Being on the road, the vibration of his bike, the sound driving out everything else, the wind whipping his clothes, his hair, it usually calmed him. Not this time. The longer they rode, the more the tension mounted, the more he yearned to get there and get the job done. He had latched onto the idea that killing Big Dog would fix everything. Things would go back to being the way they had before. Without all the internal club drama, without worrying about someone trying to kill him, and without having his heart stepped on by a lying witch. He could pass off the job of president to someone else and sneak out of town without causing a fuss. Then he might be able to give Morgan the chance at a normal life. One that wasn’t constantly plagued with fear and worry, where her life wouldn’t ever again be put in danger by who and what he was.
Red slowed as they turned down a tree lined residential road. The homes on either side reminded him of something off of TV. Where over indulged teenagers had parties and got caught having sex and smoking pot. A life like that must be nice, your biggest fear getting caught by your parents with your pants down, humping some cheerleader in the garage. That had never been the kind of life Red had experienced. They’d always had enough to eat and clothes on their back, but everything extra went to the Club. He’d never had a fancy car or gone to eat at a five star restaurant. Hell, despite the fact that he could be considered ‘well-off’ now, he’d never even bought clothes that didn’t come from Wal-Mart. Scratch that, he had bought a thirty dollar pair of pants and a white shirt all folded up in a plastic bag from a department store once. For a funeral.
He didn’t feel like he’d missed anything though. All these big houses probably held a lot of lonely space. He’d take a small house full of laughter over that any day.
Finally the house that Demon had described came into view, he checked the street number against the one he’d memorized and confirmed he was in the right place. Red shook his head. He never would have guessed one of his own, the fucking president of the club and his two closest men, would have sold out. He might be planning to leave but he would never betray the club, the town, like that. He didn’t always agree with his orders, the direction the club took, or anything else, but he’d done his damn job. People depended on them, not just the club, the family with five kids who couldn’t buy groceries, the teenage girl who got knocked up by some asshole who left her, the old lady with no children and no way to pay the electric bill. That was who Big Dog had sold out, not just the guys in the club, the whole damn town.
Red pulled over to the side of the road a few houses down from the one the traitors were staying in and grinned, very soon Big Dog was going to pay for all of that and more. He knew they should probably wait until night, when the chances of them being seen was less, but he was too impatient. He just hoped some overly helpful human didn’t decide to call the cops. He didn’t want to kill any innocents, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t.
He climbed off his bike and started giving instructions almost before his feet hit the ground, “Alright, Tinker, you’re coming with me. Squint and Squirt, you’re going to plant your asses on either side of that driveway, out of sight, and if anything goes wrong, you’re going to hightail it out of here and tell the rest of the guys what happened. Ya got it?”
Both of the prospects nodded and moved to comply. Squirt grimaced as he turned to go. He was walking bowlegged, Red knew what was up and shook his head. Couldn’t be helped now, but Red bet he’d remember those burning thighs in the future and make sure to swab his happy ass down with diaper rash cream before he left on a long ride again. Not to mention a splash or two of baby powder on the taint.Monkey butt and swamp balls were no joke.
Red made his way as silently as he could to the edge of the house, Tinker followed.
He heard them in there. The TV was playing, someone was flushing a toilet, and someone was snoring. Good. He’d catch them while they were preoccupied.
Ducking below windows and skirting bushes they made their way to the back of the house, pausing by the back door to listen again. He didn’t want the three of them to get the heads up and have the jump on him and Tinker when they opened the door. But all seemed just as quiet as before so he gripped the door handle and turned it fast and hard. He heard the crunch and knew that he’d torn out the latch.
Silently they entered. Red motioned for Tinker to head upstairs, where they’d heard someone flushing the toilet, and he was going to take whoever was watching TV. He’d let whoever was taking a nap come to them when he felt like it.
He rounded a corner and saw Big Dog, kicked back in a recliner, his eyes shut. An afternoon nap did sound relaxing, too bad Red was going to fuck his up.
