Chapter 11 Cash #2
“You wish, asshole,” Kane tossed back. “Only reason you don’t want to be staring at me is because you get sad when you have to look at yourself in the mirror. Because this right here is one handsome motherfucker. Just ask my Em-Girl.”
Kane roughed a hand over his jaw that showed a day’s worth of stubble.
“Keep dreaming, man, keep dreaming. It’s my Moonflower who gets the treat every time she looks at me. Of course, the real treat is when I’m touching her.” Otto widened his blue eyes, laying it on thick.
River sent a warning grunt at him. Otto never stopped rubbing it in that he’d hooked up with Raven, played it up every fucking chance he got.
Way I saw it was he just couldn’t help himself from talking about the woman. He’d been obsessed his entire damned life, and it was a wonder they hadn’t gotten together earlier than they had.
They got married last fall and had a baby girl, Luna, just two months ago.
More proof that this family—this crew—was growing in ways that I didn’t know how to handle. The threat we lived amplified the farther we got away from the commitment we originally made to fly solo.
Couldn’t stop the flash of Daisy and her children’s faces that sailed through my mind.
I itched to get back. To make sure they were whole. To dig in and find the motherfucker who’d inscribed that fear in her expression.
I couldn’t wait to bleed him and do it slowly.
But I couldn’t focus on that right then. Silas was there and watching over them. He swore an oath to keep their presence on the down-low since I wasn’t ready to confess to anyone that I had company. Last thing I needed were my brothers getting wind of it.
More than that was the oath he swore to protect them with his life, not that there was a chance that anyone could get through my cabin that might as well have been a castle, anyway.
I trusted him, the same as he trusted me to get his sister out.
“Cut the shit and let’s get downstairs,” I rumbled. “Have something we need to address, and we need to do it quickly.”
In an instant, their demeanors shifted. Each of my brothers hardened to steel.
Their bodies vibrating weapons.
Kane moved to the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that lined the left wall, and he shifted some books around to get to the hidden keypad.
He tapped in the code, and a section of the bookshelf gave, opening to a stairwell concealed behind it. A dim light glowed from the depths.
He angled his head toward the narrow opening. “Then let’s get this party started.”
Otto ambled by. “Let’s do it.” He ducked through the opening, and River made a low sound as he followed.
Theo edged around me where I stood stock-still in the middle of the room, dude casting me an inquisitive glance as he passed. Kane waved his hand behind Theo. “Your turn, brother.”
My feet felt heavy as I took to the steps, laden with dread, and I wound down the narrow staircase to the dingy basement buried far below.
The cramped room was made of raw bricks and the floor was concrete, a long-forgotten hideaway that served as the perfect meeting spot for our secret society.
No chance of anyone hearing or finding us.
We all took seats at the worn round table. A single, yellowed bulb hung from the ceiling and cast a hazy glow over our faces.
It never failed that the second we sat around this table, the mood shifted. The easiness the rest of my crew wore evaporating into the shadows. Instantly replaced with the grim fervency this job required.
River stretched out his left fist that was tattooed with the same design we all shared, but at the top of the hilt of his dagger sat a crown since he was the one who had set this whole thing into motion.
Our secret society borne in the depraved streets that we’d ruled when we rode with the Iron Owls MC.
We all put our fists out to meet with River’s.
“I call to order this meeting of Sovereign Sanctum,” River intoned as he looked around at our mismatched family.
Each of us so different yet so much the same.
For years, we each had a specified role.
River, a dark deliverer who extracted the women and children from their dire situations and brought them here before they forever disappeared.
Their identities changed so they could live out a life in peace without the monsters who tormented them.
Otto, a burly motherfucker who would be the one to transport the families to their new homes.
Kane, our launderer. The four bars he owned used as a cover for the money we bled dry from the fiends who had harmed their families. That was if we left them living.
Theo, who owned and lived at The Sanctuary. The protector who watched over those under our wing in the interim while they were given time to readjust. To hide and to heal the best that they could.
Then there was me.
The hacker.
The one who could create new identities like the flip of a switch and erase the existence of others with a few strokes of my fingers across my keyboard. One who could siphon, pilfer, and steal every cent from the corrupt so we had the funds to support the projects that we did.
