CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
I let Kick take the lead, even though everything in me tells me I need to get in there and get the sonofabitch. We arrive with a couple of other brothers, Ink, Angel, Riggs and Ky. Kick told Spider to stay behind and look after things at the clubhouse. Ky, Riggs, and Angel went round the back, while Ink, Tiny, Kick and I storm the front.
The whole place is in darkness, except for the tv playing some game show as we entered the living room. I see Bear sitting in a chair, his back to us, as we all withdraw our weapons as one.
“Bear, turn the fuck around and face your club brothers like a man.” Kick roared. But when there was no response, I frowned. Angrily, Kick twisted the swivel chair around to face us. A pair of brown eyes stared back at us blankly, half his face blown away, and brain matter covering everything around him.
“Motherfucker!” I stated. There was no point checking for a pulse. He was dead. On his lap lay the gun he used, still smoking, so he must’ve done it in the last few minutes. Next to him on the coffee table lay a piece of paper with something written on it. Kick picks it up and starts reading.
Whoever finds this letter, I must be long gone by now. I need to say sorry first to my boy Callum (Snake) I know the club will look after you when I’m gone. Next, I want to say sorry to every one of my brothers. I loved you all like you were my blood. But blood trumps everything, and unfortunately, being affiliated with my blood brother, I went down a dark path towards my ruin.
My brother Caleb was the one who brought Jose Ramos into our lives. Caleb and I worked together with Jose in kidnapping young girls and women off the street.
“What the actual fuck?!” I spit out, and Kick gives me a dark look, telling me without words to be quiet. He then continues reading. While I stand there fuming.
I was the one who brought Caleb Thatcher into our lives. You see, Caleb is my blood brother, we were never close because he just wasn’t right in the head. He was a little weird even as a kid. So, when he wanted something, he went out and took it. And he wanted Zoe Cullen, Max’s kid…
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. He was a brother long before most of us were here, and to betray us like that was unconscionable. And now that he blew his own fucking brains out, we may never find Zoe.
Angry, unable to listen to more of his shit excuses, I storm out of the house. I pace the porch, which had gaps in the wooden slats and was virtually falling down. Lighting a cigarette to calm my nerves just as the door to the house opens and Angel walks out.
“What are you doing out here?” he demands, taking a cigarette from the packet I offer him, and light his.
“I needed to get out of there. The entire scene was pissing me off.” I tell him.
“I hear ya, brother,” he replies, taking the nicotine deep into his lungs before expelling it through his nostrils in a puff of smoke.
“What’s got you so out of sorts lately?” I ask.
“Nothin, brother. Just have a lot on my mind, personal stuff, ya know.” Which meant, don’t ask and I won’t lie.
I know all my brothers inside out, well, most of them. But it’s Angel that’s the hardest to pin down. He keeps his private life close to his chest. Though he’s a brother, I would trust with my life.
“That letter the fucker left before offing himself pissed everyone off. First Max and now your woman is missing. We need to find where that fucker Caleb is keeping them. I don’t understand why take her father?”
I”m overwhelmed with guilt because none of this would”ve happened if I hadn”t brought Caleb, that asshole, into the club years ago. We were supposed to prospect together, being best friends and all, and hopefully become members together. But his betrayal ruined everything.
The worst mistake I ever made was leaving Zoe and running away to the Marines, leaving Caleb to move in on my girl. I shake my head of the thoughts that keep circling my brain. I was such a stupid kid back then, letting her go. I won’t be making the same mistake twice. She was mine. It might take her a while to get with the program, but I was determined that she would soon know it too,
This waiting around was making me feel out of sorts. I quickly stub out my cigarette on the sole of my boot before returning it back into the packet. I wasn’t leaving it for the cops to find any traces of my DNA around here, and together with Angel, we return inside.
“Let’s get the fuck outta here.” We hear Kick say to the rest of the brothers, rounding the corner just in time to see him ripping the letter he still held into tiny pieces and throwing them on the floor in disgust.
