Enforcer's Price

by Sarah Hawthorne

  “Becky?” Between the gag and my head, I wasn’t sure what I got out. But I heard her nearby.

  “Mommy?” Becky snuggled up next to me, just like we did on Saturday mornings. I let out a sob; she was trembling but alive.

  Scraping my face against the floor, I was able to loosen my gag and get it to a point where I could talk. “Becky, baby. Loosen the tie around my chin, okay?”

  Her little fingers couldn’t figure out the knot, but at least she pulled it off my chin and let it hang around my neck.

  When I was pregnant, I’d daydreamed endlessly about what I would teach my child. I would teach her how to treat other people nicely, how to make my grandma’s recipe for apple crisp, how to stand up for herself if a man was disrespectful. I never once imagined having to ask my kid if she could figure out how to untie me.

  Goddamn Robby. He was the reason we were here. Whatever he was up to wasn’t going to turn out well—it never did. I was ready to do whatever it took to get this asshole out of our lives. No matter what happened next, Becky would come out alive.

  Becky got my hands untied enough so I could struggle out of the ropes. Once I got to my feet and the room stopped spinning, I found a window. It was too high for me to see outside and I couldn’t lift Becky high enough. Damn. I tried to roll my shoulders and wiggle my fingers.

  In the distance there was the unmistakable rumble of motorcycles.

  Thank god. Colt had figured out what was going on and was going to save us.

  “Shhhh, baby. Do you hear that?”

  Becky’s eyes widened and she nodded and got to her feet. “Is Mr. Colt gonna take us home?”

  “I hope so. But we gotta be ready to run, okay? I want you to come stand over here behind me. If you get a chance, I want you to run as fast as you can and don’t stop until someone helps you. You understand?”

  Becky nodded. I hoped she understood. I stood facing the door. If someone was gonna come out shooting, I wanted the bullet to hit me first.

  Never had exhaust pipes sounded so musical. I listened to them grow louder and louder. Then I frowned. It was one bike. It wasn’t all the guys. This wasn’t the whole clubhouse—it was one person.

  Either Colt thought he could save us on his own or it wasn’t him. Unless it was something personal, the guys never really traveled alone. I didn’t ask questions about their business, but whenever they walked in the clubhouse door, there were two, or three, or four. Never one.

  “It might not be Mr. Colt. Okay, honey? So let’s just be real quiet.”

  Becky’s grip tightened around my leg, but she stayed quiet.

  The engine cut and all was silent for a few minutes. Then, voices. Robby, and who else? I ran through the guys that Robby used to hang with when we were married. Most of them were either in jail or dead. I had no idea who was on the other side of that door.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Colt

  “Are you sure the trees hide the van?” Russ asked.

  The six of us were lying in the dirt on a little rise just to the side of a warehouse. We were completely hidden by trees and bushes, but we had a good view of the building’s side door.

  “Jesus, stop asking,” Skeeter mumbled. “It’s a black van and it’s fucking midnight. He ain’t gonna see it.”

  I rolled my eyes. They’d been bitching for the last hour. Bear was supposed to meet Robby at three at the all-night Liquorama. It was 1:00 a.m. We had two more hours until my plan went up in flames. If Bear didn’t show up, I was gonna be the failure going home with my tail between my legs.

  Sweat started to form on my forehead. It was cold as hell lying in this dirt, but my stress level was rising. I had no idea what would happen when I got home. Hell, I’d probably go back to prison, but I might be out of the club too. Prison without protection of the club was going to be brutal.

  The club was my goddamn family. My dad had helped start the original chapter. Ever since I was a kid, I knew I wanted to be in the club. There was nothing else for me, and now I was about to be drummed out. Fucking Tina had started this, but I was going to be the failure. There was no way I could blame this on her. It was all up to me.

  Headlights flashed in the distance. I blew out a fast breath. Fuck yeah. This was it. Bear.

  Putting the binocs up to my face, I peered through. “It’s a damn car,” I muttered. “Two headlights.”

