“I just want to get my fucking son back, Grimm. At all costs.”
“And if you lose your badge?” I asked him.
“Then I lose it. My son comes first.”
I nodded before turning to the solemn faces gathered before me at short notice. Everyone had dropped what they were doing to respond to the call. There was no telling how many people were working with Di Oro, and I wasn’t giving them the upper hand.
I tacked the pictures of the brothers that Dehaney had provided on the wall where everyone could see them. “These are the men we’re going after,” I told them. “They are responsible for Booker being shot. A couple of days ago, they tried to kill Jamie, and now they’ve kidnapped him. With the help of Slim. We’re going after them as soon as we have information on where they are holding Jamie. The twins are on their tail and feeding us information, but we haven’t been able to get a lock on Jamie yet. Once we move in, no one takes out the brothers. They’re mine. As far as Slim is concerned, he’s already dead to us. Do you have any questions?”
“I want one of the brothers,” Booker stated. “One of those fuckers shot me, and you owe me that much, Grimm.”
I nodded, conceding. “Fine. If that’s all, get suited up.”
While the men dispersed, I headed back to the house, where my tools were. Dehaney followed closely at my heels.
“Grimm, hold up!”
We were on the front porch when Clem’s call stopped us. I turned. He barreled his way toward us. He stopped at the foot of the steps, sweating so much it stained the underarms and the front of his shirt.
“What is it, Clem?” I snapped at him, knowing his dislike for Jamie and the tender feelings he’d carried for Slim.
“I think I can help,” he replied. “I may know where Slim took him.”
I took the steps two at a time and grasped Clem by the front of his cut. “You working with him, Clem? Is that it?”
“What the fuck, man? Would I tell you what I just did if I was working with him?”
“You’re telling me you didn’t meet up with him?” I demanded.
He didn’t need to answer. The guilt was clear on his face, the way he was unable to meet my eyes. “We fucked around a couple of times since he left, yeah? The last time we met up, he asked a bit about everybody. I just thought it was general conversation about the guys.”
“And you told him Jamie was at the hospital?”
“I didn’t know he was a part of this, man. I might have let it slip, but I didn’t think it meant anything. I swear to God, you know I wouldn’t betray you like that, Grimm.”
I unsheathed my knife and pointed the tip at his throat. “Give me one reason I shouldn’t end you right here.”
Dehaney’s hand came down on my arm. “We’ll need him to show us where Jamie is.”
“Or he could just tell us,” I answered.
“I’d prefer it if he shows us,” Dehaney replied. “After we have my son, you can feel free to do whatever the hell you want with him, but Jamie comes first.”
The urge to plunge the knife through his windpipe was so strong. I’d take pleasure in watching him drown in his own blood, but Dehaney was right. Jamie came first.
I dropped my hand. “You don’t want to fuck with me, Clem,” I snarled at him. “If even a hair on his head is harmed, I’mma fucking let you watch me slice you into pieces. You hear me?”
“I’m sorry, man,” he muttered, gaze dropping to the ground. “I didn’t know.”
I didn’t need his apology. I just needed to find my boy alive and unharmed. I stalked into the house and to my office. Guns weren’t my weapon of choice. I rarely used them, but they would be handy for the bloodbath that today might turn into.
“Grimm, you’ve got to fucking calm down,” Dehaney ground out as I pushed the desk away and revealed the stash hidden away in the floor. “I’m as upset as you are, but you can’t be in your feelings at this time if we’re going to get Jamie back.”
“Just worry about your own damn self, Dehaney, and not getting killed.”
“Hey!” He smacked me hard in my face, reminding me of when we were younger and I used to be impulsive. I always told him to slap me silly if I was going to do something stupid. He didn’t seem to have forgotten.
“You’re about to do something stupid,” he snapped, finger jamming me in the chest. “I can tell. You’ve never been able to see straight where my son is concerned, Grimm, but listen to me. Jamie’s smart. He’ll do everything he can to stay alive. You and me—we’re going to have to work together. That means not going off on a tangent and shooting everything you see in sight.”
