by KJ Dahlen
He shook his head.
Ricki finally stepped back. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“So am I sweetheart, so am I.” He nodded.
“So what happened?” she asked.
“Niko and his men came and found me. I only had one guard, so it wasn’t hard. They brought me back to the club. I have you to thank they told me, as you told them about the warehouse.”
Talon nodded. “They have been getting some rest for a few hours before we all head into get Slasher at the Road Dog’s Compound. They should be up anytime now.”
Ricki looked nervous. “Do you have to do that?’
All eyes swung to her.
“I mean...” she hesitated as all the men stared at her.
Condor replied to this, “We do. You know that we do.”
She shook her head. “I just don’t want anyone else hurt or worse.”
“This has to be done, Ricki,” Talon added. “He won’t ever stop coming after you or Archie.”
“B-but we could leave town, maybe?”
Condor took her arm, turning her to look at him. “You aren’t going anywhere. The running stops now. You have a home here and family. That fucker needs to be stopped.”
She slowly nodded. “You aren’t going though, are you?”
He bit at his lip. “I will be yeah. I’m part of this club and an Enforcer, I have to—”
“No!” She visibly trembled now. “You don’t have to go!”
He sighed. “I do.”
“T-then what if...” She looked like she might cry.
Condor took her into his arms. “I’ve been in this kind of shit before.” He rubbed her back with his large hand. “I will come back. I promise.”
She stepped away from him. “You cannot promise that and you know it.”
“Have I failed you up until now?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No, but this is different.”
“I’m sorry if this scares you but we have to make sure that he won’t ever bother you or us again.” He looked into her frightened eyes.
She looked angry and turned to leave the room.
He caught her arm. “Ricki, stay in this part of the compound while I’m gone. No one will hurt you.”
She gazed around.
Talon came over as he tapped the screen of his phone. Then he spoke softly, like no one was used to hearing out of this man, “Yeah, can you and the girls come into the main room? Yeah, ok.” He lowered his cell.
Three women came out of the kitchen.
Rogue and Falcon stood from the table and headed toward them.
Rogue picked his woman up and kissed her soundly.
Falcon did the same.
Fiona came over to Talon and he bent down, kissing her cheek then wrapped and arm around her. “Fi, this is Ricki. I want you to make sure she’s with you in the saferoom while we’re gone.”
Fiona nodded at her. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Ricki gave her a slight smile. “Thank you for the clothes.”
Fiona looked down at her ankles. “I see you had to roll the jeans up but they seem to fit?”
“They do thanks.”
“Ricki, have you eaten yet?’ Asia asked as she came over. “I’m Asia and this is Sevie.” She turned to a tall woman with long legs.
Sevannah stepped forward and grasped her hand. “Come on to the kitchen and we’ll get you and your grandfather something to eat.”
Archie smiled brightly. “Wow, this will be fun. I am really hungry.”
Talon growled. “Don’t get any ideas, old man.”
Archie shrugged. “I got plenty but I will make sure to keep them to myself.” He chuckled and headed after them.
Condor stared at Ricki.
She stepped away from Fiona and leapt up onto him, wrapping her hands tightly around his neck. “I mean it...if you get hurt, I will sooo kick your ass!”
Everyone in the room stared.
Condor was surprised by this sudden display of... affection? “No need for threats, sweetheart.”
“Oohh! Sometimes you just make me so mad!” She kissed him hard.
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back. It went on for another wild minute then she broke the kiss and stepped down to the floor. She turned away and headed into the kitchen.
“Um...” Rogue spoke first. “Who was the fuck that?”
Having a hard time taking his eyes off of Ricki’s sweet sashaying ass, Condor slowly turned to look at him. “What?”
“Yeah, I wanna know the same thing,” Falcon added with a nod. “That was NOT the woman you dragged home from the cemetery.”
Talon agreed, “Damn, Condor what did you do...” He started to laugh. “As if I didn’t fucking know.”
“Yeah.” Rogue laughed too. “You have basically no charm but when you use the little you do have, it goes a long damn ways.”
Condor shook his head. “Yeah, ha-fucking-ha. Just shut the hell up.”
The men snickered and chuckled.
Talon finally put a stop to it as he raised his hand. “Ok, let’s get locked and loaded.” He looked around at all the brothers present. “It’s time to go put the Dogs down.”
The Princes of Hell members in the room all shouted and growled as they stomped their boots.
Chapter Nineteen
The Road Dog’s compound looked empty and quiet.
Talon looked over at Niko. “I thought you said this was where they were?”
“It was.” He shrugged. “Just a minute.” He turned to one of his men. “Show me their signatures.”
One of his team brought a laptop over.
Grabbing it, Niko peered down at it. He then handed it to Talon.
Falcon, Condor, and Rogue circled around him and the laptop.
“Lots of them. All inside,” Talon noted. “So why are they all hiding?”
“Yeah, no men at the gates or the perimeter,” Rogue added.
“They knew we’re coming,” Niko replied.
“Yeah, they did,” a voice spoke.
They turned to see Blue, Stinger, and Crow.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Talon asked.