I was also responsible for filtering through the submissions and messages from the few trusted counselors and crisis lines that we’d brought into our fold. The ones who reported to us the direst of situations.
But since every single one of my brothers had gotten tied to their women, their families, the roles had shifted a bit. Each of us stepped in for each other whenever necessary since we wanted to keep those who had families out of the line of fire the best that we could.
In theory, we would sneak the women and children out of their abusive homes unnoticed, but there were ample instances when it didn’t go to plan and we had to fight it out.
Blood drawn and bodies put in the ground.
I’d taken to doing most of the dirty work.
But I was only one man, and I couldn’t stand in every position, though I had been giving it my best. Still wasn’t sure how any of this was going to play out. How we were going to keep up the way we’d been doing when it put my brothers and their families at risk.
Only thing I knew for sure was we would always stand for each other.
River looked directly at me. “What’s going on?”
Agitation blistering through my veins, I rocked in my chair. “Know this is outside our normal parameters, but Silas came to me, asking me to find his sister after he hadn’t heard from her in a few days.”
A ripple of unease rolled through my crew.
Silas might not have been a part of Sovereign Sanctum, but he was part of our crew. Our brother. A piece of us from back in the day. He and his MC, Crimson Crows, had helped to get Theo’s wife, Piper, out of harm’s way this last Christmas.
No way we weren’t going to stand up for him.
Worry whipped through Theo. “You find her?”
My nod was grim. “Kent Ellison has her.”
A shockwave of dread blasted through the tiny room.
“What the fuck?” River wheezed.
“Seems they were texting beforehand.”
A frown carved Otto’s brow. “You think there’s a chance she hooked up with that piece of shit on her own?”
I exhaled and sat forward. “Not sure, but I’m guessing he lured her in then nabbed her when she let her guard down. She went into his compound four days ago and hasn’t come out since.”
Fear blanched Kane’s face. “Could she be—?”
He couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“Got enough intel that says she’s alive and inside. Even have the room she’s being held in. But we need to get her out. Immediately.”
“You know that bastard has that place surrounded,” Kane spat.
“I can affirm that,” I said.
River roughed a tatted hand over his face. “Fuck.”
I glanced around at each of them. “It’s gonna be risky, and I’m going in tonight. Need two of you on patrol.”
Surprise filtered through Theo’s face. “Tonight?”
“Need the element of surprise. Silas will go in with guns blazing. We need this clean.”
“How is this gonna go down?” River asked.
“It’s a forty-five-minute ride. I have the floor plan. My informant gave me a way to get in and out without anyone knowing I’m there. I’ll get in, quick and quiet, and have her back in Moonlit Ridge two hours from now.”
Yeah, we needed to get Elena out, an effort I was wholly committed to.
But I also needed it done so I could get back to Daisy. So I could pour all my focus into protecting her and those kids. I couldn’t be stretched thin.
“I’m in.” Theo rapped a fist on the worn table.
“Me, too,” Kane said.
“Good,” I said, looking directly at River for the clear.
We were already three out of five, and Sovereign Sanctum was majority rule, not that River or Otto would reject the idea.
“Sounds like you have it covered, brother.” River dipped his chin.
“Just want it done.”
“Then let’s do this shit so I can get back to my girl,” Theo said.
River pushed his left hand into the middle of the table, and the rest of us followed suit, chanting along as he rumbled, “Our oath to the afflicted. Our oath to the forsaken. Our oath to Sovereign Sanctum.”
Chair legs skidded on the roughened floors as we pushed back our chairs and stood.
My brothers headed directly up the stairs, Theo, Kane, and Otto at the front. I held back, waiting for River to wind around me, only he paused and took me by the shoulder.
“What’s up with you, brother?” Worry filled his distinct features.
“Nothin’,” I grunted.
His midnight eyes darkened in speculation. He wasn’t buying my shit. “You sure about that?”
I shifted on my feet. “Just want to get Silas’s sister back.”
His head tipped to the side. “You know you’re not alone, right? You can trust us with whatever you’re going through.”
I itched, feeling those flames once again burning me alive, the way they would do forever. “Yeah, I know.”
It was me who couldn’t trust myself.