“We don’t know yet, but I’m guessin’… several. Enough that there’s a trail of to follow. Data’s on him. Tracked his movements over three years and continuing. So far, he’s found five different aliases.”
“What about here? In Somerset? Did he move after Carol rescued me?”
“Oh, yeah. But Data’s got him pinpointed. Carol was smart. She managed to get a tracking pellet on his person.”
“She fought him off me,” Helen said, nodding.
“It’s not a foolproof way to keep track of him, but so far, we’re in luck. She got it in his jacket pocket so he’s kept it with him and not washed it yet. Right now, it looks like he’s hiding out in a rural part of the county, still near Somerset but out of the way. We can see him moving around, going for supplies, things like that. Probably waiting to see if there is backlash from your escape. He’ll give it another couple of days. When there’s no police response, he’ll probably pack up and move out. To do that, he’ll need a different car. He may shuck his identity before he leaves. It would be the smart thing. Data has feelers out with two of the best identity forgers in the area. If they hear anything, they’ll let us know.”
“Wow. Sounds like you guys are pretty well connected.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes, we need to do things off the radar and outside the realm of legality. Suffice it to say it pays to know people in the underground.”
She ducked her head, trying not to look as uncomfortable as she felt. She’d never been one to do much she wasn’t supposed to do. Hell, she didn’t even litter. This man was submersed in doing things he wasn’t supposed to do. She wasn’t judging, just… what was she supposed to say?
“How did you end up with this Levi character? I can’t imagine you went willingly.”
“Well, you’d be wrong.” She gave him a faint smile. “I met him about four months ago. I was sixteen weeks pregnant at the time -- another round of poor judgment on my part and a story for another time. We dated for a couple months, then I got kicked out of my apartment out of the blue. Something about renovations on my unit. It never really made sense, but the guy wanted me out. Levi just happened to be with me when it happened and offered a place to live. The second he had me inside his house, I was a prisoner. He locked me in the basement. He only came in to feed me, make sure I took my prenatal vitamins, and let me know that if I didn’t carry the baby to term, he’d kill me. Now I understand he’d planned on killing me anyway.” She hung her head. “Should have figured that one out sooner, but I wanted to believe he’d let me go. Kinda stupid, but there it is.”
“You’re not stupid, Helen. It’s normal to want to believe that everything will be all right.” He reached for her hand, and she let him have it. It felt good, but she didn’t trust her own judgment with men. Last time hadn’t turned out so well. After several seconds, she pulled away. He let her with only a small hesitation. “Carol said it took her something like three months to find you.”
“I had no idea she was even looking. I hadn’t talked to her in a couple of months before all this started. She didn’t even know I’d been kicked out of the apartment. Thank God Levi didn’t think to park my car out of sight. Carol said that’s how she found me. Saw the car in back of the house where she suspected I was, then went investigating. There are windows to the basement at the side of the house where the yard slopes down and is uneven with the rest of the land. After confirming the car was mine, she started looking. I heard her and called out. That’s when she broke me out.”
“Yeah. We talked to her. She’d taken the Winnebago a few weeks ago, but didn’t tell anyone where she was goin’.”
“Apparently, she staked out the house for several days. Took her a while because she waited for Levi to leave. That’s when she confirmed the car was mine and found me in the basement.”
“I take it he didn’t leave the house often?”
“No. I was close to delivering. He seemed to be waiting for something. I have no idea what, but the second he had what he wanted, he came at me with the knife. I fought him, and Cheetah heard me screaming. She quit trying to be quiet and broke in the front door. She got to the basement just as he had me pinned down and plunged the knife into me.” Helen couldn’t help but shiver. She nearly gagged at the memory. The pain had been horrific, not to mention the thought that Levi had hurt her baby. “She attacked him with her bare hands. Fought him like a woman possessed. I’ve never seen anything like it outside the movies. He still managed to get away, but I think she hurt him. I think Carol would have gone after him if I hadn’t been in such bad shape. She got me out of there and drove me here.”
“You said you were already several weeks pregnant when all this happened. Where’s the father?”
