Stung by Stealth: A Satan's Savages MC Novel #3 (22 page)

The Cartel have Skye.

Doing God knows what to her.

And I have no idea where to find her, or how to bring her home.

Mad Dog exhales running his fingers through his hair and shakes his head. “She’s just one girl.”

Every inch of me pauses and looks at Mad Dog. My heart stops beating, I stop breathing and for a moment, I think a part of me actually dies. Time stands still as I take in what he’s saying to me,
‘She’s just one girl
.’ Shaking my head, I storm up to him and flare my nostrils as I glare with stern harshness at him. My knuckles crack like gunfire from my clenched fists held tightly by my sides. If ever there was ever a time I wanted to punch Mad Dog, now is it. “What the fuck do you mean, she’s just one girl? You’re being ridiculous. This is Skye’s life we’re talking about here. You can’t just throw her to the wolves!”

Mad Dog slumps his body as my bottom lip trembles with pure anger. “Techie, write back, one girl isn’t worth it.”

My stomach sinks to the floor and I feel like I want to be physically sick. I stumble on the spot as a fuzz and dizziness hits me thinking he’s just sealed Skye’s death sentence. Hot tears prick my eyes as a furious anger surges through me. I stand up straight and rush toward Mad Dog, grabbing his cut and staring in his face. “Bring. Her. Home!” I grate each word and as I do spittle flies out of my mouth.

Mad Dog doesn’t try to get me off him or make anyone else remove me. He accepts that I’m hurting and lets me manhandle him. He looks to Techie, who’s staring between Mad Dog and me with a concerned squint and a pale face. “Send the message, Techie. Send it
now
,” Mad Dog dictates. My entire body clenches tight in agony and I let Mad Dog go, hunching over grabbing my knees just trying to catch a breath that won’t come.

“I’m sorry, Stealth. She was a good club girl,” Mad Dog murmurs patting my back.

“Don’t you talk about her! Don’t you ever even say her name!” I somehow manage to spit through my staggered and harsh breaths.

I vaguely hear a ping, but I’m trying so hard not to pass out that I don’t bother looking up.

Skye is going to die and it’s all Mad Dog’s fault.

“Umm… Prez, you’re going to want to see this,” Techie announces gaining my attention.

“What the fuck now?” Mad Dog asks and then I hear a grunt like he’s displeased. So I find the strength to stand up straight even though I wobble slightly and look over toward Techie.

“Fuck!” Mad Dog yells picking up a plank of wood for the bonfire and throwing it narrowly missing Crash.

“What?” I ask and Techie turns the tablet to show me a picture of all our club girls bound and gagged kneeling on the floor, the message under it saying,
‘You took our girls, so we took yours
.’

“Mad Dog, we have to get them back! Just agree to their terms and we can figure something out,” Chops advises sounding sensible for once.

“Surely you can’t let all of them die, Prez?” I ask hoping he’ll come around now, and this will actually be a blessing in disguise.

Mad Dog huffs and nods. “Techie, just give them the okay. Give us the girls back in one piece and we’ll find profits along other avenues.”

Techie nods, turning his tablet back around and types away. My heart beats even faster at the thought that maybe I might get Skye back. I hope like fuck they haven’t hurt her in any way, because I’m going to fucking kill the bastards myself if I get my hands on them.

A ping sounds and we all look up waiting for Techie to relay the message. “It’s an address and a time. Fifteen minutes, Prez. That’s about how long it will take to get to the location,” Techie announces.

“Let’s move. Penetrator, you stay back here with Sentinel, keep an eye on the place. Call us if anything happens. This could be a trap and they want us all to willingly leave the clubhouse,” I hear Mad Dog mention as I rush off in the distance. I need to get to the meet, I need to get to Skye.

I’m waiting on my Hog, lid done up and rearing to go by the time Mad Dog and Chops make it to the compound. I’m breathing so fast I feel a little like I’m hyperventilating, but I need to keep my cool. If I lose my head in this, it could be harmful to Skye, and I can’t let that happen.

