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

by KJ Dahlen

  When her eyes fluttered open, he poured more water into her mouth.

  The girl drank from the bottle but didn’t move away from him. She couldn’t take her eyes off the big man.

  When she finished as much of the water as she could, Bear asked, “What’s your name and who are you?”

  “My name is Lacey and Leroy is my brother,” she whispered.

  “Okay Lacey, this is what we’re gonna do. You’re going to tell me where Leroy won’t let you go. My brother and I are going to find out what your brother is up to, and then we’re going to get the hell out of here.”

  Lacey shook her head. “If I leave this place, Leroy will kill the others.”

  Bear cocked his head back. “There are others here?”

  Lacey nodded slowly. Suddenly there was a horrible siren blaring in the compound and gunshots could be heard. Lacey screamed and tried to hide.

  Bear got to his feet and raised his gun into position.

  Heavy footsteps raced down the hall toward the room they were in and he saw a huge figure standing in the doorway. Bear lowered his weapon and yelled at his brother, “Damn boy I almost shot you.”

  “What the hell is going on here?” Swede yelled at him.

  Suddenly the siren stopped and both men stopped and stared at each other. “What the fuck?” Bear growled.

  Lacey melted back into the shadows of the room. She huddled into the corner and turned her back to them.

  “What the fuck was that alarm and what did it mean?” Swede asked.

  “I don’t know but she might.” Bear turned to the girl trembling in the corner of the room.

  Bear tried to touch her shoulder but Lacey pulled away from him. “Go away. Take the others and just go.”

  “I’m not leaving you behind,” Bear assured her. “We’re taking all of you out of here with us tonight.”

  Lacey turned and tried to move away from them. “You can’t. You can’t take me with you. Leroy will come after me and kill me. Then he’ll kill you.”

  “He can try,” Swede vowed. “Come on…” He motioned for her to come along. “We’re getting the hell out of here.”

  “She claimed there are other people down here,” Bear informed his brother.

  “I know I found them. Three women, two of which are pregnant.”

  “Let’s go, we have to get out of here now.” Bear reached for Lacey’s arm.

  Lacey pulled away. “You take the others and go. I have to stay.”

  Bear stepped toward her. “I’m not leaving you behind. You’re coming with us. Now move, we don’t know where your brother is and I want to get out of here in one piece.”

  “Leroy is gone,” Lacey whispered as tears rolled down her face. “The alarm you heard was the one on his escape door. He got out another way.”

  “Then the guys up top will find him,” Swede assured her.

  “Before we go, we need to find the one room he doesn’t let anyone go into,” Bear informed his brother. “I have a feeling that’s where we’ll find everything we need to know.” He motioned for Lacey to lead the way and when she did, the two brothers followed her closely.

  When she came to a heavy door next to a living area Bear knelt down and with his lock pick began working the lock on the door.

  Moments later, the door sprung open and the two brothers walked into the room. Snapping on the lights, they found themselves in a very organized office. On the wall behind the huge desk, they found four oversized computer monitors. The monitors were off at first but as soon as the lights came on the monitors lit up as well.

  The boys watched as the monitors showed them different areas of the nation. One of the places it showed was the Hoover Dam. Another place the monitors showed was the swamps of Florida and the outside of NORAD in Colorado.

  “Damn.” Bear shook his head. Looking around the office, he noted the wall of file cabinets. “We can’t take it all with us but we can take his computers. I’m sure he backed everything up with a paper file but that’s too much to haul out of here. We need to get out of here before he comes back.” He turned toward the door and found Lacey standing there. He could see she was trembling and scared to death and when he walked toward her, she took a step back. “If we take his computers is there anything else should we take?”

  She didn’t answer him for a moment but Bear could see there was something she wanted to tell him. She wouldn’t meet his eyes, instead dropped her eyes to the floor. Bear reached out and lifted her chin to raise her eyes to his. “IS there more here than just his computers?” he asked.

