by Nikki Wild
This time, he had the advantage.
Hunter had assembled a considerable force here. While they brought their own weaponry, there was still extra to go around.
We also had the luxury of a nearby target. We would be heading less than a dozen miles outside of Juarez. We could be there in an hour if we caught the right trail.
More men.
More guns.
More time.
Hunter had spent countless hours pouring over this plan, uniting the necessary manpower to his cause, and studying the revised trivia he now knew from the survivor of the cartel border brawl.
My man’s got this in the bag.
I finally spotted Hunter off in a dark corner speaking to Grizz. The two were in some kind of hot debate, and I hesitated to interfere.
Before I could turn and find something else to do, Hunter spotted me. With a sly grin, he gestured for me to join them. As I reluctantly approached, Grizz whispered something in his ear before disappearing into the crowd.
“What was that all about?” I asked Hunter after coming into earshot.
The Devil’s Dragons president glanced over in the direction that his second-in-command had chosen, and shook his head.
“He’s just worried. He thinks that I should stay behind on this one.”
“Why’s that?” I replied, crossing my arms.
“He caught me awake,” Hunter replied simply. “Everyone else got some shut-eye, even the Dragons on our operation last night. Grizz got restless and he spotted me bent over those maps…”
“He thinks you’re going to be too tired?”
Hunter ran his hand through his hair. “Grizz is careful. He’s methodical.”
My expression soured. “Grizz has a point.”
“I know,” Hunter replied. “But tired or not, I have to ride…”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Look at us,” he indicated to the bikers as they wrapped up their work, suiting up for the coming fight. “Everyone is prepared to follow me into the fight. If I stayed behind, it would send the wrong message. There’s no turning back now… Can you feel it in the air?” He pointed upwards.
I shook my head. “Tension?”
“Anticipation,” Hunter corrected. “These men are hungry for a piece of the action. It’s not just about the money, either. Everybody wants to be the hero sometimes…”
I glanced over the dissipating crowd as it swept outside, snatching up weapons and patting each other on the backs on their way out.
They seemed… oddly jovial.
“You’ve noticed,” Hunter read the expression on my face. “You’ve seen how ready for this they are… how they almost don’t take it seriously.”
“Why is that?” I asked, turning my head to face him. “Why aren’t any of them scared? They could lose their lives. We could be riding into something a lot more dangerous than they think…”
“It isn’t often that the Outlaws are seriously put to the test,” Hunter observed.
I only hoped they were ready for the road ahead…
Hunter pulled my thoughts away before I could voice any concern. “We need to get going, Sarah. The men are assembled, the night awaits, and the time has come.”
Chapter 17
True to his word, Hunter led the charge… and he looked damn good doing it. The wind whipped at his leathers as the engine roared beneath us, rocking us towards our destiny.
With my arms tightly wrapped around his strong, rugged chest, I glanced over my shoulder and briefly studied our escort squad under the moonlight. Our improvised biker fleet, totaling members from five motorcycle clubs, was right behind us and kicking up an impressive storm of dust.
The dark cacophony of the rolling engines formed a symphony of bitter vengeance. With Hunter as their conductor, each biker in our merry band had their prospective instrument nearby: a pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, a knife…
I was still stunned that he had successfully mobilized such a force. Minus a traitor, about seventy motorcycles flanked us beneath the stars as we rocketed forward, all of us aligned to the same goals:
Find the girls.
Overthrow the cartel.
Instead of heading towards the farmhouse, we were flying the opposite direction. The collective beam of headlights rolled around us, several bikers unable to resist a couple of burn outs or firing a few weapons into the sky.
Hunter had warned them upfront:
Get your fun out of the way now.
Once we reach the fence, we’re all business.
He’d known that they needed to get a little adrenaline out of their systems first, ramping themselves into the mindset of attacking a nearby sex-trafficking cartel.
After all, he was a good leader.
He knew what his men needed.
Hunter signaled back to the closest bikers, and they began to slow down. The decreased momentum trickled backwards through the biker armada. We were soon flying forwards from them, breaking away as a single motorcycle.
His voice shouted over the roar of the engine. “Hold on, Princess. It’s about to get bumpy…”
When he felt my grip tighten, Hunter leant into the handlebar, pushing us off the main road and onto the dirt trails. The bikers followed suit, matching our change in direction and roaring to keep up.
We left the ground a few times over the bumps in the trail, cutting across the empty desert under the full moon. I could hear the hooting and hollering of some of the others as they did the same, sometimes hitting the acceleration to catch more airtime.
After twenty minutes of this, we cut off from the trail and started driving across open desert. Hunter navigated us across a strip of steady flatlands, avoiding the prickly flora as we rode out into what looked like pure nothingness.
Five minutes later, a small dot appeared on the horizon. It grew in size until I realized that it was a house – much smaller than the one that played host to our gunfight the night before.
It also looked ramshackle and abandoned, barely jutting out into the sky. I imagined that even on a clear day, it would be incredibly easy to miss if you were sticking to the roads and trails.
