Heart of Steel

by Cathleen Cole

  “Remember our other four are likely going to be chasing them down the alley so make sure you either hit what you aim at or don’t shoot at all.” They nodded. We caught sight of the first Lycan about the same time he noticed us. He gunned it and poured on more speed. The other three were still a ways away, meaning our guys were even further behind. I aimed and pulled the trigger a few times. The rounds hit him dead center in the chest. The guy toppled off his bike and sent it skidding our way.

  Shit. My eyes widened when I realized the bike was still flying forward toward us. I dove out of the way, taking Axel down with me, and felt the air move behind me as the bike shot past. We were about thirty feet up the alley, but the bike kept sailing until it exited and hit a parked car. The momentum made the bike careen backward, where it finally stopped near the entrance. I was just glad it had been going straight. If it had veered at all, it would have hit one of our bikes. I cursed when the three other bikes shot past us, as Axel and I tried to scramble to our feet.

  The front two Lycans fanned out, driving around the wrecked bike, but the guy on the left had to slow down because of where we’d parked ours. It created a narrow opening to squeeze through on the left side. The right side was wide open and the Lycan who drove that way took off down the street. Unfortunately for the guy at the back, he couldn’t see that, and he swerved left, hot on his buddies’ heels.

  When the first guy slowed so he didn’t crash through our bikes and chance wrecking, the second rider had to make a quick decision. He was either going to slam into the back of his brother, or he would have to go over the tail end of the bike laying in his path. These big bikes couldn’t jump shit, so the guy bailed off the bike and let it crash into the wrecked bike.

  Gunnar ran up and grabbed the rider by the back of the cut. The Lycan started fighting but Trip, Drew, Scout, and Deuce had pulled up and were already helping Gunnar out. Axel pulled out his phone and called Riggs to have him bring us a truck. Luckily, we kept a few at our garage for situations like this so we wouldn’t have to wait for thirty minutes for someone to get here. It was only a seven-minute drive from the garage to this alley.

  People would have heard the gunshots and the crash, so we didn’t have long before the cops got here. Especially since the wrecked bikes had slid out of the alley onto the sidewalk. Stepping forward, I glanced at the patches on the Lycan’s cut. He wasn’t an officer, but I was relieved that he wasn’t a prospect. I didn’t want to fight a young kid who wasn’t even in the club yet.

  I glanced up at the guy’s face. He was somewhere between his thirties and forties, I estimated. I didn’t bother to talk to him. I just searched all his pockets. I slid the drugs and money he had on him into my own. I walked away and did the same to his dead friend. I tensed up as a vehicle pulled up but luckily it was Riggs. Right behind him was another of our guys with a tow truck.

  I walked over to Axel while Riggs and Gunner tossed the body into the back of the truck and bungee corded a tarp over the bed. Drew and Deuce had taken over the live Lycan and shoved him in the back seat. Scout and Axel were busy dumping bleach over the spot where the Lycan had bled out. I grabbed a gallon and helped. One of our brothers who came with Riggs was loading the wrecked bikes onto the tow truck so we could get them back to the shop. Once the blood was diluted, and everything was cleaned up, we all hopped onto our bikes and followed the trucks back to the garage.

  Drew, Trip, and Deuce tossed some shovels, more bleach, and some other equipment into the back seat and immediately took off to dispose of the body. Axel and Scout transferred the Lycan to a new truck. They were going to drive him back to the clubhouse. They pulled up beside me. “Axel. Could you call Rat and have him check to make sure there weren’t any cameras in that alley? Or on any of the businesses on the other side of the street. Have him fuck with the traffic cameras too for both the north and south side of the alley.”

  “You got it.”

  They headed out and I stepped inside Valhalla Choppers to check-in. One of our employees was manning the desk and looked up when I walked in. “Hey, boss.” My eyes swept the waiting room. No one was here.

  “Anything on the schedule for the day?”

