Bloodmare (Chrome Horsemen MC, #1) (10 page)

"All of them have been accounted for?"

"One, Maximilian Rozzi, is currently in San Diego. He is probably unaware, but also not stolen from us. He will call on his return and we will place him with the most likely girl to fulfill his needs, just like the others."

Gabriel spun slowly in his chair. Antonio was infuriating, especially with his cultured, peaceful attitude toward everything, but he was valuable and skilled in his duties. "Where is she, Antonio?" Gabriel sighed, not really expecting an answer.

"In Chicago," he answered with a simple assuredness that was very upsetting to Gabriel.

"From where I am sitting right now, how far away is she?" Gabriel challenged.

"I would have to guess, but my guess is no more than ten miles."

"So close?"

"She is not running, Gabriel; she is quitting," Antonio explained calmly. "She is not even hiding. She has a new apartment, which she is currently decorating. She has a new job starting, but not as a call girl. I suspect something along the lines of a highly paid executive assistant somewhere downtown. She is skilled on the computer, knows finance, how to invest stocks with some skill, and is competent in understanding activities such as mergers, takeovers, and bankruptcy. It is, of course, possible that she is providing her new boss with sexual services, but I doubt it. She is done with that part of her life."

"She's not done!" Gabriel exploded. "She's mine!"

"Of course, but in her mind, this is not the case," Antonio clarified with peaceful assurance, as if Gabriel's wrath was merely a sweet summer breeze finding its way into the window.

Gabriel glared at him, "Which is why you believe she hasn't left the country or even the extended neighborhood."

"It's a nice neighborhood," Antonio pointed out. "I would like to point out, however, that her books are clean. She has no reason to come back and we have no grounds to hold her—not even within underworld guidelines."

Gabriel's fury rose to such a level that even Antonio showed a waiver of doubt in his eyes as Gabriel said, very calmly, "She is mine. There is no leaving. She comes back, intact, and I will re-train her so that she understands this. That is all the discussion on this matter I will allow. Is that clear?"

"Of course, Gabriel," Antonio said without a noticeable amount of concern, though it was likely he reviewed his current plan of genocide.

"Find her, Antonio. Find her and bring her to me," he told his enforcer.

Then his phone rang and when he checked the caller on the display, it was unknown. He drummed his fingers, but generally speaking, in his line of work, if someone had his number and called it, it was worth answering the call. So he hit speakerphone. "Hello?" Gabriel asked.

"Gabriel?"

"Speaking," he said and it almost clicked before she spoke again.

"This is Nicole, Gabriel."

"Where are you?"

"That's not what I'm calling about. I want to make sure you understand that I'm gone. That I'm done. I have a new life and I intend to leave the city soon. Even if you find me, I won't come back. I'll never perform the show again. I'm done. I didn't take anything and I owe you nothing. Goodbye, Gabriel."

Then the connection broke.

Gabriel stared at the phone unable to give names to the emotional turmoil rising inside of him. There were so many, though most could be categorized under the heading of
murderous
.

Antonio calmly rose and picked Gabriel's phone up from the desk. He checked the caller ID and wrote down the reported number for the last caller onto his note pad. Then he set the phone back down. "I'll have her back on her schedule in one hour, ready to meet a client in three," Antonio said with peaceful assurance. "Is there anything else you require right now?"

Gabriel looked at him, then to his phone, and then back to Antonio. The white noise of murderous rage began to subside, "No, that will be all."

"Then after this matter is handled, I will be off for my regular three days. Davis will be your contact. He's a good man."

Gabriel nodded. Davis was a good man. "He might do well as a bodyguard for Nicole on her return, don’t you think? She is obviously so naïve; she is a danger to herself. I want to ensure nothing happens to her, Antonio. She is very profitable and must be able to work."

"Of course and I'll let Davis know of his... reassignment."

"Be sure to tell him that it is temporary and that he will be replaced and returned to his normal duties as soon as we can find someone suitable. Also assure him that his pay remains the same with normal commission considerations. I don't want him thinking he just got demoted."

"You are very generous," Antonio suggested.

"Yes,” he mused, examining this unprofitable corruption of his personality, “it appears that I am."

"I'll also get a new driver," Antonio reported as he walked for the door.

"The last one was very good from all reports. Perhaps you can locate him again."

"He has already moved onto another situation. He's into drug running now, I believe."

"That's a shame. I should give some thought to driver incentives for when we come across men of his caliber. Nicole told me his skills actually were the main reason she was able to salvage a high paying new client."

"I'm aware of the story, yes. It was admirably handled. Even the client was impressed," Antonio agreed.

"Goodnight, Antonio."

"Goodnight."

CHAPTER ONE

C
ole pulled his bike into his drive, clicking the garage door opener attached to his handlebars and watched blankly as the door began to ascend. The Lowrider purred, sounding good. He would take it in for a tune tomorrow anyway. He just completed a run down to St. Louis, out to Kansas City, then up to Des Moines. This completed the schedule, so back to Chicago he rode. To date, that was the longest planned ride of his experience and he loved the journey, but he was glad to be home. He missed Nicole more than he could stand and spent an embarrassing amount of time talking to her on the cellphone.

Nicole came bouncing out of the house, running up to meet him with a smile on her lips and sex in her hungry eyes. She squeaked with glee and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him across his face and then narrowing down to his lips.

"Holy shit I missed you, baby!" she exclaimed breathlessly. "I'm so glad you are back. Are you back? Do you have to go anywhere else tonight?"

"All done. Let me get the bike into the garage and check her over. Then I'll come inside."