I blinked at him, breathing hard and unfurling my fists. “You remember the last time we did this?”
He laughed, the sound dry. “Yeah, I thought it would be the last.”
“Yeah, you quit on us and decided to be a cop. That’s how we all fell apart.”
Our eyes locked. “Did we really fall apart, though, Grimm? Our sons brought us back together, although we fought it.”
I shoved him in the chest. “As much as I’d love to stay here and reminisce about the good ole days, Dehaney, we have to get him back. I swear to God if they hurt him…” I swallowed hard, unable to find the words to adequately express the raw emotions I was dealing with.
Shit, I was getting too old for this.
“You really do love him,” he said, staring at me.
I didn’t answer him because it wasn’t really a question. I worked silently beside him as we strapped ourselves with the guns of our choice. I also slid my blades into place. The familiarity of their presence alone bolstered my confidence.
By the time we walked out of the house, the angelic chorus of revving Harleys filled the compound. Seeing my brothers all together, ready to ride and die for this cause, reminded me once more of why this was home.
“Dad!” Joel ran up to me, his face white with terror. All his life, I’d tried to shield him from all this, but he was old enough to face the ugly reality. The world wasn’t a nice place, and we were the necessary evil who either contributed to it or made it better. Today I liked to think that we were doing the latter.
“You’re going to stay here with Zak,” I told him. “For no reason whatsoever do you leave this compound. Am I clear?”
“But I’m—”
“It’s not up for discussion, Joel. I can’t worry about you too.”
He nodded, shoulders slumped. “Okay. Please bring him back home.”
I patted his shoulder. “I will.”
“And you know that if he comes back, you have to come back too,” he said. “I mean, what the heck will he do without you? So bring both of you back all right, okay?”
I smiled at him, ruffling his hair, although he hated it. “We’ll be back.”
Zak stepped forward and took Joel by the arm. “If I’m staying behind, I expect to hear full details about what happened when you all get back.”
“You keep him safe and you have a deal.”
Dehaney drove ahead in his car, Clem beside him, leading the way. Booker and I were immediately behind them. No sooner had we ridden from the compound than trouble awaited us. Gunner and half a dozen bikers lay waiting for us. I removed my gun from the holster, ready to blast a hole into anything that tried to delay me from reaching Jamie.
“Now’s not the time, Gunner,” I told him. “Fuck off, and later if you still want a fight, you’ve got it. I’ve bigger issues to deal with.”
He took off his helmet and held it under his arm. “I’m here to help.”
“Get out of here, Gunner,” I snarled at him. “I don’t have time for your games.”
“You’re not the only one beefing with the Di Oros,” he remarked. “Plus, we made a pact, or have you forgotten? I can fuck with you all I want, but when someone else does, I have to step in. So stop bitching, accept my help, old man, and let’s go find Dehaney’s son. Then you can go back to hating my ass.”
“You can’t trust tha
t traitor,” Booker grunted beside me. “He cost you your cut, man.”
That he did, but I couldn’t expect Booker to understand something that was way before his time. Of how one day, almost thirty years ago, three boys made a pact with each other. A pact that had survived years of feuding regardless of the sides we were on.
I didn’t trust Gunner as far as I could throw him, but I trusted that pact and what it meant.
One thing was sure. Gunner wanted my head, which meant no one else could have it, and he would join forces with me to see to it that it remained that way.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Jamie
“Hey, you, wake up!”
With a groan, I folded up into myself, clutching my ribs, where Slim had kicked me a couple of times while I’d fought him as he forced me into the abandoned building. My jaw ached where he’d punched me as well, and my knuckles stung from the blows I had delivered.
“Come on, you’ve got to wake up!”
