by Ryan Michele
“Need to move him into the woods for a few.” Dagger says. “And make it quick. It’s quiet but not for long.” His words piss me off. I’d love nothing more than to take my time ripping this asshole to shreds.
“Get up!” I kick him with my boot and he grunts, but doesn’t get up. I nod to Rhys and Dagger to pick the asshole up by his arms and move him further into the darkness. I punch him hard sending his head flying to the side. I hear a faint laugh coming from Jace’s lips. “What the fuck are you laughing about?” I punch again his head snapping back.
“You’re a stupid bunch of fucking idiots.” He says spitting blood out of his mouth. Dagger and Rhys pull on his arms tight, almost yanking them out of the socket.
“What the fuck did you just say?” I lift my leg kicking him hard in the ribs.
“Paine was right. You all are a bunch of fucking sheep, following each other around. Where do you think he is right now? Burning down your clubhouse or fucking your girls?” He laughs. This time I don’t stop each punch as I feel his bones break under my knuckles.
“Stop!” Pops barks and it takes every ounce of willpower to do so. “How the fuck do you know Paine?”
“He’s going to destroy every single one of you assholes. So, go ahead and kill me, I don’t fucking care. I did my part.”
My body shudders and my breathing is rapid. I pull away from them and grab my phone dialing Angel.
On the second ring, my mind believes the worst and I yell for her to pick up the damn phone. On the fourth ring, she finally does. “G.T.?” her voice is soft.
“Baby. Are you girls okay? What’s going on there?”
“We’re fine. Just fell asleep. Are you okay?” Her voice picks up as if the fog from sleep lifted.
“Good. I’ll be back in about an hour. Alright?”
“Alright. Love you.” She says.
“Love you too. Go to sleep Angel.” She hangs up the phone quickly and my breath catches imagining something happening to her. I pull the phone away from my ear and quickly dial Buzz.
“Bolt that fucking door. You and Breaker inside with the girls keep them in the same room. No one leaves. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Jace is hanging from Dagger and Rhys. I want to kill him. End this. But now that he knows Paine, Pops will not allow it. We’ll need to find out what the fucking connection is. Shit.
I look at Pops. “Son, he’s gotta come with us.” He digs in his pocket grabbing his phone. “Gotta call the clubhouse see if what this asshole said is right?” He walks off.
Becs steps forward. “You wanna do this or you want me?” I simply nod at him. “Tug, get the tape. Dagger and Rhys, make sure he doesn’t move, doesn’t talk. Search him and the car, then light the car up.”
I nod standing there. None of this is turning out like I fucking wanted. Pops comes up. “You tell the girls nothing. We’ll take him to the old warehouse and see what we can get out of him.” He sighs. “I know you want to end him. You will when the timing is right.” I nod, knowing the brothers wouldn’t take that pleasure away from me. “Clubhouse is fine. Brothers from Clayton are there and have everything under control. Everyone is on guard and nothing out of the ordinary. He’s feeding us a line of shit. But the fact he even knows about Paine says something and we need to figure it out.”
“He has to stay away from Angel.” The words escape my mouth without thinking, caught up in my worry.
“You think we’d let that fucker anywhere near the compound?”
“Nah. I know.” He lifts his chin and moves to the guys.
The ride back with the fucker in the back of the cage is daunting. Tug and I do not speak. The fact that we are driving this asshole back to Angel’s apartment is not lost to me, but he will be leaving as soon as they drop, me, Cruz and Becs off.
As I walk into the apartment, Angel gasps and runs into my body. I catch her and squeeze her tight. She begins patting my body frantically and under other circumstances, I’d have some smart comment, but now is not the time. “Are you okay?” She says breathlessly.
“Yeah babe. I’m good. Have a seat we gotta talk.” She moves away sitting next to Princess on the couch, Bella next to her. “Breaker you need to ride with Tug.” He nods and heads off. “Buzz you’re with us, but we’re all riding home together.” He crosses his arms over his chest.
“What’s going on, G.T.?” Princess asks grabbing Angel’s hand. I kneel down in front of Angel and look her in her lost eyes. “
“Club business. You done packing?”
