42 Days (Hell's Fire Riders MC Book 6)

by KJ Dahlen

  Sawyer kissed him back. “And I love you too.”

  Slammer and Lydia joined his men. When he sat down, he noticed the glares his men gave Bastian. “What’s up guys?”

  Falcon turned to Slammer. “Did you know that guy is The Priest?”

  Slammer swung his head around to stare at Bastian. “Is he really?”

  “Yeah, he is.” Falcon admitted.

  Slammer shrugged. “So what?”

  “So what?” Falcon growled. “The man’s a killer for hire. He sells his services to the man with the most money.”

  “Falcon, hang on to your undies.” Slammer cut through his tirade. “You know how rumors get stretched out, the more they get retold, the more the rumor grows. Hell half the shit said about us isn’t true, and you damn well know it.”

  “What about the twenty plus men last night?” Falcon argued. “What do you suppose he did to them? I don’t think he slapped their hands and told them to be nice from now on.”

  Slammer leaned toward the other man and snarled, “I hoped he made them bleed. Men like that don’t deserve to breathe, let alone live free. They took his woman and were threatening to kill her. They took my woman and her kid and were going to kill them too. I’ll tell you right now man, I would have killed them too. If you can’t understand that then I’m sorry, but the man did exactly what I would have done.” He glared at Falcon. “No one takes what’s mine without serious payback.”

  The men all went quiet.

  Slammer turned to Swede. “Did you guys find anything else last night?”

  Swede nodded. “Actually, we did. I’d like to stay here and help them stop this guy. If they can’t, the world we live in won’t ever be the same.”

  “What do we have to do?”

  “Bastian suggested recon missions,” Swede told him. “Pappy claims to have a network of people out there he can call in to help. Plus, Bastian offered up his money to help with the networking.”

  “Sounds like plans are being made. Then the Priest can turn his money into savior funds, how about that?” Slammer shrugged. “I’m game if the rest of you are.” He turned back to Falcon. “Are you with us man? I need to know if I can count on you or not.”

  Falcon nodded. “Yeah, you can count on me. We’ve always worked better together as a team than on our own.”

  “And Bastian? Can you set aside your feelings for him and work under him?”

  Falcon nodded. “I hope I can, but I’ll be watching him.”

  Slammer shook his head. “Falcon, I hope I’m around the day you fall so hard in love with a woman, you give up everything else just to keep her alive. That will be the day this all makes sense to you. That will be the day you owe that man an apology.” He got to his feet and looked at Swede. “We might need to send for Bear.”

  The men sitting there knew what that meant. They were going hunting. Bear and Swede together meant things were going to get rough. The brothers were the best at what they did, they specialized in dangerous recon.

  “Good,” Swede stated. “We’ve got some time but not a lot to get where we need to be.”

  Falcon watched Bastian and his new wife most of the morning while the rage inside him grew. He knew he shouldn’t judge the other man but he didn’t trust him either. Everything he’d ever heard of the mystery man they called the Priest ran through his head. He was a merciless killer and after last night, he began to believe those nasty rumors. He’d seen the look in the other man’s eyes before they went into that hotel.

  He’d also seen the cold look in his eyes when he closed the door to face the helpless men alone. Men who couldn’t fight back, men he now knew never had a chance to get out of that room before the flames would take them to hell.

  Before he knew it, Falcon was on his feet walking toward the woman at Bastian’s side.

  Bastian heard him coming and turned to face him. Wrapping his arm around Sawyer’s shoulder, he waited for the inevitable.

  “Excuse me ma’am,” Falcon spat. “I can’t help but wonder if you would be so loving if you knew exactly what kind of man you married last night.”

  Sawyer stiffened and stared at the other man. Her arm came around her husband’s back and she moved in closer to him. “I know exactly what kind of man he is.”

  “Oh, I doubt that. I doubt that very much.” Falcon growled. He began to pace back and forth in front of them. “Did you know he tried to tell us before the other night he’d only killed three people? Rumors says, it was a hell of lot more than that.”

