by Rae B. Lake
They arrested every single one of my brothers and myself and carted us off to lock up but even the slam of the metal bars did nothing to silence Cherry’s screams in my head.
Chapter 14
Keeley took over once we were in holding and made sure our lawyers were able to get us bail. It was actually pretty simple since the guns they had didn’t have anyone prints on them. We were out within a few hours but Cherry was being held without bail.
Devin spent hours sweeping church trying to find all the bugs the Boys of Djinn could have put in there, he pulled out half a dozen in that room alone. I could only imagine how many were in the actual clubhouse. Wire let everyone into church to talk. Prez, Archer, and even the Spawns came to the clubhouse to try and figure out what we were going to do.
“Wire, this is all the way fucked kid.” Rooster spoke up.
“No shit!” Wire had been snapping at anyone who even looked at him since we got back. I didn’t blame him.
“So what is the plan? We can’t take out the fucking FBI.” Clean said slamming his hand on the bar.
“Yeah, let’s do it,” Tex said, “I think that would be fucking spectacular. Can you imagine walking into the FBI headquarters and just blowing that shit the fuck up. How many secretaries do you think they have? I wonder if the bulletproof vest would stop them from breaking in pieces?” Tex laughed to himself.
“Tex shut the fuck up, you take your meds today?” Shepard asked.
“Fuck you.”
Shepard grabbed the strange man by the nape of his neck and dragged him away from the crowd.
I rolled up to Wire, I had only one thing on my mind.
“How do we get Cherry out?”
“Ryder, trust me that is the first thing I want to do too. I don’t fucking know. She shot him, her prints must be on that gun and that fucker was at the scene.”
I wasn’t trying to hear any of that, “Fuck all that, we have to at least try.”
“What part of I don’t know do you do not understand? I promise she is my first priority.”
“What about Larry Jr?” Maven asked.
Wire shook his head. He had no answers for any of us.
“You say she told them to stop?” Devin said from where he was in the back.
I turned to look at him, part of me didn’t want to trust him. He was a pig in his former life but if he knew some fucking tricks up his sleeve for what was happening right now, I was open to hearing them. “Yeah, they were beating on us when she came out, she told them to fuck off and when they went for her she shot them.”
“That’s self-defense.”
“So why the fuck is she in jail then?” Maven asked.
“If we could prove that it was self-defense we would have a good chance of getting her out, and if they drop the charges, they will give Larry Jr back. It’s getting proof that’s going to be hard.” Devin said looking down at the ground.
“I’ll work on it,” Clean spoke up.
“What the fuck are we going to do about these Boys of Djinn, bastards. I’ll be fucking honest I feel like if I jaywalk, they gonna throw my ass in jail. Jail ain't for me boys, I am too pretty.” Ripper said in seriousness.
“Aye, I’m so fucking done with this pussy shit.” Rooster said as he got up from his seat.
“Rooster we have to be smart about this shit, we have to make a plan.”
“I got a plan, you down with my fucking plan Shep?”
Shepard nodded his head and Tex just looked around with a glazed look on his face, whatever pills he’d taken clearly working.
“What fucking plan is that?” I asked.
“We take them the fuck out, I ain’t just going to let someone bully me or my boys. The hell with all that shit. FBI, DEA, G-O-D, I don’t give a fuck who it is. I promise you once they figure out that we ain’t backing down, they’ll rethink their strategy.”
“You dumb shit, we can’t just go in there guns fucking blazing. Most of us here have families. Didn’t you see what the hell they did to Cherry and LJ?” Maven spoke up.
“Kneel to,” Mack spoke. It was so rare to hear him say anything, he was a dedicated soldier but he had a speech problem that made what he wanted to say not what actually came out of his mouth. It was usually just a hair off.
“We need to?” Ripper asked.
Mack nodded his head.
“This is going to get much worse before it gets any better.” Wire looked around.
“Yeah, it’s going to be fucking chaos.” Rooster smiled, “Like my second home.”
“I get to kill some shit now?” Tex asked in a little voice almost like he was a child.
“Soon Tex,” Shepard said and patted Tex on the shoulder.
“We have to get Cherry out first,” I said making sure that everyone was still on task.
“Yeah, everybody stay calm until Cherry and LJ are back home. I don’t want them fucking with her while she is in lockdown. What about the pickups, Storm is out of commission for the foreseeable future, we don’t have a treasurer.” Archer spoke up.
“Mack,” I spoke up. “He knows the routes and he knows what to look for.”
Mack looked over to me and nodded his head, the boy didn’t speak often but what he lacked in verbal skills he made up for in every other way. They wouldn’t get the drop on him so quickly.
“Fine, Mack, you will be interim treasurer. All in agreement say aye.”
The room erupted in ‘aye’s’.
“Any nays?”
Silence.
“Fine that’s done, Mack you will do the absolute bare minimum, for right now if they roll up on you and want anything. Just give that shit. We’re going to show our bellies until it’s time to strike.”
Mack nodded.
“Clean, I know that you’re going to search for what you can to help Cherry out but I need you to dig deep on what you can find out about the Boys of Djinn.”
