Chapter 12
Once everyone had arrived back at headquarters, they all filed into the building. Pratt handed diesel a bag for her to go into the locker room to change. All six women that had been at the courthouse went and got changed. They quickly got dressed, nixing any of their usual small talk. They were ready to get the investigation started.
Once they had walked into the room, Diesel noticed there was no sitting room once they got in there. The men had saved the seats for her and her team while they stood in the back. She noticed Taz was in the room, along with another man she’d never seen before. She walked over to the corner where they were, waiting for Taz to acknowledge her.
“Where were you at miss thing? You’re part of this family too!” Diesel demanded, hands on her duty belt, trying to look mad.
“Sorry, doll face. I was helping Oz here on getting what we could that way when everyone got here, we could get this party started.” Taz said, standing up to hug Diesel tight. “Congrats, despite knowing that this is temporary, I have money down with the captain that this is going to be permanent.”
“Girl, watching the way that man is staring at her, uh huh, my money goes on this staying a thing! Hello, sexy lady, I’m Oz.”
Diesel looked over at the man who made his statement. Even sitting down, she could tell he was going to be a huge mofo when he stood up. She guessed he would stand about six feet four inches, built with a swimmer’s buff build, a smile that would make your heart stop with hazel eyes that bordered on being brown, with whiskey brown hair.
“Holy hell, do you bat for both teams cuz damn dude you’d be the second in Kermit’s porn flick we want him to make!” Diesel blurted out, causing Taz to stand there with her mouth open and Oz to stare at her wide eyed.
“Wait, porn flick, what the fuck did I miss at this thing?” Taz asked, looking around at the rest of her team.
“Um nothing, we’ll tell you later. The guys are already pissed cause Pratt and Raso agreed with me.” Diesel quickly answered when Pratt, Raso and York walked over.
“Oh, hell no!” Pratt said, quickly filling Taz in on the conversation.
“Who’s this Kermit dude?” Oz asked after Taz introduced the three newcomers.
When Diesel pointed him out, they watched Oz for several moments waiting for his response. “Who would be the chick?” Oz finally asked, “and who’s drilling who?”
All five women burst into laughter at the question. “Well according to Kermit, he’s the alpha male so he’d be doing the drilling while the guy getting drilled by Kermit did the girl in the vajaja.” Pratt answered, winking at Oz.
“No girl picked out?” Oz pouted, looking around.
“Raso, Diesel and I are out of the question, we’re happily hitched. Your choices would be Taz here, Sarge over there, York or Rameriez.” Pratt said, pointing out each person.
Diesel watched as Oz looked over at the other three women mentioned before landing his gaze on York. “Well, I’ve always had a fondness for York peppermint patties.”
“York Peppermint patties will have to wait for another day, we have business to discuss.” Captain Irby announced, causing the room to roar with laughter, especially when York flipped her teammates off.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. Diesel, congrats on your nuptials. I was brought up to speed on everything, and I mean everything.” Sheriff Philips said, smiling at Diesel before he looked around the room. “I have to say, this team has surpassed my expectations on how well-oiled you ladies are. You have shown grace to those who didn’t earn it, and you show what it means to not only be a team, but a family. Know you have my undivided attention in this situation and my unwavering support. Detective Cortez, please introduce your friend so we can get this rolling and find Detective Diesel’s daughter.”
“Thanks, sir. First, Viper, welcome officially to the family. Next, this hunk of man meat sitting next to me is Oz. He has been our helper so much this last year and decided it was time for all of us to officially meet. He will be leaving the SEALs in two years and starting his own business, he hopes, and has already said we’re lifelong customers. I called him last night and he jumped right on everything we needed. Oz, I’m turning this over to you.”
Diesel watched as Oz stood up and walked towards the podium. She almost jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder but calmed down when she realized it was Viper thanks to his unique smell. She knew the Q A session was about to come up and was not looking forward to it. Viper must have sensed it and was offering his quiet support.
“Ladies, gents. Some of you I already know. Lt. MacLeod and his team, as well as Kermit and Goat in the back. Diesel, before I can go forward, I do have a few questions to ask you to verify some information that I found. Cortez wasn’t able confirm it without talking to you first.”
