“Simple,” she said quietly.
“Of course, have you forgotten everything I taught you?” Dom asked.
“No,” Shady said and then stared at him intently. “I have forgotten nothing. I just can’t figure out how you think you are going to make me do a damn thing for you.”
Dom smiled and then leaned forward like he was going to share a secret. “Let me give you a hint,” he chuckled. “You had a secret when you left, you thought no one knew, but I did. My father has no idea, which is good or he would have taken care of it. I, on the other hand, figured it was something I could use in the future. I wasn’t as stupid as my father thought I was, I just got bored with the game for a while. Sure, you disappeared for a time, but I found you, I always found you. I just didn’t have a need to be tied down until I was ready. Still I planned for the future, and I found what you gave away.”
Shady’s stomach plummeted. “What did you do?”
“Surely you don’t think I would let my child just go to anyone,” Dom laughed.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” Shady screamed.
“Made sure that I have an ace in the hole where you were concerned,” Dom smiled.
“Where is she?” Shady demanded.
“Shady, I am shocked. I thought you would have realized who you took,” Dom said.
“What?” Shady whispered.
“You see, I didn’t want a child, I figured when I took her from the adoption agency, I would give her to someone to watch until I got you back. Linda was a poor choice, granted, it made me change my original plan when she used the money I provided to buy drugs, then when I refused to give her more money she sold your little angel. I lost her for a while but I found her again, she was tainted by then, a child of the street, too rough to change, but easy enough to use. You were easy to track and so I just waited until I had to claim you. I paid those boys to scoop her off the street. She would never be allowed to be announced as our child now, but I am sure you will be happy to do what you had to do as long as she was safe. I am assuming she is safe now. So you will do exactly as I say because if you do not, I will send my men back to get her, and this time she will not be so lucky as to just be drugged and kept in a safe house. There are many men who would pay dearly for her, she is still a virgin, did you know that?” Dom sneered.
Shady felt rage the likes she had never experienced before. Jas, that broken girl who had tugged at her conscious, was her daughter? Even when she was a child enduring the abuse, she hadn’t been this blinded by rage. When she had left she had been pregnant, it was the reason she ran in the first place. Her intentions were to get rid of the baby, but she couldn’t, the baby was innocent, she also couldn’t raise her, so she did the only thing she could, she put her up for adoption the day she was born. The woman at the hospital had been so nice, telling her she was doing a good thing.
The only good part of the whole thing was that she had saved her child from that life. She had failed, the pain and anger rose up, and Shady was no longer thinking about the fact she needed information from Dom, or that she needed to wait for the guys. She was going to send him to hell where he belonged.
With a roar, she stood, pulled her gun out, and shot him in one knee and then the other. The look of surprise on the fucker's face would have been laughable if she had been in her right mind. However she wasn’t. She wanted him to suffer. He was bent over, and she used her foot to kick his shoulder, plunging him back in his chair, then shot him in both shoulders.
“Whore,” he screamed and she laughed.
“I am what you made me,” Shady said and then walked to where he sat and smiled at him with a twisted expression. “You do realize that right. I mean all of the lessons, all of the nights you tortured me while I cried and begged you to stop, made me what I am today.”
Dom glared at her, even though he was at the disadvantage, he was not going to go down easily. With effort, he swung his arm out and grabbed her arm, pulling her down so he could look her in the eye. “Do you really think I didn’t plan for this? If I die, she will never be safe, my father will never rest until he finds her, she of course, is your heir. Problem solved if I die.”
“Wrong,” Shady snarled and spit at him in disgust. “She will be safe because I will make her safe. Your father is going to meet you in hell.”
She was sick of him fucking with her head. She knew he probably planned for this, but she also knew her men would never let anything happen to Jas. They were going to take care of everything, for the first time she knew she could rely on someone to have her back. They had proven it.
She stood and put her gun to the side of his head and pulled the trigger without flinching and then pulled the remote out of his pocket and walked to the door. She looked back and smiled, then unlocked the door and walked out and smiled at the sight before her.
Her men were waiting for her.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The guys found the house where Dom had created his own little safe haven. They had been shocked at first at the security he had in the middle of nowhere, it was really impressive. Too bad he hadn’t planned on pissing off a group of bikers that smuggled guns for a good cause and had enough firepower stocked up to take down a small country.
The Prospect had been told to pack everything he could in the back of the SUV—he had listened. The shoulder rocket launcher came in handy when it came to blowing up the guards' gatehouse. They hadn’t known what hit them.
From there, making it to the house had been relatively easy, the arrogance of drug dealers always shocked the guys. They refused to accept they were untouchable just because they were ‘badasses’. It was a mistake they saw time and time again with simple criminals with no morals.
When they had killed the men who were standing guard they went into the house, of course no one was inside, because Dom would never allow such lowlife’s in his space, they, after all, were minions. It was just as they suspected, thankfully. The door locked tighter than a fucking safe had them worried. While they were planning to blow the door to save Shady, she opened the door and walked out with a grin.
“Hey, guys, is Jas safe?” Shady asked.
