Copper looked to me, “Go get her, brother. Let’s take her home.”
CHAPTER 24
Ember
My fingernails were completely chewed off and my hands had been rubbed raw. I was a ball of nerves and nothing was helping me get a handle on it. I jumped about two feet in the air when the satellite phone rang. I dove for it, but Jamie got to it before me. He accepted the call and said nothing.
The sweetest relief washed over me when I heard Dash’s voice saying the passphrase. Tears wet my cheeks as I inhaled for what felt like the first time in days.
Jamie opened the hatch and stepped to the side so I could climb out first. About halfway up the ladder, Dash reached down and pulled me out. He squeezed me so hard it almost hurt, but I was probably doing the same to him.
“We got him, baby! We got him!” he exclaimed.
Sobs wracked my body. I was finally free from the hold that man had over me my entire life. I was almost afraid to believe it.
“It’s over, baby. Come on, let me take you home,” Dash murmured in my ear.
Home. I had a home. A place where I was loved and wanted. A family. I gasped. “Phoenix!”
“Shhh, we’re going to find him now. You and Jamie are riding in one of the Suburbans with me, Copper, and Judge.” He started to pull me along with him to the vehicles, but I dug my heels in.
“Wait! Where is Octavius?” I shrieked.
Dash smirked, “He’s tied up at the moment.”
“You mean that literally, don’t you?”
“You know me so well, baby. Now move it. Oh, and try not to look down,” he warned.
“Why?”
“Just in case Copper’s guys haven’t moved all of the bodies yet,” he said as nonchalantly as one would say, “Just in case it rains.”
That statement should have disturbed me or at the very least, bothered me on some level. It didn’t. Not in the slightest. I simply nodded and followed him to the SUV without looking down.
Once we were on the highway, the guys started making plans. I guess I got to be a part of “club business” this time since they had no way to prevent me from hearing their discussion. Unfortunately, the unknown situation that lay ahead of us kept me from enjoying that little fact.
Copper turned around in the front seat to talk to Dash. “When was the last time you spoke to Phoenix?”
“I talked to him yesterday. I usually checked in every few days, but as of yesterday, he wanted me to start checking in every day. He didn’t say why and I didn’t ask. We kept things to a bare minimum.”
Copper rubbed his chin and stayed silent for a few moments. “I’m thinking he was onto something. Do you think he knew about Pete?”
“No way. He would have never sent him with us if he did.”
Copper scoffed, “I know that. I meant, do you think Phoenix found out in the last day or two?”
Dash was shaking his head no before Copper even finished speaking. “Phoenix would have come up here himself if he had discovered the truth about Pete.”
Copper nodded, continuing to rub his thumb and forefinger over his chin, the same way Phoenix did, “Yeah, yeah, suppose you’re right about that. I’m just thinking out loud here, trying to piece it together. So, by the time we get there, it will have been 28 hours since there has been any contact with Phoenix. You try any of the other brothers?”
“Just Badger. My orders were to try Phoenix a second time five minutes later if he didn’t answer my first call. If he didn’t pick up on my second try, I was to call Badger. If Badger didn’t answer, then I was to call you.”
Copper pulled out his cell phone and dialed, “Bronze, see if you can get in touch with anyone from Croftridge.” He paused for a moment. “Yeah, man, we got the sons of bitches. Heading to Croftridge now. Phoenix and Badger are MIA.” He paused again. “Thanks, man. Talk in a few. Yep.” He turned back to Dash. “Got Bronze trying to get somebody. Let’s assume he can’t get anyone on the phone. How do you want to play this? We can’t go bursting in there guns blazing with her in tow.”
“I say we leave Ember in the car with some of your guys. The rest of us take Octavius and his goons in through the front door, guns to their heads. If anybody is in there waiting to ambush us, they won’t unless they want us to kill their precious leader. If we do get attacked, we can use them as shields and your boys can take Ember back to Bronze.”