Mad Dog and Chops finally get on their rides, and Mad Dog takes off out of the compound alongside Techie, and I pull out behind them. Our brothers all fall in flank and at my six and Chops pulls up the back door with Crash following in the cage to bring the girls home.

Normally the wind flicking in my face is calming, soothing in a way, but tonight it grates on me and reminds me that Skye is being held captive and I’m not there to help her. We should have known there would be repercussions from taking out the Ingratos. Maybe the Cartel don’t care so much about the Ingratos, but it seems they care about us taking away their
‘skill sets.’
Well, I’m still glad we got those women out, we just need to rescue our women now.

Pulling up in an undercover carpark of an abandoned building, there’s broken glass everywhere and basically the place is a dive. No one ever comes here except maybe homeless people. As we all ride in further, we see José standing in the middle of the car park with three other guys and a big cage.

Our Hogs all slide to a halt and we jump off as quickly as we can, we’re sitting ducks while they have the advantage. Pulling our pieces out, we all stand around as José and his Mexicans leer at us, shaking their heads. Mad Dog rushes forward. His fist clenched tightly, bringing it up to smack José right in the nose, but he blocks the punch grabbing Mad Dog’s arm, pulling it upward and making Mad Dog fall harshly to his knees. We all aim our guns right at José as he lets go of Mad Dog, who falls flat on his stomach to the ground. Breathing harshly, Chops walks over and helps Mad Dog up off the ground as José puts his arms up in surrender with a smirk.

“Touch me again you fucking Mexican scum, and I’ll put a bullet right between your eyes!” Mad Dog sneers through gritted teeth.

José smirks. “Try to punch me again Mad Dog and I’ll put a bullet in your cock.”

Mad Dog grunts exhaling and wipes the dirt off his cut. “Where’s my girls?”

José clicks his fingers and Manuel, his lackey, opens the cage door. The girls all file out one by one, wearing only their underwear. Their hands are untied and their mouths free of ball gags. Gritting my teeth as my jaw clenches hard, I search frantically with my eyes for any sight of Skye. She finally steps out of the cage and my heart thumps back into gear, but then stops again at the sight of congealed blood on her forehead. She glances over to me and I furrow my brows at her. She half-smiles to let me know she’s okay, and I take in a deep breath as my heart starts its normal rhythm once more.

“Now we need your word. No more guns and drugs. Then you can have your whores.” José looks at Mad Dog and tilts his head waiting for a response.

Mad Dog flares his nostrils and stands taller. I’m almost waiting for him to tell José to get fucked and for this to end in a shootout, but he shakes his head slightly and slumps his shoulders. “Fine! You win asshole. But tell me… who
is
your employer?”

José smiles and moves his head to the side. “Ah, all in good time, Mad Dog. You’ll meet him if and when you need to… for now, though, have your whores. As for your little indiscretion with the Ingratos… we’ll let you have that one. You need a win. Hopefully, we will never have to meet again.”

“Here’s hoping arsehole.”

Manuel pushes the girls forward and they all start to rush toward us. Skye comes straight to me and I grab her pulling her behind me as she wraps her hands around my waist. Having her hands on me is the best feeling I’ve had in a long while. The thought of losing her earlier scared the shit out of me, and now having her back means so much.

“Oh, and one more thing… if you cross us, this will happen to more of you!” José pulls his gun from his holster at lightning speed and pulls the trigger. Aimie screams out in pain as she falls to the ground blood pissing from her calf as she rolls around on the ground. Jess runs to her side as Mad Dog pulls out his gun aiming it at José. I tense up, but Chops grabs Mad Dog’s arm and pulls it down stopping him from shooting José, the bullet firing off into the dirt.

“What the fuck, Chops?” Mad Dog asks trying to bring his arm back up with the gun, but Chops is holding it down.

“Smart boy, Chops,” José taunts.

“Mad Dog, leave it. Walk away,” Chops begs and for once, I think he’s right.

