June’s Ride with Lightning: Mustang Mountain Riders

7. Lightning

It”samazing what a few days of rest can really do for you. I”m not normally the sit around and rest person, but when I”ve got an incentive I can definitely be persuaded.

Piper realized this early on and promised me that each day I would rest and relax and let my arm heal, she would be with me all night. I would be crazy to pass that up.

Thankfully, with some rest and a little bit of ice, my arm feels better than it did before. So, Piper took today off, and she”s going down with me to the sheriff”s station to run Snake Eyes”s name and see what we find. We have plans for a lunch date after that because I decided that we both needed to get out of the house a bit. Not that I”m complaining about being stuck in her room with her all night.

Atlas knows one of the guys at the station near the college in Bozeman, so that”s where we”re heading. Atlas called him last night to let him know that we’d be coming in. He also gave him the guy”s name so that he could run a search and be ready for us.

“Hi, I”m looking for Officer Lewis,” I say to the lady at the reception desk and give her what my brother labeled my panty-dropping smile.

“Is he expecting you?” she asks, seemingly unaffected. If not for how Piper responds to me, I might think I was losing my touch.

“Yes. My name is Lightning, and my buddy Atlas talked to him last night,” I tell her, reaching behind me and taking Piper”s hand in mine.

“Have a seat. I”ll let him know you”re here,” she says, gesturing to the seats behind us.

“Do you think they found anything?” Piper asks.

“I hope so, but even if he didn’t, we”ve got a few more leads to explore,” I tell her, pulling her to my side and wrapping my arm around her.

I love that she wants to be with me today. Having her by my side makes all the difference.

“Lightning?” An officer steps up to us.

I stand and shake his hand.

“Officer Lewis, it”s nice to meet you in person. This... is Piper.” I hesitate because I want nothing more than to introduce her as my girl, but we haven”t had that talk, and this is not the place for it.

“Nice to meet you both. Why don”t you follow me back? I reserved a room for us to talk.” He leads us back to one of the small conference rooms.

We follow him back, and water and coffee are already on the table for us. Once we get situated, he sets a folder down and opens it up.

“So, I did some research on the name and date that you gave me, and it matches up to who you call Snake Eyes in the Savage Bones. We”ve been on this guy”s trail for years. He’s wanted on multiple break-in charges, and he is currently linked to a few murders as well. If we can catch this guy, he will spend his life behind bars, but the problem is actually catching him. We had no idea where he was until we got the call from Atlas. What can you tell us about them right now?”

“Probably not much that you don”t already know. They”ve been in heavy illegal stuff, been the cause of multiple kidnappings, and the reason that I was shot recently.” I point to my arm. “They are pushing hard to try to take over Mustang Mountain. We just don”t know why they”re so focused on us when they could easily take over a town like Whitefish with more resources that would probably make them more profit. They”ve been using abandoned cabins all around town. We haven’t been able to find where they”re currently holed up after this most recent attack, but the guys are on it.”

“I can fax this information down to your sheriff, and you can attempt to get him arrested,” he says.

I can feel Piper tense. John is her uncle and family, even if he”s not on the right side of the law right now, so I need to be careful what I say here.

“That”s probably not a good idea. They have made multiple threats against his family, which includes Piper here and his daughter, who is in town under our protection. If we could bring in the state police to do this arrest, it will put fewer civilians at risk.”

“I”ve got a couple of buddies who are state troopers stationed up by Whitefish. I will pass this information on to them. As soon as you guys have a lead on his whereabouts, you can let me know, and we will move in on it.”

“Thank you. We have the Mustang Mountain Riders out looking for these guys in town,” I say just as another officer walks in to hand Officer Lewis something.

“Wait, did you just say the Mustang Mountain Riders as in the motorcycle club?” the younger officer asks.

“Yes,” I say hesitantly.

“Is it true that Juice moved up there and joined you guys?” he asks with a huge smile.

