by KJ Dahlen
Gypsy stepped up. “Yeah, he knew exactly who Scorpion was. You don’t forget someone who grew up hating you like that very easily. Those two hated each other but Blacky has been making sure not to spend much time here over the last couple of years.”
“He might not have but he always knew exactly what we were doing all that time didn’t he?” Tramper suggested. “He planted his spies here watching and waiting.”
”Well, that’s all fine and good,” Dana interrupted. “But what are you going to do about this creep that sent the text messages dad? Skipper was talking to me earlier and he wasn’t very nice to me. Then Scorpion got up and walked out. It was after that when everything went to hell for me.”
Annie then quickly spoke up, “He did just get up and walk out. We all heard him leave. I was reading through those files you gave me Gunner, and I found out my dad had ties to Blacky’s empire. I also found that Scorpion was another of his lackeys. I knew about Scorpion when I came into the room and I was a bit nervous when I saw him in here. He must have noticed and suspected his secret was out.”
Just then, one of the brothers came into the clubhouse. He had something in his hand and when he came over to Gunner, he tossed it on the table. It was a cut. “I found this in the bushes just beyond the gate.”
Gunner lifted the leather vest with their logo on it. His eyes grew hard when he read the name stitched in the leather. It was Scorpion’s cut. He crushed the leather with his fisted hands. “Well, he is the second traitor. That leaves us two more to dig out.” He looked around at his men. “Shoot that bastard on sight if you see him or if he comes back here. He gets no mercy.”
Gypsy snorted. “Don’t worry about that, boss. He won’t get any. I despise fucking traitors.”
Dana sat down at a table frustrated that no one was paying her any attention since miss goody two shoes interrupted her.
Annie looked first to Harry then to Gunner. Clearing her throat, she said, “That’s not all we found.”
Gunner glanced over at her. “Don’t fucking tell me there’s more?”
“It might not mean anything but we did find a pattern in your business searches.”
Boone frowned. “What kind of pattern and what searches?”
“I didn’t really see it at first. Someone used your net while doing the searches. And he was good, very good. Then, while I was showing Rigger and Harry these searches, we all were taking another look. Someone here was looking for a certain group of people. These people are very bad. Whoever this person is, he’s waging a war on the cartel while being a member of the Savaged Souls. I searched the records and he’s managed to find and kill a number of cartel players.”
“What the fuck?” Gunner swore. “Are you sure about your information?”
Annie nodded. “Together, we’ve found seven deaths so far and he has a list of fourteen men. But we also found out that he didn’t start looking for these guys until about a year ago.”
“Anything else?” Gunner snarled while looking fit to be tied.
“Yes, something was left at each murder scene,” Rigger answered this. “A card, like a business card but not quite, it is red with black printed words, ‘For my father, Blood for blood.’ Then there’s always a number on the card. And Boss, the last murder wasn’t that far away from here.”
“How did these men die?” DeeDee asked, as she looked ashen.
“You may not want to know, it’s pretty gruesome,” Harry told her.
DeeDee had a sudden memory shooting through her mind as it came back in living color and she gasped as her knees weakened, and she started to fall.
Winona grabbed her before she could collapse.
Gunner rushed toward her to catch her up into his arms. He carried her over to a chair and sat down with her.
She clung to him and wouldn’t let go. For a few minutes, all she could do was shake. Finally, she regained control and looked up into Gunner’s eyes. “They were tied between two trees. One wrist to each tree, then his belly was cut from hip to hip. His guts were spilled on the ground in front of him. Then there’s another cut, it’s an x on his chest all the way to his bones. His ribs were crushed and his heart ripped from his chest. Then his throat was cut and his tongue cut from his mouth.”
Dana seemed to gag as she looked away from DeeDee.
Annie gasped and raised her hand to her mouth. “Oh, my God. How did you know about that? It is information, only found in sealed police reports.”
