Patriot

by KJ Dahlen

  The MC had been busy while he was away. He squatted on his haunches and studied the area well before he moved. He’d already taken note of the outside cameras and he knew there were men in the woods searching for him or any other intruder.

  Damen had enjoyed this particular game before. Outfoxing the fox. He’d been playing it for years with the SANG group. While he preferred to get in and out with no one knowing he was even there, he knew the others did not know how to do this particular skill. Including Jase. Jase Brunner was a bastard of the worst kind. He enjoyed inflicting pain on his victims. If he were sent here to collect the girl, she would never survive the trip back to Kansas City. Jase would have no trouble lying to the boss about how she died either. He’d done that before. He would lay the blame on the MC, rather than tell the truth. Then all hell would break out, as Levi Silvers wanted his daughter’s return, not her death.

  He would turn his wrath on the MC and Damen knew there would be no man standing when Levi got done. Now, Damen didn’t mind taking out the bad guys, he enjoyed it actually, but these guys had done nothing wrong. In fact, what they had done... was protect the girl. Blacky did deserve what happened to him and he was glad that bastard was gone. Blacky had known exactly who the girl was from the time he got his hands on her. Instead of calling Levi, he used and abused her to the point where she almost died several times.

  When he met with the man, he almost bragged about his deeds. Then he betrayed Levi one last time when he beat her and left her for dead. For that, he allowed the Warriors to take back his head as proof of death.

  Then Damen’s sixth sense kicked in as his spidey alarms raised the short hairs on the back of his neck. There was someone else in these woods with him. Damen went still for a moment and slowed his heartbeat. Then he used the skills he’d been taught. He soon tuned into where he thought the threat was coming from. When he turned his head, he saw Jase standing twenty some yards from where he was. The man was staring at the clubhouse.

  Jase’s eyes glittered with rage as he slowly took two steps forward and stopped again. He stared for the longest time, then simply turned and walked out of the woods.

  Damen was stunned at his actions. Then he sat down on the ground and leaned back against the tree to think about the situation. If Jase was already here, then Levi hadn’t trusted him to get the mission done in the first place. Damen gritted his teeth against the feeling of being betrayed by his own boss.

  The longer he sat there, the more he knew he was right. Levi hadn’t trusted him to do his job and that pissed him the hell off. He’d done everything the man ever asked him to do over the last fifteen or twenty years. He’d gotten his hands dirty and bloody when the occasion needed it. He’d taken business meetings and late night rendezvous with business men that didn’t want to be seen in his company.

  He got pissed off and grabbed his phone to text Levi. The message was short and not so sweet. After he pressed send, Damen shut off his phone. He didn’t want to get either a phone call or a text. Then he stood up and reached for the weapon at his side.

  He put the gun on semi auto and sprayed the building with a spray of gunfire, not meant to hit anyone but to warn them and put the MC on notice that they were being watched.

  Then Damen turned and walked away. He might find it near impossible to get close enough to the clubhouse to grab the girl now, but so would Jase. Fuck him. He had to grin as he walked through the woods.

  Levi Silvers was still in his office when Damen’s text came through. His chuckle slowly died when he read it, the frown deepened as the words hit him in the gut like a fist to his stomach.

  At first, he couldn’t believe the words his man had written, then he growled as the words finally got through to his brain. He hit the number to dial and when it went to voicemail, Levi snapped, shouting out on his text to speech to an empty phone, “You little bastard, how dare you speak to me like that? Yes, I sent Jase to follow you. I expected you to find my daughter and bring her home to me weeks ago and yet, you didn’t. You told me you found her that you actually found the baby Randy Sheen took from me. I couldn’t wait for you to get the lead out of your ass and bring her back to me. Jase assured me he could get the job done and faster than you could. So yeah, I sent him after you and he assured me my daughter would be back here in a couple of days. So one way or the other, I would have her back with me.”

  He waited for a reply but none came back. Levi grew more upset with Damen than ever before. At midnight, he called Jase instead. When Jase answered the phone he growled, “Have you made contact with Damen Cole by chance?”

  “No I haven’t seen him yet, why?”

  “Because he knows you’re there. He left a message on my phone and he’s not happy with the fact I didn’t wait to send you in,” Levi grumbled.

  Jase’s lips tightened at his response to this news from his boss. He figured Damen had seen him today outside the MC clubhouse. That wasn’t supposed to happen. “I found where she’s being held. He must have been watching the place as well.”

  “Find her and get her out of there,” Levi demanded angrily. “Bring her home to me and she better be alive when you do or don’t even think about returning here,” Levi warned him as he hung up the call.

  Jase felt the rage building inside him threaten to boil over. Jase was the one sent out when they wanted no survivors, no witnesses and he was very good at his job. Levi had assured him he could dispatch as many of the group holding his daughter as he wanted and Jase had plans already for his daughter to get caught in the crossfire. He didn’t really care that Levi had waited twenty some odd years to find her, he was going to be paid either way but now, he had to make sure she was alive until he got her home.

  Now, Jase smiled but no mirth could be found in his eyes. Well, he could always blame a dead man, a dead man named Damen.

