Buster could only hear Jake's voice with him holding the camera, most likely in a smart phone, but he could imagine the expression on the man's face. He was enjoying this.
“Hold the fuck on. You haven't told her. You said....”
“I lied.” Jake laughed. “And there she is.” The camera panned over to Jillian as she entered the room.
“Edge?” Jillian stepped forward, the camera focused on her briefly, but Buster couldn't get a good look at her face. He watched the siblings embrace. “What are you doing here? What's going on?”
“I'm with Jake now. I'm a Wild Card.”
“What?” Jillian shoved back from him. “No.”
“Ask him how he earned his Wild Card patch, Darling.”
“What did you do, Edge? What did you do?” Jillian demanded. Buster leaned closer to the screen, as if that would get him closer to the action. Seconds ticked by slowly. Edge didn't answer.
“He betrayed his Brothers. Killed one of them.” Jake sounded thrilled to be the one to break the news. “One of your favorite members of Nightshade.” The camera focused on Jillian. Her face was blank, almost too blank, and Buster realized that she'd done so on purpose. “Oh, come on, Jilly, aren't you going to ask who?”
Buster had only heard one person refer to Jillian as Jilly, and that was Ace. Jake was fucking with her, which didn't seem to indicate wedded bliss. What the fuck? “Fuck you.” Jillian stuttered the words. The impact could nearly be felt a moment later as she launched herself at her brother.
There was no way Buster wasn't going to grin at the sight of her punching Edge in the face. The grin faded quickly when Edge punched her back. She was knocked to the ground by the force. “It wasn't your precious fucking Ace. It was Rock.”
“Rock? Rock?” Jillian was back on her feet, a little dazed, but obviously furious.
“Shot him right in the head,” Jake confirmed with a chuckle. “Not a second of hesitation. Kind of like this.” The sound of the shot made Buster jump. Edge slumped to the floor, blood pooling from his chest.
The camera angle flipped, and Buster found himself face to face with Jake. Even though he knew that it was a video, and impossible, he wanted to reach through the screen and rip the man's spine out through his mouth.
“Did you enjoy that show?” Jake was smiling. “See, I only needed Edge for a little information and some assistance. Obviously, I wouldn't have been able to get close to Miller on my own.” There was a whimper in the background. “And Jillian. Sweet Jillian. Well, she was just fun. I thought that I'd get more out of her, but she was pretty tight lipped. Well, mostly tight lipped.
“You son of a bitch.” Jillian's voice could be heard in the background.
“Shut up, bitch. Did you really think that I would want you?” Jake asked. “One more word, and you'll be bleeding out like your brother. It's time to say your goodbyes.” His attention returned to the camera. “And as all this is going on, Buster, you and your men are outside. Isn't that precious?”
The video ended there. “See why I didn't want to show that upstairs?” Bones sounded nervous, as if he'd done something wrong.
“Yeah, I see.” Buster sat back in the chair, played the video again from the start. “We were going to wait until dark to check out the warehouse. Plan just changed. Get everyone. I need to call Manuel.”
“Do I tell 'em about the video?” Bones looked a little nervous, no doubt because he'd pictured having to tell Ace.
“No. I want them to see it. I want them all to see it.” Buster kept his eyes on the screen, tried to see what he wasn't seeing. Body language and all that shit. He trusted his gut, but it wasn't able to tell him much, except that Jillian's reaction to what Edge had done was genuine. Edge's surprise in his last seconds of life was surprise. “When Ace gets out of the shower, send him down.”
Buster had one more chance to watch the video before Ace came down the stairs. “Hey. Bones said you needed me. Let me guess, the little fuckhead couldn't figure something out. Needs the expert.”
“I wish it was that, Brother.” There was no way to sugarcoat the precarious situation Jillian was in or the fact that it was on Nightshade. She'd have never been a blip on Jake's radar if not because of them. “I need you to sit. I've got something for you to see.”
