Finding Mercy: The Next Generation

by Edwards, Riley

  “This is jacked. This is too damn easy.”

  Sampson and I rolled to a stop and waited for twenty-five bikes to follow suit. Let the showdown begin. Doors opened, and DEA agents descended, barking orders for everyone to keep their hands on their bars. Every biker complied. Front and center was a bearded man, late forties, with tattoos covering both arms and his neck. The front patch on his cut read President.

  The man didn’t move as I approached, weapon drawn and on high alert. “How ya doing this afternoon, agent?” He looked like he didn’t have a care in the world.

  “Just out for a leisurely ride?” I asked. “You don’t have any weapons or contraband on you, do you?”

  “Nope. Just a pocket knife.”

  “Mind if you ask your boys to dismount and consent to a search?”

  “Sure.” His hand shot up in the air and with a finger pointed to the sky he circled his hand. “Spread ’em, boys, you’re getting a DEA special today. Maybe even a happy ending if one feels so inclined.”

  “Rig’s empty. I repeat, rig is empty. Not even a pallet,” Evan barked in my ear. “Goddammit.”

  I patted down Mr. Smart-Ass President and he was telling the truth. A legal pocket knife was the only thing he had on him.

  “So what is this?” I asked, gesturing to the gang of men behind him.

  His eyes flared and brow pulled down. “Just taking care of some club business.”

  “Business, huh? You’re a long way from home to be taking care of business. And coming into another MC’s territory to do it? Seems like bullshit to me.”

  “Sometimes you have to eat up miles to find a man’s loyalty.”

  Well, fuck. This was a dry run. They’d thought they had a mole, and now it was confirmed. I didn’t know who our source was and, even if I did, there was nothing I could do. Even locking the man up wouldn’t save his life. You live by their code, you died by it.

  “We’re clear. No one has shit on them,” Lawrence announced. “Command, waiting for your orders.”

  The agent back at headquarters let a string of curses fly before he said, “Cut ’em loose.”

  “You all have a safe trip home,” I told the biker.

  “Aces, let’s ride.”

  DEA agents all stepped to the side as the Harleys roared to life. The man in the front shot his arm to the sky and circled. Apparently, that was the universal sign for everything. They drove away, leaving us on the side of the access road empty handed. Nothing like days of planning going to shit in a matter of minutes.

  “Walker?” Command came through my comm.

  “Go for Walker.”

  “You have a nine-one-one call. Go turn your cell on. You’re dismissed. The rest of your team will hitch a ride home. Get your ass back to Savannah. Now.”

  What the fuck?

  I jumped into the government issued SUV and found my personal cell phone stored in the glove box. With my heart constricting it felt like hours as I waited for it to power up.

  Finally.

  DAD: Lowe out on bail. Snatched Delaney. Mercy’s going in.

  DAD: When you get this check in.

  DAD: Lowe has Mercy and Delaney.

  DAD: GET YOUR ASS HOME.

  DAD: No updates. Called in my team. Search and rescue underway.

  DAD: Nothing yet. Call me. ASAP.

  “Get out of the driver’s seat,” Tito barked.

  “What?”

  “Scoot your ass over. I’m driving.”

  “What?”

  “Dude, I’m speaking English. No way am I letting you drive an hour home after I just heard the noise that came from this vehicle.”

  I hadn’t realized I’d made any noises. I hadn’t realized I was even breathing. It was as if all of the oxygen had been sucked out of the SUV. No, that wasn’t right. The air had been stolen from my world. My sister and the woman I love were in the hands of a man who was out for revenge.

  I dialed my dad’s number and waited.

  “You on your way?”

  “Hour out. Any updates?”

  “Blake is working on locating Delaney’s car. Both cell phones are off or gone.”

  “How long has he had them?”

  I guess I could’ve checked the timestamps on my dad’s texts, but I didn’t want to read his messages again.

  “An hour.”

  “An hour? Fuck.”

  Tito slammed on the gas, pushing me against the headrest. A damn hour. He could’ve already— No. I couldn’t go there. I had to keep my shit together.

  “You just get here. Safely.”

