Angel: RBMC: Ankeny IA

by Kristine Allen

  I missed my son so much, it was like I was dying every second he was gone. I worried that he was hurt, or hungry, cold, scared; the possibilities were enough to cripple me.

  Unable to process much more, I went to Trace’s room and curled up on his bed. The purple frog was under his pillow, and I dragged it out to tuck it under my chin.

  All the agony of my baby being gone shredded through the last of my resolve, and I disintegrated as I broke down. Sobs wracked my body until I’d exhausted myself, and I fell into a fitful sleep.

  “City of Angels”—Journey

  It might’ve been five minutes, or it could’ve been five hours—I wasn’t sure how much time had passed before Ghost came in and shook my shoulder. He gave me a nod, telling me Madame Laveaux must be back.

  She’d spent the entire night in Voodoo’s Temple.

  Careful not to disturb Korrie, I slipped from the bed and pressed a light kiss to her head. Shoving my feet in my boots, I quietly headed out.

  After gently closing the door, I looked to Ghost.

  “Any idea if she has information?” I asked.

  “No.”

  Swallowing with difficulty, I nodded, then headed toward the chapel. Ghost was by my side the entire time.

  Madame Laveaux was seated at the table, her expression exhausted and pensive. She looked up at me as I stepped through the door, and her eyes trailed me to my seat. Several other brothers shuffled in after me and took their seats.

  She didn’t wait to be asked before she spoke to the room, but held my gaze. “I do not know the place where they are, but they are alive. Frightened, but alive.”

  “Hurt?” I asked, trying to hide the nervous tremor from my voice.

  She took a deep breath before slowly exhaling. “Yes. Not critically so. I also don’t know what the plans for them are, but I gathered a sense of urgency. You need to move quickly.”

  “How can we move quickly if we don’t know where to start?” Chains blurted out. Madame Laveaux narrowed her eyes at him, and he immediately became contrite.

  “I didn’t say I didn’t know where to start,” she admonished. “They are in this town. In an abandoned house, boarded-up windows, graffiti on the walls—” She was going to continue, but Raptor cleared his throat.

  Everyone looked at him expectantly. Then we all remembered, and nervous excitement bubbled up in my guts.

  “No guarantees, but I can try. Ma’am? Do you mind?” He reached out a hand toward her. Then looked at Squirrel. “Grab me paper and a pen.”

  Squirrel scrambled to do as he asked and quickly dropped the pad of paper and a pen in front of him.

  Raptor had been able to tap into a type of psychography when Kira had been in danger. He’d used his ability of remote viewing along with Voodoo’s visions to elicit coordinates. Crazy, but then again, if people knew all of our combined abilities, they’d probably try to lock us up.

  While Raptor held Madame Laveaux’s hand, we all remained silent.

  And waited.

  Voodoo quietly entered the room, but Raptor and his grandmother didn’t show a hint of acknowledgement as they sat at the table, eyes closed and silent.

  He and Kira had returned to the clubhouse with little Parker. It had been a rough night for them with very little sleep. Obviously the hospital security was lacking, and he was relieved to be at the clubhouse with his new family. I sure as hell didn’t blame him. He’d joined us in the chapel after he got them settled in his room.

  “I didn’t want to tell Kira, but I had a vision at the hospital. We got here as quickly as we could. They’re coming after our families. The only thing I don’t know is exactly who or why.” He scrubbed his face with his hands.

  “Well, we think we know,” Venom informed him. “We’re pretty sure it has to do with Lester Damon. Korrie’s mother stopped by and alluded to it. The bitch also said we would never see Trace again.”

  I growled in anger as I fought against lashing out and destroying anything I could get my hands on.

  “Fuck,” Voodoo swore as he gave me an apologetic look. Not wanting to see his pity because in my mind it meant Korrie’s mother was right, I ground my teeth.

  “So the Bloody Scorpions are in bed with the senator?” Phoenix asked.

  “Looks that way,” murmured Kicker. “Too much of a coincidence not to be.”

  “Okay, this is what I got.” Raptor tossed the paper to Venom.

