The door opened with a twist of the key, and I kicked it closed behind me. There was a light stench of rotting garbage left in the can, but other than that, nothing looked different from the night we had left for the party.
I moved into the bedroom and grabbed a duffel bag from the floor of the closet. I dumped a couple shirts and jeans inside then reached into the back of the closet. I rummaged around until I felt the small square and pulled it out.
The box had six grand that I was going to use on a new bike. I had asked Core if he knew what had happened to my bike, and he said they sold it not even a day after dumping me in the ditch. It was just another reason to hate the Rolling Devils. I tucked everything into the duffle, then grabbed the nasty bag of garbage on the way out the door. It was a small thing to do, but Kimber would appreciate when she got back.
“You really emptied the garbage?” Fancy called.
I tossed the bag into the dumpster and walked back over to the truck. “It was stinking up the apartment.”
“Kimber is such a lucky bitch,” she mumbled. “Tattoos and he empties the garbage.”
“I gotta get going, Fancy. Just keep covering for Kimber ‘til she gets back.”
“And how long is that going to be?” she demanded.
“Few more days. Like I said, shit is going down, and I need to act before anything happens to her.”
She hitched her purse over her shoulder and sighed. “Pretty sure shit already happened to her.” She rolled her eyes and huffed. “Well, kick some ass and get her back, Gear.”
“I don’t go by that anymore. Just call me Quinn.” Gear was fucking dead and he was never coming back. Not after what the Rolling Devils had some to him.
“Right, right. Should have figured that out.” She waved her hand toward me. “Go do your thing and bring my best friend back, Quinn.” She took off in the opposite direction of my truck and disappeared toward the back of the building.
At least Fancy didn’t freak out as much as I thought she would have. She seemed to have more faith in me than I did myself.
I opened the door to the truck and tossed the duffel bag in. I looked up at the apartment again and sighed.
In a few days, Kimber and I should be back here and back to normal.
Or as normal as we could be after all the shit that was about to go down.
I drove the half an hour to the new clubhouse and parked the truck.
“Everything go okay?” Point was sitting on a bucket by the front door, smoking.
“No cops or Devils in sight.” I grabbed the duffle bag and slung it over my shoulder. “Everyone inside?”
He nodded and tossed his cigarette on the ground. “Yeah. They were trying to get one of the rooms cleaned up, but shit is kind of a lost cause ‘til we can tear some walls down and make the place how it will work for us.”
The place needed a major overhaul. Dyno had said we would take it down to the studs and then build it to suit our needs. All I had seen were dollar signs when he had said it, but I knew it was going to have to be done. Hopefully, it would just cost us materials and nothing else. Having me and five guys in the club should be plenty of manpower to get it done. “All in due time, Point. Kimber first, and then we can figure all of that out.”
He followed me through the door, and I headed in the direction of the guys’ voices. I walked past the area that had been the front reception and conference room to the back where it was a huge warehouse. Dyno and the rest of the guys were off to the side sitting on makeshift chairs waiting for me.
“Looks like you managed to pull something together for our first official club meeting,” I remarked.
Dyno kicked the bucket next to him. “Saved the best bucket for the prez,” he laughed.
I dropped my duffle bag behind the bucket and sat down. “Better than sitting on a bale of hay.” I looked at Zephyr who was actually sitting on a bale of hay. “Do I want to know where you got a bale of hay?”
All the guys shook their heads. “Long story, prez,” Zephyr smirked.
“Well, let’s get down to the shit.” I looked at each of the guys gathered in a circle with me. “I really don’t know what the fuck I’m doing when it comes to starting an MC, but I know what I want to get out of it. Each of you coming in on the ground level of this are going to help form and make this shit grow into a brotherhood.”
Dyno patted me on the shoulder. “We’re all here for you, brother.”
I nodded. “Right.” I cleared my throat, happy to get over the sappy shit I needed to say. “Kimber called me on Core’s phone. She fine, but ready to get the hell out of there. Thankfully, Core is the only one who she sees, and no one has touched her.”
“Good,” Zephyr grunted.
“That’s where the good news ends. Core said the Rolling Devils had their own meeting, and a new business venture was announced.”
“Jesus Christ,” Point muttered. “Something tells me they ain’t about to do anything legal.”
“Last I checked, selling women wasn’t on the up and up.” I was still fucking shocked that was the path they were deciding to go down.
“Mother fucking hell,” Dyno swore. “You gotta be fucking kidding me, man.”
“They’re trying to sell Kimber?” Rhino asked.
“Not trying, they did. Core said they made a deal for four women,” I explained.
“They got other chicks other than Kimber?” Dyno asked.
I shook my head. “As of right now, they only have Kimber. Though that doesn’t mean that is going to stay that way for long.”
Sledge stretched his feet out on front of him. “They just gonna start grabbing chicks off the streets or something?”
“Core said they had two club girls they were thinking of, but that still leaves them one short. He said the deal would probably go down in a few days so we have to move on the clubhouse before.”
