Some and the Flame

by Michelle, Christine

  “I can’t even remember the last time one of our men was up here,” I started to tell him and then it hit me. I knew exactly when the last time someone had been here was. When we helped Shep’s family out, I brought the women here to stay for a couple days until he could get them set up with a solid place to stay since his apartment was only an open plan studio. I did my best to keep the thought from showing in my face. “Keep me in the loop on what you find in there, yeah?”

  He slapped my shoulder. “You know I will, son. Damn shame this happened. You think you guys will rebuild them or finally let this place go?” His words were solemn as he waited for the news of whether he’d be seeing me around again after this.

  “I’m not sure. I’m going to check in with Ghost and let him know what’s up so far. We’ll have a better idea of where to go in the future once we find out what exactly happened here.”

  “You do that, and Smoke?” He glanced back at me once more before I could walk away. “Try to keep me in the loop too. I was really rooting for you boys to move in up here. Hell, if Travis were still alive, he’d have been all over himself trying to prospect for you.”

  I smiled at the man. “That would have made us family, because I have no doubt he’d have been an asset if he was anything like you.” I meant it too. “I’ll check with you before you take off, Womack.”

  He nodded and then went back to looking over something on the laptop he had with him. I made sure to walk off to a more secure area before I put the call in to Ghost.

  “Talk to me,” he answered.

  “Two barns down, the third smaller one is still standing despite scorch marks where someone attempted to take it out too and didn’t have time to make sure the fire caught.”

  “Any clue as to who the fuck managed to do get most of the job done?”

  “Not yet, but I’m developing a theory. We brought Shep’s mom and sister here after we got them away.”

  “Okay, I’ll have the guys run the info. You want to give Shep a call?”

  “Not yet,” I explained as I looked up and noticed Chief headed my way. “Looks like Chief has something to add. I’m going to gather more intel and get back to you. Seems the only plausible theory we have right now though.

  “Keep me posted, and Smoke?”

  “Yeah?”

  “If this is because of our involvement with Shep’s situation, I do not want you carrying that weight on your shoulders.”

  “You know better,” I told him as I hung up. Sure, I’d feel bad because ultimately it was me that dragged the club into Shep’s situation, but I would do it all over again because there was no way I would leave Shep’s mom and sister to suffer the fate that awaited them had we not stepped in. They were both about to become nothing more than sex slaves to pay off his step-father’s debt. There wasn’t a man in our club who wouldn’t step in and make sure that never happened.

  “What do you have?” I asked Chief as he came up on my side.

  “Was that Ghost?” I nodded. “Well, it looks like we had some visitors that maybe we have seen around before.”

  “You tapped into the security feed from here?”

  “Yeah, but just the one we hid in the tree line,” he tipped his head toward where we had a camera hidden in the trees just in case the ones by the building were ever compromised. “Got a good look at a white cargo van that was in here. Looks like the stormed through the buildings looking for something, and didn’t find what they wanted to. They left empty handed and came back to torch the place. I have some half-ass decent images of the two assholes who were doing the dirty work. One of them I recognized.”

  “When we helped Shep?”

  “Yeah, it was one of the goons we found watching the house there.” Chief sighed before going on. “It’s looking like these guys have some sort of mob connection or something, man. I’m not sure what Ghost is going to want to do, but I think Shep needs to consider getting his family gone from the area. If these assholes were able to find where we stashed the girls for a few days they will, no doubt, find them back in Cedar Falls.”

  “I’ll let him know.” Before we could manage anything else, the ground beneath our feet shook as the third barn went up in a blazing inferno. The heat from the blast actually reached us even though we were far enough away that we hadn’t been able to feel the radiating warmth from the other fires. Yelling, and movement of the men attending the fires bled into the chaos that surrounded us after the barn went up. I glanced at Chief and then back into the scattering bodies.

  “Mother fucker!” I heard Womack growl out into the night. “Who went in?”

  Two names were called out and immediately my stomach plummeted. “Jesus fuck! The department just lost two of their own. They aren’t gonna be able to let this investigation slide one bit now,” I commented quickly to Chief. “Call Ghost, fill him in. The third barn was rigged. The scorch marks were probably there for appearances so we wouldn’t think about what was waiting for us inside there.”

  Chief shook his head in disbelief. “What the fuck were they doing going inside there anyway?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m about to find out.” I tipped my chin to Womack who was storming my way.

  “You want to tell me what you know now? Two of my men might not make it after that blast!” Womack’s seething shouts were not unexpected. Still, it was obvious I’d already been cooperating.

  “We don’t know any more than you do. Besides, your men should have known better than to go charging into a building that hadn’t been secured yet considering foul play was expected here,” I informed him of something he already knew. Then I poked a finger toward the building that was now nothing more than timber and flame consuming everything around the steel vault that had been placed inside it. “You saw the fucking scorch marks. Whoever did this gave your guys a fucking warning that none of them heeded. Did you see my ass storming in my own fucking building to check on things? No, because I knew it hadn’t been cleared yet!” I screamed back at the man. I was just as angry over his men’s fuck up as he was. I wouldn’t be his whipping boy though. “They probably just single-handedly got rid of the evidence we needed to collect in order to find out for sure who did this.”

