Smiling, Sawyer motioned with a wave of his arm for her to follow Tucker.
Zora walked down to the basement and saw the crowd of men standing around the sparing ring. Kade stood in it in that fucking stance she was coming to hate. When she stopped, Sawyer nudged her forward to the open pen door.
Tech stepped up with a black hemp rope in his hands. “So, Doc says we have to be careful with your wrists. That is where I come in.”
Zora looked around her. The men here were the ones that had come on the mission to save her. Fourteen in total. “No.”
Kade left the ring and took Sawyer’s place behind her, caging her with his arm around her waist as she tried to back away. “You put a lot of men at risk. A risk they took without being asked, but still would have not been needed if you had not felt the need to do things on your own.”
Zora watched as Tech placed the rope around her under her arms that Sawyer was holding at her elbows out in front of her. “I don’t want this. Red.”
Kade shook his head. “Sorry, little one. But it doesn’t work that way. Normally, we would take this to Nelson’s club but, frankly, I’m too damn tired.”
Zora knew the life. She had lived with a guy in college that had taught her about it. She reveled in it. But a group punishment? She had seen them with two or three doms. But there were over a dozen men in this room. And what would they do?
Sawyer saw the fear on her face and gave her a small smile as Tech rigged the pretty knotted harness over her chest and up each arm to where Kade held her elbows. He lowered his voice so only the four of them would hear him. “Do you think that Kade would let anyone touch you that way?”
Zora looked over her shoulder at the man that was holding most of her weight now that her knees were rubbery with nerves. Kade bent and kissed her softly on the lips in answer.
Tech tugged and tested the ropes. “Did you know that I am a shibari master?”
Zora shook her head at him. She was looking down at the knots and rope that made a pretty harness over her tank and bra. She was relieved that they were not going to strip her down like she had saw before.
“This is modified since we can’t use your wrists. I will be there in case something pinches or doesn’t feel right. You let me know right away.”
Zora watched him pat a pair of surgical scissors in his back pocket. Kade took the ends Tech held out to him and pulled her into the ring. A block and tackle was hung from the beam above it and Zora gulped at the sight of it.
Kade took the ends, stretched them up and tied them off. He then nodded over Zora’s shoulder and someone began pulling another rope that would make her stretch. Balanced on the balls of her feet, Zora kept her eyes on Kade. Deep down, she knew she deserved this. The frame of mind she went to when in submissive mode told her that this would clear her slate with these men. Men who had put their own lives in danger for her. Men who had people who depended on them. How would she have faced those people if one had gotten hurt? Killed?
Kade stepped up and cupped Zora’s cheek. “Have you ever had a caning?”
Zora closed her eyes. Fuck. She nodded.
“Eyes.”
Zora opened hers to look into the dark ones of Kade. He did not look pleased that another had taken such an instrument to her but they both were not virgins and their past did not matter. She was not going to ask him about the other women he had played with.
“Why and how many lashes?”
Taking a deep breath, Zora remained looking up at the man in front of her as his hands went to the snap of her pants. She should have known that it would not be done over her clothing. “Ten, for drinking and driving.”
Sawyer growled behind her. “You got off easy.”
“I only hit a parked car. No one was hurt except where the air bag hit me.”
Kade pulled her pants down and left them pooled at the tops of her boots. He grabbed the waist of her thong and pulled it up and father into her cheeks. He would not bare more of her then was needed. “Each man gets to give you a stripe.”
Four more than the last time she had had a cane used. Zora nodded and watched as Kade took the rattan cane that Ghost held out. It was slightly thinner in diameter than her pinky and would hurt like hell. Taking a deep breath, she willed her muscles to relax as tensing would make them closer to the surface and it hurt more. Sawyer took Kade’s place and put his hands on her lower ribs to hold her. Usually a caned person was restrained with more than she was to keep them from moving but she guessed they were working with what they had.
The swish did little to warn her for the first strike dead center across her ass cheeks. Zora arched in spite of Sawyer’s hands holding her. Her cry echoed through the room. Somewhere in the building, she knew her dogs were having a fit if they heard her.
Kade walked back around, handing the cane back to Ghost. The big Hawaiian took it and handed it to one of the men waiting his turn. Planting himself back in front of Zora, Kade placed his hands on her hips, digging his fingers in to hold her.
Zora took a deep breath and willed herself away from it. The last time she had been caned she had stepped away mentally as well. It had allowed her to deal with the pain of the punishment. It had cleansed her of the wrong she had done. Her ex had said she had done well and that was end of it. All the wrong she had done had been wiped away. It would be now too.
Soon only the remaining men were the officers and her ass was on fire. Ten stripes. Tucker walked into the room and tossed a tube of arnica to Ghost and took the cane. He stepped up and did not make her wait for it like some of the others had. Tech was next and did the same. The harness and Kade were all that was holding her up now. Laying her head forward onto his chest, she panted out her breath. Ghost took his stance and swung.
Holy fuck! He could have tempered that back a notch! Zora let the tears fall now that only these men were left in the room. Sawyer was next.
“You going to go off campus again without permission?”
Zora shook her head.
