Connected in Code: (Ravage MC Rebellion Series Book Four) A Motorcycle Club Romance of Wrong Way & Hayden

by Ryan Michele

  Bringing the computer into the bathroom, I shut the door and turned the lights on. They wouldn’t be visible from the outside because there were no windows.

  The room was bright, and everything was white. Everything. Not a single trace of another color in the place. No life. It was sterile and reminded me of Hayden’s hospital room.

  Shaking my head, I pulled the lid to the toilet down and took a seat, booting up the computer. It took seconds to figure out the password and get into his shit. He had a Dropbox, iCloud, several Google Drives and two a3 clouds.

  Fuck. I pulled out my laptop from my backpack and started it up. Grabbing USB cords, I connected the two and from my computer started a scan of Archy’s.

  I watched the files roll and roll. It was set up to look for certain keywords, such as Ravage MC, RRMC, Hayden, Wrong Way, Reid, Kenny, every brother, Senator McClusky, his family, etc.

  As time ticked, patience was difficult.

  Twenty-seven minutes and three seconds later, my mouth hung open as file after file began opening. Bile rose up my throat, and it took everything to keep from vomiting. Pictures. Hundreds and hundreds—maybe thousands—of pornographic pictures. Attached to them was the code name The Man.

  This sick fuck who couldn’t handle a single punch thought he was the man. He had another thing coming. This shit didn’t make you a man. It made you a predator, one that needed extinguished. There were male and female images, all a variety of ages and not all of them legal.

  Bing… Bing… Bing… The computer sounded repeatedly, finding hit after hit after hit. It felt as if it would never stop. The noise got to me, and I turned off the volume knowing each time it made the sound another horrid picture would appear.

  The more pictures that rolled the more I wanted to shut this shit down and kill someone. There would always be sick fucks in the world, but this—this was worse than a murderer. At least their victims were dead. If these people in the pictures were alive, I had no doubt they would have a rough go at life.

  Hayden’s name came up with some personal details on her. There was also info on me, my brothers, and it appeared everyone associated with Ravage. It wasn’t a ton, and it was mostly public information stuff, which meant they hadn’t dug too far yet.

  I went into the Dropbox and looked around. That was when I hit it. The hidden files. This happened from time to time when an old and new Dropbox account were combined into one. The only way to get into this hidden space was by switching the computer settings in the application and your computer to gain access to it.

  Archy wasn’t as dumb as I pegged him out to be. Too bad his street smarts didn’t pan out.

  Only hesitating a moment, I prepped myself for whatever was about to pop up on the screen. It didn’t help.

  More photos. Disgusting photos. All appeared to be under-aged girls.

  As they scrolled, my anger ratcheted up several notches.

  Pictures of Archy with a male, a young male.

  Pictures of the Senator with a female who was crying as he took her from behind. It didn’t appear consensual one bit.

  These two fucks were into this shit.

  Fuck me.

  Opening another file, I stopped dead. Two words was all it took for my world to rock. Kill Hayden.

  I was missing something, though. The Senator and his dog boy were into sick shit. The Senator wanted our land at The Purple Pride for God knew what. He proposed a deal with us to get Rook out of prison with a full pardon. Somehow the Senator and his dog boy got ahold of Hayden’s father and got him to force her to get inside of Ravage.

  But why?

  How did Hayden get involved with any of this? She should’ve never been on their radar in the first place. Unless her father was already working for the Senator, and he knew his daughter’s skills. That didn’t appear correct either.

  One thing was for sure, it was time to talk to the Senator and get to the bottom of this mess.

  Grabbing all my shit and both laptops, I threw it all into my backpack, killed the light, and made my way downstairs, calling Jimmy on the way to get his ass here.

  Archy’s face was turning a nice shade of purple. Fucker bruised easily too.

  Crow’s eyes landed on mine.

  “Called in Jimmy to come here and be with Archy. Shit’s fucked up, man,” I relayed the information I was able to get from the computers.

