Chapter 20
Sabre
By sunrise, the Home Place is covered in twenty-seven of my Savage Legion club brothers. We don’t do things by fuckin’ half measures. We ditch our bikes far enough away not to be heard and converge on the location.
We see a half dozen men milling around, along with Linsey’s mother.
By dawn nine more men show up, greet each other on the porch and shoot the shit for a while.
They’re all smiles and dressed for church.
A casual observer would guess they were attending a church function rather than becoming accessories after the fact to a kidnapping.
These assholes are in for a rude awakening because they have no idea the Savage Legion has formed a ring around them and is waiting for the right moment to pounce.
Siege quietly checks each team through our earpieces.
Talon covers the front entrance with four brothers, while Rigs has three men near the kitchen.
Rider and I are assigned to the stairs because we believe Linsey and Noah are being held in one of the upstairs rooms. We saw movement during the night.
Brothers from an allied club are covering the roads and outer perimeter. Two brothers went on a stealth operation, removing all the valve cores from the tires. Even if someone gets past us, they won’t be driving away.
Siege crawls over and settles beside me in the grass. “It took a lot to get here, Sabre. Are you ready to do this thing?”
“Hell yeah.” I’d been watching the room where Linsey and Noah were being held. I knew it was them because I could see their shadows through the drawn curtains. As far as I could see it was just those two.
“You never know for sure what you’re gonna find when you find a hostage, so be ready for anything, brother.”
I can’t take my eyes off that window. I’m rewarded when a hand pulls the curtain away from the window. The gap stays open for only a second, but it’s long enough for me to see familiar honey-blonde hair and part of a woman’s face that I know so well.
An older man walks the perimeter at sunrise with a pistol displayed openly on his hip.
He passes within forty yards of a cluster of brothers hiding in the tall grass and doesn’t even know they’re there.
When he rounds the woodshed, Tusk moves behind him and takes him down without drawing the notice of any of the others.
They zip-tie the guard, gag him and sit him in the dirt. He starts talking before Tusk finishes describing what will happen if he shouts a warning.
Everything Tusk gets out of that terrified guard he tells us through the open communication channel.
I hear through my earpiece all about how they plan to draw lots to see who gets to marry my Linsey.
The drawing is scheduled to happen before noon, which explains why so many men arrived during the night.
Linsey’s father brought in a minister because he wants her married before the end of the day.
Hearing all that shit makes me more determined than ever to make sure none of these assholes walks out of here alive, but I already know I’ll settle for putting their asses in jail.
Siege and I pull back further into the brush, where Rider is watching with a pair of binoculars. Two older men walk right to where we’re hiding to talk privately.
“Gerald, I heard you have an offering and brought my boys. It was a long way to come and conducting this kind of business outside of our home county is a bit risky.”
“I had my reasons for doing this at Home Place, Thomas. My family owns this huge parcel of land in the middle of nowhere. Trust me, we won’t be disturbed.”
Siege shoots me a feral grin, because we’re right here under their fuckin’ feet and they don’t even know it.
The one called Thomas asks, “This wouldn’t be your wayward daughter perchance, would it?”
“Indeed, it is. I picked her up yesterday and brought her back into the fold.”
“Is there anything we should be aware of in regard to her?”
“Unfortunately, she’s willful and disobedient after spending ten years outside the shelter of family and church. Her new husband will have to have the courage of his convictions in order to be able to handle her.”
“She sounds like a handful.”
“She is but whoever weds her will be compensated handsomely. They will also be given permission to break her back into obedience through any means necessary.”
“That’s a generous offer. Just what one would expect from a man of God.”
Gerald responds, “Thank you, Thomas. I want to make it clear right from the start that the offering is only for my daughter. I’m going to be raising her son. He’s undisciplined and needs an iron fist to break his will and form him into a righteous man of God.”
The boy that I’m slowly coming to think of as my son is anything but undisciplined. He’s got a mind like a steel strap, pretty good judgement, and has followed every rule I’ve laid down for him.
These older men are pissing me off. They’re standing around, drinking coffee and discussing the fuckin’ logistics of beating the mother of my unborn child until she obeys all their stupid-ass rules and separating her from her child.
