When Clubs Collide

by Jacqueline Sinclair

  Nodding, I turn toward Thor. “Lead the way.” I practice restraint, hoping he doesn’t do anything to tip me over that ledge.

  We’re both quiet as we head out to our bikes. Just as he revs his engine, he grins devilishly. “Try to keep up, boy.”

  He’s close to the same age as me, so calling me boy is only said to piss me off. Which it does, but not for the same reason it pissed me off when that big fucker he was with at the bar said it. Maybe it’s because he’s the same age, or maybe it’s because my sister’s life is on the line, but I’m not about to let him fuck up my chances of finding her, or losing my patch.

  We both take the curvy roads faster than we should, but neither of us have any trouble with it. In no time, we’re pulling up to the bar, but this time, it’s packed. Not like it matters. I plan on getting information one way or another, witnesses or not.

  Getting off our bikes, I again wait for him to proceed before I follow, playing the good brother to my president.

  Thor pushes the door open harder than necessary, but it gets everyone’s attention, even Red’s. He doesn’t linger in the entrance long. Instead, he strides purposefully over to Red, pain and death written all over his face. I think he’s starting to grow on me. Me and him are a lot alike, I think.

  “What can I get you boys?” Red asks as we make it to the bar.

  “You can get me a beer, and a haircut for him,” Thor snickers, and I fight the urge to knock him upside the head. Fucker.

  “Beer, I can do, but I’m no barber, Thor,” Red replies while popping the caps off two cold beers.

  Thor takes a swig of his drink, while I stare at the bottle in my hands.

  “Can I get you anything else?” Red asks with a wary eye.

  “You can cut the shit, Red, and tell us what you know about Rex and the girls he’s getting ready to auction off,” I say before taking a drink of my beer.

  Chapter Eight

  Thor—Heaven’s Rejects MC

  Red stops dead in his tracks as anger fills his pockmarked face.

  “Listen here, fucker. This is my place of business. I don’t need your fucking biker troubles sitting at my bar,” Red hisses at Mohawk.

  I calmly sip my beer, enjoying the pissing match unfurling in front of me. I’ll give it to the kid. He doesn’t exactly have a filter, much like myself.

  “I don’t give a shit if this is your pew at church, old man. You have information we need, and you’re going to give it to us,” Kane spits back.

  “Why, you little—” Red spews before I slam my beer down on the bar top.

  “I’d choose the next words you say carefully, Red. You’re already on thin ice with Raze after that shit you pulled with Dani last year. I wouldn’t want him to give Hero a free revenge pass on your bar, and you, for that matter. “

  Red glares at me, knowing that I’m right, and the potential damage that could come with Hero’s lack of self-control when it comes to Dani’s safety. Red’s unknowing hand of putting Dani in the lion’s den of an old enemy club that has since been exterminated will always be a mark against him.

  “Either you give us the information you have on our old pal Rex, or I’ll send word to Raze about your lack of cooperation.”

  Red seethes in anger.

  “Time’s a ticking’, old man,” Kane snidely remarks. “Bull in a china shop, or answers.”

  “Follow me back to my office. I’ll tell you what I know, but I don’t want any part of what comes after.”

  Red tosses the bar towel from his shoulder onto the bar and barks out orders to one of the servers to cover for him. Kane and I slide from the bar stools and follow him back to the office. Red plops into his chair with a heavy thud and motions for us to sit. Neither of us do.

  Red sighs and rubs his hand over his face in frustration. “Before I tell you anything, you have to promise me that I don’t end up in the crosshairs of the shitstorm headed this way. I don’t want to be anything more than a bystander with information. Can that be made clear to both of your presidents?”

  Kane looks to me with a nod.

  “I’ll relay that to Raze,” I curtly respond, not making a promise either way. I suppose that will depend on the information he gives us.

  “Tell us what we need to know, old man,” Kane harshly demands.

