Dakota

by Ami Van

  Maddox was holding on to her shoulders as she watches Tucker walking past her. Atticus and Dakota flanking him. She struggles in Maddox’s hold and glares up at him.

  “It should be us confronting those motherfuckers,” she hisses.

  “There’s a time and a place, Mercy. We’ll get ours. I promise you. You need to trust me on this,” he says to her. “Please,” he asks.

  “Tucker, how are you, old slimy dog? The grunge look works for you” Diaz says, his fingers rubbing his chin, mocking her brother’s beard.

  “Private event,” Tucker says.

  “Didn’t Maddox tell you? He and Austin go way back with us,” Diaz answers. Travis tosses the wreath at Atticus who catches it and sets it down. “Poor Austin. Good kid. Didn’t have balls to do shit though, if I remember correctly. He used to clean out Minx’s cage. Faggot wouldn’t touch her though.”

  “Have some fucking respect,” Maddox growls, leaving her with Kyle and then stepping up to meet Diaz.

  “Shit. Didn’t see you there Maddox. Hard to see you without your cut. Didn’t think to find you prospecting for the K now. You were always good at playing knight in shining armor though,” Diaz says to Maddox.

  “You here for small talk?” Tucker asks him.

  “Nah. Actually, someone begged me to come and pay my respects. Well not my respects but hers,” Diaz says. He nods at Travis who had walked to the SUV and was opening the door.

  She sees Tricia stepping out, eyes wide and red. She watches Tucker and sees how her brother was going to react as Travis takes Tricia by the arm and walks her closer. She pulls out of Kyle’s grip and runs over to Tricia.

  “Are you okay?” she asks in a whisper, arms wrapped around Tricia’s waist.

  “I’m so sorry about Austin,” Tricia whispers back.

  She pulls back to look up at Tricia’s face. There were remnants of a black eye, healing and covered with makeup. She looks down at Tricia’s wrists and sees the remnants of bound wrists. Deep, red scabs forming.

  “I’m okay,” Tricia whispers to her.

  “Bee?” she whispers back.

  “Bee’s scared. He’s not letting us sleep together anymore,” Tricia whispers into her ear.

  “Oh god,” she gasps.

  “Why don’t you say hi to your old man, bitch?” Diaz commands. Sick bastard.

  She can see Tricia looking up and past her head, over at Tucker. She watches as Tricia’s eyes widen and brim with tears. Both hope and fear mixing and twirling.

  “Speak, bitch!” Diaz commands, jolting Tricia.

  “Hi Tucker,” Tricia says, her voice shaking.

  “You sucked my dick all day just to come here and say that?” Diaz laughs.

  Tricia gasps.

  Some commotion and rustling were heard coming from behind her and she turns around to see guns drawn. Dakota and Atticus with theirs out in front of their bodies. Tucker’s hand in fists. Castro and Travis with their guns drawn as well. All of this while Diaz is grinning from ear to ear.

  “Taking women and children doesn’t make you any better than the rat you really are,” Tucker says to the men. “Just means you hide behind skirts.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. But taking YOUR women and child for the past decade makes for good entertainment,” Diaz replies.

  “Fuck you!” Tucker yells.

  Diaz laughs loudly. “Come on, bitch. Let’s get back to Bianca. We don’t want to leave her alone too long in her new room.”

  Tricia grasps her hands tighter.

  “Just hang on,” she whispers to Tricia. “Just a little bit more,” she pleads even though she had no clue how much longer.

  “Don’t antagonize him, Minx. He wants to take you. Don’t go anywhere alone,” Tricia warns quickly and quietly before she spins on her heels.

  “Say Minx, this bitch is getting old,” Diaz says with his disgusting chuckle. “I’m a businessman and I’m always up to negotiate a trade and you? You and me always had a good time. No cage this time. Scouts honor.”

  She spits on the ground toward him and hears the sound of a gun cocking. Atticus had his finger on the trigger and pointing.

  “Karma is a thing,” Maddox says to Diaz as he turns away.