Red straightened and walked quietly to the end of the leather chair, waiting for Big Dog to notice. He looked older, his white hair wispy and thin, his skin sagging and yellowed from years of cigarette smoke, his body a lumpy mass under an expensive looking plush blanket.
He nudged his foot when it didn’t seem like he was going to wake up with a fright any time in the near future. Big Dog didn’t even move. Red nudged him again, still nothing.
Irritated, Red grabbed him by the collar and hauled him out the chair. That woke him up.
“Huh? What the..”
“What the fuck indeed Big Dog.”
“Red,” he saw recognition and fear enter Big Dog’s eyes at the same time. “Hey man, good to see you,” he stuttered, his voice gruff from sleep.
“Yeah, I could say the same, but I won’t.”
Tinker came in dragging Trainz behind him, his hands tied with a drop cord.
“What the fuck is this about Red? And who is this big ugly fuck?” Trainz asked as Tinker jerked him forward, pushing him against the wall.
“I’m going to go get the other one,” Tinker said before heading back upstairs, Red nodded.
“I’ll wait until Tinker gets BillCo to explain what’s going to happen here. So while we wait how about you start telling me what the hell could convince you to turn traitor.”
Big Dog and Trainz exchanged a look and then Big Dog began the bullshit, just like Red had known he would. “You got this shit all wrong Red. I don’t know why you think we’ve done anything to consider us traitors but you can just forget that pile of shit. Ain’t one of us would betray the Club.” His voice was rife with indignant outrage, like a cheating husband explaining to his wife why his secretary just happened to be bobbing her head up and down under the desk. To be sure she was just looking for a dropped pen.
“Uh huh, well you tell me about it man. Tell me how you came to be living in a house like this,” he waved his hand indicating all the furniture that clearly hadn’t come from Lowe’s, the pictures on the wall that looked like they belonged in a museum, the shelves and shelves of leather bound books that lent the room a rich musky odor. “Tell me about it, and while you’re at it tell me about why you haven’t answered your phone, why your daughter thinks you’re on a fishing trip, why you haven’t made contact with a single person in the club the entire time you’ve been gone.”
“Son, I know it looks bad, but let me explain,” Big Dog put his hand up, as if to stop the flow of accusations from coming any closer to him.
“I’m waiting,” Red sat down on the coffee table as if he had all the time in the world, but the killing edge was still on him and he knew that everyone in the room could feel it.
“This one wanted to fight,” Tinker came back in the room holding BillCo by the scruff of his neck, the old mans grey hair in disarray and a bloody gash decorated his eyebrow.
“Sit him beside that one,” he motioned to Trainz, “and let him watch the show. It’s going to be a good one. So you were saying?” He turned back to Big Dog.
“Look, we got kidnapped by the Hellhound’s and then they gave us over to some dude who threw us in here and told us not to leave.”
Red whistled, “Jesus, you must be doing something right if this is your cell. The other’s got storage units,” his voice became deadly, “including
my daughter.”
“Ah Christ man, they took Morgan? Did you get her back?”
“I’ll pretend you don’t already know the answer to that. Yes, we got her back. While you and your two amigos over there were hiding out in this mini mansion, we shed blood to get her back. Her and Maria and Price.”
“I didn’t know I promise I didn’t know.”
“I don’t believe you, you lying sack of shit,” Red came up off the coffee table in an instant, his face close to Big Dog’s, “you did this, you betrayed us to the Hellhound’s. You plotted to have me murdered, you had my daughter locked up like an animal, and who the hell knows what balls you’ve had to lick to get here, but it doesn’t matter. You’re going to get to see the Reaper Moon to pay for these debts, and it’s going to be shinning for a long long time.”
“Watch out Red!”