  Today had been a fact finding mission for Jase. He had to recon the area he would need to infiltrate to find the girl and he had. He hadn’t gotten inside the clubhouse but he’d gotten as close as he could.

  These men were lax in their security and while the front gates were locked, he had found another way inside. He was going back after dark. He would gain access to the clubhouse and just waste whoever he met. He felt so confident in his finely honed skills, he didn’t even worry that he might not make it out of there.

  They had no warning when the spray of bullets hit the outside of the clubhouse. Inside was pure chaos for a moment as the women screamed and the men scrambled for cover.

  Harry pulled Annie down to the floor and covered her own body with his.

  Gunner ran to the kitchen in a crouched position to check on his woman and daughters.

  Cobra swore and ran to the front door to peek out the window and try to spot the shooter.

  But after the first short spray, no one could see or hear anything.

  Patriot had taken off down the hall to his bedroom to check on Becky. He found her crouched in the corner of the room with her hands covering her head. She was pale and terrified but thankfully, she hadn’t been shot.

  When she spotted Patriot, she got to her feet and ran into his arms. She just held him. He grabbed hold of her and together, they held onto one another. When he tried to put some space between them, so he could check her out, she surprised him and hiked herself up into his arms then she wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck.

  “Please don’t let me go,” she whispered in his ear. “This is the only place I feel safe. Right here in your arms.”

  “Babe, I’m not letting you go anywhere. You’re mine.” He tried to assure her. “Come on, we need to get back to the others.” He turned and carried her back to the main room.

  The others were gathering there and the men were standing guard at all the windows.

  “What the fuck was that?” Gunner demanded as he paced in front of where his family was sitting.

  Patriot carried Becky over to where Annie and Harry were sitting. He tried to put
her down but she wouldn’t release him. He kept her in his arms but turned to look at Gunner.

  Rigger had moved his laptop out to the main room and seemed to be staring at the monitor, carefully checking out the cameras.

  Gunner paused and looked at his IT man. “Are you seeing anyone out there in the woods?” he growled.

  Rigger shook his head. “There’s no thermal activity out there at all. I was picking up a signature, two in fact, about twenty minutes ago but nothing now.” He looked up at his president. “Whoever was out there is gone.”

  Gunner swore and wanted to put his fist through the wall. Looking around the room, he snapped, “What the hell just happened then?”

  Cobra cleaned his throat and turned his head slowly to look at Gunner. “Did you notice anything weird about the shots he fired?”

  Gunner’s frown deepened. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? What’s so weird about someone spraying the clubhouse with bullets? Isn’t it obvious, he was hoping to kill us? This fucker wants a war he thinks he can win.”

  “Think about it for a minute,” Cobra said. “Where did all the bullets hit the clubhouse?”

  “What the hell do you mean?” Boone asked as he stood behind Winona.

  “Think dammit.” Cobra snarled. “The bastard shot high and wide. He wasn’t shooting to kill but to give us a warning.”

  “A warning?” Gunner paused. “Why would he give us a fucking warning? He wanted us to know he was coming for Becky. Well, I got news for the fucker, he may be coming for her, but he isn’t going to get to her. He’s gonna have to go through me and every other man here to get to her and boyo, that just isn’t in the cards.”

  “Fucking hell!” Rigger swore as he looked up at Gunner. “We got another man to worry about. The monitor caught a second man in the woods. Damen was the one that shot up the place but there was another man out there before he got trigger happy and it doesn’t look like Damen’s all that happy that he’s here.”

  Gunner went over to the monitor Rigger set up. He was joined by Cobra, Jett, and Boone. The others gathered behind them and tried to get a look at the video of what had happened outside.

  Apparently, Damen knew where the cameras were located but the new man had no idea he was being filmed. They watched him as he walked along the perimeter. His face wasn’t one they knew but they memorized it as he found what he thought was a breach in the fence line.

  He paused and glared at the clubhouse in anticipation for later. Then he turned and simply walked away.

  Next, Damen got up from his crouched position and glared in the direction the first man had taken. He turned and looked at the clubhouse then a few minutes later, he lifted his gun and sprayed the front of the house.

  Gunner frowned as he took note of the fact that Damen aimed his weapon high and his spray was wide. He snapped his head over to Cobra.

  Cobra gave him a knowing nod.

  Damen hadn’t intended for his bullets to hit anyone at all. This shooting had been a warning of some kind but what? Damen was here for Becky, they knew that much. But all his shots had done was give them a warning about the second man.

  Gunner hadn’t expected this. “Why would he make sure we knew about the second man?”

  “I have no clue but he was here earlier,” Rigger replied. “He could plainly see the cameras.”

  “Well hell,” Cobra added. “He even waved at us from one of the cameras before.”

  Boone looked a bit aggravated. “Is this what that was? A warning, letting us know he wasn’t alone out there?”

  “Could be.” Gunner agreed, as he looked puzzled. “The real question is why?”

  Chapter Eight

  Damen knew he couldn’t stay where he'd been holed up all these days. If Jase already knew where the club was then he knew where Damen was staying. He would have to move quickly if he wanted to stay ahead of the game now, with Jase being sent in.

