Wounded (Dogs of War MC Book One)

by Rossi, Monica

  “What about Demon?” Moose asked.

  Red paused in his pacing, shaking his head.

  “Have you ever seen him track something? It’s ridiculous, he doesn’t track so much as he just knows,” Rock said.

  “And he’s not a bad guy to have in a fight,” Moose added.

  “He’s a Loner, he’s not one of us – “

  “He’s a Dog of War just as much as I am,” Rock said, “I can’t help it you two have got your issues. We need everybody here on this. If we’re going to find them and fight, we can’t be choosey about who will help us.”

  Sidney could see the uncertainty in Red’s face.

  “They’ve got your daughter man,” Moose pleaded, “and my wife. We need Demon.”

  “Fine, call him. Call all the Loners in for that matter. Tell them to be here by sunrise.”

  Sidney, kept her eyes down on her work, ingesting the overheard information. Not only was the little girl missing, it was Red’s daughter. She ached for him, but she didn’t know what she could do. This world was so far removed from anything she was used to. Under normal circumstances she’d feel like a fish out of water… with everything that was happening she just felt overwhelmed. It was too much to take in at one time. She concentrated on her work, that at least she understood.

  All of the guys except Red trickled out. She finished stitching the hurt wolf the best she could with what she had. They’d given her something for pain to give him and if Red’s healing speed was any indication, he’d probably be fine by the morning.

  “How is your wrist?”

  Red looked up at her from the place he’d taken on the couch, brooding look on his face, “What? Oh, it’s fine,” he twisted it to show her.

  “Worried about your daughter?” What a stupid question she thought, of course he’s worried about his daughter.

  “Yes. I was going to tell you about her but there just hasn’t been time.”

  “I know. Our time together has been… full of adventure,” she smiled at him, trying to lighten his mood.

  One side of his mouth tried to smile but didn’t quite make it, “She must be so scared.”

  Sidney sat down beside him on the couch and put her arm around him. This she could handle, she could comfort someone who was scared or hurting, “You’re going to find her. I know you will.”

  Red looked into her eyes, searching for the promise those words held, “I’m not a good father Sidney.”

  She didn’t know how to respond so she just kept holding him.

  “I haven’t even seen her in months. She stays with her mother’s parents. That’s the best place for her,” his head dropped into his hands, “or at least that’s what I thought. I thought I was doing the right thing by leaving her there. This is no place for a kid, I mean look at what happened tonight?”

  Sidney wanted to ask where the mother was but she stopped herself. This probably wasn’t the right time to start asking about the women in his past.

  “I thought that if I left her with them she’d be safe. Her granddad is a dentist for Christ’s sake. She should have been safe.”

  “You didn’t know this was going to happen. There was no way for you to know.”

  “No, I didn’t know. But I should have been there to protect her. She should have been alone with only two old people around if something happened. She’s only five. Five years old and I left her unprotected.”

  She hated the way it was tearing him up, she held him closer. “You do the best you can with what you have, and you thought you were doing what was right.”

  “No, I was doing what was easy. If I get her back things are going to be different. I’m going to be different.”

  “Not if, when,” she assured him.

  He nodded, “You’re right. When I get her back, and I kill all the bastards that took her, I’m going to be a different father. The kind of father she needs.”

  The morning sun hurt when Sidney opened her eyes to the sound of men talking. She stretched and everything in her complained. Falling asleep tangled with Red on the couch had seemed like the right thing to do the night before, but her back was telling her that maybe she should have thought it through a little more.

  But she couldn’t have left him no matter how much more comfortable the bed would have been. He’d needed her, and as bad as she felt for the situation he was in and the pain and worry he was feeling over his daughter, it had really felt good to be needed. David had never needed her emotional support before, if the bastard even had emotions, which was debatable.

  “Why isn’t he here yet?” she heard Red ask.

  “I don’t know, he said he’d be her before dawn.”

  “Well sunrise was two hours ago and he still hasn’t shown up,” she could tell Red was impatient and angry. She couldn’t really blame him. “You’re sure he said he was coming?”

  “Yes, fuck, how many times do I have to say it?”

  Red walked over to the prone figure on the floor, which had changed from a wolf and back into a man overnight, “Wake up,” he kicked him hard in the side. Sidney winced, even though he was probably healed she still saw him as her patient.

  The man stirred and Red kicked him again, “I said wake up.”

  He rolled into a sitting position, wiping the sleep out of his eyes with the palms of his hand, and looked up at Red, “So I’m not dead?”

  “No, but I can remedy that pretty quickly if you don’t answer my questions exactly the right way.”

  Tinker nodded, “My brothers left me on the ground to die like a dog. I watched them ride off while your woman saved me.”

  Sidney tried to disregard the warm tingle that ran up her spine at the words your woman and instead concentrated on what was happening.

  “Where have they got the people they kidnapped?”

  “I don’t know,” Tinker shook his head, “I wish I could tell you but I really don’t know.”

  Red looked at Moose, “Get a chair and some rope. Looks like we’re going to have to get this out of him the hard way.”