  The club brother shook his head. “All clear. There is one service appointment for tomorrow at two p.m. but that’s it for tomorrow too.”

  I nodded. “Great. Riggs and I are going to take off. If anyone comes in just set them up for an appointment tomorrow.”

  “No problem. You guys have a good night.”

  “Thanks. You have a good one too.” Riggs acknowledged the guy as he left.

  I sat on my bike. “Did you call Cade yet?” My brother shook his head and lit up a cigarette. I did the same then dialed our president. After a quick update, we headed back to the clubhouse. We’d be spending the rest of the night questioning the Lycan and planning.

  Chapter 20

  Steel

  Cade walked into the kitchen the next morning and sat at the head of the table. “Okay, let’s do this.” He cleared his throat and his gaze fell on me. “The nomads have been here for a little over the two-week trial period that’s required.” The men had never been to our club with our new leadership. Anytime they wanted to visit a new club and potentially add it to their list of places they were welcome, they had to stay for two weeks. This let our club judge whether they’d be a good fit and the same for them.

  “They’ve officially asked to have our club added to their list. They’d also like permission to remain here for an undetermined amount of time. Three to four months is the plan for now, but they said it could be shorter or longer.” I clenched my jaw to keep myself from saying anything. Gunnar had been staring down at the tabletop but with Cade’s announcement, his head shot up. He wasn’t happy either.

  I knew Cade could read the fury and frustration in my eyes. “Steel, you already took care of that situation. So did Gunnar.” As soon as Remi’s taillights had disappeared, I’d tracked down Ty, the nomad who had touched her. The fight had been quick but bloody, well bloody for Ty.

  “None of the guys have stepped out of line since that night. Everyone has chalked it up to a misunderstanding, and they accepted their punishment for putting hands on your women. The rules of our club and our charter say we should give them this chance.”

  I turned my head and looked over at Gunnar. The table was silent now, every eye on us. Cade was giving us the respect of making this decision since it had affected our girls. If we said we didn’t want them here, Cade would respect it and make them leave. But he was right. According to the rules, we should give them another shot. Had anything more happened between them and the women, especially without consent, they would have been booted out of the MC immediately.

  They wouldn’t have had the chance to strip them of their rank, I thought, because they both would have been dead and buried. I read the reluctant acceptance in Gunnar’s face. I nodded once at Cade. It was all he needed.

  “If they step one ass hair out of line, they’re fucking gone. Got it?” It was a promise for us, but it was also a warning for the rest of the officers to keep an eye on them. Everyone nodded in agreement.

  As church continued, we went through the plan for the Lycans. The fucker we’d caught yesterday had tried to hold out. He’d kept his cool for most of the night but once we brought Axel in, he’d spilled everything. Axel had a very special talent for getting men to talk. It rarely went well for them if they tried to refuse.

  According to their member, the Lycans were dealing drugs laced with fentanyl in our area. They wanted heavy casualties so that we’d be tied up with the authorities and the community while they continued with their plans for attacking us. I sighed in aggravation. The Lycan we’d caught was too low down on the totem pole to know much more.

  He didn’t know where his club was getting the drugs; he didn’t know what the next steps were or how Blaze, the Lycan President, was planning on striking out against us. He had been able to tell us that they were recruitin
g in high numbers and not being very selective of who they were taking in at the moment. Amassing an army, I thought grimly. They’d be fucking stupid to try to take us on, but it didn’t surprise me that Blaze was doing it.

  “Alright, anything else to report?” We’d already gone over the information we’d gotten from the Lycan. We’d come up with the perfect way to get a little more information. There was no way we were going to be caught unaware. But in order to protect our club and our territory, we needed more information.

  Cade nodded to me and I stood up. Walking to the kitchen door, I popped my head out and found Bass standing there. “Come on in, kid.”

  Returning to my stool, I watched as Bass nervously entered the kitchen. I didn’t blame him, he’d never been in church before, none of the members came in for these meetings, only the senior officers. He stood awkwardly near the end of the table, waiting for someone to tell him why he was here.