Red turned his head toward Tinker’s voice, expecting to see Trainz or BillCo rushing him, but instead he got an insanely hard punch to the kidney from the other direction. He fell to the floor, unable to breath, but he rolled over in time to see who was attacking him and catch his foot before it landed a blow to the side.
Big, over muscled men in suits swarmed the room, five of them, all wearing a uniform of black pants and jacket with a white shirt, little cords coming from their ears. Who the fuck were these guys? The secret service? He sniffed the air. Humans. He wouldn’t have much trouble with these guys as long as the three traitors didn’t interfere. He readied his body to shift, feeling the energy building inside him until he was ready to burst.
But before he could complete the change the man who had punched him grabbed him and threw him into a wall. His focus lost, the change incomplete he laid there against the busted sheetrock wondering how the guy could be so strong.
“None of that shifty business now, just mind your manners and you won’t get hurt,” the large man said, not taking into account that Red probably already had a couple of broken ribs.
Red looked over to Tinker, hoping he was faring better, only to see him unconscious on the floor, three men talking over his prone body. The other one had pulled Big Dog to the side and was speaking to him quietly.
Two more men came through the door in the same uniform, pushing the prospects in front of them. Squint and Squirt looked terrified. Shit, they were only kids.
In a flash of movement he lunged from the wall directly at the man in front of him, intending to use his muscle and momentum to tear his head off of his body, but it felt like he was met with a brick wall.
The man grabbed him with annoyance and threw him back to the floor where he proceeded to rain vicious kicks all over his body. Red felt his leg break as it was stomped under an unforgiving shiny black shoe, he felt his shoulder crack, then his sternum. Thankfully the next kick was aimed at his head and he drifted into merciful unconsciousness.
Demon watched Sidney’s tail lights as they traveled down the winding old road. The lack of streetlights, white lines, or reflectors in the middle of the road made for almost perfect darkness. He made sure to stay far enough behind her so she wouldn’t hear his bike or notice his headlight while still keeping her mostly in sight. Having incredible night vision and hearing let him lag behind further than a human could, while still being able to keep track of her perfectly. She’d turned a few times and he had lost sight of her, but all he had to do was stop and turn off his bike for a moment and the sound of her Jeep roaring down the lonely road gave away which way she’d gone.
He didn’t feel bad about following her, he wasn’t some creepy dude with a peeping Tom fetish. He was just curious about what the witches might have to say about what had happened between them and he couldn’t be certain Sidney would share the information. So the obvious answer was to follow her and listen in on their conversation.
It was common knowledge that there were witches living in Three Rivers, other creatures too, but nobody paid them much attention. They didn’t cause problems and had actually helped out a time or two when the Dogs had a situation they couldn’t handle on their own. But where their meeting grounds were located wasn’t common knowledge. Demon didn’t know if they were actively keeping it a secret or if no one had thought to find out because there was no need to. Either way, after asking several of the guys if they knew where it was, he’d come up with nothing, so he’d decided that he’d have to speed through town and catch Sidney before she got away from him completely. Catching up with her in town had been a lot harder than keeping track of her on the old country roads. Thankfully she’d stopped to get coffee before she headed out and he’d spotted her Jeep at the little coffee shop on Main Street.
When he came to think of it, no one had ever known much about the witches. He knew that Bree was their leader, unless she’d died since he was a kid and someone had taken her place. He’d met her once when he’d been in the grocery store with his mother. He couldn’t have been more than five or six but he remembered her. She’d seemed older than anybody he’d ever seen before, but he’d been a kid so that could mean she’d been forty five. The thing that had made the meeting stand out in his mind had been how his mother had acted and what Bree had said to him.
His mother was always a laughing, she was just a genuinely happy person. And she was loud. But when Bree had walked up to her, on the canned soup aisle, she’d given her a quiet respect he’d never witnessed her give to anyone else. Bree had asked how the ‘boy’ was doing, that obviously meant Demon, and his mother had replied that he was doing well except that he seemed to have trouble fitting in. Then Bree had leaned down until she was eye level with him and said, “Don’t forget what you are, boy. Hold your head up, you’ll be needed and appreciated one day.”