  “If one goddamn hair—”

  “We got this, Bud. Walk in the park. Your sister is tough. And your woman was on a mission. They’ll hold strong until we get there.”

  “Tito’s already got us on the road. Where are we headed?”

  “The house. If something changes, I’ll call.”

  My dad disconnected, Tito drove, and I plotted. The motherfucker might want revenge. But I was doling out my own brand of retribution.

  30

  I was going to kick Derek Lowe’s ass. One way or another, I was getting my licks in. I was waiting. As long as he had his gun pointed at Delaney’s head there was nothing I could do but be ready when the opportunity arose. He’d driven us around the corner, stopped in a parking lot, pulled Delaney out of her car, and shoved us into his car much the same way we’d gotten into Delaney’s.

  Smart bastard.

  He’d driven us around for a long time before pulling into a neighborhood. I couldn’t understand what he was doing until he pulled into the driveway of a house that was for sale. With his gun still trained on Delaney, I walked beside her as he guided us to the back of the house. He broke the window out of a side door, reached in, unlocked it, and shoved us in.

  I knew Delaney was scared, but something else seemed to be wrong. She’d kept her arms wrapped around herself and had obeyed Derek’s every order. If I could’ve gotten her attention, there was a possibility I could’ve overtaken him while he was fucking with the door. But with Delaney in full-on shutdown mode there wasn’t a damn thing I could do. I was too afraid she’d get hurt.

  “Not so chatty now, huh, Delaney? Fucking busybody bitch.” Lowe kicked the back of her knee, forcing her leg to suddenly bend, and she pitched forward, hitting the floor. “You need to learn to keep your mouth shut.”

  “She didn’t say anything. You got it all wrong. You were selling to teenagers. Did you really think they wouldn’t blab? All it took was for us to arrest one and they turned on you,” I lied. I’d lie my ass off, tell as many tall tales as I needed to in order to get Delaney to safety. “You fucked up and grabbed the wrong girl. Let her go. You have me and I’m the one you want. I’m the one that locked you up. Waltzed right into your house while you were in the shower and cuffed your ass.”

  He turned his gun toward me. I felt the white-hot pain sear through my shoulder before I’d registered the sound of the gun firing.

  “Oh my God!” Delaney screamed.

  She got to her hands and knees, trying to scrabble away. I watched in horror as Lowe drew his leg back and kicked her stomach, the force nearly lifting her off the floor. He placed a second one to her face before I could stop him. Her head snapped back, spittle flew out of her mouth accompanied by blood, and she rolled to her side. I couldn’t let him turn his gun back to me or I was dead. Even if I was damn lucky, his aim sucked. He pulled his shot the first time, I may not get so lucky the second.

  “Nosey, fucking—”

  I slammed into Lowe and gasped in pain as our bodies collided and we stumbled back. Wood smashed, and I fought to regain my balance. He was too big for me to wrestle on the floor. My years of training told me I had to stay upright and fight.

  “Run!” I shouted to Delaney. “Get the fuck out of here.”

  I didn’t have time to see if she’d followed my directions. Lowe held firm on his gun. My knee made contact with his groin, and my elbow to his face. His bar
e knuckles made contact with my cheek and pain blossomed, making me dizzy. Fists flew, knees and elbows collided. We tumbled to the carpet with a heavy thud that took my breath.

  “Fucking bitch!” he shouted in my face. Blood poured from his nose onto my neck.

  I struggled to get him off me, knowing that was the worst position I could have been in. He wouldn’t budge. He used the grip of his gun to smack me in the face. My vision faded. I had to move. Had to get the gun out of his hands. My fingernails dug into his face, scoring the flesh as I dragged them down his cheek. If I wasn’t in fear for my life, I would’ve been happy when rivulets of blood appeared.

  He pitched to the side, trying to get away from my flaying hands. His movement was just what I needed. I bucked my hips as hard as I could, used my hands on his shoulders, and pushed with all my might. We rolled to the side. Almost. He was too big and too angry. It didn’t take much for him to straddle my waist again. My hand grabbed at the gun. If I couldn’t get it from him, I wanted to at least discharge the bullets into the wall. I hoped to God, Delaney had followed my instructions and had run. I didn’t want her getting hit. All of his weight was sitting on my stomach, threatening to take what little oxygen I could suck in. Breathing hard from exertion, the pressure of his body was not my friend.

