Shot to Hell (Four Horsemen MC #7) (5 page)

Justice had a disapproving tone, but Ash nodded anyway. She didn’t like the title, but she couldn’t deny the truth of it.

“Doing what?”

“None of your fucking business,
Jack
.”

“The name’s Steele, and it’s the only one I’ll answer to.” A muscle bulged in his jaw. “Now what the fuck were you doin’ in the house?”

“Lookin’ for buried treasure.”

“Dusty….”

“Don’t call me Dusty.” In middle school, he’d given her the pet name long before either of them had any real experience with death—a
shes to ashes, dust to dust.

“When did you join a biker gang? Last time I saw your sorry ass, you were still a Marine.”

“I think you mean motorcycle
club
, and what makes you think I joined one?”

“The location, the stupid nicknames…Justice, Steele.  Not to mention your tats. Are you Raptors?”

“Fuck, no,” they said in unison, feathers ruffled like two wet hens.

Interesting.
They obviously didn’t like the Raptors, which might prove useful. “Then which
biker gang
are you members of? I know you weren’t hangin’ around this dump for shits and giggles.”

“Who are you working for?” Steele stepped closer.

“I told you. Cole Security.”

“Yeah, I heard, but who are you
contracted
to work for?” Steele asked. Then he and Justice exchanged a sly look.

She might as well give it up. This pissing contest was going nowhere. “The Drug Enforcement Agency.”

Justice frowned. “The DEA is using mercs? What the fuck? Don’t they gotta whole cadre of government employees?”

“Yeah, but those boys gotta obey so many pesky rules. I don’t.”

Being an independent contractor meant very few rules and no legal hang-ups. Ash didn’t require any red tape like search warrants, and she didn’t work with local law enforcement either. The bad guys she hunted down lived outside the protection of the legal system, so it all worked out real nice. She didn’t feel a bit sorry for the dealers or worry much about their so-called rights. And the pay wasn’t half bad either.

“No, it’s sort of like being a bounty hunter. I get bonuses for accurate information leading to arrests, but I’m not involved in the actual arresting most of the time. Now it’s your turn. Who do you work for?”

“So as a merc, you work outside the scope of the system.” Steele cocked his head to the side.

She gritted her teeth.  “Yeah. So what?”

Justice gave her a once-over in a non-sexual way, as though sizing her up. “And you’re huntin’ the Raptors?”

Ash raised her chin. “Yeah, what’s it to you?”

They both grinned evil, like twin jack-o-lanterns on a fall front porch.

“We’re members of the Four Horsemen MC.” Justice acted like it was something to be proud of.

“How’d you like to be partners?” Steele asked.

Partners with Steele and his criminal buddies?

“I’d rather light myself on fire.”
Ash turned on her heel and headed for her Forrester.

“You haven’t even heard us out.” Steele followed her to an SUV she’d stashed behind the house in a copse of trees while Justice trailed them, still letting his brother do all the talking.  

“Don’t need to.” She opened the door and grabbed a couple of napkins from the console. Ash spread them over the seat so her stained ass didn’t make the upholstery a gummy mess.

Before she could climb up, Steele snagged her arm. She fixed him with a glare.

“Why you workin’ a dangerous mission like this without a partner?”

“I work alone. Now get out of my face.”

Ash did everything alone these days. The higher-ups at Cole had offered her all sorts of partners. She’d had her pick–former Special Forces, ex-SEALS…anyone she wanted. But she’d refused, preferring to keep her life clean and simple.

He backed away and placed his hands on his hips. “Look, all I’m askin’ is for to you meet with Axel, the president of our club.”

“Why?”

“Because we can help you.”

“Why are you so fired up to find the Raptors? Is this some kind of revenge deal? Because I ain’t got time for cowboy shit.”

“You seem to make time for your own revenge.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Abe died in a poppy field. You can’t tell me it’s some coincidence you’re workin’ for the DEA now, bringing drug dealers to justice.”

She wanted to shove the barrel of her gun under his chin again. “Abe was murdered because you didn’t stay at your fucking post,
Steele
.”

He flinched.

