Chapter 18
Sabre
Irun after the van for a block and a half before the professional in me wrestles control away from the man panicking over just watching his old lady get abducted.
Chasing them on foot ain’t gonna bring Linsey back.
I stop and spend a couple seconds catching my breath while I watch the white van and the sedan that joined them fade into the distance.
They’re too far off for me to take a photo of, so instead, I make a note of the plate numbers, colors, and makes and models of the vehicles.
I send a quick text to the brothers’ group chat, to let them know what happened.
Then I sprint back to Linsey’s car, pretty sure that if those bastards wrecked my motorcycle, they did the same to her car. I’m back at her car in less than a minute, noticing what a mess they made of my bike along the way.
Kneeling down at her open driver’s side door, I see the carnage they left behind. There’s no blood, thank God. But her phone is face down on the pavement right outside the door. And her purse has spilled open on the passenger seat and floorboard.
My phone rings and it’s Siege. “We got your message. I put brothers on the streets and highways leadin’ out of town. With any luck we might catch them before they leave the area. If not, I guess we’re in for a road trip to Billings, Montana.”
“Fuckin’ too right, Prez. They slashed my tires so I couldn’t follow them.”
“You’re a member of the Savage Legion. They didn’t need to be half-smart to know you’d run them down if you got half a chance.”
“I need to pick up Noah from school because they might be targeting him too.”
Siege responds, “I’ve got brothers and prospects comin’ your way. Grab one of the prospects’ bikes, pick up the kid and bring him to the clubhouse. He’ll be safe here.”
“I know he will, but I’ve got to get my old lady back before those unhinged fucks do somethin’ to her.”
“Don’t worry, brother. We’ll get her back. I fuckin’ promise you that.”
“This is my fault. I thought if there was gonna be danger it’d be inside the diner. I checked the parking lot. Shit. I shoulda known her asshole of a father would do somethin’ like this.”
“Hindsight is twenty-twenty. You did what you thought was right. You couldn’t have foreseen this.”
It’s nice of Siege to try to cheer me up but it ain’t working. “Thanks for saying so, Prez. I still should have considered it.” I pause and get my head straight. Getting onto the practical stuff I say, “I’m gonna need a tow truck for Linsey’s car and a pickup because they disabled my bike.”
“Her father’s a sneaky fucker for a religious man, wouldn’t you say?”
“Maybe,” I grudgingly acknowledge. I can hear other messages dinging on my phone, but nothing can be more important than getting my old lady, so I don’t bother looking.
Siege’s old lady says something in the background.
Siege speaks again, his voice more serious.
“Cleo says they’re calling for early pickup at the school.
Someone pulled the fire alarm, and it set off the fire suppressant system, drenchin’ every fuckin’ thing in water.
I’m sure that’s a fuckin’ coincidence, right? ”
“Normally, I’d say yes. But I think we’ve been underestimatin’ these fuckers for far too long.”
“I’ll send someone to check it out,” Siege promises. “You’d best get there as soon as you can, brother.”
“I will. I can hear the brothers’ bikes in the distance. I’m gonna get off here and gather my old lady’s stuff before they get here.”
“I’ll gather the officers and we’ll be waitin’ on you to get here with the kid.”
When the phone goes blank, I start picking up Linsey’s stuff and putting it back into her purse.
That’s when I notice an open pregnancy test kit box. A test strip has slipped partially out of the open end. My old lady took a pregnancy test and saved the strip. Deep down inside, on a visceral fuckin’ level, I know that can only mean one thing.
I reach out and shake it the rest of the way from the box and flip it over.
Two pink lines are staring up at me. For several seconds, I stare at it as my brain slowly comes to terms with the fact that my old lady is pregnant with my child.
All the oddities from the last few weeks rush through my mind.
She’s thrown up several times that I know of and blamed it on different things.
This morning, she stood beside the breakfast table looking all nervous and excited. I didn’t understand what was going on but now I do. She was going to tell me before her mother called and spoiled the moment for us. I can see that now.
I can’t feel the joy of this moment, not while my old lady and unborn child are in danger like this.
My hand closes around the test strip, and I make a vow to not only get them back but make the bastards who took her pay for putting their hands on her, and terrorizing her, especially while she’s in such a delicate condition.
My phone vibrates in my pocket dragging me out of my thoughts.
