by Brook Wilder
Hammer opened his mouth to answer the insult but realized she was looking at him all dreamy eyed.
“Great. Knock yourself out.”
Chapter 19
Spreading the Net
As soon as the door closed behind Hammer, Alina walked over and sat down at his laptop. Staring at his sign on screen, she realized she had no idea what his password could be. Instead of trying to guess, she signed on as a guest and pulled up her own e-mail account. Frowning, she considered her options.
A co-worker might be able to help. He was the regional IT specialist for their district. More importantly, he was a friend. Though she hadn’t known him very long, he seemed trustworthy. He had a level of formal training that Hammer’s very talented hackers lacked. Perhaps he could tear into the information in a different way that bring additional information. Then again, maybe college degrees didn’t matter when it came to hacking. She seethed at her lack of knowledge in that area.
Before giving herself time to overanalyze the situation, she sent him an e-mail asking for his help. She explained one of her students was missing and his family was exploring every avenue to get him back. With a little flattery and a lot of begging she sent him the information from the flash drive. Stressing the need for confidentiality, she asked him to text her as soon as possible. No sooner had she straightened the room and headed for the door than her cell phone jingled with notification of a text message.
‘Alina. Girl, I got your e-mail. Reading through it now. Sorry to hear about your student.’
‘Can you help? As soon as I realized we needed IT help, you name popped into my head.’
‘Brain the wonder brain, I know what they call me. I always wanted a cool geek name but somehow I got stuck with a really lame one instead. I can never seem to catch a break. You grabbed a nice little chunk of information from somewhere. What makes you think it’s got anything to do with your missing student?’
‘His abductor let us see a video of him and I snagged all the info from the hard drive and shoved it to a flash drive.”
‘No shit…’
‘I just found the video. Kid seems tough on the outside but I can tell he’s scared.’
‘I’m scared shitless for him. I think he got taken by some gang called the Grims. Will you help us?’
‘Let me think about this for a minute. Spend my Thanksgiving holiday with my sister, her homophobic husband and three screaming brats or spend it impressing you with what a super geek I can be. You win, hands down honey.’
‘Thank God. I don’t mean to sound like princess Lea or anything but you just might be out last hope.’
‘Music to my ears, girl. I’m so happy to have an out for the family gig, I could just about kiss you.’
‘Will you come to me when you find something? I’m at the Dirty Kingsmen’s clubhouse.’
‘That club with all the hot guys?’
‘That’d be the one. Know any of them?’
‘Just the one who kind of flirts with me on and off. Can’t remember his name but he’s a looker.’
‘The address was in the e-mail. I’ll tell the gate to be expecting you. Text me when you get here.’
‘Don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of this.’
Heading downstairs, she tucked the cell phone in her jeans. She grabbed a coffee and muffin from the kitchen and headed out to the bar area. Her next order of business was to check on the young ones. She thought that Jaden’s little friend, Bull Dog had probably gone home by now. Naturally the two homeless kids would still be around. She found One’s brother out in the garage. Duncan was leaning over the hood of a car with one of the mechanics. She crept up behind them and leaned over to have a look. Both of their heads screwed around to look at her at once.
“I think it’s good to go. You did a good job.” Expecting them to laugh, she waited for them to get her humor.
The young man stated flatly. “It doesn’t have a carbonator, so it isn’t going anywhere til that’s fixed.”
Smiling slightly she continued to try to establish rapport with the young man. “Well I don’t think carbonators are necessarily necessary, are they?”
The man’s brow drew down and he glanced at the older mechanic. “Is she fucking with me? I can’t ever tell with women. They’re confusing.”
The older man began wiping his hands on a rag he’d pulled from hanging over his belt. “This is why bitches ain’t allowed in the garage. They aren’t confusing, they’re a goddamn distraction.”
Looking from one to the other, Alina commented. “I was just checking to make sure you gentlemen had eaten.”
“We’re fine, mam. Gotta get back to work though.” The man’s polite nod made him look even younger than he actually was.
The older man was a little blunter. “Go feed someone else muffins. We’re busy.”
Well, so much for establishing rapport. The day was early yet. Maybe she’d try again latter. She went back through the clubhouse and headed down to what she was coming to think of as ground zero. The room was full of brothers. They were buzzing quietly around the small team of half a dozen geeks. Hammer had a large map on one of the table tops.
Alina startled slightly to realize that Bull Dog hadn’t left. He was sitting beside a young girl with dark hair and brown eyes. Those brown eyes were currently filled with tears. Copperhead stood protectively at her shoulder. Alina was unsure what the question had been but the little did her best to choke out an answer.