“You going to let Kade own you?”
Zora looked up at the man in question.
She had accused him of killing her father. Tried to kill him herself. But he had come for her. No questions asked. He wanted to own her. Protect her. Even if it had only been days, she needed to tell him something. “Kocham Cię.”
Kade smiled. And it was the sexiest thing she had ever saw. He returned the sentiment in perfect Polish. “Kocham Cię.”
Sawyer looked at his friend over Zora’s shoulder. “Good to know that ya’ll love each other but that doesn’t answer my question.”
Zora was a little surprised that they knew Polish. Kade loved her back. “Yes.”
Sawyer gave her the last stripe of the cane.
~Chapter Fourteen~
Kade rolled over and got hot dog breath in his face. Opening his eyes, he looked into the face of Rico who was staring at him with those eyes that said he wanted to go out. Skipper and Private were looking at him the same way. Sitting up, he looked around the room, expecting to see Zora either in the bathroom or putting on clothes to take the dogs out. Picking up his phone he looked at the time. Five-thirty.
Four months and the woman was rarely with him when he woke up. Growling, he tossed the blankets off and reached for the jeans he had taken off the night before climbing in bed with his wife and spanking her ass red before sliding into her moist heat.
Wife. She was his now on paper. Had been for a week. And the honeymoon was over. He was going to turn her over his knee and give her a real spanking for not being where she was supposed to be.
Tromping down the stairs, he took the dogs out first. He could not wait for their house to be finished and they would have access to a yard without him having to get out of bed to open doors. He had ordered the custom steel door yesterday. A bulletproof flap that only opened with the coded key tag that would be mounted to each dogs’ collar. Could never be too careful with security.
The sounds of keys clacking gre
eted him as he and the dogs went down to the basement level of the clubhouse after finding no sign of life except for an empty coffee pot on the main floor. Sighing, he turned to the ops cage and stopped. Zora was there alright but so was Tech. “What the fuck Tech? You’re supposed to keep her out of there, not join in at the ass crack of dawn.”
Tech looked over his shoulder before turning back to the screen he was working at. “I was going to do that. Got the alert that someone unlocked the gate and came down to find Zora at work here.”
Kade stood in his normal mad alpha stance of arms crossed over his chest and legs shoulder width apart. “And instead of dragging her out, you what?”
Tech sighed and swiveled his chair around. Best to just explain so he could get back to work. “She explained why she was here, and I am helping.”
Kade arched a brow as bare feet slapping concrete came up behind him. Sawyer stepped up next to him in loose cotton sleep pants, rubbing his head, making his hair stick out. “What the fuck Tech?”
Zora snorted.
Tech looked over at her for help, but she ignored him. “She had a dream.”
The two men looking at him did not seem amused. Best to get it explained.
“Dream or memory, whatever it was, she needed to check it out. Seems Mayhem was tearing down the unit that went off, not building it.”
The men were awake now. Sawyer looked to the screens, focusing in the one on the left wall of the cage where an email account was open. “Wait, he was taking it apart? Why was he building it in the first place?”
Zora came up from what she was doing to answer. “Cause you ordered it.”
Sawyer shook his head. “No, I didn’t. We had nothing going on at that time that would need his skills.”
Kade walked over to where his little wife was working and looked at the screen. It looked like banking information. “What is going on?”
Tech walked over to the screen with the emails and motioned to the quad of memos that looked to have come from Sawyer to Mayhem ordering a device for a job. “Mayhem got an email stating that you needed another ‘hole maker’ like the one used on the Los Reyes de Oro.”
Sawyer read over the email Tech was pointing at. He did not send that. The things going at that precise moment that the club had open were the usual protection cases and a missing person. Nothing that would need anything bigger than sidearms.
Tech motioned to the second two where were Mayhem had replied and been put off for the money owed and then the drop off point and time. “We think this is where he got suspicious. The last email is where he said he was coming in to talk to you about this all.”
Zora looked up from the accounts she was hacking. She was tracing the money flow and rerouting it somewhere else from the look of amounts being drained. “I was attacked that same night.”
Tech motioned to the screen next to the one with emails with Zora’s hospital records. “He never came to talk to you obviously. He got the message loud and clear.”
Sawyer looked over as Zora picked up the line. “He thought someone in his club was sending him a warning. But he didn’t know how far it went. That is why he cut himself off from you all. Never saying anything about me being attacked. Not asking Tech for help with his security with me being injured even though he could have used the help.”
Kade looked at the money slowly disappearing again. “It wasn’t his club. It was Hernandez. He admitted it before you buried him a mountain.”
Sawyer held up a finger before anyone could say more. There was more obviously and there was no sense on saying it twice. “Send this upstairs. I’m calling church.”
~Chapter Fifteen~
Zora had never been in this room as only those that were not club members were ever in here in the instance like the night of her arrival. It was heavily reinforced and was a panic room of sorts for a large group. The table would sit twenty with more seating along the long wall across from the double doors and chairs on each side those same doors. Behind the chair at the head of the table were flag stands. The United States flag and one for each branch of the military as well as the club flag. Carved into the middle of the table was the club logo of a flying crow carrying a skull and the motto ibi semper, always there, in Latin, filled with epoxy to make a glass like surface.
