by Zoey Parker
If Brawn didn’t show up and, soon, it wouldn’t matter where we were.
Chapter 30
Brawn
We came around the corner as a black sedan was pulling out of the Kelly’s driveway. The windows were blacked out so we couldn’t see in, but I knew who it was. They pulled away quickly, and I signaled to the guys behind me that we were going to follow. We were obviously spotted, though, because the sedan suddenly sped up, taking quick turns and continuing to pick up speed as it got farther ahead of us.
Eventually, we lost it. We came out of the back end of Maria’s neighborhood, on the other side of downtown, heading toward the industrial section of town. As the closeness of the neighborhood gave way to the open streets, we should have been able to spot the car, but they had blended in with traffic, or they had gone a different way.
I led the guys into a deserted burger joint parking lot and killed my engine. They followed suit, pulling in around me and cutting off their bikes. I pulled out my phone and called, putting it on speaker so everyone else could hear it. It rang through and went to voicemail.
“She’s in trouble,” I said aloud. I looked at the men around me on their bikes. These were my brothers.
“What’s the call, brother?” Max asked standing with his motorcycle to my right. He flexed his hands in his leather gloves, listening to the leather creak.
“Why don’t you go back to the house with a few guys? You saw where they pulled out, right?” I asked.
“Yeah, we can find it,” he said.
“Search the whole house, brother. Make sure she’s not there,” I told him.
“And call you when we’re done?” he asked.
“Yeah. If I hear anything before then, I’ll let you know.”
“All right, brother.” He clasped my hand in his, like we were arm wrestling, but it was more of a handshake. Then, he let go and pulled down his visor. He pointed at three of the guys who were riding with us, and they all fired up their bikes. They rode out together, heading back towards Maria’s house.
I didn’t really think there was any chance her father would have left her there, but I didn’t want to overlook anything. While the rest of us stood around in the parking lot, I tried to call her again. No luck, so I texted her.
Saw your father leaving the house. Let me know you’re all right.
“So, what do we do?” another member asked. The others nodded, wanting to know the same thing.
I didn’t realize leading the squad looking for Maria meant I was going to be perpetually put on the spot. Having that kind of power at my disposal felt good, but there was a stage fright aspect to it as well. I ran my hand over my face and looked around at the guys. “Let’s wait until we hear back from Max or Maria.” They all sounded pretty disappointed that there wasn’t much more we could do right then.
I looked around downtown at all the vacant buildings nearby. He must have been taking her to one of those abandoned buildings.
“I’ll tell you what: if Max gets back before we hear from Maria, let’s start checking out these abandoned buildings. He had to be coming this way for a reason. He must have a place back here to take people.”
They all nodded in agreement. I had them back on my side. For a moment, they had looked like they were getting ready to ride back to the clubhouse and call it a night. The sun was setting, and the streetlights were starting to come on. Soon, it was going to be hard to find anyone unless we knew exactly where to look.
The longer it took us to find her, the more danger she was in. I couldn’t bring myself to believe she would have gone off with her father willingly. I didn’t see that as being part of the plan. I felt like seeing her father’s car pulling out of the driveway only proved she was doing this for us.
I tried calling again and got no answer. I gripped my phone and shook my head. I wanted to throw it, but it vibrated in my hand before I did.
On our way back. It was Max.
“All right, Max’s coming back,” I announced to everyone else. “When he gets back, let’s hit as many of these buildings as we can. They’ve got to be down here somewhere.”
The other guys pulled their helmets back on and straddled their bikes. They were ready to go as soon as Max showed back up. I hoped to hear from Maria before then.
Max pulled in and stopped his bike behind me. He waved for everyone to cut their engines back off. The disappointment was palpable.
“Sorry, guys, but I’ve got to let Brawn know something before we do anything else,” he said.
I turned. “What’s up?” It sounded like bad news.
“She wasn’t there, but there wasn’t any sign of struggle either. Now, the front door was left open, and there was a bag in front of the couch in the living room, like a laptop bag. There were files on the coffee table, which fits what you were saying, that she’s been trying to blackmail her father with his connections to the mob. Other than that, brother, we didn’t find anything.” He laughed and shook his head. “The house was wide the fuck open, though.”
“Did you take any of the papers or anything?” I asked.
“Hell no. We left everything just like we found it, even the open door.”
Of course there hadn’t been any signs of struggle. Her father had taken her, or his associates did. It was time to start searching the downtown buildings. She hadn’t texted or called back.
I signaled to everyone it was time to go. The bikes roared back to life. It was a beautiful sound. The engines revved together in primal unison. My phone vibrated in my hand just as I went to put it away. I almost didn’t feel it through the vibration of my bike underneath me. I looked at it, a text from Maria.