  “Rex has expanded his operations in the past six months. The demand for women has increased since it’s harder to ship in willing girls from Europe, China, and Russia. A mutual contact informed me that his crew has been picking up women off the streets and selling them to make up for his deficit.”

  “That motherfucking son of a bitch,” Kane hisses.

  “That’s not all.” Red sighs. “He’s got men all over the tourist areas, looking for girls and women on their own. Do you remember that senator’s daughter that went missing awhile back?”

  “You’re fucking kidding me,” I snarl. “That was him?”

  “Rumor has it he sold her and her virginity for four million to a foreign prince.”

  My stomach churns in disgust. Selling willing women looking for a way out of a situation is one thing, but kidnapping them against their will? That’s the entire reason Raze pulled out of his business deal with the fucker.

  “Red, he has my sister,” Kane says with a hint of emotion attached to his words. “I need to find her before her fate is the same as that senator’s daughter. She’s a good kid. She doesn’t deserve this kind of bullshit.”

  “When’s the next sale?”

  Red nervously shifts in his seat, while his eyes fall to his desk.

  “Tomorrow. Rex’s got new digs about five miles from your clubhouse, near the peak of Mt. Baldy, at the old ski resort that shut down years ago.”

  Kane bolts for the door and I quickly turn to follow him, but Red clears his throat, bringing my attention back to him.

  “I’ve heard he’s got high-powered buyers coming into town to look at his new stock. The kind of men that will not be travelling unarmed, or alone.”

  I nod, making a mental note to make sure Raze keeps Red out of the crosshairs on this one, before following Kane out the door and immediately outside to our bikes. We speed through town on the way back to the clubhouse. How we didn’t get pulled over is amazing to me. I’m pretty sure we broke about half of California’s traffic laws over the last five miles. We both jog into the club, throwing open the church room doors.

  I quickly relay Red’s information to the group, making sure to emphasize the sale date.

  “We need to scout their location and see what we can find out about these buyers. It’s too risky to send men up there, so we might have to rely on our technical advantages,” Raze says, looking to Voodoo.

  “Rhonda and all her gal pals are primed and ready, Prez. Just let me know where to send them?”

  “Rhonda and her gal pals?” Ice Man questions. “Do I dare ask what the hell that means?”

  “Drones,” Hero chuckles. “Voodoo has a thing for naming his equipment.”

  “Don’t ask,” I tease, while Voodoo smiles wide. “It’s fucking weird.”

  “You say that now, big guy, but just wait until I show the footage I have of you and one of the girls. You’ll be a star in the Valley.”

  My lightheartedness instantly changes to rage.

  “I’ll break your fucking hands and burn your computers if you even dare leak that shit to YouTube,” I growl back at him.

  “Enough!” Raze orders. “Not the time or place, you two. You can joke around all you want once we get the girl back and put Rex out of business.”

  “I agree,” Ice Man retorts. “What do you need us to do?”

  “You have a tech guy, right?” Voodoo asks. “I’ll definitely need a few extra hands to pilot the drones.”

  “I’m your guy,” says a man to Ice Man’s right. “Name’s G-Spot.”

  “And you think I’m weird,” Voodoo chuckles, looking straight at me.

  I stifle a laugh because for once, I’m with Voo
doo. I’d love to meet the people who gave these guys their road names. And here I thought Thor was bad.

  “Here’s what I want you to do,” Raze barks. “You two get to work on gathering the aerial information. Make note of the manpower. Grab any license plate numbers you can, and anything else you think will help. We need to know what they have, how much firepower they’ve got, and the best way to come at them.”

  “You got it, Prez,” Voodoo confirms.

  “Hero, take some of Ice Man’s guys and head over to the warehouse. See what weapons we have on hand and get whatever else you need from our contacts. I’ll put a couple calls into the Oakland and Chino chapters to get more manpower.”

  “If you’re cool with it, and think we’ll need more men, I can put a few calls in as well,” Ice Man says.

  Raze nods his head, but doesn’t give the go-ahead just yet.

  “What about me?” Kane questions, while standing up from his seat. “This is my sister. Shouldn’t I have a say in this?”

