Biker's Little Secret: Carolina Devils MC

by Brook Wilder

  “Fuck, this ain’t high school, Di. Call him or text him or send him a goddamn e-mail like a grown up.

  “Fine.” She stalked away mad, but Hammer smiled. She still had the hots for his VP alright. The shit between them was far from over. Pulling out his cell phone, he called the man.

  Marlow answered on the first ring. “What’s up boss?”

  “I noticed a couple of strange men hanging out across the street from Jaden’s school. Can you send some of the prospects around to sit on the place?”

  “They’ll be there inside twenty minutes. I’ll let you know what we find.”

  “You do that. Bumped into your pretty redhead this morning. Said to tell you hi and that she still thinks about you sometimes.”

  Marlow couldn’t keep the shock from his voice. “No shit? It’s been a goddamn year.”

  “Well word on the street is she ain’t hooked up with anyone since you. She said you ruined her for other men.”

  “Now, I know you’re fucking with me.” The disappointment in his friend’s voice was almost too much to take. Hammer knew all too well the pain of finding a good woman, only to fuck it all up and lose her.

  “Get your ass over here and find out. If you’re lucky, you can kill two birds with one stone.”

  “I’m on it, boss.”

  ♦♦♦♦♦

  Hammer hung up and hung around until he saw Marlow and four of his men approaching. Since he was running late, he headed over to the attorney’s office. As he drove, his mind wandered back to Jaden’s mother. She had been sweet and innocent. Though they didn’t have a lot in common, they’d been in love. She’d been the first person to show him genuine love and caring. It had felt like drinking the sweetest tasting water after a lifetime of thirsting. Losing her had been difficult. In the last ten years, his primary focus had been on raising his son and running his club. His brothers were his family now. Nothing else even mattered to him.

  He walked into Cavanaugh’s Law Offices still worried about his crew.

  “Hey Elaina. They’re not working you too hard are they?”

  She glanced up at with a sexy smile. “Night and day. A girl just can’t catch a break with these guys.”

  “Bastards, the lot of them. Can’t believe a nice girl like you got wrangled up with a bunch of fucking lawyers. Hell, they’re worse than us outlaws.”

  She smiled knowingly. “You got that right, handsome. These good old boys do things that would make hardened criminals cringe.”

  “Don’t worry, girl. I got your back. I’ll let them know you need a vacation.”

  “And a raise.” She deadpanned right back, smiling.

  He chuckled as he strolled right past her, letting himself into the attorney’s office. “George, can we cut to the chase. I have a lot on my plate today.”

  The older man was rummaging through a file cabinet on the far side of the room. His posture stiffened, giving a clue to the irritation he felt. He spoke without looking up. “Ever think about knocking before you barge into a man’s office?”

  “Fuck that shit. For a thousand dollars an hour, I’ll come and go as a please. What’s up with my crew?”

  “You already know the particulars of their arrest. I filed a motion for bail. You can have them back for five grand each.” The older man still didn’t looked up from perusing files and it Hammer recognized it as a mark of disrespect. It aggravated him into a dominance display he would have normally kept in check.

  “That’s a bargain.” He growled. “Get it done. I want them both home by lunch.”

  Finally the well-dressed man looked up to meet his eyes. “I’m not a bail bondsman, Mr. Hark.”

  Hammer pulled out two stacks of money and tossed them onto his desk. “There’s twenty grand there. Get them out within the hour and you can consider the rest a tip.” It was Hammer’s way of pointing out exactly who worked for who and why.

  The attorney’s greedy eyes landed on the cash. He shoved the drawer to the file cabinet closed and walked towards his desk. “Well, I guess I can stretch my wings a bit for an old friend.”

  “Get the charges dropped. Don’t’ much care how you do it. Consider a thousand of that a bonus for Miss. Elaina.”

  George rolled his eyes. “Always looking out for the ladies, aren’t you?”

  “We finished here?”

  “Yes sir, we are.”

  “Next time we meet, you come to me. I don’t have time to keep running uptown to meet your sorry ass.”

  “I remember our arrangement. We take turns, I’ll come to clubhouse next time.”

  Once he was on his bike, he called Marlow. “Any word on the strangers?”

  “Your meeting with the big guy didn’t last a hot minute boss. Does that mean Dingo and Rags will come home soon?”

  “They should be home by lunch. Cavanaugh is bailing them out for us. See that they’re fed and have a couple of whores ready for them.”

  “Good news. We picked up your guys. One ain’t doin’ so good.”

  “Great. I’m on my way. Keep them in the basement till I get there.”

  ♦♦♦♦♦

  Thirty minutes later he was standing in the club house basement looking at the two men strung up in chains.

