Reaper Chapter 16
I was damn glad to see that the work week was coming to an end. It had been a tense one as we all waited to see if Serpent and Cheyenne’s dad would do anything after that phone call on Sunday. It had bothered her for the rest of the day and she’d slept like shit. In fact, she hadn’t slept very well since then. I tried to reassure her that we would handle it, but she was terrified of them. I had gotten the story out of her about what she’d meant by the woods remark she’d made to Serpent. I thought back to that conversation Monday night.
“Baby, I need to ask you about something. I don’t want to upset you more, but I need to know. You said something to Serpent that night in Johnson City. You mentioned what happened in the woods. I need to know what you meant.”
She sighed. “Do you really need to know?”
“Okay, maybe not need to but I want to know. It’s killing me to imagine what you meant.”
She got up to pace the living room. She wrung her hands. “You have to understand, I tried to stay far away from that club, but Dad would make me go there when I got older. I was always on alert when I did. I made sure I was never alone with Serpent or any of the other men. None of them could be trusted. Anyway, I was watching one of the little kids of one of the members. Mom had to take the kid’s mom to the doctor. I was at our house. No one ever came there from the club if Dad wasn’t there, and he was at the club that day.
“The little girl was bored, and I thought I’d take her outside to the woods right behind our house. There were these wild strawberries that grew there. She’d have fun picking and eating them. So, I took her out. We’d been in the woods for maybe ten minutes when I heard a bike pull into the drive. I figured it was my dad. I was trying to get her to stop picking them, so we could go to the house. I knew he’d be in there yelling for me to wait on him. If I didn’t, I’d get my ass beat.
“Only it wasn’t Dad, it was Serpent. He came out and found us in the woods. He had this evil smirk on his face when he saw I was out there with only a little kid. He told her to go to the house. She did because she was scared of him. I tried to go with her, but he grabbed me. He shoved me into the trees and took me to the ground. He started kissing me and tearing at my clothes. I knew he was going to rape me.”
I swore and clenched my fists, so I wouldn’t put them through the wall. I let her continue.
“I was fighting him and he’d torn my top when my dad came barging into the woods. He yanked him off me. At the time I didn’t know what he meant when he told Serpent, he hadn’t finalized anything. I was just grateful my dad had come and saved me. He made Serpent leave and then yelled at me to go get cleaned up and fix his dinner.”
“How long was this before you found out he’d practically sold you to him?”
“It was a month. As soon as I found out what he had planned, I knew why Dad had stopped him that day. It was because he was trying to get something out of Serpent and Slither. If he’d raped me, there went my dad’s leverage. He didn’t give a shit about me, just himself.”
She cried after she told me. It still made me want to kill thinking about it days later.
A knock on my door at the microbrewery had me shaking off those memories. It was Art. I waved him inside. “What’s up, Art?”
He had a frown on his face.
“Hey, Reaper, I just wanted to let you know that the shipment of bottles we were supposed to get yesterday never came. I called the distributor, and he swears they were sent. The tracking shows they were delivered, but they aren’t here. I checked everywhere in case someone else signed for them. This is the second thing like this in the last two weeks. Last week it was the ingredients we had on order. We’ve never had this happen. Do you think the distributors are lying?”
He took a seat. I thought about what he said. We’d been using these same suppliers for several years. We’d never had anything like this happen. For it to happen right now was sending up warning flags for me. Why? The only thing I could think of was the Soldiers of Corruption were somehow intercepting them. “They said they were delivered. Were they signed for or is that what the drivers are saying?”
“The drivers said it and I checked. They’re the same drivers we’ve had for a long time too. Do you think they’re stealing them?”
“Art, let me handle this. I’ll figure it out. What I need is for you to tell those suppliers and our others that from now on, they’ll need to be signed for. Keep an eye out for any others going astray. Tell the guys I need them to keep their eyes open too. Can you do that?”
“Absolutely. I’ll go talk to them now.”