  Diaz stops and stares at Maddox. She’d never seen Maddox this way before. He was...scary. No bullshitting. Pissed off. More pissed off than her or Austin had ever gotten him.

  Tricia reaches Diaz who pulls her by the hair and shoves her towards the SUV. His goons following, their guns still out and ready until they reach their rides. The sounds of their engines trailing them as they leave through the gates of the cemetery.

  She walks over to Tucker, he throws an arm around her shoulder and for the first time since their reunion, her brother pulls her into his shoulder for a hug. A tight hug.

  “I’m sorry, kid. I’m so fucking sorry. We’ll get them back,” he tells her. “We’ll get them back.”

  ◆◆◆

  “I hate having you hear that shit over and over again,” she tells Dakota.

  She slides in bed behind him. It was really early for bed. Just past 9pm but she had a headache and though the gathering was a nice and quiet one, she was ready for some real peace and quiet. Dakota offered to come along.

  He’d gotten to the room and stripped down to his boxer briefs and plopped down in bed where she came out from the bathroom and found him lying on his side with his back towards her.

  “Mercy, it’s not your fault,” he says as she traces along the lines of his Knights of Havoc patch tattoo. She gives his back a soft kiss before sliding her arm over his waist.

  He turns onto his back and she rests her head on his shoulder. She feels his kiss on the top of her head. She takes his large hands and places a kiss on his knuckles.

  “You don’t wear all those rings like the others,” she remarks.

  “Not my thing,” he says. “I don’t need them.”

  Probably true. Rings were mostly worn in place of brass knuckles; Atticus had told her when she was a kid. But for Dakota, he probably didn’t need them.

  “Where are you from? If you’re Tristan’s cousin, how come I’ve never met you before?” Guess, she should know these things about him before they got to this point.

  “I was born and raised in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. Just outside of Tulsa,” he says before he laughs. “My country folks named me Dakota for God knows why. Tristan’s dad is my dad’s older brother. We never came up here but they’d go down there for visits.”

  “I like your name. Dakota Tyler Macks,” she says, her fingers tracing over his various tattoos. “Has a ring to it,” she says.

  “I love yours.”

  “I used to hate it. I got picked on a lot when I was a kid. Which meant Kyle got in a lot of trouble bullying the bullies,” she recounts. “Where and when did you patch in?’

  “With the mother charter, Oklahoma, of course. My dad is still a member. Prospected when I came back from tour. Patched in by the time I was 23.”

  “You were in the army?” she asks.

  “Marines,” he says like it was nothing.

  “What made you transfer?”

  “Change of scenery, I suppose. Tristan glorified it and suckered me in,” he chuckles.

  “You didn’t leave behind kids? An old lady?”

  “Hell no,” he answers.

  “Well okay then,” she says. “Do you get to go back and see your parents and sister often?”

  “Holidays. My sister and her husband have three kids. All little girls. My brother in law gave up on trying for a boy after that,” he laughs.

  She yawns. “I don’t know why I’m so tired already but I know you’re not. You could have stayed at the clubhouse.”

  “I’m okay,” he growls at her. “Stop fussing about me.”

  “For someone that’s trying to comfort me, you sure sound grouchy,” she teases him. “What’s wrong?” she asks.

  “Just a long day,” he flatly replies.

  “Ne
ed help?” she asks.

  Her hand traces down from his abs and then under the top of his briefs. Damn! He was big. It’s no wonder she’s constantly sore. Good sore but sore nonetheless. He was already hard when her fingers wrap around him. He throbs on her first stroke and was rolling in between her legs.

  “Are you sure?” he asks. “It wasn’t an easy day for you.”

  “What better way to unwind than with you?” she asks, touched by his genuine concern.

  “You don’t have to ask me twice,” he grins.

  “Greedy, greedy Dakota,” she teases him.

  CHAPTER 23

  Dakota

  Watching her asleep in bed from the doorway made him feel like shit.

