“They’ll do it without a marker,” Z murmured. “Want ‘im as bad as us.”
“Not as bad,” Hawk answered.
His brother was right. No one wanted Black Jack more than Hawk or D.
“Gotta head to the warehouse an’ meet Hunter. Knows how to get Jewel’s location from the photo.” He looked at Hawk. “You, Z, an’ Jag with me.” His gaze landed on Ace. “Everybody else needs to hang here an’ wait for word. We need ‘em we’ll call. Gotta watch the women. Keep ‘em here. Got me, Pop?”
“Hear ya, boy. Got it covered.”
“Slade, too,” Z suggested.
D still didn’t know if he could trust Slade, so he wasn’t thrilled with that idea.
“Former Marine, brother,” Z reminded him. “Might be good to have ‘im with.”
“Yeah,” D grunted. “Wastin’ time here.”
“Let’s roll,” Z said, jerking his chin to the small group of brothers.
Almost as one, they moved out the back door and into the lot, heading toward their bikes.
Before they could mount up, the back door flung open and Diamond ran out. “I’m coming, too.”
“No,” Hawk barked.
“Yes, Hawk. It’s my sister,” she screeched. “Jag! Tell them I’m coming.”
Jag just shook his head. “Ain’t gonna have to worry ‘bout you gettin’ snatched up or in the way. Stay here.”
“No!” Her eyes wild, she turned to Slade. “Going with you.”
Slade scowled at her. “No you ain’t. Stayin’ here like you’re told.”
Surprise hit her face at his answer. She probably thought she had the newest member wrapped around her finger already. D was glad to see he wasn’t.
“The fuck I am! She’s my sister.”
“Diamond, you’re wastin’ time,” Hawk growled.
“Then stop arguing with me!” she insisted.
“Woman, you’re stayin’ here,” Slade stated firmly. “Get inside an’ don’t leave church ‘til I get back. Got me?”
“You can’t tell me shit,” she screamed at Slade.
“No, but I can,” Diesel bellowed at her. “Get inside an’ shut the fuck up.”
“D...”
“Get the fuck inside. Don’t need your shit on top of everythin’ else.”
“Di, do it!” Jag yelled at his sister.
She opened her mouth then snapped it shut. With a huff, she turned and went inside.
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” D muttered and looked toward Slade who was getting on his sled. “More power to ya, brother.”
“Ain’t a thing,” Slade grumbled, avoiding his gaze.
There wasn’t time to debate that. And, honestly, D could give a fuck who Diamond was sinking her claws into, as long as it wasn’t him.
One by one, bikes came to life and they rolled out.
Chapter Sixteen
Heading into the warehouse with his brothers on his heels, D’s phone rang.
“Go,” Diesel barked into it.
“Gotta bead on his last known location,” Brick answered. “Probably where he ditched her phone. Signal went dead after that last text went through.”
“Where?” D grunted.
“Past the Ohio line, heading west.”
“Gotta get ‘im before he gets too far,” D stated.
“Hear ya, boss. Gonna do our best.”
“Know it. Owe you big time.”
“Not doin’ it for you. Doin’ it for them.”
Them.
Kiki, Jazz and now Jewel.
“Yeah,” D answered. “You an’ Walker head that direction. Meetin’ Hunter now at the warehouse to get the location of Jewelee.”
As long as Black Jack hadn’t moved her after taking the photo, he had all the faith in the world Hunter would get an exact bead on her.
“Keep me updated, got me?” D said.
“Copy that,” were Brick’s last words before he hung up.
D yanked the door open to the warehouse and they all filed in. He headed directly to the surveillance room and found Hunter in there waiting for them, sitting behind one of the computers.
Hunter held out his hand. “Phone.”
D dropped it in the man’s palm. He wanted to pace but the room wasn’t big as it was and it was now full of his brothers.
Jesus, if he was a religious man, he’d be feeling fucking blessed about now. He had good men at his back. Couldn’t ask for more.
