“Check yerself, we gotta go deal with Boss and it might not be anything.”
He’s right. It might not be anything and she did promise me. Hannah wouldn’t go back on a promise she made me. Not on one as important as this. She’s probably at Brin’s place. One thing at a time. Boss first, then I’ll call Han. Taking a deep breath, I walk back out to the bar where Boss’s shooting the shit with Hero.
“Brother,” Duke starts. “Got some news and you ain’t gonna like it.”
“What now?” he asks.
Hero squints at me, asking ‘Now?’ without words, and I do a quick chin dip in return. He immediately shifts to ‘lockdown mode’.
Like ripping off a bandage, Duke gives it to him. “It ain’t Hannah got taken. It was Elise.”
“The fuck?” he roars, shooting up from the stool and it takes both me and Hero, especially me because of Hero’s injury, to keep him seated. “Let me go. I’m gonna kill a fucker. Fuckin’ let me go!”
“Stop,” I demand.
“Get your fuckin’ hands off me.” He struggles against our hold and given the size of him, I’m not sure either Hero or I got it in us to keep him down for long. “I gotta get to my wife,” he shouts. “My boy?” he asks and damn, if that word doesn’t crack.
“No. Your boy’s safe,” I say.
He struggles to throw us off, but we keep hold. “You can’t do anything with that injury,” Hero says. “Sit down.”
“Fuck you. You were willin’ to fight me over sayin’ the Brown women didn’t belong at the club. You’d be the same way.”
“Listen, I get it.”
“No, you don’t,” Boss argues.
“The fuck I don’t. We haven’t told a lot of people, but Brin and I are getting married. She’s carrying my kid. So I do get it. But you’re injured. What do you think you’ll accomplish going off halfcocked in your condition?”
“He’s got a point, Boss,” I add. “We need to plan. You need to heal. We’ll get her. Blue and Scotch can get on calling up other Lords chapters and any allies the club has. Let’s go back to your room so we can discuss this in private.”
I need to get him back to his room because there’s blood seeping through his jeans. I think he ripped open his stiches when he shot up off the stool. Hero sees too and looks to me, nodding before taking off to find Hatchet.
Boss leans his weight into me while I help him back to the room they’ve set up for him. A few minutes later, I’ve got a semi-calm Boss lying on the bed with his back propped up against the headboard when Hero and Hatchet walk in.
“Tore your damn stitches,” he says after giving Boss an examination. “Let me fix this.” Then he sets to work sewing up the wound where Boss reinjured himself. Asshole. I get it, but he’s still an asshole.
The brothers who are left converge in Boss’s room. When we tell Blue and Scotch what’s happened and what we need them to do, they’re on it. Duke orders us to stay here at the Missouri compound until we make contact with the other chapters and allies. Then we’ll set up a meet to take the plan further. If Escalante’s people have Elise, they certainly don’t have her in Illinois, so where have they’ve taken her?
We put in a call to Tommy Doyle.
“Already on it,” he tells us all over the speaker phone. “Caity got pics of the car and plate. We’re tracing it. When I got enough to give you, I’ll give it.”
“She got plates?” Boss asks.
“Yeah. It’s a Texas plate. But, Boss, let me do my job here first. I promise, I get better than Texas, I’ll tell you.”
Boss agrees, although we can all see he’s not really agreeing. What he’s going to do is cause us problems, I feel it.
“Thanks, Tommy,” Duke says.
“No problem. I’ll be in touch.” Then he ends the call.
I move away from the group to give my woman a quick call and she doesn’t fucking answer the call. She better be passed out asleep with her sister, exhaustion taking over after the trauma of the day or some shit.
“Duke, Hannah’s not answering her phone,” I tell him. “Time to give Boss the rest because I gotta find out if my woman’s done something stupid.”
“What the hell you talkin’ about?” Boss shouts. “The rest of what?”
“The man who took Elise,” Hero answers for us.
