Chapter Twenty-Five
Copper
I ’m combing through land records for buildings purchased in Memphis and compiling a list when my phone rings.
Dan.
“You got anything?” I ask in greeting.
Koyn, who’s sitting across the conference room table from me, lifts an eyebrow as he listens in on my end of the conversation. I put it on speaker and set it down.
“Yeah…” Dan says, letting out a harsh breath. “It’s brutal, man.”
Koyn’s features harden and my stomach roils with dread.
“What is it?” I demand. “Don’t beat around the bush. Out with it.”
My phone buzzes.
“I’ve sent it to you. It’s a video. Taylor was also searching the dark web, trying to get into that site you shared with me. He couldn’t get in, but found this video called Caught vs Blondie. Dragon tattoo was the hit keywords that he found it with.” Dan groans. “I’m pretty sure it’s your biker buddy and…”
“And who?” Koyn barks out.
I already know.
Stormy.
“We’re doing what we can to find the source, but have your people on it too. The more eyes, the better,” Dan says. “And, Jeremy, I’m sorry.”
With those horrible words, he hangs up.
Koyn rises to his feet to come around to my side of the table as I hit play on the video. I’m unable to focus on anything helpful. All I see is Stormy. My fucking girl. Terrified and shaking.
And Dragon.
He chases her down like she’s prey.
“Maybe you shouldn’t watch this,” Koyn mutters weakly, knowing full and damn well he’ll have to cut my eyeballs out before I allow that to happen.
The next several moments have me frozen in my chair with a storming mixture of fury and disgust. Dragon attacks her. Cuts her. Fucks her. And…
“Is she dead?” I choke out when the video ends after Dragon slides off her unmoving body.
“No,” Koyn barks out as though by him saying it, it’ll make it true.
I swipe at the wetness on my cheeks and rise to my feet. Anger is clouding my brain. All I can see is red. Revenge. I will hurt him like he fucking hurt me. I’m fueled by rage as I charge out of the room on a hunt for Katana.
Dragon wants to take from me?
I will take from him.
All I can think about is unloading a magazine full of bullets into Katana’s healing body, this time hitting all the crucial organs. I’ll watch him bleed out at my feet, knowing Dragon will never be able to come back to his best friend like I’ll never be allowed to come back to mine.
Filter, who’s sitting in a chair and keeping watch over Katana, jumps to his feet when he sees me. I’ve already pulled out my Glock, aiming it at the sleeping man. Filter launches at me, shoving me against the wall hard enough we crush the drywall. The gun goes off, hitting the wall above Katana. I grunt and snarl as I try to free myself from Filter’s strong grip so I can kill this motherfucker. I’ll kill Filter next because he has it coming. I manage to discharge another unsuccessful shot before more guys enter the fray. Payne and Koyn yank me back as Filter manages to wrench the gun from my hands.
Undeterred, I scream and twist, trying to free myself. I manage to headbutt Payne, most likely breaking his nose by the popping sound, before Koyn’s big ass pins me to the carpet. The fight bleeds out of me as grief tears through me.
“She’s dead. He killed her. She’s fucking dead. I promised her,” I choke out. “I promised her I’d keep her safe, but I lied. I fucking lied.”
Koyn pants heavily, keeping my arms pinned with his knees. “I don’t think she’s dead, asshole. He cut her face up a bit, but there wasn’t anything lethal. Bermuda is going to analyze the video. Stop being a fucking psycho.”
She may not be dead, but what Dragon did to her…
How will she ever come back from that?
“Because she’s fucking Stormy. Tough ass bitch,” Koyn barks out, answering what I thought were unspoken words. “The bitch is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s going to take a lot more than Dragon to handle her. She’s like a fuckin’ hurricane. You know this.”
I do know this.
My girl does some crazy ass shit that sometimes gets her hurt, but she always comes back swinging and stronger than before. I have to have faith that she’s okay. That she will be okay. And as far as Dragon goes, I’ll deal with him the moment I lay eyes on him.
Hang in there, little storm.
“Right there,” Bermuda says, pointing to the screen I can no longer look at. “He says something to her. I think he tells her they’ll kill them all. I’m not a lip-reader, but knowing Dragon, it seems like something he would say.”
Koyn nods as he leans forward. “And watch her shoulders there. They go slack.”
“This is your job, Dad,” Blake says, frowning at me. “Put your feelings aside and focus.”
I glance at my son and swallow down the ache in my chest. “Yeah. Play that part again. Let me see.”
Sure enough, it’s like they have a secret, quiet conversation. An agreement is made. Consent. Stormy has used sex to her advantage many times before. This is no different. They seem to be putting on a show. It’s just so fucking brutal, it hurts me to watch. And, Koyn’s right. There was no deadly cut with the knife. Just superficial ones.
I have to believe she’s still alive.
“What’s with the facial cutting?” Gibson asks. “It’s weird as fuck.”
Scrubbing my palm over my face, I let my brain do some logical thinking and answer with that part of my body rather than my heart. “They’re putting on a production. It’s planned. And if Dragon and Stormy are known for anything, it’s their beauty. It’s like they each tried to lessen that part about each other. The way she clawed him will scar. All the blood makes it look worse than it is.”
“Pretty, pretty boy,” Katana says from the doorway, earning everyone’s attention. He’s pale as fuck and I immediately feel bad for trying to kill him earlier.
