Raine Falling (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club)

by Marinaro, Paula

  Everyone in the club had a job to do and when it worked, it worked like a fine-tuned clock. Jules had no doubt, no doubt that they would find out who did this. Finding out in time, well, that was another story.

  And they all knew it.

  Diego was losing his shit. Losing his shit. Jules could hear it in his voice.

  “Stay with me, Brother. Look around, you see anything? Doc have cameras up? You got anything?” Jules had a pencil in his hand.

  “Yeah, Brother. He has cameras up. Lights fucking flashing.” Then with a little hope in his voice, “Looks like they are recording and trained right on the lot.”

  “Good, man, that’s great. I’m calling the doctor right now. We’re gonna get him over there with that tape. Now, anything else? Look at the ground. You got anything?” Jules was already on the other line to Dolly getting Gideon’s number.

  Diego heard the calm in Jules’s voice and it brought him back to where he needed to be. He could not, could not, could not fucking fall apart right now. Everything. Everything depended on him not fucking falling apart.

  Diego was looking at the contents of the spilled purse lying next to the open door of Raine’s car.

  Then he said with deadly calm, “Brother?”

  “Yeah, D. Right here.”

  “You better call Reno. Looks like they got Claire too.” Then Diego turned off the cell and waited.

  CHAPTER 71

  The doctor showed up not fifteen minutes later, his black Mercedes escorted by four of Prosper’s crew. He was out of the car before the bikers had pulled their bikes back to park.

  Dr. Gideon went quickly to Diego and, putting his hand on his shoulder, forced him to look him in the eye.

  “You okay, son?” Dr. Gideon’s concerned face came into focus.

  “Yeah, yeah . . . They must have hit her . . . I don’t know. I think they hit her. On the head. The baby? Raine . . . I don’t know.” Diego was looking into the doctor’s eyes.

  Dr. Gideon had been dealing with Prosper’s crew for years. He had delivered half the babies born into the MC. He had done his homework. He knew not one of those kids had ever wound up in an emergency room with any unexplained bumps or broken bones. None of them had ever ended up in foster care. While he knew all that, he also was not naive enough to think that most of them would end up to be pillars of the community either. However, the way he figured it, the grown-up part was not his concern. He knew Prosper made sure his crew treated those kids right, and that was enough for him.

  He also knew that having a waiting room filled with the hard women and their hard men from a disreputable motorcycle “club” would be cause for most doctors to turn their heads the other way at accepting these new patients. This was one of the reasons Gideon had stayed in practice for so long. And one of the reasons he worried about getting out. But his wife had laid down the law, and he grudgingly had decided she was right. Forty years was long enough.

  He had dealt with many a hard man in his days, but the look of fear and panic on the face of a man like Diego scared the hell out of him.

  “Okay. I’m going in to get that tape for you. But first I want you to listen. I doubt very much whoever did this was would hit Raine hard enough to do any permanent damage. My guess is if they had wanted her dead, she would have been killed on the spot. You know better than I do, but I think it is safe to say that for now Raine is okay.”

  The doctor held Diego’s eyes.

  “Now for the baby.”

  He took a breath and went on.

  “A fetus needs adequate oxygen and nutrition. A blow to the head is not going to interfere with these vital necessities. Not even to a small degree. Nature has provided a very well-protected environment for fetuses, otherwise the whole race would be too fragile to survive.” Dr. Gideon smiled faintly, hoping he had gotten through to Diego.

  Diego looked into the doctor’s eyes and took a deep breath. He had heard him. Raine and their child were okay for now. While it made him sick inside to think of Raine being hit like that, Diego agreed that if whoever did this had wanted Raine dead, she would have been. If Raine had been dead from that blow, they wouldn’t have taken her. No. They hit her just hard enough to knock her out, he was sure of it. But he hadn’t known if Raine being unconscious for even a short time would hurt the baby. He felt only a little better at the news. But he would take it.

  “Let’s go get that tape, Doc.” Diego was back.