Boss twists on the bed to glare at Duke, his face growing redder by the second. “Who the hell’s got my wife?” he bellows even louder than before. A feat I didn’t know was possible.
“Carlos Escalante.” The words hardly leave my mouth when the room goes wired. Boss is a star gone supernova collapsing in on itself, sucking all the air from the room. Now were just waiting for the massive explosion to level us all.
We brace, but then, Boss does something completely unexpected. “Someone get my boy on the line,” he says. “I need to hear my boy.”
Right. Get his boy. I pull my phone to do that, but Hero beats me to it, calling back home. Escalante couldn’t have picked a worse time to go after Hannah with all our injured men. Duke takes the cell from Hero pressing speaker in order for us all to hear.
It rings twice. He’s calling Badger, one of the men we left back home. “Whatcha need, brother?” he asks.
“It’s Duke,” Our president answers. “We’re officially puttin’ the club on lockdown. It’s bad out here. Women don’t leave at all, got me?”
“Do you want us to go looking for ’em? I ain’t seen a woman around here in a while.”
“The fuck?” Duke barks. “All the women or just Hannah?” he asks, turning his scowl at me. Like I could control Hannah’s movements. I hardly had the time to make her my old lady before being drawn into this shit.
“None of ’em,” Badger replies.
“Shit,” Duke grumbles. “Where’s Benedict? He was supposed to be on my woman.”
“He come runnin’ into the club, packed his shit and raced out. Ain’t heard from him since.”
I huff out a suffering breath and press my palms to my eyes, hoping to stave off the headache I feel coming on. We all know what Badger’s not saying.
Duke hangs up with him and looks to us. “Get to Texas. Now.”
7.
Hannah
We have to find out if Tommy knows anything yet. “Take me to the office,” Maryanne suggests. “It’ll be on his computer. If he types it on the laptop in his cruiser, it automatically updates to his desktop.”
How the hell are we supposed to get to Tommy’s office inside the Thornbriar P.D? I don’t have to ask the question. Maryanne already knows what we’re thinking. “Leave it to me,” she says. “Just get us there.”
I order Maryanne to shoot off a quick text to Brighton in Frankie’s truck following behind us, letting them in on this leg of the plan.
We take a detour to include a stop at T.P.D. and I can’t help it, I suck in a breath and say a quick prayer that whatever scheme Maryanne has worked out in her head, it works. Elise is losing time. The longer they have her, the better the chance of them slipping over the border with her and if that happens, we’re screwed.
“All right, girls, I’m going to need all of you as a distraction,” Maryanne orders.
We file out of both trucks to follow her inside the building. Police officers are on high alert. The woman behind the desk greets Maryanne. “Tommy’s out on business, hon,” she says. “Don’t know when he’ll be back.”
“I know. I need to drop something in his office.”
“Go on back, but be quick,” she says. And since I’m the closest one standing next to Maryanne, she snags my arm to take me with her.
The other women begin a bombardment of questions concerning Elise and her kidnapping at anyone and everyone they see. They know exactly what to do without Maryanne having to explain it. Once we get back to Tommy’s office, Maryanne fishes a set of keys out of her purse, flipping through them until she reaches the one she needs.
“Tommy gave me his spare set for safe keeping,” she say
s. “I’ve come down here on several occasions when he’s working late to bring him dinner or whatever.” She unlocks the door then ushers me inside in front of her. “Now, your job is to stand up against that door so no one can get in while I’m working.”
“I can do that.”
While she fires up his desktop, I press my body against the door. She types in his password when the screen comes up and waits for the page she wants to load.
“Are you supposed to have his password?” I whisper.
“No. He’s not as discreet as he thinks he is,” she answers. And I can’t help it, despite the dire situation we’re in, I chuckle—low so as not to be heard through the door, but I chuckle.
She knows exactly what she’s doing, too. Knows all the places to type.
“Tommy works from home a lot,” she says. It’s eerie how the woman can answer my unspoken questions.