<#<#<#<#
The plan was simple. They'd go in hard and fast, side by side with The Street Kings. And they were all in, all members of both clubs would be there in full force. Buster had more than a few reservations about leaving the women there with just the hang-arounds, but there was no real choice in the matter. They had to give going after Jake everything they had.
The warehouse was lit, the same lights as the night before, according to Ace and Monroe, who'd both been on watch. The number of cars were the same. Jake might not be inside, but he'd sent the tape for a reason. He wanted this showdown as much as they did. It could be a trap; they were all aware of that. Each man moved carefully forward. The front door was unlocked.
“This ain't right.” Train shook his head. “I smell a setup.”
It was what they were all thinking voiced out loud, but that didn't change the facts. “Be careful. Everyone,” Buster demanded. There were eleven of them, and he could only hope that it was going to be enough.
Buster had feared they'd find a labyrinth of rooms, but instead it seemed to be one big, and empty, working floor with several doors on the far wall which likely led to some sort of offices. In one of those rooms they would find Edge's body. He just hoped that they wouldn't find Jillian's as well.
Buster kept his guard up even when it became obvious that the warehouse was empty. One by one the rooms were searched. There was no sign of Edge's body, though a pretty significant blood pool indicated where he'd bled out, and no sign of Jillian, but most importantly, there was no sign of Jake.
“Fuck.” Manuel swore and sent a desk chair across the room with a kick. “I'm tired of this motherfucker.”
“Hold on.” Ace spoke up. “I think that I've got something here.”
“What is it?” Buster demanded.
“It's a USB drive.” He picked up a silver pen from the floor. “Looks like a pen, right?” He twisted off the top. “It's not.”
“How did you know what that was?” Manuel demanded.
“Because I gave it to Jillian. She likes pens. I thought that she'd think it was cool.” He slid the pen into his pocket. “I need a computer to see what's on it. Need the bar for that, not like I can bring mine with me on the bike.”
“And that's one of the reasons why the truck was much more practical for tonight. Einstein, go get your gear.” Manuel looked around the room. “If that got left behind, there's got to be more here. Tear it apart.” They split up to cover more ground. Buster found evidence that drugs had been made there, but there was no sign of the drugs themselves.
“Check the other rooms. There's got to be something here.” Buster couldn't believe that the place was abandoned without any clue as to where The Wild Cards had taken off to. “Ace, get whatever is on that pen when he brings you the computer.”
“Boss?” Train spoke from the door. “We've got a fucking problem.”
“What kind of problem?” Buster turned to face him.
“The kind that goes tick tick boom,” Train replied grimly. “Come and see for yourself.”
Buster followed Train out of the room, into another and saw the problem right away. The bomb ticked off passing moments with an old-fashioned alarm clock. Once the hands hit a certain time, the explosion would no doubt be powerful enough to take out the building. “Can you tell when it's going to blow?”
“The alarm is set for half an hour from now. I've got to assume that's when it'll blow.” Train crouched down next to it. “There's a lot of C4 here, seems like a shame to waste it. I might be able to disarm it.”
“Don't blow yourself up,” Buster replied. “And don't lose track of time, we're out of here in twenty minutes just to be safe, with or without
the explosives.”
“Got it, Boss.”
“I've got something!” Ace's voice carried from the other room. Buster walked in to find him grinning from ear to ear. “I've got everything that we'll need. “It's her fucking diary.” He let out a laugh.
“And how is that all the information we need?” Einstein scoffed. “How's a chick's diary going to help us?”
“Because this chick tends toward being paranoid,” Ace replied. “She makes note of people, places and things. There's addresses in here, phone numbers. It's a treasure fucking trove and the best chance we've got of finding these fuckers.”
“Run the addresses to see if any pop up as businesses or whatever. You know what, give me my computer back. I've got this.” Einstein moved forward.
“No,” Ace corrected. “I've got this. Appreciate you letting me use your shit, but this is me.”
