“Cut it the fuck out!” Knox exclaimed.
I went to lunge for Dean as he wrapped his arms around me.
“Dean. Stop. This isn’t gonna help.”
I watched a tall, built man wrap his arms around Dean and pull him back. My nostrils flared, taking in the smell of Dean’s blood trickling down his face. I was out for revenge. I was out for heads. I was ready to take lives and set the damn city on fire just to watch it burn if it got me Brynn back. And if Dean stood in my way, he’d be the first to ignite.
“Breathe,” Knox said as he pulled me back. “Breathe, Diesel.”
“Get off me, Jace,” Dean said.
He shoved the tall man off him before bringing the back of his hand to his nose. He wiped at the blood as Knox’s arms fell from my body and I tugged on my jacket. I eyed every single one of the Black Hornets. I committed all of their faces to memory. My mind was digesting everything at once. Reading everyone at once in a feeble attempt to figure out what my next move was when it came to getting Brynn back.
“How the hell could I have been so stupid,” Dean said.
His eyes turned back to me as the bleeding of his nose stopped
“I should’ve known you would’ve gotten reckless. Unable to control yourself around my daughter. I should’ve known the past the two of you had would’ve made you vulnerable to the one thing you said you could protect her from!”
Dean lunged at me again, but Jace caught him around his chest.
“Let me go!” Dean exclaimed.
“Use your energy to find her. Not tear him apart. He doesn’t have her. It’ll do you no good,” Jace said.
“I suggest you listen to the muscle with eyes,” I said.
“Let’s try not to insult them any further, huh?” Knox asked.
I panned my gaze over to him and felt my blood boil. Who the fuck did he think he was?
“The only way we’re getting Brynn back is if we work together,” Jace said.
“He’s right,” Rock said. “So, Diesel. You gotta walk us through what the fuck happened at your place tonight. Starting with what happened after you two left the bar.”
“The bar?” Dean asked. “She was at your bar!?”
Dean lunged at me yet again and Jace had to hold him back. I had to give him props, for being as tall as he was, he was fast. But before I could start in on my story, the main phone at our lodge rang.
And I froze.
The only people who had access to that number were standing in the lodge. And none of those people included anyone from the Black Hornets.
Fuck.
I’d almost forgotten about Mick and his rat-like ways. For all I knew, he’d given that damn number out to every single one of those Black Saddle fucks. If that man were still alive, I’d put a bullet right in his dick. The ringing of the phone pulled me from the darkness of my anger and started my legs on a journey towards the phone.
“Fucking Mick,” Brewer said behind me.
“I got this,” Rock said as he reached into his satchel.
“Who the hell’s Mick?” Dean asked.
“The reason why you’re helping us,” I said as I picked up the phone. “Rock, you ready?”
“Pick up the phone and give me ten seconds. Then, I’ll have that damn call tracing,” he said.
I put the call on speakerphone and rose my finger to my lips. Everyone in our fucking lodge needed to shut their mouths. I didn’t answer the person automatically. I took the time to listen to the sounds that came through the second I picked up the call. There was shuffling and some muffled words. Something crashed in the background and raked against the floor. The sounds were hollow. Not close by. So, wherever this person was calling from, they were in a wide space.
Which ruled out The Black Saddles lodge.
“Get off me!”
The second I heard Brynn’s voice my eyes whipped up to Dean. He pushed away from Jace’s grasp and came barreling for the phone, but I wouldn’t give it to him. Every sound that came pouring forth was more information I could use to track her down. And the anger in Dean’s eyes when I pulled the phone away from him could’ve sparked the fire that burnt this entire place down. I put my finger back to my lips before I held the phone between us, hoping and praying the man could contain himself long enough to keep quiet.
“Anyone gonna answer me?” the voice asked.
But not just any voice.
Rex.
His voice echoed. Kind of like when someone’s standing in a bathroom. Which meant there was no carpet or anything around to absorb the sound. Large space. Echoes. That meant the walls and the flooring were things like cement. Or metal. Or tile. But not at their lodge.
“Maybe,” I said. “Depends on who I’m speaking with.”
“Don’t act like you don’t know who this is,” Rex said.
“It’s easy for me to forget the names of those that don’t matter.”
I heard a crack off in the distance and I cringed. Dean lunged for the phone again, but I held my hand out. Jace and Knox both came up to peel the man away from me and Knox immediately clamped his hand down onto Dean’s mouth. He roared into Knox’s palm and I saw Jace ready to attack, but then Brewer stepped forward and got right into Dean’s face.
“You have no idea what Diesel’s capable of. Let him work,” he said with a whisper.
And I watched Dean’s body relax.
I looked over at Rock, but I saw the frustration on his face. He was having trouble locking onto the signal to get a decent trace. He looked up at me with fire in his eyes and I held out my hand, trying to let him know that an exact location wasn’t necessary. So long as he could triangulate and give me a fifteen-mile radius, I could do the rest.
Then, another sound came through the phone. A beautiful sound that made me smile with delight.
I heard the sound of a train rumbling through the line of the phone.