Well, he could. He needed to find Jewelee safe.
Hunter did his thing with D’s phone and the picture and after a minute, plugged the latitude and longitude into Google Maps on the computer.
“Got ‘er,” Hunter said in a low voice, staring at the screen. He looked up and met D’s eyes. “Long as he didn’t move ‘er.”
For fuck’s sake, if he moved her, they were screwed.
“Where’s Mercy?” D asked him.
“En route. Got Steel an’ Ryder in the city babysittin’ McDouchebag.”
“Right. So you’re with us to find Jewelee,” he told Hunter. “Brick and Walker are lookin’ for Black Jack. Gonna need Mercy to meet up with them. Gonna need him on scene when he’s found.”
Hunter met his eyes, then a knowing look crossed his face and he jerked his chin up. “Pluggin’ these coordinates into my phone an’ yours, too, boss.”
“Yeah,” D grunted. “ETA to get to that locale?”
“Maybe forty-five.”
“Gotta do it quicker than that.”
“Hear ya,” Hunter said, his gaze circling the room. “Takin’ lead. Everyone keep up.” He pushed his big body from the chair. “Make a hole,” he grumbled and headed out of the room toward the lot behind the warehouse.
* * *
Jewel hadn’t cried once. Not once since she woke up from being knocked out by that asshole motherfucker.
She did a mental scan of her body. Her head ached, the skin on her wrists and ankles burned from the rough rope, her muscles were stiff from her limbs being bound and her laying in that position for who knows how long.
At least she was dressed and alive.
A gag was shoved in her mouth and a blindfold covered her eyes. She had no idea where Black Jack had taken her. Even worse, she had no idea what he planned. However, she couldn’t hear a thing. Wherever she was, the silence was deafening.
She couldn’t hear traffic, voices, or even birds. There weren’t even any identifying smells other than a slight musty odor. Otherwise, nothing to identify her location.
She just knew the floor was concrete because the cold seeped into her bones and the surface was rough beneath her cheek. A shiver skittered down her back. She could be in a bunker somewhere never to be found. She could lay here until she eventually starved or froze to death.
Kiki and Jazz had been found by someone pinging Kiki’s cell phone. She could only hope that Black Jack had kept hers with them. However, she had no idea where he was, either.
She closed her eyes behind the bandana that blindfolded her, and in her mind’s eye she saw D racing to her rescue. She only hoped that was true. His Shadows were good at finding people, as well as making people disappear. But she didn’t know much more about them.
She couldn’t blame Diesel if he was still angry about her not going with him on the club run. If she hadn’t been so obstinate and did as he demanded, she never would have given Black Jack the opportunity to take her.
But, no, she had decided to be as stubborn as D in an attempt to bend him to her will. And anyone who knew D knew he didn’t bend. Not ever. Not for anybody.
She had been stupid to believe she would be the one who could do it... and look where she ended up...
Royally fucked.
No, she was not going to cry. She wouldn’t show any weakness. Fuck that asshole Warrior. She was DAMC through and through and tough biker bitches didn’t cry. They didn’t beg. They fought.
Though, it was hard to fight when you were trussed up like a pig about to go to slaughte
r.
Fuck!
She didn’t know how long she laid there while her thoughts raced and played tricks on her mind. Every time she thought she heard something, she was wrong, she’d imagined it. She didn’t know if it was an hour or two since she came around. But still no Black Jack. No Diesel.
No one.
She’d never been afraid of being by herself before, but the fear was clawing down her spine and up her throat. She might not survive this.
If she didn’t, D would probably be really pissed. And then she would have to haunt his ass.
She snorted. Then sobered quickly when she realized she was losing her mind.
This waiting. This unknowing. Her mind was going to snap, break like a dropped mirror, shatter into countless shards of glass, unable to be put back together.
She needed to keep her shit together.
Then she heard the roar of a motorcycle and her stomach dropped. Black Jack was back.
* * *
Diesel needed to keep his shit together. He was falling apart inside, but he had to hide it. From his men, from his brothers, from Jewel once he found her.