  I finally got my finger into the trigger guard and pressed. One bullet shot into the ceiling, and the next into the wall to my right. I tried to fire again, but he was pulling away. In a move I could never again replicate, but I thanked the universe and all the saints for, I twisted his wrist and pressed the trigger again.

  Blood sprayed in every direction. Bone and brain matter followed. The coppery taste in my mouth had me gagging. Lowe slumped forward and to the side, still mostly on top of me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to lay there with him draped over me and catch my breath or if I was going to vomit at the sight. My ears were ringing, and every muscle in my body was screaming in pain.

  Every. Part.

  But I was alive. Delaney was alive. Lowe was dead.

  “Mercy!” I heard Jasper’s voice and, for the first time since all of this started, I wanted to cry.

  Lowe’s body was pushed off mine and Jason’s dad was on his knees by my side.

  “I’m fine. Delaney’s hurt.”

  “Clark, Lenox, and Levi have her. Let’s get you up.”

  “Delaney needs a doctor. He kicked her in the head.” Even in my haze I couldn’t miss the murderous rage on his face. “I tried, Jasper. I couldn’t stop him soon enough.”

  Adrenaline seeped out of my body with every exhale. Exhaustion was pulling me under. I was so damn tired all I wanted to do was close my eyes for a moment.

  I heard talking and orders being barked, but the voices were drifting further and further away.

  I needed to rest, just for a moment.

  31

  Tito approached the entrance to the hospital at a high rate of speed. In a move straight out of a Bourne thriller he came to a screeching, sliding stop in front of the emergency room doors.

  My dad had called thirty minutes ago to redirect me to General Hospital. His short, clipped SITREP consisted of: GSW to Mercy’s shoulder, Delaney was unconscious but breathing, Lowe was DOA. Nothing further. No details. He’d hung up before I could ask.

  Mercy was shot. Delaney was hurt. And the motherfucker was lucky he was dead.

  I muttered a quick thanks to Tito and took off to find a nurses’ station. Before I could ask where Mercy or my sister were, my dad stepped off the elevator and called me over. We stepped into the lift and waited for the doors to slide closed before he spoke.

  “Delaney’s fine. She’s awake, but barely talking. She even asked everyone, including your mom to step out of the room when the doctor came in to speak to her. Mercy is one floor up in surgery. Lenox and Lily are up there in the waiting room in case the doctor has news.”

  “What the fuck happened? How the hell did Lowe get his hands on Delaney in the first place?”

  My dad explained my sister had a doctor’s appointment this morning and had taken the day off work. She noticed Lowe was following her. She got scared and pulled into a parking lot with a bank. Her plan was to make a run for it and hope the bank’s security guard could protect her.

  “Why the hell did she get out of the car? She knows better.”

  “Her gas light was on. She was afraid she’d run out of gas. She figured the bank was her safest option. Only Lowe overpowered her and pushed her back into her car. That’s when he texted Mercy from Delaney’s phone.”

  Everything that could’ve gone wrong seemed to have.

  “And Mercy didn’t wait for backup?”

  “Lowe gave her a five-minute clock. She was at the high school thinking Delaney was there when she texted that she needed help. There’s a Detective Adams upstairs, too. He’s not too happy she didn’t wait for him.”

  My teeth ground at the mention of Bruce’s name. I bet he was up there. All too happy I wasn’t. If the jacknut even thought he was going to be by Mercy’s side, he was mistaken.

  “How’d you get a lock on them? Delaney’s car pan out?”

  “We found her car in the bank parking lot. Cameras showed the girls getting into his car. He had a gun pointed at Delaney. It looked like Mercy was willing to do anything he asked to keep Delaney safe. She got right into the back seat without a fight. We were able to track Lowe driving aimlessly around through traffic cams, but when he pulled off the main road, we lost him. Lenox, Clark, Levi, and I drove through every neighborhood looking for his car. We got fucking lucky. Blake was monitoring police radios and a nine-one-one call came in with shots fired. We hauled ass and broke down the front door in time to watch half the fucker’s face blow off.”