Copper nodded, “Phoenix will be proud of you, Dash. I know you’re an officer, but you’re a relatively new officer. Today, you’ve essentially been functioning as the club’s president. You’ve handled your shit and thought things through as well as Phoenix or me.”
I think I saw a little color appear on Dash’s cheeks. “Appreciate that, Copper.”
We rode in a tense silence until Copper’s phone rang. “Whatcha got?” “Uh-huh.” “What did he have to say?” “Who the fuck is that?” “Yeah, yeah, fuck me, man, really?” “All right, I will.” “Thanks, brother.”
Copper turned back to face us, “Bronze called every brother in the Croftridge chapter and Duke’s phone was the only one that was answered, except it wasn’t Duke, it was some chick named Reese.”
I sat up straight in my seat. “Reese? Is she okay?”
“Don’t really know. Bronze said she didn’t even give him a chance to tell her who he was. She just told him her name was Reese and Duke couldn’t come to the phone. He said she then proceeded to cuss him for all he was worth and hung up. Who is she and why does she have Duke’s phone?”
Dash leaned forward and pinched the bridge of his nose. He sighed, “You know Reese, she’s Carbon’s little sister.”
Copper grinned, “Little Reesie Piecie?”
Dash chuckled, “That’d be the one.”
“Excuse me,” I cut in, “Can I call her? She’ll talk to me.”
Copper looked to Dash, who made the correct choice and indicated for Copper to hand me the phone.
“What’s Duke’s number?” I asked.
Dash dialed for me. I wanted to cry when Reese’s voice filled my ear. I had missed her so much over the last two weeks. “Reese, it’s Ember.”
“Ember! Holy shit, girl! Are you okay?” she yelled into the phone.
“I’m fine. Listen, I don’t have much time, but I need your help.”
“I don’t know how much help I can be. Carbon told me not to leave Duke’s room for any reason whatsoever until he himself said I could.” Her next words were whispered, “He said it was a matter of life and death.”
“What? When did you talk to Carbon?” Both Dash and Copper leaned closer upon hearing Carbon’s name.
“I didn’t exactly. He sent me a text about five hours ago, I think.”
“Okay, and you’re in Duke’s room?”
“Yeah, at the hospital.”
“Are you the only one there?”
“Yep. Harper went back to the clubhouse this morning.”
“How is Duke?”
“He’s awake, but won’t speak and is a general pain in the ass most of the time. The only reason I’m here now is because he needed something and no one else was available to bring it to him. Before I could leave, Carbon text me and told me to stay.”
“I think right now it is the best place you can be. Listen, stay there like Carbon said. I have to go, but I should be home soon.”
“Wait! What did you need help with?”
“I needed to ask you some questions, but you already answered them. I really have to go. I’ll talk to you soon. Stay safe, Reese.” I quickly disconnected the call before she could say anything else and handed it back to Copper.
“She got a text from Carbon about five hours ago telling her not to leave Duke’s hospital room until he came to get her. He told her it was a life or death situation.”
“Fuck, man. That means something must have gone down at the clubhouse and Carbon somehow managed to get a text out to her while he could,” Dash surmised.
Copper told Judge to pull into
the nearest gas station. Once there, he got out and quickly informed the other guys of the new information and the current plan. He was back in the SUV and we were on the road in no time. We would be there soon. I couldn’t shake the feeling that what awaited us was going to be less than pleasant.
CHAPTER 25
Dash
The open and unmanned gates were the first sign that something was wrong. The second sign was the body of a prospect lying on the ground beside the gates, a knife protruding from his chest. The third sign, the clubhouse doors were wide open.
Judge stopped in the lot and turned to Copper. “I’ll stay with Ember and the prospect. If you’ll send me Batta and Tiny, we can keep her safe using less men.”
“Good thinking, Judge. I’ll send them your way. Dash, you ready?”
“Yep, let’s do this.” I turned to Ember. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. If Judge thinks he needs to get you out of here, you don’t fight him on that. Just go with him and I’ll come when I can, okay, baby?”
