ROUGHNECK: A DARK MOTORCYCLE CLUB ROMANCE (13 page)

T
hey rode
in pairs behind me. Ray sent some guys who’d done work for the prez before. They were called Crazy and Stitch and were twin brothers from somewhere up in Colorado. The other guy was James something or other. I’d seen him around before. I was confident that each could handle himself.

We headed up the back side of the mountain to get to the club. It took a little longer that way, but we’d be able to come in unnoticed. Nobody ever took the back way anymore.

The girl must be terrified. Those few seconds on the phone with her made it sound like hell. The line disconnected after the gun shot, but I knew she was still alive. I could feel it.

“Two more miles,” I yelled over my shoulder.

The brothers looked at each other. I’d been in my head so much that I’d forgotten they couldn’t hear me at the speed we were going.

I waggled two fingers by my side, instead. Each man nodded or returned the signal to show he understood.

There was a wide spot in the highway where I could give them their final instructions. My first inclination was to kick the door in and go at them with guns blazing. After calming down, I decided it would be smarter to use some discretion. There was no point in running into an ambush. They didn’t know when we were coming, but they were still expecting us.

It was torture to wait so long to make our move. I could only imagine what Addy was going through. But we couldn’t jump the gun. We needed the guys from the Drifters and it took a little while to round them up and get squared away. Plus, it was better to go in under the cover of darkness. It would go a little way toward negating their advantage.

The full moon lit the road well enough to see without the headlight. When we got to within a half of a mile, I cut the engine and started to coast. The other guys followed suit.

I rolled silently to a stop at our pre-determined meeting spot. It sat just outside the gate to the property.

“Right here,” I said. “We’re leaving the bikes. It’s on foot the rest of the way in.”

T
he guys followed close behind
. This wasn’t going to be some kind of covert operation. We were going through the front door; we just didn’t want them to be prepared.

The lot was littered with the bikes of the newer members. Sly and Dirty had been able to recruit some new blood quickly, but I’d heard that most of the old guard went with Preacher.

Preacher had been the VP for almost as long as Clancy ran the club. He was one of the good guys, and he was off managing what was left of my true brothers. They had numbers and wanted to help, but Preacher had put too much distance between us to be of any help tonight. He was putting together a little raiding party to take back the club and make Dirty pay for what they’d done to the Prez, but by the time he got here, Adeline might already be dead… Or worse.

I couldn’t wait around for backup.

I kept Jared close by. I knew I couldn’t control him, but at least I’d be able to keep an eye on what he was doing. The kid meant well, but I couldn’t have him fucking things up with Addy’s life on the line.

The grounds were silent. Most nights, music would be playing into the early hours. The club had always been about taking care of business and having a good time… These assholes had changed things the minute they put a bullet in Clancy. The whole place took on a more sinister atmosphere.

I gave each of the guys a last look and then pushed through the door. I was expecting a fight, but what greeted me on the other side stopped me in my tracks. The bikers sat around the long table in the center of the room. Apparently, we’d interrupted some kind of fucking meeting. Everybody on their end stirred and looked nervous except for Sly.

“Well, look at that,” he said above the crowd. “Roughneck, how nice of you to join us. I saved you a seat.”

“Cut the shit, Sly. Where’s the girl?”

“I don’t know. She’s around here somewhere. Looks like you brought the kid. Good work ‘neck. I knew you’d come through.”

Jared looked over at me with questions in his eyes, but his bullshit was going to have to wait.

“I’m not playing games. Get her out here
now
, or there’s about to be a problem,” I said.

“You worry too much,” he said. “Be patient, I think Dirty’s playing with her right now. But he’ll be done soon.”

“You son of a bitch. Where?”

He took a long pull from his beer. He was drinking the same awful craft brew that he demanded the girls always have on hand.

“How ‘bout you, kid… what do you have to say for yourself? How about you tell us about your little trip down to the fucking police station? What’d you tell those pigs?” he directed his attention toward Jared.

