WRECKED: CHOSEN FEW MC - BOOK TWO: OUTLAW BIKER/ALPHA ROMANCE (17 page)

Greg nodded. “I’ll call the principal and get her to do it. She should know what’s going on anyway. Let everyone know it will be complicated. If you see the bus and the cops are around, don’t be so close that they get it in their heads that this is something we cooked up.”

He turned back to the bar. “Need a beer?” Tawnya asked him. She was the daytime bartender and he liked her.

“Actually, I need to borrow a phone.”

She reached under the bar and took out a cell phone and slid it over to him. “No looking at my photos.”

“I just need to make a call.”

Naturally, Donna didn’t believe him at first and he didn’t blame her.

“I wouldn’t try to scare you this way. We are looking for them already, but I thought you should call the cops.”

“We?”

“The Chosen Few, my club.”

“Oh,” she said, not sounding reassured. She did seem to understand the situation. “What do I tell them when they ask how I know they are missing?”

“Call the plant they were going to on some excuse. Then you can tell them they haven’t arrived.”

“And I can call Melanie’s phone. If she is on another phone then no one will answer and I can call the bus driver,” she said.

“If you get no answer…”

The woman began pulling herself together. “Then that would mean something is terribly wrong.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Mr. Jones… you hear anything at all, I expect a call from you immediately.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

As he hung up, Tawnya grinned. “I think you need that phone more’n I do, Wrench. Hang onto it until the shit is over. Just remember, no peeking at the pictures.”

“I think she wants you to look at the pictures, Greg,” Cutter said. “Bet there are some nudies.”

Just then, Luc called to him. “Hey Greg, I think I’ve got them.”

Cutter beat him to Luc’s table, but only by a hair.

* * *

“They’re heading out into the desert.”

“Son of a bitch. Damn Mojave swallows up shit,” Cutter said.

“It’s a bus, Cutter,” Tiny said.

“The Marine base out there has lost fucking airplanes in the desert, Tiny. A bus ain’t nothing.”

Luc pointed at an online map. “Looks like he went straight up I-5 and turned onto the highway headed for Victorville.”

“Out that way, there’s not much but the Mojave desert and the Marine training grounds, unless he’s headed for Arizona,” Cutter said. He pointed at two bikers. “You two ready to roll?” They nodded and headed for the door. Cutter turned to Greg. “We will play chase. We’ll rip the shit out of I-5 north along the route he took. If he keeps rolling, we should catch up with him by Ludlow. You and Tiny take the back way—head out through Ontario and pick up 29. Drop the hammer and you should get to Yucca Valley before he does. That will box him in.”

Luc turned toward Greg who smiled. “I’ll be sitting right here, drinking beer and tracking.” He handed Greg and Cutter each a piece of paper. “Two numbers for my two phones. Call when you see anything and I’ll keep you updated. As long as her phone is working he can’t get away completely.”

Greg felt a knot in his stomach. “Right. We don’t have a big window here, guys. The phone battery could die, or Innes might find it and smash it. We better move fast. Let’s roll.”

Greg knew the truth was that any number of things could cut off this feeble lifeline to Melanie and the kids. Even if the phone battery lasted and the phone stayed hidden, reception could be spotty out there and the connection lost.

He was glad they’d called the police, just in case Innes eluded them, but the idea of a standoff, of it developing into a full-blown hostage situation scared him. Innes might start killing hostages. Melanie didn’t think he’d hurt the kids. He trusted her judgment on that, but even if she was right he might flip out completely. And short of that, Melanie was at risk. She wasn’t an innocent. In Innes’s twisted mind she was a willing part of the conspiracy to control his son’s mind—to turn his son against him or to have him spy on him.

As he got on his bike, his stomach churned. The idea of losing Melanie, or Carly, and having to face Willow and Jake, made him ill.

I won’t let anything happen to Melanie or Carly. Man up and kick ass.

He looked over at Tiny. “We need to be there way ahead of the cops.”