“My guy should have all the shit I asked him for by the end of the day tomorrow.” Sledge pulled a list out of his pocket and handed it to me. “He was able to get me everything circled. I was hoping he could get me more silencers, but we should be able to make do with the four he’s got.”
There were three phases to the plan. The silencers were needed for us to take down anyone lingering outside. We didn’t want anything to tip off the guys inside the clubhouse that we were about to tear their shit up. “That enough explosives?” I knew I wanted to blow the fucking building to the sky, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to do that.
“More than enough,” Sledge said. “By the time the smoke and rubble settles, the cops aren’t going to be able to put heads with asses.”
I handed the list back to Sledge. “Let me know when it’ll be here so we can all be around to unload everything.”
Sledge nodded.
“So, two days from now, we put all of this bullshit behind us and bring Kimber home?” Dyno asked.
None of these guys had ever met Kimber, but they were all going to put their lives on the line to rescue her. This was the brotherhood I wanted.
It was what I needed.
I nodded. “Rescuing Kimber and destroying the Rolling Devils are the first big moves the Kings of Vengeance are going to make.”
A rumbled of mix of “hell yeahs” and hoots went up and the first meeting of the Kings of Vengeance came to a close.
It was official. Hell was about to rain down on the Rolling Devils, and I was going to be the one pulling the trigger.
*
Chapter Seventeen
Kimber
Roomies?
The door burst open, and the light from the hallway blinded me.
“Keep your ass in here,” someone shouted.
Someone landed in a heap on the floor, and the door shut as fast as it opened.
This must be one of the girls they planned to sell with me. They really didn’t waste time finding more victims.
Last night, Core told me what they planned to do with me, and this morning, I got a new room
ie. Too bad I couldn’t see her.
The woman groaned in agony, and it sounded like she rolled over.
I grabbed the flashlight Core had left with me three days ago from under the mattress and turned it on. I pointed it on the floor by her feet and saw she was barefoot.
“Are you okay?” I asked softly.
“No,” she gasped.
The light slowly traveled up her legs and over her torso. Her legs were bare with lots of cuts and bruises on them, and her shirt was ripped with blood smeared on it. “Uh, is there anything I can do to help?”
She had obviously been beaten. Badly.
“Just let me die,” she moaned.
“Nope, not on my shift, honey.” I crawled to the corner and stood the flashlight up on its end. The light shown up onto the ceiling and managed to give the room a soft glow. I moved over to the woman and brushed her hair out of her face.
“Please,” she gasped.
Her face was also beaten badly, and her hair was matted to the side of her head. “What’s your name?” I asked.
“Petra, she moaned.
“I’m Kimber, Petra. I think maybe we should try to get you on the mattress.” It was only a couple of feet away, but I didn’t think she would be able to get to it. “Let’s get you to sit up for a second.” I got my hands under her and lifted her up. I draped her arm over my shoulders and managed to get her on the mattress with a scoot, then lift, then scoot again. I laid her down and shifted onto the edge of the mattress.
The glass of water Core had brought me earlier was almost full, and I grabbed it. “Why don’t we try to see if you can get some water in you.” I pressed the rim of the glass to her lips, and she managed to take a few sips before she sputtered and started coughing.
She laid her head back down and closed her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered.
I set the glass down and tried to figure out what to do. I had gotten used to being by myself for the past six days that it was a bit odd having someone else in my space for longer than a few minutes like Core.
“Uh, are you...Do you...” I cleared my throat and decided to just go for it. “Do you know why you’re in here?”
She shook her head. “I was just walking by, and these guys jumped me. I walked by here so many times before, but they never paid attention to me. I was just trying to get to work.”
Good lord. These assholes were so desperate to get more girls to sell that they were just grabbing women off the street. “You’ll be okay, Petra. We’ll get you out of here.”
I looked her over and decided that while she was in a lot of pain, and looked pretty bad off, more of her wounds were just superficial. I grabbed the small blanket and tossed it over her. “You look like you put up a pretty good fight.”
She shivered and pulled the blanket to her chin which pulled it off her bare feet. The blanket had covered me even when I was burrowed under it, but Petra was so tall that there wasn’t a way to fully cover herself.
“I took a few self-defense classes, but they still got me,” she whispered.
“Shh,” I cooed. Petra was so terrified that she was shivering uncontrollably and had the edge of the blanket clenched in fingers. “Just try to sleep, Petra.”
She shook her head slightly. “Is that even possible?”
It was. Sleeping was what I did about half of the time, and the other half of the time, I thought about Quinn and getting the hell out of here. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I don’t know who that guy was that pushed you in here, but I know the guy who brings us food isn’t anyone to be afraid of.”
She sighed and relaxed into the mattress. “You promise to stay awake while I sleep?” she asked.
Petra was probably only a year or two younger than me, but she seemed younger than that. There was an air of innocence about her that was holding on by a thin thread. The Rolling Devils had just destroyed that.
She grabbed my hand and held on tight. Her breathing evened out, and she slowly fell asleep.