  Tex lashed out and punched Archy three times in the face hard. Not that I gave a shit. He deserved it for his perverted games. I was all into kink, but this shit was just downright gross.

  “So where’s the connection here?” Crow asked. “It’s like this guy picked Hayden out of the blue, and you and I both know that shit ain’t a coincidence.”

  “You’re right. I say you call the Senator about the offer. Have him meet us at the land in an hour. I’ll run to the clubhouse and have a chat with my woman. I’ll meet ya there.”

  Brewer stepped up. “And what do we do when that dick calls the boy here? Can’t let him talk to the fucker.”

  Another good point. “Where’s his phone?” I asked.

  Tex started rooting around in his dress pants. “Nothin’.”

  “No doubt the fucker had a suit jacket on,” Hornet said moving up the stairs in search of it.

  I turned to Archy. “Want to tell us why Hayden is involved in any of this shit?”

  Archy shook his damn head.

  “You know we’ll find out. You get to decide how you die. Fast and painless. Or slow and painful. Which is it gonna be?” Crow nodded over to Warden who took a step forward.

  Archy started shaking as he pissed his pants.

  “Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Phoenix grumbled. “I fuckin’ hate when they piss. Didn’t their momma’s teach them to man the fuck up?”

  “Obviously not,” Tex threw in.

  Hornet came trotting down the stairs holding up the phone. “It’s fingerprint locked.”

  “Good thing I have his finger,” I said, reaching out for the phone and taking it from Hornet.

  Archy shook his head as I came near. “No!”

  “Either you release your hands from the fists, or I cut off your hand and do it myself. Either works for me.”

  “Why are you doing this?” he practically cried.

  “You’re an even bigger idiot to ask that question. You fucked with Ravage. You’re fucking with my woman, and I want to know why. Make no mistake, fucker, I’ll do what I have to, to find out.”

  “Please don’t call the Senator,” he said with tears rolling down his cheek.

  “And why is that?”

  Snot rolled down his nose, and he shook his head to get it away from his mouth. “He’s a good man. Doing good things for our state.”

  Tex, Brewer, Phoenix, Hornet and I actually laughed at that one.

  “You mean to tell me that fuckin’ little kids is helpin’ our state.” His eyes went wide. “Yeah. The hidden files, Archy. Ones you probably thought you got rid of when you changed DropBoxes. Got ‘em. Saw ‘em. Burned in my fuckin’ brain. So tell me again how he’s helpin’?”

  “You don’t understand!” he cried out. I slipped the phone in my back pocket and used his stomach and chest as a punching bag. There was so much pent-up anger inside me, it needed to come out. What better way than on a rapist sick as shit motherfucker.

  Archy’s cries and gasps did nothing to ease my anger.

  It wasn’t until a hand came to my shoulder and gave me a squeeze that I was able to pull back. Crow stood beside me. “Feel better?”

  “Fuck no,” I responded immediately.

  “Step back.”

  Heaving in deeply, I pulled back as Crow stepped up to the man.

  “Do you see all the men in front of you?” Archy groaned. “Yeah. Each of them is going to beat the ever-loving shit out of you. Warden is going to cut your ass up, then pour alcohol all over your body so it burns. You do not want to fuck with us.”

  By this time, I gathered my
self, went behind Archy, and pulled out his finger pressing it to the pad to unlock the screen.

  I began to press buttons while I listened to Crow.

  Archy’s head hung down low, the clothes that were pressed now covered in blood. “He wants to move the porn here.” It was so low I barely heard it, but when I did my head popped up and went right to Crow’s.

  “Move that shit here? No fuckin’ way,” I said over my rapidly beating heart.

  Crow nodded to the phone. “Any texts or phone conversations to Gary?”

  Looking through the scroll there were a lot from today. “Yeah.” Checking the night before, it was the same thing. “They call each other and text a lot.”

  The text feed was busy as hell. Mostly political shit. They must keep their shit either coded or only talk in person.

  “They do text after work hours a lot,” I said, moving through the messages. “Jackpot,” I said as the message read, Heading to bed. Talk in the morning. “The fucker texts Gary when he goes to bed.”

