Chapter Thirteen #3
“Thank goodness. His coffee is lethal unless he’s making it in his home coffeemaker. I don’t understand that. Coffee is coffee.”
“Unless you’re Grant.” She beamed when Noah entered the room. “Elias is ready to put his shirt on.”
With her telling Noah how to help him, Elias was dressed with a minimum of pain a moment later. Nice. Now if he could just remember how she said to do that, he’d be in great shape.
“Hold out your hand,” Violet ordered. When he obeyed, she dropped two capsules into his palm. “Pain medication and antibiotic. Take them.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He opened a bottle of water and downed the medication along with half of the water.
Iona walked in. “When do we leave for the deli?”
“Any time you’re ready.”
“Need another set of hands?” Noah asked.
“I wouldn’t say no.”
Echo unit’s second in command kissed his wife. “We’ll be back.”
“Watch your back.”
“Always.”
The three of them climbed into the truck and, with Noah at the wheel, drove to Red Rock. They parked in front of Katie’s Deli, which had just opened for the day.
Elias walked up to the counter and placed a large order of breakfast sandwiches and wraps.
The worker stared at Elias. “Preparing an order that size will take a few minutes.”
“No problem. When you have a minute, bring us some coffee.”
The operatives sat in an empty booth to wait for their order to be prepared.
Soon, the young woman returned with a full coffeepot and three mugs, which she set in front of them. “Can I get you anything else?” she asked as she filled their mugs.
Noah shook his head. “This is perfect. Thanks.”
She blushed and hurried away to take another table’s order.
When the woman was out of earshot, Iona smiled at Noah. “I think she’s sweet on you.”
His lips curved. “Doesn’t matter. She wouldn’t survive a confrontation with Violet. My wife has a thing about knives, and she’s very possessive of me.”
Iona’s gaze shifted to Elias. “I understand.”
Minutes later, their order was ready. They carried the food to the truck, then drove back to the compound.
Elias sent Seth a message, telling him they were at the clubhouse with the food. “Let’s go. Seth and the others will be here soon.”
They carried bags filled with food into the clubhouse and unloaded them onto empty trays Iona scrounged up from somewhere. After that, they brewed coffee and set out paper plates and napkins and the juice they had picked up, plus to-go cups.
“How do we tell them about the food?” Iona asked.
“Don’t worry. They’ll know.”
Sure enough, ten minutes later, burly bikers stumbled downstairs into the dining area and stared at the spread of food on the tables.
One by one, they grabbed a plate and filled it with breakfast burritos and sandwiches.
After dropping their plates on a nearby table, they returned to the drink station to fill coffee mugs or glasses.
A few of them picked up a napkin. A couple of bikers dropped them back on the pile.
Soon, Dutch strolled in. When he first walked in, his facial expression resembled a thundercloud until he took in the food and drinks and the quiet and contented bikers stuffing their faces with food and beverages. He studied the crowd until he caught sight of Elias, Noah, and Iona.
Dutch crossed the few feet between them and held out his hand first to Noah, then Elias and Iona. “What’s all this?”
“Food to repay my debt to you,” Elias said.
“That’s unnecessary.”
“I disagree. You’re putting yourself and Blackthorn at risk to offer me sanctuary. I won’t forget that.”
The leader of Blackthorn’s expression was one of discomfort. What was up with that? Granted, not everyone liked to accept thanks, but this seemed like more than discomfort. It was more like guilt.
“It’s the least we can do for a brother.” He motioned toward the table in the corner. “Join me for breakfast.”
“Our friends are joining us soon.” As Elias finished his statement, the rest of Echo and Artemis joined the crowd of diners.
Seth and Teagan walked up to them. “Everything’s set?”
He nodded. “No problem.”
Dutch motioned to the tables. “This was a surprise.”
“We wanted you to know we appreciate the risk you’re taking for us. We won’t forget it.”
The other man rocked back on his heels. “We’re brothers. Come and eat with me.”
Iona said, “Sit with Seth and Elias. I’ll fill a plate for you.” She turned to Elias. “One of each?”
He nodded. “Thanks, babe.”
“I’ll get your plate, Seth,” Teagan said. Her body language said not to get used to the extra service.
Elias and Seth waited for Dutch to take a seat before sitting themselves. “We enjoyed meeting Trish last night. Will she be joining us this morning?”
The Blackthorn leader grimaced. “She picked up some kind of bug overnight. I doubt you’ll see my wife for a while.”
