by Marla Monroe
Terror leaned in closer with his back to the still-ranting deputy and spoke softly in Rage’s ear.
“We’ve had sightings of multiple Vipers in town tonight. One was at the bar talking with Hoss,” he said.
“Fuck,” Rage said without dropping the smile from his face. “We don’t need them moving in tonight when we’ve got this dick wad all up in our shit. Who’s in town right now?”
“Scooby, Loco, and Bear. After Cowboy and Jinx dropped off Kidd, they stopped in at Bear’s sister’s place to spend the night,” Terror said.
“Have Scooby or Bear check to be sure Mia makes it home safe after work. I don’t trust that the Vipers aren’t up to something. They may even know that we’re otherwise occupied right now,” Rage said.
“Scooby can stay with her tonight. We’re not going to be free to move around before tomorrow, and she’s too easy to get to in that dinky apartment she lives in.”
Rage just nodded. Teddy was walking toward him with blood in his eyes. The bastard wasn’t going to give up. Somehow, they were going to have to figure out how to put a muzzle on him before he managed to find something and bury them. The club here was pretty much all above board. They strayed some when it came to weapons, but drugs were out and so was skin. They didn’t run the skin trade despite it being a lucrative sideline. He wasn’t stupid. A lot of The Howling Death did, but he and Terror had never condoned it and wouldn’t ride with a charter that did. It had caused some tense times with Mother, but they were too good at damage control and building up a presence, which was what was needed here in Settler’s Point.
“What the hell are you two whispering about over here? No one leaves this garage. No phone calls out and no phone calls in until we finish searching. Got it?” Teddy demanded.
“Loud and clear. You’re yelling loud enough half the state can hear you,” Rage said with a grin.
Teddy turned back to where Hawk and some of the others stood just inside the garage to hassle them since he wasn’t getting a rise out of Rage. He just shook his head. Terror would get the word to Scooby and Bear what was going down and to keep Mia safe. He had no doubt about that. All they had to do was wait out the bastards searching, and he and Terror could check on Mia themselves.
He nearly cursed out loud and turned away from the garage to keep the agitation he was sure would show on his face hidden. All he needed was for Teddy to realize something was bothering him and they’d be out there dogging him till sunrise.
Why had he even thought about going to check on Mia himself? She was off-limits. The more contact they had with her, the more danger she would be in. He’d lectured T on that more than he liked to think about, but here he was wanting to do the same damn thing. Hadn’t they learned their lesson ten years ago? The only difference had been that the woman who’d been slaughtered hadn’t even been someone they had really cared all that much about. She’d been someone with a mutual hunger who liked what they could do for her. There’d been no promises or expectations, but someone had thought she was important enough to them to slaughter her in hopes of getting to them. He didn’t want anyone’s blood on his hands ever again, especially not someone he truly did care about. And he cared way too much for Mia.
When he turned back around a moment later, he had his game face on and the same amused grin back on his face. He noticed that Hawk and Gunner were keeping Teddy and one of the other deputies busy so that Terror was able to sneak away and make those phone calls. He nodded his head slightly to acknowledge the effort. They were good men, all of them. He’d never really thought much about the members of the different clubs he and Terror were often sent to over the years. Usually they were all hard-nosed bikers with a grudge against society and the laws that governed it. These guys weren’t like that. It was obvious they were more like a patchwork conglomeration of family pieced together by loyalty to the club and eventually each other.
“Come on, Teddy. You’ve searched every square inch of this place, including a few inches that weren’t included in the warrant with their cooperation, I might add. It’s time to close shop and go home. My wife is already pissed at me for not making it to church last weekend. I don’t need to make it two weekends in a row. Let’s go.” Sheriff Kitchens pushed off from where he’d been leaning against the concrete edge of the garage and started walking toward his truck.
“We need that warrant to search their clubhouse, Sheriff. If we don’t stay here while we wait for it, they’ll move it somewhere else by the time we get back,” Teddy complained.
“There’s not going to be any warrant for their clubhouse, Teddy. Judge Carmichael wasn’t happy about issuing the warrant for the garage in the first place. He’s sound asleep by now, and if you go and wake him up, you’ll be seeing cell time for contempt. Mark my words, boy.” Sheriff Kitchens shook his head with a look of disgust and opened the door to the truck. “Now go home and forget about this. Someone’s been pulling your string and sitting out there somewhere laughing at us.”
Teddy sputtered denials all the way to his vehicle behind the other two deputies as they loaded up. Rage figured the man was going to end up in an early grave either from a stroke or someone getting tired of hearing him bitch and complain. Either one was fine by him.
Once the last truck had disappeared down the road leading into town, Hawk and Gunner walked over to where Rage stood.
“Any idea who we’re up against?” Hawk asked.
“Nope. That’s why I had Scooby and Bear in town tonight taking pictures of the men leaving the bar. We’ll get Mia to identify them and we’ll go from there. They won’t stop trying to get rid of us if they want this land for some reason,” Rage pointed out.
“Why this land, though?” Gunner asked. “I mean, there’s a huge parcel of land just east of town about the same distance from the main drag as we are. Less hassle to get it since it’s been for sale over a year now.”
