by Davida Lynn
When Raven's phone vibrated in her pocket, she grabbed for it immediately. It could have been Bear, or someone with information about him. When she pulled it out, her heart stopped. It was a text from Allan.
Looking for someone?
Faith saw the look on Raven's face, and she lost all control. "What? What is it?"
Raven didn't look up from her phone as she started pounding out a message back. "I don’t know yet."
"Is it about Bear? Oh, God. Something's happened." The tears were back at her cheeks, harder this time. Faith could barely keep her voice above a shaking whisper. She had stood and watched her man disappear on her once before, and the thought of it happening again gripped her heart like the devil’s hand.
Bear had been locked up for five years while Faith had waited. Their son had grown up not knowing his father, and all of those crushing feelings came back to her. The thoughts whipped around inside her head, and she had to tell herself to keep breathing.
Faith focused on the young girl who had gotten the text. She thought she was foolish for trying to break into the boy’s club, but she had to admire the young blonde’s spirit. She had been put through hell and came out clean on the other side. Faith liked her more and more, and since she had become a full member, the boys had eased off of her.
Raven typed a message back and sat, waiting. Faith’s heart was racing. The phone vibrated, and she watched Raven look at the screen.
Her mouth dropped open. She looked up at Faith.
"You look like you've seen a ghost. Tell me." Faith was on the edge, barely keeping it together.
Raven was speechless, so she laid her phone on the table and slid it toward Faith. The older woman picked it up and read the message.
Someone knocked him ass over tea kettle. He's in the hospital. San Joaquin.
When she did, her hand moved up and covered her mouth. "Oh, my God." She whispered it, but Raven could hear her clearly. She threw her arms around Faith in an instant.
"I need to go. I need to see him."
"You can't drive yourself. You're in no shape. Wait here." Raven squeezed her hand and then stood up. She made a beeline for Tanner. His car was probably the only one still in the lot. Either way, she was about to volunteer him to be a chauffeur.
Tanner and Jenny were dancing. In a normal situation, Raven would have hated breaking the two of them apart, but shit was about to hit the fan. She grabbed her brother’s arm and dragged him back away from the band so they could hear each other.
“Bear turned up,” she said, keeping her voice low. “He’s in the hospital. I don’t know what happened, but you need to drive Faith out there to see him. She’s broken up as all hell. She can’t drive herself.”
Tanner looked shaken. “Who told you?”
Raven pulled her phone out. Allan’s name was at the top of the chat screen. “Who do you think?”
She watched the veins in Tanner’s neck begin to throb. “Did he do this?” He fought to keep his voice low and under control. “Is this is way of sending a message?”
“I. Don’t. Know. Tanner. Just get Faith to her husband’s side. That’s what’s most important right now. Bear needs his wife, and Faith needs her husband. Can you do that?”
“Of course. Jenny and I will take her.” Tanner turned back to see Jenny looking concerned just off the dance floor. She knew something was up. Raven wondered if she was afraid it had something to do with her. The scare with her and the cop was probably still fresh in the girl’s mind.
“Tanner, listen. You stay there with Bear. He and Faith need protection now.” Raven’s eyes turned to ice. “This was no accident. I don’t know if Allan did it, hired someone, or if it was someone else altogether. All I know is we are vulnerable without our president. Keep your head on a swivel.”
He nodded, but didn’t say anything else. Raven stood and watched Tanner lean down and whisper in his girlfriend’s ear. Her eyes went soft, and she agreed to whatever he told her. They headed for Faith. She was still staring off into nothing. Tanner gave her shoulder a light touch. She turned and offered him a half-hearted smile. They stood up and left the bar.
As far as Raven could tell, no one else in the place had noticed what had happened. She was glad for it. She didn’t want to cause pandemonium when they knew so little of the facts.
Raven texted her brother: Let me know when you get there. She headed for the kitchen, intending to make a call out back of the bar, but she was stopped by another person that sent her heart reeling. Gunner stood in front of her, a confident grin on his face.
“I haven’t been able to get you off my mind.” He looked her up and down, and part of Raven wanted to give in to him. She wanted a beautiful distraction, a man that had the skills to clear every bad thought from her head and fill it was naughty ones. Any other time and under any other circumstance…
She lay a hand against his neck. “Rain check, handsome. Mama’s taking care of something.” Raven hated to leave him standing there without an explanation, but she had an important call to make.
She pushed through the swinging door to the kitchen, trying not to remember the filthy, naughty sex that she and Gunner had there not too long before. She stepped out the back door and into the night air. After pulling up the right contact in her phone, Raven hit send.
“Yeah?”
She took a deep breath. It wasn’t easy news, and there was no easy way to get it out. “Trask, you need to come home.”
