Chapter 28
Overdrive
“Where are we going?” Rue asked, looking around.
I’d left my motorcycle a few blocks away from the meat packing plant in a parking garage and we’d walked here. One of my brothers would come pick it up later after they got the kids settled. Some minor cosmetic repairs and it’d be good as new.
I opened the door to a big rig and helped her climb in. “You’ll see,” I told her as I got in and backed the truck and cattle trailer sitting outside the meat packing plant. “I’ve got some unfinished business,” I told her.
“What kind of business?” she asked, her eyes glued to me as I turned and looked over my shoulder while maneuvering the trailer toward the loading bay doors. She was watching me the way Norman looked at a steak I was putting on the grill.
I grinned at her, then winked, just to see the flush heat up her skin when she realized I caught her ogling me. “You’ll see.” As much as I’d like to drag her into the back seat of the cab, we had a job to do and it was time sensitive.
We hopped out of the truck and she watched as I threw open the doors to the packing plant. “Alright. Let’s go help some innocents.”
She frowned, looking worried. She followed me into the area where the pens were and gasped when she saw the cows. “Oh my God.” She immediately went up to one of the heifers and laid her hand on the beast’s forehead. “We’re getting them out of here?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at me.
“Yeah.”
“Good.” The tense expression on her face relaxed. “Can we keep them?”
Chuckling, I shook my head. “Not exactly room at the clubhouse for this many cows.”
“Can I keep one?”
Sighing, I realized I should’ve expected this. Rue’s heart was as big as Alaska. “In a manner of speaking.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’ll see.” I dragged cattle panels around, making a chute to corral them into the trailer.
I wasn’t a pro at this by any means, but I’d seen Warrant and the other Wyoming guys do it a couple times.
Come to think of it, I was pretty sure they were ‘liberating’ cows then, too.
Which was to say those cows weren’t theirs.
“What about the kids?” Rue asked, helping me by swatting some of the cattle on their rears to get them moving. It was only a few hours after we took care of Carrick and his crew. Neither these animals, nor the kids Carrick had collected, could wait any longer for the help they needed.
“The others are taking care of them,” I told her.
“What does that mean?” she asked, petting the cow she was walking alongside.
“They found a church that has an orphanage that will take them in.”
“That’s amazing,” she said with a happy smile.
“We’d keep all of them if we could, but we can’t have twenty-five plus kids, rowdy teens at that, running around the compound. Relay has a friend in the church and Ruck’s already set everything up.”
“Relay has a church friend?” she asked with an arched brow.
I chuckled. “Believe it or not.”
“I’m not sure I do,” she said, hesitantly.
“Which part, the church or the friend? You’d be surprised the friends we made in the military,” I told her with a chuckle. “Relay’s friend was another PJ. Works closely now with churches in the area as well as charities.”
“That must be so rewarding,” she replied, watching as I moved the cattle where I needed them to go. “What’s that?”
“Sorting flag,” I told her, moving to my left and waving the plastic pole with a flag on the end in front of a heifer’s face when she tried to backtrack and come back up the chute I’d created instead of loading into the trailer.
“Keeps them going where we want them. Really, your mutt should be here earning his keep, not sleeping at home.”
“He earned his keep at home by protecting me and the others,” she reminded me.
“Good point. I’ll pick up a pound of steak-” I saw her expression darken. “I mean, shrimp for him tomorrow.” Note to self, it was too soon for steak, hamburger, or brisket.
I’d called immediately after the fight with Carrick to check on everyone back at the clubhouse.
Rue had been nearly inconsolable until she heard Strike on speaker phone saying everyone, including Flir, was okay.
Just some scrapes and bruises. I doubted that was all it was, but it calmed my girl down so I was willing to accept that answer.
Ruck had sent Drifter back to the house to check on everyone, so the minor injuries would have to wait to be looked at.
I had a lot of debts to pay because Strike, Flir, and Norman had done everything they could to protect Rue.
Didn’t matter how good of a fucking fighter you were when you were outnumbered five to one the way they were.
Code had dragged Mercy off to an area that he’d locked down tighter than a damn escape room.
She’d tried to convince him to go help the others, but his job had been to protect her and the baby.
I didn’t envy him being stuck in that position, leaving his friends alone, but protecting a pregnant woman would always take priority. Kid had done his job perfectly.
I closed the doors behind the last cow. “Hop in the truck. I’m going to take a look around, make sure we didn’t miss any.” I took a quick walk through the plant, ignoring the dead bodies littering the floor. We weren’t even going to bother removing them.
It was a warning to The Collective. A message that we were coming for them. They’d make sure the bodies were taken care of so they wouldn’t have to deal with the cops. Meant less work for us and would instill some paranoia in the fuckers we were going after. Win, win in my book.
Hopping in the cab of the truck, I put it into gear and left that building filled with death behind.
At least now it was only guys who deserved to meet their makers left in there.
I wasn’t a crazy vegan guy who didn’t understand that cows were meant to be meat.
Shit some of our best friends were cattle ranchers.
But there was a difference between those poor cows stuck in a small corral in a concrete building and them living their lives out on a ranch until the end came.
I believed in ethical farming and where we were taking them, these cows would have the best life until it was their time to give back to us.
That was the best I could do for them. Well… most of them.
I settled my hand on Rue’s head as she laid across the bench seat and put her head in my lap.
It’d been a long fucking day for her. For all of us.
But it was over. Her brother was with my brothers, helping the kids he’d met because of The Collective start their new lives.