  Because Dr. Gideon was not only a good doctor but a good God-fearing man, he looked into the blackness that reflected back to him from Diego’s eyes and said a silent prayer for whoever it was who had abducted Raine. Because no matter what the outcome, Diego was not only going to kill that someone, he was going to make him suffer unbearably first.

  CHAPTER 72

  The next few hours served to prove why Prosper was one of the most influential and feared men on the eastern seaboard.

  Within twenty minutes of hearing of the girls’ kidnapping, Prosper had made contact with three federal agents and four congressmen, all of whom were in his pocket. They were all on standby waiting for information that they could use their extensive influence to act upon.

  Twenty-five minutes after viewing the tape, Prosper had ordered a sit-down with the heads of three of the most feared crews in the outlaw nation.

  He had been spending a good deal of his time in the last few months putting together a very lucrative deal involving the crews of Los Diablos, the Mob, and the Aces. The Mexicans, Italians, and blacks all coming together was unheard of. But Prosper was getting on in years and was a very smart guy. He had worked hard on this deal and, while being extremely profitable, it would not work without the cooperation of the heads of the other crews.

  It had taken him months to get them all at a table. Months. Once there, he had laid out his plan. If properly executed, there would be little risk involved. But only if done right. Each organization was a cog in the wheel of the plan, with the Saints being the beginning and ending cog, therefore taking on most of the risk. That and the promise of all the green made the other head members of their crews want in.

  Prosper had spent many hours finessing the deal. Easing tensions, soothing egos, and dancing the fucking dance. No one wanted to see it go down the toilet.

  But that was exactly where it would be if both his girls weren’t found safely and fast.

  Prosper sat at the table. Jules to his right. Diego to his left.

  Prosper had just finished showing the tape of Raine and Claire’s abduction. He was looking straight at the head of Los Diablos.

  “So this fucking shit your play, Ese?” Prosper’s eyes were shark black.

  “No, man.” Lucius was shaking his head. “No fucking way this falls back on us.”

  “Fucking member of your crew did the deed.” Gianni was pissed. Who the fuck took a pregnant woman?

  Lucius was looking around the table. He was thinking he was pretty well screwed. Either he was going to look like he couldn’t handle his crew or he was going to look like he put a hit out on Prosper’s family. Either way this was bad. And Lucius did not like looking bad under the best of circumstances. This shit was epic. This shit was so incredibly fucked that unless he handled this right, Lucius had little hope of coming out of it alive.

  “Yeah, my crew. But not my order, friend. The stupid motherfucker acted on his own. He’s a dead man. That I promise you.” Lucius was looking around the table.

  Prosper looked at Lucius. “I really hope that’s true, motherfucker. Because as of right now, I have two men at your house pointing .45s at your woman and your three fucking kids.”

  Lucius’s face showed no emotion, but he chin-nodded to his man to make the call to his house. When Lucius’s second came back to the table, he nodded once at Lucius.

  Lucius said nothing.

  Prosper’s face was grim. He look
ed at the bosses.

  “This tape shows a prospect from Lucius’s crew taking my girls. He acted against my man to do it. With no provocation.”

  Prosper delivered those words with dead calm.

  Then he slammed his hand on the table so hard it sent a splinter through the wood that ran half the length of the slab before it stopped.

  Prosper’s eyes flashed red. His gravelly voice delivered a message straight from hell.

  “With no fucking provocation. My girls. Raine is eight months pregnant. Her sister Claire, sweetest girl on the planet. Hit on the head. Pushed into a van. My man tasered. Nothing. Nothing makes this right except blood. Nothing!”

  He looked around the table. He was shouting at the top of his lungs.

  “Everything is on hold. If my daughters are not found within the next few hours, you pay, Lucius. And you pay with blood.

  “I am going to start with your kids first. I am going to make you watch while I put a bullet in their heads. You feel me, Ese?

  “Then your woman. You are going to fucking watch them all die. I don’t give a shit! Everybody you ever loved is going to die fucking slowly.