He stood up.
As he left I told him, “Thanks, Art.”
He nodded. I checked the clock. It was almost four. I decided to call it a day and head over to ride home with the women, Carter, and Tinker. They were the two with the ladies at the office today. We had church later, and I wanted to talk about the missing supplies. Plus, I had to work on something else for this weekend. I was almost on my bike when my cell phone rang. It was Tinker. My heart lurched, and I hurried to answer it. “What’s wrong?”
I barked into the phone.
“Nothing’s wrong, Reaper. Just wanted to let you know, we’re headed back to the compound early.”
“Why?”
“Doc got sick and went home early. They’re done for the day with all their stuff. We’ll see you there. I guess I should have texted rather than called. Sorry I scared you.”
“That’s okay. I’m getting ready to leave myself, so I’ll be right behind you. See you in a few.”
I hung up. Swinging my leg over my bike, I took a look around. We’d all been paying extra attention lately. You could never be too careful with Serpent and his buddies out there. Seeing no one close by, I took off. I couldn’t wait to see Cheyenne.
As I sped through town, headed for the outskirts, I kept my head on a swivel. Traffic was starting to pick up because it was getting close to the end of the workday and the start of the weekend. As I came up to a traffic light, I saw my truck up ahead of me a couple more lights. I had Cheyenne driving it. Tinker and Carter were on either side of it. Good, I’d see if I could catch up with them.
I watched my light and as soon as it turned green, I popped the clutch and hit the gas to take off to catch up to them. I felt the burn of something along my ribs almost at the same time I heard the crack. I knew what the hell a bullet being fired from a gun sounded like. I took off like a shot. I told my Bluetooth to dial Tinker. As soon as he answered, I didn’t waste any time.
“Get them to the compound now! I’m not far behind you and someone just took a fucking shot at me. Go!”
He didn’t bother to answer. He hung up and then I saw them wave to the girls and they all sped up. Then I called Maniac.
“Hey Reaper, what’s—”
I cut him off, “We’re comin’ in hot. The guys and the girls are ahead of me. I was just shot at by the strip mall on the way out of town. Get anyone who’s there ready to go. We’re coming in fast.”
I heard him swear then he hung up. I hoped most of them were already back for the day. I weaved my bike in and out of traffic, trying to make myself a harder target to hit. I had no idea if they had a marksman or not. I watched my surroundings to see if any vehicles were gaining on me or them. So far, nothing.
When we got clear of the city limits, I sped up even more and caught up to them. I could see Cheyenne’s scared face in the truck. She didn’t know what had happened, but she knew something had. I blew her a kiss, trying to get her to calm down. I didn’t want her to wreck.
We were three miles or so from the compound when bikes coming in the other direction came roaring around a turn. I tensed until I saw it was my guys. I blew out a relieved breath. Not that it meant we were safe, but it made our odds better. They all swarmed around us, surrounding us. I was never so glad in my life to see the gates of our compound when it came into view a few minutes later. Braxton was standing there with his gun out and had the gate open. We all raced inside and he shut it. We halted in front of the clubhouse.
I’d barely gotten off my bike before Cheyenne was there throwing herself in my arms. I hugged her tight, then winced at the burning pain in my side. I’d been so focused on getting here, I hadn’t thought about being shot. She felt me wince and pulled away from me.
“What’s wrong, Reaper? Why are you wincing?”
she asked as she ran her hands down my chest and over to my sides. I flinched when she hit the spot. She gasped and drew back her hands. There was blood on one of them. I saw her go pale and start to breathe faster.
“Baby, calm down. It’s nothing serious. Let’s get inside so we can take a look at it. Come on.”
I led her toward the door. I saw Ink was hovering over Alisse. He’d been working on her nonstop to get her to give him a chance. I knew he had to be as worried about her as I had been Cheyenne.
Inside, Lash pushed me down at the bar. He took off to his room. He was our go-to medic. While most of us had some medical training, he had the most. Chey helped me to get off my cut and then my shirt. She cried out when she saw the blood running across my side.