“Yeah. Pretty much everything but a few things that mean nothing. Buzz loaded the car.”
I pat her leg. “Alright. We gotta get home now.”
“Okay.” She whispers.
“Load up.”
One week and three days, we have kept this fucker alive and he keeps this fucking goose chase up. We’ve gone on every fucking lead this asshole has sent us on and nothing. Each one a pile of shit. The shit from his house, Buzz did all his techy stuff and we canvassed every lead, again nothing. The thing that pissed me off most was all the fucking pictures he had of Angel on his fucking laptop. He took pictures of everything from her getting out of her car to shots inside her apartment. No fucking clue how he got those, but he had them.
I want the fucker dead, but Pops keeps saying not yet. It fucking pisses me off, but I stand by my Prez and he keeps telling me to beat the shit out of him, which is not a bad release. We’re on the lookout for the fucker’s dad. After searching for him, he miraculously disappeared, but Deara, Princess’s friend has one lead, her boys are checking out. We just sit and wait.
We have learned that Casey was Paine’s target. She is, after all, a brother’s kid and he wants blood. It was Jace’s job to get in good with her and supposedly that’s all he was told. I think it’s a bunch of fucking shit that he’s spewing.
Angel is back to herself in more ways than one. The crying has all but halted. I know she misses Mia, fuck I do too, but she is no longer crying every minute of the day. She doesn’t think I notice though that she’s a bit jumpy. If a brother happens to walk up behind her, she is seriously startled and her face doesn’t hide it. I’m hoping that shit clears up soon.
Doc says that now I can start moving my arm and getting it back into action. He’s got these fucking exercises that Angel makes me do, but she’s usually naked when she makes me, so it’s a win-win. I feel it getting stronger by the day. And I get to ride now. It sometimes fucking hurts, but I don’t say a damn word about it. I suck that shit up.
Pops got a call from Ransom about the information on Rabbit we’ve been waiting for, but we have to meet him on his turf. Not that I blame him, last time we were together bullets flew everywhere.
Pulling up to Gizmos, a local bar, I kill my bike, parking it in the very front of the building. Pops, Dagger, Cruz, Becs and Rhys all pulling alongside. We proudly wear our rags as always, but going into another clubs territory is always an iffy situation. We have an understanding with Ransom though, so Pops agreed to a meeting here.
Walking into the bar, all eyes are on us. Dagger is first, then Pops and Becs, followed by myself, Cruz and the rest of the brothers, just to be on the safe side.
“We’re here to see Ransom.” Pops says to the overly made up bartender with her boobs barely covered in a bikini top.
She points across the room. Darting my eyes there, Ransom is sitting in a booth with a barely legal blonde straddling his lap, smiling.
Everyone in the bar is focused on us, they move to the side when we walk by. “Sorry to break up the party, but we got shit to discuss.” Pops states with authority.
“Dammit Pops. I was just getting to the good part.” Ransom looks up smiling, red lipstick covering his lips. “Babe. Make yourself scarce and find me later.” The woman crawls off of him and Ransom slaps her ass on the way out. At one time that would have appealed to me, now, nothing.
Sliding into the booth, Pops and Becs sit on one side while us b
rothers stand behind. “What is it?” Pops asks, as he steeples his fingers in front of him.
Ransom pulls his cut away from his body and his other hand reaches in. We all start to grab our pieces. “Relax. Just gonna grab a piece of paper.” I keep my hand on the barrel of my gun as I watch him do exactly as he said. He slides the paper over to Pops.
Pops unfolds it carefully and reads it. He then folds it back together. “This is?”
“Meeting. Rabbit’s crew. Some top secret bullshit and every one of those fuckers will be at it. It’s mandatory.” Ransom smiles. “Told you and this is confirmation.”
“And you know this how?” I ask suspiciously.
Ransom eyes me. “I’ve got guys everywhere searching for this fucker. I even have a guy in his club. He’ll be dead before he can say a fucking word, but I got what I needed out of him.”
