Chapter 7 Bush
“What’s up?” I ask as I answer the call from Chrome.
“We’re at the hotel. There are three bikes parked out front. I’m guessing that means they’re still here. I thought you might like to hear the conversation,” Chrome replies.
“I do. Good thinking. Want me to record it?”
“Ice has it under control.”
I open the door to my room and step inside as I hear the sounds change on the other end of the call, telling me they’ve entered the hotel lobby.
“There they are,” I hear Ice say.
“I’ve got them,” Chrome replies.
The only sound on the other end is the ambient noise of the hotel lobby.
“Didn’t expect visitors from Adelaide,” Chrome says. Neutral. Not friendly. Not hostile. Just a fact. “Especially not in my city.”
Menace doesn’t rush his reply. I can hear movement on his end—boots, hands slapping together. “Chicago’s a big place. Easy to wander into if you’re crossing oceans.”
“Chicago’s my place,” Chrome says. “And you didn’t wander. You rode straight in with colors showing.”
A low chuckle. “Didn’t want there to be misunderstandings.”
Ice cuts in, his voice sharp in the background. “Showing up in another president’s territory without notice is one way to cause one.”
Chrome lifts a hand—I hear the faint rustle. “Easy.”
Menace exhales through his nose. “We’re not here for you, Chrome. Or your club.”
“Then you won’t mind explaining why you’re here,” Chrome replies.
Another pause. Longer this time. “We’re looking for a friend.”
That word lands wrong. My jaw tightens.
“A friend? If they’re a friend, why are they hiding?” Chrome asks.
“Not hiding. They just don’t know we’re here. This friend disappeared when we were otherwise engaged. They didn’t even say goodbye.”
Piston mutters something I can’t quite catch. Arson laughs once, short and humorless.
Chrome’s voice hardens a degree. “You’ve come a long way to get a simple goodbye. Seems like a phone call would have been enough.”
“Not in this case. This person owes us. They left the country after making a mess of things. They took something that belonged to us. We’re simply here to collect.”
Silence stretches. My pulse thumps loud enough that I’m sure they can hear it through the phone.
Chrome finally speaks. “Sounds like Bushranger business.”
“It was,” Menace agrees. “Until it crossed borders.”
“And now you’re standing in my backyard,” Chrome says. “Looking for someone who probably doesn’t want to be found. Maybe it would be better if you cut your losses and moved on.”
Menace’s tone sharpens. “That’s where we disagree.”
I hear another voice—Jinx, maybe—murmuring too low to make out. Hound clears his throat.
Chrome doesn’t rise to it. “You want permission to hunt in Chicago?”
“I want cooperation,” Menace says. “We don’t plan to bleed your streets. But we aren’t leaving without what we came for.”
“You’re saying someone at this hotel has something of yours?”
“They have a debt to pay,” Menace growls.
“What debt?” Ice asks.
Menace ignores him. “If you help us get what we came for, we’ll get out of your town.”
Chrome doesn’t immediately respond. I can imagine him weighing the situation.
He could play nice and use it to his advantage.
However, he can’t play too nicely. After all, Menace could be playing a game.
If he knows I’m in Chicago, he could have set up this meeting on purpose as a way to test the waters. This meeting could be a setup.
“How many of you are here?” Chrome asks. “Just you three, or are there more?”
“There are more of us. This is a club trip.”
“Is your President around?”
“He’s around.”
“Then I’d like to meet with him. Can you get him here?”
“He’s busy at the moment, but we can set something up.”
“Good. Here’s my card. Have him give me a call. Oh, and if I don’t hear from him soon, I’ll go looking for him. Trust me when I say he doesn’t want that to happen.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Yes.”
I bite back the chuckle at Chrome’s bluntness. I can almost imagine the look on Menace’s face. As the SOA for the Bushrangers, he’s the one who is used to making the threats. He isn’t used to being on the receiving end of them.
“You guys willing to go to war over something that isn’t your concern?” I hear the bite in Menace’s tone.
Chrome chuckles. “What makes you think it would be a war? You’re on our turf.
We know more about you than you think. We know where you’re staying and where you spent the past few years.