  “Bass, thanks for coming in.” He nodded at Cade but remained silent. “We have a job for you.” A wary but determined look crossed the kid’s face.

  “What can I do, prez?”

  “You’ve been with us the longest out of our new prospects. You’re at the point where we will be patching you in.” Bass’s eyes widened and a slow smile spread across his face. “We’d rather wait to do that until this job is done, however.” Bass nodded in understanding.

  “The only prospect that we’re sure the Lycans know about is Scout. But you’re the only one we’d trust with this. The Lycans are bringing on a lot of prospects right now, according to our sources, trying to build up their manpower before they come after us. We’re a step behind at this point so we need you to go get picked up to prospect for them.” Bass looked surprised but then nodded slowly. “You’d still belong here, but we need you to feed information back to us.”

  Finally, Bass grinned. “I can do that, prez.”

  “This isn’t a game, Bass,” Cade warned. “If they figure out that you’re connected to us, they’ll kill you. And it won’t be a pleasant way to go.”

  “I get it. I won’t fuck up, promise.”

  I felt pride for the kid. He’d taken his prospecting duties seriously since day one. He wanted to be here, to be accepted, and once he finished this assignment, he’d be promoted to a fully patched brother.

  “Steel, get him squared away on what we’ll need and go over the rest of the plan with him after church.” I nodded and led Bass out of the room.

  “Wait for me out here. We’ll go over everything in a bit.” Bass agreed, then sat down on the back-porch steps and pulled out a cigarette.

  “Alright, other business?” Cade asked as I stepped back into the kitchen.

  I jerked my chin at him, and he gestured for me to speak. “Al called yesterday. There was a delay in the last shipment.” Al owned the garage in Long Beach, CA, and was the president for the LB chapter of the Vikings.

  Cade leaned forward and rested his forearms on the island. “It was Harris shipping that messed up.” They dropped the shipment of bike parts off at the wrong location. Again. This was how you got the attention of the Feds. Harris was the shipper we’d been using for the last year. “Since this is the second time in two months that they’ve dropped the ball, I’d like to use someone else.”

  Cade nodded. “Do you think they figured out why we were shipping parts and frames?”

  I shook my head. We’d never clued the shipping company in since the business wasn’t owned by club members. As far as they knew we had two shops and just supplied both out of our Austin location. “No, they’re just fucking incompetent.”

  “I agree. Do you have someone else in mind?”

  “Mackenzie’s Trucking. I was planning on heading over there after church if the suggestion passed.”

  “Perfect. Do it.” I nodded and rapped my knuckles on the table. Remi didn’t know it yet, but she’d be seeing me soon.

  Cade adjourned the meeting not long after, and I glanced at my watch. Ten-thirty a.m. Perfect. That gave me time to fill Bass in on what we needed. I watched an hour later as the kid rode out to one of the locations that the Lycan member had mentioned they were recruiting from. He’d left his cut with me and I ran up and stored it in my room before I also headed out.

  The ride over was short, and I was walking through the double doors of Mackenzie’s by eleven-fifty. An older guy was sitting at the service counter, head down, scribbling something on a piece of paper. I walked up and leaned my forearms on the countertop.

  He glanced up when I did and gave me a tight smile, his eyes staring cautiously at the patches on my cut. Professionalism won out. “Hello, how may I help you today?”

  “I’m here to have something shipped.” If I had to guess I would say this was Remi’s uncle. They looked enough alike that it was a high likelihood.

  “Great, will it be a one-time shipment, or will you need a commercial account?”

  “Commercial.”

  The guy scribbled something down, then gave that same pained smile again. “Okay, I’ll be right back, and I’ll have someone out here to help you shortly.” He walked to the hallway that must lead to offices in the back. He paused and looked back at me over his shoulder. “It will just be a moment. Don’t… go anywhere.” He disappeared down the hall.