Mad Dog shakes his head and grunts. “But we outnumber them?”

Chops pushes Mad Dog making him look at him. “You seek my council as your VP? Right now… I’m telling you to leave it.”

Mad Dog glares at Chops, but puts his gun away as we all take a relieved breath. José and his men all turn walking to their cages. “Have a good life, Mad Dog,” José calls out.

“Fuck you, arsehole,” Mad Dog yells back.

“Oh, that reminds me, you might want to send someone to check on Vinnie at Strapless, he was a little… under the weather when we left him.” José then hops in his cage, and the hum of the engine starts as he drives off leaving a wave of destruction behind.

“Fuck me! Lookout, go check on Vin and Strapless, let’s pray that they haven’t torched the place,” Mad Dog orders. He nods, racing to his bike. I turn looking at Skye and grab her shoulders to feel her trembling.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

She nods as her eyes water and her bottom lip trembles. “I am now that I’m with you.”

I swallow hard and pull her to me embracing her tightly. Her warmth wraps around me and jasmine invades my senses. All I want to do is take her back to my room and take care of her. I pull back and look at her wound on her forehead and wince.

“Who did this to you? Was it José?” I ask running my finger softly over the wound.

She shakes her head. “No, it was one of his lackeys. But I’m okay, really. Just please… don’t let go of me tonight.”

I nod and pull her in pressing my lips to hers, finally tasting her cherry flavor that I’ve needed since I knew she was taken.

She’s okay.

She’s here.

She’s safe and alive.

I’m not a religious man, but tonight I’m thanking a God I don’t believe in.

Wrapping my arm tightly around a shivering Skye, I walk her to my Hog. There’s no way I’m letting her get in the cage and out of my sight. She’s riding with me. As we step up to my bike, I let go of her turning to face her, pulling off my leather jacket and covering her shoulders with it. She moves her arms into the sleeves and looks up at me. Her eyes are watery and distant, she seems broken and I fucking hate every second of this.

“You’re safe now gorgeous, they won’t hurt you. I won’t let them.” Running the back of my finger along her pale cheek, she nuzzles into my touch and I half-smile trying to ease her discomfort.

“I know, just take me h-home. I-I need a shower and b-bed, it’s been a c-crazy night.” The break in her voice makes my stomach twist, and I can’t help but wonder if they did more than lay their fucking rotten hands on her. If they abused her, I’m going to fucking lose my shit. But now is not the time to find out, I need to get her home.

“Watch your legs on the pipes okay? You don’t want to burn them.”

She nods and I lean in quickly kissing her lips. She kisses back, but it’s lackluster and emotionless. She’s tired and I need to look after her. Handing her my lid, she puts it on and I look into her glistening eyes. “Hold on tight, okay?”

She nods and I turn taking a deep, calming breath and step over as the engines from the other bikes roar to life. She slides on the back and grips on tight around my waist. Her cheek rests against my back, and I gently squeeze her hand on my stomach and then start my bike. Mad Dog and Techie hammer down, and I take off after them. I need to get her home, back to a safe environment and somewhere she can relax. Pulling back on the throttle, I ride as fast as I can. Her Hulk-like grip around me, only adds to my need to get back to the clubhouse to take care of her. Not only that, but to find out what the fuck happened. I might not want to know, but I need to know.

My heart is racing as the dust flies up in circles as we rocket down the dirt road to the clubhouse. Pulling up at the gate, Sentinel looks down at me and nods, his way of letting me know that he’s glad Skye is okay. He knows how close we’ve become, even though he and Hannah were good friends. With Skye being taken and possibly killed, he knows that would have been a difficult time for me.

Parking and turning off the engine, Skye climbs off the back and I follow. Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, I pull her to me and lean down grabbing behind her knees and lift her up. Her arms instinctively wrap around my neck as I carry her. I don’t want her to walk in bare feet, and anyway my need to protect has kicked in strongly, so carrying her feels like the right thing to do.

