Chapter 41
Hound Dog
T he amount of control on how much I wanted to throw everyone out of the club was teetering when no one could tell me where she was at. My brothers were scrambling the premises, and I waited for a sign to show me that everything was going to be okay.
My fingers itched to call in several favors. The phone burned in my hand, egging me on to do anything. Just when I thought I was going to give in, the right person was calling me.
“Greene, actually the person I needed to speak with. Look, we have a problem.” I tried to tell him over the noise of the club. I slunk over to the corner, trying to hear him clearer. But I was catching every other word. “Sorry”, “bail”, “careful”, “lawyer”.
Nothing was making sense.
“Hold on, let me get out of here,” I said, hauling ass outside away from the noise and the interference. “Okay, what were you telling me?”
“I’m sorry, Hound Dog, the Hogs made bail. Somehow they were careful and had a good lawyer or something. I think it was the judge, personally,” Greene rambled on the phone.
My world turned to a dark red.
“What do you mean they made bail? The amount of charges on them should have prevented them from doing so.” I couldn’t understand how, or how deep their pockets were.
“I don’t either, that’s why I think it was the judge. I just got the news from Officer Daniels. He told me as soon as he found out. I’m trying to see if we can’t get another judge, but Hound, y’all may need to be careful.”
I sighed. “Kind of hard right now. Melody is missing. And was just here.”
“Here? Where? Hound, they can’t have done this quickly. Unless,” he said, dawning on the same thought I was.
“Unless they were already planning this in case they were arrested.”
“Being proactive, not reactive. Fucking hell, Hound Dog.” He groaned, probably just as frustrated as I was.
Greene kept apologizing and ultimately, it wasn’t his fault, but the fault of the system that he trusted. Somewhere deep down I knew that it was too easy for the Hogs to go down. The original plan was to let justice work through, but justice wasn’t enough. My deepest fear wasn’t that the Hogs would come after the club, because hell it would be a battle that they would lose. But the greatest fear was leaving Melody vulnerable, unprotected.
The fear was eating me up inside, clawing through myself.
Greene kept rambling on and on about how sorry he was and that he would make it up to us, to the club. At that moment, I needed him as an ally. “I need you to work with Blaze. I’ll have him come to the station, allow him access to whatever he needs. I don’t care what strings or warrants you have to pull. Melody is not here and if you’re telling me that the Hogs are roaming free, then the worst is already happening.”
I hung up before he could protest or keep rambling on.
I couldn’t stand there anymore and worry about what happened to her, I just needed to find her. Keep her safe from all these dangers that presented themselves. As I walked, there was something that caught my eye.
Her guitar case.
By the front door. It was true, it just confirmed that she saw everything. But she wouldn’t leave her guitar case. Not when it meant so much to her.
What if she stepped out for air before she came back?
As much as I had hoped that would be true, I wasn’t sure either. Maybe Melody didn’t know what to say, but in the end it doesn’t matter because I was bringing her ass home.
I tried her phone again and again, her melodic voice still answering the phone as her voicemail.
Where are you?
“Hound,” a small voice called out. But when I turned it wasn’t Melody. It was Sadie. “Please tell me I didn’t miss her.” Her eyes searched for her friend, and I didn’t have the guts to tell her she was missing. I think she saw the look in my eyes because she stepped closer to me.
“Where is she, Hound?” she asked again.
I fell silent. Afraid to voice it to another person, making it harder to accept reality. Sadie took one look at my face and could read it like a book. There was no stopping her when she charged at me.
Sadie gave me a shove, her emotions riding high,.I didn’t stop her, it wouldn’t make up for the fact that I had no idea. “She said this wouldn’t happen, that shit was taken care of.”
She wasn’t mad at me, although that was a contributing factor, she was afraid for her friend and the fate that waited for her.
“I’m sorry, Sadie, I’m trying to figure that out.” I grasped her shoulders.
“I told her to be careful, but she assured me that she was the safest in your hands. Hound Dog, I prayed that was true.” Sadie seethed with anger.
“Whatever happened to her, I will bring her back,” I promised her like I promised Melody that I’d protect her.
I found Woody and instructed him to take Sadie to the compound. At the very least, if Melody contacted her, someone would be close by to deliver the message back to me. Sadie was hesitant, but she went.
My head continued to spiral, waiting on a sign or a plan. My hands itched to strangle someone, to shed blood on them. I was ready to explode.
B.B came running to me, nearly out of breath. He was hunched over, his hand collapsed on my shoulder.
“What?” I said, gruffly.
“Something you need to see,” he said, pulling me to the back office.
The darkened office was only illuminated by the light of the main computer. It bright blue screen lit up from someone using it. I turned the corner of the desk, seeing the security screens pulled up. Twelve different angles, spanning from inside the bar to outside near the alley way and out front.
“What am I seeing?” I asked B.B.
He clicked on something and videos started to play out, the timestamp was nearly an hour or so ago. Before any of the musicians were taking the stage. He played one screen to focus on an interaction between the strange woman and a hooded figure, they knew where the camera angles were at, the fucking bastards.
The woman took the money and curled a smile on her lips. The fucking bitch was up to something. Moments passed, she looked at her phone and started to stalk near me. And then the infamous moment happened.