Detective Harper had better show up soon, because if I get my hands on these two, there won’t be enough left of them to put in a pair of handcuffs.
The second they move on, Siege speaks into his com unit, “I’m giving the green light to move. Let’s take these ignorant fucks down.”
We all surge forward with our weapons drawn. I shout, “Put your hands where I can see them!”
Several other brothers are yelling, “Get down on the ground!” and “Everybody face down. Put your hands where we can see them!”
The initial surge is very much a shock and awe campaign, meant to stop them in their tracks before anyone can coordinate a response.
That’s what catching them by surprise is all about.
We already took down the one and only person we saw brandishing a weapon but that doesn’t mean no one else is concealing one.
Rider and I run across the yard at full speed, squeezing in behind Talon’s crew as they crash through the front door.
Then we break apart from them and follow the plan.
Rider and I take the stairs, with me leading the way.
We meet three men along the way and take them down with varying degrees of effort.
These men may have a deep-seated attachment to beating on women but they’re no match for me and my furious club brothers.
At this point, my mind is only on one thing and that’s getting to Linsey and Noah upstairs.
Nothing else matters and I’ll barrel through as many of those fuckers as I have to.
When we reach the top of the staircase, a man sees us coming and shoots us a hateful look before stepping into the room and slamming the door behind him.
I run to the door and try to get in. It’s locked tight. Before I can break it down a man yells in pain. Furniture strikes the wall, and Linsey’s voice carries through the door. “Stay back. Don’t come any closer.”
I step back and ram the door with my shoulder, desperate to get into the room because the fight has already started inside. When I drive my shoulder into the door, the old wood splinters. I dive into the room ready to remove the asshole who thought he could keep me from my family.
What I see causes me to come to a staggering stop. The man is backed against the far wall with one hand pressed over his eye. Blood is running between his fingers, and a blue throwing knife is lying on the floor near his feet. I’ve seen enough throwing injuries to recognize one immediately.
Linsey is pulling away from his grip and Noah is standing in front of him in a perfect tripod stance with another knife from that set held high. He’s using the stance I taught him.
The bleeding man tries to make a grab for Linsey again. I give him a roundhouse kick that leaves him writhing on the floor.
Rider jerks the bleeding guard up off the floor with one hand and says, “I’m gonna take this fucker downstairs and put him with the others. You take care of your family.”
He doesn’t fuckin’ need to tell me twice.
I turn towards my family. Linsey’s hair is wild, and bruises are already forming along her arms. She’s standing beside Noah with her hand on his arm.
Slowly lowering it, she tugs the knife from his hand.
“You did good. But the cavalry’s here now.
You can relax.” Noah barely nods and I can see he’s trembling a bit.
I rush forward and sweep them both up in my arms. “Yeah, like your mom said, the cavalry’s here. These guys were no match for the Legion. It’s all over but the cryin’ outside. You’re both safe now.”
Linsey melts into my side but Noah is still stiff. It takes him a second to blink and then to relax just a little. Then he asks without looking at me, “The brothers came for us, right?”
“Yes, of course. The whole club is here. Every single brother came.”
Finally, Noah snaps out of it and lets his small body relax. “I knew you’d come,” Noah whispers against my chest. “I told Mom. I told her the brothers wouldn’t let us down.”
“You made it easy for us by leavin’ one hell of a trail.”
When Noah pulls back he’s smiling and more like his old self. “I was thinking on my feet. Sergeant Rock said that’s one of the first things a good soldier learns on field maneuvers.”
“Sergeant Rock sure has a lot to say for a comic book hero,” I deadpan back.
I check them over for injuries. I’m gonna have a word with him about those knives, but for now I’m just so relieved he and his mom are safe.
My hand moves low on Linsey’s stomach before I can stop it.
She freezes and looks up at me. She can tell by my intense gaze that I know she’s carrying my child.
“You looked in my purse, didn’t you?” Her voice is part laugh and part worry.
“Everything fell out on the seat, including the test strip.”
“Wait. What’s a test strip? Is my mom sick?” Noah’s serious voice cuts through whatever brief conversation we were going to have.