“I promise you I matter. I’ve always mattered. I told Dean one day Brynn would be mine, and I always keep to my word. But, I’m willing to make a trade,” Rex said.
“A trade, huh? Sounds like you really have the hots for that woman, then,” I said.
“I think you’ll find the trade interesting.”
“I’m sure I will. Hit me with your best shot.”
I strode over to Rock and put the phone down on the table. I reached for a pen and a piece of paper and began to scribble things down. Warehouse. Large rooms. By a set of train tracks.
I slid the piece of paper into Rock’s vision and he started typing away on his computer.
“I want you assholes to turn yourselves in,” Rex said.
“To the feds, I’m assuming,” I said.
“You claim this is your town, but you have no idea the seeds we’ve planted. You don’t give a shit about this area, but we do. We always have. The Black Hornets pushed my gang out of Redding for no other reason than they could, and I was more than willing to move on to bigger and better things once Brynn had died.”
I heard boots falling against hardened flooring before I heard her voice. She whimpered, and my heart stopped in my chest.
“When I caught wind that she was alive, I didn’t believe it. But once I saw her racing down the highway into Redding blasting Matchbox Twenty from the speakers of her car, I knew that was my Brynn. She had come home to me. She had somehow survived the assault and she had come back for me. I was happy. Until I saw her with you.”
Another crack resounded over the phone and my hands began to quiver. I couldn’t wait to wrap my hands around that motherfucker’s neck and snap him in half. I watched Rock’s computer screen as a flood of dots popped up on a map. And with each parameter he entered in, they slowly faded away from the screen. They blacked out and faded into nothingness until ten dots remained. Then, the triangulation of the phone call tightened, getting rid of four more.
Six possible locations for where Brynn could be. It still spread us out too thin.
“Keep talking,” Rock mou
thed to me.
“Once I saw her with you, I realized how much she meant to you Diesel. How much this pretty little thing had you wrapped around her finger.” Rex said.
“Leave Brynn out of this,” I said. “This fight is between you and me.”
Rex out a laugh. “It is so much more than just me and you now, Diesel. Now that I know she is alive, it is time to teach her and her father a lesson. And as an added bonus, I get to hurt you in the process, now that I know how much she means to you.”
“Brynn is innocent in all of this. This fight isn’t with her. It is between our clubs.”
“Fine!” Rex yelled. “If you want your precious piece of ass back, then your club and Dean’s will need to take the fall for everything that the feds are building.” Good, I got him focused on the feds. That would take his attention away from hurting Brynn and keep him talking.
“So, what? You started colluding with the feds to push us both out?” I asked.
“Don’t act like you don’t know. I know you know about Mick. I know your guys were the ones that blasted him away in the woods a couple of weeks ago, after you figured out what he was doing for us. Now that our source is gone, the feds have turned up the heat on getting them information. They told me that either way, one of the clubs is going to jail. And there is no way in hell it is mine.”
Then, a beautiful sound happened again.
Yet another train passed by on the other end of the line.
I watched Rock pull up another window and he began hacking as fast as he could. He pulled up train schedules and sifted through information, trying to see which track had two trains so close together barreling down the same damn track. My eyes widened as his fingers flew. The Black Hornets and my club were gathered around us as we worked as diligently as we could. And the second Rock pulled up the schedule, he entered the last parameter.
And only one dot remained.
“So, what’s your endgame?” I asked as I rose up from the table. “What do you expect to get out of all this?”
“Turn yourself into the authorities and get the fuck out of Redding. Trust me, I’ll know when you do it. And once you do, I’ll return Brynn to the Black Hornets. Maybe Dean and I can negotiate for Brynn’s hand on a different set of terms. One that doesn’t require her protection. It was very easy getting to you, Diesel. Who knew that out of all the people in your pathetic club, it would be you who wouldn’t lock your front door?”
My eyes panned over to Dean and I saw his nostrils flaring. I reached down to Rock’s computer and turned it around to him. Showing him the one little dot blinking on the screen. His eyes danced between mine and the computer, then he put his finger in the air and circled it quickly. And like lightning, the Black Hornets were silently maneuvering around us, gearing up and heading out to their bikes.
“How about I think about your offer?” I asked.
“What?” Rex asked.
“Yeah. Let me make a cup of coffee and sit on it. I’m sure Brynn will still be alive once I call you back. I can call you back, right?”
“The fuck are you talking about? She’s dead if you hang up this fucking phone.”
“No, she’s not. Because she’s your only bargaining chip. We don’t agree to this, and the feds come after you.”
The phone call went silent as Rock pinged our phones with the location of that warehouse.
“Exactly what I thought, mother fucker.”
Then I hung up the phone and shoved it into my pocket. We were headed to find Brynn.
Once we got her I would kill Rex myself.
Chapter 16
Brynn
I heard Rex talking on the phone and I knew it wasn’t good. I woke up a few minutes ago sitting on the floor with my hands and ankles bound with rope. I could tell by how hot the warehouse was that it was daylight outside, despite the fact that no windows allowed any light into the room I was sitting in. My body ached and my cheeks were sore from the beating I had taken because of that phone call. Because someone kept pissing him off. I hoped it was Diesel.