  He shuts the door quietly. Unnecessarily. She should be out until he got back anyway. Why? Because he’d slipped something into her drink. Made sweet love to her until her mind and body couldn’t take anymore just to be sure she’d be sleeping through the night.

  He heads through the quiet house, Penny and Nikki were sitting in the kitchen. He could trust them not to go through the house or wake her.

  “You two can watch TV, just keep it down,” he tells them.

  “Don’t worry,” Penny says.

  He heads down to the clubhouse. Anyone who wasn’t a part of what was going down tonight was gone. Hellhounds should already be in place and making sure no one slips through the county lines.

  He steps inside the clubhouse and sees everyone getting ready. The crews were divided accordingly and he can hear various conversations reiterating what was needed to be done at each location tonight.

  Kyle and Snails was able to locate all the big locations, meth labs, assembly warehouses and possible places Tucker’s family were being held. The plan was to attack all the big locations at once tonight. Shut down any Reaper production they come across so that Diaz is forced to move Tricia and Bianca to a location easier to pinpoint and hindering any money-making business he had at the same time.

  Calls were made out to most of their business associates. That had taken up a majority of their time since they’d come up with this plan which was now being expedited due to Austin’s death. They had to ask, confirm and inform each of their connections that had assumed they were doing business with KOH that they were indeed NOT doing business with KOH but Reapers posing.

  He reaches his crew. He was rolling with Tucker as usual. Maddox was rolling with him too. Atticus, Preston, Kris, and Kyle make up the other rest. They were hitting an underground brothel. High end clientele. If Tricia and Bianca weren’t there, they still needed to burn it to the ground to destroy whatever evidence Diaz held there against a judge he was blackmailing.

  After the havoc and chaos surrounding Diaz tonight, the same judge will be signing the order for CPS to step in and remove Bianca on the grounds of child endangerment first thing in the morning and will be served at whatever locations were left standing. Tricia should be free to come along without an order of removal.

  “Minx out?” Maddox asks him.

  “Yeah,” he answers.

  “I don’t want her anywhere near what’s going down tonight,” Maddox says.

  “Vests?” Tucker asks everyone.

  He lifts his black tee up to show the bulletproof vest he was wearing underneath, just like everyone who had one should be wearing. But some of his brothers were knuckleheads and preferred to go without.

  Tristan walks up behind their group. He was staying behind and should be heading to the house to stay with Minx as a precaution. There will be a dozen people left behind at the clubhouse just in case though they didn’t expect trouble to get past the Hellhounds' line.

  ◆◆◆

  “Every squads in position,” Atticus whispers to Tucker.

  “Kris, you’re up.”

  Kris nods at Tucker’s order.

  Kris was the cleanest of the crew though he wasn’t patched in. He'd been a hang-around for the past two years. Kid looked like he was a GQ model not an outlaw biker but it works out for tonight. He was to go knocking on the door as a customer. They weren’t going to let him in, of course. This place was by invite and appointment only. But it didn’t matter. They only needed for the armed guards to come to the door.

  He was ready at the sound of the knock.

  An older lady comes to answer the door. As predicted, she was bitchy as hell and was yelling and screaming to what Kris was saying. Once he heard the sound of two males at the door, they were in. Kris steps inside immediately taking out one and then slaps his hand over the screaming lady’s mouth.

  He steps in and drops the other asshole with the gun.

  “How many more?” he growls at the old lady who holds up three fingers.

  “Clear the rooms,” Tucker orders. “Pres, you and Kris hold the girls in the living room. They all live as long as they don’t make noise.”

  Kris nods his head.

  Kyle and Atticus were already upstairs, guns pointed. He can hear doors being kicked in followed by screams and orders to come downstairs.

  He and Tucker clear the first floor easily. No activity down here. Guests that come book ahead of time so they didn’t have to sit around and wait to go directly to a room. They find a door that leads to a basement.

  “Hey!” Tucker calls out. “Send the old lady here.”

  Tucker had his gun trained on her as she walks towards them, hands in the air.

  “What’s down there?” he asks the old lady. Tucker shoves her forward towards the steps. She reaches out and flips on a light switch.