I let her do her thing. She grabs a notepad sitting by the keyboard and a pen to jot down pertinent information for us. Maryanne seems to be getting quite a bit of information. It’s scary how good she is. I’m glad she’s on our team.
In the hall I hear boots getting closer. “Maryanne,” I whisper. “Someone’s getting close.”
“Just give me a few more minutes.”
“I don’t know if we have a few more minutes,” I reply as I press my back against the door with more force. The boots walk past Tommy’s door and I let down my guard. I shouldn’t have let down my guard. Almost before I have time to react, the doorknob begins to twist.
I grip it and make sure we flipped the lock when we got in here.
“Maryanne?” It’s the voice of the woman at the desk. “Are you still in here? I didn’t see you come out. I’m gonna get in ten kinds of trouble here.”
We keep quiet as church mice. Isn’t that how the saying goes? Well, that’s us. The knob rattling continues until it stops abruptly and we hear her mumble. “I guess I missed you then.”
That was way too close.
“C’mon. We gotta go.” I urge my friend to get a move on.
Maryanne closes down the computer. We shut off the lights and I unlock the door. We poke our heads out to make sure the hallway is clear then slip out, lock the door back up, and try to make our way back to the reception area without being seen.
The woman who’d been looking for Maryanne isn’t behind the desk when we get to the rest of our group. We take advantage of the busy office and sneak out. We meet back at the trucks and decide what to do next.
“I found quite a bit,” Maryanne says. “Let’s find someplace to go so we can make a solid plan.”
“That truck stop outside town?” Caitlin suggests.
“We’ll meet you there,” says Frankie. Then we all climb back into the two trucks and head in the direction of the truck stop about three miles outside of town. It only takes a couple minutes to make the drive. We pull in more toward the back of the lot just in case any of the brothers pass by and recognize our trucks.
Heads turn when our large group of women file in. Caitlin points out out the biggest booth closest to the restrooms. The lot of us make our way there to sit. The waitress comes to take our drink orders. After she leaves, we get to work.
“Okay,” Maryanne says. “They’ve tracked the plate heading west. It looks like they’re heading for Illinois. So that’s the direction we need to head.”
She stops herself from saying more when the waitress brings our drinks and asks if we’re going to order. I’m not particularly hungry, but once we get on the road, there won’t be time to stop and eat. I order scrambled eggs and waffles. The other women put in their orders and once we’re alone again, we get back down to work.
Brinley pulls up a map on her phone. “If they cross over into Illinois, there’s a Riot compound here.” She points her finger to the spot. “I had to go there with Dad a few times. Disgusting place.” Then she moves her finger just over the border to Missouri. “But there’s a large Lords chapter here.” She places her finger on another spot. “I don’t think this guy is getting anywhere near Missouri. So best guess, he’s making a trip south.”
That’s a good point. I’ve visited with the Missouri men on several occasions over the years when they’ve showed up for rally events or passing through. “What route do you think they’ll take then?” I ask.
She draws her finger down the map. “My opinion, he’s gonna cross into Tennessee and keep going south to cross over into Arkansas around Memphis. If he’s trying to head back to Texas, it’s the best route to get him free of the Lords.”
“I’m amazed you know so much about club locations,” Liv says. “I was raised with the Lords and I don’t know as much as you.”
“My dad used to drag me along for his business. I’m willing to bet your Lords weren’t in the same business as the Pythons. They got into some nasty shit and so needed to know how to avoid the clubs they didn’t have alliances with.”
I’m simultaneously proud of my sister and saddened that I left her to deal with that for most of her life. I should’ve taken her with me. I—
“Don’t,” Brin says, reading me the way only she and Blood have ever been able to do. The other women look at her, but she’s looking right at me. “You had to do what you had to do to survive. I don’t blame you, so you don’t blame you. We got out.”
I hear what she’s saying, but I still don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive myself. Instead of arguing, I simply answer, “Yeah.”
That seems to appease her for now.
Our food arrives and the lot of us tuck in, not taking any more time to gab. We have to eat and get the hell out of town before we’re discovered by the brothers.