“What?” Koyn barks out.
“That’s what Dragon muttered in his sleep for so long. One day, I asked him what it meant. On one of his rare, secret divulging moments, he explained that Night Giant said he was a pretty, pretty boy. That he was a star because he was so pretty.” Katana groans and Halo rushes over to assist him into a chair. “He cut her so she wouldn’t be pretty. In some fucked up way, he was trying to keep her out of more videos.”
My gut twists painfully.
Koyn stiffens and begins tapping away on his computer. I’ve seen the look on his face before. Determination. Understanding. The moment when a key appears inside his head and he uses it to unlock whatever damn door he wants.
Hope swells inside me.
“What is it?” I blurt out. “You’re onto something.”
“Pretty, pretty boy Caught,” Koyn grunts out. “That’s the code to enter their site. Now that I’m in, I can start scouring the videos. I’ll look for anything of use.”
While Koyn watches videos I would rather not, I go back to my land records searching. I come across an entity called Press House who bought a warehouse in Memphis nearly twelve years ago. It sold a few years later for a steal.
“Bermuda,” I grunt, motioning him over. “Find where this money went.”
Bermuda grabs his laptop and sits down beside me. He scans the information quickly before tapping away on his computer. He finds a copy of the cashier’s check to the entity’s bank and then pulls up the information from the now closed account.
Colin Press.
The name is too similar to Cypress Collins to ignore.
I know we’ve struck gold.
“Colin Press,” I bark at Koyn. “Have someone else watch those videos. Get the info you can on this guy. I think this is his real name. I’m calling Dan.”
Fucking finally.
This feels like progress.
I’m coming, baby. Just hold on.
Turns out, the name was a hit. Dan, who has the resources, put his men on it while we continue to dig on our end. While they search for Colin Press and start tying his involvement with the human trafficking case together, the rest of us are trying to find clues as to where Stormy and Dragon are at.
“There,” Bizzy says, pointing a meaty finger to Koyn’s screen. “I’ve seen that before.”
I squint at what he’s pointing at. A mural painted on the wall behind the cage. It’s grainy in the shadows, so I’m unsure what he sees.
“What is it?” Koyn demands.
“When I was a kid, I used to go visit my grandparents a lot. We passed a sign that looked just like this.” He grins my way like he’s hit the jackpot. “See, that there is the Pig Trail Scenic Byway.”
The picture is still too messy to make sense of.
“How can you tell?” I ask.
“That red pig there,” Bizzy replies, gesturing to the red blob on the wall. “This green bit here that’s crackled should say, ‘Arkansas.’”
“Arkansas?” Koyn growls. “How can you be for sure?”
Bizzy huffs, his big belly jiggling. “Aux Arcs. Grandpa told this story about how the French explorers named this bend around the river. It was later shortened to Ozarks.”
“So the sign you saw when traveling was a roadside sign?” I ask, rubbing at the tension on the back of my neck. “You didn’t actually see this sign in this building?”
“I saw it from the road, but if they’ve painted it on the wall, it means something to them. It might be close,” Bizzy says with a grin. “Might even be close to the Mulberry Mountain Loop.”
“I’m on it,” Bermuda calls out. “From the large size of that room, it appears to be some sort of events center or community center.”
“Try rest stops too,” Koyn orders. “Local museums and hotels. I’m calling Animal.”
The four-hour drive to Animal’s clubhouse in Little Rock was a painfully slow one. I’d wanted to tear down the Pig Trail Scenic Byway rather than heading to Little Rock, but as much as I wanted to storm in and save the day, I know we’re outnumbered.
Joining forces with the Little Rock Royal Bastards chapter is a necessary one. Those guys have helped us in a bind before and I know Koyn will pay them handsomely for it again this time. Koyn even got a call into the prez of the New Orleans National chapter. They sent Scorn, and a plane full of guns and ammo. Now we have men and weapons. It’s time to strike.
“They’re heavily fortified,” Koyn says, addressing the large group of pissed off bikers. When you mess with one, you mess with all. “That’s why we go in hard and we go in fast.”
Everyone grunts in agreement.
Koyn goes over the logistics with the Little Rock Royal Bastards leading their men, Jameson and Rage, while I skim my gaze over to Animal. Koyn must trust this dude to leave his ol’ lady and baby girl in his care. Animal is a crazy sonofabitch, though, and he gave his word to Koyn he’d protect them with his life.
The fact that Koyn is putting trust in someone, after what happened to his first wife and daughter, in order to save my woman shows just what a good brother he is. It’s something I’ll never forget and will always be grateful for.
“We got eyes inside?” Rage asks, cracking his neck and thrumming with pent-up energy to kill some motherfuckers.
Bermuda nods, holding up his phone. “Once we isolated where they’re at, we were able to ping the cell phones in the area and then hack in. The heavy hitters are there—Collins or Press, Vidal, and Night Giant. Some idiot who works for them keeps pulling out his phone, which gives us a glimpse of what’s going on. They’ve got a shit ton of guys in there, though, and there are victims in there we have to look out for.”
“We’re going to war, boys,” I say, earning their attention. “Let’s strap up and take down these assholes.”
“And make it hurt,” Koyn adds in. “Make it really fucking hurt.”