Chapter 25
We left our cuts behind, and although it felt weird, sometimes it was necessary.
This was all about stealth, and our cuts would glow like a beacon.
Ballistic was driving, and I sat beside him looking out of the side window as we drove.
War was in the back on his phone talking to Dirt.
I should have known King wouldn’t send us off without back-up, but the guys Dirt had following us were hanging back and had left a half hour after us, also in one of the club trucks.
I was hoping when we got there I was going to beat the shit out of some Kingsmen scum.
Not just because of what they were doing.
I was fucking raging inside. My whole body was vibrating and Ballistic had been eyeing me now and then.
He always told me you couldn’t let things get personal.
Especially over women. He loved his wife and daughter.
Ballistic would do anything for them. But he would always do it with a level head.
And it wasn’t as if I was rushing away to rescue Waverley.
I was heading off to save her boyfriend.
My knuckles cracked from the force of my grip and again I noticed Ballistic glance at me.
But I ignored him. I put my feelings out of my mind.
I shouldn’t even be experiencing any feelings.
That wasn’t who I was. I shut myself off to that a long time ago.
Two weeks around Waverley, and I’d lost part of myself.
The violent, angry, stoic part that could switch off to what needed to be done. That was who I had to be right now.
War had been watching me too. I wasn’t about to reassure anyone by telling them I was okay.
All I cared about was getting there, grabbing this asshole, and getting back out with no one getting killed.
On our side, at least. The reassuring feel of my gun in the holster beneath my arm soothed me a little.
This was all I needed. Violence to re-set my brain back to who I was supposed to be.
I would not think about how Waverley almost collapsed.
I would not let my brain wonder if this was the end of us before we even started.
Of course, she felt guilty for what was happening to this guy.
I knew her. It didn’t matter how many times she was told this wasn’t her fault, she would never believe it.
I angrily flicked off the radio, sick of the sound of the two guys arguing about last night’s football game. No one complained.
The address we were heading to was three counties away, and we estimated it would take us around three hours to get there.
It didn’t take an idiot to know why they’d lured us so far out.
I’d barely left the compound the last time, and they’d bombed the gate.
I wondered what they would be thinking, where they would watch from, waiting for us to pile out.
They would have been better off going after us during Itchy’s funeral. They were fucking idiots.
“Con said Wave is doing okay,” War hung up his phone. “He’s sticking with her.”
I didn’t answer, nor did Ballistic. We were both focused on what we were heading towards. The two of us had worked together so many times we could read each other’s minds. It differed from the connection I had with War, but I could more or less read his mind right now too.
He was pissed at the way I’d treated Waverley before we left. It wasn’t as if she needed the comfort from me. War was the one who pulled her out of my arms, and it was obvious she needed her twin at that moment.
I’d switched over to the side I needed to, in order to rescue this guy, to think logically and carefully so that whatever we did meant we’d all be safe. She was with Connor, which was a reassurance. He would look after her and she was safe at the compound with most of the club members there.
My cell rang, and I glanced down to see Kansas’ name. I put it on speakerphone. “Yeah?”
“Okay, I’ve hacked into the camera feeds and the address is on a quiet back road. There are five homes along the road, and I’ve checked out the owners. They’re all legit, owned them for a while, but they have a lot of land around each property. Couple of acres, one is a horse farm too.”
“A ranch.”
“What? Uh, yes a ranch,” Kansas corrected himself and Ballistic’s lip twitched.
This wasn’t great. It sounded like it was an open space. It was going to be difficult to sneak in to. We would need to wait until dark if we wanted to get in without being seen.
It was just after four and we were due to hit the town in less than twenty minutes. If we kept up at the speed we were going, that would mean at least another four hours before it got dark. That was too long if we wanted to make sure they didn’t kill this kid.
“We can’t wait around,” War said from behind me, echoing my thoughts.
“Well, you’ve got the added issue of the cops,” Kansas said. “A lot of cops.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“There has just been a huge RTA on the road. Three cars involved. They had to send a fire truck to cut some people out of their cars. Looked like a couple of people didn’t make it.
They’ve got the people out to the hospital, but the wreck is pretty bad.