When we’re finished each of us pays our bills and then, again looking to see if the coast is clear, jog to the trucks. This has to work. It has to.
Before we go, we make a quick stop to drop Maryanne back at her place. It’s a risk heading back into town and it’s no secret how badly Maryanne wants to get her best friend back, but she’s also eight months pregnant. We don’t know what we’re going to face, we can’t put her unborn baby in harms way. No matter how much she protests. And she protests, right up until Caitlin and I drag her from the truck up into her house. That done, we commence with Operation: Find Elise.
Thankfully, with Brinley’s beautiful mind putting the pieces together, we take the interstate south to cross over into Tennessee. Best to get out of the state as quickly as possible. The brothers won’t expect us to leave the state.
We’re only about ten miles into our trip when the first ‘holy shit’ moment happens. The truck we’re riding in is literally forced off the road by a Horde. What are we supposed to do? Caitlin shuts the engine off and reaches across the seat to open the glovebox. She pulls out a Baby Glock and holy shit! The woman is packing some heat.
She opens her door as she unbuckles and hops out, pointing her weapon at the approaching man. The other women jump out too and holy double shit, Liv’s brandishing her piece, too.
“It’d be in your best interest to step away,” Caitlin says.
The man puts his hands up in front of him in one of those quintessential man-placating-a-woman gestures. “No need for violence,” he says. The nerve of this guy. He’s a Horde, for god’s sake. “Frankie, what the fuck you doing out here? Heard one of ya was kidnapped. Your ass should be home.”
All our heads whip to Frankie. She knows a Horde? How does she know a Horde?
“Vlad,” she says. “We have to go. Our girl Elise was nabbed by a really bad man. We have to get her back before they get her over the border.”
“Go home,” he orders. Then he looks at Caitlin. “Know who you are,” he says. “Got a feeling your husband’d be pissed you keep this up.”
“My husband doesn’t have to know yet and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll let us pass and keep your mouth shut.”
Uh—wow. Dr. Caitlin Brennan-Ellis badass biker bitch extraordinaire. I’ve never seen this
side of her. I like it.
“Can’t do that. I know the kind of guy who took your friend. That kind of man has no problem hurting anyone who gets in his way.” Then he looks to Maryanne. “That includes pregnant women. Now, go home. Let the men handle it.”
Oh fuck that. We aren’t helpless little nothings.
“Since that’s not happening,” Frankie says, “we’re going with Option B. That’s where we get back in our trucks and go save our friend.”
The man—Vlad, Frankie said, and it’s on his cut—runs his hands over his face. Apparently, he’s had enough of dealing with exasperating women. Tough.
“Fuck,” he says, looking at the pavement and shaking his head the way one does when coming to a decision. When he looks up, I realize just how ridiculously good-looking the man is with all that luscious olive skin covering those sexy cut cheekbones and angled jaw, dark hair and eyes so dark they’re almost black. Everything about the man could be considered dark. He’s completely opposite Raif, yet it all works for him. I’ll bet it works for him on a regular basis. I swallow hard. If I weren’t in love with Raif and he wasn’t a Horde—no. Bad Hannah. We don’t think Horde are sexy. “Fine. But I’m coming with you. Not having your deaths weighing on my conscience.”
Excuse me?
8.
Raif
Hero and I left the Missouri compound about an hour ago, heading to the meet with our allies down Arkansas way. We’ve got Lords chapters coming in from every corner of the country; the other Advocate chapters are on their way. We’ve even got the Hellraisers and the Sons of Sin, then it’ll be whoever else Scotch can get ahold of who’s close enough to help out.
We had to handcuff Boss to the bed to keep his ass down and when he yanked hard enough to crack the headboard, Hatchet sedated him. I know he’s scared. That’s his wife. But he’s more of a liability to us in his condition. We need everyone on their game or Elise doesn’t stand a shot in hell of getting out of this unscathed.
Blood Revealed (Brimstone Lords MC Book 6) Page 10