More like never since she blamed him for her brother being kicked out of the MC.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Elias waited for more explanation.
When none was forthcoming, he threw a line out there to see if the big fish would bite.
“One of our Old Ladies is a paramedic. I’m sure Violet would be glad to look at Trish if she would be open to it. ”
Dutch shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. She isn’t comfortable with strangers.”
“If you change your mind, please let us know.”
Iona and Teagan returned, each with two plates of food in their hands. They set the plates in front of the men, then returned to the line for their own food.
Elias and Seth monitored them as they carried on a conversation with Dutch about his favorite fishing spots in the area.
When the women joined them, the conversation shifted again to favorite movies and television shows and drifted into favorite books or book series.
When the food was gone, Dutch pushed back from the table and stood.
“I need to go. I have a meeting with my vice president and enforcers in a few minutes.” His lips curved.
“I call them The Committee. They love to discuss issues and weigh in with their opinions. Sometimes I listen. Other times I don’t. ”
“Anything we can help with?” Seth asked. “We want to be useful to you and the Blackthorn Riders while we’re among you.”
The MC president was silent for a moment. “You may be able to help me with security. I have to run this by The Committee, though. They’ll need to know and approve since you’re from another MC.”
“I get that. Express to The Committee that we’d love to help if they will allow us to do so.”
He gave a brisk nod. Dutch moved away from them and joined the large group of men in the opposite corner. He turned and stared at his MC members still in the room. They immediately rose, policed their trash, and left the building.
“That’s our cue,” Seth murmured.
The Fortress operatives rose and deposited their trash in the garbage can before leaving the building.
While driving back to the cabin, Iona glanced at Elias. “What did you think of Dutch’s explanation for the absence of his Old Lady?”
“He was covering for her. We didn’t win any friends last night.”
“Do you think The Committee will allow us to work security for them?”
“Not a chance. The Committee will squash that suggestion. They don’t want us anywhere near this operation, whatever it is.”
“That’s understandable. We wouldn’t allow an outsider to help on a mission.”
Soon, they parked in front of the cabin and followed the rest of their teammates into the building.
After the operatives checked the house for more listening devices and cameras, Riley set her laptop on the coffee table, tapped a few keys, and the room filled with Dutch’s voice.
“They want to help. We should give them a chance to earn their keep.”
“Fine. Put them to work doing grunt work, not this. I don’t want them anywhere near this operation. We don’t know them, Dutch. They might be wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
Silence, then, “Red, what’s your opinion? Yes or no?”
“No.”
Silence.
“No explanation?”
“None needed. We can’t trust them because they’re not one of us. This is a temporary arrangement. Don’t care if the cops are hunting the brother. That doesn’t mean we should trust them with our safety.”
A sigh. “Let’s take a vote to make it official. All those who are in favor of letting the Iron Wolves group help with security say yes.”
Silence.
“All right. Just to make it official now, all those against them helping with security say no.”
“No,” The Committee said in unison.
“That’s settled then,” Dutch said. “Now, on to our most pressing business. Red, is everything ready for the sale?”
The operatives froze. Was this it? Elias was skeptical of accepting a too-easy solution. Sometimes you just lucked into information. He doubted this would be one of those times. Nothing about this case was easy or by the book.
“Yeah. I got it covered, Prez. We can use the barn as we planned. The farmer didn’t want to cooperate at first. I used my powers of persuasion to change his mind.”
His buddies laughed.
Persuasion. Elias scowled. A euphemism for beaten within an inch of his life. He’d been the recipient of many of those beatings throughout his childhood. So somewhere around here, a farmer was recovering from an encounter with Red’s fists.
He shoved up from the sofa and strode out to the porch. He hated how many memories this case was bringing back.
The front door opened and closed.
Elias glanced over to see Andre. “You drew the short straw, huh?”
“Iona wanted to come out here. I convinced her to let me talk to you first. What’s up?”
“Memories are too close.”
“Ah.”
Silence.
He laughed and turned to his friend. “That’s it? That’s my pep talk?”
“I said enough.”
Elias grinned. “I suppose you did.”
Seth joined them. “The meeting is over. We got a date and time for the sale. What we don’t have is a location aside from calling it the barn.”
“So, don’t keep us in suspense.” Andre folded his arms across his chest. “When is the sale taking place?”
“Two days from now at midnight.”
Great. Elias rubbed his jaw. They had two days to figure out where the barn was and derail the sale of weapons and ammo.