“Good to know,” Iceman stated. “You know if they have Frank?”
He tipped his head down and up again as we watched. “Alive, last I saw, but worked over real well. He should be rolling in with them in about an hour. We should get some things worked out before then.” Iceman agreed and moved to head into the abandoned service station with most of the other men. Shameless held me back for a minute, looking me over and noting that my whole body seemed to be shaking with pent up anger.
“What in the fuck is going on?”
“Figured you needed some explanation, so let’s get this out of the way, and then you’re going to do your part today.”
“Which is?”
“Being a brother and doing what’s asked of you. Ice has been in touch with Guy for a couple days now. King’s Demons don’t exactly operate in the legal realm, but neither do they traffic in women. That was apparently something specific to their Reno Chapter, and while they had heard rumblings about it, no one could ever verify it.”
“Until Liza,” I stated coolly.
“Until Liza,” Shameless agreed. “Frank was also instrumental. Seems when they were beating him he told them they’d never get his sister again, she wouldn’t become one of their slaves like the women she saw when they had taken her before. Spouted off about the brands they’d put on her. That’s when Guy reached out to Iceman for confirmation. He sent pictures of your woman’s arms.
“How the fuck did he get those?”
“Cameras in the bar back room are pretty sweet, T. She was on camera in there with Amy remember?”
I remembered. It hadn’t been that long ago. Shit. “Okay, so then what? You meant to tell me that the Colorado Chapter of King’s Demons is about to turn on their Reno brothers?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. They’re cutting out the bad seed.”
“And using us to do it?”
“Let’s say they’re giving us an opportunity for some retribution before it’s too late.”
“Vanquish and Random both going to be here?”
“Far as I know, yeah. Random thinks he’s getting the girl back, and he doesn’t go anywhere without his right hand man.”
“Good. They’re mine,” I declared.
“Figured you’d say something like that.” Shameless slapped me on the back and started walking toward the convenience store part of the old service station. “You may only get a shot at one, so figure out which one you want your vengeance on the most the one that nearly raped her or the one that put the brands on her and gave the order for her to be snatched up in the first place.”
“Fuck,” I hissed out. “Random then. He’s the one who ordered it and the one who branded her.” I could see it in my mind. I knew exactly what I wanted to do to that bastard, and it was likely going to a take damn good while before I got bored with him. I wasn’t certain the guys would let me go that dark, but I was damn sure planning to make the asshole hurt before sent on to hell where he belonged.
“All right, come on, let’s go find out what the plan of the day is then,” Shameless tossed the words over his shoulder as if he were contemplating the daily special at a restaurant. I had to respect the man for maintaining his cool in any situation. That was why he was the club enforcer still even though he was getting older. We went into the building, listened to the plan, and then we had to wait another 45 minutes before the rumble of Harley engines echoed off in the distance. From the sounds of it, there were a lot of them too. Not that we hadn’t been expecting that since there were at least seven men from the Reno Chapter and then another eight from Boulder riding on their heels.
They rolled up with a cocky confidence that almost had me wondering if Iceman hadn’t fallen into a trap with the President of the Boulder Chapter instead of having him help us, but the man came out of the building and stood beside Iceman as the King’s Demons rolled up and stopped in the parking lot opposite where half our bikes had been parked in order to make it appear as though we rode here with less numbers than we had. I wasn’t too certain that part of our plan would work out well since we now knew Guy had been waiting on us when we got there.
“What’s all this?” Random questioned while staring Guy down in some creepy Alpha competition that he could never win. “The fuck you doing here with them?”
“I’m here with them to make sure you assholes weren’t ambushed,” Guy stated without a hint of emotion in his voice. “You just rolled up here like you already won a fight with no plan, no cares…”
“I have a plan,” Random told him as he laughed off the obvious disrespect from his club brother. “Right there,” he added, pointing to an old rust brown ’69 Buick Skylark making its way into the parking lot. Once the car was parked Random raised his hand and waved the occupants of the car over. Vanquish and another man got out and pulled a body from the back. “Where’s the girl?” Random finally questioned as his buddies dragged the limp form to us and tossed him on the ground.
“We’re not negotiating for the girl,” Iceman explained coolly.
“I’m here for the girl. That was the whole point of this little powwow. This fuckwit isn’t doing anything for me. The girl is mine by rights.”
“The girl is mine,” I stated flatly, speaking up for the first time.
Random sneered at me. “You can’t claim what’s mine, and I already put my mark on her. How do you like seeing my marks every time she’s naked? You like knowing I did that? I branded her. She’s mine.”
“Seems you marked someone else too who got claimed by another,” I antagonized him just as he thought he was doing to me. “You not being able to keep a woman at your side isn’t really our problem. What is our problem is when you try to take a woman against her will, especially when she belongs to me.” My glare moved from Random to Vanquish and back again.
“Ah, so little miss Liza’s been telling stories then?”
I could see through the beating he took and the swollen features that the man at Random’s feet was Frank. He didn’t look that great, but I had no doubt he’d survive if all went well. He nodded to me, and then closed his eyes, waiting. He clearly knew something we didn’t.
