Redemption Duet (Aces High MC - Cedar Falls Book 0)

by Christine Michelle

  “What the fuck am I supposed to do here?”

  He huffed out a breath. “I don’t know. I get the fact that we don’t have much of a choice, but I don’t fuckin’ like it.”

  “That makes two of us then,” I agreed. When we explained to the others that we had to go because there was a club emergency, I could have punched my brother and hugged Poppy for their responses. Despite my urging that we shouldn’t be held up too long, my brother looked both pissed and disappointed in me. Poppy was the opposite. She accepted the fact that we had club business and had to go, and she assured both Chief and me that she would be just fine, even if that meant getting a ride back with someone else. Fuck, that woman! I didn’t think there was a better one out there for me anywhere, which made leaving her behind that much more difficult.

  The absolute last thing I wanted to do was have to leave Poppy with my brother and Shep in Pittsburgh. Not that I didn’t trust any of them, but I didn’t know if Poppy would hate me for doing it. She didn’t really know either of them and there she was basically stuck, because I’d taken the bike she rode to town on. I’d actually never left a woman behind out of town like that before and it rankled that I had to do it now. Granted, there was the one exception – Julie – but when I left her, I never went back. Now I had to hope that Poppy wouldn’t decide to get home and never look back too.

  It didn’t help my guilt any that Chief was beyond pissed off with me and the decision to leave her there. The only alternative was to take her with us to a situation we weren’t entirely sure about. The club called. They needed us, me and my skillset specifically, but what they didn’t need was an old lady stuck in the mix too when club business was going down.

  The big club emergency was actually at a warehouse we still maintained near the northeast border of West Virginia in the little strip of the state that stood between Ohio and Pennsylvania. It only took us a little under an hour to ride from the condo my brother had near the PPG Paints Arena to get to Hancock County and the ten acre tract of land we had just on the outskirts of New Manchester. There was nothing there beyond some old barns that we’d restored only on the inside to accommodate whatever we needed. We purposely left the exterior looking rundown so that we wouldn’t have people nosing around them.

  I saw the smoke long before we arrived, but hoped it wasn’t the barns. As we pulled onto the land and rode down the dirt path that served as a driveway to the barns, any hopes I’d had were dashed. Two of the three barns on the property had been engulfed and were now in the controlled burn stage. The third barn had scorch marks on the outside like someone had attempted to set fire to it, but for some reason it didn’t actually catch. I’d have to check that building thoroughly before leaving here to see what happened and why it hadn’t gone up like the other two tinderboxes had. Granted, it wasn’t what was above ground on any of the buildings that would matter. Everything of importance was held in secret bunkers we had installed beneath the structures. As long as they hadn’t been compromised prior to the fire everything should still be safe inside.

  Glancing around the scene, I knew that could end up being a problem for the club since there were so many police and firefighters on the scene. “Smoke,” one of the officers tipped his head towards me as I dismounted my bike.

  I glanced at the damaged, still burning buildings and shook my head. “What the hell?”

  “That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” the officer stated, causing me to turn my attention back to him.

  “Scott,” I replied as I tipped my chin up to the man who I’d gotten to know over the years. We spent a good deal of time up here when we were getting the place set up so we got to know a few of the locals rather well, including Jacob Scott, who I noticed was no longer simply a police officer. He appeared to be a plain clothed detective now. “You got a promotion?”

  He grinned at me and answered with a nod. “Do I even want to know what you guys had going on in there?”

  I lifted a shoulder suggesting my feigned indifference. “We rehabbed the insides a while back, as you know. Fitted everything out to be a clubhouse and bunkhouse,” I stated as I pointed to the two buildings that were still burning. “Then the shed for bikes and part storage over there. We just hadn’t gotten around to moving people around to start another chapter here yet.”

  “Quite a long time to just have freshly rehabbed barns sitting empty isn’t it? Seems like that would be a hefty loss if you weren’t using the place as intended.”

  “Our club isn’t hurting for cash. We have many lucrative businesses all over the country, man. Having this place sit until we needed it was no big deal. Honestly, I was supposed to move up this way in order to be closer to my brother, but shit happened. A woman held me up, and turned out not to be worthy after all. You know the drill.”

  He chuckled then. “Don’t I know it. My wife took off a couple months after I made detective. She’s shacked up with that asshole over there,” he tipped his chin in the direction of a firefighter on scene. I raised my brows at him. “Fucking firefighters!” He hissed out playfully as he smacked my shoulder.