“Yeah, how do you know him?” I ask, thinking maybe they went to school together. They look to be about the same age.

“We went to college together,” he says, confirming my suspicions. “Though I”m interested in what he told you about getting his name, Juice.”

I don”t know this person, so it”s not really my story to tell, so I just shrug my shoulders.

“Something about his motorcycle,” I say, but this causes the other officer to laugh.

“He was a male stripper putting himself through college, and he got the name Juice because he would let the women drink these fruity drink shots off his abs. He left town not long after he graduated and quit the stripper business as far as I know, and the last I heard, he was up there in Mustang Mountain with all of you,” he says, a huge smile on his face.

Piper and I both start laughing so hard at the thought of Juice as a stripper, but good Lord, it makes so much sense.

“That is definitely not how he told us he got his name,” I say after I finally catch my breath.

“Look it up online. Several articles about him were written here on local websites. I”m sure it won”t take much digging to find them.”

“Thank you, man. Even if this whole thing doesn”t pan out with Snake Eyes, that tidbit alone made this entire trip worth it,” I say, still laughing.

It isn’t until Piper and I are in the car that she turns to me and asks the question that I know is coming.

“How did you think he got his name?”

“We were told that he gives his bike too much juice and makes it go too fast. He”s always speeding around, so I don”t think any of us ever thought to question that”s how he got his name. Oh my god, I have to call my brother when we get home because he is never going to believe this.”

I take her out to lunch, and we have a good time getting to know each other. There”s no mention of MC clubs or what”s going on in Mustang Mountain; it”s just us in our own little bubbles until we get back to her house.

“Are you going to call Thunder now? I kind of want to hear what his reaction is,” she says, surprising me with the mischievous glint in her eye.

I sit down on the couch and call her next to me before grabbing my phone and calling my brother.

“Hey man, how did the visit to the police station go?” he asks as he answers the phone.

“Better than I could have hoped. There are multiple warrants out for Snake Eyes’s arrest, and they said they would get the state troopers involved if we could locate him.”

“Perfect. We”ve got to leave. We”re going to go check out a tip tonight. When the sun goes down, we”re hoping this turns out to be a good one.”

“Oh, that”s not even the best news I got when we were at the police station, You are never going to believe this shit.”

“Is this something I should be sitting down for? I feel like I need to sit down. Hang on,” Thunder says, and there”s a little bit of shuffling on the other end of the phone.

“Okay, hit me with it,” he says, indicating that he thinks it”s going to be bad news.

“One of the police officers overheard me mention the Mustang Mountain Riders. Apparently, this guy went to school with Juice. And he had the story about how Juice really got his name, and you will never guess,” I say barely keeping myself contained before I start laughing. Piper starts giggling beside me.

“Oh, this is going to be good. Let me hear it,” Thunder says.

“He was a male stripper putting himself through college, and he got the name Juice because he would let women drink fruity shots off his abs as his trick move.”

“No!” Thunder says, and then starts laughing.

That”s when Piper pulls up something on her phone and shows me the links that the guy was talking about in a write-up of one of Juice’s performances.

“Piper just found a website article on him. I”m going to send it to you when we get off the phone. It is one-hundred percent true. But you can”t say anything until I get back up there. I want to see his face when he realizes that we know.”

“Deal, as long as you send me that news article. Man, this is almost better than Christmas,” Thunder says, bursting into another laugh.

Piper sends me the link, and I forward it to Thunder before we say our goodbyes.

“You guys are really going to give him a hard time for all that?” Piper asks.

“Yes, it”s all in good fun. We”re going to have questions like how much he used to make and if he”ll put on a show for us. I would have teased him if he had told us from the beginning, absolutely, but are we going to tease him even more now since he tried to hide it from us? Of course, we are.”

“The poor guy isn”t even going to see it coming.” She shakes her head and then giggles again.

“How about I take you to the bedroom and show you one of the many reasons they call me Lightning?” I say, standing up and enjoying all her laughing on the way.