Chapter 41
Once they had retreated from the club, they rode around for an hour to make sure they didn’t have a tail from the club. They knew Symon was cocky, but they didn’t think he was stupid enough to put a tail on them just yet.
Once they were sure they weren’t being followed, they all met back at the safe house to go over their information. They checked in with the team on the roof of the vacant building across the street to see what the status of everything was. Once they had that information, they waited for everyone to find their seats.
“Diesel, you able to hear everything that happened through the comms we had?” Showalter cut straight to the chase.
“Loud and clear. How are we handling this?” Diesel confirmed, fidgeting in her seat.
“How do you want to handle this?” Pratt asked Diesel, looking over at her. “You know Symon better than the rest of us.”
Diesel looked at her hands for several minutes before taking a deep sigh. “I really hate saying this, but part of me, the momma part, says storm the fucking castle and find my daughter and burn these mother fuckers to the ground. But the cop side, the practical side, knows I can’t do that. Not if I want Raven found alive.”
“What did the drone footage show?” Viper asked, turning towards Oz.
“You guys were right about tunnels and rooms behind walls. That building is fitted out with several escape routes that do not show up on the blueprint.” Oz confirmed, pulling up the footage he recorded with the drone.
“What about heat signatures in the other areas of the club in those rooms? Anything show up?” Pratt asked, reaching over to grip Diesel’s arm when she noticed her pacing.
“I’ve noticed a few. Several appeared to be huddled together further into the club behind a few of the walls.” Oz looked over at Diesel as he made his statement.
“No way to know who they were?” Diesel asked, reaching over to pat Pratt’s hand.
“No. All we can see is the heat signatures. We’d have to send in another drone with actual camera capabilities to do more in-depth searching. What we have so far is good, but we’d have to do the camera to get better.” Taz answered, stepping into the fray.
“Get the drone fitted.” Diesel decided, looking over at Viper who nodded at her.
“What are you thinking, trouble?” Viper asked Diesel, walking over to her.
“Showalter has to meet with Symon again. While they are doing their meeting, while she’s stalling him with the information, use the drone with the new cameras and get a better map done and get photos of the bodies in the rooms to verify it’s not Raven. Either way, we’ll be rescuing the girls in those rooms.” Diesel reiterated when she decided it didn’t matter who was in the rooms.
“It would help to know what we’re looking for.” Showalter answered, following Diesel’s train of thought on the victims.
“How are we going to play the information part?” Highlander asked, rubbing his hand up and down Pratt’s arm as he stood behind her.
“That’s what I’ve been debating on. I think we should contact the captain, see if we can get a report drawn up for Showalter to hand to Symon. Make it official looking. Something about an argument and a shootout between the two and Diego took out Kraven and his boys.” Showalter stated, looking Diesel in the eyes while stating her idea.
“That would work. Symon would lose his shit about that. The only problem is, he would be the kind that would raid the Red Dragon compound and lay waste to it. Taking everyone and everything out in the compound. I think we need to play both sides against one another. Let them take each other out, we deal with the leftover.” Diesel decided. “Babe, you up for a meeting with the new Red Dragon leader? I say we make an appearance, demand to speak with Woody, let him know we have his flunkies or at least LAPD does, and they are singing like canaries.”
“You think that’s a good idea?” Viper asked, looking Diesel over to gage her train of thoughts.
“Yeah. While we’re in there, Oz and Taz can fly their new gadget around and get video of what needs to be found, make sure Raven isn’t there or look for Katrina and let us know if she is there before we show our asses.”
“How long before you can get the drone set up with real camera capabilities?” Viper asked, looking over at Oz.
“With Mac and Taz’s help, two hours tops, an hour at the earliest.” Oz shrugged as he looked at the two he mentioned in question.
“We got this. You guys set up how you’re going to fuck up Woody’s day and we’ll get the drone ready to rock and roll.” Taz answered, moving towards Oz.
Once Taz, Oz and Mac left the room to go work on the drone that was needed, Diesel turned to look at those in the room and decided who she wanted with her. Nodding at her girls, Showalter, York, Pratt, Peaches, Gigi, Duong, Toi and Angel, she then nodded at Viper, Jacko, Highlander, Kermit, Houston, Doc, Snake, Cowboy, Dom and Odin. She had her team to go in force with.