Clean shook his head, “Brother, I told you, I did all the digging I could do. I found nothing. I don’t even know where else to look,” he shrugged.
“I can call Da.” Keeley offered.
“What can they offer us right now?” Wire asked his wife.
“Sven is one of Da’s Capos, he’s very talented. I’m sure he could help find the information. Also, Da would let us use his lawyers if we need to. We’re his family, he’d do it.” Keeley said holding a sleeping Lily in her arms.
“Do it, we need all the help we can get right now.”
We had the beginnings of a plan but everyone was walking on thin ice, I wasn’t a fan of fucking with the government but if it came down to either them or us, I would do what needed to be done.
We made our way out of the church, “Hey, watch what you say until we can get the clubhouse wiped.”
Everyone nodded. Too afraid to say anything that would incriminate anyone.
“Ripper.” I called out rolling up behind him, I need a ride.” I didn’t wait for an answer just rolled out to the van.
“You got it, boss.”
I got myself into the passenger seat and he loaded my chair in the back, then jumped into the front seat. He put the car in drive and pulled off. Ripper was always down no matter what, a perfect addition to our brotherhood.
It took us two hours to make it to the jailhouse. They put Cherry with the general population. We tried to call her but she had yet to take any of our calls. The woman was completely defeated, there was nothing that I could do to get her out of here but I could let her know that she still had a family. She was as much a part of the Wings of Diablo as I was.
I made my way through the long-ass visitor line and waited for the guard to come over and frisk me. I couldn’t go through the regular metal detector because of the chair and rods in my hips. He took his time going over every area of my body when he took an extra-long time on my crotch, I had to say something. “You looking for a date or some shit? Get the hell off my dick and move on.”
He stood up abruptly, “Get the hel
l on.”
I went into the large room where they were letting people in for visitations. I rolled up to a table and waited.
It took fifteen minutes for Cherry to walk out but when she did all I wanted to do was to hold her and take the pain away.
“Charity? What the hell happened?”
It looked like she had been in a brawl, her face was all bruised up, she was favoring her side and her waist length beautiful hair was gone. It was cut up to around her shoulders, some pieces longer than others.
“Ryder, what are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here.”
“What, why the fuck not?” I leaned as far over the table as I could without drawing the attention of any of the guards.
“Ryder, they don’t like the Wings in here, they don’t like me in here. I can’t fight anymore; they’ve come for me every night since they discovered I was with you guys. I can’t fight them.”
The Wings have always been the top club in the area but we had made a lot of enemies along the way. Now Cherry was locked in a place with a bunch of catty women whose men we had wronged. They were brutalizing her.
“Listen to me, we’re going to get you out of here.”
“You won’t, they won’t give me bail. I’m going to be here for a long time Ryder.” She let a tear fall down her face but looked away from me.
“No, Keeley is getting some of the best lawyers from her father and we’re getting you the fuck out of here. Devin says what you did was self-defense. We just need to get some proof.” I said trying to reassure her.
“Ryder, you and I both know that I’m not going to make it out of this place. I just wish LJ was home with his family.” She put her head in her hands and cried hard, “Oh I miss him, I miss him so much.”
“You will make it. You will. Don’t fucking talk like you’re just going to sit here and give up. You have to fight.”
“Ryder, please, just stop.” She shook her head and looked away.
“You were right.”
“Right about what?” She asked her curiosity poking through her despair.
“I was jealous, I’ve been jealous since before Larry.” I sighed and stared at the beautiful woman across from me.
“What? How can you say that? You always said that it was nothing more than what happened in the room.”
“That’s how it’s always been and when you and I first started fucking around that’s what it was but the more I had you, the more no one else compared. I don’t give two fucks about any of the other club bunnies, fuck I don’t give a fuck about any other women in general but I would do anything to make sure that you are happy and taken care of. It’s why when Larry looked like he was falling for you, I backed off. I knew he would provide for you once he got his head out of his ass.”
She looked from side to side, her mouth opening and closing a few times before she could actually say anything. “But what about when you came home from the hospital, all those cruel things you said to me.”
“I was trying to get you out of my system. I already knew that I didn’t fucking deserve you. Here I am almost eighteen years your senior, in a dangerous biker club and now I can’t fucking walk. I can’t provide for you, I can’t keep you happy not in the condition that I’m in. I also can’t leave my brothers, there’s so much shit that I can’t do, I was trying to forget about you.”
She laughed slightly, “You fucking idiot.”
“That’s wonderful, just what I wanted to hear after I poured my fucking heart out like a goddamn pussy.” I leaned back in my chair, embarrassed but I wouldn’t take back a word. I meant it all.
“Ryder, I loved you first, in all your asshole ways I loved you. Before I even looked in Larry’s direction, I was hooked on you. You told me it would never happen and I believed you.”
The chatter in the room suddenly died out and all I could fucking think about was the fact that she said she loved me.
“You love me?”
“Ryan, yes, of course, I love you. You think I sit through all the shit you put me through for someone I didn’t care about?”
