Chapter 35
Smokehouse
I pulled my bike over next to the two vehicles that had been abandoned on the side of the road. I wasn’t sure how far behind them we were, but Cynic, Toxic’s cousin from Wyoming, had only seen one car that took Dani. What were these others doing here?
The hairs rose on the back of my neck when I saw the damage on Eli’s car. There was no doubt it was his, I’d seen it both days I’d gone to his home.
“What the fuck?” Hell muttered as he got off his bike.
We’d left Bear, Mel, Dash, George and the Austin guys back at the clubhouse to protect the families while the rest of us went after Dani. We thought we’d be chasing down Eli, and there were plenty of us for that.
“Amato’s men,” Lock said, voice as grim as the look on his face.
“Has to be,” I agreed. “Who else would be fighting Eli to get to Dani?”
“Let’s go,” Butcher growled. “It’s time I got my hands on these motherfuckers. If they think they can put their hands on our females, I’m going to show them why they’re wrong.”
Lockout sighed. “It’s open fucking desert out there. We’ll follow their tracks as far as we can, then split up to look for them. Hush? Can you follow them?”
Hush was a master tracker. He was good at finding people. The only one who was better was Seek and her dogs. She was the last person we were letting out here right now, though. We’d do our best to find these mafia fucks and dispose of them.
“Sure thing, Prez,” Hush said.
Toxic went to his bike and started pulling flashlights out of his saddlebags. Priest’s brows rose when he handed them over. “That’s being prepared.”
Toxic snorted, then shot Riptide a look. “After running around that cult compound in the fucking dark, I started bringing my own damn light. We had to set buildings on fire just to see.” He passed a handful of magazines over as well. “No one ever thinks we’ll stumble into a firefight.”
Our chuckles were low and grim. If Amato’s men thought we weren’t up for a war out in the desert they were sorely mistaken. We’d already had a trial run.
We all drew our pistols, not one of us went anywhere without them, and stalked along as Hush followed the shoe prints in the dirt. We only made it about a quarter of a mile before we found the body.
“Fuck,” I hissed as I rushed toward the body on the ground. When Hush’s light flashed over it, I heaved a sigh of relief. “It’s just Eli.”
“Spread out in this area,” Lock said. “See if you can find anyone.”
I was minutes away from hurling as hard as Dani had been for the last month. The thought of losing her was killing me. There was a tiny shining beacon of hope inside of me. Dani was smart. If she managed to get away, we might be able to find her before they did.
“Fuck, please,” I muttered.
“You okay?” Ricochet asked, coming over to me.
There was a resignation in his eyes. A look that said he understood what I’d end up doing if we didn’t find Dani anything but healthy and whole at the end of this.
He knew I’d go after the mafia with a single minded focus that would end with them, and likely me, dead.
Nothing would take my family from me and continue to draw breath.
“Found the trail,” Butcher called out in a hushed voice.
I gave Ricochet a brief nod as we all hurried over to continue hunting our prey. There was no way for me to prepare for what we might find. I only hoped that once we ran them down Dani could get out of the way of the upcoming fight.
We jogged behind Hush as he pushed us faster up the trail.
The hard packed dirt had turned to softer sand the further we got from the road and he was able to follow it easier.
I was directly behind him, watching out front as he focused on the ground.
We were running in more of a group than a line.
Each of us wanted the chance to kill the men who were chasing my girl.
I saw a brief flash of light. It was one of Amato’s, waving his flashlight around.
“There!” I broke off to the right and the group of men up ahead busted apart, running in all different directions.
Fuck. In my excitement I gave away the element of surprise.
No matter. I locked eyes on the nearest one and closed in on him too fast for him to know what happened.
I slammed into him, my pistol pressed into his stomach, firing into him as I brought him to the ground.
We all knew we had to be careful. We couldn’t just fire blindly into the night. My brothers were spread out across the desert now, stalking their prey. If I fired and missed I could hit one of them. Or worse, mistake the wrong silhouette in the dark. We didn’t need to end up shooting each other.
The darkness was a blessing as all lights went out while we battled.
Flashlights were a target. I snuck around a bush and let out a muffled shout as someone tackled me.
Struggling with him in the sand, I landed a punch and managed to flip him beneath me.
I knew by the soft fabric it wasn’t one of my brothers.
If it was them, I’d be holding onto leather.
My fist plowed into his face. He’d knocked my gun away into the darkness when he’d hit me like a freight train. We rolled as we fought for the dominant position, but I was busy reaching down into my boot. My grin was sharp as I pulled my knife out of the sheath I had there.