Crow motioned to Blue. “We found where Eagle had been staying. We maybe missed him by an hour. Then Blue said the trail for Eagle led to right to here.”
Talon looked over at him. “So, Eagle is in there with them.”
Blue shrugged. “He was about an hour ago.”
“And how do you know that?” Condor asked.
“Cuz, we saw him arrive,” Crow replied. “Blue was exactly right. I mean I even balked at this but we all three saw him come through the gates.”
“Well, good. I’m glad the gang’s all here then.” Talon growled. “So we can take him down with Slasher and the rest.”
“Can I speak?” Blue asked.
Talon looked frustrated. “Why do you always ask that?”
“Cause I’m a prospect. It’s the rules.”
Talon huffed out a breath and reached into his pocket. He handed something to Blue.
Slowly, Blue took it and stared down at his patch.
“No time to have a patch in ceremony,” Rogue told him. “But you now have your name Blue and you are patched.”
“Yeah, so fucking speak already,” Talon barked at him.
Blue showed no emotion on his face but his dark eyes did dance a bit as he spoke, “They have trip wires, connected to C4, all up in this bitch.”
Niko raised his head and stared at him. “How do you know that?”
Blue forked his fingers up to his eyes then passed his hand over to the ground behind the fence.
Niko motioned to his man to get over there.
The man in black crouched low and crawled over then leaned his head down to the fence line. He turned his head and nodded.
Suddenly, a shot rang out and took the top of his head off.
“Fuck!” Niko yelled.
They all took cover as bullets spraye
d over the area. Though they were too far from the fence for many to get them.
“What the fuck do we do now?” Crow asked.
“We blow them to shit,” Niko growled, still angry at the loss of his man.
They all turned to look at him.
“I have a truck full of what we need to do it.” he nodded back at them.
Talon looked over at Condor, Falcon, and Rogue.
They all nodded.
Talon then looked back at Niko. “So, what all do you have in this truck?”
Richard Kyler, a.k.a. Slasher, the President of the Road Dogs MC, paced in his office. “You said it would work!”
Eagle shook his head. “It should have, but at least, they can’t get in. The wires made them pull back.”
Slasher stopped his pacing to stare at him. “Don’t you even know your own men?” He glared at him. “You think that is gonna stop them?”
“What else are they going to do?” Eagle shrugged. “They know about the trips, so they have to regroup.”
“Yeah and come back with what?”
Eagle looked uninterested. “They will have to replan for another day.”
“I swear you are dumb as fuck!” Slasher shouted. “How could you be the ex-leader of the Princes? Or is that why you’re the ex? Talon has more brains.”
Eagle growled as he glared at him. “Oh really, so that’s why he fell for my plan at Condor’s house?”
Slasher waved him off. “We have to figure out what to do now. They are on the warpath and they could come back at any time. I sure as fuck, do not want to be hiding in a god damn hole for the rest of my fucking life! We need these Princes dead and fucking now. And I want Ricki dead too!”
Eagle just shook his head as the man ranted. “I want them all gone too. Fuckers. Thinking they could take me to tribunal in my own fucking MC!”
The door burst open and Ripper came in.
He was followed by Tank and Snake
“They are moving up again! They got something planned,” Ripper announced.
“Of course they do, you idiot!” Slasher yelled.
The first explosions started and Slasher looked down at his security monitor. He saw rocket launchers more than 6 of them. Other men were holding something in their hands. He tapped a key to zoom in. They were all loaded with grenade belts. “Holy fuck!”
Eagle came around to look at the screen. “Where the fuck did they get that military grade shit?”
“From them, you moron!” Slasher pointed at the men in all black. “My dad’s team, ex-military and Secret Service.” He stood. “We need to get the fuck out of here.”
Ripper nodded. “Me and Snake will be with you.”
“To the tunnel.” Slasher nodded.
“What about our brothers in the main room?” Tank asked.
“You wanna go tell them that they are about to be blown to bits and travel to hell alongside them?” Slasher asked as he, Snake and Ripper went through a panel at the east wall of his office.
Eagle looked over at a stunned looking Tank. “You can’t be surprised. Didn’t you know who you were following all this fucking time?” He too, went into the tunnel.
The building rocked as Tank stared at the open panel.
They blew all the trip wires, the gate house and most of the bikes in the lot.
Then Niko’s team moved in to scope out the area.
When Niko nodded at Talon, many men moved forward.
Condor walked through and kept behind whatever upturned cars there were as they all moved forward.
Talon whistled for them all to stop.
No gunfire had come from the clubhouse.
Yeah, Condor wondered at this too, as he held an AK 47 at the ready.
Suddenly, movement came from the front.
All guns swung over to the double doors.
A white t-shirt attached to a pool cue came out from the door.
Condor stared at this unexpected sight, feeling surprised.
“What the fuck kinda bullshit is Slasher pulling?” Talon said.
After a couple of minutes, a very large man stepped out. His hands were held high as he called, out, “We call parley!” he shouted.
Talon tucked his head back with shock and looked over at Falcon, then at Rogue.
“I’m not armed!” the large man yelled with a little panic in his loud voice.