“Fuck that. I know my system better than you do.”
“Einstein, let him do it.” Manuel spoke as tension rose in the air. They were all worked up, adrenaline with no outlet was a dangerous thing. It would be easy for things to boil over. Einstein didn't look like he was going to back down, but then he did.
The relief that Buster felt was short lived. Somewhere in the distance, a door slammed. He realized it was the front door. “DB was on the door.” There was a rush as they all headed to the location of the sound. When they got to the front door, it was indeed closed, and there was no sign of DB, which wasn't very encouraging, since his gun was on floor about three feet from where he would have been standing.
“Locked.” Train had reached the door first since the other room was closer. He kicked the door, directly at the lock level, several times, but it didn't even budge. “It's reinforced.”
They were trapped inside the warehouse. They'd found no other exit, yet there had to be some way in and out because they'd had eyes on the front door the entire time. “There's got to be another way out.” Buster spoke up. “And we need to find it quickly.” He filled everyone else in on the ticking bomb that Train had found.
Jake's plan for them was becoming clear, and he didn't like the picture. “There's got to be a second exit. Let's find it and fast,” Manuel suggested.
They looked for what seemed like an eternity. Each minute that ticked by sent the tension up another notch. At this rate, The Wild Cards weren't going to have to raise a finger to destroy both groups; they'd do it themselves.
“There's no other way out,” Caesar declared. “We need to take the door down.”
“What part of 'reinforced' is too complicated for you?” Train demanded.
“Fuck you, asshole. I don't hear you making any suggestions.”
“You're not making a suggestion. You're bitching. Time to put your big girl panties on, Cupcake.” Train grinned. “Because actually, I do have an idea but I'm not sure that anyone is going to like it.”
“What is it?” Manuel asked before Buster could speak.
“We try and blow out the back wall.” Train replied. “Use the shit that they left to take us out as our escape route. Finding the second door in the time we have left is going to be like finding the Holy Grail.”
“Can you do that?” Manuel asked.
“I can try. Not like anyone is going to be around to bitch at me if I screw it up.” Train smiled. He was enjoying this entirely too much.
Buster could only hope that Train knew what he was doing, otherwise they were likely to all die. “You do that. Everyone else, keep on looking. There's another way out. It's how they got out with us watching the place.”
“Unless someone on watch turned a blind eye,” Einstein spoke up. “How do we know that someone in this building isn't working with those fuckers? Don't look at me like that. One of their own already flipped.”
“How do we know that you haven't suddenly flipped?” Danny shot back.
“You trying to say something?” Einstein moved forward, even though Danny had a good four inches and sixty pounds on him.
“Einstein!” Manuel's voice boomed through the warehouse. “Stand down. Everyone, stand down. We're playing right into their hands. We tear each other apart, and we're out of his hair for good. Caesar, give Train a hand. The rest of you, keep on fucking looking.”
Chapter Eighteen
Caroline couldn't shake the heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach as she looked out the window in the door of the bar. The outside was being guarded by three hang-arounds Buster told her she could trust. She should have felt safe, but it was impossible to feel safe without him there.
“See anything?”
“The hang-arounds seem on edge. I think they might have seen something.”
“Get back away from the door. Help me finish this. Trust me, we're going to be glad we've got stuff organized when they get back. You up for it? We're going to have to hope there's nothing too serious, because Maggie can't be here. She's got kids.” Amelia ran her hands over her stomach. “I can't even imagine it.”
Neither could Caroline, and she was glad for it. No matter what Buster said, how could she ever forget these dark days when things were good. The idea of having a child terrified her. “Well, we've got the internet and a can-do attitude. What could go wrong?” Immediately she regretted the words. So much could go wrong. “I'm going to drive myself nuts.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling. I need a drink when we're done with this.” Amelia continued stacking bandages onto a rolling table. “Look around for more of that saline stuff.”