The man under me grunted as I stuck him between the ribs.
I knew I hit his lung when he let out a gurgle.
As much as I wanted to rake my blade over him again and again, I didn’t have time.
Dani didn’t have time. My girl was definitely the wildcat I’d named her for, but she couldn’t hold out against a bunch of trained mafia men.
Sinking the blade into the man’s neck, I waited until he stopped moving before I found my feet again. I searched through the darkness and found my gun. I ran down the side of a wash, following a shadowed figure in front of me. There was no way to tell who it was.
I caught up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder. As soon as I felt leather I let him go. “It’s Smoke.”
“Fucking A, Smokehouse,” Butcher snapped. “I almost gutted you. Don’t fucking grab me.”
“How was I supposed to know it was-”
A scream pierced the air, cutting me off. I tensed. It was Dani.
“That came from up there.” Butcher pointed out ahead of us.
We broke into a run, heading toward where the scream came from.
I pulled my flashlight out, turned it on and chucked it into the desert. With any luck the light would distract any other of Amato’s men and draw them away from Dani. Butcher and I kept running toward the noise.
“You stupid cunt!”
Two of the men had a flashlight on now that they were down in the wash. The walls kept the light from giving them away from the ground above. A man with a large scar on his face had my girl in his grip. Blood dripped down his face from claw marks that she’d inflicted on him.
Good girl. She hadn’t gone easily. She was struggling, trying to get out of his hold. She was covered in dirt and debris and there were drag marks in the sand nearby. She’d been hiding in a small cave in the side of the wash’s wall.
Butcher came in like a fucking ghost, darting into the light and slicing up the men holding the lights on Dani.
Butcher was handling them, so I focused on the guy holding Dani as I ran forward.
When he backhanded her, sending her sprawling backward away from him, I snarled like an animal who was hell bent on ripping this man apart.
I hit him, grabbing the wrist that was on a downward arc. He had a knife in his hand now and had been about to stab her. “Run,” I bellowed at her.
Instead of listening, she launched herself at the guy’s legs and his scream nearly deafened me. She’d bit into his thigh. More shadows dashed down into the wash, but I was too busy to figure out if they were friend or foe.
I glared at the man in front of me, twisting his hand until he dropped the knife and pushing his arm backward until it snapped.
He yelled again and tried to bring his free arm up.
He had a gun this time. I grabbed his other wrist, dropping his useless dangling arm, and pulled the gun from his hand and pressed it into his temple. “Why is your boss trying to kill her?”
“She cost us thousands,” he gasped.
“That’s it? For money? Your boss is willing to kill a pregnant woman because of money?”
The man’s smile was evil. “He’d kill a pregnant woman just to drink her blood. Then he’d fuck her corpse. She’s as good as dead. He’ll never let her get away with the way she insulted him.”
“He won’t get the chance,” I replied. Dropping the gun, I grabbed his head in my hands.
“He will. We’ll kill her.”
“Either way, you won’t be there.” I twisted with all my strength and satisfaction surged as his neck snapped beneath my hands.
A gasp drew my gaze to where Dani was huddled in the sand, watching us. “Hey, Wildcat. It’s okay. You’re okay now.” I didn’t bother to look around. We didn’t know how many mafia men were out here, but I knew my brothers were taking care of them. I held my hand out to her.
She looked down at my hand. I flinched when I realized she just watched me kill a man with them. “I-”
There was no chance to tell her I was sorry she’d seen that. She launched herself at me. Catching her in my arms, I sighed in relief as she sobbed against my chest. She curled into me, all but trying to crawl beneath my skin. “You’re safe.”
“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I couldn't fight Eli off. Then these guys showed up.”
“Shhh,” I hushed her, running my hand over her head. “None of this is your fault. We’re fine. Everyone is okay.” I hoped that was true. There was a lot of potential that one of the mafia men had gotten the drop on my brothers.
“Everyone is safe,” Lock said from behind me. I knew then that they were gathered around us.
The flashlights lit up the area as I consoled Dani. “We should get back home, Dani. Let’s go.” I swung her up into my arms and carried her all the way back to the bikes.
“I’m so sorry,” she breathed again. Her tears were slowing.
She didn’t realize that there was nothing to apologize about. I’d kill every person in Amato’s organization to protect her. It was likely to come to that with what the man had said. We’d already suspected it, had tried to avoid it with Fremont, but a war was coming.