“What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
“Bear’s been in an accident. He’s at the hospital. Tanner is taking your mom there right now. He’s at San Joaquin. Your mom isn’t doing so well. I think she needs you.”
There was a long pause before Trask spoke again. His voice didn’t change, as if his father being in the hospital wasn’t a big deal. “What about the club?”
“What about it?”
“Who’s in charge? Who is stepping up?”
Raven turned back to the bar, as if she could see through the cinder blocks at all her brothers inside. “They don’t know yet. I got the text from…” She didn’t want to fill Trask in on all the stuff with Allan. “From a friend. Only your mother, Tanner, and I know.”
“If someone attacked Bear, it’s all-out war. The new Sergeant-at-Arms is in charge. You need to let him know what’s happened. I’ll be there in about six hours. When I get there, I’m taking over. Get every last member to the bar as soon as possible.”
“I can do my best, but no one listens to me. I don’t even know if they’ll believe me—”
“Just get it done.” Trask sounded more commanding than Raven had ever heard before. His usual quiet tone had been thrown out the window. He hung up without another word.
Raven stood there, a little confused. Her heart was still racing. She had to go back in and talk to the man she had just blown off. Perfect. She couldn’t wait to get yelled at for not telling him what was going on. She sighed and turned to head back into the bar.
Gunner wasn’t far from where she’d left him. She grabbed his t-shirt around the chest and pulled him into the kitchen.
“That’s more like it.”
Raven shook her head. “Hate to ice down that beautiful package, but we’ve got a problem.”
Gunner looked physically hurt, but asked, “What’s up?”
“Bear’s been in an accident. He’s at San Joaquin right now. I called Trask to get him down here. He wants everyone here. We have to take this as a sign of aggression.”
“Aggression from who? The Mexicans? We’ve been on relatively friendly terms with them for almost six months. And none of the smaller clubs in the area have the stones to try anything.”
Raven knew she had to explain things with Allan. She knew Gunner would fly off the handle, but she didn’t see another option. “I think I might know who it is, but it’s only a guess.”
Raven kept her voice calm as she explained her past relationship with Allan, how he was a cop, and how she had used h
im to spring Bear from jail weeks earlier. She then told Gunner about Tanner and Jenny’s problem with another cop.
“Yeah. We voted against any action, but then Bear changed his mind and overrode our vote.” Gunner was handling all the information well. Raven had no idea how he would handle news about her sleeping with someone else, even if it was over. She was worried that he’d be pissed that she chose a cop.
She said, “Yeah. I called him and convinced him to let us get the girl. I called Allan and get the cop’s address. A few days ago, Allan calls me up for a meeting. Standard blackmail.”
Raven knew the anger would come, and Gunner didn’t disappoint. “Goddamnit, Raven, what the fuck were you thinking? Great. Just fucking great. Now we’ve got one cop coming back from the dead to haunt us, and another one extorting us for a quarter million dollars. Someone put Bear in the hospital, and if it’s your fuck-buddy, we can’t touch him. Fuckin’ great.”
“What would you have done? Let Bear sit in prison? Would you have taken care of Earl McFadden? You think they would have stopped sniffing around our door if the accuser ended up dead? I don’t fucking think so. I did what had to be done. Don’t throw all this back on me just because I was the one with the connection.”
Gunner laughed. “Connection? You’re fucking the enemy, and you call that a connection? Is he your inside man? Giving you all the latest gossip on the town drunk? What exactly were you getting out of him?”
“He wanted to fuck me.” She let that sink in. “That’s right. I held off, though. So I guess this is the price we all pay for me having some loyalty.”
“You call hanging with a cop loyalty?”
Raven took a step back. She knew backlash would come her way, but Gunner sounded like a jealous prom date. “I can do whatever I want with whoever I want, and you aren’t going to tell me anything different. I knew him way before you and I ever fucked. I stopped seeing him once I started taking the tests to become a member, and I only went to him because somebody had to. Jesus fucking Christ, Gunner. Don’t lay any insecurities on me, especially like we’re together. When you make me an honest woman, maybe then you get to dictate my actions, but any sooner.”
Gunner grabbed Raven by the shoulders and pushed her against the wall. “I don’t give a fuck about me and you. That ain’t what this is about. You might have put the whole club in the crosshairs, you dumb bitch!”
Raven wasn’t going to take anymore of Gunner’s childish shit. She brought her hand up so fast that Gunner didn’t have any time to react. She slapped him hard, forgetting everything Trask had said about the Sergeant-at-Arms taking control. She turned away from Gunner, disgusted.