The hands shaking my shoulders brought me to my senses. I scrambled up into a sitting position, trying to get away from whatever was in that building with me. I moved too fast, my vision swimming and my gut sloshing with nausea. I turned to the side and dry-heaved a couple of times, swallowing the bile that rose into my mouth.
“Take it easy,” the voice said behind me. “I’m here just like you. I’m not going to hurt you.”
Dragging a deep breath into my lungs, I finally turned and assessed the owner of the voice. There was no light on in the building, but there were several windows at the sides, some of which were fractured and held together by cellophane tape. The natural light bleached inside, allowing me to see clearly the face of the young man who had woken me.
“Who are you?” I asked, taking in his unkempt hair and his torn clothes. He wore only a long tunic like a hospital smock, and his feet were bare. He had a bruise covering half his face, and his lip was split and swollen. Even so he was breathtaking with perfectly chiseled cheekbones and full lips. He had a face that one didn’t easily forget, and something about him sparked some familiarity, but I was positive I didn’t know him.
“It doesn’t matter now, does it?” he replied. “Who I am won’t get me out of this situation. In fact, it’s done the opposite.”
“How long have you been here?”
He shrugged. “A few days. I can’t remember. Sometimes it feels longer. Other times it feels like yesterday. It couldn’t have been too long, though.”
If he had been here for several days and was still alive, they didn’t plan to kill me right away, then. At least that would give Grimm some time to find me alive. I relaxed a little, working my jaw to ease some of the soreness as I glanced around me. I could move my hands, but one of my feet was locked in place with a steel restraint, which had a lead that was secured around a stone pillar. The guy beside me was being similarly restrained.
“I’m Jamie,” I told him, hoping if I divulged a little about myself, he would do the same. “James Dehaney. The chief of police is my father.”
He nodded. “I’m Fable.”
Now, why did his name sound familiar when it was so unusual? I couldn’t remember where I’d heard it before, though.
“How long have I been out, Fable?” I asked him. The last thing I remembered was fighting with Slim just outside the building before he’d smacked me in the head a few times with the butt of his gun. From the way my body ached, he must have hauled me across the roughened floor into the building.
“Like half an hour or something.”
“Shit.” Half an hour and Grimm hadn’t found me yet. Again, I checked out the inside of the building, trying to find a weapon or some way to get free. The building was empty, though, except for an enamel dish that was on the floor. It looked like it might have been used as a storage unit at some point.
“If you’re here this long, how do you go to the bathroom and stuff?” I asked him.
“I know it feels like we’re alone, but we’re not.” His lips barely moved as he spoke. “They have men outside to see to it that we behave. They come in every few hours and take us to use a bathroom attached to the outside. A few of them like to watch when the girls are around, but so far, there’s only the one gay guard who hangs around. He’s the one who brought you in. Don’t let your guard down if he takes you to the bathroom.” He inhaled deeply and shuddered. “He-he’ll do things to you that will make you wish they would just kill you.”
My heart broke for him, even as my fear rose. “I’m so sorry you had to go through this.” I tried to reach out a hand and touch him, but he shrank away. “Sorry, I wasn’t going to do anything.” The rest of his words penetrated then, and I frowned at him. “You said girls. What girls? Are there other people here now?” I glanced frantically around the open space. What was I missing?
“No,” he said on a whisper, then pulled his legs up to his chest, hugging them. “They took the others away this morning. I know this is going to sound selfish, but I was glad when they brought you. It meant I wasn’t alone.”
I swallowed hard, still confused about him and what he was doing here. Di Oro wanted me because of my connection to my father. What could Fable have done to attract their attention?
“Your father in the police force too?” I asked him cautiously.
He shook his head. “No, he’s the mayor.”
“The mayor!” I groaned as my outburst echoed in the space and made my head hurt. “I didn’t know the mayor’s son was missing.” But of course, now I realized where I’d heard his name before.
He just shrugged and didn’t respond.
