Savage Saviors: The Complete Boxset (Savage Saviors MC)

by J. C. Allen

  I couldn’t fight the thought that we were just being led on some chase, some game that Falcon had all the control in. I’d told Eve about Frank and his connection with my father and it had felt better to get it out, but it’d also given me that much more purpose in finally stopping the bastard. He’d taken so much, had even killed more of my men, and I wasn’t going to let him continue to play games.

  Still, by now I had learned the harsh lesson that just because I had more reason and more enthusiasm to kill Falcon didn’t mean I was a better, smarter leader in the process.

  If anything, the opposite was true.

  As I came to the highway exit of the next location, I took the offramp, coming to a more secluded area of the city. I wondered if Falcon had any connection to all the construction that had begun in the areas. Both locations so far had been heavily under construction.

  I shook my head, deciding that it could also just be coincidence. Obviously, “could also just be a coincidence” wasn’t reason enough to abandon all my plans, but it was reason enough to focus on what I could control—my recon of the area.

  We parked our bikes just at the first stoplight, something without any difficulty giving the lack of people around us.

  “What do you think, boss?” Bones asked as he pulled up beside me, looking around the location to scope out anything.

  “Doesn’t seem like much,” I said, giving the place my own once-over despite how quiet it seemed. “But, then again, it was like this last night too. Quiet doesn’t always mean quiet.”

  The three men didn’t say anything more. I trusted that this was because, as trained soldiers, they were doing their jobs to perfection, not for any other reason.

  Then Rucker shouted.

  “What’s that over there?”

  He pointed towards the darkened depths of the nearest building.

  “Old office building,” I said, noting the crooked “Space for Rent” sign that hung in one of the first-floor windows.

  At first, it seemed like nothing, the kind of building that didn’t merit any further investigation, as empty as the space and streets before us.

  But then its presence was notable just for being present—there weren’t really any other buildings nearby, nothing that would suggest a place to kill someone and leave their corpse. It was like going to Las Vegas and seeing a tree in the middle of the desert—we’d be fools not to at least investigate it.

  “Seems like a good place to hide the next clue,” AK said, shrugging a shoulder as he did.

  “Might as well give it a go,” Bones said, pointing to the building. “Whoever was last there left the door wide open for someone. Boss?”

  The three looked at me with an intense, almost frightening stare. I knew that everyone who worked for me had to have the potential to kill, if not having actually done so, but… fuck…

  Yeah, Rucker, AK, and Bones were all business. Long as I was being honest with myself—and, who the fuck else was I gonna tell this to? Eve, maybe?—they scared the shit out of me. I reminded myself that they were on my side and took in a wealth spring of confidence for that fact.

  Just don’t do anything to lose their faith, numbnuts.

  I was glad for the help and having these three was definitely the best plan in case we were ambushed. They knew how to fight and, from what I had watched, fought well. They also had a good eye for things, knowing how to scope an area from their time in the military.

  In short, they had all the skills that I lacked, and there was no degree of overstatement in that. If anything, I was selling their skills short.

  I should be asking them if it’s OK. But, well, you might as well play the part if you’re gonna be president of the Saviors, bud.

  “Let’s go,” I said, perhaps pitching my voice a little bit lower than normal.

  While “wide open” wasn’t exactly right, the chunk of cracked brick that had been purposefully set into place to leave the door propped open certainly seemed just as much an invitation.

  If nothing else, it seemed an even greater hint. Sometimes doors just got left open, after all; someone may forget to close it behind them—maybe they didn’t check to see if the latch secured—and the wind does the rest. Hell, maybe a faulty hinge or a busted spring keeps it from closing without a helping hand.

  But that was a door that somebody had put some effort into keeping open, going so far as to retrieve a blockade to keep it from notbeing open.

  I watched as each kept their arms at their sides, arms near their guns and other weapons as needed. I was armed too, having made sure to pack two handguns and a pocket knife, just in case. While I hadn’t been much of a gun person before, I couldn’t deny that the feel of the weapon against my chest did make me feel a ton better.

  I couldn’t say my father would be especially thrilled that we’d engaged in such battles, but I think even he would have called me a fool if I had gone into this mission without the proper firearm protection—and I know he would have called me a fool if I told the Marines not to have guns out of some misguided philosophy.

  I sighed, running a hand through my hair, wishing I could be back with Eve in our bed. Do this for her. Be her shining Knight. Succeed, and then come home and make love to your woman again.

  We pulled up to the building, Bones, AK, and Rucker doing a quick scan of the surroundings.

  “No windows,” Bones said.

  So less avenues to shoot at us, I thought.

  “Cuz they shot ‘em out,” AK said.

  Well, shit, that’s what I get for not listening.

  “Looks clear,” Bones said. “But we gotta be careful, boss. We’re moving in blind. They got everything.”

  “Understood.”

  We dismounted a safe distance, the Marines pulling their guns out, and we headed for the opening door. I went to step through the door when Rucker stopped me, pulling me back by my shoulder and shaking his head at me.

