Without stopping, the president made a wide u-turn and led his men back down the driveway and on to the next place.
Mel recognized his body's sensations from having had the same ones when he'd ridden through Czar territory. The hyper-vigilance and the super-charged awareness of both himself and his surroundings all pointed to his absolute terror of what they would find.
That was if the Hellions could find Mel's girls.
He couldn't help his thoughts or his dark imaginings at what Lulu and Julie were going through under the hands of the Hellion's arch enemy.
What he didn't understand though was why. Why would the Ghosts kidnap them seeing how Mel was nothing but a lowly recruit? He could understand if Dallas had been targeted or even Reese or Carly. But Lulu and Julie? It didn't fucking make a lick of sense.
At the fourth driveway, Trey stopped more than 100 yards back and turned off his motor. Standing on his bike's pegs was the only way Mel could see over the heads of the Hellions in front of him. And with his vantage point he could see a line of machines were parked next to the sagging front porch of a cabin that was almost deteriorating before their eyes.
Trey led his men into the line of trees and began to speak in a low voice when all of them circled around their leader. "Already sent a text to Si and Brand. They'll fucking park on the road and join us in a few. In the meantime, Smarts and Dice will do recon and report back while we wait."
"But why can't we just bust in?" Mel asked tightly, edgily and with balled fists. In his opinion, it made no sense to just stand around when they knew where the Ghosts were. Where his girls might be. He saw Moss reach out an arm as if to smack him but Trey blocked the hit.
"They're his females. He has the fucking right," Trey growled and Moss dropped his hand. "Because we don't know your girls are in there and we don't know what we'll be fucking dealing with in terms of firepower, understand? The more goddamn Hellions we have to work the sitch, the better our fucking odds, yeah?"
Mel looked over his shoulder but realized he couldn't see the cabin from where he was standing. Glancing back at Trey, he nodded. But it wasn't a nod of approval. In his mind, he wasn't square with anything that was doing. All he knew, was almost foaming at the mouth about, was getting his girls back legal or otherwise.
"Good. Now, I need all of you to fucking remember we're not going for the kill. With the info we got, this shit can damn-well be prosecuted. So we get 'em the fuck down and then let John Law take care of the rest of the scene, yeah?" Every man in the circle agreed.
Mel heard the roar of other machines in the distance before they slowed and then shut off. The reinforcements were there. When they heard the crunch of boots coming through the trees, Dice and Smarts returned.
"Couldn't see any fuckers in the main portions but there were voices round back at ground level," Smarts advised.
"A woman's voice and a man's," Dice added. Mel's heart went into overdrive as his adrenaline kicked back up.
"Basement?" Trey asked turning to watch his brothers from the other groups slip through the trees to join his. "That could be dicey. Small space and too close to our girls to use what we're packing."
"Not to mention, hard not to be heard," Silo growled.
Mel saw Brand walk back to the dirt driveway. The large man stood, hands on hips as he stared at the cabin for what felt like a long time before he returned back to the large circle of men. While he'd surveyed, not a word was spoken by anyone.
"We will need a diversion, an excuse to get them back up into the main part of the house or even outside," he advised slowly, almost as if he was still thinking the full plan through. "I would suggest we put our lightest Hellions inside on the edges of the rooms and shoot out the windows as they get into place. As the Ghosts come up from the cellar, we would have the element of surprise."
"How many do you want on the inside?" Trey asked.
"Four, perhaps five," came the confident, deeply voiced reply.
"Petey, Snake, Jay, Smith and Coyote," Trey called out softly. "You're the inside team. We fucking don't know how many fuckers there are but with only four goddamn rides showing, I'm guessing there'll be no more than seven or eight if they'd doubled up."
At the men's nods, Trey continued.
"The rest of us will surround and lay down the fire. Aim fucking high to avoid your brothers, but don't confine your shots to just the windows. Those goddamn walls look thin. The idea is to create chaos enough for our brothers to get 'em to ground, you get me?" Trey's face was stern as he instructed his men. "Once down, we need to get in and get our girls AS-fucking-AP. I'll make sure Stay and Donny have the Hum-Vee by the door when we get them fucking released."
Mel nodded his head along with the rest. He didn't have a gun but he was sure as hell not gonna miss being part of the fucking action even if he had to circumvent Trey's plan.
As if reading his mind, Trey looked at his young recruit. "You ever squeezed off a round before, Hardwood?"
"Yeah. For Deschames."
Trey pulled a small revolver from his boot and passed it to him. "That's all you're fucking getting until I see how you do."
Mel could feel his lips pull back as his thoughts turned deadly. "Thanks."
Before any man left to get into position, Trey stepped to the middle of the circle. Holding his clenched fist above his head, he fiercely whispered, "hellion justice!" and everyone crowded in to fist bump their president's hand as they echoed his words.
Chapter Twenty Nine
"Shh," Lucky called from his place by the stairs. "You hear that?"
"What?"