Sawyer sat at the head with Kade to his right. The rest of the officers minus Tech filled in the seats closest to Sawyer’s end with the remaining filled in with active men by seniority. In all there were almost forty people in the room. Since it was so early, coffee was the drink of choice. Tech walked up to the wall directly across from Sawyer and picked up a remote from a low shelf and clicked it at the blank space.
Zora watched as the upper two-thirds of the wall lowered and a large screen like the one below them in the basement powered on. These men were not your usual motorcycle vigilante club. Their technology was top of the line, government rating or higher.
Picking up a stack of debriefing folders, Tech handed them to the man seated at the end of the table left. “Stitch, hand these out.”
Zora watched as all the information that she and Tech had ferreted out was dispersed. She had asked him why paper and not something easier like tablets were being used. He had told her as they punched holes and put the files together that all intel, no matter what it was or who was monitoring it, could be hacked but paper could not. Made sense.
Pointing to the screen, Tech pulled up the emails and caught the men present up. “Let me fill you all in on something we all should have known. Hernandez was Los Reyes de Oro.”
A grumble of anger washed the room. A brother was the enemy.
“His grandmother was the half-sister of the last leader, Don Marco. She was the product of the Don’s father raping a village girl in a show of force when they thought to rebel against growing the cocaine that fueled his pipeline.” Tech let the men absorb that before he hit them with another blow.
“His cousin Tomás, who was in line to be next to step up as Don Marco’s grandson, went down in that raid as we all know. That left Hernandez the new general, even with his half Oso blood. He had friends still in this club.” The men looked to the few empty seats that should have been filled with brothers at so important a meeting.
Tech looked to Kade who was sitting back in his chair watching the screen play out the body cam footage of the raid. It had to be Hernandez’s since he was on Kade’s crew that day. It was now looking at Kade trying to pull a cowering woman from a room while returning fire. The woman made to run the wrong direction and Kade jerked her towards his waiting team. Tech froze the image just as the woman was hit just before she and Kade cleared the doors. “That is Hernandez’s mother. We have no idea why she was there. But Zora has a theory.”
Zora watched the resumed footage with the rest as the woman went to fall and Kade picked her up in a fireman’s carry and retreated with her behind Hernandez. The camera showed the doors to the room the woman had been pulled from being kicked in and all occupants being gunned down with an automatic rifle. The Don and all his lieutenants were dead in less than a minute. Including Hernandez’s cousin, Tomás.
“When a person or persons wants to take over anything, they can do a few things to do this. They can get rebels to do it for them or they can do it themselves. In the case of Hernandez, he had rebels. And if the person being removed from power found out, then they might take someone or something important hostage, like a mother.” Zora turned to look at the men in the room. Many were not following this round about thinking this early in the morning.
Sawyer thumped his fist down on the table and leaned forward in his chair to glare at the screen where it showed Hernandez looking at the sheet covered body of his mother at the end of the raid. He was for sure getting what was being laid out. “Are you telling me that Hernandez used us like a rebel force to take over from his Uncle?”
Zora pulled up Sawyer’s email. The orders were no longer encrypted so that all could read them. “He has skills or so
meone with them. This looks to have come from the ATF, but it didn’t. Just like the emails to my father look to have come from you but didn’t. Add to that that I traced the money paid for the assignment to the accounts I was in this morning.”
Tech pulled up footage from the college library cameras. “This is the attack on Zora. If she hadn’t sensed something, she would have been dead. But that is not what I want to show you. This guy…”
He pointed at the man in the frozen frame with his back to the camera just as he stabs Zora. Tech then pulled up the man from the hidden cameras on the night that Mayhem died with a flick of his fingers on the screen and the tabs along the bottom, lining them up, side by side. “…And this guy. Are the same. And he isn’t Horde even if he wears our cut.”
Kade sat forward, his eyes on Zora. It was not him as he always said. And he knew she knew it as well, but it was even more obvious with two images next to each other. Beside the fact that the guy who attacked Zora did not have gauges, it was what was peeking out of his collar in both images that gave it away. “I don’t have a tattoo on the back of my head.”
Zora knew every inch of ink on the man speaking’s body. He had ink across his shoulders and down each arm but not up on to his neck. “The gauges are fake.”
The room turned to the pictures on the screen. How had she missed that? She was still smacking herself on the forehead for that. But then she had not compared the two feeds of video.
Tech dropped the photos and pulled up the banking information that Zora had been working on. This was going to be another hard pill for the room to swallow. “The cartel is still active. And not up until our op or even the explosion active, but still, as in working, to this very minute.”
The room erupted. The raid was to have shut down Los Reyes de Oso. No more Golden Kings to ferry their brand of poison up into the States and other countries. All that work had been for nothing.
Tech held up his hands to silence the room. “Zora tracked the money into this account and thanks to her, it is being rerouted as fast as it comes in into another which will be disbursed like always. Currently though, the cartel and the bank think the money is there until we say otherwise.”
Kade Page 8