AJ

by Jessie Cooke

  AJ chuckled and said, “The rez.”

  “You ready to put that big Native American cock in my Irish-Italian pussy?”

  AJ pushed up on his arms, kissed her lips, and said, “I thought you’d never ask.”

  25

  Missouri

  The four men drove like bats out of hell, with Lion in the lead, until they were about five miles from the truck stop. Lion finally pulled off onto a service road that led to a dirt road on a spread of private property before he finally stopped. He pulled off his helmet and listened for sirens as the others pulled in. He didn’t hear any; hopefully they’d taken off in time that no one had been able to follow them. Finn was parked next to him and he handed him the phone he’d gotten out of the trash can in the minimart. Lion took his own phone out and punched in Hunter’s number.

  “Yeah?”

  “Hunter, it’s Lion. I need a trace on this number.” He rattled off the number from the incoming calls and texts on the phone. There were two phone calls and eight text messages, all from the same number. “It’s probably a burner phone.”

  “S’alright,” Hunter said. “Gimme a few and I’ll call you back.” Hunter worked as a bounty hunter with his cousin and they both had developed a lot of contacts all over the country on both sides of the law. Lion prayed that he could get a GPS location on it quickly...if they hadn’t tossed it already. Once he finished that call, he made the hard one. The phone on the other end rang four times and then went to voicemail. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed, but he ended it without leaving a message and dialed Dax. He answered on the first ring.

  “Dax, they got Madison.”

  “Fuck. Angelo and Anthony are out of the picture,” Dax said, not giving him any more details than that. “We haven’t been able to find Eugene, though. Was it him?”

  “I would chance a guess that he was pulling the strings.” Lion told Dax what happened in a nutshell and then said, “Hunter’s tracing the phone and we’re just waiting for him to call back. I tried to reach Hawk, to let him know, but he’s not answering his phone.”

  “He broke it.” Dax said. “Threw it at me and missed.” Lion shook his head. Fucking Hawk. “How the hell did Eugene find her?” Dax said. “You’re all riding without your colors, right? And changing your route every day? You’re using burner phones?”

  “Yep, and Madison hasn’t even had a phone since they picked her up in Lake Havasu. I know Hawk called Jace right before we left and Jace wouldn’t let him talk to Madison, he just told him we were all ready to take off and that was that. You think they have a trace on his phone?”

  “Fuck, maybe. Asshole wasn’t supposed to be involved in this at all. I told him we were handling it and as far as we knew, they didn’t even know who she was. I should have locked him in the fucking tunnels.”

  Lion almost smiled at that. “Maybe they found out. That’s the only possible way I can think of that they found us.”

  “How many guys did Jace send with you from Phoenix?”

  “Three.”

  “You trust them?”

  Lion trusted Finn and as much as Bubba annoyed him, he trusted him too. Gaston rubbed him the wrong way, but he’d written that off to jealousy, just watching the way he looked at Madison, even before she started flirting back. He knew the kid had just recently been patched in...but he also knew Jace, and he couldn’t imagine he’d patch in someone he hadn’t looked into first.

  “I trust Jace,” he said.

  Dax sighed. “Yeah, so do I. Fucking Hawk.” He let out another big sigh and then said, “Okay, keep me posted. I’ll go talk to Hawk now. I’m going to have to sedate the old bastard and put him in a cage to get him to cooperate.”

  Lion ended that call and then finally looked at Finn. “I’m sorry, for what I said to you back there. This wasn’t your fault.”

  “It’s okay, man, we’re all just worried about her.”

  Lion nodded. Maybe he was a little more worried than he should be. He’d lost people he was looking out for in the past, a couple of times. Both times he felt like a failure at his job, but not like his guts were being twisted by a fist that had been shoved directly into his stomach the way he did now. He couldn’t stand Hawk. They had history and in the past Lion couldn’t have cared less if they found the old man in pieces. But he had to sympathize with him about this, and he knew from what he’d witnessed in the past that if Madison was harmed, or worse...not even Dax would be able to stop Hawk from finding the bastards. Of course, Lion would be on Hawk’s list too, he’d blame him for losing her. Truth was, at that moment Lion couldn’t imagine Hawk doing anything to him less than what he deserved. He felt sick and the worst part was that he felt helpless.

  The next ten minutes stretched on into eternity before his phone finally rang. “Hunter, please tell me you got a location.”

  “The last two calls made from that number bounced off a tower in Jefferson City, Missouri. I’ll text you the address of the tower...I don’t have an exact on the location. I’ll keep the trace open in case they’re still using the phone and they’re on the move.”

  “Thanks, man.”

  “Lion, Dax wanted me to tell you that if it’s Eugene and you find him...use whatever leverage you need to and if that doesn’t work...”

  “Got it, thanks.” He ended the call and by the time he put on his helmet, Hunter texted the address. He put it into his GPS quickly and then looked at the other three men. “Y’all ready?” They all nodded and with Lion in the lead, they headed for Jefferson City.

