Chapter 19 Zero
ZERO
I throw my leg over my bike, the phone still in my hand. "Hang on, baby girl, we're coming. Gonna start the bike now, so I can't hear you, but I'm leaving the call open, got it? Shove it down your fucking pants if you have to, but you do the same."
My bike roars to life, just as Beast and Piston start theirs.
Badass, Animal, Preacher, Tank and Mack are with us, too.
Everyone who was in the common room when the call came in.
You don't fuck with the Screaming Eagles and expect to get away with it.
I'm sure Badass and Animal, as two of Natalie's guys, are gonna wanna have words after, but that's then. This is now.
Getting Sandra is the first priority.
Our tires squeal as we peel through the gate before straightening out and gunning it towards the location Sandra sent. How the fuck has she managed to get herself into so much trouble so quickly? Stupid fucking murder house.
Jesus Christ. If she comes outta this alive, I'm gonna kiss her stupid and then give her the spanking of her fucking life.
The light ahead is red, but we all lay on our horns. Combined with the echoing rumble of eight bikes roaring down the street like the Devil's on our fucking heels, all traffic stands still and we blow through it uncontested. The GPS said ten minutes. The door won’t last that long.
I crank the throttle, pulling away from the rest for just long enough for them to realize I sped up, and then we're barreling down the street like a fucking army. It bothers me to run in blind, but this isn’t a precision strike.
Sometimes the best strategy is to hit hard and fast, overpower the enemy before they have a chance to get ready.
My bike skips when I hit a turn, going too fast for the tires to hang on.
Fuck.
I manage to get a grip again just before I slam into the curb.
With a squeal I correct, sliding back into the center of the lane before twisting the throttle.
Houses blur into a streak as we zoom past, praying that she's fucking okay.
Whoever's in the house with her better hope they haven’t touched a hair on her fucking head, because if she's not okay, shit's about to get real ugly.
Torture was never my area of expertise, but my time as a merc taught me a lot of neat tricks, and for a special occasion like this, I'd be happy to demonstrate.
We’re almost there. Just one more corner and then…
There! There's a van with the dog shelter logo on the side.
At least we're in the right place. I skid to a stop and jump off the bike, running for the door and trusting that the others are on my heels. A dog lunges towards us, barking and snapping. Lucky for us, it’s chained to a stake and forced to watch us invade its home.
"Sandra, are you there?" I yell at my phone. The call is still active, but I'm not getting an answer. Fuck. I try the door, but it's locked.
"Step back." Piston is there, his piece out. As soon as I'm out of the way, he pulls the trigger twice and blows the lock to pieces, leaving a splintered hole in the door. The shots are still echoing through the neighborhood when we slam through the door.
The house looks empty. I don't believe it for a fucking second.
She said she was in the upstairs bathroom.
"Animal, Badass, take the kitchen." I point at the room at the end of the hall.
"Mack, Preacher and Tank, secure the first floor.
Piston and Beast, with me." Then I thunder up the stairs, with the two of them right behind.
Yelling and the sounds of a fight drift up from downstairs.
The door to the bathroom at the top of the stairs has been pulled straight off the hinges.
No one's in sight, but there's a phone on the floor with a cracked screen.
Fuck. Just to be sure, I pick it up. Still in a conversation with me.
I hang up on both of them. "She can't be far.
We weren't that long, and they hadn't broken through yet. "
Beast nods, already heading for the closest door with his gun out. One solid kick, and the door slams open to reveal a bedroom. No one. "Check under the bed," he growls, aiming his gun to cover, while Piston drops to look.
"Clear."
They might be gone, but my instinct tells me no. If they'd fucked off, then whoever was downstairs wouldn't have been caught out by the others. "They're still here. I can feel it in my fucking bones."
Piston nods. "If I've learned anything since we started working together, it's to trust your hunches. We'll find her."
Beast pounds the door frame loud enough that I think he just shook the whole fucking house, then yells, "Whoever the fuck you are, and wherever the fuck you are, for every hair on her fucking head that you’ve touched, we’re going to peel off a strip of your motherfucking skin!"
“Damn, son,” I say with a low whistle. “That’s rough.”
There's a thump behind one of the other doors, followed by a hissed, "Fuck!" A man's voice.
We don't even think about it. Beast kicks the door open, and I'm the first one through, rolling in, with my gun tucked until I stop at the other side of the room.
There's a bed in here, and Sandra is hunched down behind it along with the guy we kicked the ass of for pushing Sandra around at work.
The same asshole we saw at the scrapyard.
He jumps, giving Sandra a moment to sink her teeth into his forearm. The guy howls and tries to shake her off but she’s dug in like a badger with something to prove. He's got a gun to her head, but we all know that if he fires now, he's a dead man. I aim mine right at his fucking forehead.