  Jesus, this kid doesn’t know how to slow his roll and wait for orders. Again, I understand the rush, but running into a damn house fire isn’t going to save his sister any faster. You need to be prepared for anything in a situation like this.

  “Would you let me finish, kid?” Raze chides. “As I was trying to say, I want you and Thor to work together on getting a plan in place for the fight to come. We need to know what your sister looks like so we know who to extract first.”

  I acknowledge his orders with a nod and turn to look at my partner yet again. I just hope he’s prepared for what may come. We may already be too late, and having a loose cannon on our side may just get us all killed if we’re not careful.

  Chapter Nine

  Kane—Devil’s Crew MC

  After Raze clears the room, I have to take a moment to calm my brain. It’s screaming at me to go balls to the wall and get my sister now that I have a pretty fucking good idea where she’s at. But I know that’s a death wish. If I want to save her, without anyone close to me dying, I need to keep a cool and level head, no matter how hard that may be.

  I see G-Spot, and the guy they call Voodoo, heading into a room, deep in conversation. I’m guessing it’s about technical shit that I know nothing about. Blowing out a long breath, I follow them inside a room with no windows. The only light comes from what looks to be hundreds of TVs and computer monitors. All I know is that this place is giving me a headache.

  “G-Spot, you got a copy of the picture Ice Man handed out before we left Texas?” I ask, hoping like hell he does, because I only have the original picture of my sister, and no way in fucking hell am I giving that up.

  “Fuck, man. It’s back at the safe house,” G-Spot says, looking like he wants to kick himself in the ass, but he’ll have to stand in line because I’m going be handing him the ass kicking first.

  Before I can take a step to do just that, Voodoo says, “No problem, man. Just give me her name and birthday, and I can pull a picture up on the big screen. I’ll be able to get a copy to everyone on my side this way too.”

  I look to G-Spot to make sure he agrees with this before I start spouting off what he wants to know. “Yeah, brother. It’ll be way easier, and it may even help us find more information that will help,” G-Spot says.

  “Her full name is Mikayla Rosemary Conlon, born January second, nineteen-ninety-eight.”

  Voodoo doesn’t say anything as he types in the information. Within a matter of seconds, hundreds of pictures of my sister are plastered all over the screens in the tiny, dark room. Some of them I’m in, a few with people I don’t recognize, and a whole lot of them with her and her girlfriends. Not one picture has my parents in them, but that makes sense because they were never around.

  I take a step toward the monitors, feeling closer to my sister than I have since I found out she was taken.

  I’m coming, Kayla. Everything’s gonna be all right, I promise.

  Clearing my throat, I head out the door. “Call when you get anything.”

  I see Thor leaning against the door leading outside. Making my way toward him, I accept the cigarette he offers.

  “Thanks.”

  I’m not a big smoker, but when shit starts to hit the fan, can you blame me?

  Exhaling a big cloud of smoke, I can feel a little of the jitteriness leave with it. “Your tech guy and G-Spot have their eyes on the screens, which are currently filled with hundreds of pictures of my baby sister,” I say in way of letting him know that part of my job is done. Now, the only thing left to do is figure out a plan with the man sitting next to me.

  Usually, coming up with a plan of action is left in the hands of Ice Man, Rack, and Reefer, but I know they all have their hands full with this job. It’s somewhat unheard of that we would work so closely with another club like this, one that we have no connection to.

  Thor’s phone buzzes in his pocket, so he pulls it out. Turning it around to face me, I see his screen lit up with a close-up of my sister’s face. “She looks like you, only prettier,” he jokes.

  Any other man, I’d bust his face in, but I know he doesn’t mean anything by the comment, so I let it go.

  He looks at the picture a little longer—maybe trying to memorize her face so he won’t have to pull out his phone once we’re in the compound—before putting it back in his pocket.

  Clearing his throat, he says, “I want to follow up with Hero at the warehouse. Once we know what we’re looking at as far as firepower, and getting a head count on manpower we’ll have, I think that will help us come up with a better plan.”