She nodded and her eyes started to fill with tears. “Stay safe. Love you.”
“Love you, too, baby.” I gave her a quick kiss on the lips and got out of the SUV.
Tiny and Batta climbed in per Copper’s orders and I thanked each as I passed by them.
Rounding the back of the last vehicle in our little convoy, I found our three prisoners on the ground, awake, but still groggy from the drugs. Good, they’d be easier to handle.
We removed everything except the ropes around their wrists and the tape across their mouths. Jerking Octavius to his feet, I placed my gun to his head. Copper grabbed Nivan and Spazz grabbed Hector. We silently approached the clubhouse, frog-marching our prized prisoners. Spazz shoved Hector through the front door. We hung back a few feet to see if there would be any activity. Nothing. Spazz stuck his head around the door. “Don’t see anybody and don’t hear anything.”
Copper shouted to his guys behind us, “Split into groups of three or four and let’s get this building cleared. Check every room.”
Twenty minutes later, the building was cleared. We found nothing. Not a soul was there and not a clue as to what happened to everyone was found. No blood, no evidence of a struggle, nothing.
Copper placed his hands on his hips, “I’m kind of at a loss as to what to do now. I figured we would at least find something to go on if we didn’t find them here.”
Octavius started to laugh and shake from his spot on the floor. Hector maintained his hate-filled stare. Nivan, surprisingly, looked terrified. Interesting. I ripped the tape off Octavius’s mouth. “The fuck you laughing at?” I kicked him with my booted foot for good measure.
“You are all a bunch of leather-clad idiots,” he cackled, sounding like a rabid hyena.
I kicked him again, harder this time. “You gotta point you want to make? I’m getting really fucking tired of you and your bullshit. I’m about eight seconds from putting a bullet between your eyes. Nine from putting one between your son’s eyes.”
His laughter immediately died and his face filled with rage. “How dare you disrespect what I stand for?” he bellowed.
I smirked, “You did that all by yourself, oh Eight the Great.” The men around me burst out laughing.
I didn’t think it was possible, but Octavius’s face grew even redder. “You’ll never find him. You need me to find him! He needs me to lead you to him! I’m the one with the power. I’m the one that is important. I’m the one that is needed. Not your precious fucking Phoenix!!”
I looked to Copper, my eyes wide, “You know what Ocho is going on about?”
Copper shook his head. Spazz narrowed his eyes and really looked at Octavius, studied him. “You’re the Jones boy, aren’t you? People called you Tav in high school, until Phoenix beat your ass in front of the whole school and you yelled, ‘I’m Octavius Jones. You’ll never get away with this.’ Am I right?”
“He didn’t beat my ass! I chose to walk away! Because I’m better than him!!” he screamed.
Copper leaned back on his heels and blew out a low whistle, “I’ll be damned.” He turned to me and lowered his voice, “There’s more to this than what’s on the surface. I’m guessing it runs a lot deeper than any of us ever would have imagined. Old Tav has apparently had a beef with Phoenix since high school.”
“All this because he got his ass handed to him one time in fucking high school?” I asked.
“Like I said, I get the feeling it runs way deeper than that. Let’s lock them up in the cells downstairs. We might have to get creative, but I think using his son to get to him is the way to go.” An evil smile appeared on Copper’s face. A lesser man would have backed away in fear. Don’t get me wrong. It fucking scared me, but I wasn’t about to let that show. “What do you want to do with Ember?”
“Let’s put her in the panic room with Jamie,” I suggested.
“Go get her and I’ll get Octapussy and his boys settled into their new accommodations,” Copper ordered.
He didn’t need to tell me twice. I jogged out to the SUV waiting to whisk my love to safety. When I opened her door, she launched herself into my arms. “Is everything okay? Did you find my dad?”
I slowly shook my head, “We didn’t find anything in there.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just that. No one was in there. It didn’t look like there was any kind of struggle, no blood or broken glass, just an empty clubhouse.”
She started to tremble in my arms. “What are we going to do now? We have to find them!”