Hunter double-tapped his brakes, signaling to the others to begin slowing down. We pulled up in a cloud of scattered dust beside the house, and he killed his ignition and hopped off. I could see the border fence nearby as I shielded my face from the coming dust.
As he signaled out with a closed fist to our closest followers, I dismounted as well. I followed him to the torn-apart siding on the other side of the abandoned shack, where he turned on a flashlight.
The shack was ripped to shreds on the inside. Something had happened here, decimating the place. I was surprised that it was even still standing, no matter how isolated we were from the rest of the world.
“What are we doing here? Do we need something?” I asked him cautiously, following the beam of light as he scrutinized the interior.
His light beam shot downwards to the floor.
“We’re here for that,” he informed me.
That was a massive hole in the living room floor. It was a tunnel, digging downwards at a slope beneath the house.
“So when you said we were going under the border,” I murmured aloud.
“When I first enlisted with the Devil’s Dragons they were still running drugs. It was a huge operation, kept totally under wraps and beneath the noses of the law. Eduardo commissioned some people to excavate this little smuggling tunnel… It runs right under that fence, and straight out the other side.”
“Jesus,” I muttered. “This is how you guys flew down to attack the cartel before?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Since guiding the club away from drug-running, I’ve kept this avenue open just in case I ever needed it. Looks like that decision finally paid off…”
“I’ll say,” I nodded.
We walked back outside and climbed back atop his motorcycle. The bikers were sitting in silence around us, shelving their antics for the res
t of our trip.
“Tunnel’s secure!” Hunter shouted. “Everyone, follow me!”
Every engine near us revved in anticipation as his motorcycle flared to life. I covered my ears briefly to keep my hearing intact, and heard a little chuckle from my chauffeur.
Always the charmer, Hunter flashed me a quick grin, and then we were off. We drove straight into the shack and roared down into the tunnel, followed by our fleet of armed bikers.
I clung to him as we shot forward in the dark, our way illuminated only by headlights. The sounds of the other engines rumbled down the tunnel around us, threatening to deafen us.
Hunter didn’t seem even remotely bothered by the ear-piercing sound. I found myself wondering how he managed to hold quiet conversations, given how unwavering he was when it came to deafening engine roars.
It was exhilarating.
It was frightening.
But I felt secure here, my hips straddling Hunter’s engine while we were backed up by a large flock of his Outlaws. His own men were mingled into the crowd, and every one of these bikers had undoubtedly killed men and performed all manners of illegal, illicit activities.
Oh god, if Daddy could see me now he’d lose his fucking shit. A knowing smile crossed my lips. Would that be before or after the inevitable heart attack?
After a few minutes of heart-pounding excitement rolling through the wide tunnel, I could finally see the exit.
Hunter double-tapped his brakes again, signaling to the crowd to begin slowing down.
The ground started to slope back up again. When we came up on the other side, it looked like our exit point was disguised as a large and completely empty water tank.
Everyone came to a slow stop as Hunter turned his bike and killed his engine. Although we could only see maybe half of the fleet, the acoustics off the rusted, metal interior of the massive tank meant his voice could travel.
Hunter made good use of that quality. He dismounted his bike, stepping in front to call out to the entire band of men.
“Outlaws and Dragons… this is the last time I address you all. Once we cross outside, we pass straight into enemy territory, and I’ll have to trust all of you to understand how to handle yourselves on cartel turf.
“Tonight, you represent your clubs for the reigning leader of the Outlaws. Show me the best of the Severed Sixteen, or the Winged Scorpions, or the Moonlight Riders, or the Twin Spears. Show me, brothers, what it means to you to be a fucking Outlaw!”
The assembled fleet all cheered out, fists and guns in the air. Hunter waited for the sounds to subside before continuing.
“All of you are under my jurisdiction tonight, and my responsibility… and I intend on sending each and every last one of you back to your club presidents with my undying gratitude. There is no dishonor in retreating. I will not speak ill of your clubs, nor will I disbar them from the Outlaws. You have answered my call of your own volition. If you mean to continue riding with me, glory and vengeance await. But if you mean to turn back, this is the fucking time to do it.”
“Never!” A biker shouted out, fist pumped into the air. The others met his conviction, shouting at the top of their lungs.
“We are brothers, all of us,” he addressed the clubs, “and tonight… tonight, we fight together. Follow my lead. When we arrive at the safe-house, our mission is to rescue every kidnapped girl we find, and put a bullet in the head of every sack of shit cartel member we find. Once we’ve cleared the place, you can fill your saddle bags with as much goddamned cash as you can carry, but make it fast. We want to be in and out before any of their friends arrive. To all who will join me… let’s show these fuckers how we do shit in Texas. BOYS, LET’S GET SOME!”
The bikers roared into a chorus of cheers, jeers, and vicious taunts as Hunter walked up to me, utilizing the quick distraction.
“We’ll be fine,” he told me, apparently sensing my apprehension. “And I might have a little surprise for you…”
“A surprise?” I shouted, the roar of engines deafening within the confines of the water tank.