  I nod in agreement. We didn’t bring much in the sense of big weapons, but we could always call in a favor or two if needed. We have contacts close by, but I doubt Ice Man wants to do that unless it’s necessary, being in someone else’s territory and all.

  Swinging my leg over my bike, I flick the cigarette before revving the engine and following Thor out of the clubhouse parking lot.

  The warehouse is about fifteen minutes away. Once we arrive, I see that four of my guys are here with one of theirs.

  Inside, I’m impressed with the amount of weaponry and setup they have. I was expecting to roll up and see them all gathered around an old wooden box, filled with outdated guns. And they do have wooden boxes filled with weapons, but they’re far from outdated. And the wooden boxes are crates. In fact, this place is setup like one of our own warehouses where we keep some of our inventory.

  Thor must see the shock on my face because he chuckles. “What? Were you expecting toy guns and grenades?”

  His remark has a small laugh escaping my own lips. “No, but I sure as shit wasn’t expectin’ this. You guys preparing for the apocalypse or somethin’?”

  I’m not saying that they have more weapons than we do in our own personal stash, because they don’t. But, in the business we’re in, you have to be prepared. War is always around the corner.

  “Or something,” he says, and I leave it at that. It’s none of my business, after all, and as long as he’s not intending to turn these weapons on me, I don’t care.

  Confident that we have enough firepower, Thor calls Raze to check in on the manpower, while I do the same.

  “We good to go on your end?” Ice Man asks as the call connects.

  “Yeah, we’re good, though it might come in handy to have a few M136 AT4 rocket launchers. Problem is, they don’t have any, and I’m not sure if they’d be willing to have one of our contacts bring one in,” I tell Ice Man, all business.

  I don’t know what their plan is for once we have my sister and the other girls, but I plan to blow that place sky fucking high, leaving no survivors. Hopefully, they don’t have a problem with that. Otherwise, they’re going to have a problem with me.

  I hear Ice Man speaking away from the phone to someone before he replies. “I’ll put a call in. We’ll make sure we have what we need.”

  “Good. How are we on your end? Did you call anymore of our guys in?”

 
“No. We’ll also have a few of Raze’s support chapters coming in, so we shouldn’t have a problem with manpower.” That’s probably for the best anyway. Too many different clubs together in one area wouldn’t be good.

  Ending the call, I look up at Thor, who’s ending his call too. “Looks like we just need a plan.” He lights up a smoke and passes it to me, then lights one for himself.

  “About that.” I take a deep drag of the cigarette. “Once we have the intel from your guys, I think the best course of action would be to set ourselves up around the compound, completely surrounding it. Then, me and you take point at the weakest point of entry into the building. From there, we’ll find the girls, taking out anyone who stands in our way. While we’re inside, some of the guys will setup small explosives at every corner of the property. That way, when we’re clear, we launch a few well-placed missiles and the place will be dust.”

  Thor thinks about my idea for a minute before putting in his two cents. “I think that’s a good plan, but Rex will have every point of entry covered. There won’t be a weak spot.”

  “Then what do you suggest?” I ask, getting pissed. Not at him, but at the whole situation. I just want my baby sister safe. She’s been gone for too long, and I can only pray that they kept their hands off her while they waited for auction day.

  “I suggest a diversion. He’ll have the women on the lowest level. Voodoo should be able to verify the layout of the warehouse, but we hit hard at the opposite side, sending most of his muscle there, leaving the entry point closest to the lower level open. Or with fewer men to take down before getting to the girls.”

  “Then we light that piece of shit on fire,” I add.

  Thor smiles a sadistic smile, which has an identical one appear on my own face. “And send him to hell.”

  Chapter Ten

  Thor—Heaven’s Rejects MC

  The clubhouse was chaotic from the moment our plans were put into place. Between shuffling the women and kids around to the safe houses, and from going over the plan fifteen thousand times, we were ready with one in the chamber.