“You got my loyalty, Prez. You’ve always had it from the first day I came to Haven, that’s not changed, and I will support my brothers who have stepped up into the officer positions now,” I said and the others just looked at me and grinned, which I had no clue why. I’d been a Prospect with Hawk, Keg, and the others. Each of us had joined Haven at roughly the same time and around a year before I was so called imprisoned, we had been full members in Haven.
Wild Bill stood from the leaned position he had on the desk and walked to stand in front of me. “I never doubted that, Moose.” He held the cut that he had in his hand out to me and nodded for me to take it. When I held it up, looking at it more closely, it was mine from before I had left. My brows creased as I looked at the addition to it and when I looked back at my prez, he grinned.
“Haven was lucky the day you join us. And the team became complete that day too. I’d be honored to have you at my back on a permanent basis. You’d been there before just as the others but we had to hold off on getting rid of Stone out of the club leadership because we were hoping he would lead us to who he was working for. The fucker wanted the club but I think that was to be his payoff for helping someone else, a bigger player. After you left and went overseas with Grayson’s team to cover for your supposed jail term, that was when we were going to grab Stone and Jacks. Use other means to get the info we needed but they went on the run. Someone had to have known we were close to getting him and gave him a heads up.” I was left speechless as I slid the cut over my t-shirt. “You along with this bunch are going to help me get this club back to the strong club it was before Stone infected it, and as far as our other jobs, we get the best of both worlds, doing things we like, and on our terms.
“Welcome back, Moose, to Haven and to the team,” Wild Bill said as he shook my right hand and I ran my left hand over the patch that showed I was Haven’s new Sergeant at Arms.
Chapter One
Moose
Keg pulled the van around the back of the clubhouse and parked as close as he could get to the concrete stairs that led down to the entrance of the club’s basement. I opened the passenger door, got out, slammed it shut, and before I moved away, I bent from side to side the stretch out my frame. I hated fucking cages. It probably had to do with the fact there weren’t many vehicles built with a guy my size in mind.
“Damn, I’m beat. Let’s get these two inside,” Keg said from the back of the van.
“Yeah, lock them up and then we can go upstairs to the bar. I don’t know about you, but I could use a cold one, and a couple aspirin. We should have gagged those assholes before we left Black Hawk. Sad it only took fifty miles of their whining and bitching to give me a damn headache.” I rubbed my temples and moved beside Keg as he opened the rear doors to the van, which revealed the two men bungee-corded back to back as they sat in the middle, each of their ankles zip-tied along with their wrists.
Keg and I reached in, unhooked the bungee cord, and grabbed an arm of one of the men. Both tried to jerk out of our hands, probably do to the gunshot wounds they were both sporting. After we had them standing, the door to the basement opened and Shock walked up the concrete steps. When he reached us, he looked the two men up and down and spit on the ground in front of them.
“They give you boys any trouble?” Shock asked just as Keg cut the zip-tie on Jacks’s feet and he kicked out just missing Keg’s head. Before Keg could react, Shock moved forward and coldcocked Jacks, jarring his head to the side. When I looked down at Shock’s hand, I noticed for the first time he wore brass knuckles.
“Come prepared, did ya?” I chuckled as Jacks moaned behind the duct tape across his mouth. I bent down, sliced the tie on Stone’s ankles, and stood back up. I looked at Stone who had stiffened and was staring at Shock, a little fear shining in his eyes. He should fear Shock; a lot of people did. He and Freak were the oldest members in the club. Both were in their sixties and both had been in POW camps in the Vietnam War. Some of the things that I’d heard were done to them would have broken a lesser man. They carried the mental and physical abuse they had endured as a badge for the times.
“Prepared keeps you alive. Besides, didn’t want the snakes to slither away.” Shock pulled off the brass knuckles and placed them in his pocket as he started to walk behind Keg who dragged Jacks down the steps and through the door.
Stone tried to talk behind his own tape as I led him and followed Shock. When we walked down the short hallway it opened up into a large room. We called it the common room, it held a TV, a couple sofas, and a few chairs. Off to one side were stairs that led up to the kitchen of the main part of the clubhouse, and under the steps was another doorway that led to a soundproof room with a couple cells. Not that we kept people prisoner every day, but it was there if we needed it, like now.
The sounds of boots made us turn toward the stairs and we watched as Wild Bill and Hawk made their way down into the room.
“Prez,” Keg and I said at the same time as we led the men under the stairs and into the room that held the cells with Wild Bill and Hawk behind us. Shock opened the first cell and Keg ripped the tape off Jacks’s mouth and pushed him in. I did the same with Stone once Shock closed the door to Jacks’s cell and opened the other one.
“You goddamn fuckers, when I get out of here, I’m going to kill every damn one of you,” Stone bitched as he rubbed his hand over his mouth where the tape had been ripped away.