  “Shit,” Tate swore. “Bear is gonna be on his bike. That ain’t him.”

  The car was an ancient hatchback, dark color. I couldn’t see much.

  “It’s pulling in,” Skeeter whispered.

  The six of us were lined up on the ridge top, looking through our specs trying to catch a glimpse of the car in the warehouse parking lot. A child got out of the front seat, then an adult wriggled out of the back. The dome light from the interior of the car shone on the adult’s head. Blond hair.

  My stomach hit the basement and I just knew.

  “It’s Krista and Becky.” I tried to stand. “That’s Robby. How the fuck did he know to come here?”

  Tate grabbed my arm and pulled me back down. “Give it a minute. Bear must know something is up. Robby didn’t know about our plan.”

  Shit.

  “We’re giving it just one fucking minute.” I shook my arm free of Tate’s grip. “There’s a woman and child in there. I’m not gonna let anything happen to them.”

  Because I loved them. Both of them.

  The thought of losing both of them made my heart squeeze to the point of pain. I would give anything to have them both safe and here with me right now. I would even give my future with the Horde.

  Fucking shit, I had to keep them safe. If that meant claiming Krista as my old lady, I was gonna do it. I wanted to do it.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Krista

  The voices got closer and closer until the door opened. The man’s face was turned away from the door, but I could see his profile—Bear.

  “Thanks for meeting me here instead of at the liquor store.” He smiled a deadly smile. It was the face he used when he would talk to me at the bar. “Before we get started, you give me the rest of the money you owe.”

  Becky and I huddled in the dark corner. I hoped to god he didn’t see me.

  “What money?” Robby shrugged. “When you called you said you wanted to give me a loan. I don’t have any money.”

  Bear paused. “I only agreed to the loan because you wrote in your note that you had money to pay off the last loan I gave you.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out a piece of paper. “Right here. You said you had the cash.”

  “I didn’t write you a note.” Robby turned and pointed at me. “But I brought collateral for the loan. I swear I’ll be good for it.”

  Running his fingers through his hair, Bear turned slowly in a circle. “If you didn’t write the note, who did?”

  Robby started walking toward our corner. “I don’t know, man. But look who I brought. You can sell the girls to the next ship headed to Asia. They pay damn good for white pussy.”

  Bear looked briefly in our direction and then back at Robby. “Fuck.” His eyes were round and wild. “I’m being set up. Fucking shit.” He turned in a circle again.

  I wasn’t real sure what was going down, but Bear was unhinged. He kept looking from one side of the room to the other, as though someone was about to jump out and grab him. I clutched Becky closer to me. This had turned from really bad to catastrophic.

  “Okay, baby,” I whispered in Becky’s ear. “When the time is right, I’m going to try and make them look at me, then you run behind them and run out the door. Okay?”

  She nodded. I just needed to create a diversion.

  Bear was yelling, “You stupid fucking junkie, you set me up, didn’t you?”


  “No way. You called me, man,” Robby insisted. “I brought the girls, they’re worth at least twenty grand, right? That’s enough for collateral. The little kid could even be worth more. They pay good for the little ones. She’s cute too.”

  Bear turned his crazy eyes on me. Was he considering it? Shit. It was now or never.

  “I love you, baby,” I whispered to Becky. “Run.”

  I gave her a push and ran, full speed into Bear. He had over a hundred pounds on me, so I couldn’t take him down, but I grabbed his big beard and yanked his face to the side, trying to snap his neck.

  He grabbed my shoulders and threw me across the room. I hit concrete. The world went dark.

  When I came back to consciousness, I couldn’t see, really, but I could hear.

  “Shoot her up. It’ll look like she’s out here doing meth. When they get here, we’ll say she stole the money for drugs. I’m gonna go find the kid.”

  Bear’s boots stomped away from me. Thank god, Becky must have run out the door. I hoped she had enough of a head start that Bear wouldn’t catch up with her.

  “No way, man, it’s my last hit. I ain’t gonna waste it on her,” Robby whined. “What do you mean, ‘when they get here’? Is someone coming? Are they bringing my money?”