  “Who took the shot?”

  “Mercy. Point blank.”

  My world stopped spinning. “Mercy?”

  Christ. Taking a life leaves a mark on your soul, even if it was justified and necessary. But up close and personal? That fucks with your head. I needed to see her.

  “How much longer until she’s out?”

  “Doctor said a few hours. So I’d say you have more than an hour.”

  The elevator doors opened, we stepped out, and my dad stopped me. “Listen.” So much anguish stared back at me I braced for his next words. “The side of your sister’s face is . . . not pretty. We’re lucky he didn’t shatter her cheek. It’s bruised already and swollen pretty badly. You’re gonna need to keep your shit in check. I already had to remove your aunts from the room once. Delaney does not need to see her family breaking down. She’s scared shitless. Not talking. Staring off into space.”

  Shit. Goddamn. It took more than a few cleansing exhales to pull myself together. My baby sister. Motherfuck! Dad was a hundred percent right. My mom and aunts were all probably ready to have a come apart. I had to be strong, for all of them.

  Delaney first, then Mercy. With one last breath I nodded, and my dad continued to her room and opened the door. My mom jumped up and rushed to me, I wrapped her in a hug and let her silently sob in my arms.

  “She saved your sister,” Mom whispered. I squeezed her tighter. “She’s hurt, because she was protecting . . .” Mom’s words were muffled as she shoved her face into my chest.

  “Mercy’s strong. She’ll be fine. They both are. You’ll see, Mama, everything will be fine.”

  God, I hoped I was right. I felt my mom nod before she pulled away and gave me what was supposed to be a smile. But it looked like a tearful grimace instead. “Go sit with your sister a minute.”

  “Where are Quinn and the twins?”

  “They’re on their way now.”

  I glanced at my sister. She looked so small lying in the hospital bed with the blanket pulled up to her neck. She was faced away from us, and I was grateful for an extra moment to fortify my reaction.

  “Hey there, DeeDee.” I used the old nickname she hated.

  Her eyes came to me, but she didn’t say anything. Thank fu
ck my dad had warned me about her face. He’d said it was swollen but he hadn’t warned me her left eye was forced closed from the inflammation. There was also what looked close to being a boot sized bruise covering her face, from chin to forehead. Motherfucker kicked her square on the side of her head.

  I sat down and pried her clasped hands apart, holding onto them when she tried to pull them back. She whimpered but didn’t protest further.

  Long seconds turned into minutes. The silence stretched as Delaney stared off into space. Hurt and fear were the only things I could see. Finally, she squeezed my hand. She opened her mouth to speak but had to clear her throat several times before she croaked, “How’s Mercy?”

  “She’ll be fine.”

  “Don’t treat me with kid gloves like Mom and Dad do. How is she?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her yet.”

  I was purposefully being evasive. I didn’t want to tell her Mercy was in surgery if she didn’t already know.

  “Tell. Me!”

  My sister, never leaving anything alone, would not stop until I told her. I’d stupidly hoped this one time she’d stop asking.

  “She’s in surgery. From what Dad said, the doctor said it would only be a few hours.”

  “You should go see her. I want to sleep.”

  Delaney was basically kicking me out of her room. She pulled her hand out of mine and closed her eyes, cutting off any further discussion.

  “I love you, baby sis. We’ll get through this.”

  My heart shattered when tears rolled down her battered cheek.

  “She saved my life,” Delaney whispered. “He shot her. I was frozen.”

  “Listen to me.” She kept her eyes closed and made no effort to open them. “You did what Mercy needed you to do. Stayed down and out of the way so she could fight. I’m right, Delaney. She knew what she was doing. All she needed was you to stay safe while she did what she had to do.”

  I didn’t move. I couldn’t. I was almost paralyzed with fear. If the sight of my sister was breaking me, Mercy would bring me to my knees.