“How long has the club owned this land?” Rage asked.
“We’d have to ask Loco for an exact date, but somewhere along the lines of fifteen or so years,” Hawk said.
“Who did they buy it off of?” Rage looked over as two other members closed the shop down and locked it up.
“Not sure right off the top of my head. Seems like it belonged to some old rancher, but I can’t be sure. Loco will know.” Hawk stuck his hands in his pockets. “You know, this isn’t the first time we’ve had trouble where someone wanted our land. The last time it was a big developer wanting to build a strip mall or something out here. We got rid of him, but that doesn’t mean he stopped thinking about it. It was only about two years ago that he was dogging our tails.”
“Could be he’s put some of the locals up to moving us out for a nice profit. If that’s what’s going on, we’re going to need to find out for sure and pay this developer a visit,” Rage said.
“Sounds good to me,” Gunner said with a decidedly evil grin.
Rage chuckled and shook his head. “Blood lust much?”
“Naw, not me. But throw a little payback in for the little people he’s run roughshod over, and yeah, I’ll play.” Gunner bumped fists with Hawk.
“Let’s get back to the clubhouse. We need to make some plans,” Rage said as Terror walked over to them.
“Did you get them?” Rage asked.
“Yeah. Bear’s going to watch from the parking lot, and Scooby will follow her home and stay with her. Said he’d show her the pics while he’s there,” Terror said.
“Good call. We’ve got some work to do. There’re too many things going on at one time here. Either there’s a connection we haven’t figured out or someone is using one as a distraction for the other,” Rage pointed out.
“Either way you look at it,” Terror said, “we’ve got more than a few meddling idiots out there spying and supplying information to different people.”
“We’ve got to get a handle on who they are and who they report back to,” Rage said. “Is Loco on the way back?”
“Ye
ah. Told him we were going to need some information pulled, and fast. He said he’d be here in fifteen,” Terror told him.
“Sounds like that might be him now,” Rage said as the sounds of a bike running full-out could be heard heading in their direction.
Terror grinned. “Time for Church.”
* * * *
“Thought you could get away from us, bitch? No one hides from us. You were supposed to have died that night.” He was right behind her.
Mia’s blood turned to ice water at the sound of that voice. She’d had nightmares about his voice for years and still did occasionally. Why had he come after her? It didn’t make sense. If she had been going to testify, she already would have by now. Instead, she’d chosen to start her life over and moved back to where she’d been raised. She was a long ways from Chicago. Why had he followed her here?
“I wasn’t hiding. You took everything from me, and I just wanted to start over. Why are you here?” she asked, still trying to remain calm.
“For you, Mia. Always for you. Your husband took something that belonged to me. I want it back,” he said.
“I don’t have it. I swear. You can search my apartment and all you’ll find are my clothes and some groceries. Whatever Glenn took, I don’t have it,” she said, trying to convince him of the truth.
He just laughed. She felt the jagged edge of that laugh all the way to her soul. He didn’t believe her, and Mia knew he never would. Her husband had taken whatever knowledge he had about it to his grave. He’d never shared anything about his work with her while they’d been married. At the time she hadn’t thought anything of it. Looking back, she’d been so naïve. Warning bells should have alerted her that something was very wrong with the picture, but Mia had been young and in love, unwilling to listen to anyone who might have tried to warn her.
“I don’t know what I can do to convince you that I don’t have a clue what he had or where he hid it,” she said.
What were the odds that with everything else going on in town her deceased husband’s boss, Antoine Gaetti, would show up and demand she give him something she didn’t have and knew nothing about? For a minute she had to clamp down on the urge to laugh. She felt as if she were starring in an old Laurel and Hardy show, or maybe The Three Stooges. Sometimes the truth was stranger than fiction.
“What did you do with all of his stuff?” Antoine demanded.
“By the time I was released from the hospital, there wasn’t anything left. Your people ransacked the place while we lay there dying, and then the police went through everything. I don’t have whatever the hell you think I do.” She knew nothing she could say would appease him and being belligerent wasn’t going to help, but Mia was dead no matter what she said or did anyway.
“Don’t play games with me, bitch!” Gaetti jerked her out of the chair and slammed her against the wall with one hand around her neck. “I want that key.”
“I don’t know anything about a key. I told you that there was nothing left by the time I got out of the hospital. We hadn’t paid the rent with Glenn dead and me stuck in ICU for two weeks, so our landlord packed it all up and stored it in his garage until I could collect it. Everything we’d ever owned was reduced to two cardboard boxes. There weren’t any keys in those boxes. I didn’t even have any clothes because your thugs cut them all up,” she told him without raising her voice.
For some reason, Mia wasn’t afraid any longer. She’d made peace with the fact she was about to die and didn’t fear death. She’d lived through so much worse that somehow dying wasn’t all that big a deal anymore.
I guess since I’ve already faced death once in my life and survived, the second time just isn’t that big of a deal to me now.
“If you don’t figure out where he put it, and fast, I’m going to make you wish you had died back then. Do you understand me?” he yelled so that spittle landed on her face.
