by Nikki Wild
“I’ll give you that,” said Sly. “But only because I want some information out of that little fucker.”
“I told you… bring Adeline out here and we can start to talk about what did or didn’t happen. Everybody can go their own way tonight without any harm done if things break right.”
That was a lie. The harm was already done when they took her. I didn’t know how or when, but I’d make every last one of those motherfuckers pay for touching her… And if I didn’t, Preacher and the rest of the true Fallen were coming down here soon enough to put an end to this little shit-show. Either way, the longer I could drag things out, the more intelligence I would be able to gather.
From what I could tell, they were all hands on deck. Except for Dirty. And that made my blood run cold. If he had her somewhere…
“And I told you,” said Sly, “Make that fuckin’ kid tell me what I want to know and you might see your bitch alive.”
There was nothing else I could do to break the stalemate, besides shooting up the place. But I wasn’t completely ready to do that until I knew she was out of harm’s way.
I gave Jared the go ahead to speak.
“What do you want to know?” he asked Sly. His voice was a lot stronger than I thought it would be. He was in this for real.
Sly took a look around his table. It seemed like he was trying to put his thoughts in order.
“Did you talk to the cops?” he said, finally.
Jared didn’t answer.
“Might as well tell me the truth, because we’re gonna kill your ass either way. It just depends on if we do it quick and painless, or if we do it slow. That’s up to you.”
“Don’t care about me,” said Jared. “Just want to make sure my sister is okay.”
Sly dropped his head into his hands and grumbled something under his breath.
“What is it with this bitch? Is she really worth this much trouble?”
I stared right into Sly’s dead eyes. I could feel Jared doing the same.
“Dirty will bring her out when he’s good and ready. In the meantime, we’ll settle this on skin.”
“Skin?” asked Jared.
“Skin, you dumb fuck. A handshake. That’s how we’ve been doing it for years.”
I didn’t like the sound of it, but there was a part of Sly that still believed in the old-school way of doing things. If he broke his word on a handshake, he’d run the risk of losing the respect of the others in the room.
“Roughneck, you come over here and shake. You give me your word you’ll leave the kid without a fight, and I’ll bring you the girl.”
He held his hand out, palm up in front of him.
I looked at Jared. He had a look of steely determination on his face.
“Do it,” he said. “I won’t fight.”
“You don’t have to do this, Ace,” I said. “We can figure a different way. Your sister won’t ever forgive me if something happens to you.”
“She won’t have a choice,” he said. “Tell her you couldn’t stop me. Figure something out, because this is on my shoulders and I’m finally gonna take care of it.”
There was no talking him out of it. I checked with the twins, who were standing behind us, to see what they thought. They were too focused on the other guys at the table. Each stood tense and ready, with his hand over his pistol.
James piped up from behind them.
“Let the man take care of his mess,” he said. “It’s his decision, not yours.”
Sly still held his hand out, firmly in front of him. He walked out from behind the table to meet me in the middle.
“Take care of it, ‘neck,” he said. “Let’s both get on with our own business. We don’t need that girl for a damn thing if you turn him over. You can be on your way to the honeymoon suite with here before the hour’s over.”
I wanted to wring the manipulative bastard’s neck. Even that would be too good for him.
It was no damn good, but it was the only choice I had if I wanted to make sure Adeline came out of this alive.
I started to walk slowly across the room. Men teetered on the edge on both sides. They had us outnumbered, but we had enough to do plenty of damage. Nobody wanted a gunfight inside the clubhouse. That’s the kind of shit that brought down the wrong kind of attention.
The slimy fuck smiled as I got closer. We stood face to face, his hand the only one outstretched between us.
“We make this deal, and you get Adeline. Now.”
“The second my boy puts some cuffs on him. You have my word.”
Jared didn’t need my prompt to get moving. He held his head high as he walked across enemy lines. I looked to him one last time before I stuck my hand out.
That’s when Sly grabbed it, pulled me close, and stuck the four-inch blade into my side.
23
Detective Harold
“How far out are we?”
I already knew the answer but I wanted to make sure all of the guys in the truck were on the same page. We had two tactical vehicles and a host of squad cars. There was no such thing as being “too careful” when you were dealing with The Fallen MC.
Robby “Dirty” Carlson and the other one called “Gopher” were our top targets, but there was no telling how many more we would pick up on warrants.
“Forty-five minutes,” shouted the young officer driving the rig.
“Everybody on board?” I shouted.
“Yes sir!”
Cejudo looked to me from the back seat.
“If he’s not there, our whole case is fucked. He’ll skip town quicker than shit if he knows we’re on to him.”
“He’ll be there,” I reassured him. “We had eyes on him going in, and his bike is still parked out front.”
“If you say so.”
Cejudo had gotten cold feet after the paperwork came through. He was in line to make supervisor and if this didn’t go to plan, it would hurt his record.
