Chapter 46 Army
Army
I had the presence of mind, before I raced off in my truck to toss Pix the USB Len had given me, and told her to get it to Digits immediately.
Then gravel spit and flew as I stomped the accelerator and blew through the front gates of the compound—the prospects opening them in time so I didn't ram them with my truck—and Bane and Ash followed me on their bikes.
My destination is the hospital. Of course, I cared if Mauler lived or died, but my sole purpose was to see if he could tell me anything that might lead to finding Leeva. I slam my brakes and skid to a stop in front of the emergency doors and race inside.
“Sir, you can’t leave your truck there,” a security guard yells at me. I don’t stop, though, knowing that Ash and Bane won’t allow it to be towed.
I sprint toward the triage desk, dodging an older man who sounds like he’s coughing up a lung. I’m normally not such an asshole, but I can’t wait.
Slapping my hands down on the desk, I speak to the nurse, “I need to know where Cole Pierce is.” I use his legal name since she won’t know who the hell Mauler is. “Now.”
“Army.”
I turn at my name and see Trinity rushing toward me. She looks shaken, obviously, but composed, which is likely because of her training to handle crisis situations in the ER.
As an elite, government-trained machine, I’ve been highly trained to handle crisis situations myself. I should be composed, too. But I’m not; not when it comes to life-or-death for Leeva.
“Come with me.” Trinity pulls me with her, and we head through a door and down a short hallway.
She doesn’t look at me with accusation, neither because Mauler was hurt while doing club business, nor because this has to do with Leeva. Like all old ladies, she knew the risks of this lifestyle when she got with Mauler.
“How is he?”
“Really banged up, possible internal bleeding.” Her voice shakes a bit. “They’re taking him for a CT scan and surgery any minute.”
Urgency quickens my strides. “I can’t wait that long.”
“I know.” She yanks my arm, pulling me into a room.
It’s small; the stretcher Mauler is lying on takes up most of the space, along with the IV stand, and all the equipment monitoring his vitals. He looks like hell. His chin is covered in a bandage where the blood is soaking through, and one arm and a leg are both in splints.
“Thank God he had his helmet on.” Trinity’s eyes shimmer with tears as she moves to his side.
It’s a cardinal rule we abide by with good reason.
“Cole.” She runs her hand down his cheek. “Army is here.”
His eyelids twitch, then slowly open, and I can see how much effort it takes him and how much pain he’s in.
“Leeva,” he croaks out.
I step closer to the bed, careful of the tubes coming out of him. “Do you have any idea where Guerilla could’ve taken her?”
He tries to say something, but winces.
Impatience flares in me; not because I’m a bastard, but because the urgency to find Leeva, to do something to hunt for her, is eating me alive.
If only Ash and Bane hadn’t let her leave and had stopped to listen instead of trying to stop me. If only I had struck up a conversation with Keifer and Ursula earlier instead of brooding silently in Ash’s office.
This was the fault of multiple people, including me. But I wasn’t casting blame; I just needed to get my woman back.
“Thunder,” Mauler forces out, and I frown.
“Mauler, Thunder was at the compound. You were following Razor.”
“Thunder.” He shakes his head. “Razor… Sto—” He coughs, and it sounds more like a gurgle.
“Excuse me, sir, you need to leave,” a man says from behind me. “We need to get Mr. Pierce to the CT scanner and surgery immediately.”
I ignore the man. “Mauler, you were following Razor, not Thunder.”
“Thunder,” he says as his eyes close. “Razor...” His mouth moves, but no sound comes out.
Did he mouth “Help”?
“Mauler!”
“They need to take him, Army.” Trinity pushes me back so the man and another one can wheel Mauler’s stretcher out of the room, maneuvering it and all the poles on wheels with him. “He could die. They need to go.”
Knowing she’s right, I don’t try to stop them. Trinity wrings her hands, staring at the empty doorway once they’re gone.
“You should go with him, Trin.”
She shakes her head. “I’m family, not his care provider. I need to let them do what they need to do; they’re objective, and I’m emotional.” A tear spills over her lashes onto her cheek, and guilt kicks me in the chest.
“I’m sorry he was hurt.”
She wipes her face. “He kept repeating Guerilla’s name.”
“My brother took Leeva.” I knew this, but this confirms it. “Did Mauler say anything else about Razor?”
She looks at me. “He just said, ‘Not Razor’.”
I frown. Razor and Thunder have very different builds, so it’s not like he mistakenly thought he was following Thunder when it was actually Razor.
What the hell is going on here?
“We’ll get you and Mauler whatever you need, Trinity.”
“Go and find Leeva.” She gives me a quick hug.
I leave her and hurry back down the hallway toward the front area. Ash and Bane are waiting for me by the front doors. Ash is on the phone, and Bane meets me.
“What can you tell me about what happened?” I demand. “Is Leeva’s family okay?”
“They’ll all survive,” Bane reports. “All of them were brought in with Mauler. Ash is ensuring that they have everything they need.”
I shove my hands through my hair. “What the hell happened?”
His face is dark and grave. “From what I found out from Digits, as well as a phone call to the police commissioner, there was a small explosive device placed under their SUV.”
I balk. “Was that planted when they were at the MC compound?”
“That would be my guess,” he growls. “It was a small explosive; not likely meant to kill the occupants. They were T-boned, then the explosive went off to flip the SUV, and it rolled.”