"Thought I heard motorcycles." I saw the men raise their eyes to the ceiling as a couple of them tilted their heads as if to listen more closely.
"Probably a RUB," Authority countered. "The Hellions ain't got a clue about this place."
"I think somebody's outside," the tenor exclaimed all color draining from his face.
"They're coming for us, aren't they?" Julie asked quietly from behind my back.
I made my voice strongly confident and increased the volume enough so it would carry in the small space. "You better believe it! The Hellions are coming for us, baby."
All the men's eyes swung back to me before they began to glance at each other almost like they were looking for direction on what to do.
"I'm telling ya, there ain't no way they know about this place. Even if they did, we've got insurance."
"Insurance? What the fuck, man?"
"I meant the women, shit for brains. They ain't gonna take no chances when we've got the girls," the man who talked with authority said with a sneer. But I could tell the other guys were beginning to freak out by the way they were fidgeting. A couple of men pulled out guns as they scanned the low ceiling.
"We're fucking sitting ducks down here…"
A floorboard creaked in the space just over were Julie and I were sitting and I saw all four of the Ghosts jump at the sound.
"They could fucking pick us off from the top of the stairs, Lucky. What the fuck are we gonna do?"
The words had just left the skinny tenor's mouth when the sound of guns and breaking glass were heard.
Three of the men quickly turned and fled up the stairs, the sound of their passing lost in the heavy rain of gunfire. But Authority guy stayed downstairs as his eyes turned back to me. "I ain't dying for the likes of you, Pinky."
He rushed towards me and yanked me to my feet by my hair, pressing his revolver in the space behind my ear. Julie came up with me, her arms looping tightly from behind and around my waist. I know I screamed at his move but I couldn't help it. His jerk had twisted my neck and jarred my jaw so hard I had black dots dancing along the edge of my vision. So much so, I used one hand to grab at Julie's small arms to try and steady myself. My right hand clutched and held onto Authority guy's jeaned thigh.
"You come down here and I'll kill 'em," Authority guy bellowed when the gunfire had dwindled before eventually dying out. "I'll kill 'em both."<
br />
"And then what, slick?" I recognized Trey's voice which in my mind sounded entirely too calm for the situation at hand. "You honestly think you're fucking getting out of this alive?"
Authority guy had begun to sweat, the sour stench of his body odor ripe in air around us. He was panting, too. Sharp, out of cadence breaths that showed me how scared he was of what may or may not be happening in the rooms above us. He jostled me again and I heard the clink of the chain as it pulled against the heavy manacle on my wrist and I clutched his leg tighter. I needed to do something, anything to get away from him and the pain his yanking was causing.
Something was definitely happening if the amount of noise we heard overhead was any indication. But I couldn't hear any voices. Just the shuffling and thuds of boots on floorboards. The lack of speech was almost unnerving.
"How about a deal?" Authority guy's voice no longer held that leadership edge but had crept into the begging range.
"Dunno if you've noticed," and I heard Trey's voice getting closer although I still couldn't hear him coming down the stairs. "But you're kinda fucked, man. You kill her, we kill you. You don't kill her, we still kill you. Can't quite see how you have any bargaining power, you know?"
My hair received another yank as the other man jerked at Trey's words which caused me to scream again. I didn't know if I was going to puke or pass out but both were a distinct possibility from the agony he caused.
Without thinking twice about it, I released the hold I had on his leg, pulled back my hand and slammed the manacle as hard as I could into Authority guy's crotch making him scream. Which was just as loud as mine as he released the hold he had on my hair and dropped to his knees.
At the sound of the man's bellowing roar and my much higher yelp, Trey ran into the room with his gun pointed. Behind him were Brand and Silo.
How could three huge men get down the stairs without making any noise?
"Oh god! Oh god!" the man keened as he writhed on the floor holding his genitals with both hands, the gun laying forgotten beside him.
Seeing he was down and that helped had arrived, I let my knees buckle and tried to twist so Julie wasn't crushed as I fell down onto the air mattress.
"She fuckin' smashed my balls, man!" Authority guy yelled as Silo grabbed him by his arm and tugged him to his feet.
"Fucking got that right," Silo said, kicking the released gun to a corner before tugging the still bent-over ghost towards Brand. "You don't fuckin' fuck with a Honey. "
I saw a small smile curl up one side of Brand's mouth before he grabbed the Ghost and used a zip tie on his wrists. "You are lucky she did not rip your fucking dick off as well."
Trey decocked his revolver and tucked it behind his back before racing to where Julie and I were huddled. "How're my girls?" His voice was light but his sharp eyes roamed over us and I knew he was taking in our appearance, injuries and the chains.
I turned carefully while trying to unlock Julie's arms from around me. She needed to see Trey. Needed to know that we were being rescued.
Hearing thumps on the stairs, I saw Mel come racing in, his eyes wild as he brandished a small gun around. "Where's Julie?" he yelled and I felt her little head inch around my side.