Raven threw open the kitchen door. She headed straight for the sound guy working with the band. Her words were drowned out by the music, and she saw that she wasn’t going to get anywhere playing charades, so she did the next best thing.
She grabbed the two plugs powering the sound board and surge protectors, yanking them out of the wall. The guitars and singer dropped out, and all that was left was a few seconds of awkward drumming before they all realized what had happened. It conveniently left Raven at the center of attention.
“If you’re not a Rising Son, get the hell out.” Her voice carried through the bar, and it was hard enough that no one questioned her. Bikers of all ages began to stream toward the door. They knew their welcome only lasted as long as the Rising Sons allowed it. It was part of the allure that drove bikers from all over southern California to Los Bandoleros.
Once the last of the civilians were out, Boss stepped in front of Raven. He was more than a foot taller, and she craned her neck to look up and meet his cold stare. “Just what in the flying fuck do you think you’re doing, little miss?”
“Don’t try to intimidate me, Boss. Just take a seat. We got problems.” She said the last part loud enough that everyone could hear it. Raven didn’t want to have to deal with anyone else getting up in her grill because they were macho men.
“Bear’s in the hospital. If anyone was wondering why he wasn’t around today, that’s why. He’s at San Joaquin, and that’s about all I know. Sorry I don’t have any details. Tanner and his girl took Faith there to see him. Tanner’s gonna stay for protection, but I don’t think that’s enough. I want one more of you to head over there and keep watch over the room.”
She had the full attention of every biker in the place. Raven went on. “If you know somebody that ain’t here, get them here.” She saw some of her brothers pull out cell phones and whisper to each other. She had command and presence. It filled her with pride. “I don’t know who did it for sure, but I have one idea.”
Gunner stood just outside the kitchen. He was only in her periphery, but Raven knew he was there. He wasn’t happy with her, but she didn’t give a shit. It was his job to step up, but instead he’d decided to turn it into a dick-measuring contest, and the Rising Sons didn’t have time for that.
Raven told the club about her connection to Allan, about getting Bear out of jail, and about Tanner and Jenny. She laid all her cards on the table, except for the mention of the blackmail. She played it off like Allan might be out for revenge. There was the occasional comment, but most of the club listened. They wanted to understand why Raven was the one in front of them.
She wrapped things up, ready to send people into action. “I don’t know if Allan did this, but if he did, it’s just the start. I need weapons, and I need them here. I need a group to take care of that.” Raven looked to the door near the kitchen. “Gunner, since you are the Sergeant-at-Arms, do you want to be the one who steps up?”
She tried to hide the frustration in her voice. She may have, she may not have. It didn’t really matter to her. He knew she was pissed, and he knew exactly why.
“Yeah. I’ll round some guys up after you’re done with your talk.” She was surprised at how easily he fell in line with the other bikers.
“Good. Trask is going to be here in about five hours. I want everyone except Bear, Tanner, and Trigger here when Trask gets in. Trigger, you’re heading to the hospital to be a second pair of eyes.” Gunner’s sibling nodded. “If anyone knows who else might have attacked Bear besides the cop, I need to know.”
The Rising Sons looked around. She knew they weren’t all the brightest minds, but they knew who their enemies were.
“No one thinks the Mexicans did it?” Raven thought if she threw a name out, they could get a dialogue going. They were all listening, but she wanted to hear from them.
Cecil, one of the old-timers that served a sentence with Bear, spoke up. “The Mexicans ain’t messed with us in nearly five years. When they did, we cut them down to less than five members. Jorge Saldana’s got a truce goin’ with Bear that’s ironclad. They mess with us, they open themselves up to a world of hurt. Nah, it’s ain’t the wetbacks. We heard anything out of L.A. recently?”
Cecil looked around, directing his gaze at the older members of the group.
Clyde shook his head. “Not since ’99. They teamed up with The Rollers from Vegas and tried to come after us. I don’t think they made it to the city limits before we had them runnin’ for the hills. Facts are, there ain’t too many clubs that try and fuck with us no more. We got things pretty good locked down in this area.”
“Maybe we’re not looking for a club, then. Could it be someone else?” After asking, Raven’s mind jumped to Earl McFadden. She could only imagine how pissed off he would have been once the case against Bear was dropped. “Anyone think he’d be chicken-shit enough to go after Bear himself?”
Clyde shook his head with force. “No fuckin’ way. That chicken-shit is only chicken-shit enough to call in the adults when the kids get into a playground scuffle. He’d never go after any one of us, inside the bar or outside. He’s got no problem callin’ the cops and screamin’ assault, but he’d piss himself if anyone challenged him, especially you after what you did to him last time.” A few of the bikers around Clyde laughed. Raven could feel the hint of respe
ct from her peers. It was about time.