She looked away again, ashamed. “No idea. I met him at a bar. We got drunk and had a good time. Obviously we weren’t careful, and the next thing I know, I’m making a few changes to my life.” She looked back, needing to judge Trucker’s reaction. She didn’t expect the big grin she found. “What?”
“Nothin’,” he said, raising his hands, a gesture of surrender. “Just thinkin’ that if your baby daddy ain’t around, that makes my life a lot simpler.”
Helen couldn’t help it. Her jaw dropped and the breath left her lungs. “How can you even say that? How horrible!” She wanted to punch him right in the mouth. “I’m all alone. My child has no father, and I’ve just been through the most horrific thing I’ve ever imagined! How can me not having someone around to protect me and my daughter be a good thing?”
Trucker was completely unapologetic. “Means you’ll need someone around to fill that gap.” He shrugged. “Sounds like your baby daddy ain’t qualified in that department so I’ll have to take over.”
She blinked, not sure she’d heard him correctly. “I beg your pardon?”
“I said, I’m taking over as your baby daddy.” The man was grinning like an ape, obviously finding the whole situation hilarious.
“Would you stop saying ‘baby daddy’? I hate that!”
“Sorry. Let me rephrase. I’ll be taking over as protector for you and your daughter. You’ll stay here with me and the rest of the club, and you’ll have all the help and safety you need.”
“Do I get a say in this?”
“Do you want a say in this?” Again, his gaze was intense. He seemed to look straight into her soul when he wanted to. Helen wanted what he was offering more than just about anything else in the world right now. She wanted that security. But was it real? Had she traded one prison for another? “Or do you want me to make the decision for you?”
“I…”
“That’s what I thought. You’re afraid, and that’s natural. I think you want someone to force your hand.” He picked up her hand again, and this time she didn’t pull away. “You have to be here for a while anyway to heal. Get to know us. I promise you’ll feel better about the whole thing.” While he talked to her, he slowly brought her hand to his lips.
When he finished, he kissed her fingers gently, his mouth lingering far longer than she should have let him. Helen’s stomach rolled. It was the first intimate contact she’d had since her one-night stand. She tried to put down her reaction to lack of human contact, but she doubted that was the only reason for it.
She burned at his simple touch. Shivers raced over her body, and she broke out in a light sweat. Then he turned her hand over and brought her palm to his lips. Inhaling, he closed his eyes and kissed the center. When he exhaled, he opened his eyes and stared straight into hers. There was longing there. Not just a sexual hunger, though that was present too, but something inside him that connected with something inside her. He’d been with her nearly the entire time she’d been at the Bones clubhouse. He’d been unfailingly gentle. He was good with her daughter, whom she’d yet to name. Now, he indicated he wanted to share more with her. Was she ready?
No. Not yet. But she could feel her resistance to him wasn’t what it should be. Trucker could break down those walls with
little effort. The question was, how long would he try before he gave up? How long did she want to resist him?
Chapter Four
“Are you the owner of that old Winnebago?”
There was a guy in a police uniform outside the clubhouse door. He smiled, looking at ease as he questioned Rain, Arkham’s woman. He tried to shoulder his way through the door, but Rain was having none of it. She planted her feet apart and refused to budge an inch. Wiped the smug grin off the bastard’s face in a hurry when she didn’t let him pass. Since she’d come to stay with them, the girl had shown a profound confidence and a colorful flair that kept them all in stitches.
“Do I look like I’d own that fuckin’ piece of shit son of a bitch? It’s a Goddamned relic!”
“I… that is, if it’s not yours, then who does it belong to?” Between Rain’s unmoving stance and belligerent attitude, the officer momentarily lost his sure confidence. Trucker supposed the man was good-looking. Probably had women all over the county swooning wherever he went. Probably got all the information he needed by virtue of his charming personality, megawatt smile, and movie star good looks. If that didn’t work, most people would have probably let him in when he advanced on them like he had Rain. She was unaffected by any of it.