I wanted to say it back, but for the life of me, I couldn’t. “That’s good if you love me like you say you do. You will fight.” I leaned back over the table trying to get her to see that she had to make it through.
“Ryan.”
“No, no excuses. You fight to come home, you fight for LJ, you fight to come back to me. I promise you we will get you out of here, just fucking stay alive.” I begged.
“You have to get my son Ryder. You have to, even if I do make it out of here, I can’t live without him. I won’t survive that.”
“He’ll be coming home.”
She nodded and got up, visitation was over.
“Oh, for the proof, the club has surveillance all around the perimeter.”
“We checked, the fucks must have come and erased all the tapes.”
“Yes, but I doubt they took it down from the cloud. I kept forgetting to save the footage so I linked all the cameras to a streaming service, it goes to the cloud drive for the clubhouse. Actually, Archer did it for me the last time he was here. He should be able to get you back in.”
“I’m on it, babe. I swear to you.”
She gave me a small smile and walked away. Her head held a little higher.
Chapter 15
The shit actually worked.
Archer found the links on the cloud that Cherry told me about and clear as day we all saw that the man rushed her after she told them to stop several times.
Keeley’s father sent over a team lawyers five deep and while the feds were still breathing down our necks for every fucking thing that we were doing they couldn’t hold Cherry for murder. They had to let her go.
She walked in the door of the clubhouse at three in the afternoon and by three oh one, she was crying for LJ. Child services were dragging their feet when it came to releasing the child to his mother. They claimed they had to be absolutely sure that he wouldn’t be in danger.
She stayed in bed all day, only getting up to use the bathroom. I did my best to try and keep her spirits up, but I was a fucking biker. I didn’t know how I was supposed to do any of that, usually with Cherry sex was the answer and this time that wasn't the case. All she wanted was LJ.
“Cherry, time to get the hell up. You need to eat something.”
“I’m not hungry Ryder, go get yourself something, I’ll be fine.” She rolled over in the bed, turning her back to me.
“Fuck that, you are free, we beat the fucks and here you are still in the bed moping like a little girl.”
This got her attention, “Screw you, Ryder, you aren’t the one who is missing a fucking baby. I am. My baby. I want him here. He’s out there in the world all alone and you’re sitting there trying to force me to eat. You’re trying to get me to believe we won? The fuck are you talking about if we won where is my baby?”
“Cherry, you’re right, this is fucked up. I’m doing everything I can, we all are doing everything that we can to get him back to you.”
“It looks to me like you are just sitting around on your asses.”
I shook my head and turned to leave, she had been in a bad mood since she got back and she was more than entitled to be but no one talked to me that way. I’d rather leave than let her talk to me like I was shit beneath her boot.
“Ryder.” She called for me.
“What Cherry?”
She walked over to where I waited and sat down on my lap, “Ryder, I’m sorry. I’m angry and I’m hurting. Not at you, just at the world. LJ was the only truly good in my world and they took it away from me because they could.”
“I know babygirl. I know you miss him.”
She began to cry again, so I did the only thing I could to ease her pain even if it was only for a few minutes. I kissed her. I let my lips linger on hers not wanting to move too fast.
She kissed me back and just as she began to get into it, the outside door to the clubhouse slammed open. I pul
led away from her and listened for gunshots or screaming. Cherry held onto my neck, not even breathing but looking towards the door as well. She was doing the same thing, waiting for the next attack.
I heard one of the women in the club scream but not in fear or surprise but in glee. Archer whooped out happily and I could even here Wire laughing in the growing commotion.
Cherry got off my lap and I started to roll towards the door.
The sweetest sound I ever heard echoed through the air when I opened my bedroom door.
“Mama!”
“LJ!” Cherry rushed past me straight toward her son.
Clean smiled as he passed the little tyke towards his mother, his eyes glistening with tears he was too manly to shed. Devin walked in behind him a huge smile on his face as well.
“Oh god, thank you! Thank you!” Cherry told them both, as she kissed the little boy over and over in every spot that she could reach. “I don’t really care but how did this happen? I thought they wanted to make sure that I was safe before they gave him back to me?”
“Technically you’re a hero, we just told the department of Child Services that the press would be very interested to find out that the son of a single mother, a woman who is a hero, was taken from his mother due to false charges and then kept from her because they didn’t want to file the correct paperwork. It took some doing but the last thing that the state wants is a lawsuit on their hands or a public protest.” Devin shrugged as he bent over and rubbed the little boy's head.
“Thank you so much!”
A severe looking man, with clear blue eyes, white blond hair and skin as pale as snow walked in behind Devin, he looked over to Wire and indicated that he should come with him.
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked
The man didn’t say a word but instead tried to walk around me to where Wire was.
“Ryder, it’s cool. Come with.” Wire said as we walked into church. “Clean, Mack, Prez, Archer, we have to talk.”
We all filed in and looked at the man who was busy taking manilla folder after manilla folder out of the bag that he was carrying. He didn’t say a word to any of us.
“Wire, who the fuck is this and what the hell is he doing in church.”