  The spray of bullets he gave the club was just a warning but he had to hope they would figure that out before Jase returned. Damen slipped into his room and grabbed his go bag. Less than five minutes later he slipped out again, leaving under the cover of darkness but making sure he wasn’t being followed.

  He learned a long time ago not to be predictable. He’d been working for the SANG group for the last twenty plus years. Maybe he was just getting tired of all the stress and never getting any recognition. Jase was younger, stronger and more lethal, but Damen had experience working for him.

  Jase liked to leave a mess when he went after a client, he loved the blood and the gore. He thought showing his customers the end results was more important than just getting the job done.

  Damen sadly shook his head thinking about the shock and awe Jase loved to create. He knew it wasn’t always the way to send the best message. Levi enjoyed the fear he often brought out from his victims. The sheer terror of never knowing when or if he was coming after them, Levi felt happy knowing that he was the number one threat to the men he dealt with.

  Jase worked for another section of the SANG Group. All four men had their own assassin. Jase usually worked for Samuel Niger, but they all drew paychecks from the group, so the four of them worked for whomever needed them.

  Using one of his many alias names, Damen checked himself into another place that had individual cabins for their guests. He opened the cabin door and went inside. He left the room in darkness while he made sure he wasn’t followed. His game, his rules...and he knew if he didn’t take precautions, he might get caught in the crossfire and that wasn’t a place he wanted to be.

  First off, he set out motion sensors that would give him the time needed to possibly get out of harm's way, should it come looking for him. Then he settled himself on the bed and turned his phone back on.

  He grinned slightly at the fourteen messages from Levi. It was only after he read them all...that he wasn’t smiling anymore. Levi had made himself perfectly clear on several points and added a new twist. Damen was now the hunted one in this game of chance. Levi had given Jase orders to bring both Becky and Damen back. Seems he would have to answer for his insolence earlier. Only he’d seen Jase before he went off on Levi and it was a long drive from here to Kansas City, so Damen knew Levi hadn’t had any reason to keep the promise he made about giving him a week.

  Damen knew what Levi meant by the order, it was an order to bring him home—dead or alive.

  He laid back against his pillow and just stared at the ceiling for a moment.

  Levi had never shared the story of what happened back then with the baby girl, but Damen thought he had pieced enough of it together. He knew from dealing with Levi for most of his adult life what kind of man Levi was but he never expected this of him. Levi knew almost from the start, who'd murdered his wife and stole his child, he just needed proof. He was there the day they found Randy and his family. But they'd missed him but only minutes. Damen was the one who’d found the small grey bunny. It was a toy his daughter might have played with, so Damen took it to him.

  Levi’s eyes when he saw the toy told their own story. He hadn’t wanted the toy... he wanted Randy Sheen broken and bleeding in front of him. He didn’t even ask if there had been pictures of his child. He didn’t know then if it was a boy or a girl and he didn’t care.

  Damen had just watched as he got back in his fucking limo and rode away.

  Levi did not give a fuck but Damen had gone back into the house and searched it well. In one of the bedrooms, he found what he was looking for. A photograph of two small children. Both were girls and he knew the youngest one was Levi’s daughter.

  He took the photo with him and carried it everywhere he went from that day forward. Levi didn’t deserve to get her back. He had been searching all these years for Randy because he dared to take something away from Levi, when he should have been looking for his daughter.

  Now she did have a crazy man looking for her. Jase...

  Damen had a choice to make, would he stay and help Jase or would he
finally turn his back on the SANG group and protect the girl he’d been looking for all this time? Either choice left him cold but he had known that one day... he would have to make this choice.

  Patriot was looking out the slats of the window covering, into the dark of night. As if Blacky hadn’t screwed over the club enough, now they had to deal with someone who wasn’t even a member. Randy Sheen had been a piss poor excuse of a man all his life and what he did to those two girls, left a bad taste in Patriot’s mouth.

  Luckily for him, his woman had a sister like Annie. He turned his head and looked at his bed where Becky was resting. She was still recovering from dealing with Blacky and now, they had to deal with someone coming here to try and take her away again.

  His hands tightened into fists as he turned to face the dark again. He couldn’t even contemplate losing his Becky now. She had worked her way into his heart and he’d be damned if he’d allow anyone to take her away from him. All this time while she’d been ill, he’d been falling for her. The courage she had, the pure tenacity to live and get better. After all the things Blacky had done to her, beneath all the misery, she still had hope and was still full of light.

  This Damen Cole would be lucky to still be alive when the club was done with him. What worried him though was the second man they saw outside. Who was he and what did he want here?

  When he turned back to Becky, he smiled as he found her awake and looking at him. She held out her hand to beckon him to come to her and he did. He closed the slats though first. He joined her in the bed and cuddled in behind her. “You will be safe here sweetheart,” he whispered in her ear.

  Becky nodded. “I know. I just wish it wasn’t necessary.”

  “It won’t always be this way.” He caressed her hair with his hand to soothe her. “We’ll take care of this Damen Cole person as well as anyone else who shows up to try and take you. This is your home now.”