  “If my girls get hurt . . . NO ONE IS SAFE.” Prosper was leaning in and pointing his big thick finger in the face of Lucius.

  Then with dead calm.

  “Raine and Claire are returned safely first. That’s first. Past that, I want that fucking piece of shit who could be swayed by that crazy snatch dead. And I want that snatch dead. Anyone got a problem with that, you can fucking get up now and leave. I want a bullet through that bitch’s throat. I am going to kill that prospect myself.”

  He continued, “Any man at this table not seeing this my way, leave now and know I take that personal.”

  “Ain’t got no problem,” Demetrius said. “Shit’s fucked up. I got a woman carrying a baby myself. No way I’m gonna want to worry about her when she goes to the goddamn doctor’s office because some bitch who was blowing me gets a bug up her ass.”

  Then he added nodding around the table, “Bitch has got to go.”

  Gianni leaned in. “Lucius, you better contain this now. Bring in your prospect and find out what the fuck. Family, we don’t touch. You know it. I know it. Everybody around this table knows it.”

  Gianni paused to nods all around. Then he continued.

  “I’m telling you right now. My boys ain’t got no beef with Los Diablos, never have. You and me, we don’t dabble in the same pond. But this shit goes down with Prosper’s family and I am with him. Nowhere to hide, man. You need to contain this. For a lot of fucking reasons. Word gets out you can’t control a prospect, you lose your cred. You lose your cred, we don’t want to go into business with you, capisce?” Gianni finished.

  “Yeah, I understand.” Lucius was rubbing the back of his neck. “Manny’s my sister’s kid. Took him on as a prospect as a favor to her. Kid addicted to bad snatch. Just like some women addicted to bad men. Manny did time for his love of pussy. Bitch fingered him for a deal few years back. He just got out. Hooked up with this gash. Crazy chick. But my nephew, he loves that shit. I’ll find him. Got his mother on it now.”

  “His mother? You got his fucking mother on it?” Diego had been quiet up until this point. Following protocol, giving Prosper respect, knowing he would handle it. But now he spoke up.

  “Yeah, man, my sister.” Lucius was looking at Diego. “Raised four brothers when our mother died. Then had a man and raised four more while he did time. She’s one tough mamma. Her boy hoping right about now that you find him first before his mother does. She threatened to rip off his dick if he pulled this shit again because of pussy and she is good to her word.”

  “Okay then. We’re fucking done. You all know what’s at stake. I suggest strongly, Lucius, that you call in every favor owed you and take as many markers as you can to find this piece of shit family member of yours before I put them all to ground looking for him. You hear me, Ese?” Prosper was sick of dicking around with these assholes. He needed to get out there and find his girls.

  “You sitting here threatening my boss’s family, man? Los Diablos don’t take kindly to that.” Lucius’s first hand sitting to his left spoke up.

  “Shut the fuck up,” Lucius said to him.

  “Yeah, that’s a threat and a promise.” Diego spoke quietly but not one man mistook his tone.

  Prosper brought down the gavel three times and it was done.

  Reno had been leaning against the bar watching the door for the past hour. The ashtray next to him was full, but the shot glass next to that had stayed empty. He wanted to be clear when he heard what had gone down in the meet. He wanted to be clear to do what needed to be done to get Claire back.

  Because he loved her.

  Yeah, he fucking did.

  He loved her.

  He loved the way she laughed and how her smile made the freckles across her nose dance. He loved how she twirled her hair when she was tired and how her clothes always seemed to be one size too big for her, as though she was hiding in them. He loved how she avoided being too close to him. But how, when she thought he wasn’t looking, she would stare at him with a sort of wonder and longing in her eyes that even she was not aware of. He loved, fucking loved, that she did not look at any other man that way.

  He loved how shy she was.

  He loved how brave she was.

  He loved the way she teased Prosper, easily the biggest, baddest dude in a club of very big, bad dudes and made him laugh at himself in ways nobody else, even Pinky, dared to do.