  “New girls and their training rooms,” the old bitch replies.

  Tucker shoves his gun to the back of her head. “Walk,” he orders.

  Halfway down, the smell of human wastes and infection hits him like a bat to the nostrils.

  “Holy fuck,” he says. There were kennels of women. Dirty, beaten, some even naked.

  His eyes caught the flash before he even heard the almost silent pop of the gun and then the searing hot burn to his arm. A second later, he was thrown back a few steps as he takes one right smack dab in the fucking chest before he was able to get a shot off, hitting the motherfucker square in the head. He quickly scans the room for more.

  Fuck! Even with the vest, it hurt like hell.

  “Shit!” Tucker yells. “You alright?”

  “Yeah,” he says. “Don’t know how I’m gonna explain this to your sister,” he jests while checking out his upper arm where the bullet had grazed him. He was bleeding pretty good.

  “Thanks, brother.”

  Tucker nods at him. At the height of the hit, Tucker would have taken it right in the head if he hadn’t been in front.

  “I-I didn’t know he was down here,” the old lady says.

  “Yeah right,” he says.

  He was moving into the room and quickly opening the kennels. He’d seen many things in this life. Hell. He’d just killed. Not the first time either. Some things stick with you though. This was going to be one of those things. Seeing these helpless women being broken this way. It was inhumane.

  Minx. She’d survived this. Some of these girls had to have been about her age.

  One of the girls crawls out of the cage and was immediately at his feet, her forehead touching his boot. She was naked, black and blue and probably starving too.

  He bends down and picks her up to her feet.

  “Go,” he tells her. “You’re free. Get to the nearest hospital or phone and call for help.” She looks at him with confusion. “Go!” he yells and she was off running at full speed. The other free women get the point as well and were running up the stairs behind her.

  “There’s one more,” the old lady says. “She’s in the training room. They just dropped her off tonight.”

  “Where?” Tucker asks.

  The old lady points to a door and he stalks over, gun ready this time. Tucker moves closer to his other side. The old lady still with him, his gun to her head.

  “Open it,” Tucker orders her.


  She nods and twists the knob. The room was dimly lit but it was enough to see an extremely slender woman tied, spread-eagled by chains against a wall. Blood and welts criss crossed her body from her stomach to her legs. She was gagged with her strawberry blonde hair framing her face as her head droops.

  “Oh god,” Tucker ushers, shoving the old lady into his arms as he hurries into the room. Tucker puts his gun into his waistband and reaches for the key that was on the table along with other instruments of torture.

  “Tricia...Tricia...wake-up, baby. Come on. Stay with me,” Tucker was saying as he works at freeing her.

  “Take off your sweater,” he tells the old lady, who complies and hands it to him. “Here,” he says and throws it over to his friend who catches it and wraps it around Tricia.

  “Tuck?” Tricia says. “You came?”

  “I’m here. I’m so sorry, baby. We have to move. Where is she? Do you know where they have Bianca?” he asks. He was carrying her and they were quickly heading up the stairs.

  “I don’t know. They gave me something and separated us. They-They were talking about Minx. That’s why I’m here now. They said they didn’t need me to control her anymore.”

  They reach the first floor and meet in the living room with the rest of their crew.

  “Place is set to blow,” Atticus tells him. “You alright?” Atticus asks, tilting his chin towards his arm.

  “Flesh,” he answers.

  “I pulled all their hard drives,” Kyle says.

  “Where’s Maddox?” he asks.

  “He said he got what he came for and is waiting in the van,” Kris says.

  “You girls are free to go,” Tucker says to the group. “Go wherever you need to go to get safe or run right back to Diaz and let him sell your pussy. I don’t give a shit!”

  “Let’s roll,” Atticus says and they were heading out.

  As soon as he lets go of the old lady, she was running full speed into the dark. They all slip into the back of the cargo van where Maddox was sitting with someone leaning on him. She was bound and had a black bag covering her face.

  “Christ, Maddox!” Tucker says. “What the fuck are you doing?”