When they nodded, she went to Slider and kissed him and then turned to Cajun and kissed him. Easy and Poke stood there in shock staring at the woman who kept shocking the shit out of them and shook their head.
“The fuck, Shay?” Poke growled and put his hands on his hips.
“What?” Shady said.
“We were rescuing you,” Easy roared. “How in the hell are we going to tell the guys the amazing story of us blowing up the guard house and then swooping in here and rescuing you, when you just sashayed your ass out of that room like you fucking knew we were here.”
Shady grinned and shook her head. “I did, silly.”
“What?” Poke asked and she looked at Slider and Cajun and shrugged.
“They will always have my back,” Shady said.
The guys laughed and she looked at her men, “We need to talk.”
“Of course,” Cajun smiled.
“And we need to get back to Jas,” she said firmly and both men frowned. “I will explain in the car.”
*****
The car was silent as they pulled into the compound for many reasons, one of them was because they had no idea what they were going back into, and two, everyone was shocked by what Shady had told them.
“If he was alive I would kill him again,” Cajun roared as they pulled up to the clubhouse and stopped. The cops were still there, but there wasn’t as much chaos as there was before.
“Are you going to tell her?” Slider asked slowly.
“I want to,” Shady said. “I'm just not sure she needs to know all of the sick and sordid details. I mean, what if he showed her the same tapes as they did Tami. How would she ever live with that?”
The guys were silent as Creed walked up to the car and looked inside. No one had gotten out because they were still talking and honestly, none of them knew what
to do.
Easy looked up at their leader and put a finger up to tell him to wait for a few minutes. Creed frowned and Easy looked at him intently hoping he would get the message. He did and backed off with a frown.
“Shay?” Poke said and kissed her on the forehead, “Listen, this whole thing sucks. You won’t know the real answer to any of your questions until you get to know Jas first.”
“If I keep it from her and tell her later, she will hate me,” Shady said softly.
“No, she will have had a chance to know you, she will have had a chance to see what you are all about and see what the club is all about, get to know Slider and me. I am assuming we plan on staying here?” Cajun said gently and she nodded. “Then get her some help, get her settled, and see how she does. Don’t drop all this shit on her right off the bat, she has been through enough. You know, Slider and me know who she is to you, to us. Build on that, and when the time comes to tell her, we will all be there for you and for her.”
“I hate it when you actually make sense,” Shady whispered.
Cajun chuckled and then kissed her cheek. Slider took her hand, “She is yours, that makes her ours. We are not going to let anything else touch her.”
“Promise?” Shady whispered.
“We all do,” Easy said from the front seat and she turned and looked at Poke and Easy who were just as intent as Cajun and Slider were.
“Shay, you gotta know, us knowing she is a part of you makes her family. Even if she wasn’t your birth child, if you claim her in your heart, then she is in ours,” Easy said.
“Damn, all this mushy shit,” Shady said with a sniff. “Seriously, I can’t deal with this shit.”
The guys laughed and then Easy went to open the door. “Hey,” Cajun said quickly. “Can you tell the guys we need a couple of minutes with Jas before we talk to them?”
“Yeah, I will take care of it,” Easy said.
*****
Jas was back in the room where she had been staying. With all of the crap going on around the house, she was surprised when she had drifted off to sleep. When she woke she saw Shady, Cajun, and Slider in their chairs like they had been the night she was going through withdrawal.
Jas knew that no one would believe her if she told them she remembered everything about that night. At first she hadn’t, but then little things had come to her when she had been sitting in the safe room worrying about the trio of people who rescued her.
When she said she was going to stay, it freaked her out. Living in one place for longer than a day or two was going to be different. But she wanted this, she wanted to find Sadie. Jas listened while everyone talked about Dominic Reyes III, she knew he was the asshole who took her and the others. Jas wanted to help them find the others and extract the revenge she heard Creed talking about. She may be a teenager, but she had lived more of a hard life in her time than most adults.
Shady turned her head and opened her eyes. Jas sat still waiting to see if the woman was going to talk to her. “Jas?” Shady whispered and she turned her head.
“Yeah,” Jas whispered back.
“How are you doing?” Shady asked.
“Everyone is leaving today,” Jas said as if that is supposed to explain everything.
“I know,” Shady said quietly and looked at the guys who were stirring a little.
“What if you don’t come back?” Jas asked.
“We will come back,” Shady promised.
“What if you don’t?” Jas asked.
“We will,” Slider said from the other side of the room.
Jas turned her head and saw both of the guys were awake, she wasn’t embarrassed or shy around them. She didn’t know why but she knew they didn’t look at her in a pervy sick way. They wanted to help her, like they were her big brothers or something. Actually, that was the way all of the guys in the compound acted, she didn’t get one single creepy vibe from them. It was awesome.
Cajun leaned forward and smiled at her. “Girly, I promise you that we will be back and then we will figure all this shit out.”
“Like what?” Jas asked, wanting them to once again acknowledge that they wanted her to stay here.
