by Rae B. Lake
Archer - A Wings Of Diablo MC Novel
By Rae B. Lake
Contents
Title Page
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Epilogue- Prez's order
More from Rae B. Lake
About the Author
Archer– A Wings of Diablo MC Novel
Copyright © 2019 by Rae B. Lake
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the author.
Acknowledgments
I have so many folks that I want to thank for seeing me through this. My husband, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for putting up with my crazy hours and letting me run ideas with you. I know you must think I am losing my mind from time to time but you never stop supporting me. To my Princess and my Angel, I can’t tell you how much your smiles and laughter are one of the main reasons I keep on pushing. I live to see you happy. To my fans, I love the feedback and the messages asking when the next one is coming out, just the thought that I can reach anyone with my work is so humbling and exciting.
Chapter 1
Pump, pump, pump it up!
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Clean began to shimmy next to me, apparently, Joe Budden's music was his jam.
“Stop the shit! Get your head in the game, we have a job to do here.” Wire spat out.
“You’re right, I’m good.” Clean stood up straight not wanting to piss our Vice President off.
I didn’t really think that was possible, Clean was Wire’s best friend even if they’d never told each other how they felt. Wire would do anything for him and vice versa. Actually, I’m sure anyone in the crew would do anything for any member. It’s why I’m here today. No one messed with the Wings of Diablo, not if they wanted to live a long and healthy life.
Larry, one of our oldest members, came to the club with a problem that not many could solve. His sister had been sold off like cattle to the highest bidder by Cleve, the leader of one of our rival motorcycle clubs, The Rolling Cobras.
The Cobras were as bad as they came, heavy in the drug scene, hired guns and now they were dabbling in the human trafficking business. We knew as soon as Larry told us that Cleve would have to be eliminated, with fucking pleasure. There was no way we were going to let that go down. Not to Larry, not to his sister and not in this town.
“Ok, Archer, it’s your show now, where do you need to be?” Wire turned toward me. His eyes staring straight into mine. The monster that so many were afraid of so clearly about to break free.
“The higher the better, maybe up there on the second floor if we can get up there.”
Cleve was well guarded; we couldn’t get to him using Wire and his sadistic ways. Prez would never come near here as the Cobras would probably shoot him before he stepped foot in their clubhouse, I had to be the one to take him out, something I anticipated.
“Hurry the fuck up!” Wire whisper-yelled at me.
“You can’t rush perfection.”
“God damn, gunnys! Just set up and take the fucking shot. We’re going to be spotted any second.”
As much as I did want to take my time and do the job smoothly, Wire was absolutely right. Intel said that there was going to be a party tonight, so we thought that would be the best time to sneak in undetected, but this wasn’t just a party. No, the Cobras were throwing a goddamn full-blown event. There were hundreds of people here, the place was packed with strippers, bikers, college kids, and even fucking contortionists. Clean got a kick out of watching them bend and twist for the few seconds that we could. That many bodies would make my job that much harder and we risked someone spotting us by accident, we could only hope that it wouldn’t be someone who would know who we were.
“Are you ready yet?” Clean whispered from beside me. He was crouched down looking back toward the stairs that we had just come up.
“Yeah, get ready to run.” I laid down on the floor, one hand on the grip my finger laying against the trigger guard. The other hand was folded tightly underneath the grip to give extra stability, my eye open and staring down the scope of my M2010 rifle.
I exhaled slowly and just as I was about to squeeze the trigger a tingle flew down my back.
“This is fucked, Wire, there are too many people here. The target is too motherfucking tight.” Removing my eye from the scope, I shook my head.
“Archer, can you pull this off or not? We are only here because you said that you could make this shot. We don’t have time for fucking games!”
“Don’t question my damn skill, I have made this shot a hundred times over. Just never in the middle of a fucking party.” I exhaled roughly through my nose. He had no idea how easy it would be for me to make a shot like this; no idea whatsoever.
“I know you’re skilled brother, but if you don’t think we should do this we have to get out of here, pronto. If we get caught on enemy territory there’s no telling what they will do.”
Wire was our clubs Vice President as well as its enforcer, his specialty was with barbed wire, something he favored when he tortured people. He knew what would happen if we got caught here and so did I.
“So what’s the deal, maybe I can sneak one of those bunnies out of here.” Clean looked across the room to one of the strippers, who was in the middle of doing some truly acrobatic shit on a pole.
“Keep your dick in your pants, Clean.”
“Oh, I’ll keep it in but she might want to take it out.” He smiled a little still staring at the woman.
“Are you fucking dense, we’re lying here with a motherfucking sniper rifle pointed at the president of a vicious, murderous motorcycle club and all you can think about is getting your dick wet?” I stared daggers at Clean, and by the way his jovial face fell and became somber I could tell that he got my message. This was not a game, we were in some serious shit.