He was back in no time with his field kit. He snapped on a pair of gloves and then got to cleaning the wound, so he could see what he was dealing with. I’d been shot before and this wasn’t anything like that. It hurt but not that bad. I figured it was a graze. Cheyenne stood there biting her lip. I gave her a kiss. “Don’t do that. That’s my lip to bite,”
I teased her. I was trying to distract her. She glared at me.
“Don’t be cute right now, Reaper! Someone tried to kill you. I know what that is. It’s from a bullet. You’re lucky you didn’t get killed.”
“Baby, I’m going to be fine. Yeah, it’s a bullet graze. Lash will have me patched up in no time,”
I reassured her.
I hissed as he dabbed it with something that stung like hell. I glared at him and the bastard just grinned. “Tell us what happened,”
Maniac demanded. I filled them in on what had gone down and how I’d popped the clutch and hit the gas to speed up. That’s what probably saved my life or at least saved me from a much worse injury. By that time, Lash had put ointment on it and a bandage. He looked up at me.
“Nothing really to suture or Steri-Strip together. You’ll have a new scar to add to the collection. Better watch it. Get to many more of those and Cheyenne will be looking for a better-looking man,”
he said with a wink at her. She rolled her eyes.
“Ha, ha, you’re so funny, Lash. No need to worry about that. Haven’t you heard, women find scars sexy on a man?”
“Fuck, really? Well, then I need to add some then,”
Ratchet added. This broke the tension, and the guys spent a minute or two joking about it while Alisse and Cheyenne both rolled their eyes at them. I knew he’d done it for this very reason.
“Okay, enough of that shit. We need to meet. This only makes what else I wanted to talk about more likely. I know we usually have church on Monday nights, but this can’t wait.”
I turned to Cheyenne. “Baby, can you and Alisse see if you can figure us out some dinner? I hate to ask, but I don’t want us to go anywhere or to have anything brought in. It doesn’t have to be fancy.”
She nodded. I gave her a kiss. “Thank you, baby. I promise to make this as quick as I can.”
While I’d been talking to her, Carter had left and came back with a clean shirt for me. I took it and eased it on with her help. I took up my colors and looked at it. Amazingly, the bullet had completely missed it! I slid it on too. After one more kiss, the guys and I went into church. As soon as the door was closed, I launched into my update. “I think the Soldiers of Corruption are messing with our businesses.”
This had all the guys looking at me surprised. I quickly explained to them what Art had told me. This had them all swearing.
“If that’s true, then we have to assume they’ll target the other businesses as well. We’re going to need help keeping an eye on all of them, especially the strip club. They can do damage at the carwash and the storage units, but not like they can at the others where we have employees and customers coming in and out all the time.”
Mayhem growled. He was the one to oversee the strip club, and he made sure none of our ladies were hurt or harassed.
“They could do some damage and maybe harass people at the tattoo shop and the home restoration business, but not as much,”
Ink added. He oversaw the tattoo shop and Tinker our home restoration business. Spawn monitored the storage place since it mainly was all electronic surveillance. Maniac did the same for the carwash. We had employees who helped us with all of them.
“We have no way to put guards on all the businesses and the staff even with help. It’s too many people,”
Spawn hissed.
“That’s probably what they want. To have us shut down shit to keep people safe. If we do that, it would be easier for them to destroy us financially. Then they could pick us off. Or that’s what they think. I don’t want to get anyone hurt. So, we’ll give the staff the option on whether they work for a while or not. We’ll tell them we might be having someone come after the club. I hate to possibly close anything, but it’s only fair that they know,”
I told them.
“Yeah, some of them might do it since they have families. Others I know won’t care. Are we going to bring in the others on this?”
Maniac asked me. I knew he was referring to the Warriors, the Pagan Souls, the Marauders, and the Patriots. I looked around the table at all of them.