  “Strip them down. Look for ink.”

  Marlow and Decker began cutting away every stitch of clothing from the men. Hammer walked around them inspecting their tattoos. One man appeared to be in his mid-twenties and the other nearly twice that. Both had black hair and looked like they needed a good bath. One had tats sprawling over almost every inch of his torso and the other had them on each shoulder.

  “Both of them are from the Grim Crew. Think the one with practically no tats is freshly patched.” He walked up to the older man. Poking a finger into the tattoo across his chest he asked. “Who’s Maria? Is she your old lady?”

  The man attempted to jerk his body sideways to keep Hammer from touching him.

  “I think she must be your lady for her name to be over your heart that way. Look here, you have a couple of dates. They appear to be birth dates…children perhaps?”

  The man turned his face away, mumbling something about not speaking English.

  Hammer grabbed his hair and jerked his head roughly back, exposing the venerable soft tissue of his neck.

  “Don’t lie to me. You understand every single word I said. I can tell by your reaction. Want to tell me why your MC is hanging out at my kid’s school?”

  The man spat in his face. “We look for little boys to sell. Maybe we sell yours.”

  Hammer released a torrent of punches to the man’s body. “Now that we’re finished bullshitting each other, care to answer my question?”

  The younger man moaned as he slid into unconsciousness. Hammer ripped a large bandage off his side revealing a fist sized wound.

  “Would someone mind telling me exactly what the fuck that is?”

  Marlow pulled his thumb in Decker’s direction. “You Sergeant’s packing a 45 these days. Big gun at close range, you do the math.”

  “Fine. Get another damn adhesive. He’s making a mess.”

  Marlow pulled another huge square and stuck it to the man’s side.

  “I don’t’ know what these fuckers are up to, but we’re going to find out. Call in Rip and keep my boy covered at all times.”

  Marlow nodded. “You got it boss. A couple of hours with Rip and they’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

  “Have Rip talk to me before he gets started.”

  Hammer could rip some information out a person, but he was quick and rough. Sometimes getting all the details takes a little finesse. Rip had a real talent for torturing information out of people. He used totally different techniques depending on whether the person was male or female, young or old, a biker or a civilian. He had it all figured out.

  Hammer was in his office rummaging through his intel on the Grim Crew when Rip arrived. He had a rolled up leather pouch under his arm. Hammer knew wit
hout looking it was his tools of the trade.

  “You know, you don’t need to carry the shit around with you. We have plenty of instruments that cause pain down in the dungeon.”

  “I like to use my own, boss. It’s just how I roll.”

  “Suit yourself, Rip. As you probably already know, we found these fuckers outside my son’s school. I need to know what they know…everything they know. Can you make that happen for me?”

  “They’ll tell me everything. I promise you that. Might take a minute, but I’ll get it out of them.”

  “Thanks, Rip. You always do your part to keep us safe. I really appreciate it.”

  “Best get to work. We’re burning daylight.”

  Hammer smiled that his friend was quoting his favorite expression back to him.

  Chapter 6

  Digging For Information

  Rip walked into the room and surveyed the scene. Pulling over a rolling cart and a chair he began to unload his gear. The thunk of his case and the clanging of metal rubbing against metal always got their attention if they were still conscious. Both of these men were awake and eyed him with trepidation. He reached down to the bottom shelf of the cart, retrieved two large metal containers and placed a square basin carefully under each man. He saw it in their eyes the very moment they realized the basins were designed to catch blood during a butchering session. Hunters sometimes used them to dress deer. Today he would be using them for a similar purpose.

  He lit a cigarette and settled back in his chair. The entire scene along with his aloofness was designed to illicit a fear reaction. He was an expert at getting inside his victim’s heads. Not that he was a particularly evil bastard. He felt guilt for the things he was forced to do some days. Today was not one of those days.

  These men had been stalking children today. Once a man does something like that all bets are off. No matter what he chose to do to them, it was thoroughly justified in his personal opinion. It didn’t matter, their lives were forfeit anyways. The older man would know that. The younger one, may not.

  He tore the duct tape from the younger man’s mouth. Then gave the larger man a swift punch in the head, rendering him unconscious. He wanted one talking and the other in no position to interfere.

  Rip sat back down and took another puff off his cigarette.

  “God, I hate killing young people. How old are you, twenty five?”

  “Twenty four.”

  “Chances are good you’re going to die in this room today. Do you know that?”

  The man swallowed and Rip watched as his Adam’s apple slid up and back down his throat.

  “You might have a chance, if you tell me every single thing you know. I want to know about your club and why you were outside that school today.”

  “I don’t know anything, I swear.”

  Rip stood up, grabbed a small hammer from the cart and approached the man.