“Beats the fuck outta me.” Rain slammed the door in his face to the hoots of everyone in the room. Torpedo ruffled her hair as he passed, chuckling. Rain flipped him off. Torpedo opened the door to a scowling officer.
“Why’re you interested in the RV?” Torpedo wasn’t what one would call a nice man, but he was usually the most diplomatic of the bunch.
“There was a report of a stabbing across town. The perpetrators were seen hauling ass in a vehicle that matches this description.”
No one gave any indication, but they were all on alert, paying attention to everything going on. One thing Trucker noticed was the man’s lack of a hand-held radio. While that didn’t necessarily mean anything, a lone officer with no immediate means of calling for help was just a bit unusual. Also, the SUV he was driving was brown with all the appropriate decals and such, but it was a Chevy Tahoe. Pulaski County used Ford Explorers.
“Perpetrators, huh?”
“Yeah. The victim was stabbed multiple times. It’s believed his attackers are armed and dangerous.”
“How many were there?” Torpedo was fishing. Helen was adamant no police be involved, but hadn’t said why. Trucker just assumed it was because she’d been held for so long and no one had shown up to help her, or Redding had threatened her in some way if she’d managed to get to the cops. Did she believe the police were in cahoots with her captor?
“Two. Female. One white. One African-American. We believe it was a robbery gone wrong.”
“I see.” Torpedo crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, the RV belongs to the club, but the title is in Trucker’s name.”
“Your boy taken it out recently?” The man smiled congenially, but there was nothing congenial about the look in his eyes. Or the way he held himself. One hand rested on his side arm, and Trucker watched as he used his finger to release the snap strap around his gun for ease of drawing his weapon.
Trucker stood and walked to the door to stand beside Torpedo. Neither man was small. In fact, the officer had to crane his neck to look at either of them. “I’m the boy in question,” Trucker said, making fists at his sides to make the veins and muscles stand out in his arms, a blatant show of strength. “And no. I’ve not taken that RV out.” Not a lie. Cheetah had, but not him.
The officer continued to smile, but Trucker could see he was rethinking his situation. “We have good information that says your RV was used in a crime. I know Bones MC helps the community from time to time, but I also know you’re into some shady shit. If you’re making meth in there, I don’t much care. I’m not here for a drug bust. I just want to know where the girls who were in that RV a week ago are, and I’m going to have to have a look inside the vehicle to search for them or any evidence they may have left behind.”
Trucker heard chairs scraping over the floor as several members stood in support of him and Torpedo. Cain shouldered his way between Trucker and his vice-president. “You got a warrant?”
“Look. I’m here as a courtesy to you and your club. If I have to go through the trouble of getting a warrant and bothering a judge, I won’t be so nice when I get back.”
“Well, that’s just too Goddamned bad for you, isn’t it?” Cain looked furious. Trucker knew the other man well enough to know it was an act, but the officer didn’t. “You want in that RV or any of our property, you get a fuckin’ warrant. Otherwise, you can take your sorry ass the Goddamned fuck outta here.”
The officer looked ready to do murder, but he backed down. “Once I get the sheriff and a judge involved, I can’t help you. You let me in there now, any drug manufacturing is overlooked. Once other officers are involved, all deals are off. If you’re hiding those girls, the best thing you can do is hand them over now.”
“Go fuck yourself,” Cain said before slamming the door. He looked at Torpedo, who nodded. Then he focused on Trucker. “Shit just got real, brother. Your woman needs to tell you everything she can remember. No matter how insignificant. We need to know what we’re dealing with sooner rather than later.”
“You know that guy ain’t a fuckin’ cop.”
Cain gave him an impatient look. “Cheetah staked out that place for weeks. She made her move when no one would see her because that’s the shit we do. You honestly think I don’t know she’d be sure to make a clean getaway? ‘Cause that woman is one wily cat.”
“Our boy, Levi, is the one givin’ the description of the RV,” Trucker mused. “Barney Fife there knew he was comin’ into our territory. Knew who we were but didn’t prepare for it.”
