by Parker, Zoey
We parked the cars on the street outside the lot leading to the warehouse. When I strained my ears, I could hear the faint sound of music coming from there. Some hair band. Of course. They were partying, celebrating, living it up. This was the night they had been waiting for.
“We’re still ready to go in there with you, boss, if you need us.” Joe and Chip looked at me expectantly, like they were willing to go into battle with me. I knew how lucky I was to have them.
“I know. Let’s deal with the first thing first. Getting the place rigged.”
Chip nodded, and he and Joe pulled down the ski masks they wore, covering their faces. They went ahead of the rest of us, sliding along the sides of buildings, in the shadows. They were the best shots in the group and would see if the perimeter was clear before we went ahead.
While we waited, I took deep breaths to calm the beating of my heart. I was ready to go, adrenaline pumping through me like crazy. All my senses were clearer, everything focused on getting to Erica in time to escape. She was my priority. I didn’t care about myself.
Ralph waited with the bag of C-4, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He’d been an explosives specialist in the Army before he was wounded. His talents came in handy, just like his network did. He was on edge, ready to go. I wondered if he saw himself on a battlefield again. In a way, he was.
“Chip’s giving the signal,” Axel whispered.
“All right. Like we talked about. Ralph and the rest with the explosives, you first. Lookouts next, fall out around the outside of the buildings around the warehouse. Stay in the shadows.” They went in staggered groups. That left me, Frankie, and Axel.
“You sure you’re ready for this?” Frankie asked. He looked skeptical, but I was used to that from him. I knew it was coming from the right place.
“I’m fine,” I said. “They won’t want you there. It’ll only cause trouble. Trust me. It’s better this way.”
He didn’t look convinced. That was all right. I didn’t feel convinced. I had no idea what York would pull when I got inside. He might kill me then and there. Axel and Frankie knew that if they heard shots, it was time to go in firing. They both swore they didn’t care if they got killed. They’d rather be dead than have York as president.
“What will you do if you see him in there?” Axel murmured. I’d been waiting to see if one of them would ask.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll probably wanna kill him, but I can’t do it in front of everybody else.”
“Maybe York wants you to. He’s a sick fuck like that,” Frankie said. He spat on the ground, shaking his head. “I bet that’s his whole plan. He’ll get off on watching you kill Onyx.”
“In that case, I wouldn’t do it. I won’t give him the satisfaction.” I couldn’t imagine doing it anyway, but I wasn’t about to get into it with Frankie. I knew how much he wanted revenge against Onyx for what he did. I did, too, but I couldn’t be as bloodthirsty as the others. They weren’t as close with him as I was. They didn’t know what it was like having nobody in my life after the court split up my family. When Onyx came in, it was like I had a brother again. He was all the family I had until I felt accepted by the rest of the club.
“This all seems too easy,” I muttered. “I don’t like it.”
“You think they’re waiting?”
“Of course they are. They know I’ll come. He knows it. He called her my girlfriend, for Christ’s sake. I wonder how much Onyx told him.” When I thought about it that way, I hated him. I hated that he used her the way he had. I hated that he was so stupid, he’d let York use him. I hated that he actually made me consider killing him.
“You’d think at least one of them would be outside,” Axel mused. Just then, we heard the sound of a silenced gunshot. It wasn’t completely silent—that was one thing the movies always got wrong—and in the quiet, we heard it clearly. I knew it was too quiet for the guys inside to hear though, with the music as loud as it was.
We ran silently to the clubhouse then, staying in the shadows along the side of one of the abandoned buildings. Chip and one of the others were dragging a Wolf to the side of the clubhouse. “A lookout,” Chip panted. The man now had a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead.
Chip looked shaken. I crouched down beside him and clamped a hand on his shoulder. “You did a good job. It was either him or you.”
“Yeah? You think so?” he asked. His voice was shaky. It was his first kill.
“For sure. These Wolves don’t fuck around. He’d have killed you. I want you to get home safe tonight.” I patted him on the back, and we hurried away from the clubhouse to wait for the okay from the explosives team.
Ralph sprinted to us, half-crouched. “Everything’s set,” he whispered.
I felt all eyes on me. “You don’t have to do this,” Frankie reminded me for the hundredth time. “We can go in guns blazing. Wipe ’em all out. Get her, get home in time for a drink and a blowjob.”
“Who were you planning on sucking off?” Ralph whispered.
“Shut the fuck up.”
I couldn’t believe they were able to joke at a time like that, but I was glad for it. It gave me a little more confidence. They had my back.
“Let’s get synced up with the time. I don’t wanna think I have more than I have.” I looked at my watch. It was three fifteen. “Okay. Fifteen minutes from now.”
“Got it,” Ralph said. I heard a beep. The timer was starting.