The cage pulls in and I watch Crash park it. The other girls file out as I step through the black door and into the clubrooms. I’m glad they’re all back, but I only have one that I need to look after, the guys will tend to the other girls, I know they will.

Heading down the hall toward my room, Skye and I are completely silent. Nothing is said as she snuggles into me while I carry her to the shower she said she wanted. Right now, I’d give her a pony if that’s what she fucking desired. Anything to comfort her. My door is slightly open when I get to it thankfully, so I kick it open lightly and walk through shutting it with my foot. Heading straight for the bathroom, I make my way in. She brings her face up and looks at me finally.

“Hey,” I say almost a whisper.

She half-smiles. “Hey… thank you,” she replies as I place her feet to the floor.

Raising my eyebrow, I shake my head slightly. “For what?”

She shrugs out of my jacket and places it on the edge of the bench. “For being here, for just letting me not talk for a while. I knew being a part of the club could one day become dangerous, I guess I never thought I’d be anyone important enough to be kidnapped.”

Sighing and running my hands up her naked and goosebump littered arms, I shake my head. “You’re important to me.”

She smiles and nods. “I know, you are to me, too. Will you shower with me?”

Smiling, I shrug out of my cut and it falls to the floor. She smiles and I grab the hem of my shirt and lift it over my head. She removes her bra and knickers as I take off my boots and jeans, leaving us both naked. She steps into the shower alcove, the two small dimples on her back make my cock twitch, but I reign it in. Now is not the time for that.

She turns on the water and then swivels around to face me. My hand moves up to the cut on her forehead with the congealed blood.

“Does it hurt?” I ask. She nods making me wince. “What happened?”

She turns stepping into the shower and I follow closing the screen behind us, the glass fogs up instantly. “I was dancing and one of the lackeys grabbed my foot causing me to fall. I fell head first into the pole.”

Clicking my tongue into the roof of my mouth in disgust, I grab hold of her waist pulling our bodies together and shake my head as the hot water runs over us. “Do you have a headache?” I ask leaning in kissing her forehead softly.

She nods against my lips. “I’ll get you some painkillers when we get out. Skye, I have to ask, did they… I mean the Ingratos had those women in the cages for a reason… did they…”

She looks up at me as I scrunch my face up not actually able to finish the question. “Did they rape me?” she asks and my stomach sinks at the words.

Wincing, I nod. She swallows and shakes her head. My stomach catapults and my heart races as relief washes over me. “Thank God. I was so worried after what they did to the skill sets that you had suffered the same fate.”

She exhales and cuddles into me. “I think they had it in their minds they were going to. It came close to one of the lackeys nearly taking Jess off, but she’s feisty and she kicked him in the balls. He didn’t come back. But José, I think his name was, kept saying how when Mad Dog refused to go through with the deal or if he tried to do something stupid, that they were going to take turns in raping us. He said we were going to be their new skill sets. They were going to start over, and we were going to be their sex slaves for the rest of our lives, until we got too old and then they would kill us. He said we would have to submit to their every need or die painfully because Mad Dog wouldn’t want us, that his guns and drugs were too important, more important than just some club girls. And you know what the scariest part was?” I shake my head and shrug. “I honestly believed, José. Seeing Mad Dog, and who he has become lately, so obsessed with his guns and drug deals… so obsessed with beating the Cartel, I honestly thought we were done for. That I was going to be stuck with those Mexican’s for the rest of my miserable life.”

Taking a deep breath, I decide not to tell her that Mad Dog was going to forfeit her life exactly as she thought he would. She’s fragile, and hearing that would only hurt her. So I hold her closer to me and kiss her head. Reaching out, I grab a washcloth and run it under the water. Taking the edge, I dab it gently at her swollen cut on her forehead. She winces, so I dab lighter and wipe the dried blood from her silky skin.

“I’m sorry you had to go through this, I should’ve been protecting you. After we went after the Ingratos, we should’ve known there would be repercussions. I should have been watching you better.”