  Lacey nodded. Then turned her head to stare at the top of the file cabinet in the corner. Atop the cabinet was a small wooden box. Bear didn’t say a word but went over there and grabbing the box.

  Swede had loaded the laptop computer and the hard drive for the desktop into a backpack. Slinging the pack over his shoulders, he led the way to the door leading back the way they came in. When they reached the door, they found three women waiting for them.

  “Wait a minute.” Bear stopped his brother.

  “What now? We need to get out of here,” Swede complained.

  “I know we do but when we came through the second compartment, I noticed he had it loaded with things he shouldn’t even have possession of. We need to close this place up, so he can’t get back in.” He turned to Lacey. “Where is his escape tunnel?”

  “I can’t tell you.” She trembled.

  Bear grabbed both of her shoulders and held her tight. “Listen to me,” he urged. When Lacey raised her face to his he told her, “Your brother is crazy insane. He plans to murder thousands of innocent people just because he can. He’s storing things only the military should have. I don’t want him to come back here and take this stuff away and hurt people with it. We can deny him that much, if we can seal this place up. You can help us by telling us where his escape tunnel is.”

  Lacey nodded then pointed to the wall on the opposite side of the living area. “It’s down that hall,” she whispered.

  Bear and Swede dragged her down the hall and made her point out the portal. When they didn’t see the doorway, she went to a hidden panel and showed them the access pad. She punched in a code and the door slid open. Before the alarm could go off, she held the reset button and the portal closed.

  Bear glanced at Swede before he turned to Lacey and asked, “Is there a way to permanently lock this door?”

  Lacey shrugged. “The locksmith that came in to show him how to work the door told Leroy to be sure to remember the code key. He said that if a wrong key was punched in three times the door would autolock until a master locksmith could reset it.”

  “Is there another panel on the other side?” Swede asked.

  Lacey shook her head. “I don’t think so, but Leroy never showed me.”

  “Is this his only escape tunnel?” Bear asked.

  Lacey nodded. “It’s the only one I know of.”

  Bear stepped forward and began punching numbers on the code key. When he got the wrong code keyed in, they heard a short beep. After the third wrong code, they could all hear the lock snap shut inside the wall. Then Bear reached into a pocket and brought out a long slender screw driver. Punching the blade behind the seam of the lock, he popped the key panel out of the wall.

  They saw and smelt rubber getting hot as the access panel wires burned off. Bear took a step back and grinned. “He ain’t getting back through that door.”

  “Can’t we get out of here now?” Swede asked impatiently.

  “Yeah, let’s go.” Bear grabbed Lacey’s wrist in his hand and when she balked about leaving, he pulled her along behind him. Swede led the way with the women behind him while Bear and Lacey brought up the rear. Both men had their weapons out and were ready to shoot to get out of the silo.

  When they reached the outside door, they waited for a moment to let the men waiting outside that they were coming out. Swede led the way with the women following close behind. When Bear began walking out, he
felt Lacey resisting and turned back to see what was the matter with her.

  “I can’t leave.” She tried to tell him.

  Bear paused then motioned for the men to back off a minute. Turning to her he asked, “Why can’t you leave this place?”

  Lacey tried to pull herself loose from his grip but Bear wasn’t letting her go. “Please don’t take me away from here. Leroy will hurt me more if I go.”

  “Leroy won’t hurt you ever again,” Bear promised.

  Lacey stared at him with tears in her eyes. “You don’t know that. My mother didn’t think he’d hurt her either but he killed her,” she whispered her greatest fear.

  “We can protect you,” Bear promised.

  Lacey shook her head. Her whole body trembled and Bear saw fresh blood seeping through her shirt. “You can’t promise that. Leroy can go anywhere and he’ll find me.”

  “Come on Bear we gotta go,” someone called out from the shadows.

  Swede materialized beside him. “I’ll grab her.”

