CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
-:- RUGER -:-
Sitting in Axel’s office, we are all listening to Specs on his laptop speaking with Graham, who is following Penny. My heart is racing, and I can’t sit any longer. Jumping to my feet I pace the office. My whole body is alert to what is happening.
Specs: Stay close to the truck. If it gets too close take out the tires.
Graham: Will do. Tank is ready to drop in if needed.
Richie: I’m close and can take out the bitch.
Specs: Richie, do you have visual?
Richie: I had visuals at the last junction. It’s the psycho alright.
Graham: Penny has put her foot to the floor. You’ll have her at the compound in four minutes. Make sure the gate is open.
Specs: It’s open. Specs has hit a few buttons, and I’m sure that’s ensuring the gate is open and ready.
Axel taps the desk. “Ruger, Wings, Buzz, BS, get to the van and follow the bitch when she passes. Get her to Nell’s anyway you can. I don’t give a fuck if she’s dead or alive.”
I’m in the back of the van with BS, and we are hanging onto the sides where we’ve had straps attached for just this type of situation. The van is being thrown around, and us with it.
“For fuck’s sake!” BS exclaims as he hangs on tightly. “Those two forget we are back here?”
I chuckle because the look on BS’s face is hilarious. But the adrenaline rush is flowing, and I’m hoping to get my hands on this bitch. “Just hang on, man, we’ll be okay.” I do my best to hang on to a strap myself when we go around a curve in the road.
The van stops sharply, and both myself and BS curse as we hang on for dear life.
But the back door is flung open, and we haul ass out of the van and follow Buzz who is right behind Wings.
I’m not sure what the fuck is happening, but I leg it after the two of them while hearing BS moaning about how much he hates running.
I can’t help but smirk as I shout over my shoulder, “COME ON, OLD MAN, OR I’M GONNA TELL KYA SHE NEEDS A NEW MODEL!
” I cackle as I speed up, pumping my arms and legs.
Running into a field, I see Rosemarie in front of Buzz and Wings who are both catching up to her. The slippery bitch runs over to a parked vehicle and jumps inside, screaming about being trafficked. We stop when that vehicle takes off like its ass is on fire.
“Goddamn, fuck…” I snarl as I stop, placing my hands on my knees while drawing in a lungful of breath.
“We’ll get her, Ruger. She’s going to try again, and we’ll be ready when she does,” Wings states, but we can all see he’s as pissed as I am that she got away.
Walking back to the van my mind wandered to last night at work, and nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Neither I nor Holt who I was teamed with were alerted to any problems. We had a good look at the burned-out shell of the warehouse but saw nothing untoward.
We’ll have to see what develops with this client and the distribution, but I’d bet my last dime Vitale will sort the fucker out.
Rosemarie it seems is targeting Penny, and not me. I half expected her to show herself sometime during the night. She’s playing her cards close to her chest, and I hope Penny is taking this seriously enough.
“Fuck’s sake…” BS snarls. “All that fuckin’ running for nothing.” We all turn and look at BS before bursting out laughing. You can be sure we give him grief over his moaning about running. Buzz promises he’s going to be doing more running during training from now on too.
Back at the clubhouse I find out that we’ve had dress-up going on.
Now I wish I’d seen Penny’s face when she walked in on that.
All of us here are not even surprised these days if a Viking warrior, Eskimo, Native American, a Flintstone, or something else appears.
It’s just life living with Meat and now Star.
But we’d rather this than see Meat take himself back to the psych ward.
Peeking in on Penny and Punkin, I’m delighted to see they are both sleeping. I’m going to leave them like that for now. It’s been a busy day for everyone, and with being at work during last night I’m tired myself. Maybe I’ll lie down and snuggle for a while. Shit, I thought snuggle!
I didn’t hear Penny rise in the night as she took care of Punkin. I must have slept like the dead, fully clothed too. Once awake and seeing I’m alone, I quickly strip off my clothes, take a shower and get ready for the day.
I head downstairs, but before I reach the kitchen, I hear shouts to get outside and to the main gate. I run outside, following brothers to see what the commotion is about. What we didn’t expect to see was a body on the outside of the gate. Thank God it’s not inside the compound.
Axel growls, “Is he dead?”
Stitch bends down and tests the man’s pulse. “No, he’s alive, but his pulse is weak. Let’s get him inside, and I’ll do what I can.”
“Get him inside, and contact Forest.” Axel snarls. We can all see he’s pissed about this situation.