“Is that you, Tank?” Condor called out.
The man called back, “Yeah, man, it is.”
Condor had known Tank maybe ten years back and had warned him about joining the Road Dogs but he hadn’t listened. He even came to Condor with Slasher by his side about five years back to help recruit Condor to be a Road Dog Enforcer. Which Condor turned down flat.
Talon looked over at Condor. “You know this guy?”
“Yeah, years ago.”
“We are surrendering!” Tank yelled over.
“What the fuck?” Talon stated. “Slasher would never surrender,” he called back.
“He’s not!” Tank replied. “He snuck the fuck out a few minutes ago and he was gonna leave his men to your explosives.” He looked enraged.
Talon shook his head. “Okay, we will not fire unless we see a weapon. Have them all come out unarmed.” He looked over at Falcon, Condor and Rogue. “Unless this is a setup?”
Falcon shrugged. “They would be at a definite disadvantage if they came out into the line of fire.”
“The fact that Tank is out here unarmed and stating this, I believe him,” Condor said.
“Yeah,” Niko agreed. “If they all show unarmed, we gotta take this as gospel.”
“I don’t take shit as gospel when it comes to the fucking Road Dogs.” Talon sneered.
Eventually, thirty men came out of the clubhouse. They all stood with their hands locked behind their heads. No weapons and they all stood silent.
Condor noted something odd too, as if this wasn’t fucking odd enough in itself...They all wore t-shirts and no Road Dog cuts.
“Well, fuck me,” Talon muttered.
Chapter Twenty
After searching the men, Niko’s team stepped back.
Talon then spoke, “So which one of you is next in charge?”
“I am,” Tank replied. “That’s why I came out first. But I’m just a Lieutenant.”
Talon raised a brow at him. “So where’s—”
“Ripper was the VP, Snake was our top Enforcer, they went with Slasher.”
“And you saw where they went out from?”
Tank nodded. “Through a panel in the east wall of the prez’s office, at the back of the compound.”
Talon looked over at Blue and Crow. “Go see if you can track them.”
The two men took off.
“And you didn’t go with them?” Falcon asked Tank.
Tank slowly swung his angry gaze over to him. “We have done some bad things. I know this. We once were a proud club, but Slasher hasn’t been a real leader in a fuck of a long time. When I asked him what about leaving the brothers in the main room, he said. ‘you wanna be the man who tells them they are about to be blown up and go to hell with them?’ Well, in fact I did just that. I at least owed it to my brothers to give them a choice to give up or die. I have crossed the line for that man many times, but leaving my brothers to die was just too far of a line to cross. We didn’t know if you would just shoot us down in cold blood, but I remembered Condor from years back and I had to believe he wouldn’t belong to that kind of club.” Tank met Condor’s gaze.
“Where did they go?” Condor asked.
“I wished to hell I knew,” Tank replied. “That man needs to die.”
There were mutterings of the same all along the row of surrendered bikers.
“Oh and Eagle was with them, just so you know,” Tank added.
“Yeah, we figured.” Condor nodded.
More than a dozen Princes had been searching the clubhouse for any weapons for the last twenty or so minutes.
Stinger
came out and nodded. “It’s clear.” Many men had crates of weapons as they all went past Talon to load them up into the Security team’s truck that had housed the explosives and other weapons.
“So what’s gonna happen to us now?” one of the Road Dogs asked.
Talon looked over at him then at Tank. “We cleared the weapons out. You all can go in and get anything that means something to you. Clothes and such, or whatever.”
“Then what?” Tank asked.
Talon leveled a hard look at him. “You can leave on any of the bikes or in vehicles that are left.”
“And that’s it?” another Road Dog asked.
Talon shrugged. “What the fuck do you think? I can’t put you all into cells. And if I wanted to kill you...you’d be dead already. You are free to go.”
All the men looked stunned. Some looked relived as they dropped their hands from their heads and leaned over to breathe.
“You really mean it?” Tank asked Talon.
“Yeah. But you all need to hurry and get your belongings, cause we are going to burn this bitch down.” A hard glint in his dark eyes told them that he meant it. “I don’t want Slasher to have anything to return to, do you?”
The ex Road Dogs all wandered back in, looking dazed but happy to be alive and free on top of that.
Talon’s phone buzzed. He raised it up and swiped the screen. “Talk to me.” He set it on speaker phone.
Condor, Falcon and Rogue moved closer to listen.
“It’s Blue. I got the location and am texting it now.”
“Ok. Stay and watch, call if there’s any—“
Gunfire sounded from the background over the phone.
“Are you okay?” Talon spoke into the cell.
“Yeah, yeah. That was from inside the house. Sounds like someone had a disagreement.”
“Ok, we are on our way.” Talon swiped his screen.
Pulling up to the curb, they parked their bikes, a little ways from the address Blue had sent.
Talon, Falcon, Condor, Rogue and Stinger all dismounted and checked their weapons.
Blue appeared beside them soddenly.
They all swung their guns to him.
He put his hands up.
Talon swore, “The fuck, Blue. You can’t sneak up on us like that.”