“Ok, ask away.” Diesel said, clearing her throat as she shifted in her seat.
“Your brothers, the ones who you said aided in your sexual assault, were they part of Krieger’s gang, ride motorcycles or anything like that?”
Diesel startled at Oz’s question, her eyes going wide. She felt Viper squeeze her shoulder and murmur into her ear that she was safe, and he had her back.
“I honestly never really paid attention to be honest. I never saw or heard Krieger on a motorcycle.” Diesel answered, looking up at the ceiling, trying to think back. “Oh shit! Yes. My oldest brother, Alexsander always rode a motorcycle. Wasn’t a Harley, I want to say he rode an Indian or a Vulcan back then. I can’t remember what it was. But he was the one who started my love for motorcycles. He was actually cool with me until I refused Krieger’s proposal.”
“What about your other brothers?” Oz asked again, watching Diesel’s expression.
“To the best of my knowledge, Alex was the only one. I never really got along with Andriy, Dymtrius or Georgiy. They were assholes since the earliest I could remember. Alex would usually tell them to leave me alone. I think that’s why I was crushed more when Alex turned on me after I refused Krieger. I thought he would have been the one person who had my back.”
“What’s with the twenty questions?” Pratt asked, pulling her chair to the other side of Diesel, taking her hand in hers, showing comfort.
“What do you guys know about the Golden Fang MC?” Oz asked, looking around the room for people’s reactions.
“They aren’t to be fucked with unless you’re prepared for bloodshed.” Viper answered Oz. “They are really into bloodshed from the rumors going around about them. But why are you bringing their name up, they aren’t a west coast mc.”
“Yeah, they are into blood. Have you ever heard of vampirism?” Oz reflected the question with his own question.
“Wait, like people who think they are descendants of vampires?” Raso asked, leaning forward onto the table.
“Please tell me they don’t believe in the disco ball sparkly shit kind of vampires.” Diesel pleaded, closing her eyes as she banged her head onto the table.
“Oh shit! Diez, that chick we helped Colaskin with right after I came back from maternity leave after Colorado.” Pratt said out loud, snapping her fingers.
“Wait, you’re not referring to the chick that was fighting Colaskin outside the house the Osbournes used to live in before they moved back to London a few months ago, are you?” Diesel asked, sitting up, staring wide eyed at Pratt.
“Care to share with the rest of the class, babe?” Viper asked, trying hard to keep the smirk off his face.
“I think it was the day Pratt came back from her maternity leave. We got called in at the last minute, everyone else had gone home, so we went to help with a situation that was going on in the Oceanside Hills district where a lot of the rich and famous have homes. A group had apparently tried to break into the residence claiming that Ozzy Osbourne was their leader and that they were there to rescue him because they had his brides ready. One of his kids happened to be in residence and it turned into a hostage situation. The chick holding the daughter hostage claimed she was Ozzy’s blood bride. Pratt and I went in with Colaskin to talk to crazy chick down…”
“This chick was high on drugs. As soon as she saw Diesel, Ozzy’s daughter was forgotten. We took the opportunity to get Ozzy’s daughter out of there. Crazy chick was convinced that Diesel was a vampire queen and was there to save them all and rule the night. She kept spouting how Ozzy was their king or some shit and that the blood brides were ready for their mating’s.” Pratt said, shaking her head.
“Once we had Kelly out of harm’s way, I took the crazy one down. Turns out, a lot of vampirism groups believed Ozzy was Dracula in modern times because of him biting the head off of a bat at a concert in nineteen eighty-two. Poor guy can’t live that shit down, no matter how many fucking interviews he gave about that.” Diesel finished, rolling her eyes with Pratt at that memory.
“What does that have to do with anything?” York asked, looking over at Oz after smirking at Diesel.
“Seems that Krieger is believed to be part of a vampirism club in Little Rock. That club also has an MC, the head MC it now seems, the Golden Fang. That MC is now in California, mainly in LA.” Oz answered, no bullshitting allowed in his voice. “It seems that from Little Rock, it spread to Chicago, Miami, NY and now in LA.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Viper asked, his voice going ice old at the mention of NY.