“What’s the plan, Diez?” Pratt asked, crossing her arms as she stared at Diesel, awaiting her orders.
Diesel looked around the room at those she chose to be her crew for the next phase of finding Raven. So many scenarios ran through her head at the moment. Looking over at Viper, she tilted her head as she considered a couple of those ideas right off the bat. When Viper smirked at her, she shook her head as she turned to her group.
“I’m open for ideas. I have a few, but I want to hear what you guys have first.” Diesel admitted, rubbing her face as she sat down in her chair with a heavy sigh.
“Are we going in as a MC crew or as mercenaries who have information?” Dom started with the question on his mind.
“What do we know about Woody? Let’s start with that and then we can decide from there how we get in. Something tells me we need to know about Woody and who he is as a person.” Showalter advised, getting nods from Pratt, York, and Diesel.
“Well, we know he’s a high school dropout. He’s a second-generation Red Dragon. His father was one of the original members of the Dragon MC, was a vice prez before he was killed in a shootout about six years ago. Woody seems to be the embarrassment of daddy’s clan. From all reports found, his brother became a lawyer, a sister who’s a nurse at a local hospital and another brother who is military. None of them have anything to do with the MC. Woody is the only one who’s never amounted to anything,” Pratt informed the group, reading from a file she had in her hands, looking over the information.
“When did he become the rank he is now?” Viper asked Pratt, leaning forward in his chair studying her.
“This is interesting. From what the LAPD gang squad has on him, he didn’t rise in rank until the last couple of months. What do you want to bet Woody was tired of the others getting the spots he’s felt he’s entitled to because of dear old dad and started taking out his competition?” Pratt asked, looking up at Viper. “From what they have here, Woody was a nobody in the club. Three months ago, he suddenly got the rank of enforcer, then when the vice prez got taken out by a believed rival, Woody pushed his way in. Now suddenly Diego is missing, well we know where ole Diego is, so we helped Woody there. He’s now claiming to be the new big dog with the Red Dragons.”
“We know about Katrina’s family history. We know her mother was a Dragon club whore. What about Katrina? They have anything on her?” Odin asked, looking towards Pratt, since she had the folder.
“Nada. There’s nothing in here about her. Jackson, what do you know that isn’t in the file about the Red Dragons? Have you ever had any dealings with Diego?” Pratt turned towards the Satan’s Outlaws prez.
“I’ve had a few dealings with them. Not much. Diego was actually wanting to merge the Dragons with us and had been in talks with us until about four months ago. That’s when the rumblings about the Golden Fangs moving into San Diego started. I was in a meeting with Diego when he got a call about Gerbil, his vice prez being taken out, along with three other members of the MC. After that, never heard from Diego again. I know from the few conversations we have had, he didn’t like Woody. Felt the asshat was entitled and wanted him out of the MC. Told me that once we had joined, I had permission to deal with him how he saw fit. Diego didn’t want the responsibility of the MC anymore.”
“Why not? That’s unusual for someone not wanting to be a big wig.” Rameriez questioned, confusion on her face as she sat with her team after walking into the room.
“Being a MC president is a lot of work. It’s not like the movies make it. We have to deal with the asshats in the MC, business issues for the club, making sure no one is doing shit they shouldn’t be doing, and so much more. Especially onces that have their hands in a few pies. Diego didn’t want his men to know it, but he was dying. They diagnosed Diego a six months ago with stage three prostate cancer. He knew once Woody found out, he’d take him out to get the top spot and then there would be inner fighting within the Dragons. It’s why he met with me to discuss me just taking over the MC.” Jackson informed the group, shrugging as he leaned against the wall.
“Well shit. Explains why he didn’t put up much of a fight when we got a hold of him. I’ll need to make a call and make sure that information is relayed. Maybe they can offer him a deal on the down low for what information he may have.” Pratt stood up to make her call as she moved out of the room.
The group continued to shoot information towards each other to better come up with ideas on how to approach the Red Dragons. Two hours later, when Oz, Taz, and Mac came back into the room, they had a semi plan put into place on what they wanted to do. Whether or not it would work was the question of the century.