“Jesus.” I try to clear my head so I can strategically plan my next move to find Leeva. Then I go still, thinking of what Mauler said to Trinity and to me.
Not Razor…
Thunder…
“Not Razor. Thunder.”
“What?” Bane’s brow pulls together, and Ash motions for us to move.
“Mauler said, ‘Thunder. Not Razor.’”
As we hurry out the door, I explain my theory. That it was Thunder who planted the explosive under the SUV, remaining behind at the compound, looking innocent. But Razor had chased after the SUV and tried to intervene.
“Tats,” Ash growls into his phone, “round up Thunder and put him in the Cell.”
“Where to now?” Bane asks, looking first at Ash and then me. “To the Cell to interrogate Thunder?”
I don’t answer Bane because I’m staring at the man leaning against my truck.
“Razor.”
Bane’s head snaps to where I’m looking. He goes for his gun, but then keeps it holstered, remembering where we are.
I stalk toward Razor with Ash and Bane at my back.
His face is filled with hate as he stares at me, but he keeps his hands at his side. “I called the ambulance and helped Mauler. I stayed at the scene when I could’ve run.”
“Explain what the hell is going on, Razor,” Ash orders.
“Where the fuck is Leeva?” I step toe-to-toe with him, pinning him between me and my truck.
Something flashes over his face. Guilt? Worry?
“I don’t know.” He swallows hard. “I just know Guerilla grabbed her. I saw Thunder plant the explosive under their SUV, and I tried to stop them,” he confirms my theory.
“A convenient story to cover and save your ass,” Bane says.
“You were at Hedon,” Ash loops in that detail, coming at this from all angles to keep him off kilter. “Hedon was attacked.”
“Yeah, I was, and yeah, I was part of the plan to hit Hedon, because I want you gone, Army.” I see the hate in his eyes for what I did to Grinder. “But once I found out what Thunder was trying to do, and that he was just using me as a pawn and scapegoat if he got caught—”
“What was my uncle trying to do?” Ash demands.
“Not here, Ash.” I stare at Razor. “Your wrists. Together. Now.”
His eyes narrow, understanding what I mean. “My bike—”
“Is the least of your concerns.” I rein in my urgency and anger. “Wrists together now.”
He complies, and I pull two zipties from the inside pocket of my cut, and double wrap his wrists together behind him.
Razor is compliant and doesn’t fight, and I shove him into the front seat of my truck and slam the door.
“Council group call,” I tell Ash and Bane as they get on their bikes. The Bluetooth in their helmets will connect them while we race back to the compound.
Inside my truck, I call Digits, knowing Pix is with him, and my Bluetooth connects as I squeal away from the hospital. “I have Razor with me,” I update them. “Razor, talk.”
And talk he does.
He spills everything.
He reveals that he and Thunder had been in contact with Guerilla since I returned from the Marines three years ago, and how Guerilla nurtured the old guard’s desire to take the Council down.
They knew he had his own agenda, but since it aligned with theirs to regain control of the MC, they went along with it.
Razor had accidentally found out about Hedon by overhearing something Grinder said, and they worked with the corrupt judge to obtain the search warrant.
That they were supporting Guerilla to get Leeva back.
But where Razor drew the line was when he recently discovered Thunder and Guerilla wanted to get in deep with la morte and set up an underground location for the death ring here in San Francisco.
He wasn’t morally opposed to people fighting to the death, but he was one hundred percent against the sex slavery that goes with this ring, as his sister had been trafficked and never found.
That’s when he took a stand against Thunder, then discovered Thunder had been planning for him to be the scapegoat all along if his plan went to shit.
“Your confession won’t save you, Razor.” I dispel any myths that might be in his head as we speed back through the compound’s front gates, and I take the road that will take us to the secluded part of our land where we keep the Cell.
He stares straight ahead as we bounce over the rough terrain. “I know. I made my choice to act against you, and I accept the consequences.”
“I didn’t want to do it.” I nearly choke on the words as memories of Grinder falling to his knees in front of me threatens to toss me into a PTSD spiral, but thoughts of Leeva ground me and keep me present.
She needs me. She needs me to find her.
“I know.” His voice is heavy. “I tried to warn him, to tell him, but my boy always had a mind of his own.”
I stomp on the brakes in front of the building in the middle of nowhere, with its soundproof walls.
He glances at it nervously, knowing what we do in there. What he has done in there when he was previously on the Council.
“I don’t know where Guerilla took Leeva.” His gaze slides toward me. “But I’m certain Thunder does. For what it’s worth, Guerilla doesn’t plan to give her to that ring. He just wants her money and her.”
“She’s not his.” I go to open the door, but my hand freezes on the handle when he speaks.
“I would’ve still voted against you, Army. Even though there’s no evidence remaining of Guerilla’s tattoo, I would’ve voted guilty.”
I turn to him. “Because ‘bros before hos’,” I use the phrase Ursula snapped at me in Ash’s office.
He shrugs, the leather of his cut creaking as he does. “The reason the past Council insisted on that club law was so the club always came first. Your loyalty to your brothers and the MC is what matters, not fucking love or any other bullshit that comes with a bitch.”
I shake my head. “One doesn’t have to come at the cost of the other.”
“And that belief will put a bullet in your brain just like it did my boy.” He turns away from me, set in his beliefs. “Let’s get this over with.”
Getting out of my truck and slamming the door, I intend to do just that.
I will save Leeva and get her back.
Even if it’s the last thing I accomplish before meeting the fate that Razor predicts for me.