“My father never let me near the clubhouse.”
Copperhead stooped down and caught her eye. “Can you remember your parents talkin’ about any locations besides the clubhouse? Anywhere you think they could have stashed Hawk?”
“I wish I had paid more attention.”
Grasping her hands, he spoke softly. “Just close your eyes and think. Did he come home talking about any certain location? Did he ever bring anything strange home that would indicate a business?”
“You mean like we always have day old bakery stuff and magazines?”
“Just like that, Twinkie.”
“Not really. I got the feeling they were into drugs mostly.”
“It’s okay. I know you’ll let us know, if you think of anything.”
Looking up, her eyes flew open. “I remember one thing. He used to come home smelling funny.”
“Funny how?”
“Like gasoline but not. I don’t know how to explain it.”
Hammer jerked his chin at Marlow, before turning back to speak to the little girl.
“How often did you notice it?”
“Not often. Maybe a couple of times a month…he was always really wound up…angry. He’d start drinking…”
Marlow kneeled, holding two foul smelling rags. “See if either of these smells familiar. One is kerosene and the other is diesel.”
Smelling the first one she shook her head, clearly unsure. Smelling the second, she grabbed his hand and drew it closer for a second attempt. “It was this one.”
Marlow tossed them to prospect to dispose of as he murmured. “It was diesel.”
Hammer frowned. “Not particularly helpful information, since every service station across the nation carries it. Still it’s a clue.” Looking down at the teen, he added. “You did real good, doll.”
“You’re going to find him. Please say you’re going to find him.”
“We will. You can bet the farm on that, doll. Now why don’t you go with Copperhead and get a bite to eat. We’ll let you know when you find something.”
“She ain’t goin’ to the bar. I’m getting’ her the hell outta here.”
Hearing enough, Alina stepped in.
“She’s safer here for now. We don’t know who might have seen her come here. Why don’t you take her up to Jaden’s room and let her stay there for a bit? We’ll get her out of here as soon as it’s safe.”
The other boy, Bull Dog, spoke. “Just for a little while. She’ll be safe up there, no one’s allowed to go up t
here.”
Copperhead jerked his head in acknowledgement. “I’ll stay outside the door.”
The little girl glanced around the room. “Inside the room. I’d feel safer with you inside the room. I can read to you, like we always do.”
Alina nodded. “That’s a wonderful idea. His room is upstairs, first door on the left.”
Chapter 20
Pulling Together a Plan
Hearing her cell phone chime, Alina pulled it out without thinking.
“Hello.”
“Alina. Brian here. I got through most of the information and bumped into something that might be helpful. There were some invoices for deliveries of farm equipment to a property outside the city. I recognize the address. It’s an estate that’s been held in trust for years. There was some issue related to a grove of rare heirloom chestnut trees that needed protecting or something. Anyways, it struck me as a remote location.”
“You’re right. I’ve heard of the place. Thought it got sold years ago.”
“Not sold that I know of…abandoned. I’m still looking through in the information but I thought you should know that right away.”
“Thanks, Brian. We’ll look into it.”
Hammer had been waiting patiently thought the whole conversation.
“Who the fuck is Brian?”
“A person I work with. He’s really good with computers. He has a master’s degree in computer programing. I gave him the information from the Grim’s hard drive.”
“I didn’t say you could do that.”
“The information was mine. I chose to share it with you and I decided to see if he could help out.”
“The information may have been yours but Jaden is my son. You should have asked before you did something like that.”
“I just want to find him.”
“That’s what we all want, Alina. Did he happen to find out anything helpful?”
The Grims have been paying for equipment to be sent out to the old Chestnut farm.”
“That place has been abandoned for years.”
“It’s remote, abandoned and the perfect place to stash Jayden.”
“Damn place is perfect for a lot of dark shit you don’t want anyone else to see. Might explain the smell of diesel. Large farms keep pumps to fuel farm machinery. They’re probably using the place to grow weed, make people disappear, and to package their other products.”
Alina grabbed his arm. “We need to check it out. The longer we wait, the more opportunity he has to hurt Jaden.”
“Don’t tell me what I already fuckin’ know, you sexy bitch.” Though his words were harsh, his voice was not.
Catching his contradiction, she stated vehemently. “I’m coming with you.”
“The fuck you are.” The words were out before he even though them through. Thinking of her getting shot at again sent a spike of protective rage through him. He stepped back, trying to shove it down.
“We’re not going to argue about that again.” Alina knew her face had settled into a stubborn frown but she couldn’t help herself. This was important to her and she found that she was prepared to fight about it.