"Mel?" she whispered on a trembling breath. And then she must have been able to have seen him clearly because her voice was positively jubilant as she yelled, "Mel!"
I was crying too hard to do the same even though my heart echoed the joy contained in just her one word.
*.*.*.*.*
The waiting room in ER was almost full of Hellions and the Honeys as they waited for the 4-1-1 on Lulu. But the hospital couldn't give out any info since none of them were family.
Mel sat with Julie cuddled next to him on one of the uncomfortable connected chairs. Dee had tried to get the little one to go home with her, promising all sorts of treats and telling Jules how much she'd missed her but the little girl wouldn't budge. She wanted Mel and she wanted to see Lu.
The doctors had already checked his sister over but outside of a few large and painful bruises on her back said she would be fine. The cops had descended as soon as the little girl was out of x-ray and had taken her statement saying they were going upstairs to interview Lulu next.
At Mel's request, one of the brothers brought Derek from the compound and hadn't realized no one had clued the teenager on what had gone down at the house. It was in the relating that Julie finally spoke up and started telling her side of what happened, which had the council coming to sit next to them and listen. As the little girl spoke, detailing the time that she and Lulu had been chained up in the cellar, about how scared she was and how Lulu tried to keep her safe and her spirits up, there wasn't a man or boy that wasn't affected.
"And she told them the Hellions would come for us which scared the bad guys," Julie said with a smile before she turned to Mel, her face turning serious. "When are the doctors going to be done with her?"
"I don't know, pretty girl. They can't tell us 'cause we're not her family. I think they're trying to get hold of her dad," Mel explained with a cuddle.
But Julie pushed off him with a look of terror on her face. "Not her dad! Her dad is the one that kidnapped us. I heard her on the phone with that guy who talked funny and he said it was her father that told them to bring her back. Please don't call Lulu's daddy, Mel. Please?"
Mel glanced around the council as Julie began to cry and wondered if his own face held the same shocked expression as theirs. Looking at Bishop and Trey he finally asked, "who's she got as her emergency contact?"
Trey's eyebrows rose and he turned to look at Bishop who sighed and looked away. "On it," he mumbled tiredly which Mel could understand. They'd ridden for six hours and then gotten off their bikes only get involved in planning and the execution of retrieving the girls. The IT guru was probably feeling the effects of their very long day.
Cuddling his little sister, letting her have another moment of tears, Mel couldn't help his internal roar of rage. Something Der must have caught onto because he leaned in and whispered, "what kind of father gets bikers to kidnap their kid? Their grown kid?"
"A fuckin' sick one," Mel mumbled back. Hell, no wonder his girl had run away to Montana if that's the kind of family she had.
A little while later, just about the time Mel was thinking of getting his small family home, Bishop came back in. "It's a sister who goes by the name of Shelly. Says she'll be here tomorrow morning."
"Since we aren't going to get any info tonight," Trey started after standing and looking around the room. "I suggest we let the doctors take care of our Lucille and check on her in the morning after the sister arrives."
The crowd of Hellions and Honeys, who Mel expected to simply file out and stood in anticipation of joining them, made their way to the Davis family. But to his, Derek's and Julie's surprise, lined up in order to say goodbye to the little trio. Whether it was a hand clasp on the shoulder of Mel and Derek or a quick hug to the bright, golden-haired girl, each and every HMC member made a point of acknowledging the siblings before exiting.
"Will you be going to school tomorrow, Lil Taste?" Dee asked after giving Julie's brothers a quick hug.
"Mel says I can stay home. But I think I want to go," Julie replied, glancing up at her big brother who squeezed the small hand he was holding. "I'd like to just get back to normal."
Mel heard Der snort from his place at his other shoulder. "Jules wouldn't know normal if it up and bit her," was the teenager's assessment offered in a low voice which made Mel chuckle.
"I can come over and stay with her if need be," Dee offered as she straightened and looked at Mel. "To tell the truth, I kind of missed her this weekend."
"We'll see. I'm off tomorrow according to Brand, but I'll let you know Dee." Mel admitted that he didn't want his little Jules staying with anyone for a while. He knew it was unreasonable but when he'd left his sister in someone else's care, she'd been taken. It wasn't Lulu's fault and he didn't blame his precious gir
l for what happened. He just needed to keep Julie with him, under his protection and safety for a while.
Trey and Dallas were the last ones to say goodbye. "Come give your uncle Trey a hug, pretty girl." Julie wasted no time going to the big man and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"Thank you for saving me," the little girl whispered with closed eyes as she squeezed the president tightly who rubbed her back while she hugged him. Stepping back he bent down so they were eye to eye.
"I will always come for you, Lil' Taste. Me and the Hellions will move fuc…ah, damn mountains to get to you when you need us."
"Why is that, though?" Der's voice wasn't projecting attitude when he questioned the big biker. "Why do the Hellions care about us so much?"
Reinventing Mel: A Hellion MC Novel Page 27