I pull it back out and scroll through the messages.
There’s a notification from the school that school is dismissed early because of water damage.
Another message from Linsey’s aunt saying she’s going to pick Noah up because she’s nearby shopping.
Damn.
Normally I’d be happy knowing he was safe, but now I know what her father is up, to I’ve got a bad feeling about everything.
Sure enough, when I get to the last message, the one that just caused me to pull out my phone, it’s from Noah.
He forwarded a message thread and a photograph.
I open them in the parking lot while police sirens and my club brothers’ bikes grow louder from the distance.
The photograph shows Linsey inside the van with her wrists bound in front of her.
Her hair is tangled, likely from fighting her abductors.
And her brown eyes are filled with a mixture of rage and fear.
I don’t even have words to describe how seeing that fuckin’ image makes me feel.
I save it as proof of life and force down the raw fury that threatens to overwhelm me.
The message he forwarded came from an unknown number.
WE HAVE YOUR MOTHER. A CAR IS COMING FOR YOU. WALK OUT THE SIDE DOOR ALONE AND GET IN. TELL NO ONE OR YOU WILL NEVER SEE HER ALIVE AGAIN. YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES.
There’s a message from Noah too:
They have Mom. They said I have to get in the car or they’ll kill her. I’ll take care of Mom until you get there. Come find us. I know you will.
He sent it two minutes ago. I’m still reading it when my phone rings.
Carol is crying so hard that it takes several minutes to piece together what happened.
The general gist of it is she went to pick him up from school but somewhere amongst the chaos and confusion of the emergency pickup, Noah slipped away.
“I saw him crossing a side street and followed as quickly as I could. But he had a head start and was rushing to get away. He climbed into an older dark blue Buick parked at the curb. I took off running but the car sped away before I could reach him. I even called out but he didn’t hear me.”
“You remember anything else about the vehicle?” I ask.
“The rear passenger door had a dent,” she says. Her crying stops as she forces herself to focus on the details. “I got the license plate. I wrote it on my arm because I didn’t have paper. Every number.”
“You did real good. Don’t worry, we’ll get him back.”
She recites the plate twice, and I make a note on my phone. There are now plate numbers for three vehicles in my phone, the van, the gray sedan, and this blue Buick.
“Oh, my God,” she wails. “What am I going to tell Linsey?”
“Listen to me. Whoever took Noah did the same to Linsey. She agreed to meet with her mom, but it was a trap. I know exactly how you feel because I chased the van that took Linsey and couldn’t catch them either.”
She gasps, “This was her mother’s doing?”
“Yeah, but our entire club is mobilizin’ to come after them. I know it’s gonna be hard, but don’t call any of the family. The police are involved as well. Just leave it to us. It’ll be easier to catch them if they don’t know we’re comin’.”
“Noah ran to the car on his own. Why did he get into it? He knows about stranger danger, it doesn’t make sense,” Carol says.
“He didn’t get into that car because he wanted to. They threatened to kill Linsey, so he made the best decision he could with five minutes to think. He’s a smart kid though, before he ran off he sent me as many details as he could. He’s given us a good start on findin’ them.”
“If I’d only gotten there sooner,” she laments. “I might have been able to stop him.”
“Sometimes in this world, shit happens and we have to make the best of it. Don’t worry, ma’am, me and my club brothers were made for times like these. You go home or to the clubhouse and sit tight. I’ll keep you informed.”
“Okay, if you need me for anything, call. I’ll keep my phone nearby. You bring them home, Sabre. Both of them.”
My hand touches the pregnancy test I’d stuffed in my pocket. Carol doesn’t know there are three people to bring home. “I’ll bring them all home. That’s a promise.”
I forward the threat, photograph, Noah’s message, and the license plate to Siege, Zen and every brother in the command chain. Then I flag down the first police cruiser entering the parking lot because it’s time to make both kidnappings official.
Of course, Detective Harper is one of the first to respond.
When he gets out of his vehicle, I bring him up to speed.
I show him the messages from Noah and explain what happened to Linsey.
I spell it out for him, “Linsey and Noah were abducted within minutes of each other. That means this was planned and coordinated. We’ve got descriptions of three vehicles and plate numbers on all three of the vehicles. ”
I provide the names of Linsey’s parents, Dylan’s file, and everything Shelly told us about the family.