I hunkered down into position, my eye back to the scope, staring straight at my target. I sucked in a deep breath slowly and held the rifle steady, waiting for the perfect opportunity when the target was clear. I didn’t want any innocents walking into the line of fire. Exhaling slowly, I gently squeezed the trigger, sending the bullet on its destructive mission.
“Oh shit,” Clean said at my side.
Before the ripple that crept up my arm from the recoil could finish, I knew the shot was fucked. I watched as Cleve went down, but also a petite woman who happened to be standing right behind him.
Not only did I hit my target, but the bullet sailed clean through him.
Chapter 2
“Oh, what the fuck.” I vaguely heard Wire mumble.
The girl fell to the floor a good four hundred meters away from where we were crouched down but I could see her clear as day. Her black hair was thick and full of curls at the ends which made it look pillow soft. I could see that some large clusters of her hair were coated with dark fluid, blood that’d splattered up from the wound in her chest. I could see her bare pink
lips slightly opened, more blood seeping from the crevice and dripping slowly to the floor. Her face was speckled with blood and something else that took me a moment to place. Freckles. She looked so at peace even with the intrusive dark red color marring her perfection.
“Archer, let’s go!” Wire was pulling at me. I’m not sure what he wanted me to do. I just wanted to stare at the beautiful woman lying on the floor.
“We have to get out of here!” Someone pulled at me again. A strong aroma of dirt hit my nose and I could feel my fatigues rubbing against my skin. Hear the humvees and trucks starting up their engines to look for the sniper who had just fired on their camp.
“Archer, are you fucking with us here?” Wire tore my gaze from the beautiful girl laying on the floor and shook me back to the present. “We have to go, right now!”
I blinked a few times realizing that I wasn’t back with my platoon in that godforsaken land. I was still in the Rolling Cobra’s clubhouse and all hell had broken out downstairs. Folks running, trying to get out of the exits as fast as they could, not caring if they trampled anyone in their efforts to flee. The members of the club were either too far away or were so intoxicated that no one had bothered to look for the shooter. It's the only reason we were yet to be caught.
“Move your ass man!” Clean pulled hard on me now.
I gathered all my gear and we hightailed it out of there.
“What the hell was that Archer?” Wire yelled at me while we sped away in my truck.
“What the fuck do you mean what the hell was that! It’s exactly what I told you it would be, a fucking shit show.” I closed my eyes trying to get my senses under control. I could feel my mind trying to take over, trying to take me back to the middle east, to the nightmare that was my last tour.
“Hey, are you ok?”
I focused on my breathing, doing everything that my previous therapist told me to do when I was feeling like this. None of that shit was working, especially with Wire doing one hundred miles per hour down a cliff road and screaming in my face at the same fucking time.
“Bro, are you good?”
Clean’s voice came to me in waves, I couldn’t focus on what he was saying even though I could hear him, instead I could hear the pop of bullets from my past.
I closed my eyes and the face of the woman with freckles, pillow soft hair and faded pink lips changed into a little girl. A little girl that changed my life forever.
Chapter 3
8 Years Ago- Afghanistan
“So what are you going to do when you get stateside?”
“I don’t know, I think I’m going to sign up for another tour.”
“Luke, you’re trying to tell me, we are three weeks from getting out of this dust bowl and you are talking about coming back?” Jameson was from Texas, with a large southern smile and an even bigger following of ladies waiting for him at home. Of course he couldn’t understand how I could want to come back, but I had no home to go to, no girlfriend, hell I didn’t even have any friends. It was just me, Luke Duos, or as my platoon mates have come to call me, Archer.
You see they call me Archer because I am a genius with any firearm, I’m a crack shot at upwards of sixteen hundred meters. From the simple Glock 36 to the powerful .44 Magnum, from the big bad shotgun to the sleek and sexy M2010. There was nothing that took a round I’m not an expert with. I am a prized possession in this fabulous military institution. I was the best of the best, of course I wanted to stay where I was needed.
“Yeah, I mean we got a pretty sweet gig here.” I looked away from the road ahead of us and towards the setting sun. “I mean seriously, can you beat this weather?”
“Uh, fuck yeah, I’d rather be on some Caribbean island somewhere chasing women instead of trussed up in about twenty pounds of gear staring at the back of your ugly head.”
I shook my head and looked back at my sniper rifle. It was covered in dust and the arid wind and dirt had already started to scratch some of the color off the metal. Honestly, Jameson was right, this country was a hard place to live but anything was better than what I had come from.
“Archer, you seeing this?”
Mike, a member of my squad was patrolling on the ground called up.
