Gambler

by KJ Dahlen

  “Shit!” Raine swore out loud. “That just vicious.”

  Jack nodded. “He wanted to send a message and I guess that was it.”

  Raine ran his hands over his head. “I need to check on Cricket and the kids, then I’ll be back to talk to Deke.”

  Black Jack watched his son walk away and worried about him. He knew they needed to find and remove the threat Sinner posed to his family.

  Deke looked up as Black Jack joined them. “I just got an update from Gambler. Fuck, he really messed Max up.”

  Jack nodded. “Yeah, I know. If he could do that to a grown man what do you think he’ll do to Paige or Cricket if he ever gets his hands on them?”

  “Well, he ain’t gonna get that chance now is he?” Bones growled. “We stand between him and the girls and always will.”

  “Ok let’s get on with the planning,” Deke stated. “We have every reason to believe that Sinner will stage a distraction to draw us away from the clubhouse. Not only that but we have his old MC coming to confront him about something that happened before he left there. We don’t know yet what that incident is but it must have been something they were never able to forget.”

  “I imagine we’ll find out when they get here,” Gator stated.

  “Either way, we have to be alert at all times, until this bastard is caught and we have some answers.” Deke sighed. “I’m sending the MC over to Mountain’s shop until we can talk. I need to know why they’re here before I bring them in on this.”

  Suddenly, something hit the front door with such force it cracked the wood. Deke and the other drew their weapons and approached the door. They all saw the aluminum tip of a cross bow bolt.

  Several of the brothers went over to the windows and looked outside. Wiley turned and shook his head. “Can’t see anybody.”

  Deke approached the door and flung it open. He and everyone could see the bolt sticking through the door. On it was a patch of cloth and a note. The cloth looked to be a shirt, a woman’s shirt and the note included a newspaper article.

  Wiley pulled the bolt out of the door and carried it inside the clubhouse. They slammed the door and two of the brothers stood guard while Deke and the others gathered around the table.

  Raine and Cricket came out into the main room. They had heard the disturbance and had come to see what happened now.

  When Cricket got close and saw the shirt, she gasped and held her hand to her mouth while her eyes took on a haunted look. She took a step or two back but ran into someone standing behind her. She froze and couldn’t move.

  Raine grabbed her by the shoulders and wrapped her in his embrace. “What is it?” he whispered in her ear.

  “That’s my shirt,” she whispered.

  Deke shook his head. “Well, we kinda figured that much.”

  Cricket looked up at her husband and shook her head. “You don’t understand. I lost that shirt three years ago. It was just before Cordy took your kids.”

  Deke stopped short and looked at Sam and Raine. “He could have thought it belonged to Cordy. It doesn’t mean he’s after you.”

  Cricket stepped out of her husband’s embrace and reached over to pick up the shirt. “Except for this...” She showed then the collar of the shirt when Dusty had printed her name on the inside collar. They could all read the childish written rendition of her name.

  “He’s still coming after her even though she’s not the one who fucked him over.” Raine growled. “He can’t get Cordy, so he’s coming after her sister. This proves it.”

  “And Dusty is Cordy’s son,” Gator added. “He could come after him next or first and while we’re busy watching over Paige and Cricket he takes out Dusty.”

  “He won’t come close to getting Dusty,” Black Jack vowed.

  Mountain’s phone rang and when he answered, he looked at Deke. When he hung up the call he announced, “That was my brother, the Unholy just got to town.”

  “We can’t bring them here in the daylight,” Deke stated. “If Sinner recognizes any of them from his old MC, he could disappear until they leave. That’s not what we want.”

  “So what are you going to do?” Mountain asked.

  “We’ll go talk to them and find out why they came all this way,” Deke told his brothers. “You keep the people here safe while we’re gone. I’ll stop by the hospital on my way back and check on Gambler and Paige.”

  All the brothers got ready to go but Deke stopped them. “You need to stay here and protect this compound. I’ll take Sam and Gator with me and the rest of you stay here. Keep your eyes open for this bastard. Call me immediately if he makes another move before I get back.”

  Raine went over to the table after the three men left and picked up the newspaper clipping. It was an article about Matthew Reno’s arrest and trial. It told everyone about the sentence he got for his assault on an unnamed minor.

  This was Sinner’s way of warning his victims. He wanted them to be scared he was coming for them.

  Raine crushed the article in his hand and looked over at his wife. He could read the fear in her eyes and he couldn’t stop it. He took a step toward her but Mountain reached her first.

  He grabbed her by the shoulders and tipped her face to his. “Don’t you dare let this bastard win, you hear me girl? Don’t you give in to the fear I can see on your face.”

  “But I’m scared and I admit that,” she whispered.

  Mountain nodded and whispered to her, “I know that but you have to have faith that we can and will protect you and your family and that includes that sweet little boy of Gambler’s. Don’t you see? This guy is seriously messing with you and that’s the biggest part of his plan. Psychos know that fear can grow big enough inside a person to render them helpless, that’s how they get their victims. Through their own fear. Sometimes a person has to dig deep down inside them and call up all their courage but I think you can do that. Hell, if you could survive growing up with Cordy you can do this too.”