“I wish I was. In the span of twenty years, Krieger has grown his operations to massive proportions, but he’s always stayed hidden, using the name Spike. Your brother Alex, as you call him, is known among the clubs as Lazrus. Your other three brothers go by a different name also. There’re even indications that the club has a heavy presence in Romania, Germany, Ukraine and Russia.”
“Oh my God!” Diesel gasped out, her hand going to her mouth in shock.
“Wait, that means Krieger would have had to start this when he was…” Sgt. Brocard started to say.
“When he was seventeen or eighteen. Krieger is three years older than me.” Diesel finished for her sgt. “The groundwork would have had to have started before then. Krieger wouldn’t have started that shit on his own. His father was creepy too, but his father was also small time, keeping it mostly for our town. Krieger would have started the work to expand his operations further.”
“What do you remember about his father?” Oz asked, amused by her statement.
“He was always in a business suit. You never really caught him out of it. The odd rarity that you did, he was in black jeans, black shirt, black leather jacket and black boots. I do remember his father having a motorcycle. His mother always stayed in the background. She was always pale but had the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. Her hair was always dyed black. She never smiled, rarely spoke. If she did, she would be soft spoken. The father was clearly the authority figure. He believed that women were only supposed to be seen, not heard. Krieger believed the same thing. The wife took care of the home, didn’t question the men, especially if they wanted to fuck another woman. They cooked, cleaned and when the man wanted to fuck, she was to be ready wherever he wanted it, however he wanted it and whoever he told her to. She wasn’t allowed to take birth control since the woman’s main job was the raring of the children.”
“Asshole!” Kermit muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Technically that’s gypsy law, or at least in our town. I can’t really speak for other gypsy cultures. Just ours. I think our women are treated the worst. We’re technically property.” Diesel smiled weakly at Kermit who shook his head.
“Again, at the risk of this sounded repeated, what does any of this have to do with Diesel’s daughter?” Pratt asked, patting Diesel’s hand.
“There’s already a large vampirism culture there that pretty much stays hidden. The Golden Fang opened up a new club there in LA about six months ago. Turns out, one of your daughter’s friends is a closet vampire freak. She talked your daughter into going to the club a few times.” Oz answered, looking over at Diesel as he spoke. “Taz said your daughter’s name was Raven Dawn?”
“Yes. I had originally named her Dawn. Her adopted parents kept it but put it as her middle name, calling her Raven Dawn. The adopted mother loved Edger Allen Poe.”
“Sounds fitting. In more ways than one. I take it you never had your goth phase growing up?” Oz asked, as he typed into his laptop on the podium.
“Not while I was in high school, like most girls. I did when I aged out of the program. I had just started with the sheriff’s department, working in the jail. My hair was already black, my blue eyes are natural. I just added more eyeliner than normal. When off duty I’d wear the black lipstick and dressed in all black with the spike boots and corsets.” Diesel admitted, her face going red.
“Bitch, stop. Your fucking ass was hot back then. If I swung that way, I would have totally done you!” Pratt announced, causing the room to chuckle, especially when Viper looked over at the two women with a raised eyebrow.
“Please tell me there are pictures?” Viper asked, smirking at Diesel when her face got redder.
“Oh, fuck yeah! I’ll have to find them when we get a chance!” Pratt clapped her hand, memory lane making her excited.
“Ah, the nights we all went to the clubs, it was always guaranteed Diesel would be the first one hit on. She was our hero back then.” York remembered wiggling her eyebrows at Diesel when she looked over at her.
“Fuck and you, bitches!” Diesel fired out at her teammates, flipping them all off.
“She was the one I always worried about getting a call because she cut someone for trying to get into her pants without permission.” Captain Irby announced, laughing, when Diesel looked at her in shock. “What? You had a chip on your shoulder even then where men were concerned. If a man hit on you, uninvited, you threatened to cut off his balls. One of the reasons you were my favorite.”
“I knew you loved me, cap!” Diesel beamed, sticking her tongue out at the rest of her teammates.