion was a ruthless man and he protected his business at all costs. If we plan on destroying him, finding his other suppliers, hitmen, and anyone else he hired to do his dirty work would be key in bringing him down.
“You want to walk right up to the Dawn Vultures’ hideout?” she asked.
I nodded. “We have to gather as much as we can on Scorpion, on where he does business, because that’s going to make tearing him down that much easier. If we find out he paid you, then it’s possible he paid countless others to do the very same thing. We need to find out all of it anyway we can.”
We all had so much weight on our shoulders, and as much as we were trying to keep it together, we were lacking the leadership. We’d never needed Scotch’s input more than we did right now. I promised myself that we would go to see him, when we had a bit more information to bring to the table. “Let’s head back to the clubhouse. I’m going to touch base with Valkyrie, see if he can speed things up with our hostage, get a location, and we’ll be off. They won’t stop at nothing to get to you, and I have to keep you out of sight. As far as I know, they haven’t attacked anyone else. It’s you they want, and they’re not going to get anywhere near you, got it?”
“I got it,” she said.
I could see the genuine gratitude in her eyes, I just hoped I could make good on my promises to protect her. We had to keep alert, hoping we didn’t have Dawn Vultures tailing us at all times. It was time to step up to the plate. It was up to me to get to the bottom of this. Knowing I had Angelina by my side made me feel better.
She grabbed a hold of my hand and I squeezed it tightly, bringing her in close for a kiss before we headed out.
I called Valkyrie, to hear that the Dawn Vultures biker wasn’t budging at all and it didn’t sit right with me. It was time I got in the room with him myself, because I was getting tired of feeling like I was constantly at a fucking dead end.
When we arrived back at the clubhouse, I pulled her aside, telling her what I should’ve told her the minute we saw that her apartment was broken into. “I need you to sit this one out, okay? We’re going to need those skills of yours when we ride out to the Dawn Vultures hideout to get more information. I don’t want you to feel like I’m cutting you out, because that’s not what I’m doing. I need to handle this one on my own, not just for my sake, but for Scotch’s.” I expected her to fight me on this.
She looked deep into my eyes, registering everything I told her. “I understand, Blayd. Just know that when we’re ready to scope out their hideout, you’re not gonna keep me on the back burner, okay?”
“I won’t do that to you, Raider,” I said.
Nodding, she went off into one of the bedrooms of the clubhouse, to hopefully get some rest after the last few hours of what we’d been through. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through me, and I was well aware this was far from over. I had to get a confession, or something concrete out of this Dawn Vulture before it was too late.
You better be ready to talk, fucker. I don’t have time to waste.
I headed downstairs to the basement, hearing the groans of the Dawn Vultures biker that was tied up to the wooden beam at the other end of the room. I turned on the single light bulb, while his eyes followed my every move.
Valkyrie had already done a number on him and it was clear he’d been struggling. He desperately tried to lift his hands to his head, to wipe the blood from his mouth, but the moment I got closer to him, all of his movements halted completely.
“You must not care much about your life, if you’re just going to stay tight-lipped until we’re forced to kill you,” I said.
“You’re not going to fucking kill me. Scorpion talked a lot about you all, about how the Reckless Riders prided themselves on never having to resort to killing anyone to get what they wanted. Look how far that’s got you,” he spat.
I could see the blood in his mouth coating his teeth. “Haven’t you heard? I’m a new addition to the club, and I don’t have a problem killing blindly. Like do you think they’d allow a prospect to do this job? Nah.” I shook my head. “But someone who’s used to killing…Yeah, they would. And I hate to break it to you, but no one is gonna come to save you.”
The look in his eyes shifted. He and I both knew how Scorpion did business, and when it came to cutting ties with members of the Dawn Vultures that didn’t prove to be useful to him anymore, he would have no problem letting them go.
I stared at him.
With bloodshot eyes on me and his body tired and sore from the beatings, while he realized it wouldn’t be long before his life was over. “I’m not going to tell you anything. You’re going to have to kill me then,” he said, hesitantly, like he was unsure of the words coming out of his mouth.
I inched closer to him, knowing he couldn’t move, reaching down into his pockets to search for any belongings he had on him. I found his wallet and cell phone in there, but the cell phone had been dead with a cracked screen, almost as if he’d smashed it on purpose.
He glared at me when I started going through his wallet, to see his license, and a bit of cash that he had stored away for a rainy day when he could head to the nearest bar and grab a drink with his MC brothers. Such a shame that he wasn’t going to get that opportunity again, but he did that to himself by getting involved with the Dawn Vultures in the first place. “Ah, Mike. Nice name, doesn’t suit you though.”
“You’re not going to find anything in there. You’re wasting your time,” he said as a bead of sweat trickled down along his forehead.