  “You’re shittin’ me.” I shook my head. “Nope. I’m copying and pasting it to him now.”

  Crow smiled. “And I’ll wait at least fifteen to call Gary. You go talk to your woman.”

  With a nod, I handed off the phone to Brewer and took off.

  46

  Hayden

  “How ya doin’?” Rylynn asked from the chair next to me. We were sitting in the clubhouse at the bar area, and she’d just given me coffee. The elixir of the gods! It was late afternoon, but I didn’t give a shit.

  Wrong Way left a few hours ago and asked me to stay in the clubhouse. He didn’t tell me anything about Archy, but whoever the man was would know the fury of Wrong Way. To say he was pissed when he left was an understatement.

  I had no clue so I asked, “How much do you know?”

  She smirked. “Smart woman. Don’t give anything away the other party doesn’t know.”

  No words came from my mouth as I waited. I’d only hung out with this woman a few times; she wasn’t on my short list as of yet.

  “I know enough to know you were hurt badly and your friend was too. That’s all I’m concerned about right now.”

  Lifting the cup to my lips, I took a sip. “Rocco will take a while to heal. His hand was crushed, and he had to have surgery. It will be a very slow recovery.”

  When I stopped, her brow raised.

  “What?”

  “Don’t think I didn’t notice. You focused on your friend and not you.”

  I waved my hand. “I’ll heal.”

  Her eyes assessed me. What she was looking for, I had no clue so I just let her do her thing until she was ready to talk.

  “You protected the club.”

  Finishing my sip, I set the mug down. “Yeah.”

  “That right there. What you did for this club, the guys, me as an ol’ lady—that showed your grit and loyalty. Don’t let anyone around here tell you differently. You’ve earned their respect, and they will give it to you. Do not take that lightly because this bunch, they have trust issues.”

  “Them and me both.”

  She laughed hard at my plight, but it just bounced off into the room. “You got that right.”

  “So how do you do it?” I asked her.

  Her look turned puzzled. “Do what?”

  I raised my arms to the clubhouse. “This. How does a relationship happen when your man is in a club?”

  “Just like any other relationship.” She took a sip of her coffee. “I grew up in a club. So I knew the ways. But you, my dear, are a newbie. Good thing I’m here to help.” She smiled.

  “I’m not sure if this’ll be good or bad.”

  Rylynn laughed hard. “Both.” Her head shook as she continued. “It’s pretty simple. Your man will have things he can’t share with you. And trust me, you don’t want him to.”

  “I don’t.”

  Her eyes stared me down, and I took notice. “No, you don’t. The less you know the better. Now that doesn’t mean your man won’t tell you things, but we ol’ ladies don’t push our men when it comes to the club.”

  “So it’s almost like you have two lives?” This wasn’t too far off from what I had going on. I found out dog lady actually did go to jail. Bitch. She only got three years and it’d be half that when she gets out. I’d be ready for her.

  “Sort of. You’re still involved in the club life. It’s just some things you’re not privy to.” She set her hand down on the table. “This is all hypothetical.” I had reason to believe it wasn’t, which made me all the more curious.

  “Say your man gets a call in the middle of the night, and he has to get on his bike and be gone for three days. You’ll know he’s gone, but you won’t know where he is. There has to be that level of trust between the two of you to make it work.”

  Trust. That damn word again. Mine with Wrong Way took a hit, but knowing why he thought the way he did, restored it. But…

  “So your man is gone, possibly for days and you don’t know where he is. How do you know he’s safe? And…”

  She finished for me. “That he kept his dick in his pants?”

  “Yeah.” I grabbed my mug and took a sip, letting the warmth trickle down my chest.

  “Safe. That’s a relative word. They’re men. Real men. Ones who don’t fuck around. They know how to protect themselves and aren’t afraid to do it. All you can do as his ol’ lady is tell him to be safe and that you love him.”

  It was true, I did love him.

  “You have to find a way to be good with that. Some can handle it, and some can’t. But you’ve got grit. I know you can.”