  “Do you know there are over 200 bones in the human body? This is what it feels like when one of them breaks.”

  Rip brought the hammer up cracking a lower rib. The man screamed in pain repeatedly. Having had a rib broken in much the same way, Rip recognized it as an excessive amount of noise over one broken bone. That led him to believe that perhaps his new friend had a low tolerance level for pain.

  “Calm the fuck down. You’re going to get to experience that 200 more times before the damn day is out, unless you start talking.”

  “What…what do you want to know?”

  “Why were you at that school today?”

  “I’m not sure. I was told to go with Juan and do whatever he told me to do. I’m not patched in yet, so they don’t tell me much.”

  “What happened when our president rode up this morning?”

  Juan got on his phone and told Miguel. I didn’t hear what Miguel said but Juan got off the phone. It made me think we were there for the gringo not the kids. Except when the gringo left, we didn’t follow him. It worried me. I’m not trying to get involved with messing around with kids.”

  “Do you think Juan was there to sell drugs or anything?”

  “Maybe, but I think probably not. He didn’t have a stash jacket.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “We have stash jackets. It’s made of denim and has a lot off tiny pockets sewed on the inside. We fill them with packets of crystal meth and…”

  “Each time the dealer empties a pocket of drugs, he fills it with a tiny wad of cash?”

  “Yea man, that’s how they do it.”

  “Do you know anything about our shipment getting confiscated by the police?”

  “Word around the Grim club is they tipped off the cops. I thought they just heard about the arrest and decided to claim bragging rights. That happens a lot with our guys.”

  Rip methodically worked with the young man for a few hours to ensure he got as much information about the Grim operation as possible. He took a little more prodding with a couple of implements to come off with what he knew but he did. Unfortunately, he just didn’t have a lot of information to share. Getting him to draw a sketch of the Grim club house and grounds was a good move. Setting it aside, he could see it might prove helpful at some future point in time.

  Rip moved him to an adjacent room and locked him in a huge bare knuckle boxing cage for safe keeping. The man stood staring at him with his hands wrapped around the bars.

  “What’s going to happen to me?”

  “Don’t know. Hammer may work out something for you since you didn’t go there to stalk kids but then again no one likes a rat. We’ll have to talk it over.”

  Rip returned to the main room and turned his attention to the more challenging task at hand. Gathering intel from the Grim’s Sergeant at Arms would be no easy task. His soul responsibility was to protect the club and his brothers from exactly the kind of retribution Hammer was likely to hit them with. When he walked in, the man was still out cold. Rip rummaged through his clothing, pulling out his wallet. Ensuring the door was locked securely behind him, he headed for the bar.

  Shelby whined, “Can’t you wash up before you come upstairs. You stink of blood.”

  Reaching over he grabbed her by the throat, pulling her forward. “This is my club. I’m working on club business. You’re just whoring around here. Maybe some of the men find that damned mouth of yours entertaining. I’m sure as hell not one of them. Talk to me like that again and I’ll have every prospect cram his dick so far down your throat you can’t talk for a week. You got that?”

  She nodded at him with wide eyes.

  Get me a fuckin’ cold beer.” Shoving her back forcibly, she scrambled away and was back with his drink in a flash.

  He motioned over his shoulder to two of the prospects. When they approached he flipped open a wallet and pulled out the Grim Crew member’s driver’s license. Handing it to them he gave clear instructions. “Grab a burner phone and pay this address a little visit. This is an info gathering mission only. Don’t engage with his family or anyone else without my permission. Call me when you get there and I’ll tell you what to do.”

  Once they were gone, he jerked his chin to Shelby. “Make me a burger and some fries.”

  She immediately went to the kitchen to comply. He followed her in and watched her make his food. He must have freaked her out because she was jumpy and didn’t maintain eye contact with him. As she slid his plate in front of him, he spoke softly.

  “It’s not the suggestion that got you into trouble with me. It was the disrespect. We take good care of you girls. You got a roof over your head, good food to eat, and all the booze and sex you want. You can always turn a brother down. Not many clubs allow that. I know the guys are generous with money and gifts. You got a good set up. If you want to stay around here you need to watch that mouth of yours. If you don’t then you need to walk before something really bad happens to you. Understand?”

  She nodded her head and left him to eat in peace.

  Before he was halfway through his
meal, the prospects called. Cam was the more experienced of the two. We got a nice little apartment, in the suburbs, three bedroom, two baths, no one home at the moment. Looks like he’s married, bed smells like sex, the other two bedrooms look like they belong to little girls cause their all pink got flowers painted on the walls. Don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, Rip.”

  “You did good work. Go through the mail. Looking around for anything that says Maria.”