I couldn’t care less about that stuff. There were killers in the building, and the drugs they were bringing into the city were turning the place into a cesspool. They were either coming off the street tonight, or they weren’t coming at all. This was the best chance we had. Hit em while their pants are down with overwhelming force. Some called it overkill, but I’d spent the better part of my career investigating gang crimes and I knew that couldn’t be further from the truth. These guys hated the law and they would do anything to keep one of their own out from behind bars. This was going to get ugly.
“Did you see this other thing?” asked Cejudo. He was holding his cell phone out for me to see.
“What is it?”
“It looks like our guy is being investigated for a double-homicide back east. The FBI suspects him in the killing of two witnesses in a case last year.”
“Why am I just seeing this now?”
“I don’t know, but they want us to back off. They said if we don’t get him, it’s our asses on the firing line.”
“Pull over!” I yelled to the driver.
“Right here, sir?”
“Yes damnit, right here.”
Each vehicle came to a screeching stop behind the one in front of it.
“I took the phone and looked over the charges.”
Sure enough, the animal was the chief suspect in the killing of an elderly couple. He’d killed them execution-style in their own home. What a sick son of a bitch.
“Shit!”
“I’m calling this thing off,” yelled Cejudo. “Too risky until we talk to the FBI.”
“Now, hold on,” I said. “This doesn’t change anything. We’re working this guy for murder, too.”
“They want us to back off because they think they have a better chance of grabbing him. He doesn’t even know they have him tied to the other murders. They have a wire up, and they’re working a big case here…”
“That doesn’t matter. We follow what we have unless directly ordered to stand down.”
“Fine. I’m giving t
he order. We’re calling it.”
“You’re not the damn Lieutenant, Cejudo. We’re going forward with the arrest.”
It was too dark to see his face clearly, but I could tell he was giving me a death-stare.
“Let’s think about this, Dennis,” he said through gnashed teeth. “Better safe than sorry. We can always do this another day.”
“And how many people is he going to kill between now and then?”
“None,” he said, matter-of-factly. “We have plenty of eyes on him now. He can’t even jaywalk without us hearing about it.”
“I’ve got a feeling…”
“About what?” he was getting frustrated.
“I feeling like something big is happening tonight. The whole club is in that building, and the place is dead quiet.”
He shook his head in defeat.
“We’re going.”
24
Adeline
I didn’t have any fight left in me. This psychopath was going to do what he wanted with me. No one could save me. Hale didn’t even know where I was. How could he do anything?
“Those are cute panties,” Dirty said.
He’d taken his belt out of the loops and bent it around his fingers.
“You know, pink is my favorite color…”
It took everything I had to keep from throwing up on the floor. My body was too beat and tired to fight back anymore. I backed myself into a corner and shivered uncontrollably.
“What are you going to do to me?” I said, weakly.
“That’s it… your just gonna lay down and take it? I heard you had a little more fight in you than that.”
The sick bastard got off on me trying to stop him.
“You’ll pay for this.”
“Is that right? Are you gonna make me pay?”
“Roughneck will. He’ll slit your throat if you touch me.”
The mere mention of his name seemed to change Dirty’s mood.
“He won’t do shit. He knows the cost of playing the game. In fact, he’ll be lucky if I let him live. There’s no place in my club for a punk like him.”
“I don’t believe you,” I said. “You’re scared of him. I can see it in your eyes.”
“Shut your whore mouth!”
He swung the belt, lashing me across the legs. I denied him my cries, even though it stung like crazy.
“You’re afraid of what he’s gonna do to you,” I continued. “You may be able to do what you want with me right now, but you know there’s going to come a day when you pay.”
“I said, shut up!”
He pinned me to the bed and dropped a heavy knee on my belly. I couldn’t have fought him off if I wanted to.
“I was gonna be gentle with you,” he said. “But now I’ll have to punish you for running that goddamned mouth of yours.”
He made me sick. I tried to shut the world out as he pawed at my neck. I couldn’t completely ignore the clammy texture of his hands.
“C’mon, bitch. Try to get away. I like when they have some fight in them.”
“Do what you’re gonna do,” I said, quietly. “You’re gonna suffer for it.”
He cursed and kicked at the floor as he ripped at the strap of my tank top. It tore from my arm, leaving only my bra between the two of us.
The room was cold… both in temperature and atmosphere. I couldn’t imagine a more appropriate setting for the terror that was about to befall me.
My mind started to drift as he pushed his jeans down to the floor. I tried to think about different things, but my mind kept going in one direction. Hale. He consumed every thought that passed through my head.
At first, I focused on his actions… how he’d taken Jared under his wing… how he’d helped me search tirelessly to find him when he skipped town.
The way he made me feel…
As the mongrel on the bed drew closer, the realization struck me like a ton of bricks. I did have something to fight for.
Dirty didn’t see the light come back into my eyes. He was too busy playing with himself, trying to make something happen.
I had plenty of fight left in me, and even though he was bigger and stronger, he was in for the battle of his life.
“You’re a hot little number.”