“What do you got?” I asked, getting more comfortable in my position on the roof.
“Possible insurgent about two hundred meters away.”
Jameson looked through his scope, as my spotter it was his job to see things before me. He was brilliant as my other set of eyes, I couldn’t have made any of my tough shots without him by my side.
“I see him, you think it’s just a protest or do you think it is an actual threat?” I asked already getting my rifle ready to fire.
“Who the hell knows man, but the folks in this village know better than to come this way.” Jameson was already laying down next to me, ready to call out any targets as they came.
“Get on the box and call it into the Lieutenant.” We would get the final say from our LT. I looked through my scope, on edge, waiting for my orders. I heard Jameson call in the situation and I let out a hard breath when we got the order to shoot. If there was one thing I didn’t like to do, it was to shoot amongst civilians, too many things could go wrong.
“Take him out, Archer,” Jameson whispered next to me, his voice solemn now instead of the carefree one that was his norm.
“Are we sure that-”
“Damn it, don’t do this.” Jameson warned me under his breath, “No, I’m not sure that he is indeed an insurgent and I’m not sure that he means us harm, what I am sure about is that he’s walking into a military safe zone when everyone in this village knows not to enter. LT gave the order, so take him out!”
I inhaled, let my hand go lax on the grip and set my sight on the man speed walking his way toward our position with something bulky latched to his chest. Bright flashing lights started to go off to warn the intruder that they were not where they were supposed to be. Instead of stopping the man sped up, raising his voice screaming something no one could understand.
I set myself and squeezed the trigger softly, letting the power of the rifle travel through me. The scream that came after was unlike anything that I’d heard before. It was high pitched and frantic. A woman came barreling out of a small home toward the man that was now down on the ground and not moving.
“Shit, what is this?” Jameson asked trying to right his scope so that he could get a better picture.
I could hear the blood pumping in my ears as the woman began to unravel the large package from the man’s chest. She was going to try and finish the job.
“Take her out.” My Lieutenant's voice came over the box.
“No, she isn’t armed, we don’t have to,” I responded into the air, this was turning into a shit show.
“Bro, we don’t have a choice, we have our orders,” Jameson said from beside me.
This was not what I signed up for, I came here to protect my country from extremists and terrorists, not shoot down small women.
“You take her out right now before she gets any closer to us with that bomb, take the shot now!” My lieutenant's voice screamed out through the box.
This is fucked, this is so fucked.
My training to blindly follow orders outweighed my gut instincts. If I didn’t take this shot and she made it closer to us with whatever she was trying to get untied from the dead man, we could all be in a bind. On the other hand, I wasn’t sure that there was actually a bomb or anything that could hurt me or my platoon. My mind went back and forth, neurons firing fast enough to give me a migraine, trying to figure out what to do.
“Now Luke!” My lieutenant screamed out again.
“Shit!” I looked through the scope got the readings I needed from Jameson and squeezed the trigger right as the woman whipped whatever was strapped to the man’s chest around to her. I watched as she went down, her limbs falling to the dirt awkwardly. A plume of dust rose from where her body fell. I strained to look through my scope
to see if we were still in danger when the smallest wisp of hair flew in the wind from underneath the woman. There was another body under the woman.
“No, no, no, no!” I dropped my rifle not even waiting for orders or taking the time to put my equipment away. I stood up from my position, ignoring the ache of being on my belly for so long and took off down the stairs of the abandoned building.
“Archer, hold up!” Jameson yelled out behind me. He was my partner, he would follow me anywhere. Even if I was running straight for what everyone thought was a bomb.
I ran straight to the woman, ignoring all the stares that I was getting from the townsfolk. I took my sidearm from its holster and gingerly turned her over, just in case. She was in the common dress, nothing extraordinary about the woman except for the gaping hole that my round tore through her chest.
“Is it a bomb?” Jameson asked a few paces behind me.
I didn’t answer, I could feel the tears begin to gather in my eyes, the frog in my throat trying to suffocate me, I could feel the cold hand of dread begin to squeeze on my heart. I looked down at the package that both the man and woman had been carrying while running toward our camp and saw a small foot clad in a pink Barney slipper. I peeled the cloth away and the beautiful face of an infant child laid there covered in a mixture of dirt and blood. Her lips were blue, but everything else about her looked so warm.
“Oh god, please no.” I fell down to my knees and cradled the little girl in my arms, trying to find even the smallest sign of life. There was nothing, no heartbeat, just the slow leak of blood from the wound in her head where my bullet came out of her mother and into her. I don’t know how long I sat there with that dead child in my lap but that was my last day as an active military officer.
Chapter 4
Present Day
“You couldn’t have known.” A voice said from beside me.