"Put your gun down." I can take out a quarter thrown in the air at fifty yards. It'd be easy enough to put a bullet right between his beady little eyes, but I can't risk him twitching so his gun goes off.
He hisses with pain. "Then tell her to get her damn teeth outta my arm."
"What the fuck was your name?" Piston cocks his head, staring at him. "Pete? Keith?"
“Zeke,” Beast supplies.
“Right! Zeke! Sorry about your dog, Zeke, but look on the bright side, I don’t think hell allows pets anyway.”
The guy looks like he wants to throw a reply back, but he's too busy gritting his teeth together to keep from screaming. Sandra looks me dead in the eyes and raises her hand. Three fingers, two fingers, one finger.
Just as her last finger goes down, she ducks and I pull the trigger.
Blood paints the wall behind him in a spatter as the bullet exits the back of his head. His hand drops to the floor, the gun clattering away as it falls from his lifeless fingers.
Sandra blinks, her eyes wide as saucers as she realizes what just happened. She lets his arm drop, blood on her lips, her expression oddly empty.
"Baby girl." I snap my fingers to get her attention. “Stick with us, honey. Freak out later. You okay? Has he hurt you?"
She freezes for a long moment as she seriously considers my question. Her chest rises and falls quickly, still in the claws of adrenaline. "No… no, I don't think so." Then she turns her head, leans over, and loses whatever was in her stomach.
"Eyes on me! There's nothing back there you need to look at." I put my gun away and hold out my hand. "Come here."
I get a little nod, then she wipes her mouth on her sleeve and reaches for me.
I pull her to her feet and yank her in tight, squeezing her against me like I'm never gonna fucking let her go again.
She hiccups. “H-he…” A deep breath and then another.
She grabs my shirt and clings to me, pressing her face into my chest. Tears wet the front of my shirt, and all I can do is hold her.
Piston rips the blanket off the bed and throws it over the dead guy. Even covered, we use ourselves to shield Sandra from seeing the body as we gently guide her out of the room. She’s still sniffling and clinging to my hand like a lifeline, but she’s moving and we need her the fuck outta here.
"Everything good?" Mack's at the top of the stairs, gun out and giving us a hard look.
"All clear up here." Beast runs his fingers through her hair, petting her gently. "How’s it down there?"
"Got three guys. None of them tried anything stupid so they're still alive." Mack glances over at Sandra again. "We leaving them that way?"
Piston nods. "Bring in whichever looks the smartest.”
“Okay, but just warning you, not a great selection,” Badass says with a smirk.
He comes back holding a scrawny guy by the back of his shirt. “How about this one?”
“Good enough.” I step in close, looking him up and down with disdain. “Bet you think you’re about to join poor Zeke in the afterlife, aren’t you?”
The guy whimpers.
“Bloodmoney, right?”
He nods.
“I want you to go back to whoever you report to and send a message. We have our eyes on you. One of you touched one of mine and I don’t take kindly to that.”
“S—she came to us!” he whines.
“I don’t fucking care.”
"Buncha dogs out back and a fighting ring." Mack's sour expression makes it clear exactly how he feels about that. "You guys get her somewhere safe. We'll clean this place up. Badass called in a few more boys to help. Gotta get it done fast."
The whole time, we haven't taken our hands off Sandra for a fucking second. She takes a deep breath. “I can tell you who to call to collect the dogs. Our shelter isn’t big enough, and Travis… My boss brought dogs here. There’s no way he didn’t know what was going on.
I wasn’t sure until I saw that guy who came to the shelter, but when I told them Travis sent me, they invited me in right away. ”
I'm about to say some choice words, but Beast beats me to it. "What the fuck were you thinking? You went there fucking alone? Right into their fucking house?"
“I know, okay? But dropping by foster homes is a part of the job. The worst thing that’s ever happened to me is getting food poisoning from someone who made me eat their leftover lasagne.”
Piston puts his palm on Beast's chest, signaling for him to pull back. Beast nods.
I make sure she’s listening to me. "Sandra, we’re gonna bring you back to the club where you can stick around until we’re comfortable that you aren’t going to have a panic attack.
And then later? We’ll talk about this. I feel like I was real fucking clear this morning, but maybe we need to go over it again.
You don't do anything like this without us. Is that clear?”
She nods.
"Say it."
"I won’t do anything without you."
"Good girl. Now let's go home."
Piston raises his hand. "You guys go ahead. I got a loose end to tie up before I catch up. I'll be quick." His tone is casual, but I've seen that look on his face before. I have my suspicions, but I'm not gonna worry Sandra. She's been through more than enough today.
Beast catches my eye, and I know he's caught it too. "You want a hand?" he asks like they're making a beer run or something.
"Nah, I'm good. You guys see to Sandra, and I'll be there soon."
"Sounds good. See ya at the club then."
It’s probably just as well that Sandra is distracted and not putting two and two together. Some things are better saved for later.