“I think we might just find your cheerleaders tonight…”
“What?” His words practically blindsided me. I immediately demanded: “How?”
“According to the Desert Owl and the little rat bastard he’s keeping company, the cartel’s been having trouble selling those girls.”
“You’re fucking kidding.”
“Not at all,” he replied calmly. “I guess the national media attention made it hard to pass off their pretty little faces… Nobody wants that kind of potential heat.”
“…Then they might just be here, tonight,” I realized with a mixture of hope and disbelief. “That’s one hell of a lucky fucking break, Hunter.”
“Not as lucky as you’d think. My old friends have been getting brash. I’m banking on the hope that they’ve gotten sloppy, too…”
Could it be true? Would we find the missing cheerleaders tonight? I thought about those implications for a moment as he continued. Maybe my career didn’t have to end. If I showed back up to the lieutenant with those cheerleaders in tow they’d give me the goddamned key to the city!
But… After all I’d done out here… Did I want to go back?
This wasn’t the time to be thinking about that… It was time to ride. Hunter stepped over his bike and helped lift me onto the seat behind him. In a deafening roar, we rolled out into the desert. It was about twenty minutes later that we finally met a trail. Hunter swung us south, guiding us along the dirt road until we finally came up on a dilapidated complex in the distance. We stopped for a moment, the anticipation around us buzzing like electricity.
“What the fuck is that?” I hissed over the engine. “Is that the place?”
“Welcome to Víboras Verde,” he grimly replied. “This is where they’re basing all their ongoing operations… Right in my own fucking back yard.”
“That’s no safe house I’ve ever seen, Hunter,” I told him with mounting fear. “That’s a fortified goddamn compound… do we have enough men? Can we even fight that?”
“Well, Detective… we’re about to fucking find out,” he replied. His body tensed as he hit the accelerator, roaring us forwards.
Chapter 18
As we skidded to a stop around the side of the complex, Hunter leapt off the bike. Dragging me to the dirt with him, he hissed into my ear:
“You sure you’re ready for this?”
I nodded, pulling my Glock from my holster.
He reciprocated the nod, rising up beside me with his hand against the outer wall. He slipped me a pair of goggles and put his own on as the bikers swung out around us, kicking up a fierce cloud of dust with their arrival.
I covered my mouth and held my breath with my free hand, following his vague shape as he pressed forward along the side of the building. I could hear the others dismounting, locking, and loading as a swarm.
The cloud began to dissipate just as the moon came through the cloud cover. It shone down on the complex, and I studied it quickly at a glance.
It was a low-hung set of adobe buildings, with a small warehouse attachment. A northward tower looked to be in construction, and some unfinished and half-assembled lights were laying about atop scaffolds and on the rooftops.
Hunter was right.
If we’d waited any longer to strike this place, we’d have lost our chance to hit them hard. They were still setting up shop, but soon, this place would be a fortress.
“This is it,” he murmured, hiding behind cover near the open front entrance. I crept up to his side, flanked in my approach by at least a dozen bikers. “Fortune favors us tonight, detective. This base is one hell of a shit-show…”
“But why?” I asked quietly. “Why risk moving somewhere like this when the place is barely together?”
“No idea,” he murmured. “I can only guess that the other cartels have been pushing them forward, taking territory further South.”
Hunter nodded to the other biker
s, gave a signal, and watched as they quickly checked their weapons. With everyone satisfied, he adjusted his signal, and the team scampered out in front.
It wasn’t more than a few seconds before a few cartel gunmen with automatic weapons poured out into the open. Fanning out in a defensible formation, they strolled out and rained down gunfire as the bikers ducked behind vehicles and whatever cover they could find. Hunter and I watched from behind the cover. I was preparing to fire off a few rounds before he held up a cease-fire hand.
“No… not yet. Let’s not signal our position until they’re distracted…”
“They’re sitting ducks out there!” I hissed.
“These are the Outlaws you’re talking about,” Hunter informed me. “They can hold their own… just watch.”
The cartel formation continued fanning out, separating to cover more ground. A few of the nearer bikers, ducked behind a truck, glanced to Hunter for instruction.
He made a quick motion, earning the attention of the closest gunman. The bastard let loose some rifle fire our way, the rounds unable to penetrate the thick wall, but it gave the sequestered bikers the opening they needed.
We heard the gunman fall with an anguished shriek, and the others turned to return firepower. That pulled them away from their searches, allowing a few Outlaws to find more offensive positions along the edges… The bikers made use of the shadows, firing pot shots from the dark. Some stayed mobile, moving around when not in a line of sight, quietly creeping around to attack from a new vantage point.
The cartel fighters seemed to realize their error. They were standing directly in the moonlight and unable to see their enemies. They decided to rush the shadows, firing off a sweeping round in a wide circle.
“Now!” Hunter snarled.
The bikers descended from the shadows in an ambush and I watched as our enemies fell. The last two threw down their arms in surrender, and Hunter led me forward quickly.