  Madison was bound and gagged. It was her own damned fault for trying to bite or kick them every time they got near her. She couldn’t help it, though. The big one was as ugly as fuck and the smaller one stunk. Besides the fact that they probably wanted to kill her, she couldn’t stand to be within two feet of either one. They had her sitting upright in a chair with her feet tied to the legs and her arms behind her back. A bandanna was shoved in her mouth and tied behind her head. Her shoulders ached and her lower back and legs throbbed, but she sat as rigid as she could and held her head up high, unwilling to let them see her fear. That was going well, until she saw the man who walked in the front door. The one at the truck stop had looked familiar, and now she saw why. The man who just walked in had been at the bar the night Jace and the guys had taken her. She’d seen Jace hit him with his gun just before Toad carried her out of the bar. She had since heard some of the guys talking and she knew he was Angelo’s youngest son, Eugene.

  If he was here then Anthony and Angelo weren’t far behind...and those two struck terror in her heart unlike any she’d ever felt. She still had nightmares about watching Anthony shoot a man in the head and witnessing his brains exploding and sticking to the wall behind him. Those nightmares often rolled into the night of the explosion. As she fought her way out of the house through the smoke and flames she heard bloodcurdling screams and smelled flesh burning. Thankfully she hadn’t seen any of them die, but somehow her psyche still wanted to picture it when she slept.

  “Madison fucking Benning,” Eugene said. “How my father missed it, I’ll never know.” Eugene was dressed in a pair of brown slacks and a white silk shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His shoes were so shiny that Madison thought he could probably look down and see his face in them. Judging from the arrogance that surrounded him, he probably did that often. His curly black hair was perfectly coiffed and he almost looked like he was wearing eyeliner underneath his brown eyes. She closed her eyes for a second and pictured herself kicking him in the face. It made her smile and when she did, she opened them. “Are you smiling? You must be as crazy as that old fucker Hawk. You know your daddy’s a crazy son of a bitch, don’t you?” Madison had heard that many times...but she’d never witnessed her father’s “craziness.” She only hoped she’d get to witness it when he found her...and Eugene. Eugene looked over his shoulder and told the big guy, “Untie her mouth.”

  “She’s a screamer, boss.”

  �
�Then stand behind her and knock her upside the head if she screams,” Eugene said, unconcerned. It made Madison believe they were probably far enough away from any civilization that screaming wouldn’t do her any good. All she’d seen when they dragged her out of the truck was farmland and an old house. The man released the bandanna and Madison licked her dry lips. “Thirsty?” Eugene asked.

  “No.”

  He laughed. “Obstinate little bitch, I see. You know, had you mentioned you were Hawk Benning’s daughter a year ago, you would have saved us all a lot of trouble.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Your daddy and mine could have come to some kind of agreement, I’m sure.”

  “Or my daddy would have killed yours and in that case you’d be right, we’d all be a hell of a lot better off.” Madison didn’t know if Hawk would kill someone for her, but she liked to imagine he would. In her mind he was still her hero and even now when all seemed hopeless, she almost expected him to swoop in and save her.

  Eugene smiled, but it didn’t reach his dark eyes. “Well, now that we know, you’ve got a little reprieve. I’m just waiting for my old man to call me back...and we’ll go from there. Meanwhile, I’ll have the guys get you something to drink. Are you hungry?”

  “I don’t want anything from you.”

  Eugene walked over closer to her and she flinched as he reached a finger out and touched her hair. “You looked better as a brunette,” he told her. “I like brunettes.” Madison had to bite the inside of her cheek to hold back the sarcastic retort on the tip of her tongue. She wasn’t going to be friendly to him, but she wasn’t stupid enough to go out of her way to antagonize him either. That finger left her hair and ran down the side of her face. She tried to hold still and fight the nausea rising up in her chest at the same time, but she couldn’t stand him touching her. She finally pulled her head away. That only seemed to amuse him. He looked at his watch and then at the big guy who was still standing behind her. “There a bed down the hall?” The question made the knot in her stomach tighten. The man must have nodded because Eugene smiled again, this time with an evil look in his eye and he said, “Tie her up there.” The smaller, smelly man came over and the two men picked up the chair she was sitting in. She tried to head-butt them but they tipped her back so she was completely powerless. As they headed down the hall she heard Eugene say, “Get those clothes off her too. We got some time, may as well use it wisely.”

  26

  Jefferson City, Missouri

  It took twenty-five minutes to get to Jefferson City and another fifteen minutes to find the cell tower. According to Hunter she could be anywhere within a five-mile radius of that tower. The city had a population of over fifty thousand people and the section of the city where that tower was located was near the state capital in one of the busiest areas. Lion felt like he was going to throw up as he stopped and stared up at the tower. It took him several seconds to pull himself together, way too long. All he could think about was what Eugene Garibaldi and his goons were doing to her while he was wasting time, and it practically paralyzed him.

  Finn pulled up next to him. The other two were hanging back and he didn’t blame them. He was in a murderous mood and he wouldn’t risk being around himself either if he had a choice. “Split up,” Lion told him. “Look for the truck. It’s blue, like fucking cobalt or some shit. It says Jefferson City Grain on the side...fuck!” Lion couldn’t believe how stupid he was, “You go east and west. I’m going to look up the company and see if it’s anywhere near here. If it is, I’ll check it out. If not, I’ll meet up with you somewhere.”