  There was a thud and some rustling.

  Bear growled, “Just do it, you fucking junkie. If you can keep your mouth shut and convince them that it’s all her fault, I’ll give you ten large.”

  Bear’s voice was off in the distance. I couldn’t tell how close he was to the door, but I needed to keep him inside the room. Becky needed as much time as possible to get away.

  Moaning, I started to get up. “Bear.” I tried to say his name, but it came out more of a groan. “No.”

  Bear’s footsteps grew faint. I struggled to sit up—I couldn’t let him get to Becky.

  A door slammed. Bear hauled me up against him. I could smell his cigarettes and sweat. Then angry voices.

  Things were going too fast for me to understand. Bear wrenched my arm around and stabbed me with something. I felt the prick of it in my elbow, then ice invaded my arm. The cold running through my veins became liquid pain. Voices. Shouting. The pain turned into fire. Gunshots, I couldn’t count them. Where was Becky? I tried to move my arms to search for her.

  Fire turned into acid that rotted my body from the inside out. I lost track of where Bear was, how far Becky might have run. I grabbed at the floor, hoping to find her. The acid tore at my stomach and at my heart, making them both squeeze tighter and tighter.

  Then the acid whispered. So sweet, in my ear. “I love you, babe.”

  It had Colt’s voice.

  Chapter Forty

  Colt

  I stopped at the corner of the warehouse and motioned for Russ, Clint and Rip to cover the back exit. Tate, Skeeter and I were going to bust in the front. We all had our weapons out. Shit was gonna go down. We were gonna catch Bear red-handed, but having to do it while rescuing Krista and Becky was definitely a complication. We would have to be careful about this.

  Tate pointed at his watch and held up three fingers. We were gonna bust through the front door in exactly three minutes. The other guys would go in the back at the same time. Clint nodded.

  As I turned to head around the front, Becky came hauling ass out of the building. Her little legs were pumping hard. Krista wasn’t following. Fuck, that was a bad sign.

  I caught Becky and she tried to say something, but she was scared and her little kid-speak was hard to understand as the other guys clustered around me.

  “What the hell is she saying?” Tate demanded.

  Becky was sobbing and trying to talk at the same time. I couldn’t make it out.

  “Fuck, I don’t know.” I grabbed Becky’s shoulders. “Stay here with Russ, okay?”

  Tate looked at Russ and then cocked his head back toward the ridgeline. “Hide in the bushes until we’re done.”

  Becky didn’t hesitate—she took off for the bushes, with Russ trotting behind her. She was a strong kid, just like her mama. At least I just had one of them to worry about now.

  I cocked my weapon and three of us walked quietly up to the warehouse. Since Robby was there, Bear had probably discovered the note was a ruse, so he knew we were on to him. That meant Bear knew we were coming and probably had his gun ready. We would be easy targets going single file through the door.

  But Krista was in there. I didn’t have a choice.

  Tate and the others let me take the lead. I wasn’t going to leave Krista’s life in someone else’s hands. She was my woman and my responsibility. I loved her, damn it, and I needed to her whole. The guys knew it and hung back, waiting for orders. This was my play.

  I tried the handle on the front door. Unlocked.

  We charged through. It was pretty stupid to just charge into a situation like this without any knowledge of what was behind the door. But Krista was behind that door, and that’s all I needed to know.

  We cleared the main warehouse in no time. It was empty. Except for the boxes of cash-filled books in the corner, there was nowhere to hide.

  Off to the left was the manager’s office. That had to be it. I motioned for the guys to follow me.

  I kicked in the door. Bear was lying on top of Krista. She had a needle stuck in her arm and was twitching. Robby was cowering in the goddamn corner.

  “I knew it was you,” Bear growled.

  He grabbed the needle out of Krista’s arm and threw it to the corner of the room. “Hey, man, I just heard she and Robby were shooting up out here, so I thought I’d come to make sure our shipment was okay.”

  I leveled my gun. There was no way he had heard that because it would never happen.