This wasn’t him. Shit didn’t tear him up like this.
But it was.
Black Jack was right. Pussy was making him weak, vulnerable. He never thought that day would come where a woman meant enough to him that she could be used as a weapon against him.
That day was today.
He was so fucking fucked.
But it was Jewel. And, goddamn it, she was worth it.
Hunter was just ahead of him in his blacked-out Range Rover. His hand came out of the driver’s side window and gave D a signal. They were turning right.
D gave the same signal to the group behind him and he followed the four-wheel-drive vehicle off the main road onto a stone lane. His back wheel kicked out in the loose gravel and he righted it quickly.
He didn’t need to dump his bike. He needed to find Jewelee.
Hunter was driving slowly down through a thick of trees and D followed carefully. Then suddenly the patch of woods opened up to a clearing and D spotted a small concrete block building next to what remained of an old baseball field. One that hadn’t been used in quite a long time.
He raced past the Range Rover, tempted to lay his sled over and use the momentum to launch himself into that building... because she was in there. He knew it in his gut.
Instead, he parked it calmly but quickly and he went to the wood door to see there was a latch on it with a padlock.
“Jewel!” he bellowed through the thick door. “You in there?” When he got no answer, dread washed over him. “Jewelee! Answer me!”
He listened carefully for a moment. Nothing.
Fuck.
He cocked his leg back and then forcefully kicked the door. It didn’t budge.
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ!” he yelled to no one in particular.
“Boss,” Hunter said. “Step back.”
D looked behind him. Hunter stood with his .45 in his hand. His brothers, all anxious and tense, gathered behind his man.
Moving away from the door, he waved everyone back behind the vehicle. He didn’t need anyone getting hit from a ricochet or shrapnel.
“Ears!” D yelled and covered his own.
Hunter moved to the side of the door jamb and shot at the lock. Then he was moving forward and kicking the door open.
D jogged forward and followed on his heels into the dark interior of the windowless building.
“Fuck. Need a light,” D grumbled. “Jewelee!”
Something moved in the corner.
“Jewel,” he yelled again.
Suddenly, the headlights of two bikes were pointed through the open doorway and D spotted her. She was in the exact same position as in the picture.
He fell to his knees next to her, ripping off the blindfold and then the gag. “Jesus fuckin’ Christ.” He moved the hair out of her face carefully in case she was injured. She turned her head toward him, blinked, then gave him a crooked smile. “Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” he whispered.
She was okay.
“Knife!” he yelled over his shoulder and one appeared. “Gonna cut these ropes off, baby. Gotta stay still, got me?”
“Yeah,” she croaked. “Water.”
“In a sec,” he reassured her. In the limited light, he could see a bruise on her temple and a little bit of dried blood, but she was in nowhere near the shape Kiki or Jazz was in when he found them.
Black Jack had hardly touched her. Thank fuck.
“Stay still,” he told her again and he sawed at the ropes until her hands were free. She moved them in front of her and began to rub her wrists. “Still,” he said again as he sawed at the bindings at her ankles.
When the final thread of the ropes cut free, relief rushed through him.
His woman was safe. She had a knot on her head and a cut, but she was whole.
She tried to sit up but whimpered. “Legs are asleep,” she said.
He fell to his ass onto the concrete floor and yanked her into his lap. With his arms wrapped around her, he held her as close as he could. Which wasn’t nearly close enough. “Thank fuck,” he whispered in her ear. “Thank fuck.”
He pinned his forehead to hers and just breathed. She was alive. She was whole. She was his.
“D...” she whispered.
“Yeah,” he breathed.
“Sorry I didn’t go on the run.”
Jesus fuck.
Diesel closed his eyes, not willing to let her go but knew they had to move. They needed to get her out of there. Someone needed to get her to the emergency room to get checked out. And he still needed to find Black Jack.
Shit wasn’t done yet.