Following behind Stitch and Wings who are carrying the man between them.
I have to wonder who this man is? I don’t recognize him, but then he’s battered so badly I’m not sure anyone could.
His face is so swollen I’m sure Stitch is going to have to make a cut above one of his eyes to release the pressure.
Standing outside the medical room along with Mav, Knuckles and other brothers, we all stand quietly waiting.
Axel is in his office while Specs is checking the camera feed to see who dumped the man.
I’m sure he’ll be checking all the camera feeds in town to see where this man came from and who else is involved.
It is three hours before Stitch and Wings walk out of the medical room. Both look tired, and Stitch looks like he wants to murder someone. We watch them both walk over and into Axel’s office. As they don’t close the door, we all huddle to hear what the fuck is going on.
“Pres, the man is going to be okay. I’ve sedated him for now, and I have IVs set up for the pain. He was able to tell us who did this to him.” Taking a deep breath, Stitch opens his mouth again to continue.
Wings butts in with a vicious snarl. “That bastard Anderson did this, you know the fuckin’ distributor. I’m going to take him out, and I’m gonna skin him alive first.”
Axel slowly stands, and we can all see steam coming out of his ears. “SPECS…FIND FUCKING ANDERSON, NOW!!”
“ON IT, PRES.” We all hear shouted in reply.
“Lock down the clubhouse. I want every woman and child in the compound in an hour. That also means Nyx’s old women because they are as fuckin’ crazy as the three we have here,” Axel snaps, but we can tell he’s worried about Anderson getting to them.
“Every brother gets here and waits for my next order.”
We all disappear when we see Axel is not going to say more. In fact, he’s picked up his phone and I hear, ‘Vitale’.
An hour later, the clubhouse is heaving with women, children and brothers. We notice Meat and Star missing and after checking outside Meat is in full military gear, along with Star, on the walkaround of the treehouse and a sniper rifle set up ready for use.
Winter has her sniper rifle, and I notice Target and Colton have theirs.
This is becoming serious, and I mean close to war serious.
After checking Penny is safe with Punkin in the playroom, I check the kitchen.
Now, anyone would think a party is going on with the old women laughing and having a real good time.
Poor Jack is doing his best to contain them in one area, but as fast as he gets one to the tables he’s set on one side of the room, he has to chase another one.
“Snipers get into positions,” Axel, in full President mode states as he enters the common room. “Everyone else arm up, we have incoming. Be ready and guard the compound and the clubhouse.”
Axel is armed along with Drag, Buzz, Wings, BS, TwoCents and PT. All officers that can bring up arms as and when in this situation. Specs is on full-alert in his office, and he’ll have every monitor working.
Lincoln steps into the clubhouse through the front door and steps over to Axel. “I’ve got the security team on alert, and Delta is monitoring from the business. She’ll link up with Specs so if one sees something the other doesn’t they can keep information flowing.”
The door opens again, and Tank, Richie and Graham storm inside, and you know you have to hold in the laughter when Graham walks right up to Axel with a huge smirk.
“We heard, we’re here, and we’re ready.” Oh, they are ready all right, they look like something out of a movie. They have weaponry dripping off them.
“Fuck’s sake, who said you three could come?” Axel snarls, but we can all see he is struggling not to smile.
“Well, we’re not brothers, but we are allies, and that means we step up, and we stepped…here we are, ready, willing, and able.” Graham gives the toothiest grin I’ve ever seen. “Oh, Nell said to tell you she’s got everything prepped and ready.” Now we all know what that means.
Axel’s phone rings, and stops anything else he was going to say. He listens but adds nothing to the one-sided conversation that is going on. Putting his phone slowly into the back pocket of his jeans, he bellows, “WAR! WE ARE AT WAR!”
Everyone knows what that means, and we all head to our areas.
Areas we'd been given years previously and taught to defend to our last breath. I’m with Mav, and we both hunker down on the right side of the clubhouse.
We open up the dugouts that thankfully we’ve not used in years, although kept in prime condition.
Lifting the grassed-over area, the metal lid of the dugout serves as a blockade, stopping any bullets that may fly our way.
“What do you think’s going on?” Mav asks, keeping his voice low.
“That Anderson fucker did that to Mr. Stoker. Dropping him here had to be a warning to stay out of his business. Not sure Pres will take that well.” I chuckle as we both know Axel would never bend to an asshole like Anderson.