  Tate put his hand on my arm. “Bear is mine. He’s been betraying our club for months. Skimming off the top. Haven’t you?” Tate pointed his semi-auto at Bear. “You’re killing the club slowly for your own gain.”

  Boot steps pounded behind us and Rip and Clint barged in.

  Rip pointed his gun at Bear and then back to Robby. “What the hell are you doing here, Bear?”

  Bear looked around the room. You could see the gears grinding in his brain. “I was here ’cause I got a tip that Krista and Robby were stealing from the club. I was just checking it out. Look, she’s out here pounding some meth. She’s a fucking junkie. She’s had to pay for her habit.”

  “Bullshit.” I aimed my gun at Bear as well. “You and I both know that didn’t happen.”

  Skeeter cocked his old-school .38 special. “She’s never once done hard-core shit. We all know you’re lying.”

  With all of us denying his tale, Bear knew he was caught. His eyes went wild.

  “Look, Tate, I’ll pay you back, okay? I got all the cash from the last shipment. I’ll pay the club and we’ll be square, okay?”

  “You just fucking admitted it, you moron,” Tate ground out. “We’ll never be square. You’ve betrayed us. Our own brother. Guys, vote now. Kill or mercy?”

  “Kill.” Clint.

  “Kill.” Skeeter.

  “Kill.” Rip.

  “Kill.” Tate. He looked at me. “Colt? You’re just as much a part of us now. What’s your vote?”

  “Kill,” I agreed.

  Bear lunged at Tate, but it was too late. Tate pulled the trigger and Bear collapsed in a pool of blood.

  “You assholes!” Robby screamed from the corner. “He was gonna give me more! I was gonna set up a whole damn lab. All I needed was to give him Krista and the kid as collateral. You just cost me twenty grand.”

  The asshole had planned to sell his ex-wife and kid for drug money. He didn’t deserve to live either, but I would deal with him later. Bear’s blood was starting to pool around him and was threatening to t
ouch Krista. Stooping, I moved to pick her up, but she started to flail her arms.

  “No, no!”

  She was screaming; her eyes rolled back in her head. It was probably a bad trip. I picked her up, but barely. Her hands clawed at me, her eyes were wild and unseeing. She just kept screaming.

  “Here, let me.” Skeeter walked around the side of me and I transferred her to his arms.

  Out of nowhere, something big hit my side. It almost knocked me to the ground, but I got up, turned and saw Robby. He’d finally gotten the courage to get out of the corner.

  “Give her back, she’s mine! He was gonna give me twenty thousand for her. Do you know how many hits that would buy? Enough for a whole lifetime! And you ruined it! Put her down! There’s a ship coming in that will take them.”

  “Get on your knees.”

  Skeeter’s footsteps got softer as he retreated to the front of the warehouse, leaving me and a couple other guys to deal with Robby.

  “I’ll split the profits with you guys. Right? She’s your whore, but my wife. We can be business partners.” I ignored Robby as he continued to spew stupid worthless crap about us splitting the profits. He’d put Krista and Becky in danger.

  “On your knees, now.”

  I put my gun against his head, and this time he realized that I meant business. Dropping to his knees, he put his hands behind his head. He started to plead, beg for his life. “Please just take her. I know you want her, you can have her—”

  I squeezed the trigger and the shot went off. He crumpled. Blood pooled at my feet.

  She would never be afraid of this asshole again.

  I turned and walked into the warehouse to check on Krista. She was lying in the back of the van with Skeeter crouched over her. “We need to get her to a hospital. I don’t know how much or what he gave her. Meth, I think.”

  I nodded. “It’s your town, you’re driving. I’ll stay in back with her.”

  Chapter Forty-One

  Colt

  I stroked Krista’s arm, careful to avoid the IV needle. She looked so small in the hospital bed. Her eyes were black and swollen, and the tiny broken blood vessels stretched from beneath her lashes over across the bridge of her nose. Her hair was a tangled mess. Krista never seemed vain, but I’d also never seen her hair like this. I ran my fingers through the parts that were around her shoulders and tried to make it look better.