  I gave a humorless laugh. Don’t go anywhere meant ‘stay where the cameras can see you’. Or ‘if anything goes missing, we’ll blame

  you’.

  Chapter 21

  Remi

  I looked up as Uncle Caleb popped his head in my office. “Hey, Rem. There’s a guy out front who needs to set up a commercial account. I need to go next door to straighten out a mix-up in the warehouse.” I frowned, he sounded hesitant about wanting to leave. He’d told me this morning that he’d have to head over and speak with the loaders and truckers.

  Mackenzie’s was a large operation. We had three adjacent warehouses. One, dad had renovated into our front area where the customers could come in if they chose, offices, and meeting rooms in the back. Directly next door was our loading bays. For most jobs, we went to the client to pick up, however, occasionally we had to bring the shipments back here to load up with other deliveries going the same direction. Why waste the space when two shipments are headed to the same location?

  Everyone except our office staff and mechanics worked next door. The truckers would get their schedules and pick the trucks up from there before heading out. The third building was our service garage.

  Dad had always insisted on hiring our own mechanics for our trucks. It was hard to find reliable mechanics that could work on big rigs and he’d never wanted to have to wait in line to get something fixed. It had been a huge expense but had saved our bacon more than once when we’ve had problems with the vehicles.

  “No problem. I’ll head out front right now.” He hesitated again and shot a glance toward the front. “Janet is going to be back from lunch any minute,” I reminded him when he still hesitated. “We’ll be fine.” Uncle Caleb nodded and left out the back entrance. I shook my head; he was clearly worried about my ability to run the front counter alone.

  Pulling my heels out from under the desk I slid them on. I stopped in front of the full-length mirror I had. Mackenzie’s was the only place that I dressed up for. I turned and looked over my shoulder to make sure nothing was on my butt. All clear. I faced the mirror again and smoothed my hands down the tight, grey striped dress pants.

  Tugging on the matching vest to settle it into place I took in my reflection. The vest by itself would be way too scandalous for an office. The lowest button stopped above my navel and the top button stopped at the bottom of my breasts. I’d paired it with a long-sleeved, silk, blouse to make it office chic.

  I poked at my hair; it was pulled up, clipped, and spilled curls everywhere. Bridget had insisted on doing it this morning. I’d put my foot down on the makeup though. I never wore it and she always tried to put too much on me. I grabbed the stack of order sheets, inv
oices, and other random paperwork. As I stepped out of my office, I met Janet as she came back from lunch and we walked out front together. “Did you have a good lunch?”

  She smiled. “Yeah, you have to try the new Mexican place off of…” We’d stepped out into the front and she stopped mid-sentence. I looked over and sucked in a sharp breath.

  “Wow.” There was awe in her voice. “He is… wow.” Standing in the middle of Mackenzie’s was Steel.

  Shit.

  “Do you want me to go help him?” Janet’s voice was excitedly hopeful.

  “Thanks, but I’ve got it.” She kept an eye on him as she walked behind the counter, and I grimaced when she smacked into a cabinet because she wasn’t watching where she was going. I peeked over at him. His pale, grey eyes were fixed on me. I licked my lips, tipped my chin up, and strode over to him.

  “Hello, you needed something shipped?”

  A large, amused grin split his face when I pretended not to know him. It was all for Janet’s sake. She was a nice lady but could gossip with the best of them. I didn’t need Uncle Caleb to find out I knew him. I didn’t want him jumping down my throat any more than he already did. It annoyed me how much he tried to dictate my life, but he was the only family I had left, besides the girls. I wasn’t in a space to be pushing anyone away. Plus, I wasn’t sure the truckers wouldn’t mutiny without Uncle Caleb there to run that side of things, for now.

  “Yup.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him and glanced over at Janet who was watching us with rapt attention.

  “Great, if you’d like to follow me back to our meeting room, I can get you taken care of.” The grin only grew bigger. His eyes trailed lazily down my body, paused at my heels then flicked back up to my face. I kept the tight smile in place.