  Cricket couldn’t look away from the big man’s face. She looked deep into his eyes and after a moment or so, she straightened her spine and got a look in her eyes. She looked over at Raine and smiled.

  She hugged Mountain briefly and whispered something to the big man that made him blush slightly. When he released her, she went to Raine immediately. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she crushed her lips on his and kissed him wildly. When she broke the kiss, Raine searched her eyes and found a calm acceptance in them that wasn’t there before.

  “What exactly did he say to you?” Raine asked.

  “In simple terms he told me to buck the hell up and fight back. He’ll use my own fear to kill me or I can use his arrogance against him and win. I chose to win. I’m so tired of living under someone else’s thumb. You told me to find one thing and overcome it, well this is that one thing. I’m letting go of my fear.”

  “Well, a little fear is healthy.” Raine scolded her, but he was also proud of her.

  “Yes it is.” Cricket nodded. “That’s why Sinner better learn to fear me and this MC. Because if he comes here to try and cause trouble, he won’t leave here all in one piece. He’ll be lucky to walk out on his own two feet.”

  Raine had to smile. This was the woman he’d fallen in love with, this was the fighter he knew her to be. The club called Cassie a spitfire but he always felt every woman had a little spitfire inside her.

  She leaned forward and brushed his lips a second time. “I got babies to watch out for. I’ll be in the bedroom.” With that, she turned and walked down the hall.

  Raine watched until she disappeared inside then he turned to stare at Mountain. Raising a brow he asked, “What the hell did you say to her?”

  Mountain blushed and shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t say anything but he did have a small smile on his lips.

  Chapter Fourteen

  When Deke, Gator and Bones reached the Morgan Brother’s shop they found fifteen motorcycles outside. Deke glanced over at his dad and his VC, he met their
stares full on. All three men went inside and were met by fifteen angry men.

  One of the men struggled to get stand.

  Deke could see his pain when he got to his feet.

  The other man didn’t try to move but instead he held out his hand to Deke. “My name is Guenther Raddison. I’m the President of the Unholy.”

  Deke grasped his hand and introduced himself and the others. “I’m Deke, this is Gator my VP and my dad Sam Tory.” He paused then asked, “Do you want to tell us why you came all this way for a man you tossed out of your MC eight years ago?”

  Guenther sighed and sat back down. “Eight years ago we didn’t know he betrayed the whole MC. We only thought he stole money from us. If we had known then what we found out today we’d have killed the bastard and buried him where no one would ever find him.”

  Deke, Sam and Gator sat down at the table with the other MC. “You wanna tell us what you did found?”

  Guenther nodded then looked at his brothers. They all nodded and Gunter turned back to Deke. “Eight years ago our accountant found a considerable sum of money missing from the accounts. We tracked the money down to one man, Sinner. We also suspected him of other crimes against the MC, the biggest one was an ambush by another MC during a run that resulted in three brothers getting all shot up. The other MC, Satan’s Dog Warriors ripped off a huge shipment of guns we were transporting to Canada. Two of the three brothers with him on that trip died of their wounds. I survived but my wounds left me crippled up. Oh, I can still ride well enough and my brothers won’t let me retire but getting by day to day is getting harder than it should be.”

  “I’m VP of the group,” one of the other man spoke up. “My name is Trapper and my younger brother Tate was one of the men who died.”

  Guenther looked around at his men then back to Deke. “The Warriors have been pushing more and more into our territory and with that strike, they thought they could just push us out and we wouldn’t fight back to hold what was ours. They found out different. You see I was supposed to be killed during that ambush but I wouldn’t die. My men confronted Sinner the next week after the ambush. We buried the brothers and I had just got out of the hospital when they found him. It worked out for us that he met up with Cordy the night before or we would have missed him altogether. We found out later, another brother gave him a heads up that we were looking for him. The men took his colors and they beat the hell out of him on my orders. Only he claimed the money he took was gone. When we searched for it they found it wasn’t there so they let him live. At least they knew he didn’t have it.”

  “I told him to get out of town and never come back upon sentence of death,” Trapper added.

  “We managed to fight for our territory and win against the Warriors but it was a long hard fight. This is the second time we’ve had word of Sinner since he left us. The first time was when he was released from prison. We tried to follow him then but we lost him after a month or so. The bastard is crafty and knows how to hide when he doesn’t want to be found.”

  Deke snorted. “Yeah, we found that out on our own. We’ve been looking for him for a week now and only found his hiding place today.”

  “When your girl Cricket told us of the place she stored the money from eight years ago we found a flash drive with it. When we looked on the drive, we found the evidence we needed to prove he was behind the ambush and the murder of our two brothers. We also found evidence that he murdered another brother we were told ran off. We always thought there was something fishy about his story but we had no proof.” Guenther shook his head. “You can’t pin something on a brother without proof so we were caught between a rock and hard place. We all knew he was guilty, we just couldn’t prove it until we found the drive. He caused the deaths of my men and he crippled me, if it comes down to it.”