“Club business, baby. Listen, I’m going to have you and Jamie hang out in the panic room while Copper and I work out our next move. Okay?”
She sighed, “Okay. Fine.”
“Hey. What’s that about?”
“I’m just frustrated. I never know what’s going on. You won’t let me help with anything. I just sit in a room and wait for you to come get me.”
“Sitting in a room where I know you are safe and out of harm’s way is helping me, more than you think. As for not telling you things, there’s a reason for that, which I will explain when we have more time. Right now, I need to get you and Jamie down to the panic room,” I explained.
“Fine. Lead the way to my newest hiding spot.” I chose to let that one go. She’d had to deal with a lot of shit since she walked into the Blackwings clubhouse. It was completely understandable for her to be frustrated. Add to it that her dad was missing and we had the man responsible for it, as well as holding her prisoner for her entire life, in our custody, she was handling everything remarkably well.
I entered the code to the panic room, pulled the door open, and almost fell to my knees at the sight before me. Right in front of me were all of my brothers. Every single one except for Duke and Phoenix.
Badger wrapped both arms around me and squeezed to the point of pain. “I’m so damn glad to see you, brother! We’ve been trapped in here for hours and we have got to find Phoenix.”
“How the hell were you trapped in there? There’s an access panel right beside the door. You just enter the code and the door opens.”
“That crazy fucker must have changed it. I’m not sure. They came through the front doors throwing concussion grenades. Next thing I know, we’re packed in here like sardines in a can and the passcode won’t open the door,” Badger explained.
“You talking about Octavius?”
“Yeah. He came in here spouting all kinds of crazy shit about him and Phoenix. I saw one of his men grab Phoenix and stick a needle in his neck before they started throwing those grenades everywhere. I don’t know what they did with him. No one else saw anything.”
“We’ll find out soon. Copper and his boys are here. We’ve got Octavius and two of his men locked in the cells. Killed six of his men at the cabin. Well, seven if you count Pete the piece of shit prospect,” I told him.
“You killed Pete?”
“Nah, Ember did. Found out he was one of Octavius’s men. That’s how we got
the jump on Octavius. We can talk about it later. I need everybody out so I can put Jamie and Ember in here until we’ve found Phoenix and dealt with Octavius.”
“Everybody move out. No one leaves the clubhouse. Somebody check the gates. If they’re open, lock ‘em up. Officers, come with me to the cells,” Badger ordered.
Byte stepped forward, “I can reset the codes to the panic room from my laptop. I just need about 10 minutes to do it.”
All eyes went to Ember when she spoke, “I think I might know the passcode. May I try it?”
“How would you know that?” Badger asked.
“I lived under his rule for 18 years. You tend to pick up a lot of things over that amount of time. I was able to break into his safes and steal almost $100,000, wasn’t I?”
“Point made. Help yourself,” he gestured to the access panel.
Ember waltzed into the panic room, punched some buttons, and lights started flashing. The girl never ceased to amaze me. “Nice job. What’s the code, baby?”
She rolled her eyes, “8-O-C-T-A-V-I-U-S-8.” The man really did have serious issues.
“You and Jamie go on in and get comfortable. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I leaned down to give her a quick kiss and realized every brother from my club was staring at me. “Later, guys.” I looked back to Ember, “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
CHAPTER 26
Dash
Copper about fell on his ass when he saw me and the other Croftridge officers walking toward him. “Where in the fuck did they come from? Phoenix with you?”
“They were locked in the panic room. Phoenix wasn’t with them though,” I explained.
“How do you get locked in a panic room? I thought it was supposed to work the other way around?” Copper asked.
Badger grunted, “Octafuckhead had a tech guy change the passcode for the inside panel.”
Copper still looked confused. “So, how did you get the door open?”
“He’s either really fucking stupid or way too cocky, or maybe both, because the dumbshit didn’t bother to change the code to open the door from the outside. When Dash came down to put Ember and Jamie in the panic room, he found us.”
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