“Sorry man. I saw Julie at the funeral. She was awful clingy, didn’t know if there was something you weren’t telling me.”
“Fuck no!” I roared before Shep threw his hands up in the air and backed up a few steps.
“Bring it back down, dude,” Surfer told me. “Honest mistake,” he added. Not that it helped much. I knew I was overreacting, but the idea of someone close to me not knowing that I wouldn’t step out on Poppy pissed me the fuck off.
That was when Shep damn near tackle-hugged me. “‘Bout time we had some good news around here. I’m so fuckin’ happy for you, man.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled into his shoulder before pushing him off of me. “You know it’s not your baby, right?” I teased him. “We’re not having a love child. That shit was over the top.”
He came at me with arms out again. “But babycakes! You said you loved me! What the fuck do you mean it’s not my baby?” I took off in the opposite direction with the asshole chasing me. “Come on honeybunch, bring that baby belly to me so I can love on it!”
“What in the absolute hell is going on out here?” We all pulled up short when our Captain’s voice rang out through the engine bay.
“It’s nothing. Smoke’s having Shep’s baby, but won’t admit it.” I watched as our Captain rolled his eyes and then reached down to pick something up off the floor. Shit, how had I not noticed we dropped the ultrasound photo? I made my way to him with my grabby hands already reaching out.
“This yours?” He asked.
“Yes, sir!”
He smiled widely at me then. “Tell Julie congrats for me.”
“Here we go again!” I heard Surfer huff out as he moved in close. Obviously, I needed to bring Poppy around the station so everyone knew I had a new woman.
“Broke it off with that bitch almost eight months ago,” I told the man. “Poppy is my woman. She’s the one who’s pregnant.” I heard a gasp behind us and finally looked to see why my Captain had assumed things. In an unfuckingbelievable turn of events, Julie was standing there by Engine One watching us.
“What the hell are you doing here? I thought I made myself crystal fucking clear when you fucking stalked me and showed up at Poppy’s house trying to snatch Brantley?”
“She what?” Shep yelled from across the bay where I’d left him.
“I wasn’t trying to snatch him,” she insisted. “I thought it was what you would want.”
“Why the fuck would I want that when I told you I was through with you and not to come around me again?”
“We talked at the cemetery.”
“No, you talked and clung to me. Your bullshit made me miss my own sister’s funeral. I wasn’t able to lay her to rest with my mom’s necklace because you caused a huge fuckin’ scene. Why the hell would I want you to pick up my nephew?”
“Oh God!” Her voice trembled, along with her quivering lip, indicating that she was about to full-blown emotional meltdown. It was something I refused to deal with.
“You need to get the fuck out of here and don’t come back. I’ll be talking to the magistrate later about a fucking restraining order against you for Poppy, Brant, and me.”
“There’s no need,” she offered dejectedly. “I just came to tell you I was sorry. I thought…” She shook her head as tears fell down her face. “I thought we were never over and that you just needed time.”
“I have an old lady who I’m proud to put on the back of my bike and claim,” I insisted knowing it was a low blow since I’d never publicly claimed her as such. “We’re starting a family together. You need to stay gone.”
“How could you replace me like that? We were together for five years, and you never claimed me that way.”
“Maybe because somewhere in the back of my mind I knew you were being a deceitful cunt. You were too busy pining for my brother to care if I fucking claimed you properly, remember?”
“That was only early on,” she argued again.
“I’m not having this conversation with you again. We are done. Been done. Retroactively done. If I could take back four years of memories of being with you, I would. I’d keep the first year though, as a reminder of what a lying bitch you are. Now, get the fuck out of here.”
“Sounds like we can call our boys in blue since she’s been an ongoing problem,” one of the guys mentioned. I wasn’t sure which because I was physically radiating anger at that point.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” She sniffled loudly. “Oh God, I’m so sorry,” she murmured again before she left, shoulders shaking and hands swiping up to clear away the tears that were streaming down her face. It wasn’t that I didn’t have a heart to care about someone in pain, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so for her. She had caused this. She’d caused a rift between my brother and me that only compounded the problems we were now having after losing Sophie.
“What the fuck is wrong with that woman?” Shep hissed out once she finally made her way out of the engine bay.
I just shook my head. “I don’t know what the hell she’s thinking lately. I went months without seeing or hearing from her at all, then Soph, and…” I couldn’t finish. Just the fact that the bitch would take advantage of my sister’s death to try to reinsert herself into my life made me want to punch something or someone. “I need to find these Russian assholes soon. Need an outlet!” My fists clenched at my sides as I tried to unclench my jaw. “I need this shit to be over with so I can get back to life with Poppy, especially now that we have Brantley and a baby on the way too.”
Surfer clapped me on my shoulder. “We’ll get you there.”
I glanced over at him then. “You have your own shit going on right now too,” I reminded him. When a guilty looked slipped over his face, I cut those thoughts right off for him. “We never know when shit will hit the fan, brother. You couldn’t foresee this shit going down with Gillian and her ex any more than the rest of us could see what happened when we…” Surfer’s new woman had a kid already when they met. The kid’s father happened to be a member of a rival club, and while he hadn’t been in their lives since before she gave birth to Kade, the bastard was trying to force his way back into their lives now that he discovered she was hooking up with an Aces High member.