  Raptor had scribbled out a multitude of coordinates. We weren’t sure why he’d seen so many different locations, nor did we know which was the correct ones. After some discussion, we decided to split up.

  Hawk, Facet, Jameson, and the prospects would stay behind to watch over the women. I’d have loved to have Jameson along, but we needed strength at the clubhouse. After two of the prospects had been overrun, with one killed and one severely injured, we knew we needed bigger guns on the home front.

  Facet also had some work to do.

  Me, Chains, Kicker, and Voodoo would take one set of the coordinates. Venom, Phoenix, Blade, and E had another. Raptor, Squirrel, Ghost, and Goob would take the last set.

  When we entered the common area, I saw Korrie awake and nervously pacing. She spun toward us as we filed out.

  “We’re going to get them back, baby. I promise you.” I’d kissed her softly and held her tight. I was sick and tired of everything between us being so hard. I pressed a kiss to her temple, then stepped back. “Keep your phone on you. I’ll keep you updated.”

  “Angel, maybe we need to call the police,” she said as she clutched the front of my black hoodie.

  “No way, not until we’ve exhausted all our efforts. We have better resources than they could ever hope to have anyway,” I insisted. One last kiss, and I stepped back. “I love you.”

  “Ready?” Voodoo asked, and I left her behind, hoping I hadn’t lied to her. It was one of the hardest things I’d ever done—make a promise to her I wasn’t sure I could keep.

  We loaded up and pulled out of the gate in a caravan. It wasn’t long before we were splitting up.

  After a relatively short period of time, we parked the truck a block down from the first set of our assigned coordinates. It was a run-down strip of apartments. Long since abandoned, the windows were boarded up, and it could very well fit the description of Madame Leveaux’s vision.

  Unfortunately, after checking every room, we came up with nothing.

  Each stop after that turned up the same results. Dead ends and no clues. Same for the other brothers and their locations.

  Finally, as it was starting to get dark, we stopped at our last set of coordinates.

  It was an old warehouse. A familiar one. The one where the Bloody Scorpions had cornered Voodoo. The possibility that this was the place was definitely a strong one, so we didn’t want to park in the driveway and announce ourselves.

  “Let’s do this,” I said as I exited the vehicle and pulled my beanie down over my ears and flipped up my hood. We silently slipped up the street, ducked through a split in the fence, and crept across the open asphalt lot.

  As we approached the building, the wind caught something on the ground and blew it slightly. Why I noticed it amongst the dead leaves and debris littering the lot, I couldn’t say. Stooping to pick it up, my heart tripped.

  It was a playing card. With a blue fish on it.

  “What is it?” Kicker whispered. I held it up, and Voodoo took it from my hand.

  “A Go Fish card?” he questioned.

  After swallowing the lump in my throat, I nodded. “He was playing it with Lynda when we left for the hospital.”

  Chains slipped off his gloves and reached for it. His eyes glazed slightly as he went quiet. Then he blinked a few times and shook his head. “They aren’t here. They were, but they aren’t now.”

  “How do you know? We need to check inside, just in case,” I argued.

  Chains stared at me, and his brow furrowed as he looked to the ground. “He dropped this when they w
ere loading them up into a second van.”

  My chest caved, and I found it hard to catch my breath. When I’d found the card, I’d been terrified, but hopeful. Then with Chains’s announcement, my hope died a painful death. “I need to check,” I said as I closed in on the dented metal door.

  “We’re wasting time here,” Chains furiously whispered.

  The hasp had been knocked off. From the amount of rust, I imagined it had been that way for a while. Pulling my piece from my holster, I eased the door open. With the door being unsecured, it was possible that there could be other people using the building as a crash pad.

  The creaking of the door echoed through the empty building.

  One by one, we moved like wraiths into the shadowy building. Spreading out, we checked every corner. Surprisingly, there was no one hiding anywhere, but neither was my son anywhere to be found. Not that I was surprised; Chains had warned me. I’d hoped he was wrong, though.

  When we were preparing to leave, Kicker stopped and crouched to the ground. Shining a flashlight to the spot, he took a deep breath and looked up at us.

