Chapter Eleven
ELIAS SCOWLED. COULDN’T say the demand surprised him, but it left no doubt in his mind that Blackthorn didn’t trust the operatives, no matter how good a job Zane had done in selling Elias’ problem and asking for sanctuary.
“You don’t have a problem with that, do you? What did an American president say? Trust but verify? Well, I’m verifying.” He pointed at Elias. “Shirt off, or you and your friends have to leave.”
“What about the women?” Shorty stepped up beside his president. “Don’t you think we should keep them as a penalty?”
“No.” Seth’s voice was pure steel. “That’s not an option. Period.”
Shorty laughed. “Have you looked around lately? You’re outnumbered.”
“Nothing new about that.”
Dutch held up his hand to prevent his men from saying anything else. “Now, don’t get bent out of shape. We won’t have to discuss your Old Ladies keeping us company if the wound checks out.”
Seth signaled Elias without taking his gaze from Dutch.
Great. He got to do a striptease in front of an enemy MC. Elias glanced at Grant. “A little help here.” With Grant and Iona’s help, he maneuvered out of his black t-shirt with minimal pain.
“Bandage, too.” Dutch motioned for him to get on with it.
Violet and Noah went to Elias. The medic unwrapped the wound and stepped to the side so Dutch and his buddies could see Elias’ injury.
Elias gritted his teeth. He hated this. No wise man bared his injuries to the enemy. Any injury revealed to the other side automatically was a weakness and became the target in a fight. “Satisfied now?”
Dutch’s hands fisted.
Old Dutch was touchy about how he was addressed.
He didn’t like the borderline disrespect from Elias.
Good. Something to add to the mental file on the MC leader, along with the curious certainty that he’d seen Dutch before today.
But where? More importantly, if he was right, would that put the mission and the teams in jeopardy?
“Put your shirt back on so your Old Lady doesn’t feel obliged to stab one of my men.”
Elias turned to Iona and froze. She stood in front of him with a knife in her hand and a determined expression on her face. Although Violet needed to redress his wound, his priority was Iona. “Iona.”
No response.
This wasn’t good. “Baby, look at me.”
She blinked and slowly turned her head.
“Are you with me now?”
A nod confirmed what he suspected. She was back from wherever this situation had thrown her. “I need help with my shirt after Vi redresses the wound.” Knowing the medic, she wouldn’t waste the opportunity to check it.
“Hold this for me.” Violet shoved a package of bandage wrapping and one of gauze into Iona’s hands. She examined the wound and gave a satisfied nod. “Looks good, Elias. The surgeon did a great job, so you shouldn’t have much of a scar.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s just one more scar to add to the collection I’ve got going.”
“Iona might think differently than you.” Violet plucked rubber gloves from the dispenser box in her mike bag and tugged them on her hands.
After Iona opened the package of gauze pads, the medic took three pads and pressed them to Elias’ shoulder wound. “I need the elastic bandage wrap.” When Iona opened the package, Violet grabbed the roll and quickly wrapped Elias’ shoulder. “Is it too tight?”
He shook his head. “Feels good.”
“Excellent.” She returned the extra supplies to her mike bag. “You can get dressed now.”
Grant stepped up to help Iona. Between the two of them, they helped Elias tug on his shirt with a minimum of pain. So what if he broke out in a sweat? Anyone with a wound like this would do the same. “Thanks for the help. I’ll return the favor someday.”
Seth folded his arms across his chest and squared off with Dutch. “We need to get Elias inside somewhere. Are you honoring Zeke’s request, or do we find another sanctuary for ourselves?”
“I said I’d offer sanctuary, and I will. You proved yourself. Your president seems like a good man.”
“He’s one of the best men I know.”
“High praise.”
“It’s the truth. So, where are we going?”
Dutch looked at Shorty, who stepped up beside his president. “Not only did we buy this place, but we also bought a house.” He pointed to a cabin a football field’s length away from the building. “Follow me over there, and I’ll give you the key.”
Shorty walked to one motorcycle parked in front of the building, rolled it into the clear and revved his engine. A moment later, he returned to the dirt road with the operatives trailing behind.
They followed him to another dirt road leading to the cabin. The operatives parked in front of the structure that would be their home for a short time.
“You take me to the most exclusive places,” Iona teased.