“Light this place up, I don’t want any trace left of this asshole. Tonight, we send his brother to hell. Let them both burn together.” He tells us, and we get to work setting the house alight, before making our way back to our sleds under the cover of darkness.
Returning to the clubhouse, Zoe continues to be my major priority. I need to speak with Knox and to find out if he’d discovered anything new with the video we had of Max, so that I didn’t get on my sled and ride aimlessly searching for her. I know without pinning down an actual location, we would never find her.
I tap on his door, but don’t wait for the invitation to come inside. Finding him in his darkened room surrounded by the bank of computers, I wondered how does he do this day in and day out? I’d lose my fucking mind if I had to sit here constantly.
But to each his own. I sat down in the free chair beside him, staring at the screens that showed videos of the clubhouse on the inside and the grounds outside.
“What can I do you for?” Knox asks, without taking his eyes off any of the screens. And again, I wondered how he does it?
“We found Bear.” I tell him. “The fucker offed himself.”
For the first time since I came into the room and sat down, Knox finally turns his head to look at me. Shock on his face, his brows way above his hairline.
“How the fuck did that happen?” Knox demands, and I set about explaining the night’s events, and he shakes his head.
“So please, work doubly hard to find out where that fucker took the video of Max. I can’t bear the thought of Zoe in the clutches of that psychopath a minute longer.”
Knox nods his head. “I’ll do my best. I should have something for you by tomorrow.” He assures me, and I exhale a breath.
“Thanks, brother, but try for tonight.” I tell him before leaving him to it.
For the next few days, I was like a zombie, not sleeping, barely eating. Even my brothers attempting to get me out of my funk didn’t work, and I wouldn’t be fucking a club bunny to do it, either.
On the third day, I had just been up for over an hour drinking coffee instead of the whiskey that had been my mainstay for the past few days, trying not to go out of my mind, when Knox finally emerges from his room, a wild look in his eyes.
“I’ve finally got something,” he announces to the room, and I couldn’t explain the excitement that overwhelmed me at his words.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s do this.” I call out, already headed toward my sled.
“Brother, wait.” A light touch on my shoulder had me whipping around to see who it was. Ky stood there, looking back at me.
“We need to wait to see what the others have to say, we can’t just go off half cocked,” he explains.
I know he’s right, but we’ve already waited longer than I would have wanted to while Knox did his thing. Reluctantly, I followed the rest of the brothers to the meeting room to find out what Knox had for us.
“What do ya got for us, brother?” Kick asks, sitting at the head of the table, with Tiny beside him. Even Spider, our newly patched brother, was here. Snake packed his things and left for Washington the night we found his father with his brains blown out. Ax, the President of the Washington chapter, called to say the kid arrived safely, but other than that, there was no other communication from him.
“I have an address for an abandoned warehouse on 1-10 about an hour outside of Cullville, where I believe Max and Zoe are being held,” Knox tells us, with a beaming smile.
“I still don’t get why kidnap both Max and Zoe?” Riggs questions.
“Easier to handle Zoe if she knows he’s got her father.” I growl.
We’ve finally got a location for where the fucker has taken Zoe, and that’s more than we’ve had in the last couple of days.
“What the fuck are we waiting for?” I demand.
Kick gives me a warning glance.
“Calm your ass down, Chains,” he growls, fisting his hands at his sides, and I could see he was ready to pummel me down to a pulp. “I know she’s your girl, and I promised you we’d get her, but we can’t run in there in the middle of the day, all guns blazing. We need to wait for the cover of darkness, at least. You don’t want the fucker gettin’ away, do you?” He shakes his head.
I know he’s right, but I also know that he would do everything possible to bring back Everleigh if it were her in Zoe’s situation. I don’t say that because I don’t care for the beat down; He fixes me with one of his all-consuming stares.
“Tonight, we get your woman back. Tiny, Riggs, Angel, Ink, and Ky you’re coming with. Everyone else stays behind to watch over the women. I want them all at the clubhouse by tonight.” He bangs the gavel against the wood of the table before getting to his feet. “Church adjourned.” He calls out before slapping me on the back, and we grab each other’s elbows. Finally, this nightmare will soon be over.