It’s gonna take a long time to clear up.
You can’t even get too far down the road before you hit the police blockade. ”
Ballistic whistled. “This is bad for them too. They couldn’t have foreseen this. Lots of cops about means they’re gonna be on edge. That’s if he is even still alive.”
No one commented on that.
“We could use it as a distraction,” I said, not letting this news defeat us. “There are people watching? Hanging around like the morbid fuckers they are?”
“Yeah,” Kansas agreed. “There is a sizeable group of lookey-loos.”
I looked to Ballistic. He nodded. “How close is it to the actual address we need?”
“About a half mile. You will reach the house before the crash site, but I can see the flashing lights from the entrance to their house on the street cameras.”
“Any ties to the Kingsmen on these people?” War asked.
“I can’t find anything.”
“They won’t have just picked some random house to take this guy. There has to be something. Look at their girlfriends’ families, anyone who works at any of the businesses. It could come from anywhere, even the remotest of ties to them. Keep looking.”
“On it.”
Kansas hung up. I didn’t like this. It seemed increasingly like a wild goose chase. I called Dirt. “Have you spoken to Kansas?” I asked without greeting. He didn’t care.
“Yeah, I heard. What are you thinking?”
“We have to go on the assumption that this accident came as a surprise to them too. They wanted us to come out here. We need to make sure.”
“Yeah,” Dirt sighed heavily. “We’ve tracked Declan’s phone and narrowed it down to the area you’re headed to. No one picks up when we call, though. I’m waiting on a call back from the Sheriff too. Once we heard about the accident, I called in a favor for him to get us some details.”
“Good idea. Anything to worry about back at the compound?”
“It’s all quiet. I’ve sent out a few patrols, waiting to see if anyone tails them, but so far nothing. Everything is quiet here. We’re looking at whether to lockdown though.”
I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. At least it was confirmed Declan was here. Or at least his phone was.
“King is on the warpath.” Dirt blew out a heavy breath. “He’s done waiting. He wants to sort this mess out. Once everyone is back here, we’re going on the offensive.”
“Any idea what he’s thinking?”
“Stealth has never been our wheelhouse,” Dirt laughed. “A few of the guys from the other chapters haven’t left yet. He’s asked them to stick around. The Kingsmen are small. We know they can’t stand against our numbers. But that is a decision we all need to make in church.”
I didn’t like the sound of an all-out war, but we couldn’t keep sitting back and letting them hit us.
Their mind games were getting irritating.
So far, though, the only person the Kingsmen had killed was Itchy when he was caught in the bomb.
They’d stirred up some shit and hurt us, but we’d retaliated by killing a couple of their guys, but we’d not made our involvement obvious.
King was right. We needed to stop things before it got any worse.
Before Waverley got hurt.
“Ok, keep us posted. We’ll be there in about ten minutes.”
“Any idea how you’ll approach it?”
I looked at Ballistic, who could hear Dirt even though I didn’t have him on speaker.
“Get Kansas to find us a stopping point so we can figure out our next move,” Ballistic told me.
I relayed it to Dirt, who said he’d text us a place, and we hung up.
“Well, this is a clusterfuck,” War commented.
Kansas sent us the name of a truck stop that was at the start of the road we needed to take diverging off the highway.
Ballistic pulled in and we went inside. We weren’t as obvious as normal, given we weren’t wearing our cuts.
War had a black sweatshirt and cap on, Ballistic was wearing a dark shirt un-tucked over his jeans and I’d gone for a t-shirt and black zip through hoodie.
We were all able to hide our weapons with what we were wearing.
As much as King didn’t like us carrying because that put you in a whole worse heap of shit if you got picked up by the cops not on our payroll, this was a mission we couldn’t afford to be unarmed for.
A server brought us over some coffees. She didn’t stick around to make small talk, even though her eyes flared with interest when she saw us. We were just giving off that stay the fuck away vibe.
Ballistic didn’t like this hanging around shit. He was a get in and get out kind of guy, always had a plan. We were going in dark here, in a strange place, with no idea what was waiting for us. I didn’t think he regretted it, though. He thrived on violence and mayhem.
When he got up to go to the bathroom, War turned his gaze to me.