My father and his goons have me. He’s got me in an abandoned warehouse in the industrial district. I’ll forward you my location.
A moment later, I received a GPS notification with the location of Maria’s phone. I pulled it up, and my GPS gave me directions right away. I didn’t know if I could trust it. If she was with her father, how the hell was she texting me? With her resourcefulness, it didn’t surprise me that she would have found a way. Still, it smelled fishy. Unfortunately, it was all we had to go on.
I held my phone up for Max to see the GPS on my screen. He nodded and signaled to me that he was going to follow me. I looked down at the directions one more time before putting my phone away and pulling out of the parking lot.
The other bikes roared behind me as we all left together. I could feel the power of mine underneath me and power of all the others at my back. I was aware that it was very likely that Lucas had texted me using his daughter’s phone, but I wondered if he was aware just how many of us there were. He couldn’t have fit that many men in his little sedan. At best, he probably had two drivers and an extra passenger in the back with himself and Maria.
We sped through traffic. Max and I were at the head of the line, driving the members behind us to go faster. The streets leading into the old industrial section of town were wide open, like highways – long stretches of blacktop built decades ago when businesses and people started moving away from downtown. As we moved closer into downtown, the streets became more congested. There were cross streets and traffic lights on every block. We started darting down side streets and cutting through alleyways to get where we were going, dodging the traffic clogging the city streets and the lights keeping it from moving.
It was completely dark when we pulled up to the warehouse. We stopped in front, but there weren’t any cars parked where we could see them. Max and I shared a look and nodded at each other. We pulled off, leading the guys around to the back of the building. If anyone was inside, they could hear us pulling around.
As we got to the back of the building, we saw them. There were three cars parked near a rear entrance to the building. We stopped at the edge of the parking lot, beyond the reach of the old, dingy yellow lights. We killed the engines and climbed off our bikes.
“What now, brother? We only saw one car leaving the house. Now we’
ve got the sedan and two SUVs,” Max said. “You think we should call for backup?” he asked.
I chuckled. “They already know we’re here. They heard us pull up. Plus, I’m convinced her father texted me from her phone.”
“So you think they led us here on purpose. Nice.” He rubbed the stubble on his face. “Well, chief, it’s your call.”
I watched the back of the building for lights. I didn’t see any flashlights or actual lights on inside. We were going in pretty much blind, but that wasn’t going to stop me.
“Hey, man, we’ve got some equipment we can use back at HQ if you’d rather wait for someone to bring it out. We’re only a few minutes out, brother. It won’t take long. And, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be safe than sorry,” Max said in a low voice beside me, as if he could read my thoughts.
I nodded. “Let’s do that,” I said.
He pulled his phone up, the other line already ringing. “On it,” he told me as he turned and walked away.
I turned to the rest of the guys, who were waiting on my orders. “Max’s getting us some firepower and hopefully some gear to help us see in there. As you can see, it’s pretty dark in there. We can go in if you want, but I’m not trying to call anybody’s old lady or family with bad news tonight. We all go in, we all come out. There’s no need to be reckless.”
My phone buzzed while I was talking, and I looked down, fishing it out of my pocket.
Is that you? Are you here?
“I think Lucas Kelly is expecting us,” I told the guys. “We wait until we get the gear we need.”
“Okay, I’ve got some guns, some gear, and a few extra bodies on the way,” Max said as he slid his phone back in his pocket.
He looked as I held my phone up for him to see.
“You think that’s her dad letting us know he knows we’re here?” he asked.
“Yeah, I do.” I nodded.
“Don’t say anything back. We might need to move. He might have someone watching the building.”
“Where to?” I asked.
“Just on the other side of any of these other buildings,” he said distractedly, texting someone on his phone. “Come on, I know just the place.”
He fired up his bike, and we all followed him to the lot across the street from the warehouse where Kelly was keeping Maria. We pulled around behind the building, hidden from view, but where we could still see anyone coming or going from the warehouse.
“They can’t see us, but we can see them,” Max told me. “And I told the guys we would be over here, so when they show up, we can head across. We don’t even have to take our bikes, giving us the element of surprise, right?” He nudged me, smiling ear to ear.
“I owe you a drink when we get out of here,” I told him.
“Hit me up when we get back to the clubhouse,” he laughed.
Chapter 31
Maria
“I figured out what you were doing pretty easily.” Lucas was talking before his guys even pulled the bag off my head.