  Bear turned to his brother and snapped, “You won’t touch her.” He turned back to Lacey and stepped forward grabbing her around the waist he ducked and lifted her on his shoulder. Lacey passed out as they stepped out into the night. Looking at his brother and the other men around him he growled, “Let’s get the hell out of here.” He turned to his brother and reminded him, “Don’t forget to seal this door too. We don’t want him to be able to get back in here.”

  Later, as they boarded the plane that would take them back to Texas Bear lowered Lacey into a double seat. He quickly took the adjoining seat. Then he turned to glare at the men as they took their own seats.

  Jim went to the cockpit and strapped into the pilot’s seat. Swede and Pappy sat facing the seat where Bear and Lacey sat. Thor, Caine and Slammer were the other three men on this mission.

  Swede didn’t say anything but stared at the woman beside his brother. When Bear had hoisted the woman onto his shoulder Swede couldn’t believe it. It had been a long time since Bear had allowed anyone to touch him without freaking out. Turning his attention to his brother he asked, “Are you okay?”

  Bear nodded but didn’t say anything. When the plane was in the air, he turned to Lacey and noted the bleeding had stopped. Without lifting her shirt he said, “She’s going to need medical attention and soon.”

  “We have a medic at the compound. He’s as good as a doctor. He served with us in the military,” Pappy assured him.

  Bear nodded without taking his eyes off the girl.

  “What were you able to find?” Pappy asked them.

  “We got his laptop and the hard drive to his desktop,” replied Swede. He motioned to his brother. “He took a small box from the top of the file cabinets but we don’t know what’s in it yet.”

  Bear passed the box over to Pappy. “She told us it was important.”

  “Who is she?” Pappy asked.

  “She’s his half-sister Lacey,” Bear informed them. He glanced over at the other women on the plane. “Are they the missing women?”

  “We think so.” Pappy shrugged. “We haven’t had time to ask them anything yet. Did you find Leroy?”

  Bear nodded at Lacey. “We heard an alarm go off while we were inside and Lacey claimed it was Leroy’s escape tunnel alarm. There were gunshots too, but I don’t know what or who was shooting.”

  “I saw someone running down a hall and he took the first shots,” Swede told them. “I just returned fire. Before I could follow, he was gone. I searched the compartment but he was gone.”

  “How did he find you?” Pappy asked.

  “He has infrared lights on all the doorways,” one of the women told them. “That bastard knows every move we ever made and if we did something he didn’t like, he would show us his displeasure.”

  “Did he beat you three the way he beat her?” Bear asked.

  The women shook their heads. “No he didn’t beat us.” They all looked at the young woman beside Bear. “He only beat her. I don’t think he liked her much.”

  “He would never allow us to talk to her,” one of the women explained. “She was only to serve us and him. She cooked our food and cleaned the compound. She wasn’t allowed to have any free time either.”

  “Why did he beat her this time?” Bear wanted to know.

  The women looked from one to another but didn’t say anything for a few minutes. Then one of them finally spoke up, “Leroy doesn’t need a reason. This time was because she tried to protect me. I was sick last night and she came to help me. Leroy didn’t want her anywhere near us but she came anyway. When he found out, he dragged her out of bed and beat her silly.” She shook her head. “We all knew that one of these days he would finally kill her.”

  Bear growled. “He won’t ever get his hands on her again. He’ll have to go through me first.”

  Swede stared at his brother and he looked stunned by this announcement, but looked away when Bear glanced over at him.

  When the plane landed in Sabine Pass, Dewey had a couple of vehicles waiting to take them back to the compound. The women needed to be cleared by a doctor and stay for their own protection until the authorities could capture Leroy. Then and only then, would they be allowed to rejoin their own families.

  When the plane was empty, Bear got to his feet and carefully cradling Lacey, he made his way to the doorway. He hadn’t allowed anyone near the young girl since he found her, nor had anyone tried to stop him from helping her.

  Making his way down the steps, he carefully held her all the way back.