Hammer opened his mouth then closed it again. In that moment, she knew that she’d won the short lived argument.
“Fuckin’ hell, woman. When this is all over, I’m teaching you to shoot.”
“Deal.”
Alina watched as Hammer seemed to be thinking the situation over in his head. The sounds of the room slowly intruded on their quiet corner of the room. The geeks were still tossing around ideas and some of the brothers were teasing Marlow about a woman named Dianne. Suddenly lightening hit her brain. Was is her friend Dianne? Marlow looked a little older and his hair was heavily grey. He was just her type. Shock tore through her at the things she didn’t know about her bestie.
Hammer grabbed her hand and announced loudly. “Everyone meet in my office. We got a solid lead and we need to plan our next move.”
As they headed for the door he acknowledged quietly. “I’m grappling with the need to just load up and head out but I know we need a decent plan.”
Stepping closer, Alina responded. “Good thinking. The last thing we need is to run right out there and get ourselves shot.”
“Glad we’re on the same page.” His sarcastic tone was not lost on her.
“Hey, I was useful before. You never know, maybe I will be this time as well.” She didn’t mean to sound so hopeful and eager but it showed through in her tone.
After an hour of planning they worked out a viable plan. Everyone poured out of the room into the large bar/recreation area and began to weapon up. Alina sat at the bar with Shelby watching the men pull open a large double closet, which housed their armor and weapons. Each man began strapping on Kevlar vests. By the time they put their shirts back on the body armor was barely noticeable. Alina had worn a vest herself on their last outing. It had felt bulky and uncomfortable, probably because it wasn’t really sized for her small frame.
She continued watching as they pulled out case after case of weapons. There were handguns, rifles with scopes and shotguns.
“Wow, Hammer seems really focused on those sniper rifles.”
Alina glanced at Shelby who was impressed as she was at the display of firepower. “It’s a protective measure. The snipers covered us the last time we did this. The saved our lives.”
“I wouldn’t have guessed that. Most folks think of snipers as lone gunmen on the grassy knoll, trying to assassinate someone.”
Alina grinned. “I was probably under that mistaken impression myself once. Seeing all this in action blew me away. The men really know what they’re doing. When the firing starts, they operate like a well-oiled machine.”
“That I can easily believe. They don’t do anything without a well thought out plan. I think that’s one reason we hardly lose a man.”
“From your mouth to God’s ear, my friend. How’s the girl?”
“I assume she’s fine. Between the two kids and Marlow, no one’s gotten close to her.”
“I should check on her.”
“No time for that, doll.”
Alina turned to find Hammer standing behind her with a Kevlar vest. Standing up, she peeled off her shirt and waited as he strapped it to her body. Shrugging her shirt back on, she turned so Hammer could affix the holster to her lower back. The gun was light but between that, the holster and the vest, she felt the weight.
Chapter 21
Too Easy An Rescue
Alina rolled through the plan in her mind during the drive out to the farm. Instead of rolling up in plain sight, they would observe from a nearby ridgeline and send out scouts. It was imperative to know what they were dealing with before they tried to extract Jaden. She was still having a hard time thinking of him as Hawk. She could understand the concept of having a road name and the one he chose was applicable, but the boy was still Jaden in her heart.
They inconspicuously took up position and began observing the farm with binoculars. There were about a dozen men on the ground there. It was dark with only the brightness of the full moon shining down on the grounds. The Grims were coming and going, and patrolling at regular intervals. Alina knew what was coming but still found herself shocked when Hammer gave the word and all the Grim Crew outside the farmhouse dropped in one coordinated maneuver. A queasiness gripped her, threatening to make her loose her last meal. Hammer must have noticed because his hand came out to steady her. Looking into his eyes, she knew they both wished there had been another way.
Quickly they descended onto the property. Alina stayed behind Hammer. The tension of the moment drove home what a really bad idea it had been for her to tag along. Worry that her presence was a dangerous distraction ate away at her. She vowed to herself that this would be her last venture into the dangerous underworld of the biker gangs.
Kicking in the door, several men exchanged fire. When the smoke cleared, Hammer eased Alina from behind him. “Stay close until we sweep the
house.”
Nodding, her eyes flashed around as the brothers began spreading out. Hammer rummaged through a nearby desk as his crew cleared the lower level as quickly as possible. Stuffing some paperwork in his pocket, he followed several members of his crew upstairs. Kicking in several doors they found nothing. Clearly whoever had been upstairs had rushed downstairs to face off with the Kingsmen.
Alina whispered. “This can’t be. He’s got to be here.”
Hammer barked back. “There is no basement. The brothers have cleared the outbuildings. This is what it is.”