“I saw it once as a kid.” DeeDee trembled as she replied and tried to hold her shaking hands together. “My dad belonged to an MC when I was growing up. They were called Antichrist Disciples. They were truly the worst of the worst. Blacky’s dad was president and my dad was VP. They’d barely escaped a raid from the FBI, so they figured they had a traitor in their club. They’d blamed an innocent man for it. When the time came and they found the real traitor, the club knew he was an innocent man. They’d already caught the real traitor but Blacky’s dad hated this other man and he just wanted him gone, so he went ahead with what he called MC justice. The man had a wife and two young sons. They’d tied them up and made them watch what they did to their father. The Disciples at that time were in league with the cartel and they had men there to witness what happened. It could have been this fourteen?” She nodded at Annie. “The cartel knew this man was innocent and yet, they did nothing to stop Blacky’s dad.”
“What happened to the boys after that?” Boone asked.
“One of the boys got himself killed that day. He was ten years old. Once they were done torturing and killing the man, they untied the wife and sons. One of the boys took his pocket knife out. Then rushed at Blacky’s dad and cut him. Blacky’s dad laughed and then slit his throat in front of his brother, mother and everyone else standing there. The other boy was grabbed by his mother and she held him back. That night, she and her youngest son escaped the compound and we never saw them again.” Tears tracked DeeDee’s cheeks as she hung her head. “My dad and uncle were sadistic, vicious, cruel men.”
“What was the boy’s name?” Tramper asked.
“Ricky Mann,” she whispered.
Gunner looked over at Boone and the rest of his men. “Well fuck, that’s Endo! He’s been using our business as a way to hunt down the cartel men who didn’t stop his father’s death.”
DeeDee nodded. “I think he finally killed my uncle and my father as well. They were killed the same way, ten years after Ricky’s dad and brother died. He completely destroyed the Disciple’s MC. He killed them all then burned the club to ashes.”
“Endo hasn’t been around for weeks now,” Gypsy told them.
Gunner looked down at DeeDee. “Maybe that’s why Blacky never made his last name known for all these years. He knew about this revenge killer.”
She shrugged. “Could very well be. Blacky, who’s real name is Jackson Kyle Wilder by the way, they both tried to be as bad as they thought uncle Terry was. Only I think they went too far when they began kidnapping women for the sex trade.”
“Amen to that.” Gunner growled as he looked around at the brothers. “We need to keep watch. I want men on the roof. Everyone takes a walkie. And I want every entrance to the club manned with a guard.”
Chapter Seven
Jett groaned and tried to open his eyes. His body hurt all over. He couldn’t remember what happened. After another minute or two, he realized that he couldn’t move his arms and when his eyes finally opened, he frowned when he saw his wrists were tied together with thick, heavy duty zip ties. “What the fuck?” he muttered. The zip ties were attached to a hook hanging from the ceiling.
He looked down at his clothes and found they were torn and bloody. He could see dried blood on his body but he had no clue as to why or what happened. Then he heard footsteps coming toward him and lifted his head.
Out of the shadows came an older man. His face and head were covered in white hair down to his shoulders. His beard was hanging down beyond his chest and he s
ported a red eye patch with a black skull covering most of the patch. He wasn’t a thin man but he also wasn’t a thick man either, but somewhere in the middle. He also wore a cut of an MC club called the Antichrist Disciples.
The name on the patch said President but Jett didn’t know who he was. He’d never heard of the MC before. “Who the hell are you?” Jett grumbled. “And why am I here?”
The old man sneered. “You are here for my amusement. As to who I am, I’m your worst fucking nightmare.”
“What the hell happened to me?” Jett growled.
The old man shrugged. “I ran your bike off the road.”
Jett frowned. “Why? I don’t even know you man, why would you do something like that?”
“Because I wanted to. That’s why. I’m going to use you to get to someone who had my son killed. Blood for blood. I want my revenge and I want the man who took my MC down. I’ve been watching you bucko and you’re my way into the Savaged Souls MC.”
Jett frowned. “But I’m not one of them. I belong to the Soldiers of Hades MC.”