  Tinker didn’t react, he seemed resigned to whatever fate was in store for him, but panic rose in the back of Sidney’s throat. Could she sit there and watch a man be tortured for information, even if the life of three people, one of which was a little girl and Red’s daughter, were at stake?

  Thankfully she didn’t have to make that choice. The door opened, letting in a stream of piercing sunlight and a man with shaggy dark hair and even darker features.

  “Well it’s about damn time, you were supposed to be here two hours ago.”

  “Good to see you too Ryder, I’ve missed you. Have you missed me?” The man, Demon, Sidney assumed, made as if to hug Red, but Red pushed him away.

  “I don’t have time for any of your bullshit this morning, Demon. I assume you were filled in about the situation?”

  “I was,” Demon leaned up against the wall, looking unperturbed by Red’s mood.

  “Then you know we’ve got to get out there and start looking, the trail is getting older by the minute if we don’t – “

  “I’ve already found them,” Demon cut him off.

  “What?”

  “They’re being kept in a storage facility out by Pecan Farm Road. It’s only about a twenty minute drive from here.”

  “You found them?”

  “Isn’t that what I just said? You can thank me later. What is there to eat around here? I’m starving.” Demon’s eyes landed on Sidney and she instinctively covered herself, shying away from his hungry gaze.

  “You found them and you didn’t get them out?”

  “Hmmm, I’m good, brother,” the way he rolled the word, never taking his eyes off Sidney told her he felt anything but brotherly towards Red, “but I’m not that good. There were at least 10 guys hanging around. I said I’d come help, not commit suicide.”

  Red looked around at the rest of the guys, who had come out just in time to catch the end of the conversation with Demon, “We’ve got
to get there. Now, when they’re not expecting us.”

  “I just got here, and I’m starving. Is that any way to treat a guest?”

  “They’ve got Morgan Demon.”

  The hardness in Demon’s eyes lightened a fraction, “Fine, let’s go. But I expect to be fed a meal fit for a king when we get back.” His eyes went back to Sidney and lingered before he walked out the door. She shivered, something about him made her feel very uncomfortable.

  Demon’s presence didn’t do much to alleviate Red’s fears about what was about to happen. A million things could go wrong that would result in the death of not himself, but his little girl. He fought the fear back and tried to concentrate on a plan of action to take once they got there. Demon had already scouted the area and knew where most of the Hellhounds were stationed, but people moved, they left to go pee and came back unexpectedly, they hid in places you couldn’t see and popped out and slit your throat without giving you any warning.

  The early morning sun flooded the storage facility, making it almost impossible to find shadows to sneak around in.

  “What do you suggest Ryder?” Demon asked as they stood surveying the area from a parking lot across the street.

  “We’re just going to have to take them in a rush,” Red answered, “I don’t see any other option. They chose a good location.”

  Demon considered, “Good but not great. No one is standing along the back of that building. We could come up from behind and drop down on them. That’d give us the advantage of surprise at least.”

  Red nodded, “And if you are right about how many there are – “

  “ – I am.”

  “Then we have a numbers advantage too.”

  Demon slapped him on the back, “Glad that’s settled. Let’s go get this done.”

  “Wait…” He grabbed Demon’s cut, “If something happens to me, you’ve got to make sure you get Morgan. Don’t let them hurt her.”

  Demon returned the stare, his hard instead of pleading, “I will. But for her sake. Not yours.”

  Red almost felt relieved, the fighting seemed to be over almost before it began. He watched as Demon fought two wolves, himself still in human form, using knives to slice them in measured strokes. He was playing with them, enjoying their whelps of pain, feeding off their fear. There was a reason he was called Demon, and this was it. He didn’t fight when he had to, to protect the community, to keep his family safe. He fought because he enjoyed it, liked inflicting pain and watching things die.

  Demon straddled the last standing wolf and placed the blade against its throat, whispering something Red couldn’t make out into its ear before slicing its neck completely open.

  “That went well,” Demon’s step had a bounce in it as he walked towards Red.

  “All things considered, yes. Now we just have to figure out which unit they’ve got them stored in, which shouldn’t be too hard.”

  “They in F89,” Demon pointed his bloody knife down a row of storage units.

  “How do you know?”

  “Let’s call it a hunch, eh? Just go get your kid, I’m going back to the Clubhouse for some food and some sleep. Have I mentioned I rode all night to get here?”

  Red looked away, he was in debt to Demon now, something he’d hoped to never be. “Fine, I’ll see you there.”

  He walked down the aisle Demon had indicated, the rest of the club following behind him, listening closely for sounds of movement. He didn’t want to get too cocky now and miss something that would screw up everything. But he heard nothing.

  Pausing in front of F89 he said a small prayer to whoever might be listening to a creature such as himself before he crushed the lock in his hand and raised the door.

  Three heads turned towards the sound, but only one pair of eyes was without blindfolds to see who had opened the door.

  “Daddy! Daddy!” the little girl ran into his arms and he scooped her up, holding her close. He could smell the cherry shampoo in her hair, still fresh from the bath she’d had the night before. Thank God he’d gotten there in time. “I was so scared Daddy, they came in and they tied up Grammy and Papa and they told me I had to go with them or they’d hurt them.” Tears filled her big blue eyes and his heart broke that she’d been so scared and without him.