  “Falcon, leave it alone,” Slammer called out.

  Falcon twirled around to glare at the man he considered his friend. His hands cured into fists at his side. “I can’t Slammer. I can’t stand here and watch her look at him like he’s the best thing that ever happened to her when I know he’s nothing more than a cold blooded killer. Those men last night never stood a chance. He never gave them a choice.”

  Sawyer ripped herself away from the safety of Bastian’s arms. “A choice? That’s what this is all about? Giving those bastards a choice? They had a choice and they chose wrong.”

  Falcon turned to her. “How do you know that? Do you know what the life is like in their country? Those men come from a very poor region of Mexico. People are starving and have no choice but to take whatever work they can find just to survive.”

  Sawyer took the three steps closer to Falcon and poked him in his chest. “Don’t you tell me about the poor conditions in Mexico. We have our own people starving right here.” She turned her head and stared at her parents. “People living right here never had a choice either. Do you see that woman standing there with my father?” She pointed at her mother. “She wasn’t given a choice either. She had a pig of a man who wanted her and he threatened to kill the only man she ever loved to get her. She was told to get rid of him or Max was going to kill him. Rather than lose her husband to death, she told him to go. She couldn’t tell him why because he never would have left her, so she told him the only reason he would listen to. She had to tell the man she loved more than life that she no longer loved him. It broke her heart to watch him ride away from us but she did it. To save his life, she let him go. She never had a choice. She cried for years for him but she knew deep down in her heart that he was alive somewhere. Meanwhile, she stood strong in her convictions. She told Max every time he asked her to be his she told him no. He made our lives a living hell. I was a kid and didn’t understand it at the time but it didn’t take me long to figure it out. We would move every few weeks. Max kept finding us. My mother would find a job and he would take it away. He didn’t want her to be able to fight him by taking away her ability to feed us and keep us under a roof. We were poor as dirt! We didn’t take jobs for some gang that did nothing but sell women as slaves and sell drugs like that cartel.” She poked him in the chest again. “Those men made their choice as well. They chose the easy way out by standing with the Barrones. They didn’t do it to feed their families either. I saw their eyes after they took me. Their eyes told me they had no soul.”

  Falcon stared hard at her face as she ranted.

  “I watched as they beat Lydia for no reason. She wasn’t causing any trouble other than she wanted to keep Caiden with her. There was no remorse in their eyes, no concern for anyone but themselves. They slapped a kid around for fuck’s sake! They didn’t care at all, orders or no. They were cold blooded. They had no mercy in their souls. They were the real killers.” Tears rolled down her cheeks as she turned to her mother. “She may not remember the times in our past but I do. We had very little when I was a kid. We lived in fear for years because she chose not to give in or give up. There were many night when I know she went hungry to make sure I ate. Every night I listened to her cry for a lost love but I was a kid and couldn’t do anything to help her. Jordan and I grew up quick. Max never gave us a choice either. So don’t talk to me about choices. Those men made theirs and they crossed a line. They made their choices and Bastian made his.”

  Som
e of the men watching nodded their heads and some just stared.

  Sawyer walked over to her husband and wrapping her arms around his waist, she turned to the other people in the room. “All you know of Bastian were the rumors you heard whispered in the dark. Rumors are like stories that change every time you hear them. I’m sure some of the rumors are true, he told me that himself but when he took me three months ago, he never hurt me. He could have but he never did. I saw a side of this man that no one has ever seen. He kept me safe and when I was with him, I didn’t feel any fear.”

  Falcon scoffed. “He let you see what he wanted you to see. Every man does that usually when we want something.”

