by Nikki Wild
There needs to be a change in leadership.
My focus cleared. I could think straighter now, concentrate on what really needed to be done. I wasn’t clouded by judgment, restrained by appearances, or locked by necessity.
I was going to save Sarah Buchanan, ensure the livelihood of my heir, and then I was going to give up leadership of the Devil’s Dragons to whoever rose to take the mantle.
But it didn’t matter, because I already knew how the pieces would move. After all, the rest of the club respected and loved him, too. What better candidate than my trusted second-in-command, Grizz?
I glanced over at him while we hit a rolling ascent. His pale, otherworldly eyes remained focused forward, but he briefly turned to acknowledge me before concentrating on the road.
Grizz had been a damned blessing.
The biker had come into my club years ago, not long after we had been crippled by betrayal. He practically wandered into our club off of the street, a forlorn, quiet, and methodical biker with uncanny aim and a heavy biblical streak.
Grizz had taken to us almost immediately, and particularly displayed support for me. Without his presence, I might have never risen to take over the scattered, damaged club.
It was his authority and backing that allowed me to pull the motorcycle club back together, steer us away from the damaging trades that had fueled their coffers before, and rise to carve out our own niche in the dried, arid crags.
And from then, I was able to start building upon my wicked predecessor’s ambitions, taking his dream of uniting the criminal underworld of the desert towards power consolidation and guide it to something better…
I built a small but powerful alliance of biker clubs, criminals, and thugs. With Grizz at my back and the rest of my club behind me, I’d laid down the foundation to form temporary treaties, unify supply lines, thwart rampant in-fighting, and begin consolidating a real force of good out here…
Of course, the Outlaws were all still criminals at the end of the day. But when a worse threat showed up, I could count on them to unite – at a price – to help kick ass.
Not this time, though…
The sun was already setting as we came closer to our destination. I’d originally been a little off the mark with how long we’d be off the Interstate, but we were edging closer and closer to the rendezvous point.
If Talon’s word had been right, and the tracker he’d left in my hands held true, then we were still going to beat Sarkonov’s proxy here, to this little arid landing up in the hills…
His coordinates brought us to a suspicious area, partly up the side of a mountain. It was the husk of a destroyed armory of some sort, or maybe even a church. Only the sides remained, battered and ruptured brick walls that formed a circle around the area.
Functionally, it was two rings of walling, one inside the other. Stairs and shattered windows meant that I could direct my men to tactical positions with cover along the inner circle, although the falling night would limit our continued effectiveness.
The ceiling was long gone, and the floor had been long covered with windswept sand. Another problem represented itself rather quickly – our vehicles were all sitting ducks out here, indications that the place was stocked to the brim with armed bikers.
“What should we do?” Grizz asked, killing his engine next to mine and gazing over the sight of the dilapidated building.
“Working on it,” I grunted, gazing along the terrain. In every direction besides directly ahead and behind, the world was completely flat. I wasn’t sure how much further up the mountain this trail would take us, and it was soon going to shrink down to two bikers, side by side, and then single file…
“Ricochet,” I called loudly upon one of my bikers. He pulled forward near me, and I pointed through the building. It would be easy enough to rocket through without any trouble. “Scout ahead. See if there’s a place to stow away our vehicles.”
“Aye aye, boss,” he nodded.
Six minutes later, he came back through the shattered building, pulling to a stop before me. “There’re a couple of abandoned houses up ahead. It’ll be a tight fit, but there’s probably enough room to hide the bikes that way.”
“Good man,” I acknowledged. “Lead the way.”
Our assembled forces drove to the dilapidated structures he found. We rolled through a wall that had partially collapsed, knocking down our kickstands in what used to be someone’s living room before killing our engines. My entire motorcycle club descended behind me, suited up to prepare for whatever was coming our way.
Grizz and I directed them to take tactical positions along the outer parameter of the inner ring to the destroyed outpost.
And then we waited.
The stars were fully out by the time that we spotted the large truck with a large storage container on the back, cruising up the mountainside towards us. With our vantage point, we were well prepared for the coming battle against Sarkonov’s proxy – one that we hoped would be a quick and decisive one given our access to military grade weaponry.
The fucker had taken Sarah.
Now, we were ready for payback.
It was fifteen minutes or so before the storage truck finally met our position. It came to a halt within the circle, just as we had anticipated, and a shadowy figure descended from the vehicle and opened up some kind of a small, secret hatch on the side of the container.
After punching what seemed to be some sort of code, the figure walked over to the back of the storage container, unlocking and opening it up. The stranger jumped in and, seconds later, was pulling a woman out and onto the ground.
It was Sarah.
“Hold your fire,” I signaled.
Several of my bikers passed the order down the line with quiet motions, and I quietly crept down to leave my tactical position.
This was the point of no return.
The figure had planted Sarah up against the side of the truck and was quickly and deftly binding her up and against the side of the vehicle.
A bit overkill, but sure.
Sarah’s gaze was locked against the ground, and I was almost happy to see it. If she’d looked up and given me away, the proxy might have dispensed of her, there and then.
