Exquisite Karma (Iron Horse MC Book 4) (12 page)

My breath came out in soft huffs as I reached the old tree that had been struck by lightning without any alarm going up behind me at my disappearance. A dozen steps to the north of the burned wood brought me to a thicket of bushes that held my means of escape.

As I uncovered the ATV that would lead to a safe house with a car nearby, I prayed to God in all his divine glory to watch over Beach while I was gone, and help me keep my baby safe.

Carlos “Beach” Rodriguez

My neck itched, and I had to resist the urge to scratch it to allow the new tattoo going from the back of my neck to the middle of my throat time to heal. I’d gotten it the day after Sarah had left, almost two weeks ago, and prayed I’d be able to show it to her someday. For all I knew, she was already dead.

No, can’t fucking think about that. Thinking of my beautiful woman dead in a field somewhere, or captured, would lead to a madness I could not afford.

Every member of the Iron Horse MC was depending on me pulling our asses out of the fire and I couldn’t let them down, no matter how fucked up my head was about my old lady.

I stared at Sledge standing across from me in my big office at the clubhouse as he talked quietly with a group of brothers on the other side of the room. I absently noted the drywall needed to be replaced, again, after I’d punched some holes into it in an effort to channel the rage that tried to burn me alive into a non-lethal release. Sledge had played a big part in helping me hold my shit together. He’d really stepped up in the past few weeks, and he had Marley and her little boy on lockdown at his mother’s house, taking one big worry off my hands. Sarah loved Marley and her son Scottie, and we weren’t taking any chances with their safety by sending them back to Las Vegas.

A hollow pang hit me from deep inside my gut as, for just a moment, I imagined having to break the news to Marley that Sarah was dead, and I banished that evil thought.

No, my baby was strong, brilliant, and lethal—she could take care of herself. I just hated that my epic fuck up had sent her running.

Guilt swamped me as I recalled our last conversation, when she looked at me with cold, dead eyes and told me I’d betrayed her. In that moment, my stupid ass had known she would never fuck the club over and steal from us, but I’d been exhausted and my head had been filled with shit by a few brothers I was still pissed at. Not that I could blame them for their suspicions, after all, Billie was Sarah’s mother, but even when it looked like all the evidence pointed to Sarah, I should have known better, should have listened to Sledge and Thorn when they told me Sarah had no part in the heist. I’d been so fucking pissed that Sarah had lied to me about her past with Billie that I let that anger consume me. Instead of having my woman’s back like I swore I would, I fucked up and drove her away.

It was my fault she felt the need to go after her mother, that she felt like she had to prove herself. I was the one who’d betrayed
her
, who drove her to such a rash action, and it haunted me. She’d left me a note telling me she was going after the bitch, and reassuring me she’d make this right. That was it, no talk of where she was going, what she was going to be doing, or when she’d be back. If only she’d contact me, let me know she was okay, I’d tell her immediately how sorry I was for those terrible things I’d said. And I would spend the rest of my life making it up to her if she let me.

That is, if either of us made it out of this bullshit alive.

Darkness tried to overwhelm me and I swore the lights in the room dimmed as despair moved through me.

My phone rang, drawing me out of my fucked-up thoughts, and I saw that it was Smoke. He was watching Swan, Sarah’s twin sister, tonight down in Houston and kept me updated on her status. So far the people waiting for us to retrieve their merchandise had kept back, but their patience was wearing thin. And we weren’t the only ones looking for it. Word had gotten out about the value of the run and we had bounty hunters searching for it as well. Basically we were fucked six ways from Sunday, and I had to stay here in Austin and do everything I could to control the situation instead of going out and looking for Sarah.

I’d never regretted being president of the Iron Horse MC before, but the fact that my duties were keeping me here gnawed at my already shredded patience.

Standing, I answered the call while stretching out. It was late, after Swan’s shift at work had ended, and as usual Smoke was calling to update me on her day, which was usually spent inside her home. Sarah was right, Swan was a total recluse, and I knew bringing her into the club would be akin to torture for her. If—no,
when
Sarah came home, I didn’t want to greet her with a twin sister who had a psychological breakdown while she was gone.

More guilt added to my already overtaxed soul and my voice came out thick. “What’s up.”

