Chapter Ten #2
I wrapped one of the rags around the end of the wooden pole and swung it at the window.
The glass exploded outward, and I was sure the sound was loud enough to be heard for miles. I threw a fearful glance back at the door before using a handful of rags to knock the rest of the glass out.
Slicing an artery while trying to escape defeats the purpose .
I could hear Beast’s grumpy voice in my head, telling us to make sure to pad the edges of the hole if we were trying to climb out of a broken window.
I quickly lined the edges of the window with the remaining rags and hoisted myself through the gap.
I landed awkwardly on the glass-covered grass on the other side, gaining a few nasty scratches on my bare arms. Thankfully, I was wearing long pants, socks, and shoes or it could have been much worse.
Throwing a panicked glance behind me, I stumbled to my feet and headed into the woods.
* * *
Thor
They took Janet . Those words sent a dagger right through my heart.
Janet was in danger. Because of me.
This was the second time she’d been kidnapped for the sake of someone else. The first time, she’d been used as bait when the real target was her BFF, Sophia. This time I had no doubt it was because of me.
I surged to my feet and made a rush toward the door, but Rattler caught me by the arm. “Slow down, bro. Think. You have no idea where she is, or even if it’s really about you. Could be her family. Remember what Shadow found?”
“I don’t a flying fuck who took her or why. I’m going to get her back.”
“You can’t get her back until we figure out where she is.” Ace sounded way too fucking calm for my liking.
“She have her phone on her?” Shadow flipped open the laptop he’d brought with him.
I shrugged. “Maybe. Unless they took it.”
His fingers flew across the keyboard. He paused, staring at the screen. “Got it.”
“You know where she is?” Rattler relaxed his grip.
“I know where her phone is, and given the location if it’s not on her, then it’s close. There’s a chunk of property northeast of here with not much on it except some abandoned sharecropper’s cabins. The signal’s coming from one of those.”
I made a move toward the door, and once again Rattler stopped me. “We need a plan. You rush in there, you’re just giving them what they want and there’s no guarantee they’ll let Janet go once they have you.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He was right and I knew it. Didn’t make me happy. “So what’s your plan?”
Ace looked around. “Anyone?”
Beast stood up. “They know he’s a biker.
I say half a dozen of us go in the front way, loud pipes, not attempting to hide who we are or that we’re coming.
The rest sneak in the back, get Janet out, and once she’s free we kill the assholes.
Of course, we interrogate them first to make sure we get the whole crew.
We can always hunt down any loose ends and take care of them later. ”
Sounded like a good plan to me. “I want to be the one to take the fuckers out. Once I have Janet safe.”
Ace looked around the room. “We vote on it. Who’s for Beast’s plan?”
The vote was unanimous.
“Who’s for letting Thor take care of loose ends, with whatever help he needs?”
Again, all hands went up. We worked on democratic principles, but there were no such thing as secret ballots.
Votes were by show of hands. If you voted on something you needed to be willing to stand behind your decision.
The Prez might run the club, but major decisions were decided by a majority vote.
“Who’s in the rescue group?” Deuce ground out the question. “She’s my old lady’s BFF. If I ever want to get laid again, I need to make sure she gets back here safely.”
Ace nodded. “Fair enough. That makes you and Thor. Who else?”
“I want to be in the frontal assault.” The smile on Beast’s face was terrifying. “I want to scare the shit out of those assholes before we send them to hell.”
“I’ll go with Thor, and Shadow should come as well.
He can sneak in and out better than any of us,” Ghost spoke up.
He’d just transferred in from our sister club up in Tennessee and usually didn’t say much at church.
I didn’t know his whole story, just that he’d been in jail for a few years and when he came out, he wanted a fresh start in a new place.
The Prez of the Tennessee club assured us what went down wasn’t his fault.
Ace nodded. “Done. Thor, Deuce, Ghost, and Shadow go in quietly. When they let us know they’re in position, the rest of us blaze in the front making as much noise as possible. Should draw the assholes attention long enough for them to get Janet out.”
Prez closed the meeting, and I headed back to the clubhouse to get my gear.
I donned my bulletproof vest under my cut.
If I had been wearing it that night in the alley, I wouldn’t have been wounded.
I checked the load in my pistol before sliding it into the shoulder holster and tucked my favorite knife into my boot.
I slung a couple spare clips in my ammo pouch, tossed it over my shoulder, and headed out.
We were ready in minutes. The cabin Shadow had tagged was a bare twenty minutes from the compound.
The main assault party waited far enough away that the sound of their bikes wouldn’t tip the thugs off.
The four of us in the rescue group parked a mile out and hiked in through the woods.
We were almost in sight of the cabin when we heard a rustling sound in the bushes up ahead.
Probably a wild animal of some sort, but I wasn’t taking any chances with Janet’s life at stake.
I held up my hand to signal the team to halt and crept forward. As I got closer, the noise stopped.
Had the assholes actually been smart enough to set a perimeter guard ?
If they had, I prayed the guy hadn’t caught wind of us and sent a warning back to the cabin.
I crawled forward on my belly, making as little sound as possible. As I got closer, I caught a glimpse of a person.
I blinked.
No !
Janet !
She was crouched down in the middle of a clump of weeds and would have been almost invisible if I’d been standing up. She wasn’t moving, and her attention focused forward, away from me. In her right hand, she clutched a wooden stick about four feet long. It looked like the handle of a broom.
I took a deep breath to calm myself. I wanted to jump for joy and grab her and never let her go. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option in the current circumstances. I needed to get her attention without scaring her. I thought for a moment and then started to hum her favorite song.
