Chapter 17
Patch
I’m staring at my phone, confused. I’ve texted Beth five times over the last couple of hours and got no reply.
My mom called earlier, telling me how happy she was that me and Beth had decided to make a go of the marriage.
That was around an hour and a half ago, Beth should be here by now.
Her phone app says she’s wandering the shops in town at a leisurely pace.
I scratch my head, thinking that maybe she’s just enjoying her day out and forgot about texting me.
The door to my office bursts open, and Siege barges in. My head spins around in surprise wondering what my Prez is doing here. “What’s up? Is something wrong?”
“You need to hear this,” he says.
He puts his phone on speaker and says, “Say that again. I’m with Patch right now.”
A low, rough voice responds, “Marauder here. One of the brothers loyal to me saw a van grabbing a woman off the highway near your office. He said she was young, blonde, and fought like a wildcat. Sounded like maybe it was Patch’s old lady.”
My blood runs cold, and I lower my cell phone.
Marauder keeps going. “I have men loyal to me in that club, even after Lynch took my club out from under me. This one didn’t like what he saw, so he gave me a call.”
When I step forward, Siege raises a hand to stop me. I freeze. Barely.
Marauder speaks again.
“You want her back, you better move fast. I’ll tell you where she’s at, but I want something in return.”
Siege speaks up, his voice tense. “Let me guess—you want us to take that clubhouse back for you?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I want. Lynch’s there, along with the ones who betrayed me. I want that garbage gone. You get the girl. I get my club back. Everyone wins.” There is a brief pause, and he says, “Call me when you’re ready to deal.”
Siege curses under his breath. “I’ll send out a message in our club group chat. Church is now.”
Glancing up at me, he snaps his fingers in front of my face. “Wake up, Patch. We need to get movin’ right fuckin’ now. We need to come up with a plan, gear up, and get her out of there.”
“She was supposed to be shopping, getting coffee, and visiting my mother. She stopped responding to my texts. I can’t believe that I let her go alone.”
Suddenly, I remember an important detail. “Her location app says she was wandering around a shopping center in town.”
“Clearly, she’s not if someone saw her getting nabbed. For all we know, that smart fucker could have tied it to a dog’s collar or has one of his prospects running around with it to throw us off his trail.”
***
By the time we get to the clubhouse, the rest of the brothers are already there. While Siege brings them all up to speed, I’m standing near the wall, staring at nothing. I haven’t checked out. I can hear Siege lay it out and the spirited question-and-answer session that happens afterwards.
“The Grave Diggers’ hideout’s supposedly real close. Marauder told me once that they were right under our noses and we just weren’t smart enough to see it. He told me that he’d give us the location if we promised to take the clubhouse back for him.”
Rigs speaks up. “Of fuckin’ course we agree to his deal. Beth’s life is at stake.”
Tank points out, “Rescuing this woman is getting to be a fuckin’ full-time job. I say we have a little throwdown and solve this problem once and for all.”
Rider says, “If we roll now, we can probably get there before dark.”
“I’ll call Marauder and let him know we agree to his terms. Once I have the location, we’ll head out immediately.”
He puts Marauder on speakerphone. “Look, we accept your terms. You give us the location, and we get your clubhouse back for you.”
“My source said that she got dragged to the old gas station off Lockridge. The one with the sun-faded Sinclair sign out front.”
“That’s your fucking hideout?”
“Yeah, and it was a damn good one. You fuckers never suspected a thing.”
“We’re leaving out right now. Are you gonna meet us there?”
“We stage at the Old Grand Hotel, in the back parking lot. My contact is practically sitting on top of your old lady, Patch. He says that right now she’s just chained up in a corner, and Lynch apparently has big plans for her, ‘cause he’s dared anyone to touch her. That means she’s safe for now.”
I growl out roughly, “I want her out of there, right goddamn now.”
“Yeah, that’s a fairly stupid plan. My contact says practically everyone’s packing there these days. We wait until the wee hours of the morning when they’re all passed out to make our move. There’s less likelihood of her catching a stray bullet that way.”
Rigs speaks up. “That actually makes sense.”