“As I already said, we’re not here to negotiate with you about the girl. She’s off limits to you.” Iceman’s voice was cold and hard as he spoke. Random laughed, but I could have sworn I saw Frank’s lips quirk up in a tiny ghost of a smile. It was a peaceful look until it wasn’t. In the next second another man, younger than Random and Vanquish by at least ten years, moved forward and pulled a gun on Frank. With no hesitation he pulled the trigger and plastered Frank’s brains all over the parking lot in front of him. His body slumped forward with the impact and one lifeless eye stared up at me. Sickness swirled in my gut. It wasn’t the dead body that did it. It wasn’t that I had known Frank in some way for years. It was that I was going to have to go home to deliver this news to Liza.
“What the fuck?” More than a few voices shouted that. Vanquish took the kid down to the ground and made him face the corpse he’d just made while a heavy booted foot held his face in place, one cheek to the asphalt.
“Who the fuck ordered that?” Guy shouted, and then turned to Random. “You can’t even keep your own men in check?”
“Fuck,” Random spit out. “Little shit’s my brother by blood.”
“Little shit just cost you,” Guy stated and then he too pulled his gun and the trigger with not a single moment of thought. Random dropped right in front of us, and rage soared through me. Before I could blink, Guy had downed Vanquish too. Both men were taken out right before my eyes, but not by my own hands. We stood and watched as Guy’s men took out the rest of Random’s crew before he turned to us. “I know you wanted your vengeance. You got it by baring witness. Our business with you is done here. The women are no concern of ours. We’ll clean up our own mess, including the one we made in Reno today.”
We had just been dismissed and I honestly didn’t know what the hell to do with my anger. I
wanted to put my fist straight through Guy’s face, and it must have shown because he simply stood there, as if waiting for it, before Shameless took hold of my arm and pulled me away from the man. “Let it go,” he rumbled gruffly close to my ear. “We need to get Liza’s brother back to her right now.”
We ended up having to rent a small U-Haul truck to get my bike and Frankie’s body to the clubhouse. Once everything was secured I followed the guys back to Spearfish, the whole way wondering how the hell I was supposed to break the news to Liza. Sure, she was angry with her brother about the position he’d put her in twice over now, but he was still her brother. I could see it in the way she spoke about him. She loved him even though he was a fuck up. Hell, maybe that’s what I would tell her. He hadn’t fucked up in the end. He wanted to trade his life for hers even though that would mean he never got to see his kid be born. He died for his sister, and he did it gladly. Maybe that wouldn’t be a comfort for her just yet, but later when the pain of his loss was less, it would mean something.
Chapter 16
Liza
It was nearing 10pm when Rage finally reemerged from the office he’d holed himself away in most of the day. Despite still being ruggedly handsome Rage’s appearance spoke of a hard day and even worse news. He glanced up at me and I saw it in his eyes. There would be news to come that I wasn’t going to like. Now, I was left to sit in the corner of this sofa I parked my ass on and wonder if the bad news would be that they were going to have to turn me over to the King’s Demons, if my sister-n-law made it to wherever they were taking her safely, if my brother had been found, if any of the men had been hurt on my account. It felt like a two-ton weight was plunked down on me and suddenly I couldn’t keep my shoulders from drooping as the worry of the day landed squarely on my shoulders.
Rage didn’t approach me. Instead he pulled Charlie into a quiet corner and spoke in hushed tones with her for a bit. I knew she had learned some of the news earlier in the day, but that she couldn’t tell me. I didn’t hold it against her, because I could see it in her eyes that she wanted to. I may not have been around the club all that long, but I had seen enough to know that some people were privy to things while others weren’t, and those were the breaks. You either lived with it, or you got the hell out of the life, because it wouldn’t be for you. I knew this, and never had it felt like a true burden until today. It hadn’t meant anything until the things I needed to know applied to me, and I was the one being left out of the loop.
I caught both Rage and Charlie glancing over in my direction a few times before they went back to their quiet, yet seemingly heated, argument. I’d like to think Charlie was on my side telling her man that I should be informed of what was going on, but it wasn’t looking like they would agree on that any time soon so I wasn’t holding out hope.
I didn’t have to wait and wonder long at any rate, because only moments later, after I’d contemplated just busting up on the conversation Rage was having with Charlie, the front door snipped open with its usual hiss and a beep that signaled the security protocol had been followed and the entrant was allowed to be admitted.
Iceman came through looking travel-worn and burdened by whatever had transpired. He noticed Rage who stood in greeting, and the two of them disappeared down the hall and into the office once more without a backward glance. Charlie also stood, but she headed in my direction with a grim look on her face that had me even more on edge. Before she could get to me the front door opened again, and this time a butt load of brothers came through. All of them seeming as if the weight of the world were riding on their shoulders. Shameless, Rabbit, Whiskey, and Fox all headed straight for the bar not noticing me sitting over in the corner or Charlie who had stopped mid-way to me in order to see who was coming through the door.