“Yeah,” Torpedo finished. “You’d think he’d’a brought another officer with him.”
Trucker growled, his temper spiking. “Exactly what I was thinking. No secret Cheetah’s Bones. If Levi and this clown have been around here a while, they’ll know that and know she’d come back here.”
“Knew this Levi prick couldn’t do it all himself. He’d need help for any number of things.” Cain crossed the room, headed downstairs to church. “Bring Helen downstairs. We need to get to the bottom of this. She needs to give us all the information she can. Starting with why she doesn’t want the police involved.”
* * *
“He said he had eyes and ears in the police,” Helen whispered. “I was never really sure but was terrified to take a chance.”
“So you never actually saw that bastard outside our door, or any other officer?” Cain looked hard as nails. It was difficult to read the man, but she knew he was pissed. She hoped it wasn’t at her.
“No. But there was one man who came by several times. He always had a ski mask on so I couldn’t see his face. I got the impression he had medical training of some kind. I never let him examine me, and Levi didn’t force the issue, saying it wasn’t worth harming the baby. The plan was for him to deliver the baby with Levi’s help. At least, that’s what I think. I only heard bits and pieces of their conversation from the basement. Which is why I was so startled when he came at me. I wasn’t expecting anything until they were both in the room.”
“I think it’s safe to say his help isn’t the police.” Arkham stood as he spoke, reaching for pictures Data had pulled from the security cameras. “Dumbass ain’t driving the right vehicle.”
“Facial recognition confirms there isn’t anyone on the local sheriff’s department resembling this guy,” Data said. “I agree with Arkham.”
“Facial recognition? You guys can do that?”
Trucker winked at her. “That and more, sweetheart. We’re not your normal MC.”
“So, that’s one problem eliminated.” Cain sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “Anyone have an objection to us going after this guy? ‘Cause this is gonna to be a permanent solution.”
Helen l
ooked around her at the stony-faced men. None of them said a word. This was a side of Bones she hadn’t seen before. These men were all business. She’d seen them worried, and playing, but this was… this was intense.
“Good. Arkham, take Shadow, Dead Eye, and Goose. Be ready to leave in twelve hours. We’ll set up surveillance on these motherfuckers. I want both of them at Levi’s residence. If they’re making a play to get Helen back they’re not leaving any time soon, and they’ll need to make a plan.”
“They have to get her back,” Shadow said. “She can identify Levi. If it’s his operation, he won’t let her go. If the other guy was running the outfit, he’d have just killed Levi, then cut and run.”
“OK,” Cain said. “Take whatever you need, Arkham. I want a plan to off both those motherfuckers ready to go in twelve hours. We leave in sixteen hours to execute it.”
Arkham nodded. The other three men stood, and all four of them left the room. Helen tried not to fidget. Cain had just casually dropped the fact that he intended to kill two men. Had Levi done that, she’d have known he didn’t intend to let her live. Trucker moved to her side, wrapping his arm around her shoulders before dropping a kiss on the top of her head.
Cain looked at her. “We’ll take care of this, Helen. These fucks ain’t gonna get near you again.” He glanced at Trucker, nodded once, and then adjourned the group.
Trucker took her hand. “Come on, honey. Let’s go to the common room and find something to eat.”
“But Mama and Angel are babysitting. I need to relieve them.”
He urged her up the stairs. “First of all, there isn’t one single woman in this place who wouldn’t fight to get to babysit. Second, they’re probably in the common room anyway, laughing at the men making baby faces at the little princess. It’s what they live for.”
* * *
Several hours later, Trucker carried a sleeping Helen -- who carried a sleeping Honey Bunny -- to her room. He took the child from her arms and placed her in the waiting bassinet before kissing the baby’s forehead and stroking the downy-soft shock of dark hair. OK, so Helen hadn’t actually named the child Honey Bunny. That was just what she called her for now. For some reason, Helen was reluctant to actually name the child. Mama had volunteered to do the necessary paperwork to get the birth certificate, but Helen still hadn’t given the child a real name.
Trucker (Bones MC 6) Page 4