  “What?” I asked, keeping my voice low. “Do you see something?”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head before pointing ahead of us with his sharply angled chin before adding, “But you don’t just walk into enemy territory without surveying the area. Easy to do outside. Let us take care of it inside.”

  “Fair enough,” I said, nodding and glanced around. “So, what do we do then? You want me—”

  “Wait.”

  The word seemed to imply that we all wait, and I was about to argue that it didn’t seem the proper course of action.

  Then, without a single word or prompting of any kind, the three slipped into the shadowy depths. I watched, stunned, as three tall, bulky men faded into the darkness like the inhuman creatures from one of Eve’s books. And then I was left with nothing but silence and my spooky, unnerving thoughts.

  It was beginning to occur to me just how little control I had over my men—and I didn’t mean that in a bad way. Given their skills, my lack thereof, and their experience, I was pretty confident I wanted to call all of them daddy and put me to bed.

  A moment later, though I still couldn’t see any of them, I heard Bones’ voice—unsettlingly close despite still being, as they might say, “one with the shadows”—as he called out, “All clear.”

  “That’s eerie as shit,” I informed him as I stepped inside.

  “Ain’t nothing to it,” he said gruffly.

  I thought I heard a chuckle.

  But the soldiers didn’t flinch.

  “You hear that?”

  “Hear what, boss?” Bones said.

  I knewthe Falcons were there, but if I had to provide my brain with any concrete evidence of that fact, I’d likely come up dry.

  “That laugh, did you hear it?”

  “No, sir,” AK said. “Might be hearing what you want to hear, boss.”

  I bit my lip. If the three Marines didn’t hear something, then yeah, it probably wasn’t there. But…

  “Understood,” I said, even if I didn’t fully have my senses and my words in agreement.


  Just be glad that they’re on your side, Derek.

  I was now fully realizing I had definitely been stupid in going alone last night. If there had been anything more than a dead body waiting, I could’ve very easily wound up dead, most especially since it was likely the Falcons also had former soldiers in their team. I chastised myself for my arrogance as I watched the three begin to step through the threshold, heading into the dark building.

  “Got the night vision gear, Bones?” Rucker asked as he slipped into place beside me, using his forearm to guide me forward through the blackness.

  “Yeah, here,” Bones, who had somehow fallen into place behind me, said.

  I heard the hushed whisper of a zipper, and I had a momentary flash of memory of the many, many pockets that his cargo pants held.

  It also flashed into mind that seemingly literally every single moment was serving to remind me just how far out of my league I was and how foolishly I had acted when I went out alone the previous night.

  Or, really, any other night in the past month or so.

  A moment later, after a faint rustling that could have just as easily been a pair of rats fighting over a scrap of food in the walls, I heard him begin to distribute several somethings. One of these somethings found its way against my chest, and my hands came up to claim it. I’d heard “night vision” and almost immediately after disregarded it, figuring it was a code of some kind.

  It was the same sort of response I’d have if one had suddenly told the other they’d need a light saber to cut a lock—nothing more than military-man jargon, right?

  Nope.

  I appreciate these constant reminders of my ineptitude.

  Fumbling blindly with the bundle that had been passed to me, I realized I was holding a pair of goggles with an expensive-feeling network of straps that fit over the top of my head.

  I clumsily worked the thing on, began to fidget with the thick, elongated apparatus that now hovered over my forehead, and muttered, “Are these really necessary?”

  “Can you see?” Bones asked.

  I didn’t feel like answering, not wanting to advertise the point that had just been made against me.

  “Exactly.”

  Not only did I not begrudge the matter of factness, in any other circumstance, I might have started to develop a man crush of sorts on these three.

  A pair of hands swatted my own away, expertly swung the lenses into place before my eyes, and, following a mechanical click as a switch was flipped near my temple, the blackness that had enveloped me exploded into a blinding wall of green.

  “Shit!” I gasped, feeling like my retinas were being melted out of my skull.

  “Yeah, I probably should’ve warned you about that,” Bones said as an apology. “Anyway, these aren’t average, either. They’ve got thermal detection built in, so they can pick up on any heat signatures. If someone’s hiding in here, or if anything warm-blooded has even touched something recently, we’ll know it. Understood, boss?”

  “Yeah,” I said, still admiring the technology that I had somehow failed to appreciate before.

  I blinked against the still-too-bright onslaught against my eyes. I blinked again, thankful that the device was big enough to hide my tearing eyes from the vision of the three Marines and tried not to look as flustered as I felt. Even as I did—even resenting the goggles as much as I did in that moment—I couldn’t help but admit to myself how handy these things would have been to me yesterday in the dim lighting of the subway, and again chastised myself at how stupid I’d been.

  I’m noticing a trend here.

  The greenish veil of blinding light shifted as my eyes adjusted, and vision came to me then. Admittedly, it wasn’t the sort of vision I’d be getting used to anytime soon, but it was undeniably better than being blind. Though everything still registered in some distant understanding of the word as “dark,” the goggles managed to remove the mystery associated with that word and leave only its rawest definition.