  “Is that blood?” Voodoo asked.

  “Looks like it,” Kicker replied as he shined the light around to see how far it went. “It could be old. Could be animal. Who knows? Chains, do you want to try?”

  We all knew it could be an ugly experience for him, but if he was willing, it could be helpful.

  He nodded and crouched next to Kicker. He shrugged his shoulders a few times, then took a deep breath in preparation before huffing it out. A single finger brushed the blood and he immediately jolted and fell back where he scrambled away from the spot.

  Ragged, painful breaths tore from him as his eyes went wild and a pained sob broke free.

  “Chains!” Voodoo said to break him out of whatever memory he was trapped in. When Chains glanced at him in confusion, Voodoo reached out to him. Chains jerked away.

  “I’m…,” he began but couldn’t finish. His eyes darted around before he covered his face, then dragged his hands down. “It’s Jasmine’s.”

  “Is she…?” I couldn’t finish the question. The possibility that she was dead made me sick. She was all I had left of my childhood family, because my father was dead to me. She was my only sibling. The thought that I’d failed in keeping her and Trace safe gutted me.

  “She wasn’t when this happened, but I promise you—if you don’t kill this motherfucker before I get to him, he’s going to pay,” he vehemently vowed. So much so, it gave me pause.

  When I opened my mouth to question him, he held up a hand. “Not now. We need to find out if anyone else has had any luck.”

  My eyes narrowed as I studied him. Kicker was sending out a text. Shortly after, his phone went off.

  “Yeah?” he answered. We could hear someone on the other end talking. He gave a few short replies then disconnected the call.

  “Raptor has a gas station as his last spot. Attendant doesn’t remember seeing anything. Ghost went by Korrie’s mother’s hotel room again to see what she’s up to and see if she’s been up to anything.”

  “I thought Facet had tapped into the security feeds there,” I questioned.

  “He did, but with nothing else turning up, Raptor sent him to check on the witch.” Kicker sighed.

  Impatient as fuck, I shot a text off to Ghost to see if he had anything. He replied immediately.

  Ghost: Call u in a few. What a bitch. Will send pics 4 u 2 c

  At the same time, Kicker’s phone was vibrating again. “Venom,” he told us as he answered. We could hear him talking as Kicker circled his finger in the air to motion us to leave. He didn’t wait to see if we were following as he rushed out of the building.

  “Venom and the boys have a possible visual, but they need us there for backup,” Kicker said as we ran down the sidewalk to the truck. Within minutes we were hauling ass to Venom’s location.

  My phone started going crazy with text messages from Ghost. As I opened them to see the images he sent, my anger and hatred grew.

  Picture after picture of a text conversation timestamped before and after her visit between Korrie’s mother and the former senator. Everything from discussing my woman like she was a piece of meat on an auction block, to more recently the veiled conversation about his revenge she’d helped to establish. Revenge that included my son as well as Voodoo’s newborn baby and his wife.

  “That fucking bitch,” I growled. Everyone cast a glance in my direction. Ghost had sent the messages in our group chat app, so I knew the rest of the brothers were getting the images too.

  Voodoo and Chains were looking at their phones, and I knew they were seeing the same thing. Voodoo must’ve caught up to the part about his family, because his teeth ground so hard I thought he cracked them.

  “Jesus H. Christ,” Chains muttered.

  My attention was torn from my screen as we came to a stop behind the SUV Venom and his crew had taken. We all piled out and converged in the covered shelter of a small run-down park. The whole neighborhood looked like it was deserted—on the verge of falling down.

  “You all saw the messages?” Venom asked, and we nodded. Raptor and his crew slipped in after us from the other side of the park. Night had fallen, and half the streetlights in the area didn’t work. It was good cover at least.

  “What do we have?” asked Kicker as we glanced around. Every one of us was on edge. Though it was my sister and son, along with Goob’s ol’ lady, they were all family, and no one fucked with what was ours.

  “That house across the way,” Blade said as he lit a joint and leaned against the post while he inhaled deeply. We studied the place he’d indicated.

