Mace
My heart pounded when I read Jessamy’s text.
Jessamy: 911. At port-a-potty. Men here. Hurry.
Me: How many? I’m coming.
Not waiting for her to answer, I whistled loudly. It was the standard three-two blast we used to get each other’s attention. My brothers within hearing distance all snapped to attention. They hurried over to me. Those with women brought them. The Warriors standing with me, Loki and Vex from Hunters Creek, gave me a questioning glance.
“What’s up?” Loki asked.
“We need to get to the nearest bathroom. Jessamy is in trouble. She just sent me a 911 text. Atticus is with her,” I said. Without waiting for them to reply, I took off running.
I heard the pound of feet behind me. The place they’d gone was just over a hundred yards or so from our campsite. We darted around others and their sites. As we got close, I saw three men standing with their backs to us. In front of them was Atticus, and Jessamy was behind him and off to the side. As far as I could tell, she was unharmed.
The back of the bikers’ cuts read Black Outlaws MC, Spartanburg, SC . It was no surprise that I didn’t recognize the club name. There were hundreds of clubs in the country, maybe more. As we got closer, we slowed down, and I heard what was being said. It made my blood boil.
“This is your last warning, fucker. Give us the woman, and you’ll live. If you don’t, we’ll kill you and take her. It doesn’t matter to us.”
I reached the one who was talking while Loki and Vex, who were on either side of me, stood directly behind the other two. Atticus’s face didn’t hint that we were near. Jessamy’s, I caught a flicker, and then she schooled hers.
“It matters to us,” I growled.
The Outlaws whipped around to face me. Their eyes widened when they saw I wasn’t alone. I had no idea how many others were behind us, and I didn’t care. The way I was feeling, I’d take all three on myself.
The one who’d been threatening our prospect held up his hands. “Whoa, you don’t want to touch us. Do you know who we are?”
“Your cut says Black Outlaws. Never heard of you,” I replied.
“We’re not someone you want to fuck with,” the main one, with the pocked face, said with a smirk. His cut read Crutch . The others read Jester and Cretin . Christ, who would want that last road name? I noticed they had the one-percenter patch, a diamond with 1%ER in the middle on their cuts.
“If you think that one-percenter patch scares us, you’re wrong, boy. I was an outlaw before you were ever cum in your daddy’s balls,” a voice I recognized snarled.
It was Rage. He was the previous president of our Lake Oconee chapter, and his son, Wrath, was the current president. Rage might be pushing sixty, but he was still lethal. Anyone thinking he wasn’t would learn the hard way.
“Shut up, old man. Shouldn’t you be back at the nursing home? It’s past your bedtime,” Cretin smarted off. If he kept that up, he’d have a scar on the other side of his ugly face.
Anyone who knew Rage knew that would fire him up. He gave up being the president, but not because he couldn’t hack it. He wanted freedom to travel and do other things. Since Rage had found his old lady, Betty, a couple of years back, he’d been happy as hell. However, if anyone threatened his club or someone he considered a friend or innocent, he’d come out swinging. Calling him an old man didn’t help.
“I’ll show you an old man. You three don’t have enough hair on all your balls to equate to one hair on mine. Mace, how do you want to do this? I’m feeling antsy,” Rage muttered.
“We’re taking the woman. If you back away and let us go, our club won’t touch yours. But if you don’t, then it’s war,” Crutch threatened.
“War it is then because there’s no way in hell you’re taking my old lady,” I snarled.
Before they had time to do anything, I latched a hold of Crutch while Loki and Vex grabbed Jester and Cretin. The others behind us swarmed them as we punched them in the faces. The others were patting them down and removing their weapons. It was mere seconds before they were clean. I grinned when Rage came forward and handed us zip ties.
“You get your woman back to the others and make sure she’s alright. We’ll take care of keeping these three on ice for you. If any more Black Outlaws come sniffing around, they’ll join these three assholes,” Rage muttered as he glared daggers at them. He cracked his knuckles.
“Dad, hold your horses. I swear. If you go back with a scratch on you, Betty will lose her shit,” Wrath grumbled as he came to stand next to his dad.
“Of course, she will. That woman loves her man and what he does to her. She doesn’t want this getting messed up, but I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. She’ll understand,” Rage said.