“Wallace, long time no see. Awful mouthy considering.” Wild Bill stood in front of the door to the cell. Stone stared back at the Prez and sneered.
“That stupid cunt, I should have gotten rid of her with her mother,” Stone said and I reached through the bars, grabbed him around his neck, and pulled him against the bars.
“You want that tape back on your damned mouth? When we are done with you, you’re gonna wish Crusher would have finished you off. You’re done, Stone, you just haven’t realized it yet.” I released the hold on his neck and shoved him back. He stumbled briefly but didn’t fall. I looked over at Jacks who hadn’t said a word and saw that he was looking toward the door. I looked over my shoulder and Freak stood in the doorway with a smirk on his face.
“Welcome to the party, boys. Shock and I have been waiting for you,” Freak said and stepped in the room.
“Ah, Freak, they may give us what we need and then you and Shock’s services won’t be needed,” Wild Bill said and Hawk, Keg, and I chuckled when Freak frowned at the Prez.
“You mean I let Spitfire and Rattler go hungry for nothin’, Prez?” I watched Jacks’s eyes go wide at Freak’s words and it took everything in me not to burst out laughing. Those damn snakes were Freak’s babies, there would be no way he would let them go hungry. He and Shock were the only members who had permanent rooms at the clubhouse and even with the spare rooms upstairs, they chose to occupy the only two bedrooms in the basement.
Wild Bill had said it gave them a place to go when the noise got too loud around the clubhouse or their own safe haven when the past surfaced to remind them they couldn’t lock those memories away forever. PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, was the medical term everyone liked to use; Freak and Shock, though, referred to it as the price they paid for being young and serving their country. Something they would go through again if they were needed.
“Bullshit, you ain’t going to do anything, old man,” Stone said as he stared down Freak. “This is why the club should’ve been mine, you and your fuck buddy would have been the first to go.” Even with the whispers that were heard through the club, mainly due to the men not having old ladies or being seen with any women, but no one in the club had witnessed them acting anything other than the close friends they were. Frankly, who gave two shits, sexual preference belonged to the individual. Not one man in the club, including myself, could say the two weren’t the epitome of what brotherhood was about.
“Cocksucker, have you been using too much of your own product or soaking your liver with booze? Don’t let the grey hair fo
ol ya, we could kill you six different ways before you even clued into what the fuck was happening to you. So keep thinking you would have controlled Haven, ‘cause I don’t consider five minutes to be a leadership term and that would have been the amount of time you’d held the prez position,” Shock said and moved to stand by Freak.
“We’re going to get some things setup for when you need us. Those two are going down just like the other two that shot Carly. They talked big too, but in the end, they were the ones standing in soiled pants and we were the ones with the info,” Freak said and then he and Shock walked out. Christ, the two of them were crazy as hell.
“You’re one stupid fucker, Stone,” Hawk said and shook his head.
“Well, look who speaks. Heard Wild Bill allowed some of the young pups to move up. Think they’re going to help you keep your position and the club. Please, you hold that spot only because of your old man. If I would have gotten more support from some of the pussy members, you would be gone just like your dad.” Stone moved back and sat down on the cot when he finished with his little speech geared toward the Prez. I watched Stone’s and Jacks’s eyes, their mannerisms, every twitch of the muscles on their faces. It would tell a story, at least if you knew what to look for. I’d always been good at reading people. When I was in the military they tagged me as a profiler because I could take information, pictures, anything else about a subject, and piece it together until it felt as though I was in on the person’s thoughts, enabling me to map his/her movements. Having them both here allowing me to monitor them personally... I didn’t think it would take long for us to bust any others who were involved with Stone but trying to lay low under the radar.
I ran his rant over in my head and something in his statement hit me. When I zoned back into my surroundings, Wild Bill was stepping even closer to the cage door.
“You don’t know what the word loyalty means, dumbass. But I will say, the stupidest move my dad made was allowing you and your,” Prez fanned his hand in Jacks’s direction, “goddamn punk ass boys to move into any leadership positions with Haven. I could stand here and argue with you back and forth over shit that has went down, but why waste the breath, you’re inside that cell and I’m standing out here.” Wild Bill turned his back on Stone and Jacks and faced us. “Let’s go upstairs, have a beer. I’ve changed my mind on giving them the opportunity to answer our questions without a little incentive. They can answer to Shock and Freak.” Prez headed for the door, Hawk, Keg, and I turned to follow.
“Hey, what about our wounds and some food!” Stone yelled.
I heard the clink noise as either Stone or Jacks hit their cell door, then looked over my shoulder at Keg who was behind me and the last one exiting the room. He stopped before pulling the door shut.
“Why? Not like you’re going to get a chance for the wounds to kill you or even a chance for starvation to work a number on you.” Keg looked at me and winked before he pulled the door shut.