  “Want me to have a word with him about the code?” There wasn’t really much of a code where the woman of another cop, fire, or rescue personnel was concerned. Sure, it was a dick move to go after one, but they weren’t as tight as the MC brotherhood in that way.

  “Nah, he can have her. She spent more of my money than she was worth. Besides, I wanted a family and she wasn’t interested in giving one to me.” He waved off the thought. “Better it happened now than down the road when I should be a grandparent and still looking to try to have kids with someone, you know?”

  I couldn’t argue that, because the sentiment hit a little close to home for me. I had allowed Julie to take up residence too long in my life, and I might miss out on having a family of my own one day as a result. Then again, my thoughts turned to Poppy, and her desire to have children, and I smiled because it didn’t seem too late for me after all. Not that being in my thirties was too late to start with a family, but I damn sure wasn’t getting any younger.

  “What do you need from us?” I finally asked him and waited as he stood around.

  “Access,” he informed me.

  “Well, there’s not a whole lot to gain access to now.”

  He smirked at me. “Come on now, we both know better than that.” He turned to look toward the third barn that was still standing. “It’d be interesting to find out why that one wasn’t burned to the ground too, don’t you think?”

  I shrugged. “Could be someone happened along the place and scared the assholes off.”

  “You guys are out here in the middle of nowhere,” Scott countered.

  “Okay, could be one of our guys came running out here as soon as we saw that someone was dicking around the place. We do still have security running here, as we do with all of our properties.”

  “I’d like to get a hold of that footage.”

  “Not saying there’s any footage to get a hold of, Scott. I’m just speculating on some theories for why one of our buildings was spared. I just got here myself, so who knows?” I shrugged my shoulders again and then wandered away from him and toward the men who were still working on putting out the fire on the first two buildings.

  “Chief Jones?” I asked one of the men, looking for the fire chief.

  “Not here, far as I know. Deputy Chief Womack is just over there,” he nodded his head in the direction of one of the responding engines and I moved to head that way. Deputy Chief Womack should be running the joint since Jones never bothered to show as a fire line officer to any fire event. He was also the man who had attempted numerous times to recruit me for their local station. I had been tempted. What I had told Detective Scott hadn’t been a lie. We had considered opening a small chapter here due to its proximity to Pittsburgh, but the push hadn’t been big enough at the time, so we decided to wait it out. That had been three years ago. In my mind, fate must have intervened because had I
gone then, and started a chapter here, I never would have met Poppy. At least, I wouldn’t have met her in a way that would lead to whatever it was we were becoming.

  By the time I located Womack, he looked fit to be tied. “Fucking idiots, I tell you. Why the hell couldn’t I convince you to come and work for me here?” I asked before he ever turned around to see that it was me standing behind him. The man had eyes in the back of his head.

  “Well, if I had been here, I may have gone down with those buildings,” I suggested. He simply laughed at my theory.

  “No, you fucking wouldn’t have because you’re not a dumbass. You want to tell me what’s really going on here?”

  “No clue,” I told him honestly. “That’s what I’m here to find out. Looked like scorch marks on the third barn, but it didn’t burn. That’s probably a big clue.”

  “You seriously have no idea what could have happened here tonight?” He asked as he finally turned to give me his full attention.

  “None. I was over in Pittsburgh introducing my woman to Kent. Hell, I just introduced them and had to leave her there with him in order to haul ass over here to see what the hell was going on.”

  “Well shit. I was hoping you’d be able to shed some light. Not that I thought it would be in an official capacity since you wear the leather, but you know I hate unsolved puzzles.”

  I grinned at the man then. In another life, he probably would have made a good brother. The problem was, the man hated motorcycles. His younger brother died while messing around on one when they were kids, and he hasn’t been able to look at them the same since. It was a discussion we had when he was actively attempting to recruit me to work for him.

  “No known enemies? Anyone the club pissed off lately?” He started rattling off questions. For the first time in a lot of years, I could honestly say that there wasn’t really anything like that going on. Granted, there was the issue recently with the Hell’s Hounds trying to move in on the guns our guys out of Tallahassee were running, but that was typical club shit. We didn’t store guns up here. The guns came to us out of a little town south of Chicago and we helped get them transported safely to our meet point with the Florida guys. Not once did we ever stop near this property on those runs. That couldn’t be what this had been about.

  “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 everythi
ng 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?”