  Womack snatched the cap he wore off his head and threw it with the might of a man who just found out he had the whole world resting on his shoulders. “I want the fucking surveillance tapes you guys have. We want a crack at whoever was responsible for this too.”

  I gave him a nod, though I refused to give him a promise because depending on how the club handled this situation, it might become incriminating for us to do so. “I’ll do what I can, but no telling when the feeds were killed. If they were tampered with before the fires, or what.”

  He crewed his eyes up tight, lips pulled to thin lines on his craggy face as he took a deep breath in and then let it out again. “Do your best, Smoke, but make no mistake I will not let this one simply rest. Those are my men,” he explained pointing his hand in the direction of where two men were being placed on stretchers to be taken to the nearest trauma center.

  “We’ll make sure their expenses are seen to,” I told him. It was the least we could do as a club since they were hurt on our property trying to help us out.

  “Fat lot of good that’s going to do them if they don’t make it.”

  What could I say to that? Nothing. He didn’t give me a moment to attempt to placate him either. Womack walked away heading in the direction of the rescue squads that were heading out with the men who had been injured. “This is a cluster fuck of epic proportions,” Chief mentioned.

  “Did you let Ghost know what just happened?”

  “Yeah, I did. He wants us both to stay put long enough for you to be able to get in there once the flames are out. He wants answers, but he also wants everything we have underground kept secure until he can get the rest of the guys up here to pull it all out.”

  “Fuck,” I growled out. “I need to call Shep and Kent.”

&nb
sp; “Don’t you mean you need to call Poppy?”

  “I need to talk to them first and see what they’re willing to do for her. If they can’t get her home safely, then I will have to call one of the club women to run up there with a prospect or something.” I mumbled as I was basically thinking out loud.

  “Get to it then. I’m sure my sister is worried, and not to mention she’s been left with two men she hardly knows.”

  “You know,” I told him as I threw my hand up to indicate the mess we were standing in the middle of. “I didn’t exactly have a choice.”

  “I fucking know, and it still pisses me off, so deal with it.”

  Chapter 7

  One thing after another was bound and determined to keep me from getting back to Poppy. I finally had to ask Kent and Shep to make sure she got home okay, and it killed me to do it. Hell, Chief nearly killed me for having to make that call too. At least, he threatened it until I pointed out that he wasn’t exactly in a position to go back for her either.

  “We need to call a lock down,” I suggested to Ghost when I finally got some information and had to call him back. “I’ve already let Shep know that his family needs to remain hidden for a while, but I think these fuckers are going to keep coming at us until we produce them.”

  “What the fuck kind of shit was his step-dad into?”

  “The mafia, for a few large apparently. I think one of them was looking forward to having Shep’s sister as payment though.” I swore when I glanced down at what looked like a human remain sitting at my feet outside the barn. The locals had missed something here after the explosion. I didn’t know what to do with that sight and ended up staring at the digit that sat in the dirt near the toe of my well-worn leather boot. “They aren’t afraid of making a statement considering they just took out a few cops with the explosion they had rigged. Either they thought we’d go charging in our own building, or they were purposely trying to turn the heat up for us with the law.”

  “Either way, I think you’re right. I just sent out a lockdown notice to everyone.”

  “What about Poppy?”

  I could almost hear the smile in Ghost’s voice when he answered. “Leanne went to get her.”

  “You have someone on Leanne?”

  “Of fucking course, I have someone on Leanne. I ain’t sending my woman out there unprotected.”

  “Soph, Bender, and Brant?” I asked after the rest of my family.

  “Haven’t been able to get a hold of them. Bender mentioned them taking a short trip earlier today though.” He sighed. “Been trying to call them back, but you know Bender. They go on their little family excursions and he doesn’t answer shit.”

  “Yeah, sometimes hate the fucker for that, but I’m Soph’s brother too, so I have to love the fact that he’s putting them first.”

  “We’ll keep trying to get a hold of them. I’ve put 911 texts in to both of their phones in case they turn them back on.”

  “Appreciate it, brother.”

  “Get me something we can use,” Ghost demanded.

  “Working on it.” It wasn’t a lie, but there wasn’t a fuck of a lot to go on since most of the evidence had been blown to smithereens, and what was left had been collected by the cops and then trampled over by the fire department as they too went through looking for anything the cops left behind.

  “Anything?” Chief asked as he moved closer to me, noticing the thumb that I had been staring at on the ground. “Jesus! You’d think they would have at least made sure to get all of their men’s parts.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “They’re too close.”

  “Yeah, that’s why shit’s gonna end up fucked,” Chief muttered. He wasn’t wrong either. It was already showing in their sloppy collection activity.

  “Leanne is taking Poppy into lockdown with her,” I informed him since he was her brother.