Tiny nodded at him grimly. “Then let’s do this bad-ass thing,” he said. They kicked their bikes to life and pulled out onto the highway, headed east, going far too fast for it to be safe and far too slow to suit him.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Without any idea if Greg had gotten her call, or if he had any way to use the signal from the phone to track them, Melanie knew she couldn’t just sit around and wait for a rescue. Eventually the police would put up roadblocks, but she had no idea if the bus would even be missed until school was out. By then they might already be beyond a perimeter the police could manage.

She had to hope that her call to Greg did something. As they rolled on she tried to think of a way to signal cars they passed, make a cry for help. With Innes busy giving the terrified driver directions, she looked around for something she could use to make a sign. But then they turned onto an off ramp—he was taking them off the freeway. She’d never been on this road before and had only a vague idea of the geography, but it was a fairly empty road and suddenly there were fewer opportunities to contact anyone, even if she had made a sign.

That the driver was in a panic didn’t help. The small man was shaking violently and steering seemed to be about all he could manage. Innes waving his gun at the driver didn’t do a thing to calm him, and Melanie found herself worrying that he might crash the bus. As Innes was the only one not belted in, that could give them a chance, but at what cost?

With the bus on its new course, Innes paced the aisle, making sure that everyone stayed seated and ignoring Brian’s plaintive cries. “Dad,please don’t do this. Take us back to school.”

“Brian, you are a disappointment,” he said. After that, the boy sulked in silence.

A few miles out of Lucerne, Innes ordered the driver to turn left on a secondary road that seemed to lead into the Mojave Desert. The bus wasn’t air conditioned and it was hot. The students were frightened and several of them were about to get sick.

“Where are you taking us?” she finally demanded. “These children are getting sick. Surely you don’t have an argument with them.”

Turning on her, he pointed the gun in her face. Looking down the barrel of a weapon was a new and terrifying experience. “If everyone behaves, we’ll stop soon enough.”

“We’re in the desert without water,” she huffed.

He laughed. “You don’t think I’d carry out an operation without a plan, do you? I have water and food arranged. If the authorities play it smart, no one needs to get hurt at all.”

To save her strength and so that he’d take his gun out of her face, she sat back in her seat and looked out the window, looking out over the scrub land. Out here, Innes had the advantage that he could see someone coming for miles. There was little traffic beyond the occasional semi or pickup truck.

She sensed they were nearing the destination he’d chosen. Innes began paying less attention to the passengers and started staring out the window. After a bit he went to the front of the bus, gesturing with his gun. “You see that old gas station up there on the left?”

The driver peered through the windshield. “That old thing falling down?”

Melanie saw two buildings. One was an ancient Mexican restaurant with a sign advertising burritos. The other was an old-fashioned gas station. Both buildings were run down—they’d been abandoned years ago.

Malcolm put his hand on the driver’s shoulder. “That’s the place. Pull in there, and drive straight into the garage bay.”

As they slowed and Malcolm Innes focused on getting the driver to put the bus where he wanted it, Melanie used her foot to drag her phone out from under the seat. She looked at it and sighed. The screen was blank. The phone was dead and she had no idea how long it had been off. Of course, they were in the middle of nowhere, and it was entirely possible they’d had no phone service for some time anyway. Reception had to be spotty out here. She had to hope that Greg had managed to use it to get close to where they were. There was no other way anyone would find them easily.

As the bus came to a stop, Malcolm got off and had the driver close the door.

Melanie gave a quick thought to the emergency exit on the back of the bus. But how could you get a herd of kids out the door quickly? Even if she miraculously led an escape, where would they go?

Innes circled the bus, then poked his head in what had been the station’s office, before coming back to the door of the bus. He hammered on the door with his gun and the driver opened it.

“Children first,” he said. “Get out here, all of you. Bring your things with you. You teachers, driver, if you don’t want anyone hurt, stay in your seats until you are told what to do.

As the students filed off the bus, he sent them to stand by the far wall. Several of them, including Brian, slumped to the floor, leaning against the wall and sobbing. Melanie’s heart went out to them as she watched Carly put her hand on Brian’s shoulder and whisper something to him that made him nod and wipe his eyes.