As the rest of us chuckled and Wrath groaned, I let one of the others take Crutch so I could go to Jessamy. When I reached her, I saw her closing a knife and slipping it into her jeans pocket. Where did she get that?
“Are you alright? Did any of them touch you?” I asked as I ran my hands down her arms. My heart was still thumping.
She leaned forward and rubbed her face into my chest. “I’m okay. They didn’t touch me. Atticus made sure of that. I’m so glad you got here. I was afraid they’d all jump him at once, and I wouldn’t be enough help.”
“Where did you get the knife?”
“I asked Joli if she would get me one. After what happened, I can’t stand the thought, even surrounded by all of you, to go without something to protect myself with. If I knew how to shoot, I would’ve carried a gun. It would’ve come in handy in this situation if it had gone further.”
“Babe, let’s get you back to the camp, and then we can talk more. I don’t want anyone coming up on us out here.”
Rage and some of the others had already escorted the Outlaws away. I hadn’t seen what they did to keep them from yelling out. We had no idea who their allies were. The rest stayed with us in case we got jumped on the way back. Luckily, we made it back without that happening. We’d been on high alert and had our heads on swivels the whole way. Agony was there with numerous others from our various clubs. He was pacing when we arrived. Getting us into the middle of our site, where it was unlikely we’d be overheard, he asked what happened.
Atticus explained what had been said, and Jessamy stood quietly in my arms. I felt her shiver a few times. When he was done, I asked one of the questions that had been pushing at me.
“Have any of you heard of the Black Outlaws? According to their cuts, this crew was out of Spartanburg, South Carolina.”
“I have. They’re not that far from our Gastonia, North Carolina chapter. They’ve always been a one-percenter club that has their hands in just about every type of dirty business you can think of. We might’ve done illegal shit back in the day, but not some of the stuff they do. They weren’t a big club, so most clubs didn’t pay them much attention. I haven’t heard of them in several years. I’ll ask to see if anyone in Gastonia knows anything about them. Grinder or Destroyer would know,” Bull said.
There were two other chapters of the Archangel’s Warriors, one in Louisville, Kentucky, and the other in Gastonia. We weren’t close to them like we were Dublin Falls and Hunters Creek, but Bull was their charter president, so they’d talk to him. Even though it was getting late, he took out his cell phone and walked off.
“Do you think they were just looking for an easy mark? Seeing Jessamy with only a prospect, they thought she was one. Or did they target her for a reason?” Cyclone asked.
“I don’t know,” I muttered.
The old ladies had come over and took Jessamy to stand a distance away. I knew they were trying to comfort her, but they kept her where I could see her. I glanced over at Atticus. He was calmly listening to the rest of us talk.
“Did you know she had a knife and was about to use it if they rushed you?” I asked him.
His eyes widened. “No, shit? She was safe, Mace. If I had to, I would’ve shot their asses to protect her, damn the consequences. I’d go to jail without hesitation.”
I squeezed his shoulder before holding out my hand. He took it. “And I thank you for that. If anything happened to her, I’d burn the Black Outlaws clubhouse with all of them in it to the fucking ground.” My brothers murmured their agreement.
“We don’t want to arouse suspicion. If we leave now, when those three Outlaws come up missing, it won’t take much for us to be suspected. If we stay and continue like we were, the other Outlaws might suspect we did something to them, but they can’t prove it. I know it’ll be hard, but can you convince Jessamy to stay the night?” Agony asked.
“I’ll ask. If she knows we’re surrounded by friends, then I think she will. No, just one or two of us escorting the women to the bathroom, though. We’ll go in big groups. They could be after any woman they can get their hands on.”
As I finished stating that, Bull rejoined us. He was frowning. “I spoke to Grinder. He said the Black Outlaws, especially the Spartanburg chapter, have gotten deeper into the illegal shit since I knew them. They’ve grown that chapter and formed a few more. They’re into everything from illegal guns, drug running, muscle for hire, and extortion to prostitution. But that’s not all. He’s heard rumors they’re now even into trafficking.”