“I told you, Jas,” Shady said softly. “We want you to stay with us. You deserve so much more than what you have had. I know this is weird and new, but please give us a chance. You will be safe here and when we get back, we can figure everything out. Before we leave, I want you to come over to our house. We share it with Harmony, Creed, and Fork, but there is lots of room. While we are gone, I want you to stay there, we have a room for you, Freedom is setting it up. She will stay with you while we go and finish this.”
“Freedom is staying?” she said slowly and Shady nodded.
“There will be some of the club members here as well, helping to get things cleaned up and back to normal,” Cajun said.
“How long will you be gone?” Jas asked.
“We don’t know, until this is finished, but I will call you every day,” Shady promised and stared at Jas intently.
Jas nodded and then leaned back. “Okay.”
She felt the trio immediately relax, “Okay, doll,” Slider said and stood. “We have a meeting and you need to get ready. Shay, we will fill you in while you help Jas get to the house.”
Shady smiled and nodded. The guys stood and walked to Shady and kissed her gently. Jas thought some people probably thought that was weird, but she didn’t. Hell, they were probably the most normal people she knew, so if they loved each other, who was she to say anything.
The guys turned to her and looked at her in an uncertain way. She wasn’t sure what was going on until Cajun came and put a hand on her head and rubbed it a little then walked to the door. Slider did the same and Jas felt something she honestly had never felt before. Family and acceptance—and it felt damn good.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Church was filled to the max this morning. The Savages and the Warriors were all present. They had a lot to talk about and deal with. Creed and Fork sat at the front with Tonto and Sandman at their sides. It showed solidarity and all of the members of the clubs approved. Finally the clubs had come together, it was a good thing.
“We need to decide who is going and who is staying,” Creed said. “There could be blow back here when we take down Reyes.”
Tonto nodded and said, “The Diablos don’t know yet that you took out Dom, when they do they are going to look for payback.”
Easy stood and said, “Poke and I will stay back.”
Creed nodded and looked around the room, “Cajun, Slider, and Shady are definitely going.”
Sandman cleared his throat, “Your club has been hit hard. Anyone we leave will help you with security.”
There were murmurs of agreement in the room, men nodding and slapping each other on the back. Tonto looked at his brother and lifted his chin. Damn, they were finally letting the past go.
Raven stood in the back of the room and Shark was at his side, they had been with Sahara at the hospital since she had been taken there, she was still unconscious and they hated to leave, but when she woke up they wanted her sister back. Raven stepped up and said loudly, “Shark and I want to go, we need to find Sahara’s sister, she was one of the ones taken. We learned late last night that they were all moved to Mexico. The buyer caught wind of the sting at the storage, and Reyes decided to honor his son's deal.”
Twelve Gage and Colt stepped up. “We are going,” Colt announced. “They took Heaven's sister, Tami.”
They went back and forth, until they had a full crew, both remaining at the houses and going on the road to meet the Cali chapter and a chapter the Savages called upon. They talked about security, and made sure that every aspect of the mission was covered.
By the time they were done, everything was on the table. There were ten Ops Warriors going with more than twenty Savages. Calls were being made, and plans finalized. They were riding out at sunset.
*****
Saying goodbye to
Jas was hard Shady discovered. She almost turned around several times. Knowing who she was, Shady felt like she needed to be there for her. The only reason she didn’t was because she needed to make sure she was going to be safe. She had to see this through.
They left at sunset, riding to the meeting spot they set up where the Savages were waiting for them. No one spoke, the group was intent. They were on a mission. Five girls were kidnapped and to be sold, this was not acceptable. Creed and Fork had notified Fish they were going over the border and why. He was trying to smooth the way with the authorities, not that it mattered, but no one wanted to leave someone in a Mexican jail if shit went bad.
It was a two-day ride, the first night they stopped at a rundown hotel, the Cali chapter set up the hotel for them to stay in. There was a small bar next to it they hung in when they rode down. Shady, Slider, and Cajun went to their room rather than have a beer.
They had all showered silently and were currently lying on the bed. Slider had turned on the television for noise, each of them in their own thoughts.
“Do you think we are really going to work?” Shady asked, looking at the ceiling.
Cajun turned to his side and propped himself on his hand and looked down at her. “Babe, I know this has been completely fucked up, but that doesn’t mean that I will not feel the same way in a month or a year. Something happened when I met you, something inside me. Slider has always had my back and I knew that, but when we are all together, I feel like I am finally complete. My best friend and the woman I love at my side, I can do anything. Babe, I love you.”
Slider rolled and mimicked Cajun's pose and listened. He put his hand on Shady’s stomach and rubbed it as if to comfort her. “Shay, I fucked up when I left you, but honest to God, I think there was a reason for it. All three of us have issues, and with anyone else it would not work. We fit, it is going to work because we want it to. Jas is yours, I get that, but I hope soon you will realize that we are not going anywhere. We are a family.”
Shady closed her eyes and felt their love flow over her. Cajun briefly snagged Slider's attention, then he climbed to the top of the bed and positioned himself against the headboard. Slider grinned at his friend and nodded. Shady needed to feel their connection. She didn’t need to question their relationship again, it would do nothing. No, she needed to be reminded who she belonged to.
Shady: Ops Warriors MC Page 19