I not only had to worry about getting myself out of here, now I had to get Petra out of here, too.
Hopefully before the Rolling Devils grabbed more women, Quinn would be here and this would all end.
The thought of Quinn coming to save me was the only thing keeping me alive.
Now, I had to keep Petra alive, too.
*
Chapter Eighteen
Quinn
Six ARs and a party...
“Do I wanna know how much all of this cost you?”
Sledge handed me the last AR and smirked. “Guy owed me a favor,” he said smugly.
I looked at the AR and then at the other five on the table. “Just one favor?”
“It was a big favor,” Sledge chuckled.
Everything was coming together. The guns, ammo, and explosives Sledge had said he could get, actually showed up and it had been exactly what we needed to give the guys a burst of confidence. They had all been saying they would do anything to get Kimber, but like me, they had doubted just how we were going to accomplish that.
“Prez. Your phone is ringing,” Rhino called. He tossed my phone, and I caught it midair.
I swiped left when I saw it was Core calling. “Talk to me.”
“Quinn?”
“What’s going on, Core?”
Core talked quietly. “They plan on grabbing the last two girls tomorrow night. They couldn’t find them, but they know every time there is a party, they show up.”
Christ. These assholes weren’t wasting anytime. “All right. We’ll move in tomorrow.”
“You wanna clue me on just what that means?”
I watched Dyno and Sledge as they loaded two guns. “Means I’m taking Kimber.”
He sighed. “Figured that, man. I meant is there something I should be doing here?”
I was still on the fence about Core. He had been in contact with me and taking care of Kimber, but the fact he was part of the Rolling Devils still irritated the fuck out of me.
“Look, Quinn. As soon as you get Kimber, I’m out of here. Figured out a bit ago that the Rolling Devils aren’t the club they say they are. I was just looking for an out that wasn’t going to get me killed.”
“Getting your ass kicked by Major every week would have eventually killed you,” I pointed out.
“Had to do something to pass the time,” he laughed.
I had to wonder if maybe Core had a screw loose if he thought an ass-kicking was the way to pass time. “I’ll text you when we plan on hitting. Keep your phone with you.”
“That Core?” Dyno asked.
I ended the call and slid the phone into my pocket. “Yeah. He was asking what the plan was.”
“You tell him anything?” Dyno finished loading the magazine of the gun and handed it to Sledge.
“Not sure if I should.” I had thought Core was someone I could trust before, but now that he had Rolling Devils on his back I wasn’t so sure. He was helping Kimber, but I didn’t know if when it came down to it if his loyalty would be to the Devils.
“It’s your call, prez. You’re the one who’s been talking to the guy. I think I speak for the other guys when I say he must be trustable if he’s putting his ass on the line every time he calls you.” Dyno crossed his arms over his chest. “And he’s keeping Kimber as safe as he can until we get her. Though in the end he is still a Rolling Devil.”
“All I told him was I would send him a text letting him know when we were going to hit.” That was at least something.
“And when is that going to be? He give you any more info or just checking in?”
I nodded. “Get everyone over here. I don’t wanna have to say this shit five times.”
Dyno called all of the guys over.
They all ambled over and waited.
“Core called. The Devils are having a party tomorrow night. They can’t find the two girls they were wanting to grab but they know they come running every time there is a party.”
“You know who
they are?” Rhino asked.
I shook my head. “I’m sure I would know them if I saw them, but I don’t know their names. I was a prospect and was there to clean up and mind my own business.”
“So, we need to hit before the party starts, then,” Point said. “If we wait ‘til after it starts, we’re gonna have to be careful because there will be people there that aren’t part of the club.”
I nodded. “You’re right. We’ll hit before.” I luckily knew the routine of the club on party days so it wouldn’t be an issue to figure out the right time. I also had Core to be my eyes inside in case I needed him. “Tomorrow, this all ends.”
A cheer went up around the guys and I moved off to the side while they milled around finishing up everything with the guns.
I sent a text to Core.
Yo. I never went right into texting him. I never knew what he was doing or if he was around the club.
I’m busy, ma.
And that was how I knew it was Core and not one of the club members picking up his phone. I’ll talk to you tomorrow around three then.
Alright.
Three o’clock tomorrow. That was when it was all going to go down.
That was when this all ended.
*
Chapter Nineteen
Kimber
Waiting for hell to rain down...
“She say much?”
I looked over at Petra huddled in the corner. “Not really. She’s terrified more than anything.” I couldn’t really blame her.
Core had come in to bring our breakfast and had stayed for a second to check on Petra. “I would see her every now and then walking by the clubhouse,” he said quietly.
And now she was kidnapped by the assholes and being held against her will. The world was a fucked up place with the Rolling Devils still breathing. “When are we getting out of here?”
Core glanced behind him at the door. “Should be today.”
Holy shit. It was finally going to happen. After a week of being locked in this room, I was going to be able to walk out of here. “Do we need to do anything?”
Drop a Gear and Disappear (Kings of Vengeance, #1) Page 8