I chuckled and we headed toward the stairs. Once upstairs with a cold beer in hand, I shared my thoughts on Stone as we gathered around the bar in the corner.
“Prez, when your dad was shot in that deal gone bad, who was on the run with him?”
“Why? What are thinking, Moose?”
“Stone’s statement about you being gone like your dad. We know he killed Carly’s mom by making it look like an overdose. Are you sure the bastard didn’t shoot your pops?” Wild Bill frowned at my words and was quiet in thought as if remembering that time.
“Stone, Creeper, Jacks, and a couple of the other members went on that run with my dad. Dad had gone because it was a new contact and partnership and they wanted to meet with the president of the club. A matter of fact, the other two who went were Prospects.” I could tell Wild Bill was trying to put all the pieces together and knew the moment he did.
“What did you remember, Prez?” The others and I waited for him to speak.
“Never thought about this but the two Prospects, Boots and Mic, were in a fatal crash a week later. And they just so happened to be out on an errand for Stone when they were run off the road because a pickup was passing an eighteen wheeler and was in their lane. They swerved to the right to miss it but their tires hit the soft shoulder and sent them over the incline, flipping the bikes, and they were pronounced dead on the scene. The trucker had pulled over and ran back to try to help, the pickup just kept going. The driver was able to give a description of the truck and a plate number to the cops but the plate had been stolen off a car from California and the truck itself had been found the next day, abandoned and burnt out, leaving no prints to run for the driver. The cops had thought it had to do with a group that was jacking cars, breaking them down, and selling the parts, but figured they burnt that one out because of the accident and deaths of the two men. What you are thinking is more logically. Just something else to get to the bottom of with Stone because I wouldn’t put anything past the asshole.”
“Prez, I also think it goes deeper than just wanting to be president of Haven. Stone stayed on the run for several years. He had to be getting money from somewhere to live and stay hidden until just recently. That tells me his cash flow was cut off and club life is all he knows so he was heading back here. Him going after Carly, well, in his mind, he saw her as the beginning of his downfall, even as misguided as that sounds,” just as I finished my theory the music went up and the club party picked up. Prez looked around and then leaned in so we could hear him over the music.
“I’m heading home; we can go over more of this tomorrow. Hawk, make sure Stone and Jacks get some damn food. As much as I might want them dead, I would much rather get some answers,” Wild Bill said and set his beer bottle down on the bar.
“Sure thing, Prez. See you tomorrow.” Wild Bill nodded to us.
“If you party too hard, stay in the rooms upstairs. Don’t want a call one of you are dead or locked up because your ass rode drunk.” Prez slapped Keg on the back as he passed him headed for the door.
“Your dad has worked hard to bring this club back, Keg. It sure will be nice when it’s a hundred percent healthy.
“Agree, brother. I can’t remember a day since he has been Prez that he hasn’t had to worry about something going on with this club,” Keg said and took a swig of beer.
“Hopefully, we can get it done this time around,” Crank said and we all agreed.
“Well, let’s enjoy tonight because I have a feeling that starting tomorrow—shit is going to get real,” I said and looked at each of my brothers.
“Your gut talking, Moose?” Tram asked.
“Yeah, and it’s telling me things are going to change. I just hope for the better.” I walked off leaving them with my last thought on the matter. At least for the night.
Chapter Two
Kathryn
“Dr. Stevens, you have a call on line three,” Sandy, the desk nurse, said as I walked up and laid my last patient’s file on the counter.
“Thanks, Sandy.” I picked up the phone and pushed the button for the call that was on hold and said, “Dr. Stevens.”
“Katie?”
“Dad, you never call me at the hospital. Is everything okay with Mom?” Paul Stevens, my dad, never called me at work, shit, the man hardly called me at all unless my mother needed her prescriptions filled. Mary Stevens was diagnosed bipolar ten years ago and it had been rough for all of us. She would go from the cheerful mother and wife, to the depressed woman who couldn’t even get dressed. The physician to finally take the time to get her meds correct worked with me at the hospital. It didn’t matter how many times I told them that they needed to call his office, they ignored me. So now, I was left contacting his office to have them call in her prescriptions to the local pharmacy by their house. It was less traumatic that way.
“Kathryn, I don’t have time for you to get an attitude with me,” my dad said and I rolled my eyes. The man never had time for anything or anyone that wasn’t one of his precious clients.
“I am busy, Dad, if not for Mom, why did you call?” I flipped through the chart of the next patient waiting to be seen while I listened to my dad talk.
“Katie, you need to be more diligent about your surroundings. And if anyone comes around and mentions knowing me or makes you uncomfortable, call me.” My dad’s voice took a tone that I had never heard in his voice. Worry? Fear?
Snatched: MC Romance (Haven MC Book 1) Page 2