  Finn nodded and took off. Lion had been worried when Jace picked him to go on this trip with him. The Irishman seemed immature to him and he thought he talked too much. But he’d proven himself to be capable of taking orders and staying cool under pressure. Lion appreciated that, especially since he felt like he was losing it himself.

  He pulled out his phone and typed in “Jefferson City Grain Co.” It was located in the industrial part of town, which was about six miles from where he sat. That would put it in the fifteen-minute radius. He took off in that direction, breaking every traffic law along the way. If he got chased by the cops he’d kick his own ass...but he had to find her. He had a sick feeling that time was running out.

  When he saw the sign for the grain company and a line of blue and black trucks he felt a small sense of relief. When he drove up to the gates and realized they were locked and the cyclone fence had razor wire on top like a fucking prison, that hope was gone almost instantly. He parked the bike and began to jog along the perimeter of the gate looking for a way in. The yard was deserted as far as he could see and he told himself when he came to the back side of it where the office was, that he was wasting his time. There were no signs of life anywhere, not even a guard dog. The office lights were off and it looked like it was locked up tight. He had a gut feeling he was on the right track, but his good sense was telling him that he was just wasting more time. It was when he finally talked himself into turning around and going back to his bike that he saw the house. It sat back from the trucking yard, off a long, dirt road. It was white, or it used to be. The paint was weathered and it was surrounded by dry grass and old pieces of trucks and other equipment. There was a barbed wire fence that ran along both sides and behind the barbed wire were rows and rows of corn...grain. He had a hard decision to make. Checking out the house would waste another ten minutes if he was wrong...but if he didn’t and that was where she was ultimately found, he’d never forgive himself.

  Lion didn’t want to approach the house from the front in case they were watching. Instead he jogged about a quarter of a mile until he came to an empty irrigation ditch and hopping down inside of that, he ran until he reached the cornfield on the right side of the house. With his gun in hand he maneuvered the maze of corn until it opened up along the side of the house, where there was more rusted equipment and trash. He scanned it for openings, but all he could see from his standpoint were two dirty windows. Staying as low as he could, he approached the house and slid along with his back to the wall until he reached the first window.

  He took a deep breath before peeking inside...and he saw a fat dark-haired man sitting on the couch looking away from him at the television. Then his eyes landed on the other, smaller man. That one was looking at him. He heard the guy yell and as he ran past the window he saw the fat man come to his feet. By the time he reached the end of the front porch the door was thrown open and the fat man was in the doorway with a shotgun. Lion took a shot at him but hit the doorframe. Wood splinters flew everywhere, but the fat man remained standing, and shooting. Lion ducked behind the house again and slid his phone out of his pocket. He texted the address of the grain company to Finn and simply put, “Fast!” He had the confidence that Finn would be smart enough to let the others know. He stood there, pressed against the house, trying to come up with a plan when he heard the fat man walking around on the porch. He stepped out, quickly and with his gun drawn, ready to shoot...and froze in his tracks.

  “Who’s this asshole? You one of Hawk’s friends?” A barefoot, shirtless Eugene Garibaldi had his arm around Madison’s stomach so tightly that she looked like she couldn’t breathe, and a big hunting knife pressed to her throat. She was naked and her arms were behind her back and her feet bound together. Lion only hoped the fact that the piece of shit was still wearing his pants meant he’d gotten there in time. But to do what? He wasn’t sure yet. A rage like nothing he ever felt before assaulted him and it took everything inside of him to keep from tackling the son of a bitch and getting him and Madison both killed. The only thing that kept him from doing it was the knife Eugene had to her throat and the guns the two assholes standing behind him were holding. Madison’s eyes were wide and filled with tears, and that was the worst part. He could see hopelessness there and the fact that he inspired that little faith in her was the darkest thing inside of him...and at that moment, it had a lot to compete with.

>   With a steady voice and his gun still pointed at Eugene’s head he said, “Name’s Lion and to answer your other question, yes...I’m a good friend of Hawk’s. I’m also a good friend of the presidents of all three chapters of the Skulls. Dax, Wolf, and Jace...”

  Eugene giggled like a girl. Lion could see why Anthony had been Dad’s favorite. “Name dropping, that’s rich. You know who I am, little man?”

  Lion was the one to chuckle then. “Little man? I think your complex is showing, Eugene. I know who the fuck you are...and guess what? I don’t give a fuck. The Garibaldi name doesn’t scare me, especially now since all it will take is a single shot to your head to wipe out the entire family.”

  Eugene’s expression changed, slightly, and he involuntarily loosened his grip on Madison. Lion’s heart hurt when he heard her try to suck in a big breath. “You’re fucking crazy,” Eugene said. “Shoot him.” The big guy lifted the shotgun and aimed it at Lion’s head. Quickly Lion said:

  “They’re dead, Eugene.”

  “Wait,” Eugene said to the fat man, and then to Lion he said, “You’re a fucking liar.”

  “When was the last time you talked to your old man, Eugene? I know you haven’t talked to him today because he’s been dead since last night, and so has Anthony.”

  “Liar!”