  “Well, you can bring up the charges when we find the bastard but we get first dibs on him. Seven years ago, he beat a girl almost to death because she wouldn’t go out with him and her dad turned him over to the police for stalking her. They moved before he got out but he found her here, she’s soon to be a brother’s wife and he beat the hell out of her dad last night. The woman who slipped him the mickey and stole the money from his eight years ago is dead, but her sister is a brother’s wife. He’s after her too. We’ll get them both under guard at the clubhouse before long.”

  Gunter nodded. “We want our own piece of the bastard. He owes us four lives.”

  Deke agreed. “I can understand that but he brought this fight to our little piece of ground. When we catch him, he’ll face both MC’s in tribunal. Can you live with that?”

  “As long as we’re there when he breathes his last breath, we can live with that.” Guenther nodded.

  “Then let’s go catch this motherfucker,” Deke stated as he got to his feet. Before they all stood up Deke held out his hand to stop them. “You have to know something. While I know it’s going to be hard, we have reason to believe he’s watching the compound. I can’t demand that you remove your colors I can only ask. If he sees them, he might run and live to come back another day. I don’t want to give him that chance. We need this over, like yesterday. I’m asking you to remove your colors until we get inside the clubhouse, then you can wear them again.”

  Guenther got to his feet. Leaning heavily on his cane he nodded. “Your request is reasonable.” Turning to look at his men, he nodded. “Remove your cuts until we get to their clubhouse.”

  Fourteen men stood and took off their vests. Not one of them grumbled about it.

  When they all rode out Deke went with them. He sent Sam to the hospital to collect Gambler and Paige.

  A half hour later, Seventeen men rode into the compound and the gate was locked behind them. Once they were inside, fifteen of them put on their colors. Then everyone standing there introduced themselves and Trapper asked to know what their plan was.

  Since these men knew Sinner better than they did, they talked about what kind of man he was. They spent the next several hours learning more than they needed to know about the man they had all come to hate.

  Gambler and Paige arrived and while Paige went to check on Dusty, Gambler got caught up on things. When he heard about what Sinner had done to his old MC, he was furious. “That fucker has a lot to answer for.” He growled at his brothers. He looked to Deke. “I got the report on Max before we left. The doctors think he’ll make it but it’s gonna be touch and go for a while yet. They got him on a ventilator for now but hopefully when his lung heals, he’ll be able to breathe on his own but he cannot be released.”

  “We’ll have brothers watching over him and Peggy until the threat is gone,” Deke assured him.

  Gambler nodded. “And Paige and Dusty?”

  “Everyone here will protect them and Cricket and her babies,” Gator told the other man. “Sinner may get in but he sure as hell won’t leave here on his own two feet.”

  “Good to know, now let’s make it happen.” Gambler nodded. “What’s the plan?”

  “We have reason to think he’ll create a diversion and move in to find and take out both women,” Deke told him. “A little while ago, he put this through the front door as a scare tactic.” Deke showed him the shirt and the newspaper clipping.

  “Cricket identified the shirt as belonging to her but she said she lost it three years ago,” Gator added. “So we know he found them at that time. What we don’t know is if he was after Cordy or Cricket back then.”

  Trapper snorted. “It sure as hell wasn’t Cordy he was after.”

  Raine turned to glare at the other man. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because Cordy was always a bitch,” Trapper informed them. “But she always confided in Cricket. She may have abused the girl and we all knew it but she also told the girl everything. She kept the girl away from us for a reason. She didn’t want us to get to her sister and learn all her secrets. If anyone knew where the money was Cricket would have. He went after her for the location of the money. He knew h
e’d never get it from Cordy, but Cricket? That was a whole other story.”

  “Fuck.” Raine swore. Looking at his brothers he told them, “He must figure she knows where the money is, if there’s any money left that is. That’s why he’s after her. He’s still after the fucking money.”

  “And he’s gonna really be pissed when he learns we got the money back. Along with the flash drive,” Guenther stated with a smile that held no mirth.

  “Which means he’s got nothing left to lose, including his life,” Gambler growled the obvious.

  “Anybody got an idea of when he’ll make his move?” Black Jack asked.

  “I’m thinking middle of the night,” Trapper said. “If you think he’ll cause a diversion and then try to slip inside that would be about the right time to do it. He’s a creature of habit and one of the things he did well was use the night to cover his tracks. He likes the shadows to hide in.”

  “We know he also likes fire,” Raine grumbled. “He shot flaming arrows at my house earlier today, burned it to the ground. Almost took my whole family out in one shot.”

  Guenther glanced over at Trapper and the rest of his men. Trapper and two other men got to their feet. Guenther glanced over at Deke and asked, “Can my men check something out?”

  Deke frowned and looked at his own men. “What exactly are you looking for?”

  “We just want to know if Sinner has been in here before,” Guenther stated.

  Deke frowned. “What makes you think he’s been in here before?”

  “Old habits,” Guenther told him. “Sinner is a creature of habit, like we said before. He always liked to case a place out. He preferred knowing where everything was and who the players were before he ripped off a place. Once he cased a place, he knew how to get in and out without being seen. He also knew what to take and what to leave the hell alone.”