  “How?”

  She leaned in like she was going to tell me a secret. “How? Because you were fucking tortured. Your best friend had his hand crushed. You didn’t think you’d get out of there alive. Even with all of that standing in your way, you still veered them away from the club. That isn’t something that just anyone would do, Hayden.”

  “But it wasn’t an option for me to put Wrong Way or the club under the bus. It was just a must do.”

  “And that right there proves my point. Loyalty, woman. We at Ravage choose who our family is. Blood is blood. But loyalty is where the true relationships come from.”

  I felt my brows scrunch. “How old are you? Because you talk like you’re a hundred.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “Take it how you want.”

  We both chuckled, and I gripped my cup harder. “And the other?”

  “Crow knows that if he even thought about it, I’d cut his dick off. Just make that really clear.”

  To this I burst out laughing.

  “What’d I miss?” Goldi said, walking in the door with Van on her heels.

  “Club life.” Van ran right into Rylynn’s arms. “How’d it go?”

  A smile came across the little girl’s face. “I got to see Mommy for a little bit. She said she was feeling better.”

  “That’s good,” Rylynn said as I lifted my brow to Goldi who swatted her hand in the air like she was hitting a gnat. Guess whatever it was I wasn’t going to find out in that second.

  Van went on as Goldi came up next to me. “So spill what’s goin’ on?”

  “Rylynn was just telling me that I needed to threaten Wrong Way with the loss of his balls if he dicked around on me.”

  Goldi burst out laughing. “Oh, if I had a dollar for every time I said that Bear, I’d be a rich woman.”

  “I’m surprised they’d listen.”

  Goldi got serious, and her laughter died. “You talk to your man.”

  “We already said no others.”

  She nodded. “That’s good. You tell him where you stand. You’re a woman, and you know what you deserve. The fucking moon. He’ll give you that and more.”

  “This is definitely interesting.”

  “Babe, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

  “Howdy all,” the bitch-faced Carley, said coming into the club. T
he same woman who wanted my man. She looked beautiful as ever. Too bad her inside didn’t match the out.

  “Hey,” Goldi said, while Rylynn said nothing.

  “What? Aren’t you happy to see me?” She aimed the question at me.

  I leaned back in my chair. “I don’t care enough about you to feel anything.”

  Carley giggled, but it wasn’t cute, more sinister. “Oh you’ll feel alright. Wrong Way tell you about us.”

  “Oh Christ. Shut the fuck up, Carley, and move on,” Rylynn jumped in, but I held up my hand to her. Carley was obviously targeting me, and I wasn’t one to back down.

  “You want my man. He doesn’t want you. Therefore, I have no problem. We do have a problem if you put your hands on him again.”

  “Oh don’t worry, I will,” she said cattily.

  Quickly, or as quick as I could, I grabbed my knife and was up and behind her before she knew what was happening. Pressing the blade against her throat, I stilled her with my other arm.

  Even though it had been a couple of weeks, my body still ached, and my ankle was having none of it. Like always, though, I stood still and let her feel me.

  “Listen, bitch. I will slice you up and feed you to the wolves. You go near him and swing that dirty, smelly pussy by him or five feet from him, I’ll cut you so much so, they won’t recognize your body.”

  Carley’s body trembled. Good.

  “Guess you’re not as badass as you thought,” I said, pushing her away from me.

  “It’s time for you to go,” Rylynn said. “You’ve had your time. You know the rules. You cause problems, you’re out.”

  Carley’s face turned white as a sheet. “But I... I …” she stammered.

  “I don’t give a flying fuck if Jack the fucking Ripper is waiting for you outside. You’re done.”

  I wondered if Rylynn had the power to do that. I seriously had to learn these new rules.

  Carley wrapped her arms around her body, not moving.

  “Get out or I’ll put you out,” Rylynn said, and Carley took off like a shot.

  Goldi tsked. “Woman…”

  Rylynn’s hand came up and waved. “I’ll talk to him. Really, though, she was a pain in the ass.”