I wished I had an extra minute to thank them, or give them some parting thought, but it was too late. I turned and walked to the front door of the Vicious Wolves’ clubhouse instead, telling myself to be prepared for whatever I found inside.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
When I stepped through the door, I wasn’t noticed at first. Nobody heard me. They weren’t very good at keeping a lookout.
The music was so loud I thought my ears would start bleeding. Heavy metal, some eighties band. Typical. There had to be three dozen guys in there, maybe more. No women. I was glad for that. I didn’t want any women to get caught up in the explosion.
The thought that I’d be killing them all went through my mind briefly. Was this the right thing to do? It had to be. They would never leave us alone. I remembered Harrison, and how crazy he was when I questioned him at the safe house. They all had a little bit of that in them. They didn’t care about themselves, so they could be reckless and stop at nothing.
All I had to do was look around to see how little they cared for themselves.
Just then, one of them looked up and saw me standing there. Suddenly they all saw me, and all of them froze in place. They had no idea what to do. Maybe they hadn’t expected me yet, or maybe they hadn’t expected me to walk right through the door the way I had. York might have overthought this one.
“You know why I’m here,” I said. “Alexander wants to see me.”
One of the guys at the table jumped up and ran through a door off to the side. I stood still, sweeping the main room with my eyes. Where was she? It was a huge room, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. All I saw were the sneers and smirks of the men around the table where a poker game had been going on when I walked in. I felt like telling them all to bet big and bluff big. It didn’t matter. They wouldn’t live long enough to settle up. Whether or not I made it out in time, they wouldn’t live to see the morning.
They all looked hungry, in a way. Not physically hungry, even though some of them were dangerously skinny. More like hungry inside. They wanted something they couldn’t have, maybe something they had never had. They weren’t like my men at all. My men weren’t always the smartest or the nicest—sometimes they were flat-out mean and stupid—but none of them were desperate. That’s what it was. Desperation. They might do anything. I reminded myself of that. A desperate man can’t be trusted.
The door opened again, and there was York. The look on his face was priceless and disgusting at the same time. I knew he thought he had won, and it pissed me
off. Let him keep thinking it, I reminded myself. Stall for a little time. Do what you have to do. Then get the hell out of there. The clock was ticking.
“Frisk him,” York said. Two of his guys walked to me and patted me down. I held my arms at my sides.
“Clean,” one of them said. It was true. I didn’t have a gun or a knife on me.
“So, the great Vince Baldoni is here. Finally paying us a visit after all this time. What an honor.”
The guys laughed. I gritted my teeth, wondering how long this would have to last before I could get to Erica and run.
“Where is she?” I asked, ignoring the jeers around me.
“Who’s that? Your little girlfriend? I gotta hand it to you, Baldoni, you know how to pick ’em. She’s sweet.”
The men laughed again, knowingly this time. My blood boiled. If they had touched her…
“She’s in there.” He jerked his head toward the room he’d come from. “A little tied up at the moment, but pretty much the way you left her. Calm yourself down.”
“She comes out. Now. That was the deal.”
“Who said?”
“You did. If I came in and turned myself over to you, you would let her go.”
“No. I said she would die if you didn’t. I never said I’d let her go if you did.” He laughed, and the Wolves joined him. They reminded me of a pack of hyenas, mindlessly laughing. “No, she stays. She’s what you might call the spoils of war.”
“She has nothing to do with the war.” Shit, how much time did I have? I hadn’t planned on this stupid word play with him. I wanted her out of there. If he didn’t let her go, I’d have to free her myself.
“You know, Baldoni, that shows how much you know. You were never meant to lead. Hey, it’s not an insult. Some men just aren’t suited to it. You’re a thinker. A pretty boy. Leave the tough stuff to the real men. It’s for the best that you hand the club over. The best for everyone.” The Wolves nodded along with his words.
I couldn’t let him get to me. His words meant nothing. He was only throwing them around because he was a coward. All he had were words and a bunch of mindless apes to do his dirty work. They weren’t like the Fury Riders, which was why the two MCs would never work together. For us, it was family. We worked as a team.
I thought we had, at least.
“I’m here to do what you wanted, just like you asked. I’d like to have a minute alone with you so that we can talk a few things over.” I knew he would jump at the chance, but I pretended to think he wouldn’t.
“A minute alone? Sounds interesting.”
I’m sure it does. I’m sure you would love the chance to take your time while killing me, you psycho bastard.
“Your office? Assuming you have an office?”
He scowled. “That’s where I was when you came in, Baldoni. This way.” He stepped backward through the doorway. I followed him. Three of his men moved toward me like they planned to follow.
“I said alone.” I looked at York. He waved them away.
Once we were in the room outside his office, I saw her. They had tied her to a chair, wrists and ankles, with a gag in her mouth. I groaned inside, doing everything I could to hold myself back from going to her.