  “It’s alright though now darlin’, I’ve got you and I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.”

  “Or take me?”

  “Nope, they won’t take you either.”

  “You promise.”

  Red covered his heart with one hand, “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

  Morgan nodded, her trusting little soul believing every word he said, “But where have you been? I’ve missed you so much. And I got a boo boo on my leg and Papa doesn’t kiss it better the same way you do.”

  He hugged her close to him, swearing to himself that he’d be a better man, a better father, for her. And that meant eliminating anything that might be dangerous to her.

  Red couldn’t bring himself to put Morgan down, he wanted to keep her as close to him as possible, reminding himself that she really was safe and alive. He watched as Moose freed and untied Maria, crying and holding her close, their hands touching and grasping at each other. The relief clear on both of their faces. He hated that anyone had to go through when they’d gone through last night, imagining their loved ones tortured, killed, or worse. Someone was going to pay for it too.

  “Has anyone heard from Big Dog yet?” he yelled back at the guys as they got ready to leave, he had a few questions that needed answers. And he was going to get those answers no matter how he had to do it. Trainz, BillCo, and Big Dog might have underestimated his determination to live, but it’d be the last time the underestimated his need to protect his family.

  Tomato sauce, Sidney decided, was inherently drawn to the bottom of the pot. It must be because it kept sticking to it and when she tried to stir, big clumps of darkened goops stuck to the end of her spoon and littered the rest of the sauce with black dots. She was trying to make spaghetti, something she had assumed would be easy because the directions were printed right there on the back of the label. Unfortunately she was obviously too dumb to follow them because one pot kept getting too hot and scorching the sauce and the other pot wasn’t getting hot enough to boil the noodles and Sidney was about ready to quit and order a pizza. It was her attempt to be considerate. The guys would, hopefully, be coming home any time and they’d probably be hungry. A big pot of spaghetti would have helped out, fed the group, and made her feel less useless. Cooking it was also taking her mind off of what might be happening.

  She hadn’t known Red, the man, for very long, but she wanted to know him. Wanted to spend time with him without fear clouding everything that happened between them. Or at least she thought she did. His life was a lot different than hers, but it couldn’t always be this way, kidnappings and violent fights to the death in the parking lot, she’d probably just met him at a… hectic time in his life. Things would settle down and they’d have time, plenty of time, to find out about all the things in each other’s lives. She wanted to see pictures of him from when he’d been in high school, she grinned to herself thinking about it, he was gorgeous now, but back then he probably had all the perfection without the rough edges. Sidney liked the rough edges, the scars, scruffy beard and unkempt hair. They spoke of a story, of a person who lived his life to his own standards, not anyone else’s. All the men in her life before, including… especially David, had been meticulous about their appearance. Oh, they might grow a little five o’clock shadow now and then just to change things up, but you could look at them and know three things. One: they were rich. Two: They spent more time looking in the mirror than you did. And three: they were used to getting what they wanted.

  David had spent hours working out, tanning, even getting mani-pedis and facials some weekend mornings. She tried to imagine Red getting a mani-pedi and giggled.

  “What are you giggling at? The horrible smell of whatever is burning
in that pot is no laughing matter.”

  Sidney jumped, turning quickly to see who had entered the kitchen. It was Demon, half of his face covered in blood spatter along with the rest of him. Smirking he leaned casually against the door frame as if he didn’t look like a mass murderer returned from a rampage.

  “Cat got your tongue?” he walked around her, took the lid off her simmering sauce, and winced as the steam rose to meet his nose. Without asking permission, he grabbed the spoon out of her hand and tested the churning red goo, “Fuck. That’s awful,” he slapped the spoon back into her hand and quickly turned both eyes off on the stove. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Sidney plopped down at the table, she’d only been trying to help, he didn’t have to come in and be such an asshole about it. And nobody had asked his opinion anyway. His grimy sweaty sexy dark good looks didn’t mean he got to just come in and insult her cooking and sashay out again just because he could.

  Sexy? Where had that thought come from? And who cared what he looked like anyway, he was a dick. She could tell that by the way he’d talked to Red when he’d come in, and he’d just confirmed it again.

  Red. If Demon was back that meant Red should be coming back soon too… if he wasn’t already. She hoped up from the table and bolted into the commons, but no one seemed to be there. She checked the parking lot through the window and the same bikes and cars that were there when they’d left were still there. Except for Demon’s, his was there now, and she knew it had to be his by the big flaming pentagram painted on the side. He must take his nickname very seriously, she mentally rolled her eyes. She sat there waiting for a few minutes, hoping they’d show up, but felt restless. Like she should be doing something instead of just sitting around waiting. Waiting was horrible, probably less horrible than having to fight but it was still nerve-wracking.

  She wandered back down the hall, intending to get her phone out of Red’s room and call in an order for a pizza but she came up short when she encountered Demon walking down the hall, dripping wet and wearing nothing but a low slung towel over his hips, clearly displaying a tantalizing v cut and a thin trail of hair that disappeared below the ratty old terrycloth. Water trickled from his hair, running down the plains of his abdomen, and Sidney’s mouth went dry.