That somehow, he was still alive and coming for me.
The second Rex hung up the phone, he turned to me with eyes of fire and fury. He strode towards me and I flinched, preparing myself for yet another blow to my cheek. But instead, he gripped my chin and forced my watery gaze back to his.
“How are the Dead Souls laundering money?” he asked.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” I said. He gripped my chin harder and I tried to move away from his hand.
“Don’t make me ask again.”
I tried to keep my confusion intact as some relief washed through my veins. So, this wasn’t all just about me. Rex had something to lose and he was using me as his bargaining chip against the club. Which meant if I didn’t give him the information he wanted, he would keep me alive for a little bit longer.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“You do know,” Rex said. “And you’re going to tell me. Otherwise?”
He cocked his gun and leveled it to my head before someone else stepped in.
“Rex. Calm down. We need her alive. It’s the only way these assholes will turn themselves in.”
“She knows something,” Rex said. “So, she tells me what the hell’s happening, or she dies.”
“I swear to you, I don’t know. I’m sorry, Rex. Please, I don’t know. I don’t know. All I know is I made a mistake.”
I bowed my head and tried to play along as much as I could. My father taught me to give my captor what they wanted, within reason, in order to keep myself alive long enough so he could find me and bring me home.
“A mistake?” Rex asked. “What mistake?”
“Diesel. All those years ago. He was a mistake, Rex. I should’ve gone with you. My father wouldn’t have had to fake my death had I gone with you. I’ve missed home so much…”
I forced tears to fall from my face. I forced myself to plead with him. It made me sick, saying those words. Because I could never regret Diesel. Not for a fucking second. I felt Rex’s hand cup my cheek and I made myself nuzzle into his touch. Tears brushed against his skin as he tilted my gaze up to his. I felt his breath against my nose and it made me sick. I wanted to vomit all over him and curse him straight into the bowels of Hell itself.
He stroked his thumb against my cheek before he cocked his hand back and hit me again.
“You lying bitch. You think I can’t see through those fake tears? That fake plea? I know you love Diesel. My men stood in that damn apartment and listened to you whore around with him. But mark my words, you disgusting piece of trash, you’ll regret the day you chose him over me.”
I wouldn’t give him anymore of my tears. No matter how much my body hurt. Footsteps retreated before a door slammed off in the distance, and I was left alone in the cavernous warehouse. I heard all of them talking to one another, some raising their voices and some trying to calm others down. There were at least five distinct voices I heard. Possibly more. But none of them were as wild and reckless as Rex’s voice.
Then, my mind flashed back to Rex’s conversation on the phone. He was on the phone for a long time. Longer than I would expect given how much hatred he seemed to have for the Dead Souls and the Black Hornets. Whoever was on the other end was trying to keep him on the line for as long as they could. A tiny spark of hope ignited in my belly. They must have been trying to track where I was from the cell towers!
From the sound of how the call ended, it seemed like they hung up on Rex, which hopefully meant they found my exact location. Now I just needed to stay alive until they got here.
My eyes darted around the room, taking in my surroundings. There was nothing really around me except for some chains and a dusty cement floor. A stray desk here and there. A couple of decrepit rolling chairs. But there was some rusted-out piping that cascaded along the walls.
The edges looked sharp, too.
I laid myself down onto the ground and prayed there were no nails or
broken glass in my way. Then, I began to roll. I rolled as silently as I could, stifling my cries of pain as my entire body throbbed. I’d never hurt so much in my entire life, and I bit down onto my lower lip as I rolled through the dust. I rolled over stray bits of two-by-fours and cried silent tears as I rolled over shards of flattened glass. I drew in deep breaths, pausing my journey to make sure those Black Saddle dickheads were still talking in the other room.
Then, I kept rolling.
I rolled all the way across the room before I sat myself up. I felt my arm scratch against the piping and I bit down onto my tongue to keep from saying anything. I slid the rope around my hands against the rugged surface, sawing through the material until I felt it loosen around my wrists. One wrap, gone. Two wraps, gone. Three wraps, gone.
And the second the fourth one fell away, my hands were freed.
I rolled my wrists around, trying to work blood back into my hands. I moved through the pain of the thousands of needles that felt as if they were piercing my skin so I could unbind my ankles. The rope fell from them after tugging and undoing all sorts of knots, and suddenly my body was filled with an energy I couldn’t explain. I stood to my feet and looked around, trying to find anything I could defend myself with if all this went south. They weren’t catching me off-guard again. I wasn’t going into yet another dark space empty-handed.
I grinned when I saw a thick piece of wood protruding with rusty nails.
I picked it up and took a few swings with it in my hand. Rex or his guys better not mess with me again. Because if they do, I wouldn’t stop whacking them until they were dead.
Chapter 17
Diesel
“Wait just a fuckin’ second!”
Dean’s voice all gave us pause as we straddled our bikes.
“What?” I asked. “We know where your daughter is, and you want to hold us up?”
“How the hell do we know that’s where she is? What the fuck just happened?”
Diesel (Dead Souls MC Book 5) Page 10