“Swan’s gone,” Smoke spat out in a hurried rush. “Someone was fuckin’ with our bikes and I went out to deal with it. She went out a different exit and we didn’t notice until she’d left.”

“You have GPS on her car, right? Find her.”

“We did. Her car’s in the parking lot of a bar, but she’s not inside and no one’s seen her. Beach, a big group of Los Diablos was here earlier, but they cleared out before we arrived. They…they probably have her.”

“Fuck!” I shouted at the ceiling and dropped my phone before I started smashing it in a fit of rage.

Sledge scooped it up and talked to the phone while I strained to control myself, to not give in to the fury that wanted me to scorch the Earth.

I growled at Sledge, “How long has she been missing?”

He relayed the question to Smoke and responded with, “Not long, maybe an hour.”

“An hour? She was gone for a fuckin’ hour and no one fuckin’ noticed?”

Sledge didn’t bother to repeat that one, but his gaze shifted to mine as he listened to whatever Smoke was saying. “Right…right. Do it.”

After he hung up, he came over to me and grasped my shoulders, making me meet his gaze. “We’ll get her back.”

“Los Diablos.” I closed my eyes. “You know what they do to women.”

His grip on my shoulders tightened to the point of pain. “Breathe. Swan’s unique, they won’t physically harm her. Fucked up, but true—they won’t wanna damage the merchandise. We both know that to those flesh-peddling motherfuckers, a prize like her will fetch a big price, but only if she’s looking her best, which means they won’t hurt her.”

Hustler burst through the doorway of my office, his hazel eyes wide with shock. “I just got a phone call from Sarah.”

“What?” myself and just about every guy said at the same time, along with a couple “thank fucks”.

That made Hustler blink, then he continued. “She said she found Swan. She’s being held at a warehouse in Buda. I tried to get her to talk but all she would tell me was that she was okay, and where Swan was, and she let me know Los Diablos had her, then she hung up on me. The call came from a fuckin’ pay phone—no idea they still had those things—near Buda off the freeway.”

“Let’s go.”

“Prez,” Hustler began, “you sure it’s a good idea for you to go? Hate to say it, but could be a trap. We got no idea if someone was holdin’ a gun to her head to make her say those words.”

I gave him a look that let him know exactly how I felt about the situation and he blanched before nodding. “Right. Then let’s get this shit done.”

By the time we reached the warehouse, Smoke was already inside searching for Swan. It didn’t take long to secure the building, they only had four men on her, but I kept two of ’em alive for questioning and sent them back for interrogation with Hustler. The bastard was a master of fucking with a person’s head and could get the truth out of anyone…if he didn’t kill them doing it. My temper was threatening my self-control as I waited for Smoke to bring Swan up from wherever they were holding her. He said she was okay, but I needed to get a grip on myself before I met her for the first time.

Despite the utterly fucked-up circumstances of our meeting, I wanted us to get along. Sarah said her sister was hypersensitive to violence and angry men, so I needed to get my shit on lockdown. I sat on the edge of the desk that probably belonged to the foreman of this place before it got shut down and ran my finger through the thick dust coating the moisture-warped surface. I had hoped when we pulled up that, by some miracle, Sarah would be here, but she wasn’t. At least I knew she was alive. Hustler said the only thing she’d tell him was that she was safe and working on finding her mom. No mention of me, no message for me, and that shit stung.

Voices came from the hallway leading to the office and I took a deep breath then let it out in a rush as I got my first close-up look at Swan.

For one brief moment, my fucked-up brain thought I was looking at Sarah, and my entire body froze. Then her pale blue eyes met mine and I could instantly see the differences in the two women. Besides having hair down to her waist, Swan was a little curvier than her sister, and just as muscled, but her gaze and the way she held herself were entirely different.

There was a softness, an innocence about her that Sarah didn’t have, something that hinted at the kind of vulnerability that could draw a man in. Give him the urge to protect her and keep her safe. Smoke certainly seemed to feel protective over her. He stood close enough that his tall frame dwarfed her, a wall of muscle and leather at her back who would protect her with his last breath. My jaw clenched as I noted what looked a fuck of a lot like beard burn on her face from kissing someone with scruff, someone like Smoke.

Motherfucker.

I’d have to be deaf, blind, and dumb not to see that my Master at Arms was head over fuckin’ heels in love with Swan.