I braced for him to say something stupid. If he blew this thing, I’d kill him myself. Instead, he tilted his head toward me.

“Talk to ‘neck,” was all he said.

“You pussy,” spat Sly. “Can’t even own up to your own shit, can you?”

Jared didn’t take the bait.

A couple of guys I didn’t recognize got up from the table and started walking toward the back door. Not on my watch.

“Why don’t you boys sit the fuck down?” I said. “Let’s keep everybody right here… nice and calm.”

The paused to look at Sly.

“Unless, you want this thing to turn into a good old fashioned shoot out,” I cautioned.

Sly waved them back toward their seats.

“I’ll give you that,” said Sly. “But only because I want some information out of that little fucker.”

“I told you… bring Adeline out here and we can start to talk about what did or
didn’t
happen. Everybody can go their own way tonight without any harm done if things break right.”

That was a lie. The harm was already done when they took her. I didn’t know how or when, but I’d make every last one of those motherfuckers pay for touching her… And if I didn’t, Preacher and the rest of the true Fallen were coming down here soon enough to put an end to this little shit-show. Either way, the longer I could drag things out, the more intelligence I would be able to gather.

From what I could tell, they were all hands on deck. Except for Dirty. And that made my blood run cold. If he had her somewhere…

“And I told
you
,” said Sly, “Make that fuckin’ kid tell me what I want to know and you might see your bitch alive.”

There was nothing else I could do to break the stalemate, besides shooting up the place. But I wasn’t completely ready to do that until I knew she was out of harm’s way.

I gave Jared the go ahead to speak.

“What do you want to know?” he asked Sly. His voice was a lot stronger than I thought it would be. He was in this for real.

Sly took a look around his table. It seemed like he was trying to put his thoughts in order.

“Did you talk to the cops?” he said, finally.

Jared didn’t answer.

“Might as well tell me the truth, because we’re gonna kill your ass either way. It just depends on if we do it quick and painless, or if we do it slow. That’s up to you.”

“Don’t care about me,” said Jared. “Just want to make sure my sister is okay.”

Sly dropped his head into his hands and grumbled something under his breath.

“What is it with this bitch? Is she really worth this much trouble?”

I stared right into Sly’s dead eyes. I could feel Jared doing the same.

“Dirty will bring her out when he’s good and ready. In the meantime, we’ll settle this on skin.”

“Skin?” asked Jared.

“Skin, you dumb fuck. A handshake. That’s how we’ve been doing it for years.”

I didn’t like the sound of it, but there was a part of Sly that still believed in the old-school way of doing things. If he broke his word on a handshake, he’d run the risk of losing the respect of the others in the room.

“Roughneck, you come over here and shake. You give me your word you’ll leave the kid without a fight, and I’ll bring you the girl.”

He held his hand out, palm up in front of him.

I looked at Jared. He had a look of steely determination on his face.

“Do it,” he said. “I won’t fight.”

“You don’t have to do this, Ace,” I said. “We can figure a different way. Your sister won’t ever forgive me if something happens to you.”

“She won’t have a choice,” he said. “Tell her you couldn’t stop me. Figure something out, because this is on my shoulders and I’m finally gonna take care of it.”

There was no talking him out of it. I checked with the twins, who were standing behind us, to see what they thought. They were too focused on the other guys at the table. Each stood tense and ready, with his hand over his pistol.

James piped up from behind them.

“Let the man take care of his mess,” he said. “It’s his decision, not yours.”

Sly still held his hand out, firmly in front of him. He walked out from behind the table to meet me in the middle.

“Take care of it, ‘neck,” he said. “Let’s both get on with our own business. We don’t need that girl for a damn thing if you turn him over. You can be on your way to the honeymoon suite with here before the hour’s over.”

I wanted to wring the manipulative bastard’s neck. Even that would be too good for him.

