Rain Falls (6 page)

“She isn’t here,” Shady yelled and Freedom and Harmony looked at each other. “All of her shit is gone too.”

“Fuck,” Harmony said. “The guys are gonna be pissed. You know how they are about hearing shit from the horse’s mouth. They are gonna want to make her explain shit.”

“Yeah,” Abi said. “Our guys are the same, bunch of high maintenance little asses when they want to be.”

“Come on, sit down, we gotta sort some of this shit out. Nike, did you get the info we needed?” Shady asked. She had called her hours ago and asked her to gather as much info on Zane and Rain’s family as she could so they could talk about it.

Nike snorted, “Yeah like that was hard. I mean, I did dig some more, but damn all of them are on the front page of MSN, half the time in the worst dressed section. But only surface stuff, I need help to get down and dirty, one more pair of hands to cover my trail when I hack and I can get the real skinny.”

The women all chuckled and sat down in the large living area. “Before we start,” Chevy said, “I gotta say you all have a sweet setup. You think the guys will let us have a bar up here too?”

Abi rolled her eyes. “Bitch, we can decorate later. We got a lot of shit to talk about. New drama, and the rest of this stuff with the chicks who need a place to stay, we are gonna be spreading ourselves thin. Gotta get shit done. Now, where would she go?”

Shady and the others looked at each other and then Freedom said, “Slinging Ink.”

“We don’t have time to get her,” Rose said. “Our guys came with us, and they are with the others. They are going to want to talk to us about the other project, and if we withhold from them…”

“Fuck,” Shady snapped and turned to the Prospects. “Jas, Sadie, Tami, get a move on, take the truck, get to the shop, and bring her ass back here.”

The three young girls grinned. They were finally going to be trusted to do something now that their threat had been eliminated. Freedom had set up counseling for them already, that was part of their Prospecting chores.

They heard the thump of motorcycle boots on the stairs and all of them turned as Easy walked into the room. He had a serious look on his face and he said, “Church, now.”

Shady rolled her eyes. “Why?”

“Rain,” was all he said and the women sucked in a breath. Who had talked? None of them should have, that was their code. Chevy had announced it when they were on the road. ‘Hoes before Bros’ and they all had drank a shot of whiskey on it.

Easy crossed his arms and waited for a second until Freedom snapped at him. “Hey, get outta here, we will be down in a sec, you are interrupting our Church.”

Easy frowned. “The Pres called a meeting, nothing more important.”

“Well seeing how Shady is our Pres, you will have to excuse us until we have been given our orders,” Freedom shot back and her man raised an eyebrow and said.

“That’s one.”

“Yeah,” Freedom snapped, “say that to me tonight while you are sleeping on the couch.”

Easy glared at his woman, then turned and stomped down the steps.

“Yeah we need to get a handle on the guys or they’re just gonna run over us,” Abi snapped and all the women nodded.

“Yeah,” Shady sighed. “Gonna make a strong statement. Let’s go.”

Creed sat at the front of the table. The other Warriors sat in their spots, but an extension had been added for the Savages. Kink had already come in and explained everything he found out. The men were pissed. The mission could have gone better had they known more information, and Rain withholding was like a betrayal. And people who betrayed the club, well, they didn’t live to make the mistake a second time.

By the time the girls entered the room, the men had all but made up their minds. Even though Kink, Knight, and Charro had tried to convince them to give her the benefit of the doubt. However, they were adamant, mostly because of the people who had been hurt by Reyes, it had struck too close to home for all of them. The three men were sitting together with frowns on their faces and the others were glaring at them.

When Shady and the girls walked in, they looked directly at Kink. Shady said, “You assprick. This is Lady Riders’ business not Warrior/Savage business.”

Kink shook his head and said, “No, Shay, this is everyone’s business ‘cause it will affect us all.”

“Yeah, well I am the President of the Lady Riders, and you should have come to me to see what I was going to do before you came in here spouting your bullshit. I had it under control,” Shady snapped and the other women stood behind her and nodded.

Creed finally spoke, with Fork on his left, Tonto and Sandman on the other. “Shay, you know this is not just affecting you. This is gonna bring a shitstorm down on us as well. We didn’t get the main player, and now we find out it was probably Rain’s husband? She betrayed club, she has to go.”

“Hey,” Shady said and put her hands on her hips, “you don’t get to determine that, we do. She is a Lady Rider not a Warrior or a Savage.”

“When she lied she was none of that,” Fork said forcefully. “We can’t trust her to be in the clubhouse. I won’t put anyone here in danger, especially the women who we are going to be helping back on their feet. What the fuck is gonna happen if they come looking for them, Shay? Are you women gonna be the ones to protect them or are we? You know the answer.”

“Oh shit,” Slider said and put his head down. Cajun just grimaced and waited.

Shady, Abi, Chevy, and Harmony didn’t say a word, but all of them pulled a knife out of the back of their pants and threw them. Each of them landed right in front of the four leaders, inches from their chest, sticking straight up from the table. None of the men flinched, they just sat there, but a few of the others jumped back and yelled.

“What the fuck?” Maxi said.