“Woman, gotta listen to your ol’ man,” was all he could say so he wouldn’t lose it.
“If I had an ol’ man, maybe I would,” she murmured, looking up at him with a small grin.
“Got one,” he grunted.
She jerked in his arms at his words, then said softly, “Love you, D.”
“Know it, baby” he answered into her hair.
Jesus fuckin’ Christ. It felt as if the world was crushing his chest.
He couldn’t keep sitting there. And everyone else agreed.
“Gotta go, D,” came from Hawk.
“Need to find that fucker,” came from Jag.
He got a better grip on Jewel and pushed to his feet while she was still in his arms. He looked to his brother.
“Need you to get ‘er to the hospital. Make sure everythin’s okay.”
Hawk shook his head. “Goin’ with you.”
He could argue with his brother, but that would just waste time and he didn’t think he’d win that argument. He looked to Jewel’s brother. “Jag, take her, got me?”
“Yeah.”
“You an’ Slade. Take Hunter’s cage. Give ‘im your bike.”
Jag’s eyes widened. Diesel knew he was asking a lot of him but, luckily, the sled Jag was riding wasn’t one of his fancy customs. That had been trashed not long ago by the Warriors. Even though he’d been working on a new custom for the past few months, it would take another year or so to complete. So in the meantime, he was riding a temporary bike. One he’d eventually customize and sell once he completed his own.
“Lucky I ain’t that attached to my sled,” Jag grumbled.
“Will take care of it,” Hunter said. “Promise, brother.”
“Ain’t a keeper. The only one I have right now, though.”
“Hear ya,” Hunter said. “Take care of my ride, too. I am attached to it.”
Jag nodded and followed D as he carried Jewel out to the Range Rover.
“What are you going to do?” she asked him.
“What needs done,” D muttered.
“D...”
“No lip, woman,” he told her as Hawk opened the passenger side of the vehicle for him. He set her carefully on the seat. “Belt on. Don’t give Jag any shit, got me?”
Jewel rolled her eyes at him as she pulled the seatbelt into place.
“Get checked out, go back to church, wait there.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Yeah you will. ‘Cause you’re gonna listen to me an’ listen to Jag.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Know it, but you’re gonna do it anyway.”
He leaned into the vehicle and kissed her hard. “Gonna see you in a bit.”
He went to close the door and she stopped him. “D...”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t do anything crazy.”
He shut the door and gave a chin lift to Jag, who moved around the front of the Range Rover. Before getting in, Jag slipped off his cut and leaned in to hand it to Jewel. Then he climbed into the driver’s seat and, a few seconds later, took off with Slade following on his bike.
As D watched them head down the lane, his phone rang and so did Hunter’s. He looked at his screen.
“Mercy,” D said to Hunter.
Hunter looked at his phone. “Brick,” he announced.
D turned one way and Hunter the other to grab their calls.
“Yeah,” D grunted into the phone.
“Gonna let me play with ‘im?” Mercy asked.
“The longer the better,” D answered and he heard Mercy make a pleased sound on the other end of the phone.
“Hoped so. Otherwise, would’ve just took care of business an’ called you when it was over.”
D didn’t doubt it. “Got a bead?” D asked.
“Better than that. Got him cornered. Holed up at a house in Ohio. ‘Bout ten klicks past the state line. Jeep’s out front.”
“He know you’re there?”
“Fuck no. We’re in the shadows. Gonna wait for the boss man to get here.”
“Brick with you?”
“Yeah. Talkin’ to Hunter now.”
“Hunter’s with me. So’s Hawk an’ Z.”
“Sure you want ‘em involved?”
No, he didn’t. Except he didn’t think he would get either of them to stand down and head back to Shadow Valley. But then if he was in their shoes, he wouldn’t, either.
Tonight they were going to start with Black Jack. Then they’d take all the Warriors down. One by one, if need be.
“Don’t gotta choice, brother,” D finally said.
Down & Dirty: Books 4-6: Dirty Angels MC Box Set 2 Page 19