But here’s what you don’t know about us.
We have more men than you, not just in my club, but the Demon Dawgs aren’t a one-and-done club.
We have chapters all over this country. We also have allies.
Push me, and you’ll discover that the war you think we’ll have will be a slaughter, and no one will find your bodies. ”
“We’re only here to get our property back,” Menace snarls after a few minutes.
“Is your property in this hotel now?”
“No.”
“Then maybe you should leave. Find your President. Deliver my message. We’re pretty laid back here in the States, but that doesn’t mean we’ll accept disrespect. You should remember that.”
I hear grumbles over the line, but the conversation seems to be over.
“Did you hear all that?” Chrome asks me.
“I did.”
“What do you make of it?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure what they’re looking for. I guess it could be me, but that doesn’t explain why they’re hanging out at the hotel. Zara’s friend said that they asked for her at the front desk, but I don’t know why they think they can use her to get to me.”
“Unless you’re not what they’re after. Maybe Zara is the target?”
A cold chill washes over me at the thought of Zara being the property they want to claim. “Menace was the one who was most excited about using Zara to punish her father. I could see him thinking about it while he was locked away. Shit. I’m guessing Mode came through?”
“Yeah, he sent Ice a text. I’m betting they switch hotels, but we’ll figure out where they land.
As for getting into the country, they flew into Canada and rode across the border.
I’m betting they have fake IDs and passports.
We could turn them over to border control if we want a peaceful end to this.
However, I’m more inclined to find a more permanent solution. ”
I have to admit that I’m right there with him. “You guys heading back?”
“Later. First, I want to ride by their hotel. Let them know that I wasn’t fucking around about having their number.”
I chuckle. “Good idea.”
“How’s Zara?”
“She’s probably sleeping. She was exhausted, but she had questions about how I ended up here. She also talked about her dad. Turns out they left Adelaide and ended up in New Zealand. Her dad belongs to a motorcycle club. The Arrowtown Outriders.”
“That’s interesting. Do you think his experience with the Bushrangers had him looking for a club to protect his back?”
“Maybe. Zara said that one of the members is her father’s friend. She didn’t know her dad knew anyone who belonged to a club until they moved.”
Chrome is silent, so I can hear the change in the background noise as they exit the hotel. The sound of the city comes through.
“Have Mode run the father. His joining a club after what happened makes me twitchy. If he was friendly with another club, why didn’t he call them in for help when he was facing the Bushrangers? Hell, if he understood the dangers of a motorcycle club, why the fuck did he antagonize them?”
I chuckle. “Yeah, that’s what I was wondering. When I met her dad, he seemed easily intimidated, which is why I was surprised he eventually stood up to them. I thought he was in over his head, but now I wonder if he was playing a game and I just wasn’t aware.”
“Do you think Zara knows more than she’s saying?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so, but now I’m thinking I missed something back then.”
“What do you think the Bushrangers are after? Zara? You? Or something else?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it? I’ll have Mode poke around in her father and anything else he can find about what happened twelve years ago. My part in this ended when I called the cops and left the country. It’s possible more happened than I know.”
“Good idea. We’ll be back in an hour.”
Chrome ends the call as I open my door and head for Mode’s office. He’s crashed out, so I don’t wake him. Instead, I back out quietly and pull out my phone to call Maestro.
“You’ve got Smoke,” Smoke answers instead.
“Where’s Maestro?”
“Taking a break. He needed to crash for a couple of hours before taking over the search and monitoring from Mode.”
“Shit,” I mutter.
“What’s up?”
“Mode’s down for the count. He needs his rest, so I don’t want to wake him. However, Chrome has a job for him. I’ll just send him a text.”
“Give it to me. I can get it started and pass it over to Mode or Maestro when either wakes up.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, no big deal. We’re quiet right now. Give me what you got.”
I repeat Chrome’s request to run Zara’s father.
“Okay, I’ve got it. Hey, I heard you have some trouble in town. Do you need more guys? The Nomads are still in town, right? Byte had to come home, but if you need Maestro or me, Dante would probably okay it. I know Mode is still recovering.”
“I’ll mention it to Chrome.”