Every time Red, or his father, looked at him like he was something lower than trash he’d remembered those words. A lot of good they’d done him.
Sidney turned off the paved road and onto an old dirt farm access road. He’d have to wait for her to get a ways down it before he followed. He turned his headlight off, because he really didn’t need it, but in pitch dark even the light from his brakes might be noticed.
He got to the dirt road, parked sideways, prepared to wait a few minutes. He heard her traveling over the ruts and bumps that were common on farm roads. At least she had a Jeep and wouldn’t get stuck. He’d have a hell of a time explaining why he was out there if he had to go help her push her car out of a muddy hole.
And she’d probably scream in his face that she didn’t need any help. She was a prickly one. But he wasn’t about to try to deny his attraction to her. Those curves, those full lips, those eyes that seemed like they wanted to bore right through him and snatch his soul. Nope. He wasn’t going to deny it at all. He also had to admit he liked watching her get angry. Those soul draining eyes would light up and she’d start blustering like, ‘Oh phooey, you’re such a mother-loving poop head.’ And Red, the stupid bastard, had thrown her away because she was a little bit witch. Just a little bit. Not even whole witch. Hell, Demon wasn’t going to discriminate. It seemed like the perfect time to swoop in and help her put together the pieces that Red had left behind. Man, he could only imagine the shit that would fly through Red when he found out. It would serve him right though, and Demon wasn’t even stealing, just taking what had been dropped on the ground for anyone to take.
That was, if he could convince her that he was what she needed, at least for a night or two. She didn’t seem to be too keen on him at the moment. But that didn’t mean much. Feelings changed.
“Are you going to let her get so far ahead of you that you’ll never catch her?” Veronica’s voice cut the dark like saw through granite.
“Do you think you could mind your own business for just a little while?”
“I don’t have any business. Remember? I’m a fucking ghost.”
“I’m getting real tired of your shit Veronica.”
“Oh, you know my name? I thought you thought it was ‘Bitch’.”
“It should be. Your poor m
isguided parent’s just weren’t able to see into the future and know what an absolute cunt you’d be. I’m surprised your creepy ass boyfriend didn’t kill you sooner.”
“Well your parent’s obviously read the tea leaves, because… because you fucking suck.”
Demon shook his head, “Stick with screeching and shit, your comebacks blow.”
He cranked up his bike and headed down the dirt road, more to stop listening to Veronica than because he was worried about losing Sids. There weren’t too many places to go back here unless they’d hidden a city behind the cotton fields.
The farm house came into view and he saw Sidney’s Jeep parked in front. Good, she was already in the house, he’d find a place close enough to listen in and see what he could find out.
He found the perfect spot in an old oak tree with a branch hanging at just the right angle for him to be able to see into the window and hear what was going on.
“Calm down Sidney, Jesus you’d think the man had molested you,” the tall dark skinned man said, he put his arm across Sidney’s should and guided her to the table. Demon didn’t like that guy putting his hands on Sids. He saw how well toned the shirtless man was and decided he didn’t like that guy at all.
“Well it was almost like he did, except I did too,” Sids seemed flustered.
“You molested him too?” a dour faced black clad waif of a girl asked.
“Look at her blushin’, I bet she wanted to,” the man said, “Oh damn. I see him. No wonder she wants to molest him.” Demon’s whole body jerked to attention. How the hell had he spotted him?
“You get out of my mind Cord!” Sidney said, her voice shrill. He relaxed, the guy was a mind reader. That was good to know. Demon slammed the shields up around his thoughts. “I don’t want to molest him. I want to… I want to… “
“That’s some X rated stuff floating through your head right now,” Cord sat a glass of sweet tea in front of her, “You need to cool your ass down, drink this.”
Dogs of War Episode 5 Page 4