Good, she wanted to hurt him as much as he’d hurt her, if it was even possible. While he’d lost a friend, she’d been severed in two, and only death would make her whole again.

He refused to meet her eyes. “I know. But I’m right, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, you got me, but you’re the last person on earth I’d work with. I hate your guts.”

She’d wanted to identify and hunt down Abe’s killers, but her superiors had found out she’d been misusing Marine intelligence resources. They’d chewed her ass and hurried her out of Afghanistan. Ash had served out the rest of her tour in Iraq.  Afterward, the military told her she could either quit or they’d dishonorably discharge her.

Ash couldn’t enter Afghanistan without raising some big fucking red flags; she’d been forced to target other bastards who killed people for drugs–cartels. If she couldn’t punish Abe’s killers, she’d make damn sure his death meant something by going after assholes in the drug trade.

Steele turned from her, and she studied his profile for a minute. He cleared his throat before he spoke. “I know you hate me. Hell, you
should
hate me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help you complete your mission.”

She shook her head. “I can’t trust you. You care more about your own skin than partners, so fuck you, and fuck your offer.”

“One of our men is missing. The Raptors took him and....” Steele turned away from her so she couldn’t see his face.

“What aren’t you sayin’?”

Calmly, Steele worked the buttons on his shirt until he revealed his chest swathed in gauze.  He peeled back the tape and exposed a deep cut in the shape of an eagle—the Raptor’s symbol.

“Holy shit.”

Ash took a sick sort of satisfaction in seeing his wounds. Sometimes she felt like Steele had taken a knife to
her
chest and carved out her heart.

He nodded. “Right before they took one of our brothers, Coyote.”

“You mean you lost another partner?”

“I did.” His tone was cold and clipped.

“And he’s still…alive?”

“We think so. For now.” Steele sighed.

She glanced at Justice over Steele’s shoulder. He wouldn’t look her in the eye. “I’m surprised you walked away from this mission.”

“So? Will you work with us?”

If the Raptors had one of the Four Horsemen’s men, the gang had a plan of some sort, or they would’ve killed the guy and been done with it. Tracking a target was easier if she knew their purpose. Otherwise, Ash had to fumble around blindly, hoping she’d figure out what they were up to and where they’d gone.  

Ash hated to admit it, but she was desperate. The run-down house had been a long shot. The Raptors had gone underground, and she’d only come up with one other tiny lead because one of their former employees had shown up in the system. If she delivered the Raptor’s location, they’d get one step closer to taking down the
Tres Erre.
She wanted to see something meaningful come from her work
—s
omething to make Abe’s sacrifice worth all the pain and suffering her brother had gone through that terrible night.

“Why’d they kidnap Coyote?”

“Not a fuckin’ clue. So you’ll meet with Axel?”

“Fine. I’ll see your boss, but it’s only a meetin’. I haven’t agreed to anythin’.”

“Got it,” he said. “We’ll lead the way.” Steele sauntered over to his truck while she slid into her SUV.

Despite her better judgement, she might have to work with the Four Horsemen.

Chapter Four

I must be out of my ever-lovin’ mind.

She drove behind Steele and Justice in her dark grey Subaru Forrester. The next thing Ash knew, they passed the city limits into a town called Hell.

Fabulous.

Ash distracted herself by glancing around, getting a lay of the land. While she wanted to hate the place simply because Steele lived here, she couldn’t. From what she could tell, Hell was a quaint town. Lots of little shops with hell-themed names: Devil’s Brew, Inferno Firearms, Perdition, and Hades to name a few.

It reminded Ash of her hometown, Poteet, Texas.

Poteet’s biggest tourist draw was a strawberry festival held in April every year. Poteet really got into it—the water tower had been painted to resemble a big strawberry, and there were several smaller statues of the fruit scattered around the town. She’d been in marching band, and they’d performed every year in the town parade. Ash had learned
Strawberry Fields Forever
on the flute—no easy task.

Ash loved the small town atmosphere, but working for the DEA required a lot of traveling, both domestic and abroad to Mexico. She hadn’t been back home to Poteet in years—being in the town was too painful.