Then it would be time for him to put all that into the past and start his own.
We’d help him with that. We’d help all of them.
Ruck had already set up an account that would help these kids, but also the others at the orphanage.
The church would never struggle to find funding for them because it was already taken care of.
We’d already agreed that any cash or hard assets that could be sold that we took from The Collective in the future would go back to the orphanage.
The sun was rising over the mountains as I pulled off at a deserted gas station on the side of the road. No sooner had I put the truck in park than a set of headlights appeared on the horizon. I didn’t need the rig to get closer to know it was Warrant.
Rue sat up with a yawn. “Where are we?”
“Meeting spot.”
We both climbed out of the truck as the other pulled in ahead of us. “Who are we meeting?”
“Friends from Wyoming,” I told her with a grin. “They’re going to watch over your cows for you.”
“Mine?” she asked, her eyes wide and hopeful.
I winced a little. “Rue-”
“Hey fucker!”
I turned and grinned at Demolition as he jumped out of the truck. “Demo.”
“How the fuck did a city asshole like you end up with a trailer full of cattle?” he asked.
“Packing plant,” I told him, my gaze sliding to Rue.
“Ah.” He turned and stuck out his hand. “I’m Demolition. Friends call me Demo.”
“Rue,” she said, shaking his hand.
“This is fifty head of cattle,” Warrant said from the side of the trailer.
“So?” I asked.
“You said a few,” he said, tone accusatory.
“What the hell does it matter? Between you and your family you have thousands of acres of land,” I replied, shoving my hands in the pockets of my jeans.
“Fifty head is a lot to add to my herd,” he muttered.
Digging further into my right pocket, I pulled out a wad of cash.
Warrant glared at me. “The fuck is that?”
“It’ll help make it less…a lot…to add to your herd,” I told him.
“You think I want your fucking money?” he snorted. “Don’t need your damn money.” He shoved my hand away from him. “Fucking insulting.”
A heavy kick came from inside the trailer and his brows shot up. “Someone’s got opinions.”
“That’s Mocha,” Rue told him.
Warrant turned his head and stared at her. “...Mocha?”
“You let her name the heifer?” Demo muttered to me. “You never let them name them.”
“I didn’t let her-”
“That’s right,” Rue said firmly. “She’s mine.”
Warrant scowled at me. “What does she mean, she’s hers?”
Shrugging my shoulder, I explained, “Told her she could keep one.”
“You told her-” Demo broke off and then moved away from us, pretending he had something important to do.
“We don’t keep cows as pets, OD,” Warrant told him.
I pulled the wad of money out of my pocket. “Looking better every second isn’t it?”
“Shut up.” He glared at me. “You can’t just go making promises to keep animals permanently on another man’s land,” he muttered.
“Okay,” I said in a good-natured tone, causing him to scowl suspiciously at me, “you tell her that.”
He looked over at Rue, who had already caught onto my ploy and was giving him sad puppy dog eyes. “You can’t-” He sighed when Rue’s lower lip began to tremble. “Oh, fuck me. Goddammit.”
Warrant was usually a happy go lucky fucker, but I’d dragged him out of bed in the middle of the night, convinced him not only to drive halfway to Arizona, but also to take on a herd of cows that I’d suddenly acquired.
He was a bit grumpy this morning. But even his foul mood couldn’t hold out against Rue.
“Please,” she said in a low voice. “She’s really sweet.”
Mocha punctuated that statement with another kick to the side of the trailer.
“To me,” Rue added with a cute smile. “I’ll pay for her feed. And come visit her.”
“Yeah, ‘cause I need a bleeding heart like you visiting my farm. Next you’ll have me keeping all the damn roosters we hatched out for the year instead of putting them in the stew pot.”
Rue looked over at me in shock.
“It’s part of farm life, Light,” I told her. “You can’t save them all. Right now you’ll be lucky if you can save one ornery heifer,” I warned.
She nodded, then looked back at Warrant. “I won’t ask to keep the rest. Or any other animals,” she promised.
“Why don’t I believe her?” Warrant asked me.
I bit back the grin. She was going to end up with a menagerie.
Only they’d be living in Wyoming, so that was fine by me.
I just had to deal with one Rottie. That was enough, though.
Flir would flip his shit if I brought home a cow.
Ruck might too, so it was best for everyone if Warrant agreed to take Mocha home with him.
Warrant sighed heavily, then nodded. “Fine. Just the one, though.”
“She has those dark rings around her eyes, long eye lashes, and soft ears,” Rue told him.
He looked between her and me in a way that I couldn’t tell if it was disbelief or disgust. “Soft ears…”
“That’s right,” she said with a smile so innocent I was able to see him physically swallow back any retort he might’ve had.
“Got it,” he muttered. “Can we get this done?”
That was for me, so I nodded. “Why don’t you wait in the truck while we get them situated?”
It didn’t take too much time before we were standing there, Rue tucked under my arm as she waved as Warrant and Demo drove off with the cows. I honestly wasn’t sure if she was waving at my friends, or the cows. I wasn’t about to ask because deep down, I had a feeling.
“Ready to get back home?” I asked her once they disappeared over the hill. They’d left us their truck and taken the big rig, cattle trailer, and cattle with them. We’d get them back their pick up soon enough.
“Okay. When can we go visit?” she asked, looking up at me.
“Soon,” I told her with a laugh. I knew right then, I was signing up for a life of her bringing home stray animals. And I was perfectly fine with that.