“When they stuck their necks out for my family and it cost them, heavily,” Shep muttered before walking away.
I sighed. Surfer leaned in. “There’s no taking his guilt over that away. He just needs time to come to grips with how everything played out.”
“Eat those words, because the same applies to you. You need help with the situation you’re in, you just let me know.”
“Thanks, dude. Same offer stands,” he insisted. Then the serious vibe melted away replaced with happiness. “Tell me about the appointment you went to?”
“We could hear the heartbeat,” I managed to get out without getting myself all choked up in my girly fucking emotions. “Sounded like a damn racehorse galloping away in there.”
“Yeah? I’ve heard it before, but I bet that sound is something else when you know it’s your kid making it.”
“Fuck, I didn’t even realize I wanted kids of my own until I met her. Figured I’d already practically raised my brother and sister and didn’t need to experience that again.”
“You think you’ll have more after this?”
“I’m gonna give that woman a whole house full of babies to take care of. Just in case she ever thinks of leaving me, she won’t be able to with all those mouths to feed.” I explained with a laugh. I didn’t have any concern that Poppy would leave me. I just wanted to make sure she was always happy enough that the thought never occurred to her and I knew one way to achieve that was to give her the family she’d been dreaming of for so long.
We spent the rest of our shift moving from a small house fire to three separate accidents with injuries in the surrounding area. By the time we got back to the station with an hour left to go I was ready to crash, but my cell rang curtailing plans of a quick
catnap before heading home to my woman and my nephew.
“Yeah?”
“Smoke, gonna need you to get on over to the clubhouse when your shift is over,” Ghost demanded.
“You have something?” I asked, knowing it had to be about the Russians, otherwise he’d never bother me at the end of a shift.
“Yeah, brother. We found their rathole and have eyes on them until we can get there.”
“Fuck!” I glanced around wondering if I could possibly scoot out early, but the alarm sounding suddenly took that thought away. “Fuck!” I shouted into the phone again.
“We aren’t rolling without you, get the job done, then we’ll go get the other job taken care of.”
“Right,” I replied as I hung up and ran to jump back into my gear.
“They’re trying to kill us tonight,” one of the men grumbled.
“Grab some caffeine on your way, ladies!” I shouted to everyone. “They don’t get any easier because we’re tired!” That was the truth, because it would be three more hours before I would be able to head to the clubhouse thanks to the fire that took longer to put out than it should have.
When I rolled up to the clubhouse, Ghost already had the men on their bikes and ready to go. Tuck, Wren, BigMac, Shorty, Phoenix, and Chief were all geared up, along with Hold ‘Em and the newest prospects, Reefer and Mouth, who were bringing up the rear with the box van just in case we needed to bring presents back to the compound.
“My boy came through,” Tuck called out, then snickered. “Actually, it was his woman who found them, but he told me I better give him credit because he didn’t want you boys knowing he’d been shown up by a woman – again.” Everyone laughed. Normally, I probably would have too, but this wasn’t the time for humor. The sweet vengeance I’d been craving was so close I could almost taste it on my tongue.
“I’ll send her a care package with a ball gag in it so she can shut him up for a while,” I called out as I grabbed the coffee Ghost handed me and downed the damn thing in one go.
“You okay to ride? It’s been a long night for you,” he suggested.
“I’ll be fine. Let’s go get shit taken care of.”
I had texted Poppy that I had club business to handle after work and wasn’t sure when I’d be back. I promised to make shit up to her, but honestly, I was starting to get nervous that she would end up giving up on me before long. We had a couple fantastic days before I needed to pull this last shift. I’d give anything to be going home to do it all over again instead of this, but we’d never be able to have that kind of security until this was finished. I needed for this to be laid to rest with Bender and my sister.
Our route was taking us a longer way to where the assholes were hiding out in plain sight in Goldsboro, North Carolina. What could have been just over a four-hour ride was going to take us just under six so that we could stay off the radar for as long as possible.
“Are you sure about this route?” I asked Wren, impatiently after we first took off. A few years back, we had all upgraded our helmets with Bluetooth capability, and recently upgraded to the Sena 30K. It worked out just fine for our group of 12. The prospects weren’t bluetoothed in, so we only had 10 people on comms. It was easy enough for our small group to stay in range too, which meant we could actually talk, plan, and strategize on the way.
“I’m positive. They’d be stupid not to have eyes on the direct route from Cedar Falls to Goldsboro. If we took 77 to 74 and 40 they’d know we were about to ride right up their asses. This way, we come in quiet. Once we get in a little closer, we’ll split into smaller groups and come in at several different angles. We should still be within Bluetooth range rolling into their general vicinity minus a few spots where it’ll get dicey due to distance.”