  When the vehicle stopped outside the compound front door, Lacey was coming around. “Where are we?” she asked quietly as she looked around with her head on the big man’s chest.

  “We’re in Texas. You’re safe here,” Bear told her quietly. “No one here will hurt you anymore and we won’t let Leroy get his hands on you.”

  Lacey had tears running down her cheeks. She turned her head into the crook of his neck and sobbed. “I don’t want to go back.”

  “Darlin, you won’t ever have to go back or see your brother again,” Bear whispered in her ear. “I promise.”

  Lacey nodded but didn’t say anything.

  Bear carried her into the compound. When everyone stared at them, Bear growled and walked down the hall to a room. He laid Lacey carefully on the bed and stepped away for a moment.

  Lacey curled up in the fetal position and wept softly.

  Bear knelt beside the bed. “Are you okay?”

  Lacey cried out. “My whole body hurts right now. I can feel several places on my back bleeding again and I think I’m gonna be sick.”

  Bear let out a sigh. “Honey, the next few days aren’t gonna be a picnic but we gotta get you cleaned up and patched up before we can do anything else.”

  Lacey stared at him for a moment then nodded. “I know. Will you be the one to help me?”

  “Is that what you want?” Bear paused for a moment. “I don’t do real good with touching people or having people touch me, but I can try if you want me to.”

  “I trust you more than anyone else right now. You are the first man that has shown me any kindness but I’m still scared.” She stared at him. “But if you can’t, I can try on my own.”

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “What?”

  “How old are you?”

  What year is it?” she had to ask.

  “2017.” Bear frowned at her question.

  Lacey looked shocked. “Really?” she whispered.

  Bear nodded. “Why do you ask?”

  “Leroy found us in 2002. I was seven years old back then so I guess that makes me twenty two. I think? My mother was just beginning to teach me to read and write when he found us. After he took me away with him, he didn’t give me much schooling.”

  “Are you telling me you can’t read or write?” Bear asked.

  Lacey shrugged. “I can read a little and I sort of know my letters but Leroy wouldn’t let me use them
much. He never would allow me any access to his books and such. I did the best I could to remember everything my mother taught me but that was so long ago that it’s hard to remember it now.”

  “Come on little girl.” Bear extended his hand. “Let’s get you cleaned up and see just how bad you’re hurt.”

  Someone knocked on the door and when Bear answered it, he saw one of Pappy’s men standing there with a medical kit in his hands. “I’m Jasper. I’m here to see to Lacey’s injuries.”

  “Just give me the kit.” Bear growled at the other man. “I can take care of her.”

  Jasper was going to say something but he looked all the way up at bear’s hard expression, so he didn’t. He just handed over the kit. “If you need some help, give a holler.”

  Bear frowned and nodded. When he shut the door, he put the kit on the bedside table then lifted Lacey out of the bed and took her into the bathroom. Standing her on her feet, he told her, “Grab onto to the sink. All you have to do is stand there, I’ll get your clothes off.”

  Lacey’s face flushed red but she did as he told her. Her knuckles were white as Bear stripped her clothes off. He was as carful as he could be but her shirt stuck to her raw skin in a few places. By the time he had her stripped, new tears rolled down her cheeks.

  He didn’t say a word as he started the water running. He placed a small stool in the shower and was going to set her down when he realized she wouldn’t be able to sit there alone. Bear stripped down to his underwear. He scooped her up in his arms and together, they entered the shower. Lacey kept her face buried in his chest and wouldn’t raise her chin as Bear sat down on the stool and just let the warm water run over her.

  Bear grabbed the washcloth and ran it over her arms then gently washed her back. He didn’t scrub too hard, he just wanted to clean her off the best he could. He could tell she was crying again and he hated the fact that she was in pain. “Shhh, we have to get you cleaned up, so I can see where you’re hurt. Please don’t cry, you’re breaking my heart little one,” he murmured.

  “I’m sorry.” She wept. “I’m so sorry.”