He leaned in to kiss me as he fumbled for my chest. I held my ground for as long as I could stand it to let him get close enough.
When he opened his mouth, his eyes closed, and that was my cue.
I lunged forward, the crown of my head aimed directly for the center of his face just the way I’d seen Roughneck do it back in the bar. It worked like a charm. I connected with the bridge of his nose, creating a horrendous crunching noise.
The blow sent him reeling backward. He was caught completely off guard.
“Ow! Fuckin’ bitch!”
I jumped to my feet, unsure of my next move.
Dirty climbed to his feet and stumbled in a circle around the room. His nose was a faucet.
“You’re gonna pay for that one.”
I searched desperately for a weapon. The only items of any substance were the boots he’d kicked off so happily. I picked one up and launched it at his head. It missed, but the sound of it clattering off the wall got his attention.
He dropped his hands from his ailing face and charged me like a bull. I jumped back on to the bed and just avoided his swooping arms.
I ran to the door and tried the handle. I saw him lock it, but I still had to give it a shot. The door rattled in its frame, but didn’t swing free. It was too big and heavy to bother trying to force it.
Dirty turned to face me, his hands planted on his hips. The blood from his nose had slowed to a drip. A look of frustration crossed his face.
“You just made things a whole lot worse for yourself, darlin’.”
He swiped at his mouth with the back of his hand.
“I thought you wanted a fight, you sick fuck.”
He laughed.
“You’re not man enough for me anyway.”
I was going for broke.
Red flushed his face as he grew violently angry again. His emotions swung wildly, in the style of a true narcissist. I darted for the bed again before he moved.
I was able to yank the small mattress of the frame and position it between us. There were two small handles on the side that allowed me to hold it, kind of like a shield.
“What do think you’re gonna do with that… smother me?”
“I’ll use it for whatever I need to. Right now it’s doing a pretty good job at keeping your sick hands off of me.”
Dirty cocked his leg and swung it at the mattress. His kick landed right in the center, opposite my stomach. It sent me flying backward into the wall. I bounced off and tumbled over the mattress. I landed on it, facing him from my back.
“How about now?”
He advanced cautiously on my position.
“I bet your biker friends would laugh in your face if they knew how much trouble you had getting such a little girl under control.”
I needed to keep him talking.
“They might not think you’re so tough.”
“Yeah. Whatever. No more games.”
He pointed to his crotch.
“Get to work.”
He stood over me, expectantly, his pathetic manhood on display.
“That’s not gonna happen.”
He’d far underestimated the amount of fear he’d put into me.
The unmistakable “click” of a bullet sliding into a chamber sounded from behind his back. He raised his hand to the side to show me what he had. He must have fished it out when I was recovering from the kick to the stomach.
The dim light from the bulb glinted off the chrome handle. He angled it back and forth so it would dance across my face.
“Quiet again… that figures.”
“You’re not gonna shoot me.”
“Are you sure about that? Because they’re gonna come looking for you eventually. That’s the way Ro
ughneck is. And he’ll bring your brother in if it gives him a chance to find you. He won’t need proof that you’re alive. He won’t be able to help himself.”
“That’s bullshit,” I said. “You’re bluffing.”
“Really? Why don’t you try me?”
He pointed the weapon directly at my face. I flinched at the motion.
“Aw, not so tough, anymore. That’s okay.”
I crab walked backward on my hands and feet. When I bumped into the wall, I scooted for the corner.
“Where ya going?” he said, nonchalantly. That sickly playful tone had returned to his voice.
“I’m getting the fuck away from you,” I snarled.
He stepped off the edge of the mattress, leaving nothing but a few feet of floor space between the two of us. He grabbed a handful of my hair and held the gun to the opposite side of my head.
I needed to think clearly, but I couldn’t. My brain was frantic. If I tried to pull away, he’d almost definitely shoot me. He was that disturbed. I closed my eyes as he dragged me forward.
The rattle of the door knob brought me out of my panic. Dirty snapped his head around and we both watched the opposite corner of the room. The door swung open with a heavy groan.
“Hey man, they’re here. Your daddy said to let you know.”
It was a short, chubby biker with a too-tight jacket. It didn’t matter. I seized the opportunity.
It was my turn to kick. I flipped my hips to get as much force behind the blow as I could manage. My bare toes connected with the center of Dirty’s ball sack.
I dipped out of the way just in time to miss the muzzle flare. It was the second time in less than eight hours a gun had been fired near my head and I didn’t plan on sticking around for a third.
When Dirty toppled over backward, I jumped to my feet. I had to get out of the room before he regained his composure. He’d surely kill me if he got his hands on me again.
My feet moved like the wind. I heard the gun skitter across the floor behind me as I bolted for the door. Dirty must have dropped it so he could tend to his battered balls.
I prepared for the fight of my life against the big biker blocking my exit. He would be too big to shove out of the way, so I’d have to be agile enough to get around him. Thankfully, he wasn’t standing directly in the doorway.