Caroline began to look. She heard the rumble of bikes and stopped short. “Did you hear that? It's them. I recognize the engines. They're back.” Hope rose inside of her. Maybe it was all over and the sky would suddenly be clear.
“They'd have called.” Amelia went perfectly still. “You still got the gun that Buster gave you?”
“It's upstairs.”
“Go and get it. Now. And get ready to use it.”
Caroline wanted to argue, but the sound of the engines grew closer. She took the stairs two at a time. Her hands were shaking, but she got the gun from the drawer in the bedside table. She took extra clips, though if it came down to her needing more than one, it was probably not going to end well. She remembered there was a shotgun in the small closet, so she grabbed that, too.
She heard the shots outside before she was even back down the stairs. “What do we do?”
“Hope like hell that Drake and Sam are a better shot than Ivan was.” Amelia said grimly. She noticed the shotgun, raised an eyebrow. “You ever shot one of those before?”
“No.”
“Give it to me. You got extra clips?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Amelia replied. “You ready for this?”
“Do I have a choice?” Caroline felt her heart speed up but her hands remained still. She was glad for that. “Those are their bikes, though, right? How did they get their bikes?”
“Don't think about that now. Fucking focus. This is going to be life or death, Caroline. Life or death.”
“I get it,” Caroline snapped. She wasn't stupid. The gravity of the situation hadn't escaped her especially with the stray bullets. “What do we do?”
“We wait. Hope that Drake and Sam take out most of them and get back in here in one piece. If they don't, hopefully they take out enough of them so that we can get the rest.” Amelia flipped over one of the tables for cover.
Caroline did the same. “They both have kids. Wives.” Her voice shook.
“We've all got something to lose. They made a choice. We all made a choice.” Amelia spoke in a low tone. The shots outside had stopped. The silence broke a moment later, when the front door flew open.
Caroline trained her gun at the door. She couldn't have been more surprised when Jillian came through the door, her hands up as if in surrender, but she didn't lower the gun. In fact, she took a deep breath and steadied herself. If she had to, in order to ensure her survival, she'd shoot her friend. She didn't want to, but she woul
d.
Jake came in behind her, took two steps forward and pressed a gun to the side of Jillian's head. “Lower your weapons, ladies, or I'll blow her brains out.”
“That's not going to happen,” Amelia informed him. “What do you want?”
“I got what I want already. Nightshade is gone.” Jake grinned. “You figured that out already, right?”
Caroline felt her knees buckle, but somehow she remained on her feet. If Jake was telling the truth and Nightshade was gone, then Buster was gone. “I don't believe you.”
“It was simple, really simple. Not a big surprise because they weren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed. I will admit that they had balls, though. They all went down fighting. Should I have brought the bodies along? Would that make you believe?”
“I'm starting to run out of reasons why I shouldn't shoot you where you stand.” Amelia's voice was strong,her face a mask. “What are you doing here? What do you want?”
“I want you to stop talking.” Jake pointed his gun at Amelia and shoved Jillian forward so that she fell on the floor.
Caroline held back the urge to help her friend. Now that Jillian was closer and she was able to get a better look, it was clear to see that she'd been beaten. Her face was bruised, there were cuts on both her cheeks, and tear stains.
“What do you want, Jake?” Caroline spoke up in an effort to divert Jake's attention from Amelia because she could tell that her friend was about to press him. The situation was already downhill; the only question now was how much further it could go.
“I want the money, Caroline.”
“Excuse me?” She feigned surprise, hope that it seemed genuine. Buster's money wasn't a well known fact.
“Do not play stupid with me.” Jake snapped the words. “I'm talking about Buster's money. Money that I know you have access to, so let's just skip the foreplay and get right to the good shit. You're going to get online, get into the accounts and transfer every penny to an account that I give you. If you refuse, one of your friends will pay the price.”
Through The Weeds (Nightshade MC Book 2) Page 22