This could either be really good or really bad. A man like Smoke was a lot to handle and I didn’t know if putting Swan into his care would be too much for her. He was intense, used to women who knew the score, and if I had a sister, I’m not sure I’d want her with him. Swan seemed to be gravitating towards him now, but she needed a taste of his hot temper.

Perhaps
here
, where I could intervene if need be.

With that in mind, I mentioned what I’d learned so far from Hustler’s interrogations. It was indeed Los Diablos, they were going to sell her to the Russians, and as suspected, Smoke lost his fucking mind.

He roared and raged and threw shit, all while venting his anger in an epic display of pissed the fuck off. While he smashed a chair, I watched Swan, taking in her terrified expression.

I was about to end this shit show and take Swan home with me when something in her stance changed. Her shoulders straightened, she took a deep breath, and then displayed a rare inner strength as she visibly mastered her fear and proceeded to talk Smoke down.

The moment Smoke realized he’d scared the shit out of her, he let out a groan like he’d been shot—and chilled out in record time. I was actually shocked at how quickly he pulled his shit together, and the look that came over his face as he reassured Swan let me know he’d live and die to keep her safe. And the way she stared back at him with a sweet wonder made even a cynical bastard like me bite back a grin.

Good enough for me.

Still, I gave her a chance to make her own decision and wasn’t surprised when she grasped on to Smoke like a drowning victim. Then she got nervous and began to babble in a way that made me want to laugh for the first time since Sarah took off. Thank fuck my baby had somehow managed to save her sister. The thought of how close Los Diablos had come to destroying the sweet young woman now being gently dragged from the room by Smoke curled my stomach. Before they left, I let Swan know that she’d never have to worry about these particular dirtbag motherfuckers ever again.

I was gonna make an example of their deaths, vent my rage on them, and do what karma had put me here to do—balance the scales of vengeance.

Sarah

The hot summer sun beat down on me as I drove through the Texas Hill Country with the top down on my brand new Shelby Mustang. It was a beautiful opalescent white, and Beach had gotten it for me a month ago instead of the motorcycle I wanted. While Beach was liberal in many ways, for a biker, he was dead set against me ever riding a motorcycle without him. A woman belonged on the back of her man’s bike, in his narrow mind, and that was it.

I’d been pissed at the time, but now I’m glad I hadn’t learned how to ride a motorcycle while pregnant.

Just the thought of what could have happened sent a cold shiver down my spine, and I fought back the panic that was getting closer to the surface every day.

In an effort to calm myself, I switched the music from the hard rock I’d been listening to in an effort to stay awake, to something a little smoother.

When the soft strains of classical music spun through the air, I let my body ease into the soothing melody.

In the past three days I’d managed maybe nine hours of sleep, constantly on the move as I’d narrowly avoided being caught again and again. It was like as soon as I stopped moving, they’d catch up to me. So far I’d only caught a glimpse of them, but it was the same group of four men, all wearing dark clothes, all with dark hair, and all moving with the trained grace of professional killers. When they’d shown up at the first hotel I’d stayed at, I’d been lucky enough to have been on my way out, but I’d noted them as they’d strolled into the lobby of the hotel, looking completely out of place.

Then I saw them again a day later. I told the sympathetic receptionist at the front desk that my ex-boyfriend had been bothering me and I was staying in the hotel in the hopes he’d get the hint and leave me alone. She promised me if anyone came asking about me, she’d let me know. Sure enough, after I’d been there for less than five hours, they’d shown up again.

I never stuck around long enough to try to figure out who they were. Sure, Beach could have sent them to find me, but I had a feeling deep down in my gut they meant me harm. After all, I had a bounty on me that would tempt even a saint to kidnap me. I’d contacted old friends who’d informed me, with great sorrow, that some anonymous asshole had put a price on my head. They’d also told me that word on the street was someone had attempted to kidnap one of Sledge’s nieces from school, but had been thwarted by a pair of armed fucking soccer moms with big guns who’d been at the school and seen the attempted abduction. God bless Texas.

A broken laugh escaped me and I gave myself a mental slap, needing my brain to function before I arrived at my parents’ survivalist compound—aka, home.