She could smell the whiskey he’d had before he’d come to get her. For some reason, she wondered where he’d gotten it from since it hadn’t been at The Wagon Master. Instead of worrying about how to keep him from hurting her, she was worried about where he’d gotten his alcohol from. Mia was sure she was losing it.
He slammed her against the wall again. “Are you listening to me? Where is that fucking key?”
She just smiled. She really didn’t know where the key was and didn’t care. It was a small point of satisfaction that once he killed her, he really didn’t have any way of finding whatever her husband had hidden from him all those years ago. Suddenly she wanted to know what was that important that Gaetti would kill for it and her husband would risk their lives for it. He hadn’t even confided in her about it, knowing that there was the possibility that both he and Mia would pay for his betrayal.
“It’s been over two years. What is so important to you that two years wouldn’t make a difference? Is it money? Someone’s probably found it by now. Having that key won’t do you a bit of good if whatever it was isn’t there any longer,” she pointed out.
He slapped her hard enough her ears rang. The metallic taste of her own blood filled her mouth, but she still smiled up at the monster standing over her. He was nothing, an old man chasing after something that more than likely he never should have had in the first place. She could die comforted that whatever her husband had stolen, he would never again have access to it.
“You’re coming with me. We’ll go back to your apartment and have a nice long chat about my key. I’m sure your memory will improve once I show you what I’ve learned from some very nasty people these last two years,” Gaetti said with a sadistic smile.
“You’ll have to excuse the mess. I wasn’t expecting company, you know.”
She thought about lunging out of his reach to run screaming out of the kitchen into the bar, but he’d evidently thought of that, because the next thing she knew, the sharp edge of a lethal-looking knife appeared in front of her just before Gaetti lowered it to rest against her collarbone.
“Then you won’t mind if I make a slightly bigger mess, then, will you?” He shoved her toward the back hall where the time clock and the door leading to the back parking area were located.
She walked in front of him with the bite of the knife against her skin. From the sharp kiss it made, Mia was sure she was already bleeding some.
“You know someone is going to see us if you leave out the back. There’s always people out there getting it on in the shadows.”
“Shut the fuck up, bitch. I’ve already checked. There’s no one out there. No one will see me or know who took you. It’ll look like you just walked outside and disappeared—until they find your body or what’s left of it in your apartment.”
When he stopped behind her at the door to push it open, she had to lean back into his chest to keep the knife from doing far more damage than just the tiny cuts that hurt more than they were dangerous.
For some reason, her survival instincts kicked in when they stepped outside in the humid darkness. That thick blackness hid everything except where the dim street lamps shined down like spotlights to illuminate spots here and there. Her body came alive again. Gaetti somehow sensed the change in her.
“Don’t try anything. One slip of this knife and you’re going to be painting the parking lot red, got it?” he asked.
“I’m not struggling,” was all she said.
He shoved her down the two steps to the graveled lot, closing the door behind them. She searched the parking lot for what he was probably in and saw the old Cadillac parked behind Duke’s truck. If she didn’t do something before he got her in the car, Mia knew she’d lose any chance of getting away. He wouldn’t be able to drive and hold the knife to her throat. He might make her drive and hold the knife against her stomach or somewhere else, but it did give her a small opportunity for escape if she couldn’t get away from him before they made it to the car.
Instead of holding the knife at her throat while he walked behind her, though, Gaetti shoved the knife under h
er arm so that he had a better grip and could hold her arm at the same time. It left her no room to twist away without the knife shoving into her axillary artery. She wondered why he’d done that until she realized where he was headed—to the trunk of the big car. Just like that, all of her chances of escape had disappeared, and she was back to the peaceful certainty of her death.
Chapter Thirteen
“Anything else?” Rage asked, looking around the table.
No one said anything, but they all looked satisfied with what had already been said. They were obviously ready to do something other than walk around on eggshells so as not to draw attention to themselves.
“Then Church is dismissed.” He banged his fist on the table and stood up. “Loco, we need that information sooner rather than later.”
“I’m already on it. Been sending emails on my tablet. I should have the first pieces of information within thirty minutes,” the biker said with a wide grin.
Rage nodded and followed his brother out of the room. They needed to get some rest. All hell was going to break lose soon. He was nearly positive that once the extra visitors in town had pulled out by Sunday afternoon, the Vipers were going to ride into town with blood in their eyes. He still didn’t know what the club’s land had to do with anything, but Loco would have that figured out soon enough.
His brother’s cell rang as they stepped into the kitchen. Terror answered on the third ring.
“Yeah, Bear. What’s up?” he asked.
Then he stopped dead still, and Rage’s blood ran cold.
Mia.
“How bad is she?” T asked.
Rage wanted to jerk the phone from Terror’s hand but remained still and waited.
“Who was it?” T asked.
Yeah, give us a name. We’ll make sure he’ll never answer to it again.
Terror’s face showed nothing of what he was feeling or what was being said to him. Still, everyone in the area of the kitchen knew something was up and had piled in around them. They would support them any way they could because that was what families did. He and Terror might be distant relatives in the family, but blood was blood.