“When is it?” Pops asks.
“Tomorrow night. 8pm.”
“What are you gonna do?” Dagger questions beside me.
“Not a fucking thing. Gonna let you have this one. But…” He trails off and smiles. “All I ask is you stop by here after it’s done so we can toast it together.”
“What proof we got this is right?” Rhys speaks for the first time and catches everyone’s attention.
“You got my word that this is what I was told. It’s as good as it gets.” Ransom doesn’t break eye contact from Pops and I believe him. There is no underlying malice to him. I believe that this is what he was told. Whether it is right or not is up for debate still.
I chin lift to Pops, who turns and looks up at me. I’ve always had a great knack for reading people and this is no different. He’s always relied on it. “Good. We’ll be here tomorrow around 9.” He says and we all stand and shake hands.
Hopping on our bikes, Pops orders, “Church, now. Get there.”
“I believe him.” I cut in to the argument that has been going on for the past fifteen minutes. These fucking men are making my damn head ache. It needs to stop. “He’s got no reason to lie and he wants the fuckers just as much as we do.”
“You don’t think it’s a fucking set up?” Dagger asks his eyes piercing mine.
“Nah. I don’t. Saw it in his face.”
“I agree.” Pops cuts in. “We need to get rid of Rabbit. Get Buzz in here and have him pull it up on his GPS.”
Dagger leaves the table and brings Buzz inside. “Buzz, we need to see this place.” Pops hands him a piece of paper. Buzz leaves the room coming back seconds later with his laptop. A quick click of the keys and he is pointing to our destination.
Buzz shows the screen to all of us. An old warehouse stands in the center with a large number of trees surrounding it.
Sure enough, there are tons of spots for people to hide, so getting in and out undetected isn’t an option. “We need to do it remotely.” I say looking at Buzz and then Pops who nods. “Can you rig up explosives and detonate them from your computer?”
“Fuck yeah.” Buzz’s huge smile reminds me how much he gets off on this shit.
Looking over at Pops, “It’s our only option. There will be a shit ton of guys and with such short notice, we’ll barely have enough time to get in, rig it and get out.”
“It’d be cleaner too, but fuck I want Rabbit.” The fire in his eyes burns bright. We all want Rabbit, but doing this remotely will be the best thing for the club and that is what matters.
“I know. Buzz, we’d need cameras to see who goes in and out. We need to make sure that fucker is inside before it blows.”
“Not a problem. I’ve got a stash,” we all stare at the man. What the fuck. He shrugs and continues, “Of shit that’d be perfect. Got all the equipment to rig it up. I’ll just need some cameras.”
“Breaker!” Becs calls through the door, he rushes in.
“Yeah?”
“Need cameras to be rigged up remotely. Ask your brother. Get at least ten and pay cash.”
“Got it.” Breaker nods his head and leaves the room, closing the door behind him.
“Buzz, tell your brother what you need, then you ride with us. We go check out the place, quietly.” Pops orders.
It’s time to roll, God it’s great to be back in the mix.
After scoping out the place, we head back to the clubhouse and make the plan, and head back out to the site after dark. The place is deserted which I find eerie. Either Rabbit doesn’t think we know anything about it and isn’t afraid or the meeting isn’t happening. I am hoping for the first.
After rigging the explosives and the cameras, we meet back at the clubhouse and discuss everything, laying out how we expect everything to play out and hope it does exactly that.
“Hey, Angel.” I walk up behind my girl and she jumps. “Sorry, babe. It’s just me.” I pull her long blonde hair to the side, raking my lips over her neck. Shivers take over her body making me smile. The smell of cherries emanates off of her and I want to lick her from head to toe.
“Hey.” She whispers turning around in my arms. I crash my lips to hers and suck her bottom lip. Her moan spurs me. She wraps her arms around my neck diving into the kiss.
“As great as it is that you two got your heads out of your asses, I don’t need to watch it.” Princess barks.
Angel pulls away and grins. “Come on baby. I need you.”
“Did he go in?” I ask Buzz who has been eyeing the three computers he’s got set up in Pops office.