This made me want to search deeper, because there had to be something he didn’t want me to see. I opened up all of the zipper compartments and at the very bottom of the one on the front of the wallet itself was a small piece of paper. Crumpled and smudged, like it had been wet and dried over time. I opened it up to see an address scribbled on it, and I knew right then I had what I’d been looking for. “Thank you for your time, Mike. I hope that you enjoy the rest of your time down here before you inevitably die of starvation.”
He stared at me, the act of before entirely gone. He was wide-eyed and absolutely terrified. “Please, you don’t know anything. I can help you. I can tell you what you want to know!” he screamed, trying to get me to listen.
Whatever was at this address would lead me closer to Scorpion and that was enough for me. I went up the stairs, hearing him cry out, firing off any and everything that came to mind, hoping something would cause me to stop and turn around.
I made it back up to the main floor.
Valkyrie looked at me curiously. “Did you get him to tell you where the Dawn Vultures hideout is?”
“Better, I got that information for myself,” I replied, holding up the little piece of paper.
It’s only a matter of time before we uncover your secrets, Scorpion. It won’t be long now.
16
Paper Trail
Gripping the handles of my bike, I saw as Blayd whiz past me. I picked up the pace, meeting him side by side, while we rode out to the location that he got off of the Dawn Vultures rider rotting away in the basement of the Reckless Riders clubhouse. That scene wasn’t something I was a stranger to, as I’d done a lot of my own interrogations using that very same technique.
Blayd had wanted to take the lead on this.
I knew a part of him just wanted to protect me, to keep me safe from whatever Scorpion and the Dawn Vultures had
planned, especially because they’d spent most of their time trying to seek me out, but I wasn’t going to back down from this fight. I asked for Blayd’s help, for the protection of the Reckless Riders because at the time I thought I had no other choice, but they quickly became family to me. Blayd and I worked well together, and the more I saw him stand up and take Scotch’s place in all of this, working together with the rest of the club, the more I saw that he was exactly the kind of man I wanted to be with.
He challenged me in ways no one ever had before. He’d changed my perspective, accepted me even after he found out what I’d been hiding from everyone else, and if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have even been able to stay with the Reckless Riders. Plus, being with him in this, had been the most exhilarating experience of my entire life.
Now I recalled the details leading up to me riding out to Las Vegas in the first place.
I remembered receiving the phone call and the person on the other end of the line did a good job of masking his voice. He told me that he’d been referred by a past client and that he put out a hit on someone that went by the name of Scotch. I’d been in a neighboring state at the time, pressed for cash, after taking some time off from the difficult work I did, but the opportunity had seemed like a blessing at the time. I never would’ve thought that it would’ve gotten me in such hot water, nearly compromising all of the things I prided myself on when it came to my career. I almost took out a man who didn’t deserve to die.
We were getting so close to finding the truth now that I could feel my heartbeat in my ears. If Scorpion was behind it, he chose the wrong person to trust, because even though I laid all of my cards out on the table, I was assured by my employer that I would find the faults necessary for me to believe that Scotch had to die.
If I would’ve known the truth about you then, Scorpion, I never would’ve hesitated. I would’ve come straight for you to make sure that you died as painful a death as those you torture daily. The stories don’t do you justice, because I know that you’re proud of how easily you can take a life, that you don’t care about the people that spend their entire lives being loyal to you. Let’s see how you like it when you wake up one day and realize that everything you once had is now gone. You tried to take everything away from me, and now I’m going to return the favor.
“Is this it?” I asked, gazing up at the old, abandoned apartment building with its windows that were boarded shut, nails hanging out of each piece of wood like someone had tried to remove them.
“This is it.” Blayd nodded.
It wasn’t the place I expected, and I looked up to see the iron fire escape staircase had been broken off, like no one had thought to repair the place for years. It had a large, red and white foreclosure sign in the window. It looked abandoned really.
We inched closer to the front door, then Blayd fiddled with the doorknob. Locked of course.
We both glanced over our shoulders to check to see if anyone had been looking at us, or if we heard any sounds to suggest this place was being watched by passing Dawn Vultures bikers. The air seemed completely still, and we didn’t hear a thing, so we decided to keep going.
Blayd took a few moments to break the lock, but it wasn’t long before we were inside.
We were immediately hit with the stench of rotting wood and wet floors.
The lobby was absolutely atrocious, with piles of unopened mail in a box at the far corner of the room then we noted a cork board that held all sorts of announcements that had been up for a very long time.
Blayd glanced down at the piece of paper, checking for the apartment number itself, and we headed up to the fifth floor taking the stairs, trying to not to get our boots caught in any of the garbage and debris covering the concrete.
“It’s here,” he said.
We both looked at each other before he tried to open the door, and the knob came clean off in his hand. He pushed it open and it was such a stark difference to the rest of the building, it shocked us both.
The apartment looked spotless, like someone had been living here this entire time. From the outside, no one would have ever guessed someone would be squatting in a place like this, as the living conditions were terrible, but someone managed to make do.