She nodded happily, "I'll get dinner started and some beers out."

"Make mine a Coke. I need the caffeine," he requested.

"I visited with Angie today and she gave me a bit of a pick-me-up. Want some? Wake you up?" she asked.

"It will wake me up and put my dick in the dirt. Can't maintain erections on that stuff, but I'll give you good pillow talk," he offered.

"Never mind. I don't know anything about crystal. Haven't seen any for years in fact. Not even sure what it is, now that I think about it. So, a Coke? Cause I am very horny, lover. I have no idea what the fuck you did to me, but for a gal who use to think she thought about sex all the time, I'm seriously thinking about sex
all the time
," she pouted. "Only now it is all about how I'm not getting any because my lover is in fucking St. Louis."

"So, you did a bit of that crystal I take it," Cole decided.

Nicole bit her lip, "I'll get dinner."

"Good idea."

She tossed her hair into a shower of gold as she spun and skipped back toward the front door. Cole watched her with warm amusement and then he pulled the bike inside, hitting the switch to close the door behind him. He checked the bike over—oil, air, belt, and tires. Then he leaned back against his tool bench and let exhaustion fall down on him. It was a good and profitable trip, but perhaps not the thing for him. Still, he made more money this week than he ever made in the same amount of time while doing something he loved to do.

His eyes suddenly focused and he realized that he had been dozing. "Might as well do some crystal. Not going to be much use to her anyway," he muttered, and went out the side door, and into the back door of the house, walking a tired but content stride through the kitchen looking for his lover.

She was at the front door and from her posture he could tell she was seriously scared.

"I called him, Antonio. I made it very clear." She was saying.

Cole then heard a professionally calm voice say, "Yes, I was there. It was quite amusing, Nicole, but unfortunately there is no
out
. You have a client tonight, in three hours. We need to get you there. Brian is your new driver; he’s in the car and this is Davis, who will be your bodyguard. We are very concerned about you right now. You are not making healthy decisions. So we are taking on a bodyguard's expense to ensure that you are safe, even from yourself. Now, do you have things you would like us to gather up for you?"

Cole knew Antonio and Davis. Brian, he dearly hoped wasn't a Chrome Horsemen, or this was going to get ugly and very difficult to explain. Antonio was the most dangerous. He was brutal and as skilled in close quarter combat as they come. His history boasted over thirty years of serious experience and when a man is an enforcer for the mob for thirty years, you don't take him lightly. He is a man who made it a habit to stay alive while making other men dead.

Davis was a monster. He was nearly as tall as Cole's six-four, but outweighed Cole by at least sixty pounds. Cole didn't know him well, but he had the reputation of being a knife man. So far, no one noticed him in the house and he made sure they wouldn't by changing his course as he came up behind Nicole, drawing his weapon.

They weren't going to take no for an answer, so he wasn't going to bother asking the question. Against a superior enemy, which he was, ambush is an acceptable and effective tactic. He just reached the position he wanted to be in when Nicole shouted "No! Don't touch me!"

"This is will hurt if you do not come," Antonio told her in his eerie calm voice.

Cole located the position of Antonio’s voice on the other side of the door and fired at mid-height three times, then adjusted his aim to near the door jam area, across the portal, where he figured the bodyguard would be and sent four rapid shots into the wall, blowing apart the jam and splintering just about everything in the area.

Then he grabbed Nicole by her shoulder and spun her hard, sending her back into the house and flying for the couch while keeping his aim on the door area as he did. He heard her thump into the couch cushions just as the door was slammed, sending it flying on its hinges to crash into the entry wall, but by that time Cole was pulling the trigger. He fired, adjusting his aim as information presented itself.

The first face he saw was Davis, who had his gun out, but was looking the other direction—a fatal mistake. Cole calmly fired two slugs into Davis’ head, then swiftly adjusted his aim again as he spun on his knees, going as low as he was able to without losing balance while pulling the trigger on Antonio four times, going for center mass.

Cole's gun clicked empty, but instead of going for the extra clip in his jacket, he hurtled it at the surprised Antonio's face while sprinting forward as fast as he could. Cole caught the corpse of Davis as it slid down the doorjamb and removed Davis' gun from his dead hand in time to see another man running up the walk outside from the waiting limo. The new man had a gun in each hand. Keeping the stunned and dying Antonio between himself and the other man, Cole called out, "Horseman!"

The man stopped. "Chrome Horsemen?"

"Yes!" Cole replied making sure the man heard him. But staying out of direct line of fire.

"Cole? Shit! Is that you, Cole?"

"Yes! I don't want to kill you man, but I will. I'm in no gaming mood."

The man put his guns away and lifted his hands, "No, not between brothers man. What do you need?"

"I need to get to the clubhouse, fast. Myself and one other. And I need you not to know where we went. You're going to catch flack for this, Brian."

"Not from anyone important," Brian told him. "I'll make some calls, get riders to meet us on the way. I would advise moving now and not taking anything with you except what you need for survival. We'll buy everything else. Get on your bike and ride. I'll follow in the limo."

"Got it," Cole agreed, very relieved.

He didn't know Brian by name, but he recognized him now. He was one of the new guys, just came in to patch-holder status less than three months ago. That Brian was on the security teams list already strongly suggested he had hardcore experience and top of the line training. Cole was happy not to have gone up against a man with credentials obviously much better than his own, especially in a fair fight.

Antonio collapsed.

Cole looked down at him and saw no life in the enforcer's eyes. "Fucking tough son-of-a-bitch," Cole hissed and put Davis' .45 under his belt in the front of his pants, then retrieved his own weapon and reloaded.