  “Good.” He sighed heavily then. “Heard some shit from Snake before that never sat right with me.” I turned to watch as he tried to reel his anger in. “When the men in Georgia were dealing with the human trafficking ring, the fucking third wave of those fuckers coming into their territory trying to fuck with their shit, Poppy was left home alone in a farmhouse that had no fuckin’ protection. Bastard didn’t tell me until after the fact.”

  “What the fuck?”

  “Probably making sure the club whores didn’t whisper anything in her ear about his habits.”

  “Motherfucker!” I snapped. “It’s getting past time we took a ride to Georgia to straighten this fucker out.”

  “Nope,” Chief disagreed.

  “What the fuck do you mean by nope?”

  “He’ll get what’s coming to him, but you have to keep your hands clean. Poppy wouldn’t want that. She wouldn’t want the drama of club brothers going at each other and causing strife. Trust me on that. Hell, she’s better to the club than that particular chapter deserves, but I promise you, she’ll be pissed if you do anything against Walker.”

  “I feel like my hands are tied behind my back and I’m walking this tight rope blindfolded.”

  “I know it, brother. Let everything sort itself and settle. Then, we’ll have a come to Jesus meeting with the asshole who couldn’t take care of my sister properly. I promise you. It’s coming.” He tipped his chin down towards the digit that was still taunting me. Something about it set me off and it didn’t settle in until that moment. “Let’s get this shit to the cops.

  “Nah, we’re not gonna do that.”

  “Why the fuck not?”

  “This little digit doesn’t belong to them. Check out that ring. Know many cops that wear a pinky ring?”

  Chief leaned in to take a better look. “Holy fuck. One of those bastards blew himself up?”

  “Looks like it. Must have come from the initial blaze or explosion.” I pulled a knife from my belt and knelt to stab the thumb. Then I brought it up closer to my face to check out the jewelry on the damn thing just a little closer. The ring was a golden revolver cylinder with one chamber filled and topped with what looked like a ruby. There was also a partial tattoo present at the base of the thumb where it would have connected to the index finger.

  “You know what that is?”

  I nodded my head. “I do because a guy that used to run with the club for a while back when I was prospecting had one. VTK. It’s Russian and used to indicate that the person was in a labor camp before they were 18. It’s a youth offender designation.”

  “Think it’s the same guy you knew from back then?”

  “No. Couldn’t be. He fucking died in a fire, of all things, not too long after I met him. The bastard was shacked up in a crack den that burned to the damn ground with him and two others in it.”

  “You sure about that?”

  The more I stared at the ink on the thumb, the more my worry became a real thing. These people weren’t ones to be trifled with. We had a huge club with a shitload of chapters throughout the country, but we were also a club on the cusp of trying to go filly legit. Throwing down with the Russian Mafia could derail those plans exponentially, especially if the outcome – like buildings blowing up cops – put us on the radar of the feds. Our guys in Tallahassee were almost free of their gun running responsibilities they had to pick up ten years back as a result of a deal they needed to make in order to get rid of some corrupt ass government officials and their family who had been terrorizing the area and the chapter’s president’s old lady.

  “I’m sure enough to know we should all probably be shaking in our boots.”

  “You don’t think we can take them?”

  “It’s not about that. We have to worry about how deep the fallout will roll, how many people will end up dead in the wake, and how many eyes we have on us just as we’re pulling out of the last of the shit that keeps us dirty.”

  “Well, fuck!” Chief hissed out as he walked off again and raised his cell back to his ear, speaking to someone on the other end.

  We were just about to leave
when Womack pulled up on the scene his men had torn apart the day before. He didn’t bother getting out of his vehicle, just rolled the window down and handed me a large brown envelope. “Not so sure I should be doing this, but it’s in my head that you boys wouldn’t bring this sort of attention down on yourselves. I have to think there’s good reason for it.” I nodded my head indicating that there was. “Thought that might be the case. That’s everything we gathered so far. Catalogued it all, cops gave us their list, and we’re working this jointly considering. Do what you need to with that information, but don’t let it out of your sight because you’ll never see it from me again. That’s all the help I can give you boys.” He tipped his head up and started to roll his window back up and thought better of it before turning back and sending a warning of his own. “Might want to tell Ghost to start lookin’ for some new property. Think this site is just about used up all the welcome you boys were ever gonna get.”

  “It’s been a pleasure, Womack,” I called out.

  “Wish I could say it ended the same, Smoke.” With a shake of his head, and a swipe at his window control Womack cut himself off from us and took off back down the bumpy, unpaved road that brought him out here.

  “Let’s get this back,” I suggested before tucking the envelope of papers into my saddlebags.

  We were halfway home when my cell phone would not stop buzzing in my pocket. I finally got fed up and decided answering it was better than wondering what the hell had them calling me so frantically. “Yeah?” I asked into the receiver after pulling off the interstate.

  “How close are you?” Ghost’s gruff voice had the hairs on my arms standing on end.