  Sawyer felt Bastian stiffen at her side. “That may be true, I don’t know that many men but I was given the same choice my mother had to make and because of her, I had the courage to make the same choice she did.” She tightened her arms around him and looked at Falcon. “You call him a killer for what he did to those men but I don’t. When my dad brought us down here from New York, I thought I’d never see him again and that broke my heart. But I was wrong. He came after me. I don’t know how he found me after Tomas and Enrique took me, but he did. And he found me again, after old man Barrone took me.” She looked around the room. “Bastian has something in him just the same as everyone in this room. He has an honor deep inside him the same as these men do. He came all this way to claim me as his woman. A cold hearted killer wouldn’t do that. If he only wanted in my pants, he wouldn’t care where I was or what was happening to me. Once he got what he wanted from me, he wouldn’t have bothered to come back, according to you. He wouldn’t have to come looking for me. He would have turned his back on me and the baby but he didn’t.”

  “Do you know how those men died the other night?” Falcon wasn’t giving up.

  “No and you know what? I don’t really care,” Sawyer admitted. “Barrone told me he took me to get my father to come to him. He was going to kill me and another boy and he was going to make my father watch him do it. Then when he’d taken everything away from Calico, he was going to kill him slowly. So no, I really don’t care what he did to them. They made their choice and he made his. I hope they’re burning in hell right now.”

  Falcon sneered. “You got that right sister. He burned them alive. He left twenty two men in that room to burn to death. We were blocks away but we still saw the flames.”

  Sawyer shrugged. “Don’t ask me to feel sorry for them. I saw the look in their eyes. You can say what you want but you can’t change the intent in your eyes. They really are a window to your soul. Those men gave up their souls for greed and gold. They sold drugs to kids and didn’t give a shit that those same drugs were going to make those kids give up their hopes and dreams. Those men put guns in the hands of real criminals, for a price.”

  “How do you know all this?” Pappy asked.

  “Barrone bragged about it while we waited for Calico to show up.” She looked over at her father. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I tried to tell him that Calico wouldn’t come alone but Barrone didn’t care. He said he had enough men to cover his ass. He said he would cut down anyone who dared threaten his revenge. He never thought anyone would stop him.” She sobbed. “I knew my life was over when I looked in that man’s eyes. To him, Caiden and I were nothing but an ends to a means. I knew as soon as Calico showed up, we would die. I’ve never seen eyes so cold.”

  “I guess someone did though huh?” Calico came to where she was standing with Bastian. He turned to face Falcon. “She’s right and you fucking know it. Barrone was never going to let them go. He would have cut us down and never thought twice about it. And he was the type of man that would never give up. Even if we’d have gotten them away without killing Barrone, he would have come after us again. This was the only way.”

  “Ahh, guys,” Jim broke into the conversation. “I hate to break in but I’ve been monitoring the local news and there’s something you need to know.”

  Pappy turned to him. “What would that be?”

  “Well, it’s probably a good thing Bastian told us to haul ass out of there when we did.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because moments after we got the hell out of there, there was a huge explosion. The fire he started not only took those bastards to hell but there were enough explosives in that hotel that when it blew it took out the entire city block and half of the next one too.” Jim remarked. “The police are still looking for bodies and or witnesses.”

  “What the hell?” Pappy exclaimed.

  “Yup, if we hadn’t left when we did, we’d have been blown to hell along with Barrone and his men,” Jim stated.

  Everyone turned to stare at Bastian.

  The look on his face didn’t give away his feelings. His ice blue eyes held a cold look.

  “Did you know?” Pappy finally asked. “Is that why you waited until we were away to set the fire?”

  Bastian shrugged. “I did my own research on Barrone when Calico told me his name. I have some extensive files on all the major players in the world. When I checked those files, I found out not only does Barrone run drugs and guns, he sells a very exclusive explosive to the highest bidder. This explosive is not very stable and is very dangerous. Several of his shipments have come through this port and gone up river to unknown destinations.”

  “Did you know the hotel was rigged to blow?” Dewey asked.

  “No I did not.” Bastian turned to face them all. “But I wasn’t going to take any chances either, not with Sawyer’s life and not with anyone else’s. I gave you time to get away then I set the fire. Jim and I were the last ones out. He made sure we were far enough away if there was any danger we’d clear it. This wasn’t our first rodeo.” He paused then added, “I did see some paperwork on the boat Tomas was on to give me a clue though. When we got back, Jim tracked it down. It was part of an invoice for a large amount of explosive coming in the day before yesterday. I had no idea where it was stored but I guess we know now where it was held.”