  He loved that he hadn’t kissed her yet. Because that was worth waiting for.

  Yeah, he fucking loved her. And the thought of her out there with some psycho bitch and love-crazy prospect spic was making him crazy.

  Crazy enough to kill.

  The meet was over and Reno pulled himself away from the bar, watching the heads of three gangs and their seconds walk out. The faces were grim but they were all moving to the bar, as was custom, to raise a glass in solidarity.

  Well, that was something.

  Diego and Prosper flanked each side of Reno. They drank their shots down quickly and let the men see themselves out.

  Then Diego and Prosper took Reno, Jules, and the rest of the executive branch of the Saints and filled them in.

  Lucius’s second was allowed to go. But Lucius was being held in one of the rooms on the compound. His life and the life of his woman and children were hanging in the balance.

  CHAPTER 73

  Claire had seen it in a movie. With that and her well-honed instinct for noticing her surroundings, she was keeping track of the turns they were taking and things she was hearing. Trying to get a fix on their location if at all possible. Not sure why, but she thought if she could somehow control this she could keep it from happening.

  But the moment she felt Raine waking up from where she had her head cushioned on her lap, all that went right out the window. Thank God, she was beginning to moan and toss her head from side to side. Claire had had her hand over her sister’s stomach partly instinctually and partly to make sure the baby was moving.

  It was. Thank heavens.

  Reno had dropped Claire off at Dr. Gideon’s office. Raine had booked the last appointment of the day and Claire had plans to meet her there to go out afterwards for a leisurely dinner and some baby shopping. She had used the spare key to open the door to Raine’s car and was going to sit in it and wait. It had been a long day waitressing at Reds and she was bone tired. Just as she was about to hop into the car, she was dragged from behind, hit over the head, and pushed into a van. When a woman had turned Claire over, she screamed at the Hispanic man with her.

  “I don’t know who the fuck this is, Manny, but it ain’t that fucking bitch!” Ellie had foam at the corners of her mouth.

  “Well, what the fuck, Ellie? She fits the descripti
on. She was getting in the car and at the doctor’s office,” Manny sniveled. Jesus, he was Lucius Rieldo’s nephew. A prospect of one of the most feared MC clubs in the country and the son of Luisa Sievas, and this bitch had him sniveling. What was wrong with him?

  Manny had seen Ellie when she had walked into Los Diablos clubhouse. Wearing practically nothing but a big bright smile, she honed right in on him. Made him feel special, like he was not just a prospect but the president, vice president, and sergeant at arms rolled into one. She was on her knees for him a half hour after they met and had been ever since. She let him do anything he wanted to her and even had a couple of suggestions. She had a mouth like a pro and sucked him off like nothing he had ever had.

  She told him the story of how this chick named Raine had double-crossed her only brother. He was a veteran from Iraq who shot himself after learning she was knocked up by his best friend. He knew he had to help her get vengeance. He agreed to take the chick and give her a good talking-to, put a good scare into her. Much as he loved Ellie, Manny could never hurt a pregnant woman. Not so it mattered anyway.

  “Does this bitch look fucking pregnant to you?” Ellie had hissed.

  “Jesus, you didn’t say how pregnant. Look the fuck where we are, Ellie. Doctor’s office, fits your goddamn description, and getting into the shit heap of a car you described.” Manny was getting pissed.

  Ellie knew she needed to be careful. Manny was dumb, really dumb, but maybe not that dumb. And he had a trigger temper. She had better be careful and play this right until the end. If Ellie wanted to end up with Diego, she needed to play this right.

  “Alright, alright. I’ll stay in the back of the van with her. Must be a sister or something. Jesus, they look so much alike. Cunt must still be in the office. Go in there and see.” Ellie was furious but maybe this could be salvaged. She was just getting ready to tie the chick up when Manny came running out with a very pregnant knocked-out woman in his arms. He practically threw her in the service van and yelled to Ellie to get in the front.