She struggled when she saw me, like she was trying to warn me. I held up my hand, just high enough for her to see it, trying to signal her to be calm. There was nothing she had to warn me about that I wasn’t already aware of. In fact, I knew more than she did. I hoped I could get this done quickly enough.
“Couldn’t you have left her somewhere nicer?” I asked, looking around in disgust. “Or do you not have anything nicer than this? I mean, that makes sense.”
“Enough bullshit. This way.” He motioned for me to follow him. His office was a little room just off the one we stood in. The walls were covered in pinup photos from Playboy and other magazines. Very classy stuff. The desk was old and scratched. There were no windows. It stank of cigarettes and sweat. I hated thinking of York in my chair, at my clubhouse.
This was it. Just him and me. I closed the door behind us. My palms were sweating, but not out of fear. More out of anticipation. I couldn’t wait to see him die, but it had to be fast. I felt a clock ticking in my head. I knew the C-4 was ready to go—Ralph had never once let me down. I needed us clear of the building before that happened.
“So, what is it you need to talk to me about?” he asked, sitting on the edge of his desk with his arms crossed. He sounded bored, but I could hear a little bit of excitement in his voice. Like a kid who knew he was finally going to get what he wanted for Christmas. Or so he thought.
“I wanted us to get a few things straight,” I said. He looked down at the floor, and I took the opportunity to check my watch. I had ten minutes. The whole charade outside had only taken five. Plenty of time. I relaxed a little.
“Such as?” He folded his arms
“What do you plan to do with the club now that it’s yours?”
He smiled broadly. “That sounds so good. Say it again. Now that the club is mine.”
I bit the side of my tongue to keep from calling him a pathetic loser. “Now that the club is yours.”
He grinned. “Between you and me, I kinda have a semi right now.”
I shook my head. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Seriously, man. Are you that obsessed with taking me down?”
“Not just you. Your whole fucking club. You’ve been holding the Wolves back for years, plus anybody else who wanted to get a piece of the action. Have you ever seen The Godfather?”
“Who hasn’t?”
“Remember when the other dons were all pissed at Don Corleone for having all the politicians in his pocket? That’s how it is for you. I promise you, if it wasn’t me taking you down, it would have been somebody else. You’ve been on shit lists all over town for years.”
“This is news to me,” I sneered. “And like I told everybody already, my plan was to get us the fuck out of drugs. It wasn’t a secret. I didn’t want anything to do with it. That was Rex’s thing, not mine. That’s old school shit. The sort of shit the other dons wanted to get into in The Godfather, if I remember it right.” My voice was thick with sarcasm.
“We should have been given a piece of the action.”
“I would have worked with you if you had come to me instead of doing everything you could to go behind my back. I don’t want drugs anymore, man. You could have had them. Things didn’t have to be this way.”
“You were never gonna give it up. Back in the day, Rex swore the Fury Riders would never share their piece of the trade.”
“I’m not Rex. I never felt that way. You’re so fucking smart, thinking things through, making plans. You never thought once to come to me like a man and sit down.” He didn’t know he was about to die for his stupidity.
He stood, pointing a finger in my face. “You held us down for too long. You think I believe you would have worked with us, the way you see us? Rex always hated us, and you do, too.”
“You’re right.” I shrugged. “I hate you, but not because of the club. I just hate you, period. But business is business. I would have put it aside.”
“Rex didn’t want to.”
“Your old prez should have taken it up with Rex when it first started. This was in motion a long time ago, way before my time or yours. You just wanna take it out on me and my club because you’ve been in this shit hole for so long.”
“Fuck you.”
“Why couldn’t you clean up the place? I mean, seriously. Get a fucking cleaning woman. Or can’t you afford that?”
“Shut the fuck up.” His tanned skin was getting dark with rage.
“There are probably frat houses cleaner than this place. I can see not being able to renovate, but not cleaning up after yourselves? I hope you don’t do that to our clubhouse. We put a lot of money into it.”
“It’s not your clubhouse anymore, asshole.” He took a swing at me, just like I knew he would once I pushed him far enough. I duc
ked it easily, then stepped behind him when he was off-balance. I looped my arm around his neck, choking him.
He struggled, flailing around. My arms were thick, heavily muscled. It didn’t take long before he was wheezing for air. He pounded on my arm, digging his fingers in, desperate to get some air.
“How’s it feel, fucker? When you know your life’s in my hands? I can do whatever I want to you,” I hissed in his ear. I wanted my voice to be the last thing he heard. “All your planning was for shit. When you’re dead, I’m gonna blow this place sky-high. It’s all set up and ready to blow. Your entire club, gone. Think on that for a minute.” I tightened my grip. He was frantic, panicking. His face turned red, his eyes began to bulge out. He wheezed.