“Not what the fuck, Max,” Shady said, never taking her eyes away from Creed’s. “This is serious as fuck. You will not sit us in a corner, pat us on the head, and think we are going to go and bake cookies and fucking sew shit. WE made the club because of who we are, and that is just like you, but since you Neanderthals don’t allow women in your clubs we made our own. Now, either you are gonna respect it or we are gone. I mean it, gone. Because you do not make decisions for my club, I do. So make your choice right now because I have some packing to do if we are leaving.”

Tonto shook his head. “Rose…”

“Oh hell no,” Rose said with a grim tone in her voice. “I am with Shady and the Lady Riders, where they go I go.”

“Dammit, Harmony,” Fork said and Harmony just laughed and shook her head.

“Don’t even try it.”

Easy smiled and said. “Free…”

“Yeah,” Freedom said sweetly.

“Come here, baby,” Poke said firmly.

“Fuck you,” Freedom said and put her hands on her hips. “Really, you thought I was going to be the weak link. Please, biotches.”

There was noise behind them and the door flew open with Rain being pushed in by Jas and the other Prospects.

Kink went to stand up but Knight and Charro beat him to it, went directly to Rain, and stood on either side of her. She looked up at them with a frown and then looked at the rest of the room and said, “No meeting, I am gone.” She went to turn and Shady said.

“Bitch, take one step outta this room and I will kick your ass myself.”

Rain froze and turned with a shocked look on her face. She could have taken that as a threat, but she knew Shady, and she wouldn’t have even spoken to her if she was going to kick her out. She would have let the guys take her and do with her what they wanted, instead, she told her to stay put, and so she looked forward, lifted her chin, and nodded.

“Now,” Shady said. “Here is how this is gonna go. We have already had our vote, and Rain is staying. We are going to deal with this shit like we did for Free, Harm, and the rest of us. Don’t care if you don’t want anything to do with it, don’t care what you have to say. You will be allowed to help if you choose to but will have no input on whatever plan we make, it is our club our rules. Now decide, do we still have a place here or do we leave.”

Rain sucked in a breath, what the fuck had happened before she got here. She could guess, by the looks around the room. The guys wanted her gone, and the women didn’t. All over her, dammit, she knew this was going to turn into a clusterfuck, and it had.

“By the way,” Kink stood and walked to where Rain was with the others. “I am speaking for myself only when I say, I am helping.”

“Charro and I are as well,” Knight said firmly and hooked a finger through her back belt loop while Charro did the same on the other side.
Okay, not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy
, she thought but didn’t say a word.

“Fuck,” Creed spit out and looked around the room. The guys were shifting uncomfortably in their chairs, they were asking them to go against their protective nature and allow the women to handle this. None of them wanted that. “You are part of the Warriors.”

“Yeah, we are.” Shady nodded. “Then treat us like it.”

“Hands,” Creed said loudly and everyone knew what it meant. They wanted a vote of the guys to see what everyone wanted to do. “For.”

Slowly the hands went up, but none of the women took their eyes off the President. Rain was the only one who did, and that was only because she was standing in the back of the room and could see everyone. She knew why the women didn’t do it, it would have shown weakness. She could because no one was looking at her. But she felt Kink, Charro, and Knight’s hands go up immediately but she didn’t turn to them. Instead, she waited and watched.

None of the leaders voted until the end. That was the way it was, because they could still veto it. “Against.”

No hands went in the air and Creed sighed loudly. “Tell us what you need, but we want the full story.”

Shady nodded and looked at Rain, “Rain?”

“What do you know?” she said hesitantly.

“What Kink told us?” Creed said and Rain nodded.

“Only missing two things,” she said and the men nodded.

“My given name is Storm Brenning and my father is General Rick Tang,” she said and Shady grinned because she knew that most of the men in the room knew her father and respected him. If they had thrown her out of the club, they would’ve been pissed later.

Zane sat back in his chair looking at the footage from the Reyes’ compound. Damn bikers, how the fuck had they become involved? Didn’t make any sense, even the background information he had didn’t add up. None of them should have known about Reyes, there was no connection.

“I need IDs on all these people,” Zane snapped at the woman sitting in the corner who was cowering already. She felt his rage, and knew when the boss was pissed, anything could happen.

He picked up the phone and called his lead guard. Z-Man was the best of the best. Handpicked by Zane over ten years ago, he had helped him get out of many messes and cover his tracks. Especially with his wife, although the bitch was out there, and he would never give up looking for her.

“We have a situation from the south,” Zane said. “We lost most of our shipment, and we can’t fill the orders we need to. Get some men together, we need to go hunting. Anywhere and everywhere they can, age is not an issue at this point.”

Z-Man snorted. “How many?”

“Fifteen to start, I will call the other houses and see what they have as well,” Zane said. “And I will have some people I want found. As soon as I identify them, I will let you know.”

“Who are they?” his man said.

“The bastards who cost me a fortune. I’m not sure who they are, but they will pay for it with their own blood if they have to,” he said and hung up the phone then picked it back up again.

“Find out if the authorities know about what happened over the border and if they have any information about me,” he snapped to his second-in-command.