I had no fucking musical ability at all. I was always off-key. It was a long-running joke between us.
I saw her head come up and slowly pivot until she was looking right at me. Her whole face lit up, but I held a finger to my lips to make sure she knew she had to keep quiet. I had no idea how the hell she’d escaped, but we weren’t out of danger yet.
I took out my phone and fired off a text to Ace to let him know Janet was safe and they were good to go. Putting the phone away, I motioned Janet to move back to me.
She crawled back and collapsed against me. I wrapped her in my arms and held her tight. I could have lost her. Shit. Those assholes could have tortured her, raped her, done any fucking thing their depraved minds could come up with. And all because I’d failed to keep her safe.
“I knew you’d come for me.” She whispered the words against my throat.
“Damn right I came for you.” I frowned. “You should have been safe in the compound.”
The sound of approaching motorcycles drowned out her reply. Ace and the Riptide crowd were moving in. Between the bikes and the sound of gunfire it was impossible to talk. I motioned my team to move out. We’d accomplished our objective, albeit faster and easier than we’d expected. Janet was safe.
We made it back to the rendezvous point at double time, safely out of gunfire range. Shadow, Deuce, and Ghost stayed right with us, making sure there weren’t any nasty surprises coming our way. Our bikes were right where we’d left them with Tiny guarding them.
“Any problems?” I asked.
Tiny shook his head. “Haven’t seen a soul since you left.”
“Good.”
The gunfire in the distance died off and my phone pinged, signaling an incoming text from Rattler.
Threat neutralized. All clear. Meet and debrief at the compound .
I looked at Shadow, Deuce, and Ghost. “We’re headed back to the compound.”
“Wait!” Janet grabbed my arm. “You need to know you have a traitor back at your clubhouse.”
Everyone turned to look at her. I frowned. “A traitor?”
She nodded. “Yes. I heard the kidnappers talking. Someone named Sketch or Skeetch, maybe. It was a little hard to hear through the door, but they said he let them into the compound so they could grab me. They were laughing, saying you guys thought you were so close and yet one of you was willing to sell you out.”
I exchanged a look with Deuce, Ghost, and Shadow.
That explained a lot. No one should have been able to breach our perimeter.
I had no idea why a prospect would have done that, but it would be his last mistake.
I fired off a quick text to Beast. By the time we got back, Sketch wouldn’t be a problem.
“Thanks, we’ll take care of it. He won’t be doing anything like that again.” I handed Janet her helmet. “I don’t suppose they mentioned what their issue with me was?”
She shook her head before slipping the helmet on. Flipping the face shield up. “Sounded like someone hired them, but I didn’t hear a name.”
“That’s okay. We’ll figure it out.” I put my own helmet on and threw a leg over the bike. Janet climbed on behind me and we headed back to the compound, riding formation between Ghost, Deuce, and Shadow.
Two of the prospects were at the gate, and they opened them up so we could ride through. Sketch wasn’t one of them. I tried to remember why we called him Sketch, but I drew a complete blank. It didn’t matter. He’d betrayed the club, his brothers. There was no going back from that.
The other team had made it back before us.
I could see Ace’s bike sitting alongside Rattler’s as well as the rest of the brothers who’d gone with them.
I pulled my bike up alongside them and glanced up as Jake came out onto the porch.
He nodded his head ever so slightly in the direction of the interrogation shed.
That meant the team had brought back at least one person to question.
Good. Because I wanted answers and I wasn’t overly squeamish about how I got them.
When whoever the fuck was behind this escalated to include a woman, they gave up any chance of Riptide showing mercy.
There was an unwritten rule in the MC world that excluded old ladies and all the other females from attack.
“You should go let Ace know you’re back. Janet, you okay?” Jake leaned against the porch railing.
“I’m fine, thanks. Just a little shaken up.” Janet lifted her helmet off and grinned at the old man. “I escaped all by myself this time. Beast will be proud of me.”
We held hands as we climbed the stairs.
“I’m sure he will.” Jake reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone. “This is for you. It’s got Thor’s number in it already, along with a few others, just to get you started.”
Janet looked from the phone to Jake. “You got me a new phone?”
He shrugged. “You need to be able to call if you need help. Shadow said your old one was toast. The kidnappers smashed it, but they didn’t do a good enough job. The tracker was still active. That’s how they found you so fast.”
I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in close. “She was waiting for us in the woods. Didn’t even have to go near the place. To hell with Beast, I’m proud of her.” I dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
Mom was waiting in the kitchen. When we entered, she threw her arms around Janet and hugged her tight. “I was so worried! You have got to stop getting yourself kidnapped!”
Janet hugged her right back. “I intend to. Any idea how I go about that, because I thought I was doing everything right and they still got me.”
Mom’s face turned grim as she narrowed her eyes, pinning me with her gaze over Janet’s shoulder.
“Well, that’s been taken care of. You won’t be seeing Sketch around here anymore.
” She sighed. “I could understand if they had something over him, like threatening his family or something, but he did it for money.” She shook her head.
“Like money is worth more than what Riptide can offer.”
Jake wandered in and snatched a warm cookie from the counter. “Amen to that. But she’s home and she’s safe so let’s just be thankful.”
I agreed with Jake. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how I’d deal with it if something had happened to her. I cleared my throat to get her attention. Both Janet and Mom turned to look at me.
“I hate to do this when we just got here, but I need to go check in with Ace. You okay with Mom and Jake?”
Janet nodded. “What I really want is a shower. I’ll just head up to your room and wait for you there, okay?”
I immediately pictured her naked with water streaming down over her breasts. “Yeah. I’ll be as fast as I can.”
“You do that.” She grinned and blew me a kiss.