  It looked like half the condemned houses in the neighborhood, except there were faint lines of light showing around a few of the boarded-up windows. When I stepped over to the side to see better, I caught sight of the tire of a bike parked up by the caved-in single stall garage.

  “There’s more parked in the backyard. And a beat-up panel van parked down the alley.” At Ghost’s murmured statement, I jumped and looked over my shoulder.

  “I swear to fuck, if you don’t stop doing that shit, I’m gonna shank you one day,” I grumbled quietly. The half smile that curled his lips had me shaking my head.

  “It’s so much fun though. Besides, if you did that, you’d just have to turn around and fix me,” he said with a smirk. He reached over to Blade and motioned for the joint. After taking a drag, he blew out the smoke and handed it back. “Now what?”

  “Put that shit away,” Venom growled. Blade pinched it and tucked it away.

  Venom told us that they’d snuck up to the house and looked through one of the split boards. They’d seen Trace and Lynda in a room. I sent up a prayer of thanks until I realized they hadn’t said anything about my sister.

  “What about Jasmine?” Chains growled softly from the back before I could get it out. Glancing at him in suspicion, I narrowed my gaze. His face was flatly emotionless, so I returned my attention to Venom.

  “We’re not sure. She wasn’t with them,” he said with a furrowed brow.

  A shaft of pain sliced through my heart. She had to be okay.

  “None of them live,” Venom announced. Not a one of us disagreed.

  All of us ensured we had silencers on our weapons. Not that anyone in this neighborhood would call the cops, but it mitigated the risk.

  Ignoring the cold, we stealthily made our way across the park. Spreading out, we circled the house. There was a guy on our side carelessly leaning against the house smoking a blunt. He had no clue we were there. Cocky, stupid motherfucker. A muffled sound was all that carried out into the night as I put a bullet in his head. He crumpled to the ground like a puppet if someone had cut the strings. Kicker dragged him behind us to the back of the house and dumped him on the back porch.

  Blade was dragging another one from his side.

  “Getting a collection of trash,” Voodoo whispered with a sadistic smirk. I gave hi
m a chin lift.

  “Let’s finish this,” Venom said. Raptor tried the door. I was unsurprised to find it unlocked. Like I said, sloppy. Several of us shook our heads. He paused as he projected into the house, his face went white, then he rapidly motioned to us which directions we’d find the enemy.

  Taking a fortifying breath, I exhaled slowly and moved in. Two in the kitchen, as Raptor had indicated. They were sitting at an old table playing cards but ended up facedown in their own blood. As we moved through the kitchen to the hall, we came face-to-face with a Bloody Scorpion.

  “What the—” was all he got out before he fell to the floor. Between his outburst and his body hitting the floor, we knew we were out of time. Motioning us forward, Venom watched the back exit and waited for us to pass before he followed. As one, we kicked open the three bedroom doors.

  Screaming briefly ensued, and we were in shock. The smallest room held my son and Lynda. My heart soared, and I almost cried as I rushed to them and scooped up my sleeping son. Lynda sobbed when Goob threw his arms around her.

  “Stay with them,” I instructed Goob, Chains, and Phoenix.

  “I’m coming with you,” Chains said.

  “I’ll stay,” said Squirrel. I nodded in agreement. Chains and I moved on to catch up with the other brothers to see what the fuck was going on.

  The next room made my blood run cold.

  Raptor had been the one to bust open the door, but we were quickly at his back.

  Standing there, holding my sister naked and bound in front of him, was Skid. Chains made a move to charge in, but Raptor’s hand flew out to stop him.

  “Don’t fucking do it,” Skid warned.

  Jasmine stood there, tears falling as they mixed with blood from a cut on her cheek. Bruises were already starting under her eyes and she had dried blood caked around her nose. It took everything I had to ignore her state of undress, but Chains lost his fucking shit next to me.

  “You’re a dead man!” he shouted as Ghost, E, Blade, and Raptor pushed him out of the room. It took all four of them too, because he was a tall, buff motherfucker. His shouting became muffled, but I could hear the struggle as he fought to get back to us. My blood boiled at the implications, but I had more important things to deal with at that moment.