I was going to get the drop on my mystery opponent. I raised my weapon…
Suddenly, the proxy paused, listening to the air. I cocked my weapon, and the figure darted around the side of the truck.
“Fuck!” I snarled.
The proxy knew that it was a trap.
“I know that you’re here!” I called out. “Show yourself! Or are you too chicken without Soroka Sarkonov to hide behind, you fucking coward?”
Fuck hiding in the shadows. I stepped forward toward Sarah, crossing the distance between us quickly, and only stopping when I heard the sounds of crunching dirt beneath boots.
That’s right, I growled in my head, trying to see my opponent. Step out and face me, and drop to the ground when my men have a solid visual…
I don’t know what I expected, but my jaw practically hit the goddamn dirt when my older sister stepped out from behind the storage unit, a dark smirk on her face and a gun pointed right at Sarah’s face.
“Hey, little brother. Fancy meeting you here...”
Hunter
Struggling to keep it together, I narrowed my eyes and calmed down my heaving chest. It took everything I had to maintain my fucking composure as my brain fought the goddamn truth that stared me in the eyes.
Sarkonov’s proxy is my fucking SISTER?
Talon had to know.
That stupid fucking bastard had sent me all the way out here to kill my own goddamn sister.
“Hunter,” the woman I had changed my entire life to save called out to me. “I should be surprised that you found us but, for some reason, I’m really not.”
“And why is that?” I asked loudly, trying to keep her attention on me. She wasn’t making any moves to hurt or threaten Sarah, so I maintained my cautious approach. Quie
tly, I hoped that engaging her in dialogue would keep my men from firing while I tried to get answers.
“Because you’re a resourceful bastard. Admiration entered Hannah’s voice. “That’s why I needed to get you involved in this. I needed your help getting this container back…”
“All in a day’s work,” I replied with more than a little sarcasm in my voice. “Now tell me what the fuck is going on.”
I was close enough to read Sarah’s face in the moonlight… a few more good strides, and I could try to figure out how to remove her from the storage container.
The problem was, naturally, getting that close without Sarah losing her head in the process. I liked to think my sister wouldn’t shoot her, but she was apparently just full of surprises…
“The letter,” I suddenly acknowledged. “You sent the letter after all, didn’t you?”
Hannah merely smiled.
“So smart you are,” she replied condescendingly. “It was an easy way to slide back into your life… I knew that you’d be preoccupied with trying to figure that shit out out, and it would keep you from asking questions when I needed to get close…
“A lot of things were me, Hunter,” my sister chuckled menacingly. “All seemingly random, scattered pieces that distracted and occupied you, helping me drive Sarah towards chasing the case… I needed you in California. I couldn’t have done this without you, brother…”
“Hannah,” I growled. “You could have asked me for your help and I’d have given it. I need to know why you pulled all of this bullshit.”
“Why?” She laughed. The sound sent goosebumps trailing across my skin. “You want to know why? I’ll tell you why…
“It was because of you.”
I didn’t – couldn’t – understand the logic.
“Hannah… what happened to you?” I pleaded, desperate to find out what happened to my beloved older sister. “I signed my life into servitude to save you… I broke into another country and assaulted a sex-trafficking cartel to pull you out of Hell… why the fuck are you doing this?”
The eyes that fixated on my gaze belonged to my sister, but the burning hatred behind them spoke of something else… something darker inside her, uncoiling near the surface.
“I never asked to be saved, Hunter.”
I was dumbfounded. “You can’t be serious.”
Her lips curled into a smile that inspired a level of fear I hadn’t felt in ages. “I am serious, little brother,” she cooed mockingly. “You think you know everything… But you don’t even know what you fucking did to me.”
The tension in my body released. I wondered how long I had been holding my breath.
“When I was kidnapped by those Mexican fucks, they wasted no time in sedating me. I spent most of my time barely functioning, handcuffed to a bed in a filthy fucking house with only a bedpan for company. They used me for their own pleasure. They did things to me that you could never imagine…”
“I remember,” I agreed, closing my eyes to relive that painful memory – something I never allowed to focus on. “That’s how we found you.”
“Right,” she continued, “but you weren’t supposed to find me. Did it even occur to you that I might be right where I wanted to be, Hunter?”
“What?”
“They had a very special guest coming… someone who could supply them with the weaponry needed to expand their operations. They were funneling all their money from the sex trade into this single deal…”
“…Soroka Sarkonov,” I realized aloud.
“No, Hunter. A competitor. A dangerous man who desperately needed to die… Someone who stood on the wrong side of Soroka Sarkonov.”
“You were there to fucking kill someone? We found you half drugged out of your damn mind Hannah. They were going to sell you to the highest bidder!” I shouted angrily.
“Exactly. And the special guest was the highest bidder. I was going to be inside the deepest reaches of his organization, picking him apart piece by fucking piece… This was my one chance to get close to the asshole, and I gave up my fucking dignity to do it! I gave up everything!
“You can guess what happened next.”
“…We came in and wrecked the place,” I answered. “I rode down there and saved your ass.”