Panic set in immediately upon seeing Whiskey and Fox come through the door without Tango. I stood from where I’d been patiently awaiting news. Charlie glanced from the door to me and back again just in time for it to release once more with a hiss. In walked Tango looking completely defeated, and my heart immediately elated and sank all at the same time. He was here. He was safe and he appeared to be intact. That observation alone had my heart soaring, because I’d begun to think he hadn’t made it back in one piece. The look on his face, however, told me this story was far from over and it wouldn’t be pretty. I prepared myself for the fact that he was going to tell me he was turning me loose on club order. I was too much trouble, and I didn’t blame them one bit.
He glanced around and as soon as his eyes locked on me he changed direction and headed straight for me. “Babe,” he hissed out as if just seeing me healed something inside him. Who knows, maybe it did, because seeing him certainly had left me feeling better until his body language put me on edge once again. His arms wrapped around me and his head sank to the point where his forehead rested on the tender are between my shoulder and neck. “I don’t know how to say this,” he started as he squeezed me tighter to his own body.
“You’re sending me to them,” I whispered. “It’s okay, I understand.”
“Fuck no!” He nearly shouted, voice raised with admonishment. “Not a damn soul here would do that to you.” He pulled me with him back over to the couch I had so recently vacated. “I need you to sit down with me. I have a lot to say and not all of it is good news.”
“Okay, can you just spit out the bad stuff now, because looking around at everyone is making me nervous. I thought they just didn’t want to tell me anything because you were sending me away.”
“The King’s Demons had your brother,” he blurted out as he took hold of my trembling hands. One word stuck out, because it was past tense. Had.
“Had?” I questioned, lip quivering.
“I brought him back with me,” he stated as he glanced down shaking his head. “We didn’t even get a chance to do anything. He was gone before…”
“Gone?” My voice cracked on the one word as I interrupted Tango. “My brother, he’s gone?” His head tipped down slightly, almost a nod, indicating that I was correct. “You said you brought him back.”
“I brought his body back, Liza. I couldn’t leave him there to be swept up with the others when they cleaned up their mess.”
“Others? I don’t understand. You better start from the beginning.” He did just that as he filled me in on exactly what transpired when they got to Casper and of the carnage they left behind. He also fumed about not being the one to send the two bastards who had hurt me when I was held captive straight to hell. I only had one thing on my mind though. “Can I see him?”
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea, babe,” he told me gently. “I brought him back, but he was in pretty bad shape before they shot him. He, well, you won’t be able to recognize him.”
“He has a tattoo on his wrist. It’s just four words, ‘my life for hers’ can I just see that much. I need to know for sure. I know you wouldn’t lie to me, but I need to see.”
Tango nodded at me and stood, pulling me up by our joined hands. My legs shook as I took that first step forward and he halted. He turned and moved as if he was going to pick me up, but I shook my head. There was no way I wasn’t walking to see my brother of my own accord. From what Tango told me he had taken that bullet gladly so that the guys would continue protecting me. He kept the promise he made me when he got that tattoo on his wrist. “Never again,” he’d said as we strolled into the shop and he had his buddy ink the words on his skin. “My life for yours,” he told me as I read the words. “That’s how it should have been from the beginning. I promise you, from here on out, that is how it will always be.”
“He kept his promise,” I stated as Tango moved me into the shed out back and pulled a cover up from the middle of the body shaped form that was laid out on the top of a workbench. He didn’t find what he was looking for so he moved to the other side of the table and then called me over. I took my time getting there; staring at the human shaped form that I knew was my brother. It wasn’t my brother
any longer. It was simply the husk of his body he had left behind when this world no longer needed him in it. My heart physically hurt as I moved to stand beside Tango who took my weight in his arms as he showed me the tattoo on my brother’s wrist. That was when I knew it was true. My brother had died for me. He’d died for Michelle and the baby they’d made together. The same baby who would never be able to know their father. He died so that none of us would, but he also died because that dick head Ransom couldn’t just let things go. It was inevitably a pointless, unnecessary death. Now, I would have a job to do, because someone had to deliver the news to Michelle. I guessed I’d have to deliver his body to them too. I didn’t know. They hadn’t been married even though I called her my sister-n-law.
My mundane thoughts were doing their job of keeping my brain occupied, but that only held out so long. Just as Tango and I were about to enter the clubhouse again flashes of my brother’s wrist hit me. He was truly gone now. I had no one left outside of Michelle and the baby, and I wasn’t so certain she would want anything to do with me again after all of this. “What am I going to do?” The words were a whimpered plea and not much more. “I don’t have anyone left now.”
Tango stopped just as we cleared the door, and then he pointed me to face the room full of people who had apparently been awaiting our return. “You have so many people, baby. Look at them all.” As he said that the hot tears trailed hot rivers of anguish down my cheeks. Before the first one fell Charlie had me in her arms cooing sweet words in my ear.
“I’m your family now. Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” she told me as my body shook with emotion. Then another set of arms was wrapping around the both of us.
“Never had sisters before, but the two of you are everything. You will always have a brother here for you, sweetheart. I may not be the same, but I’ll try damn hard to make you laugh every day and have your back always.” Rabbit, who had become my surrogate brother through everything, squeezed me harder and let me cry it out on his shoulder for a moment before Tango took me back in his arms.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: Aces High MC (Aces High MC - Dakotas Book 2) Page 15