“If we’re sure she’s relatively safe.”
“Look,” Marauder says gruffly, “my men might be a bit wild, but if the club president says don’t touch, they ain’t gonna fuckin’ disobey him. Trust me on this.”
I just curse under my breath, because I don’t like this. Not at all. But the last thing in the world I want is for Beth to end up dead from a gunshot wound that nobody intended to strike home.
“This is an impossible decision,” I say out loud.
Siege steps forward. “It is. That’s why I’m gonna call it. We gear up and meet Marauder at the staging area behind the hotel. We strike when the time is right.”
I stalk off to the armory to gear up. Taking off my cut, I put on body armor and then cover it back up again with the cut.
The extra weight doesn’t bother me. I just need to be able to take a bullet for her if I have to.
The knife I put behind my belt is sharp, and my gloves are reinforced across the knuckles and wrists.
I can’t help but think about the location Marauder gave us. It’s a washed-out gas station off the highway. It’s also right inside Legion territory, and we never knew it.
When Siege gives the order, I walk outside and get on my bike with no messing around. All I want to do is get to Beth. Nothing else matters right now.
The roar of our engines makes the ground quake. We stagger our time, with six brothers leaving every fifteen minutes. That way it will be less obvious that we’re on the move. Although the ride is short, the last thing we need is to be stopped by the police.
It doesn’t take long to get there and we glide into the back parking lot of the hotel.
Marauder is standing in an open doorway to one of the rooms, smoking a cigarette.
When we park up, I walk over to him along with the club officers.
The rest of the brothers either quietly sit on their bikes or stand around talking.
“It’s getting late,” I tell him.
“My club brothers like to party into the night. My inside man is going to tell me when they’re all asleep. That’s when we move. You might just as well park your asses, maybe even get yourselves some rest. This ain’t gonna be an easy fight.”
We grudgingly do just that. Time seems to tick by slowly as my imagination runs away with all the ways this situation can go bad. The waiting is killing me, but I force myself to sit still and wait.
Around three in the morning, Marauder comes out. “They’re all down for the count. My loyal brother spiked the beer with sleeping pills.”
“Jesus, that’s incredibly fucking dangerous,” I tell him.
“What are you, a fucking doctor?”
Before I can answer, Siege speaks up. “Yeah, he is. Patch has his own office and everything.”
“Well, good. He can patch up any of my men who get injured.”
The moment the words fly out of his mouth, he realizes why my name is Patch. Instead of getting on our bikes, we walk to the gas station. We’re like a flood of leather and righteous fury in the darkness, creeping ever closer while they sleep off their alcohol.
To be honest, the gas station looks empty from the road. Its faded paint, broken signage, and boarded-up windows give no hint of what’s hiding inside. I notice there isn’t a single vehicle in sight.
Siege gives the signal, and we split off.
Some brothers go around back. Others move around to cover the sides.
I stay with Siege and Rigs, close to the garage.
The metal door rattles even though Rider slowly lifts it just enough for us to duck under.
The second my boots hit the concrete, I start searching for Beth.
The place smells rancid. The lighting is poor, just a couple of hanging bulbs and a flickering overhead strip.
Music is still coming from a half-busted speaker in the corner.
At least a dozen Diggers are scattered through the garage, lying around sleeping anywhere they can find.
Several wake up. Some are too drunk to stand, but others reach for their weapons.
We don’t give them the chance to use them.
I take down the first man with a clean elbow to the throat.
His feet stumble, and I follow with a strike to the radial nerve along his forearm.
He drops the blade before he hits the floor.
Another one rushes me with a pipe. I step in, grab his wrist, and twist it across his chest. The elbow joint folds the wrong direction, and he screams before I drop him with a knee to the stomach. I don’t look back.
I’m already scanning the far end of the room when I see her.
There’s a man standing over her. I don’t like him being so close to my old lady.
I see Beth in the corner. Her ankle is shackled to the wall and she looks pale and frightened.
She’s watching everything, but her eyes look haunted.
The only thing I can think of is getting to her.
Suddenly, her eyes lock onto mine, and she opens her mouth. She says my name, but I can’t hear it through the noise.