“It’s the perfect hiding spot,” I said.
He nodded. “Let’s look around. Be careful, babe. Something doesn’t feel right about this.”
He said it and it was exactly right. It felt cold, distant, like something terrible happened right here, but who really knew what that had been.
Blayd ventured off into the bedrooms, checking through the closets looking for clues.
I glanced down at the hardwood floors to see what looked like smeared blood seeping between the seams. I bent down, running my fingers along the mark, because it had been dried, but when I looked closer, I noticed that the floorboard was loose. It was so loose in fact that I could tear it out with my bare hands, and that was exactly what I did.
Blayd came back into the room, probably ready to tell me he couldn’t find anything substantial, but he stared at the mess I’d made. “What are you doing?” he asked, raising his brow at me.
“There’s something under here. Help me get it out.”
He bent down on the other side of the opening in the floor, and we both pulled out what looked like a metal box. It looked worn, like it had been sitting in this very spot for longer than either of us would be able to tell.
Kneeling down, I managed to open it up. Inside was a little black book that had yellowing, stained pages of numbers, addresses, and names all scribbled into it. It was definitely a big find, but I sat there with it in my hand trying to figure out how I was supposed determine whether it belonged to Scorpion or not. I flipped through the first few pages, thinking about it for a moment, and that’s when I made it to the middle of the book.
“What are you looking for?” Blayd asked
“I’m looking for my last name,” I replied. “Ah, it’s here and that’s my old number.”
“We hit the fucking jackpot,” Blayd said.
We both realized that we were holding the very key to all of Scorpion’s dealings, every person he got into contact with to carry out his dirty work. Then when I finally flipped to the very end of the book to see that it was stamped with the Dawn Vultures’ symbol, Blayd and I were grinning.
I wanted to look around some more, but before we got the chance, we both heard the sound of bike engines revving outside the window.
Blayd rushed over to see who it was, and he looked back at me.
I hated that he had this ability to mask his expression, because his face gave nothing away.
“We’ve got company. We gotta go,” he said.
I hurried to put everything back where it was, rushing down the stairs, hoping to make it back out to the alleyway where we’d parked our bikes before the Dawn Vultures realized we were here.
Blayd and I escaped through the back, looking over our shoulders at the sight of the Dawn Vultures at the door as they realized it had been opened and there was someone inside. I heard their angry groans, as we made it out. I shut the back door behind me while Blayd and I took off on foot, rushing to get back to our bikes.
We started up our engines. We got out of there before any of them could get a good look at us, and I breathed a sigh of relief while we headed back to the clubhouse.
We arrived to see that Valkyrie and Thrasher were both there discussing what we were off doing, and when they finally realized that we had returned, everyone immediately turned their attention to us.
Before either of us could get a word in, out came Scotch from the back room with a beer in his hand, looking ready to get back to work.
Blayd and I smiled at him, knowing that even though he hadn’t fully recovered, it was good to see him back on his feet.
“You two have had an eventful day, huh? Find anything worth sharing?” he asked as he looked at Blayd. “Why do I even try? I can’t fucking tell at all what you’re t
hinking.” He chuckled, then looked over at me.
“Um, if you can wait a couple of minutes, I’ll show you what we found.”
Scotch nodded.
I went over to a table and sat down. Using my phone, I took snaps of each page in the little book.
The men all waited in silence.
I then got up and handed Blayd the little black book, so he could pass it off to Scotch.
“What’s this?” Scotch asked as he looked down at it.
“It’s a list of all of Scorpion’s contacts,” I explained. “And we think that it may contain all the rest of his suppliers and anyone else that he’s hired trying to hurt you. My name is in there.” I looked down at the floor, feeling guilty for that fact alone.
He didn’t seem bothered by it. “I don’t take it personally, Angelina. There are a lot of people who want to see me dead, I’m just glad you’re not one of them anymore.”
I chuckled and glanced over at Blayd, because I could already tell he had figured out a plan of where to go next. We’d briefly discussed how we could probably sway a few of his contacts to switch sides, and that would up our standing in the fight to come.
“The address I got off of one of his guys was an apartment building where Scorpion stored this thing,” Blayd spoke. “The place looked beat down, a real shit hole. Then inside was the apartment, all clean and neat. Raider here.” He nudged me. “Found the book under the floorboards. If we can get in touch with a few of the names in there, we can gather enough manpower to storm Scorpion’s hideout directly.”
“Raider huh?” Scotch paused and thought for a moment then it clicked. “Clever, very clever.” He glanced at the little book in his hand. “I’ll see what I can do. Look…I know you both have been going at this hard. So, I hate to ask, but I need one of you to help me with an incoming shipment of weapons. I can feel it in the air, things are starting to tense up out there and Scorpion’s going to make his move soon.”