“You kidnapped me from my future, Hunter. You let my biggest competitor live, and focused all your attention on a piss-ant little cartel. Do you have any fucking idea how many people died because of what you did? Friends, associates, business relationships scattered to the wind… The man I was going to kill has done terrible things that I could have stopped! It took me years to get back what you’d taken from me. Years to strike back at my enemies…”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” I asked, my mind swimming.
“I’m talking about death and destruction, Hunter. I’m talking about the men I’ve so carefully destroyed in the years since your little rescue effort. I’m talking about the men who fear me… the ones who respect me… I’m talking about the men who shake in their fucking boots when someone speaks my name,” Hannah replied viciously.
“No,” I whispered. “No, it… it can’t be…”
“In your misguided fucking generosity, you destroyed my life once, but I won’t let you make the same mistake twice, Hunter…”
Hannah stepped forward from the deepest shadows, but it wasn’t my sister standing here. Yes, it was her face, her features, her voice… But the girl I thought I knew was nowhere inside this woman.
How long had she been hiding her true identity?
How long had my sister been keeping this from me?
The low light made her silhouette into a shifting creature. A clutching fear grasped at my heart as I sensed nothing but malice in her predatory approach…
Hannah stepped forward again, sending chills down my spine. The woman who I had known as Hannah Hargreaves, my entire life, but who had been living an ominous double-life stretching back more than a decade…
“Thank you for helping to find my box, dearest brother,” came the wicked voice of Soroka Sarkonov. “Now, get out of my fucking way.”
Sarah
Everyone in sight seemed shocked at the revelation, and it was easy to see why. Hunter’s sister wasn’t some victim hiding for all these years… She’d been running one of the largest criminal enterprises in the world!
Hannah was Soroka Sarkonov!
But… HOW?
“What is in that box, Hannah?” Hunter asked, his face still stricken with a confused and angry look.
“Pure vengeance, Hunter… A Dong Feng 31A. China’s finest three-stage ballistic missile. Three hundred kilotons of nuclear hellfire. This weapon is going to allow me to put an end to my competition once and for all…”
“What in the hell are you going to do, Hannah? Blow them all up? These kinds of people don’t live in the middle of fucking nowhere. You’re talking about detonating a nuclear bomb in a fucking city!” Hunter replied angrily.
“I’m talking about sacrifice! You have no idea what this man is planning. You have no idea what he is capable of. A few innocent lives are a price I’m willing to pay.”
Hannah almost looked as if she had a spark of happiness beneath her restrained exterior, but she managed to keep it contained.
I felt sick. My stomach was turning as I struggled against my bindings. I needed to get free. Hunter had a gun, but I had a feeling he wasn’t going to get to use it…
Hannah seemed to notice this.
“Relax, Sarah. Take it easy,” she said, moving closer. The gun was still trained straight at my head as Hannah pulled a knife from her belt with her free hand. I gasped as she brought it up between my hands, cutting them free before bending down and doing the same to the tape wrapped around my ankles.
“She’s lucky to be alive, you know… I could have left her with Talon, and I don’t think she’d still be in one piece, little brother…”
As Sarah stood back up, she wasn’t aiming her gun at me
anymore. She was aiming it squarely at Hunter. In the distance, the thrumming sounds of a helicopter began to reach my ears.
“I’m willing to let you have your precious girlfriend back,” she laughed wickedly. “And I’m not even going to make her beg for her life anymore.”
I fought the swirling nausea inside.
“Think about Sarah,” our enemy told him darkly, smiling viciously. “Think about your unborn baby.”
“There’s nowhere to go, Hannah. You’re not driving out of here,” Hunter shouted, the low thump of the helicopter slowly building in intensity.
“I have no intent of driving,” she replied, casting her eyes to the sky. The faint outline of something big was moving our way. It didn’t take me long to realize it was some kind of heavy lifter.
“You can’t let her do this!” I shouted, but I was immediately silenced as Hannah smacked me hard across the face. Pain seared my cheek, and the uncoiling nausea rose. I knew the rosy outline of her hand would be visible for hours.
“You have no choice, Hunter. You ruined my life once, and I won’t let you do it again,” Hannah said, returning the knife to her belt and pulling a different object from her pocket. This one was a small grey lump of plastic. I recognized it immediately as some kind of old style cellphone, and I watched in horror as she flipped it open.
“One press of this button, and I send us all to hell – you, me, your woman, your baby, and all of your fucking Dragons hiding around us.
“One tiny little slip of my thumb, and everything you’ve worked for is gone, just like what you did to me in Mexico. My only regret is that you wouldn’t live to see it.
“Now back the fuck off!”
My eyes were locked on the phone as I hyperventilated. Maybe it was a mother’s instinct to protect her child… Maybe it was just being a goddamned idiot. With my hands and feet free, I quickly thrust myself forward, smashing into Hannah’s arm and sending the phone flying.
“H-Hunter,” I gasped as Hannah spun, letting my own momentum send me sprawling to the ground. She followed me down, grasping at my hair as we tumbled.
