Chapter 29
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
Sawyer
“You did good,” I say, pulling her into my chest. “I hated every second of it, but now you’re back in my arms, I can breathe again.”
“It wasn’t all that scary,” she tells me. “It was more like ew this guy is a creep and I want to get out of here so I can wash his leering stare off my body.” She shudders.
She gave me that freaks number and I’m running traces on it as we speak. Clever thinking, I’m just glad he didn’t ask for her number in return. He seemed too dumbfounded.
“The guy is a fuckin’ asshole. Knowing what he knows and yet he was fine to give you the address?” I shake my head. “He’ll get what’s coming to him.”
“I’m sorry that Forest guy wasn’t there.”
“From the description Barry gave us, I’m fairly sure that was him you passed on the way out. The prospects and the twins are still watching the dry cleaners.”
“I hope it leads to Regi,” she says.
I sweep my hands through her hair and cup her face. “I don’t want you doin’ that ever again.”
“I thought you said it was okay?”
“It was never okay, Princess, but I went along with it. I just about had an anxiety attack waitin’ for you both to come out.”
“We were fine. Thelma and Louise.” She stifles a laugh. “Can you believe Luna?”
“Jesus Christ.”
Her face turns serious. “This is far from funny, but if you didn’t laugh, you’d cry.”
“I know, but we’re gettin’ ready to go stake things out tonight, thanks to you.”
“Sawyer, please be careful.”
“Of course I will. Knowing I’ve got you to come home to, makes it all worthwhile.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, but your PI days are over.”
She wraps her arms around my neck. “I don’t know, I think those skin tight dresses could be a thing.”
“Not in public they’re not, I don’t like other men lookin’ at you like that.”
“Have you been hanging around my cousins for too long? You’re starting to sound like them,” she sighs.
“I’ll never joke when it comes to your safety.”
She pecks me on the lips. “I know that. I just worry about you, too.”
“I’ll be fine. Cash can call on the Hellions, or the Bracken Ridge Rebels for backup if he needs to tonight.”
She nods, looking down at her feet. “It’s just… you’ve been waiting so long to get to this point babe, it’s your time.”
“If we don’t manage to get Regi, we’ll have Forest, we’re not lettin’ him out of our sight. Sometimes setting innocent people free outweighs my need for revenge.”
“Do you think Regi will show up? Do the head honchos of these things usually do that?” she asks.
“No, not usually. I also hacked into the mainframe of the dry cleaners to get whatever information I could. They don’t keep much online, which was to be expected, and Regi is slippery,” I say. “He must be using a different name, because I can’t find shit on him, and I’m good at what I do.”
“What about Forest, could you try him instead?”
“Already did, but it’s unlikely his real name is Forest Boon. These cocksuckers are all very good at hidin’. Still, I’ve got traces on Rick’s cell, if he’s stupid enough to click one of the links I sent him, I’ll have a tracker on him.”
She frowns. “That’s something.”
“Yeah, but what’s even better is we have a location, we also have no use for Barry anymore. Once the call comes in, he’ll be expendable.”
“What will you do?” she breathes, her big eyes full of concern. Not for him, for me, and it warms my heart.
I kiss her nose, then press a peck to her lips. “Don’t you worry about that. Just know he won’t hurt anyone else ever again.”
“Where are you going?” she asks, when I don’t deepen the kiss.
“I have to go check things out, babe.”
“Will you be back?”
“Yes, I just don’t know when.” I give her a chin lift. “You have your bag?”
She nods. “I have to wait for Payden.”
All of the girls are going into lockdown at the clubhouse, starting tonight.
“How far away is she?”
“Not far.” She swallows hard.
“I’ll wait, I wanna drive you there myself.”
“Worried about me?” I know what she’s doing—trying to hold onto me for a little longer, and I get that. It’s still early afternoon, and we have time, but I’m itching to get to the thick of it.
“You’ll be safe at the clubhouse until we get back.”
“The girls are making a night of it,” she says. “Pizza and a movie marathon.”
“Doesn’t sound half bad.”
“It’s not like we have much choice, so gotta make the best of it.”
A few years ago, the clubhouse was targeted, but since then upgrades have been made including a reinforced steel gate, bullet proof glass and more cameras and detectors around the perimeter than you can poke a stick at.
Cash and Deanna live at the back of the clubhouse in a separate house, so it was important after that incident that security measures were stepped up.
Plus, there will be club brothers left behind to man the clubhouse, and on the gate.
“It’ll be okay. Soon things will be back to normal and we can go on that date I owe you.” I wrap my arms around her. “Sound like a deal?”
I can tell she’s solemn by the way she holds herself, and she’s not as easy to smile. I have to do this. I have to go.
She nods. “Deal.”
When I hold her close to me, I take in everything. The smell of her hair, the feel of her warm body, even her fucking heartbeat.
Nothing is ever gonna come between us, but like with Brew and his demons—he had to fight them before he could fully commit to Erica and Olive. He had to overcome all of it in order to be a better man, and maybe that’s what I have to do, too.
If I come back a little less broken, then I’ll take it. Knowing we’ve saved lives already feels like a weight has been lifted, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have revenge on my mind.