Another screen had shown the worst fear, the shocked, stunned face of Melody watching it all unfold. I saw her clutch her chest before rampaging through people. Her small frame turned into a bulldozer. B.B switched the camera feed to around the corner near the alley way.
I saw all the emotions as though it hit me as well, her chest heaving for breath. Her body was shivering, probably feeling like she was going to bust from all the emotions clawing at her. Then my brave girl stood up, straightening her back. She wiped the tears away before turning the corner. I thought she was a blessed angel, her long dress cascading on the ground. She was a pure vision, but horror struck me.
The chair was pushed forcibly behind me. My fists clenching seeing four men with the Hogs patch on their back, surrounding her like a trap gazelle in a pride of lions. I didn’t have the audio, but the fear in Melody’s eyes was enough to know they were hurting her.
But one thing, her expression changed from scared to taunting, the same mischievous face when she was up to no good. What she said only pissed whoever the person in front of her off, he laid a forceful hand on her. Her head jerked to the side.
I wanted nothing more than to jump through the screen. Her head swayed back, facing the men. The blood dripped at the corner of her mouth. She struggled against the two guys at her side, fighting with everything that she had.
The Hogs fucking nicked her, they were drugging her. Everything in me wanted to scream, wanted to throw something, break something.
It was a fucking trap, a fucking ploy.
“We’ll get her back.”
“This is all my fault,” I whispered.
“The fuck you mean it’s your fault? How?” B.B questioned me.
The running list of reasons why it was my fault
I stormed out, ignoring all the rational thoughts of taking it one step at the time. I was ready to enlist Blaze to help me burn it all down. Allow all the demons in me to take over, that’s all I thought.
I got on my bike, heading to the compound to find Blaze, knowing that he and Greene were supposed to be working on finding her. Everything was a blur around me, because I only had one thought, one motivation.
I had gone back to my room, rummaging through the weapons that I had. I was going to get her back, and most likely my way. It was a war that I was preparing for, and I wasn’t taking any hostages.
A light down the hallway caught my eye as I tried to leave.
Why the fuck was Blaze here?
Blaze was engrossed in whatever he was viewing, along with Sadie that sat close to the screens. To have a friend like that, that would just insert themselves to help with anything someone needed, I was at least grateful.
“You better tell me that you have something? A location, a direction?” I demanded, busting down the door to Blaze’s room. The room was cascaded in LED lights, his freckled face illuminated by the amount of screens that were running. Blaze was a genius, sometimes a little afraid to speak to me. But overall, he was a good kid, even if I have to worry about him with a matchbook or a lighter.
He looked back at me with his thick rimmed glasses, the curl of a smile told me he found something useful. Sadie shot me an angered look.
A group of footsteps pounded through the hallway, pushing through the doorway. B.B and Fender sounded out of breath. I didn’t know anyone was following me, but that’s what happens when your body is following the rage in your mind.
“They definitely crossed state lines, I’d been running my program to follow them through the CCTV allowed me access.” Blaze pointed out.
“Greene didn’t need you at the station?” I questioned.
Blaze shrugged. “You really want that answer, or the fact that we’ll have a location in less than five minutes.”
Time was already ticking away, and someone once said that it was better to ask forgiveness than permission. All my senses begged for an answer now.
B.B huffed out a breath, “Prez, I’m asking you to stop and think.”
“Not this time. How many times has the Hogs been one to cause this much chaos? How many times do we have to look over our shoulder, pausing on our way of life? How many times are we going to allow them to have us worry about another loved one like Melody being taken or worse, possibly end up dead? I am thinking, B.B. And I’m choosing her, I’m choosing the club not having to look over their shoulder every step they take. I choose our city, one that the chapter has built.” The words flowed through me like a wave of truth.
“What you’re asking is a massacre, ending more than one person’s life,” Fender defended.
Short answer was yes, I was expecting that there would be no survivors. I’d shoulder that for the rest of my life if it meant the safety of everyone.
B.B shook his head, finding it hard to believe that we’d come this far in our lives. “Well, I don’t think a lot of people will have a problem with it?”
I shot him a look. “What the fuck do you mean?”
B.B only nodded down the hallway, my steps were small, afraid to see what he meant. As I approached the common area, a smile couldn’t help but be placed on my face.
A united front of brothers, every one of them packing heat. And to my surprise, Greene was behind them as well. My brothers were standing, waiting for an order to move out.
“You really think you’d do this alone?” Shooter asked.
“We all agreed with you,” Hank chimed in.
“All you had to do was trust us,” Reverend said. I was shocked that he’d be a part of this.
I turned back to B.B as he plastered a cocky grin on his face.
“Sometimes your way is also the way we think, you forget that we are a club, not everything is on you,” B.B said.
“Also, she’s one of us,” Otis added.
“And a woman like that is worth all the consequences, especially if she melted away that frozen heart of yours.” Twitty chuckled
“I’m asking a lot, and partially selfish, and y’all are okay with that?” I asked.
They all nodded.
Sadie stepped from the side, her arms folded across her chest. “You underestimate the power she has over people. She’s a lot like you, thinking of others before themselves.”
Melody was not like me. But if she could take on a ruthless, unhinged motorcycle club and make her mark on us, that was enough for others to not blink an eye for her.
There was no going back. What was going to be done, would be done.
Someone cleared their throat. “Seems like this would be the time to tell you, I got a location, and you’re not going to be happy.”