“Grimm’s going to come for me,” I told him. “We’ll take you with us.”
“No, nobody leaves here until they are ready for us to leave.”
“You don’t know my Grimm. He will come.”
“Then they’ll kill him.”
A shiver ran down my spine. “Grimm’s experienced. He won’t be killed.”
“He’s a cop like your father, then?”
“No. He’s—he’s the president of the Grimm Reapers.”
His eyes went wide, and he stared me up and down. His nostrils flared, and he swallowed hard. “My father hates the MCs in Smoky Vale. He says they’re responsible for all the crime and violence here.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him exactly what I thought of his father, but now was hardly the time. The man was a crook of the worst sort, but of course he knew that. I had to focus on more pressing things like getting us out of here.
Fable seemed resigned to his fate, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t going out without a fight. My father had taught me better than this. Grimm had taught me better than this.
“Do you know where they took the others?” I asked him. “And how many were there?”
“I’m not sure how many before me, but there were three others after me. They were sold yesterday.”
“Sold?” I stared at him, uncertain if being here so long had fucked with his brain.
He nodded. “Yes. At night, they bring in masked men to check us out. Then they haggle over us and sell us like a piece of meat to the highest bidder. Nobody wanted me. They said they’ll get rid of me if they don’t sell me this weekend.”
I reached over to him and patted his knee. This time he didn’t move away like he really craved the comfort. “They won’t. We won’t still be here this weekend. I promise you.”
He laughed, the sound bitter and ending on a sob. “Hope only leaves you disappointed. I’ve learned that the hard way.”
“Then I’ll just hope enough for both of us.”
I shifted down and observed the restraint on my ankle. My attempt to pry the metal apart was as futile as it looked. Still, I had to try. I couldn’t sit around and do nothing while waiting for Grimm to rescue me.
Somewhere a door opened, and footsteps echoed on the floor.
“They’re coming,” Fable whispered, his breathing labored. “Don’t say anything. Let them poke their fun, and t
hey’ll leave us alone sooner. If you fight back, they only act worse.”
He kept his head lowered toward the ground, but I couldn’t adapt his subservient posture. I needed to know what was happening around me. Slim entered the room; beside him was the man who had tried to drown me. I scrambled backward, hauling my ass as far away from him as possible.
“You recognize me,” he said with a grin. “I thought for sure you were dead. Now this time I’m going to have to make certain of it. A dead man can’t testify against me.”
“You’re making a big mistake,” I warned him.
“So you said that other time,” He tutted at me. “Such a pity I have to kill you too. I have a buyer interested in this one, and I’m quite certain he would pay good money for both of you. He’s gay and likes ’em young and pretty. You’re both gay. You get my drift?”
“You touch either of us, and you’re going to be sorry.” I was proud of the way my voice held firm, not betraying the fear that made it almost impossible to breathe. I’d already tangled with Di Oro. He wasn’t bullshitting about killing me, and I had every reason to be afraid.
What if Grimm gets to me too late?
He squatted before me and gripped my chin. “I wish I had more time to play with you. I would love to extinguish your fire before I wring your neck.”
I spat in his face, determined to get some satisfaction out of this. “Do whatever you want to me, but you’ll never get away with it. Grimm Buckley will have his men hunt you down like a dog and—”
His palm connected with my cheek, the sound ringing out like the crack of a whip. The force of it had me tumbling to the ground. I groaned, reeling from the hard blow. I spat out the blood flowing into my mouth. He grabbed me by the hair and yanked me backward with such force I screamed as pain radiated through my scalp.
“Let him go!”
Fable had been so quiet since they came in, rocking back and forth and humming to himself, that I hadn’t been expecting any help from his end. He grabbed onto Di Oro’s legs, unbalancing the man. With a shout, Di Oro sprawled onto the ground at the same time a barrage of gunfire erupted from outside.
Biker Daddy (The Grimm Tales of Smoky Vale Book 1) Page 30