“I think we need to discuss that. The Soldiers targeted us before they ever realized Cheyenne was here. But now that they know and Serpent in particular, it has made them even more eager to take us out. That bastard thinks she belongs to him. The whole club is a bunch of fucked-in-the-head psychopaths. They need to be put out of their misery. Prison won’t stop men like this.”
They all nodded and grumbled in agreement. “I think we need to first make sure that Cheyenne and Alisse stay here in the compound. No more going to work or anywhere else,” I added.
“They’re not going to like that,”
Ink warned.
“I know but it’s not only for their protection, but for others. They could come into the Doc’s office and hurt patients or the other workers. No way either one of them is willing to let that happen. We hire some more security for the businesses. Give the employees the option on whether they work or not. So the big question is, do we bring in all hands on this?”
“I don’t think we have a choice, Reaper. Any of them could become a target for these bastards as well. It’s in all our best interests to find them and make them disappear. There’s no telling what they’ve done to other clubs over the past few years. How many people have they hurt or killed? And thinking of how they treat women and kids makes me want to tear them all limb for limb,”
Mayhem grunted.
“Do you all agree?”
They all nodded. “Okay, I’ll put calls out to Bull, Terror, Grinder, Brute, Agony, Wrath, Sean, and Jinx. Between the four Warrior chapters, two Pagans, the Marauders and Patriots, we should have more than enough resources to figure out who they have already targeted, where we can find them, and if they have others being worked on right now or is it just us.”
“Don’t know if this is the right time to bring this up or not, but we might want to consider bringing on more prospects. Not only because we could use help to guard at least the compound, but because Carter and Braxton should be ready anytime to be patched in,”
Spawn said. He was our secretary and kept track of shit like this. I groaned.
“Shit, it’s not the best time, but then again, when is? The two of them have more than done their time and deserve it. But we’d have to be even more careful to be sure the Soldiers don’t sneak in a plant on us.”
“I have a couple of guys who I can guarantee you aren’t plants. They’ve been debating whether to join us or not for a while,”
Ratchet volunteered. I raised my brows. He continued, “They’re younger twin brothers to a guy I grew up with. His name was Conroy. They’re three years younger than me, so twenty-five. Conroy was killed a couple of years ago in a drive-by in Detroit. They’ve been looking to get out ever since. I’d suggested they come here. They know bikes and were only reluctant to leave because their mom was still there. She died six months ago. They contacted me last week, asking if we were still looking for guys. I told them I’d let them know.”
“And you’re sure they couldn’t be mixed up in this somehow? Seems like a big coincidence,”
Mayhem said.
“I’m positive. The guys who shot Conroy were with an outlaw biker gang. They were in some kind of turf war with another one. No way they’d help a club do that shit.”
“Give their names and info to Spawn. Let him check them out. If he says they appear to be clean, then offer them spots and see how soon they can get here. Does that work for everyone?”
I asked. All of them rapped their knuckles on the table, affirming it was.
“Okay, another thing off the list. Spawn, I need you, Smoke, and any of the other hackers in our circle to work shoring up the cameras and electronic security on the businesses. We can’t be there every second of the day. People need to sleep, eat, rest, and work too.”
“Sure thing, Pres.”
“What we really need is to catch one of these fuckers and make him talk. I know you don’t want to use Cheyenne as bait, I wouldn’t either. But is it possible we could make it look like she was vulnerable and get our hands on one of them?”
Ink asked, giving me a leery look. He knew how I’d reacted the last time he mentioned this. I rubbed my hands down my face. My automatic reaction was to say no way, but we had to look at this from all angles.
“Fuck, I hate to agree with this. No way would I use her for real, but we might not get our hands on one of them soon enough unless we do. It would help us to figure out who they already took over and who they’re after now or next. There could be more than one team doing what Serpent and his guys are doing. I have no idea how big they are.”
“Have you asked Cheyenne if she has any ideas?”