It was the one place in the world I knew I’d be completely safe, and I needed a few days to rest up for the next leg of my journey and gather intelligence. That meant I’d have to talk to Stewart, the selfish fuck my sister had almost married.

Just the thought of that smug, arrogant little shit made me want to punch him in the face.

I had a special hate set aside for him because of what he’d done to Swan.

See, Stewart, the man who’d professed his undying love for my sweet, naïve sister, was gay. I knew this because I’d caught him having a threesome with two guys from the massive hippie compound on the other side of my parents’ place. For months I’d known something was wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on it until I watched with disgust as he got spit roasted at a hippy party. Just hours before he’d been at my house with Swan, watching a movie with her on the couch, as sweet as can be. The perfect boyfriend. Lying fuck.

As the smooth pavement rolled beneath my tires, I waved to one of the sentry cameras on my dad’s property and let out a deep breath. I didn’t care who was after me, there was no way in hell they were getting near my dad’s place without being eliminated. There were all kinds of nasty surprises, and back-up surprises, and back-up backup surprises waiting for anyone stupid enough to cross into my dad’s kingdom. Woe be the foolish mortal who took on the man some called, and not affectionately, “The God of War”.

Mike Anderson only sold weapons and information to causes he believed in, and his support was enough to have aided more than one rebel group, or government, overthrow the enemy. It was well known throughout the criminal underworld that Mike Anderson was a man you did not want to fuck around with.

Beach was the one who’d filled me in on that, and I hoped like hell he hadn’t told my parents that I was missing. If he had, I suspected they would have found me by now. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn they had a GPS chip implanted on my body somewhere. For real. Plus, Beach knew my father could very well go ballistic and take it out on the Iron Horse MC, which is the last thing he needed to deal with right now. My dad wasn’t exactly known for being sane, which meant I’d have to watch myself around him.

As I pulled into the large concrete circular drive before the first level of my parents’ fortress, a rather unassuming two-story, hacienda-style home, I could almost believe that this was just a normal house nestled in the most beautiful slice of Texas Hill Country I’d ever seen. Right now the land was green and lush thanks to weeks of rains that had helped ease the drought. Flowers bloomed everywhere and the goats bleated out as I turned off the car. Over the ticks of the cooling engine came the clucks of chickens somewhere in the distance, and I looked around for their emus, a recent—and weird—addition to the farm, but the corral was empty.

Before I could slide out of my car, the front door of my parents’ house burst open and Mimi, my beautiful stepmother, burst forth with her arms thrown wide and a huge smile on her face.

“Sarah!”

As graceful in four-inch heels as she was barefoot, Mimi quickly closed the distance between us, her faded denim skirt flaring about her long legs. As soon as she hugged me, I felt safe—and to my horror, began to cry. Mimi tried to pull away, but I clutched her closer and took in deep breaths of her familiar perfume.

“Honey, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Did you and Beach have a fight?”

“No, no, we’re good.” My stomach lurched and I curled my lips in disgust. “I think I might have the flu.”

“Oh, sweetheart.”

Mimi went into instant mothering mode, ushering me inside the fully furnished house that no one used, other than the massive kitchen, and down through the double blast doors and into our real home, below ground. I’d seen a few sketches of the colossal underground system my father had built, but it was hard to really comprehend how big it was. When I’d asked my dad, he’d given me a searching look before responding that our home was ten levels, with its own protected water and purified ventilation systems, and that it could house, feed, and keep safe over seventy-five people. Then he’d told me never to tell anyone about it. When I’d asked why, he simply asked me to try to think of which seventy-five people I would save…and what the rest of the world would do to make sure they were one of the seventy-five.

That had been a sobering thought for fifteen-year-old me.

After Mimi got me tucked into my bed, she smoothed the silky eggplant-purple comforter gently with one hand while smiling at me. “While I’m sorry you’re not feeling well, it’s good to see you. I wish you would have called and let us know; your dad is out on the range right now fixing a bunch of fencing that got torn down by a flash flood a few days ago.”

I sank into the softness of my pillows, the lighting turned down low enough that the overhead lights were just a soft amber glow. Mimi’s dark hair gleamed as she tossed it over her shoulder, studying me intently. I resisted the urge to squirm beneath her gaze, feeling like her laser mom sight could detect not only my pregnancy, but all the other shit I was currently in up to my neck.