They were still tying me to the straight-backed chair they’d put me in. My hands were sticking through the hole in the back, so I was sitting with my arms behind me. They were tying my legs to the chair, as well, even though they hadn’t untied my ankles. Once I was tied tight and incredibly uncomfortable, they pulled the bag off my head.
Immediately, I saw that we were in the middle of a large open room with a concrete floor and concrete pillars reaching out in all directions towards brick walls that had tall windows with broken panes of glass in them. We were in one of the vacant warehouses downtown. I couldn’t tell which floor we were on because it was dark outside. All I could see was the night sky and the yellow light shining in from the parking lot surrounding the building.
“Originally, I was going to let there be an accident,” he continued talking. “I actually had an associate on the jobsite today who was going to arrange for something to go wrong, and when I sent you to check on it?” He shrugged.
His goons laughed even though his joke wasn’t particularly amusing. Apparently, they thought it was. There were four of them nearby. Two of them stood on either side of Lucas. The other two manned the floodlights shining down on me. All four of them wore black suits, white shirts, and black bowties. They all carried assault rifles over their shoulders.
“What changed your mind?” I asked, taking the bait.
We were interrupted by the sound of motorcycles pulling onto the lot. I could hear them circling the building. Then, I noticed there were men positioned in some of the windows, also carrying assault rifles. A cruel smile spread across Kelly’s face at the sound of The Twisted Ghosts’ arrival.
“I guess your guys didn’t lose them after all,” I remarked.
“Even better,” he said, pulling my phone out of his jacket pocket. “See, I realized that if I brought you here, your idiotic little boyfriend would follow you. I mean, if he doesn’t have the sense to stay the fuck away after you come work for me, he doesn’t have the sense not to follow you wherever the hell you go.”
He started typing something on my screen. Then, he held my phone up, like I could see the screen from where he was standing. He laughed and shrugged before putting it back in his pocket.
“These things make it so easy. See, I can tell him whatever I want, and he thinks it’s you texting him, his one true love. Sure, say what you will about how you two aren’t together. It’s bullshit, and everyone else knows it. That boy out there is in love with you. Any minute now, he and the other bikers with him are going to storm this building and get picked off by the men I have in the windows.”
He turned around and pointed to each one. There were more than I could see from where I sat in the chair. I pulled at my restraints.
“You bastard,” I growled at him. I opened my mouth to yell, but he nodded at one of his goons, and the butt of a rifle came across my face. I spat out the blood and looked at him, furious.
“It’s not nice to spoil the ending, Maria.” He turned back to his boys in the windows. “Anybody got eyes on them?”
“Yes, sir. They’re in the back of the parking lot, just beyond lights. I can see ‘em, but I can’t get a clear shot. They’re in the shadows,” one of the guys called back.
“Keep an eye on them,” he said as he turned back to me. He pulled a small stool over in front of me and sat down, still smiling. He looked like an excited little child stuck in a mobster’s body. “So, you thought you were going to pull one over on your old man, huh?” he asked. Then, he burst out laughing. “I guess that backfired two ways. One, I’m not really your old man. And, two, it’s apparent in your utter lack of skill. You have no business trying to get into the business of what we do, honey. None. Maybe you were right before, and you should be pursuing nursing or something else, because you don’t have a sneaky bone in your body.”
He shook his head and looked down at the floor in mock pity. Then, he jerked his head back up. He put his hands on my knees and managed a concerned look. “There’s just one problem with that,” he said thoughtfully. “You’re not going to have the opportunity to go back to school for nursing. See, this is what’s going to happen tonight: we’re going to eliminate the bikers out there. I might leave one or two alive to let the rest of the MC know right away what happened. Then, if anyone else shows up, we’ll probably handle them, too. Once Mickey is taken out, I’m going to show him to you. I’ll at least give you that before one of the guys here shoots you.”
He put two fingers up to his head and made like he was shooting himself. Then, he slumped over on the stool, mocking my dead body.
“You know, right in the head. We’ll leave you here for the authorities to find you, and who knows? Maybe we’ll leave one of the bikers here. Make it look like a murder-suicide or something. Real clean, easy stuff.”
I turned away, forced myself to stop staring at that man’s face.
He put a finger under my chin and turned my face towards his. “Oh, you really thought a
ll I did was run a construction company? You really thought it was more than a mere front for my real business?” He laughed and let go of my chin.
We heard the motorcycles rev back up outside. I looked up toward the windows, like I could see anything. Lucas hurried out of the light toward his guys in the windows.
“What’s going on?” he asked, his voice echoing back from the walls.
“They’re leaving,” one said.
“Want us to shoot them while they’re riding off?” another questioned eagerly.
“No, don’t do that,” he said, turning around in a huff and walking back towards me.