Ink asked me.
“No, I didn’t. She hates to even think about him. He’s been after her for years, even when she was a kid. He tried to rape her when she was fifteen, before she found out her dad had basically sold her to him. Luckily, he got interrupted and was kept away from her, but only because Daddy didn’t want it to mess up his deal,”
I snarled. They all muttered and exchanged disgusted looks. “I think I’m going to have to ask her. Shit, let’s wrap this up. I’ll call the other presidents and then I’ll talk to her. Sure isn’t how I imagined spending my weekend. Ink, tell Cheyenne I’ll be out as soon as I make a few calls.”
“Sure thing.”
After they left and closed the door, I got to making those calls. I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be something we could finish in a few days, but we had to start somewhere.
***
It was over an hour later before I was done with my calls and could go find Cheyenne. I found her in the kitchen of the clubhouse with Alisse. They were just finishing up dinner. The guys were eagerly waiting to chow down. I decided to eat first then I’d take her somewhere private so we could talk. Dinner was a quiet affair and didn’t take long. The guys all volunteered to clean up the mess. I took her hand.
“Baby, let’s go for a walk. I need to talk to you.”
She gave me a concerned look but came with me. I took her past the house and back into the trees that were part of our compound. I sat her down under an old tree that had fallen there. I thought about how to start the conversation.
“Just spit it out, Holden. You have something to say and you’re worrying how to tell me.”
“Yeah, you’re right. It’s about what happened today and Serpent. We’re working on other things, but in the meantime, you and Alisse, as well as our employees, are vulnerable. We can get some help with guarding them, but it’s too dangerous for the two of you to continue to go to work right now. They could go there and innocent people could get hurt. You’re their main priority. It’s all about acquiring you anyway they can. Serpent isn’t going to stop trying, Cheyenne.”
“I know. I was thinking the same thing. Alisse and I talked about it while you guys were in church. I wouldn’t be able to stand it if someone got hurt just because I wanted to still work. She agreed. I hate to leave them shorthanded, but I think Dr. Simpson will understand.”
“I think she will too. And as soon as we get this figured out, you can go back, I promise.”
“If she needs us. But we’ll worry about that later. Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?”
“No, it’s not. I need you to tell me what you know about Serpent and what he does when he’s not stirring up things. Does he like to go to certain places or do certain things? Any hobbies or shit?”
She frowned and chewed on her lower lip as she thought. After a few minutes, she sighed and shook her head. “Nothing that I know of. All I ever saw him do was run things for the club, drink, smack women around and have sex.”
“Was he into drugs?”
“He would snort cocaine. Most of the guys did the drugs as well as sold them. Not the best business model.”
“Do you think he’s still using and if so, would he be getting his drugs from them?”
“I’d say it’s very likely he still uses. Though he’d go to his own club first, if he was in a bind or it would take too long, he’d find a local person to get his stuff. He’s not into depriving himself.”
Her remark got me thinking. Was this a way to catch him? If he was using locals, we could easily find out who and maybe set up to catch him that way.
“Good, that might help us. Now, the next thing is, we’re going to have more guys showing up soon. They’re from our friends’ clubs. They’ll be helping us keep security up. Will you and Alisse make sure we have everything we need at the clubhouse to be ready for them?”
“We can do that.”
“Thank you, babe.”
I didn’t mention finding a way to pretend to use her as bait because the drug angle made me think that would be the way to catch him. “Now, why don’t you come with me and we can go to the house? I’ve been all day without my woman, and I think we need to spend some time together.”
I helped her up off the tree. She smiled at me.
“Oh yeah, what do you want to do, watch television or read?”
she smarted off.
I smacked her ass. “Keep it up and I’ll show you what I want to do.”
“Oh, that sounds fun, let’s go so you can show me.”
She took off running. I ran after her. She was laughing as she ran. I let her think she was faster than me. I’d wait to catch her at the perfect time. I had plans to forget about this other crap for the night.