She reaches up grabbing my hand and looks into my eyes, and instead of a distant gaze there’s a hard fierceness in them. Her fight is back and it brings a flutter to my chest. “Hey, stop! Us girls being taken wasn’t
your
fault. It was Mad Dog’s. But you came and got me back, and that’s all I care about. I got out, I’m here with you, and I’m safe. I’m okay, really, I am. It could have been far… far worse.”

Nodding, I bring my hand up to her cheek and caress it tenderly. She really is beautiful, even with her makeup smudged and her face half covered in blood. “I’m just glad it wasn’t worse, I couldn’t live with myself if something had happened to you, something worse I mean.”

She cuddles into me and I take in her gorgeous scented hair and soak up her warmth. “I’m okay, just hold me tonight and don’t let me go.”

Smiling, I lean down pulling her further under the water. “Deal.”

It didn’t take much for Skye to fall asleep. She’d had a big night, and so I let her drift off as soon as I finished washing her and got her into bed. Now I’m lying on my back with her cuddled into my side wondering if I should report the Cartel to the precinct. I know the insiders. I know who the boss’s lackey is—José. I should report in what I know so far. I’m just worried about how much intel to provide. I don’t know what’s good and what’s bad anymore–the lines are blurring for me. I feel like I belong here, in this club, and telling the precinct anything is a betrayal of epic proportions.

But then there’s Hudson, my best friend of twenty-five years, and not telling him everything that’s going down in the club is a betrayal of our friendship.
My first taste at brotherhood
. Hudson was there for me through school, and all through growing up when I was the outcast and no one liked me. He was there to make me feel like I had someone to talk to, someone to confide in, a brother of sorts. But the club are like brothers too.

I’m so fucking conflicted!

I have a lifelong brother, and then there are these guys I’ve really only known a few months but who are family already. They know me. Well, this side of me, and they treat me with respect and how a brother should be treated. I just have no idea what to fucking do?

My head continues to run with a myriad of conflicting thoughts well into the morning, until my eyes finally close and sleep beckons me.

Mad Dog sits at the head of the church table and bangs his gavel hard on the surface, the echo of wood hitting wood resounds throughout the room. “Church is in session. Now I think we all know why we’re here? The events of last night has us all a little shaken, but I’ve had time to think it over and I’ve made my mind up… we need to go after the Cartel.”

The room shifts in awkward silence as my heart slams against my chest.
He can’t actually be serious, can he?
Glancing around the room, I look at Techie, who’s frowning at Jigsaw, who is frowning at Lookout, who’s frowning at everyone, and I honestly don’t think anyone is onboard with this idea.

“Seriously, Prez?” Techie asks breaking the awkward silence.

“Abso-fuckin-lutely.”

Chops shakes his head and breathes harshly out his nose. “This is crazy.”

“It’s motherfucking suicide, Prez,” Lookout grits out through his teeth shaking his head.

“I don’t care. They’re too big for their boots, and I need to show them who the boss is around here.”

Chops exhales running his hand over his balding head. “You need to think this through.”

Mad Dog stiffens his posture and nods. “I have fucking thought this through. I’m going to get civilians to store the drugs for us as our lackeys and distribute. Guns will be harder to deal with, but this is the plan until I can figure out a way to bring down the Cartel. So, jobs brothers… your job is to find simple minded average Joes to store our drugs, and then we can turn them to distribute for us. Sure we take a bit of a loss, as we’ll have to cut them a deal cash wise, but it’s better than losing the guns and drug money trade altogether, right?”

Chops shakes his head. “I still don’t like this, Mad Dog. If the Cartel finds out we’re having lackeys distribute for us—”

“They won’t and how dare you talk back to me, you’re not my equal, you’re not the President, what you say doesn’t count. So shut your fucking mouth before I shut it for you. There’s nothing more to talk about. Church is adjourned.” Mad Dog bangs his gavel, and I take a deep breath wondering how many poor innocent people are going to be dragged into this war with Mad Dog and José.