  Slammer came over to Bastian and held out his hand. “I thank you man. You saved my woman and her kid and then in return, you saved all our lives.”

  Bastian shook his hand then muttered, “Now it makes sense.”

  “What makes sense?” Slammer asked.

  “Before the fire got started, he said something about hoping that Calico would be around to watch them burn. Then he said that way, he would go to hell along with him.” Bastian nodded. “He knew where the explosives were. He never thought we’d all get away clear and safe.”

  Chapter Four

  Day Seventeen…

  As the days passed, everyone was busy gathering information. Slowly, they began to find more and more. When they reached a certain point, Trudy and Bastian began to notice yet another pattern forming. Very often, the two of them could be seen with their heads together, whispering back and forth.

  After standing back and watching the two of them for the last three days, Pappy, Dewey, Calico, Slammer and the rest of the guys had reached the point of no return with the pair. Finally, Pappy asked them, “Are you guys going to share your information with the rest of us or leave us in the dark?”

  Bastian raised his head and looked over at the group of men watching him. For a moment, he appeared dazed at the interruption. Then he shook his head to clear it. He saw Pappy and Calico standing there with their arms crossed over their chests.

  Dewey was glaring at them with his hands curled into fists and Slammer stood there with a shit eating grin on his face.

  “Excuse me?” Bastian frowned.

  “We were beginning to wonder if the two of you were having an affair,” Dewey stated grumpily. “You haven’t left the center in three damn days.”

  ‘WHAT?” Trudy exclaimed with shock in her eyes.

  Pappy glared at Dewey over his shoulder, then turned back to Bastian and Trudy. “The two of you have been caught up in something and you’ve tuned out the rest of us. What did you find?”
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  Bastian glanced at Trudy then back at the men standing there waiting for them. Reaching for the stack of papers on the table, he got up and walked over to another board. This one was relatively clear and he began to pin up the papers. “We think we found where he’s been hiding for the last five years.”

  As the other men joined him, they frowned at the papers.

  “This doesn’t look like much,” Dewey finally told him.

  Trudy came up behind her husband and nodded at the boards. “Bastian will explain but you have to listen.” She wrapped her arms around his waist.

  “Leroy began setting up his own doomsday castle around seven years ago,” Bastian explained. “When he left Chicago he was eighteen years old, he went looking for his mother. He wanted answers only she could give him. We found an online diary of sorts from him around that time. Phoebe was right. This man is truly crazy. He found her in a small town in Montana. But she wasn’t alone. She had picked up an old man at some point and she gave birth to another child. A little girl she called Lacey. According to the diary, Leroy resented his sister. He watched his mother lavish all her attention on the girl and remembered she hadn’t done the same to him when he was younger.” He paused and pointed at some printed pages on the board.

  Pappy went over to the board and began skimming the pages. “So these are diary inserts from a troubled young kid. What do they tell you about what was going on in his mind?”

  Bastian tapped the pages. “These inserts tells us how a very troubled young man turned into a psycho. When he saw his sister getting everything from the woman who should have given everything to him, he snapped. It came to a bad conclusion one night when he asked his mother if she ever loved him. When his mother flat out told him she never wanted him at all and she hated him from the moment he was conceived, Leroy went a little nuts. His mother went on to tell him he was a product of rape and that he looked so much like his bastard father, she couldn’t bear to look at him. He just lost it. He writes that his rage blinded him to everything and that when he was done there was nothing left. When he came back to his right mind, he was covered in blood and he didn’t know whose blood it was. He found what was left of his mother and her husband but it wasn’t much. He found his sister hiding in a closet. She too was covered in blood. He took her and left Montana.” Bastian paled a bit when he told them, “The dairy pages tell of his journey back to his home. He had purchased an abandoned missile silo three years earlier. When he got back, he began to set things up. The silo he bought was a Titan 11 classification.