“Have you lost weight?” She brushed my hair back from my cheek. “Or is it just this adorable new cut you’re sporting?”

I gave her a tired smile, exhaustion pulling at me, urging me to close my eyes. “Thanks, my hairstylist put a bunch of jagged layers in, says it’s the new thing to have.”

Laughing softly, Mimi ran her hand over my hair again, the stroking incredibly soothing. I have no idea what it is about a mother’s touch, but I swear it heals you when nothing else will. Her gentle petting put me to sleep before I knew it and I fell into a dreamless slumber.

I managed to sleep for fourteen hours before waking up and chowing down on some oatmeal with raisins. It was one of the few foods I could keep down and I even traveled with some instant stuff in my purse, just in case I needed to eat to stave off being sick. While trying to find my mother, I’d also spent a great deal of time researching being pregnant. At this point I was okay without seeing a doctor, but I’d have to go again in a few months to check on the baby. Hopefully by that time this shit would be over with.

Speaking of shit I wanted to get over with, Stewart sat stiffly on the other side of the room from me, neither of us saying a word. He was a handsome man, tall and blond with pretty-boy good looks that would land him a modeling contract in a heartbeat. From his sculpted lips to his chiseled jaw, he was perfect masculine beauty, and I could see how my sister would have been distracted by his good looks. But it wasn’t his looks that’d had Swan falling in love with him, it was his brains. Both Stewart and Swan were brilliant, and I’d often listened to them theorize about different things, inventions he was working on and weapons he was tinkering with.

See, much like my father, Stewart was an arms dealer, but a little different. While my father had nothing to do with the manufacturing process of weapons, Stewart was known in the criminal world for his customized toys. What a lot of people didn’t realize was that not only was Stewart a mechanical genius, he was a skilled hacker who had a thirst for knowledge, along with a curiosity to explore the forbidden that was likely to get him killed one day. Still, it was that curiosity I was counting on to get him to help me.

Mimi was out of earshot, and my dad was out on the range fixing fencing to keep our dairy cows from wandering off, but I knew I didn’t have much time, so I cut to the chase and laid everything out for Stewart, starting with, “I need your help.”

After I finished my slightly abbreviated version of events, Stewart stood and began to pace. “Where’s Swan?”

I wanted to snap at him that she was none of his fucking business, but I swallowed my anger and pride. “She’s safe with Iron Horse.”

His glare cut through me. “You really believe that? If what you say is true, Sarah, you’re already dead, you just don’t know it yet.”

My stomach lurched and I forced myself not to throw up, ignoring the burn in my throat. “I need to find my mom, Stewart. Please, please help me.”

“I don’t know what I can do.” He paced back and forth, his long legs eating up the flooring. “Jesus, Sarah…this is just so fucked.”

“I know.”

He froze. “Your dad knows what’s up?”

“No.”

“Why not? Shit, he can help you more than I ever could.”

“Because he’ll kill her, Stewart. Think about it.”

My whisper was full of shame and he stopped pacing. “Yeah…fuck. Fuck. Okay, first things first, you think someone is tracking you, right?”

“Yes.”

“What have you had with you this whole time?”

“Ummm, my purse, my car, my guns and some other stuff.”

“Your parents may get suspicious if your car disappears, so we’ll leave it here for now. But give me your phone.”

“Iron Horse has some badass tech guys on their payroll that make sure my phone is secure.”

“Still, I may find something they might have missed.”

“Fine.” I stood and stretched out, my back cracking before I went to my purse and got my phone. “Here.”

He took the sparkly purple phone with a raised brow.

“What?”

Shaking his head, he put the phone in his pocket. “If I show up here again your parents are going to suspect something. They know we don’t get along and the last thing I need is Mimi pissed at me. I happen to like my dick still attached to my body. If I find out anything, I’ll send Lyric.”

At the mention of the sweet girl who was one of my sister’s best friends, I smiled. “Thank you, Stewart. I know you have no reason to help me, so I owe you one, and I always pay my debts.”

He shook his head, a red flush coloring his high cheekbones. “Nah, we’re good. I…things didn’t end well between Swan and myself, as you well know, and I owe it to her to do this. You know, karma and all that mumbo-jumbo Mimi’s constantly talking about.”