The girl looked at Melanie, winked. The gesture gave Melanie a flash of hope. Did the girl have something up her sleeve? Then she sat down next to Brian and fumbled with something in her bag. After a moment she brought out a bag of candy, gave some to Brian, then passed it around to the other children. Melanie sighed. At least the candy seemed to have a calming effect on the kids, gave them a touch of normalcy.

“Driver, you get down here,” Innes said gruffly. The man whimpered as he went down the stairs to stand in front of him. “Turn around.” As the man did as he was told, Innes slapped on handcuffs. “Get your ass over with the kids,” he said.

“Now you,” he said, looking up through the open window at Mr. Affir. The man got unsteadily to his feet and, looking like he might pass out, made his way to the front and down the steps. When he was handcuffed and standing with the students he looked at them and pulled himself erect. “Don’t worry. The authorities will rescue us,” he said weakly.

Innes laughed. “Right, you fucking toady. They’ll rescue you right after they figure out where you are, which won’t be until I’m ready for them.” Then he motioned to Melanie. “Your turn, sister.”

Pushing the phone back into hiding under the seat, she stood and came down to face him, putting her hands behind her back before he could tell her to.

“Not you,” he said brusquely, pushing her toward the open garage door. “I need your help.”

“My help? Why would I help you?”

“Because unlike that shit of a civics teacher, I think you care about the kids and don’t want them hurt. You poison their minds with the same crap, but you don’t know it’s crap.” He gestured toward Mr. Affir. “Unlike that asshole. Now close the door. A big yellow bus parked here is too obvious.”

She looked at the door. “You think it still works?”

He grinned. “I know it does.” He pointed to a pulley. “Pull the rope and the door will come down. I serviced it last week.”

She pulled the rope and her heart sank. The door moved effortlessly. The man had done his research and made preparations. The door closed with a final click, darkening the room. “Go to the office,” he said. Then he turned back to the children. “Brian, there is a cooler in the corner. There are bottles of water in it, plenty for everyone. Pass them out.” He smiled at Melanie. “See. No one has to suffer.”

“What now?” she asked.

“We need to make our demands known.”

* * *

Greg and Tiny pulled off at a rest stop for water and to check in with Luc. “We lost the signal,” he said. “Where are you?” When they told him, they heard some clicks. “The last position I logged isn’t that far from where you are now. You guys were flying and the bus was doing under the speed limit.”

“Do you think they lost reception?”

“Maybe. Or the battery is gone.”

“Or he found the phone.”

“What do you want to do now?”

“Pass along to Cutter than we are in the area and starting a house to house search. Or actually going yard by yard, garage by garage.”

“The old-fashioned way. Got it.”

They mounted up and headed out again.

* * *

As Melanie walked into the dusty gas station office in front of Innes, she saw a small box sitting under a metal desk. “The office wasn’t well equipped, so I made provisions,” he said as he closed the glass door behind them. She gave him a puzzled look. “With the garage bay door closed, this is the only way out of the garage. I welded the back doors shut. Now it’s time to get to work. Get that box out and open it.”

The box contained a laptop. She looked at him. “What do we do with this?”

“We check my Facebook page,” he said.

“Right.”

“Do it.”

Seeing he was serious, she sat in front of the computer and, following his instructions, logged onto his Facebook page. The page was filled with links to anti government sites.

“Okay, I’m there. Now what?”

“Now you post my demands.”

“Demands?” She’d figured this was coming. When he handed her a piece of paper she stared at the list. “Where would they land an airplane?”

He scowled. “It’s a fucking desert. Anywhere.”

She sighed. The demands were lengthy and it was unlikely anyone would meet them, even if they could. But at least he was giving the authorities until morning to comply. That bought them all some time—about sixteen hours. A lot could happen in sixteen hours.

“So you think the authorities will read these?”

He laughed. “They have supercomputers scanning the Internet twenty-four hours a day, collecting every scrap of information. How could they miss my demands?! Once they know the kids are missing it’s the first place they’ll look. And since you’ve told them about me, it should be easy, even for the FBI.”

“I suppose so.” She wasn’t at all sure that was the case.

* * *