Around every corner were memories. Poteet was so small, the elementary, middle, and high schools had been combined into one mega building, and she and Abe had been in the same class since kindergarten.  

They’d shared everything—friends, family, a vocation. Their parents were furious when she and Abe had announced they were enlisting into the Marines. Ash thought they’d probably pictured them following in their footsteps—going to college and then medical school or law school—but a recruiter had come to the high school. Knowing what she did now, she wished they had applied to college.

Abe would still be alive, and she wouldn’t be so…damaged.

Suddenly, the bikers stopped, and she snapped back to the present. Ash was grateful for the distraction. Memory lane was a real bitch. According to the flaming sign, featuring a devil holding a wrench, the garage was Seventh Circle Motors.

It was a large warehouse-type structure with three separate garage doors. One of those slid open, and a tall, dark-haired man sauntered out. Looking beyond him, Ash noted a concrete floor and a vaulted ceiling. Along the walls were red metallic cabinets, presumably stuffed full of shiny steel tools.

Steel and Justice hopped out of their truck, and she slid out of the SUV. Ash joined the men near the doors.

The tall man held out a hand to her, which she shook. “I’m Axel. Good to meet you, Ms. Calhoun.”

Evidently, Steele had filled him in on the ride over. “Thanks.” She’d never been one for small talk, so she didn’t even try.

Axel stood roughly six and a half feet tall with penetrating dark eyes, wide shoulders, a narrow waist, and something between a beard and a five o’ clock shadow on his cheeks.

None of the Horsemen were ugly.
Weird
. When she’d been assigned this case, she’d seen some surveillance photos of the Raptors. Calling them homely would be a nice way of putting it.

“Why don’t we talk in my office?” Axel walked to a nearby door and held it open. Ash trailed Justice and Steele into the room. The smell of motor oil lingered in the air. There was a metal reception desk outfitted with a cash register, a coffee pot, and a water cooler, as well as a few steel chairs and an end table covered in old magazines.

Both Steele and Justice sat down while she stood in the corner. No one was at her back, and she didn’t get too comfortable in case they had something nefarious in mind.

Axel shot a glance at a young woman working on a red sedan twenty or so feet away. She was tall and thin with short black hair streaked with purple and shaved on one side. The woman appeared to be in her twenties and wore a pair of black coveralls and Doc Martens speckled with lavender and silver.

“Dani, I’ll be a couple of minutes. Knock if you need me.”

“Will do,” she called.

Axel shut the door and got right down to business, which Ash appreciated. “Steele tells me you’re a merc working for the DEA through Cole Security.”

A lot of ex-military worked for security firms after they’d completed their tours because those jobs tended to pay better. “Yeah, I worked in intelligence while I was in the Marines, and Cole recruited me after I finished my tours.”

“How’d you get picked for intelligence work?” Justice watched her intently.

“One of my instructors recommended me.” Ash wasn’t convinced the recommendation had been a compliment. She had a feeling she’d been singled out due to moral ambiguity and general sneakiness. “I joined a special squad, and I can’t say much more about it.”

“What do you do for Cole?” Axel leaned against the front desk, angling his body to face her.

“I scout for them, tracking down persons of interest and such. Then they send in a heavily armed extraction team.” She cracked her knuckles. “Sometimes I get in on the action.” If she played better with others, they’d probably call her in for more of those group missions. Ash loved a good takedown—maybe a bit too much.

“What do they want with the Raptors?” Steele asked.

“It’s the
Drug
Enforcement Agency. What do
you
think?”

Steele glanced at her, and she could see censure in his gaze. Well, she answered to Cole and nobody else. As a contractor, she had the freedom to take or leave jobs and work—more or less—on her own terms. She liked not having an overbearing boss.

“Don’t know unless you tell us.” Axel seemed to be a patient man, thoughtful. Actually, none of these men fit her expectations of what outlaw bikers should be.

“Big picture? They’re after the
Tres Erre
cartel. I’d imagine the first step in squeezin’ them is to shut down their supply lines in the United States.” Not like the DEA sat down and rolled out their strategy for her, but she could piece it together and figure it out for herself.

All three men looked at each other, having a silent conversation she couldn’t quite grasp.