It was no damn good, but it was the only choice I had if I wanted to make sure Adeline came out of this alive.

I started to walk slowly across the room. Men teetered on the edge on both sides. They had us outnumbered, but we had enough to do plenty of damage. Nobody wanted a gunfight inside the clubhouse. That’s the kind of shit that brought down the wrong kind of attention.

The slimy fuck smiled as I got closer. We stood face to face, his hand the only one outstretched between us.

“We make this deal, and you get Adeline. Now.”

“The second my boy puts some cuffs on him. You have my word.”

Jared didn’t need my prompt to get moving. He held his head high as he walked across enemy lines. I looked to him one last time before I stuck my hand out.

That’s when Sly grabbed it, pulled me close, and stuck the four-inch blade into my side.

“
H
ow far out are we
?”

I already knew the answer but I wanted to make sure all of the guys in the truck were on the same page. We had two tactical vehicles and a host of squad cars. There was no such thing as being “too careful” when you were dealing with The Fallen MC.

Robby “Dirty” Carlson and the other one called “Gopher” were our top targets, but there was no telling how many more we would pick up on warrants.

“Forty-five minutes,” shouted the young officer driving the rig.

“Everybody on board?” I shouted.

“Yes sir!”

Cejudo looked to me from the back seat.

“If he’s not there, our whole case is fucked. He’ll skip town quicker than shit if he knows we’re on to him.”

“He’ll be there,” I reassured him. “We had eyes on him going in, and his bike is still parked out front.”

“If you say so.”

Cejudo had gotten cold feet after the paperwork came through. He was in line to make supervisor and if this didn’t go to plan, it would hurt his record.

I couldn’t care less about that stuff. There were killers in the building, and the drugs they were bringing into the city were turning the place into a cesspool. They were either coming off the street tonight, or they weren’t coming at all. This was the best chance we had. Hit em while their pants are down with overwhelming force. Some called it overkill, but I’d spent the better part of my career investigating gang crimes and I knew that couldn’t be further from the truth. These guys hated the law and they would do anything to keep one of their own out from behind bars. This was going to get ugly.

“Did you see this other thing?” asked Cejudo. He was holding his cell phone out for me to see.

“What is it?”

“It looks like our guy is being investigated for a double-homicide back east. The FBI suspects him in the killing of two witnesses in a case last year.”

“Why am I just seeing this now?”

“I don’t know, but they want us to back off. They said if we don’t get him, it’s our asses on the firing line.”

“Pull over!” I yelled to the driver.

“Right here, sir?”

“Yes damnit, right here.”

Each vehicle came to a screeching stop behind the one in front of it.

“I took the phone and looked over the charges.”

Sure enough, the animal was the chief suspect in the killing of an elderly couple. He’d killed them execution-style in their own home. What a sick son of a bitch.

“Shit!”

“I’m calling this thing off,” yelled Cejudo. “Too risky until we talk to the FBI.”

“Now, hold on,” I said. “This doesn’t change anything. We’re working this guy for murder, too.”

“They want us to back off because they think they have a better chance of grabbing him. He doesn’t even know they have him tied to the other murders. They have a wire up, and they’re working a big case here…”

“That doesn’t matter. We follow what we have unless directly ordered to stand down.”

“Fine. I’m giving the order. We’re calling it.”

“You’re not the damn Lieutenant, Cejudo. We’re going forward with the arrest.”

It was too dark to see his face clearly, but I could tell he was giving me a death-stare.

“Let’s think about this, Dennis,” he said through gnashed teeth. “Better safe than sorry. We can always do this another day.”

“And how many people is he going to kill between now and then?”

“None,” he said, matter-of-factly. “We have plenty of eyes on him now. He can’t even jaywalk without us hearing about it.”

“I’ve got a feeling…”

“About what?” he was getting frustrated.

“I feeling like something big is happening tonight. The whole club is in that building, and the place is dead quiet.”

He shook his head in defeat.

“We’re going.”