“Oh, I know but you want one the daughters of the president and she’s one of them isn’t she? I can use her to get to the ones I really want. I want Gunner and DeeDee along with Winona and Dana. Then I want the man who murdered my family to feel my wrath before I kill him.”
“How do you know this man is even there? And who the hell is your son?” Jett snarled.
The older man straightened his shoulders. “I know he’s there. I’ve been watching this group for a while now and I’ve seen this murdering bastard come and go. My son was a member of this group even though he was working his own trade and hustle. It was shortly after I found DeeDee that she led me to find this group. After watching them for a few weeks, I found that murdering bastard. I waited for over twenty years to find that punk and now I’ve found him and I’m not letting him go.” He began to pace. “It took me over a year to recover from his attack almost twenty fucking years ago. I had to go into hiding to recover and I hate hiding. Only a god dammed coward hides but I had to get my strength back. Then when I went looking for the bastard, it took me eighteen years to find him.” He fisted his hands as his eyes burned with pure hatred.
Jett could almost feel the rage in his body pulsing out in waves of hatred. He tried to wet his lips but had no spit to do it with. His throat was dry and scratchy. “So, why did you bring me here?”
“I told you I’m going to use you to get to Gunner and DeeDee. Then I’m going to get to Gunner’s daughters. They sentenced my boy to death. I want to watch Gunner and his tramp to go crazy while waiting to see if I’ll kill his girls or not. I heard they dragged my boy out to the woods and bled him waiting for the wolves to finish him off. Maybe I’ll do the same thing for their kids.”
“You’re insane.” Jett growled.
“I don’t fucking care!” the older man shouted. “He killed my son. He murdered him almost as if he stuck a knife in his back.”
“Actually, if you are referring to Gunner, he did nothing of the kind,” Jett informed him. “Gunner wouldn’t vote on Blacky. He wouldn’t use his position as President to sway the vote. It was a tribunal decision.”
“I don’t care!” he shouted and he stomped closer to where Jett was.
He struck Jett’s face with a clenched fist and hard enough that his head snapped back. Fresh blood washed down from his broken nose.
The other man stepped away. He walked over to the table and grabbed up Jett’s phone. Going back over to Jett, he reached up and using Jett’s thumb he opened his phone and took a picture with the camera app.
Jett’s body then sagged as unconsciousness claimed him again.
Dana sat alone in the main room of the club. The guys were all on guard and the front gate was locked tight. She thought Jett would have been here long before now, but he wasn’t here yet. She was beginning to think he wouldn’t come back for her and he would have a good reason.
Everyone else had gone to bed a long time ago. So Dana was sitting in the dark waiting for someone who may or may not return to the compound. She’d been hoping he would come back for her but now her doubts were creeping in and she was beginning to wonder if she’d misread the promise in his words.
She felt so alone. She began looking back on her actions and realized she had put herself at the bottom of the barrel. She had slunk as low as she could go. Her heart was breaking but she couldn’t even shed a tear. She realized just how wrong she had been for treating Winona and DeeDee like shit but, she just couldn’t keep herself from snapping at them. Things had been changing around here and she couldn’t handle change. She hadn’t wanted her dad to love anyone but her. She knew this was selfish on her part but that was how she’d always felt growing up.
Then Winona came through the doors and things were being ripped from her. Everything in her life was slipping away and she couldn’t stand it. Pulling her legs up on the chair, she wrapped her arms around her knees and stared at the phone in her hand. For the first time in her life, she felt broken and sad. She let out a long sigh. And she couldn’t understand why she hadn’t heard from Jett.
Had he already changed his mind and given up on her? She didn’t want to even think about that. She didn’t want it to be over, not yet. When she looked at her screen, it was still blank and her hand began to tremble. She laid her head on her knees and closed her eyes. Her mind was going a mile a minute and coming up with no real conclusion. Did they run into trouble when they went to Moss Bluff? Or did they just go back to where they'd come from? Did Jett just decide that she wasn't worth the effort?