“I’ll have a hard time outdoing myself after this.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s temporary. We’ll make the best of it.” The outside looked like a junkyard with old bikes scattered here and there and an iron bathtub. Old furniture in ramshackle condition marred the cabin’s landscaping.
“This used to have a beautiful yard. Because of all the junk piled up, the grass is sparse, and weeds fill the flowerbeds instead of flowers.”
“If the Blackthorn Riders are associated with the Reckoners, I’m not surprised at their lack of taste in places for shelter.”
“You know who I feel sorry for?”
“Who?”
“Their girlfriends and wives.”
“Old Ladies.”
She stared at him. “Just so we’re clear, if you call me your Old Lady outside of this mission, I will deck you.”
Elias laughed. “I believe you. Thanks for the laugh.”
“We should go. Shorty is staring at us even though Seth is doing his best to engage him in conversation.”
“Shorty?”
Iona shrugged. “He didn’t introduce himself, so I had to call him something besides Jerk in my head because that name might apply to all of them. The jury is still out on that one.”
“Works for me.”
They exited the truck, met in front of the hood, and joined the others. Seth motioned for Shorty to unlock the door. When the biker stepped into the cabin, Echo’s leader said, “We can take it from here.” He held out a hand, palm up, for the key.
The Blackthorn Rider’s eyes glittered with fury. Although he said nothing as he dropped the key on Seth’s palm, he made his feelings quite clear. He stalked back to his bike, revved the engine again, and took off, leaving a plume of dust behind him.
As soon as he was out of sight, Seth signaled to Echo and Artemis to clear the cabin in pairs.
Smart. Chances were excellent that Dutch had his men install cameras and bugs throughout the cabin to see what the operatives were up to. Elias grabbed his electronic signal detector and glanced at Noah, who was handing out the assignments so they wouldn’t waste time checking rooms more than once.
When it was their turn to receive an assignment, Echo’s second in command whispered, “Second floor, first two rooms on the right. Bring everything you find to the kitchen.”
Iona walked with Elias up the stairs. They opened the door to the first room, and Elias got to work with his signal detector. By the time he and Iona finished with that room, they had removed two bugs and two cameras.
Fury knotted Elias’ stomach. Talk about an invasion of privacy. This room was a bedroom. He supposed Dutch or one of his cronies was hoping to listen in on some interesting pillow talk. Too bad for them that Fortress trained its operatives to be paranoid enough to sweep their dwellings.
Elias found an extra pillowcase and dumped the unwanted electronics into it.
They went next to their second assigned room and discovered two more bugs and two cameras in this bedroom as well.
The Blackthorn technicians hadn’t bothered to find different hiding places for the electronics.
Lazy men, just like the Reckoners. Good for Fortress. Bad for the MC leadership.
Would they continue to be lazy? That was the question of the day. When the operatives dumped the destroyed pieces of electronics they’d collected, would Blackthorn tighten up?
Elias had also noted that the cabin didn’t have an alarm system, so they’d have to rig up an early warning system for themselves in case Blackthorn made a move.
He signaled Iona to head downstairs while he checked the two rooms again to be sure the detector had picked up everything. She nodded and slipped out of the room.
Once more, Elias turned on the signal detector and swept each room.
Nothing. He turned off the gadget and slid it into his pocket, breathing easier.
At least he didn’t have to worry about saying something that tipped off Blackthorn that Elias and the others were a lot more than what they claimed to be.
Elias walked out into the hall and closed the door behind him before he descended the stairs and joined Iona in the kitchen with the bag of electronics.
He upended the pillowcase and dumped the contents of the bag onto the kitchen table, where they joined other bugs and cameras from various places in the cabin.
Seth scowled. “Destroy the cameras. Dump the bugs into a glass of water.”
Gladly. Knowing someone was spying on them made his skin crawl.
He and the rest of his teammates stomped on the cameras with their tactical boots while the women gathered the listening devices and poured them into a glass of water.
“What are we going to do with this mess?” Andre motioned to the crushed cameras and the bugs.
“Deliver them to Dutch. We’ll have to check the cabin every time we leave and return. I’m betting the key I have isn’t the only one.”
Grant snorted. “I wouldn’t bet against you. We’ve already ticked bikers off. This pile of junk won’t win us any friends.”
Andre wrapped his arm around Riley’s waist. “And what’s this crap about Blackthorn taking our wives?”
Seth looked at Elias. “Your take on it?”