  Yes, we were in a pitch-black building, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t make out the dusty, cobweb-caked office chair overturned in the corner or the desk that looked like somebody had taken a sledgehammer to since the building had been abandoned. Everything was bathed in an artificial, light-green iridescence that made me feel like I was living out a scene from The Matrix.

  Then Bones, AK, and Rucker stepped around me, and I caught myself in mid-gasp. True to Marcus’ explanation, the otherwise green setting was suddenly interrupted by three orange-and-red, human-shaped masses that now occupied my field of vision where my guards now stood. I had to remind myself that this wasn’t a technological convention, but a real fucking mission with real life or death consequences.

  “You guys see anything worth worrying about?” I asked, making sure to keep my voice low.

  “Negative,” Bones said, his burning doppelcluber glancing back at me as he spoke. “Where should we start, boss?”

  I frowned, realizing that it was my call, in the end, as leader of the Saviors, no matter how little military experience I had. I glanced around the room we were in, noting that there was luckily only one other way to go other than back through the door we entered in. I moved forward, making sure to keep an eye out, walking carefully through the next door. Looking around, I saw that the next room was completely empty and I frowned, coming to now two different directions to go to.

  “Should we split up?” AK asked.

  I waited for Bones, seemingly the leader of the three, to give some sort of answer. But when he didn’t, I turned to see him facing me. I did my best to think of what would make the most sense, but I also knew a growing sense of impatience was bound to make them become resentful at some point.

  “No,” I said, shaking my head and added, “It might take more time, but staying together is the safer option.”

  The three nodded and offered a trio of “affirmative”s then. I got it right. Thank God.

  Or maybe they’d say affirmative all the same.

  Either way, I think this is the right choice.

  Then I saw it.

  It was faint and nearly impossible to see with the bright green glow the night vision goggles gave, but it was there.

  Two partial footprints pointed in the direction of the right doorway.

  The boots that had left those prints weren’t the sort that a hobo would be wearing. With how abandoned this property looked, I couldn’t imagine it had any kind of occupants for years. There was no way those footprints belonged to the previous occupants, which could only mean one thing…

  “Look there,” I said, pointing to the footprints. “This is the place. Has to be.”

  “Those are definitely fresh,” Rucker said as he crouched down over them. “Dust hasn’t had much of a chance to settle.”

  “Be alert,” Bones said. “These footprints only point one way, which could only mean whoever left them is still here. We don’t have visual of the enemy, so proceed with extreme caution.”

  We all nodded.

  But I’m pretty sure of the four of us, only three of us had any sense that if shit went down, we’d be OK. And “they” was much more appropriate than “we” here.

  I sighed, turning towards the right doorway and began to lead the others. I made sure to look around and noticed that the footprints were getting clearer as we walked into a hallway, leading to a set of stairs. I didn’t bother to ask what this meant, mostly because I had a terrifying suspicion that it meant that the prints were even fresher than we had thought.

  So either we made it in here without alerting the Black Falcons, or we’re about to engage in a terrible, terrible trap where we’re all going to die.

  Too late now.

  We made our way up and stopped before entering a room filled with multiple built-in walls that would’ve been used to separate cubbies in an office.

  “Fuck,” AK said, looking around at the room.

  “If anyone’s in there, they got plenty of hiding places,” Rucker
said.

  “Arm yourselves,” Bones said, pulling out my own handgun and pushing the safety off. “This could very well be an ambush.”

  We all quickly had our weapons at the ready, pointed forward and ready to fire at a moment’s notice. We were as prepared as we could be, but even that had limits relative to what we would hope to do.

  I led the group inside. It was quiet and I couldn’t see any sign of activity in the room. We began to explore, staying together as we walked through the room. I frowned, wondering if we had been wrong, if this wasn’t the right place.

  “Motherfuck…”

  I turned to see what AK was swearing out.

  I wish I hadn’t.

  Another two bodies.

  These two bad been butchered, their bodies desecrated somehow even worse than yesterday’s.

  I leaned on my knees, feeling like I was going to be sick. There was barely anything left of the body that was recognizable. I glanced over at the others, seeing that they, too, were disgusted from the sight—and these were Marines we were talking about.

  Whoever had done this had not been gentle. This was definitelyanother warning. As if the confirm my thoughts, I saw the same message written above the body in blood and shook my head.

  “They’re fucking playing with us,” I said, not bothering to hide the growl of frustration.

  “What now, boss?” Bones asked, seemingly the only person unaffected by the moment.

  That, or he was just much better at hiding the fear that he had. Either way, the badassness of this guy was off the charts.

  What more could we do, though? We had a clue and no contact with the Black Falcons, although we could probably change that. Perhaps we could interrogate someone.

  The more I thought about it, the more that made sense to me. And then, as a fuck you to Falcon, we could return the favor.

  No, don’t do that.

  But find those fuckers.

  “Let’s look around,” I said. “The Falcons have to be—”