Her head pounded as her thoughts were going round and round. She kept trying to hold on to her hate for Winona and DeeDee but Jett's words kept drifting in. 'My woman will be a real woman, not a spoiled child.' She heard the clock in the kitchen begin to chime, noting that it was four in the morning. Dana held her hands over her ears, as she wanted to scream.
Then she heard the pinging on her phone, announcing she was getting a message. She sucked in a breath with anticipation. A smile crept across her lips...It was from Jett! She gasped and almost screamed as a photo popped up on her screen. Blinking at the image, she started to tremble as her hand went to cover her mouth. Jett was bleeding while hanging there with his hands tied to a hook on the ceiling.
He looked like he’d gone three rounds with a prize fighter and lost. His clothes were torn and his body bloody. His face was all beat up and she could see fresh blood below his nose. His eyes were swollen with blood running down from his wrists where the ties were digging into his skin.
Her heart broke. Taking in the whole picture, something clicked in her mind about the background— it seemed familiar to her. Wracking her brain, she found something behind Jett that seemed very familiar to her. Her eyes widened as she realized that she knew where he was.
She might not know how he got there or who took him but she did know where he was. She figured the sun would be up in a couple of hours. She looked down the hall to where her father was. She should tell someone about this but who? Would anyone even listen to her?
Looking down at the picture again, she began to shed tears when she realized she did care for him. Cared for him a lot. She couldn’t stand that he was suffering. She wiped the tears away and knew what she had to do. She had to save him. She was all alone in this, as the club hated her.
She went to her bedroom and changed her clothes. Slipping on her shoes, she remembered had GPS in her sneakers. She made sure she had them on and prayed they still had the GPS unit working. If it was, they could track her and find them both if something went wrong.
Just before she left, she forwarded the picture she got to father’s cell, then to Boone’s phone. She knew they might not see it until they woke up but it was the best she could do for now.
Dana then made her way down the hall to the kitchen. She would have to sneak out using her old way to get out of the compound, but she was determined to leave undetected. She hadn’t use
d the back way in a number of years but when she was younger, it had worked a number of times for her to escape so she could go party with her friends.
Keeping to the shadows, she made it all the way to the back fence line before she hit her first obstacle. A year or two ago, the men had secured the fence line so it wouldn’t be easy to get through. She paused for a moment to think about the fact that there might be someone waiting for her on the other side but that thought was fleeting as she imagined what Jett was going through. He could be dead by the time anyone came to rescue him.
She began to climb over the fence. Once she reached the top, she took a deep breath and jumped down on the other side. Then she ran into the tree line and disappeared into the darkness.
The sound of the fence sensor woke Rigger up from sleep. At first, he didn’t know what the sound was but then he sat up quickly and looked over at his security monitor. When he saw a flashing red light, he bolted up to check it out.
He checked the tapes and saw Dana climbing up and over the fence, then jumping down on the other side. Rigger looked at the time and debated on whether to wake up Gunner or not but decided he didn’t want to have his ass kicked by his prez. Yes, the girl was exasperating and violated the lockdown orders but she was also his daughter.
He pulled his pants on and walked down the hall to Gunner’s door. Knocking softly, he hoped not to wake DeeDee.
Gunner yanked the door open a couple of minutes later, glaring at the other man. “What the fuck Rigger?”
“I’m sorry boss but you need to see this.”
“Let me grab my phone,” Gunner mumbled going back into the bedroom. When he returned, he motioned for Rigger to lead the way.
Rigger walked back to his bedroom and rewound the security tapes. “The alarm woke me and I saw this. Dana set off one of the sensors.”
Gunner watched as Dana went over the fence and disappeared into the trees. He swore under his breath and opened his phone to call his daughter. He paused when he found that she’d sent him a message and went to open it. What he saw shocked him. “Son of a bitch!” Gunner swore. He looked over at Rigger. “Wake everyone up. Dana’s going to get herself killed. We have to find her.”