I knew he wasn’t wrong. We’d tested the Bluetooth capabilities thoroughly before. We could get a mile apart if we had ten or more riders hooked in. If we scaled it back to essentials, and gave each team leader comms while keeping everyone else silent, we could stretch it to just under a five mile radius. It wouldn’t matter anyway, because by the time we got close enough, we wouldn’t be using the comms to talk if we could help it since the signal was easy enough to jack into if you knew to watch for it.
Ghost’s voice came over the comms a few minutes later, interrupting my thoughts. “We’ve been told there are fifteen men on site. That means they’ll have us outnumbered. A few of our guys from Sierra High are in route too, but they’re further away than we were. Since they got the intel and mobilized first, we should be rolling into town around the same time if everything goes according to plan. They’re bringing six men they had to spare with them.”
“Six?” I questioned. We had twelve, ten strong not counting the prospects so that evened things up, but still I would have thought they’d have sent more.
“They have shit going down in their own backyard, and a few men are out of town on personal shit,” Ghost confirmed.
“Who?” I asked, suddenly worried I may end up shot in the back by one of our own brothers.
“Walker won’t be here. He was ordered to stay behind and help clean up the mess he made.”
I wanted to laugh. I’d bet money the asshole slept with the wrong man’s woman down there and was now causing a boatload of trouble for the club as a result. It didn’t matter though. Right now, I had more important things to consider. We knew that there were about 15 men at the facility we would be raiding, but I wondered if there were going to be any civilians.
“Any civies there?”
“Unclear,” was Ghost’s response.
“How is it unclear?”
“There may be an underground extension of the place they’re using. Quickshot wasn’t able to get solid info on that before we rode out.”
“That means we could be walking into way more than 15 men,” I pointed out.
“It’s possible, but unlikely.”
‘Possible, but unlikely’ sounded like a bad plan to me, but one we would all go through with anyway, because I wasn’t the only one wanting it to be over and the assholes responsible to be put to ground. After what happened to Bender and Sophie, we all knew that women and children weren’t off limit targets for these guys. They’d take them out just to cripple us emotionally before they slaughtered our men. It would work too. When we finally approached Goldsboro, Ghost came back on comms to direct us to our meet point with the Sierra High guys.
“What is this place?” I asked as we rolled up to a small farm on the outskirts of the town. There was a pretty decent sized house with a wide wrap-around porch centered on the property, but off to the back right, there was a barn where it appeared our Sierra High guys were loading their bikes.
Sweet, the Sierra High President, walked up to us before anyone could answer. “One of Angel Girl’s biker bitches moved here with a boyfriend. She’s letting us use the garage to store the bikes. Figured it would be better to take the vans as close as we can get rather than alerting them to the presence of a motorcycle club rolling up on their asses.”
I glanced around the property again, not exactly liking this change in plans. Sweet must have noticed. “I swear to you, the chick is legit. She’s been with Jamie a long time.”
“She must have left S.H.E. if she’s out here on her own though,” I added for clarification.
He nodded his head. “She’s on a break, though she has been in contact with the women about possibly starting a small chapter of S.H.E. over this way.”
“Jesus, lady bikers are branching out, huh?” Wren asked giving Ghost a playful punch in the shoulder. “Taught that girl well.”
“Hush your mouth, the way your daughter’s growing up, she’ll be asking to join them soon.”
“That’s not even funny,” Wren told him and proceeded to hop back on his bike and ignore everyone’s laughter as he moved his bike over toward the barn.
“What’s that about?” Sweet asked. “Thought he admired Jamie.”
“He does. His daughter
thinks it’s okay to have boyfriends already though,” Ghost told us, snickering at the prospect of a biker dad faced with the boyfriend issues.
“You still have more girls coming up,” I reminded him.
Ghost paled. “They’re not ready for boys yet. Won’t be until I’m cold and dead in the ground either.” He turned to all of us then to emphasize a point he was about to make. “That shit ain’t happening today, boys. We’re going to head out and kick some ass. We’re not worrying about taking names or prisoners this time. We already know everyone involved is going to be in that building.”
“Why don’t we just level the fucking thing with explosives then?” Tuck asked.
“We know their biggest source of income right now is coming from trafficking women. If we level that building and find out later that there was a lower level full of innocent captives, how are we all going to feel? It could have been Shep’s mom and sister held there. It could be any one of the women in our lives we love, including the ones too young to think about being in that situation. Let’s get in, and be watchful, just in case. But while we’re there, we show no mercy to those Russian fucks.”
“For Bender!” Someone yelled.
“For Soph,” I added, only to have everyone chime in that this attack would just be for both Soph and Bender. It was for their son too, because one day we all wanted to be able to look Brantley in the eyes and tell him that we got justice for him, for his family.
Chapter 14
Two hours later, we had everyone geared up and ready for war with the Russians. When we got to the closed down manufacturing plant, I immediately saw our biggest hurdle in all of this was going to be in keeping shit quiet. They were holed up in an old manufacturing plant that had been closed down, but the plant was sitting right alongside State Rd. 1915 with nothing keeping nosey people driving by from seeing or hearing what was happening.
I glanced over at Wren as we made our approach, getting as close as we dared in the vans. “Did you know it was situated like this?”
Some and the Flame Page 15