This got our attention. There were curses and dark mutterings from all around me. All of us detested that ugly business. A thought entered my mind. I made sure she was far enough away that she wouldn’t hear me ask. “Do you think this was a random coincidence, or do they have something to do with the men who kidnapped her in Arizona? Could these Black Outlaws be the ones Leland was taking her to?”
“Christ, I don’t know, brother. Anything is possible. I don’t think we can rule it out as a possibility,” Agony muttered.
“If they are, they know she’s with us now, assuming those three weren’t the only ones to spot her and that it was intentional. If that’s the case, this could put a target on the other women’s backs,” Dare added. He glanced over at Joli.
“If they are connected, they had to wonder if we had her before this. I mean, she hid in our store,” Twisted said.
“True,” Terror, the president of the Dublin Falls’ Warriors, said.
“This puts things in a new light. I say we get through tonight and head home first thing tomorrow. And I think we should postpone the wedding until we know more,” Twisted said. I knew that was the last thing he wanted. His bachelor party was set for tomorrow night. All the guys were here for it and the wedding.
“Hell no, we’re not postponing your wedding. These people aren’t keeping us from living our lives. Besides, with all of us together, the women in all our clubs couldn’t be safer,” Savage, Terror’s VP, stated.
“Savage is right. Besides, if you postpone, Zari might wake up and realize she can do better,” Hulk teased Twisted.
This eased everyone’s tension. Twisted shoved Hulk and made some threats, which amused all of us. Once the joking died down, we conferred on setting up guards to monitor the camps throughout the night. Then, the other clubs dispersed back to their campsites surrounding us. I went to get Jessamy. We needed to talk. I led her to our tent. Inside, she gave me a concerned look.
“What did you find out?”
“For sure? Not a lot, but we don’t want to raise suspicions, so we need to stay the night.” I went on to tell her the plans and that we’d be leaving in the morning. She didn’t protest. I hesitated to tell her that the Black Outlaws might be involved in her original kidnapping, so I held back telling her about what Bull discovered. I did explain to her that they weren’t good men and the precautions we were taking.
“Where did the others take those men?”
I knew regardless of what they spilled, they were dead men. With what Bull found out about their club, we wouldn’t let men like that walk free. And even if we were inclined to, we couldn’t unless we wanted them to bring their whole club after us, although that could still happen. However, we typically tried to protect our women from the knowledge we were killing someone. That hadn’t worked out for us, so I told her the truth.
“Babe, they’re not good men. We can’t let them go free. If we do, they’ll hurt others and, if not, bring their club down on us. They’ll be questioned, and then we’ll make sure they’re not a threat.”
“Meaning they’ll be killed.”
I didn’t answer her. I prayed she could handle the ugly things the brothers and I sometimes had to do. She nodded. “I get it. You’re right. You can’t risk it.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. As we sat in the tent, I needed to ask her something before we rejoined the others. “Madonna, I need to ask. Why didn’t you ask me for a weapon instead of Joli?”
“I thought about it, but I didn’t want you to feel I thought you couldn’t protect me or for you to tell me no.”
“I’d like to think we can always protect you, but you saw what can happen. Having a weapon is smart as long as you know how to use one. You said if you knew how to shoot, you would’ve had a gun. If you want to learn, I’ll teach you. Most of the women carry one. Zari, I know, has a wicked knife, and she knows how to use it, so if you ever want lessons, she’s the one to ask. There’s one thing you should know. Our prospects all carry. Atticus had a gun, and if he needed to, he would’ve used it. That being said, those three Outlaws had guns and knives, too. It’s always a risk. So whenever possible, get away rather than fight.”
“I guess I didn’t think about it. I knew you had one. God, my brain kind of went on autopilot.”
I hugged her close, and I gave her a kiss. I tasted the edge of desperation in hers. As much as I wanted to make love to her, I knew we had to be seen, at least for a while. Reluctantly, I pulled away.
“I know. We’ve got to go. I hate to cut this short, but we have to present an unconcerned front. I’ll do it, but you owe me when we get back here,” she informed me.
I winked at her. “I’m holding you to that promise. Let’s go get this done.” I stood, took her hand, and led her outside to join the rest of our club, so much for having fun the whole time. Those goddamn Black Outlaws were going to pay for messing this up for us.