“Yeah. Here, I snapped a shot of it so you can confirm it.” Buzz pulls up the picture and sure enough, Rabbit and his VP just walked into the building.
“How many inside and out?” Pops asks.
“Inside. 87. Outside. 6.” Buzz answers not skipping a beat.
“You counted?” I ask surprised that he thought of it.
“Fuck yeah.” Buzz smirks, his finger twitching to push the button.
“Alright. Give it here.” Buzz’s face falls and Pops laughs.
“Bud, you’re not a full member yet and Pops needs to do this shit.” I answer holding back my own smile.
He hands over the computer. “Push these.” He points to three buttons. “Once you do, it will be thirty seconds before it blows.”
Pops stares at the screen. Who the hell knows what is going through his head. When his eyes lock with mine, I nod curtly. He does the same with Becs.
Pops hits the buttons Buzz told him to and we wait staring at the three screens. I never realized how long thirty seconds is until this moment. The small countdown clock on the screen is down to 5… 4… 3… 2… 1.
Nothing happens.
Nothing.
“What the fuck?” Pops roars, standing up so quickly his chair flies to the ground. Buzz scrambles to the computers, pressing all the buttons it seemed like at once.
“Buzz?” I question.
“I don’t know what the fuck happened. It should have blown.” He scrambles, fingers still flying across the keys. There is now no movement on the screens even the guards have disappeared.
“Get the fuck over there now and find out what the hell happened.” Pops yells enraged. Becs puts in a call to the Clayton and Guthree chapters to meet us there. We need bodies and back up, fast. We load up and head to the site.
The tension is so fucking thick you’d need a damn machete to cut through that shit. We all ride in two cages to the site not wanting to make any more noise than needed and park away from the building. There are no people in sight, it looks totally deserted. Four other cages pull up behind us and our brothers from Clayton and Guthree get out with us.
Moving slowly through the edge of the tree line, no one has come out of the building or is guarding it. My phone vibrates in my pocket. It’s a blanket text from Becs saying for everyone to surround the building, he will text us to start the countdown to open the doors when the coast is clear.
I scope out everything around us and there is nothing.
I head to the side door with Buzz at my side. We stand and wait. A few moments late
r, my phone vibrates saying to start the countdown. My adrenaline kicks in and I hold up five fingers to Buzz and count in my head. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… I nod to Buzz, who kicks the door open which flies with no restraint.
A sudden metallic smell waves into my nose. With my gun drawn, my eyes dart around the building. “What the fuck.” I say softly. Dozens of men lay on the linoleum floor, blood seeping from their bodies, not one moving. Bodies lay with heads practically cut off of them; stab wounds straight into hearts and some have limbs chopped off.
I’ve done some wicked shit in my day, but this… This is a fucking massacre, something I have never witnessed before and never want to again.
“Clear!” is yelled out by several of the guys. I look up into all their stunned faces, not one seeming to put words together at the moment.
Becs reaches for his phone. “Pops. We got a huge fucking problem.” He starts and tells him everything that we see, even to the graphic details that I know will be etched into my head for years to come.
I walk around slowly, careful not step in blood or on a body, which makes it very difficult. “Find Rabbit.” I say out to anyone and everyone. That fucker needs to be gone.
“Found him, I think.” Zed says grimly. “And it ain’t fucking pretty.” I slowly walk over to Zed with most of the guys close by.
A man is lying in a pool of blood, a large knife is impaled through his skull, but there is a piece of paper covering his face. I grab the paper tearing it off of the body. To my relief the man is Rabbit. When I look at the paper, my heart stops as I read the words.
“What’s it fucking say?” I look into Becs’ eyes, hopefully conveying my thoughts.
“It says… ‘This is how Paine is really done.’”
“Paine did this shit?” Dagger asks pissed off.
“Yeah. It’s spelled P-A-I-N-E. He beat us to the fucking punch here.” I growl and turn to Becs. “Needs to go up.”
Becs nods and turns to his phone. “Pops we need to light it up. It will all land on us. We gotta clean it up.” He nods. “Got it.”