I want them to pay.
I want all of them to pay.
Barry’s days are numbered, as are the rest of these assholes involved. They just don’t know it yet.
We sneak around the side of the motel. It’s dark and to be honest, the crew here are so fucking lazy.
Nobody did any checks of the perimeter. If they had, maybe they would’ve noticed they’re surrounded.
Walking around like you rule the fucking world is a recipe for disaser, as well as negligent.
Which works for us in this case. Mistake number one.
A couple of the guards glanced around for half a beat, and that was it.
You’d think they’d be on high alert after what happened with the ‘gas leak’ situation.
Laying low isn’t Regi’s style though. He wants to set this up so he still keeps making dough, no matter what.
That’s all this is to all of them. Money in the bank.
They don’t give a shit about the human lives involved in what they’re doing.
I still have dread in the pit of my stomach about one of them laying eyes on my girl and Luna, but he’ll pay, just like the rest of them. I also love knowing they’re totally unprepared for an attack.
Jett and Rock are getting footage for the feds, and they will hand it over to Willow once we’re done with them. Some of them. Not all.
I still have the pleasure of going back to the warehouse to rip out Barry’s heart. Until he gets that phone call, we have to keep him alive.
The truck unloading the girls housed at least thirty of them, maybe more, and they vary in age from teens to maybe early twenties.
No little kids yet, but that doesn’t mean shit.
This could be the first truck of many. The motel is cheap and shady, and when they lead a convoy through the back parking lot, they move into a different part of the building, probably one of the rundown conference rooms. The idea that these women are held here against their will stirs something in me that boils way beyond rage.
To think that piece of scum had every intention of making sure Nova and Luna ended up here, too.
I know we live in an age where sex work isn’t considered as taboo as it once was.
In fact, it’s become normal in a lot of instances, and I don’t judge.
If people want to do that and they’re consenting adults and are not harming anyone else, then go for it.
Cam girls and OnlyFans are more popular than ever.
I just hope that those doing it aren’t pressured or being made to do anything they don’t want to.
Consent is high on my agenda, and I can tell by how out of it these girls look being hauled out of the truck, that they didn’t consent to this.
Hustler appears next to me and my brother. “Cash wants to go in tonight,” he says. “We have the element of surprise. Riot and Bronco are still at the warehouse, there’s supposed to be another truck, so we can’t move in until it arrives.”
I let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding. “And Forest, any update on him?”
“Headed this way,” Hustler says. “JJ and Hawk are on his tail. The bastard looks like he’s actually gonna show. As for Regi, we don’t know.”
“Last we heard from Barry he said Regi doesn’t always show at these things unless it’s a big event like a fundraiser, can you believe this shit? He actually puts on fake charity events in order to lure big businessmen into this scheme.” I shake my head, disgusted.
“Unfortunately, I can believe it,” Hustler says, gravely.
“We shootin’ to kill?” Pipes asks. “Or has that changed?”
“We take as many down as we can, but need to leave a couple alive for Willow,” Hustler says. “Always gotta make the cops look like the good guys.”
Cash went through the plan earlier at church, but we weren’t necessarily moving in tonight. There is literally no point in keeping these unforsaken girls locked up here for anymore terrifying nights, so raiding tonight is a good call.
“You good?” Pipes asks me.
I nod. “Yep.”
Haze slides in beside Hustler. “Looks like they’ve got a truck full comin’ a few minutes away,” he says.
Brew and Logan are situated at one end of the highway turn off, with Priest and Nevada at the other.
“We’ll wait till they have them all inside, then hit from the back, Cash will give the signal. ”
“This is so fucked,” Pipes mutters. I know this is hard for him, but these girls were lucky if they’ve only just been snatched.
Of course, we won’t know that until they’ve been freed, but the idea sickens me nonetheless, and understandably he has a hard time with it.
“What is wrong with these fuckin’ assholes that they have to traffic innocent people? ”
I also know how much he struggles with what happened to me, but this is the reality. These girls are lucky, but so many aren’t.
“They have no conscience,” I tell him. “It’s just money to them. They really don’t give a shit about anything, only themselves.”
“It never gets easier,” Haze says. “Even Brew, when all that shit went down.”
“If we weren’t sendin’ a message then, we are now,” Hustler goes on. “If this is what has to happen to keep everyone safe, then so be it. We won't stop until we’ve eradicated these hideous people.”
I glance at him. “It’s a scary world for kids to grow up in.”
He swallows hard. “This is why I do this, because of my daughter. I don’t want her growin’ up in a world that is so unsafe. I want to remove these grubs from the earth because it’s one less asshole on the loose.”
That’s the sad part. We’d all die to protect the ones we love, but protecting them isn’t always possible.
Things happen. People manipulate. They infiltrate.
And it’s so easy to do that it makes my head spin.
There are predators now targeting kids online games, luring them off the platform to meet and the rest, well, we can use our imaginations. It’s so fucking sick.
“Couldn’t agree more,” Haze says. “Makes me think twice about kids because of this reason. Are women and children ever safe?”
None of us answer, because we know the truth.
We can only do so much. Predators may think they’re winning the war, but we’re fighting back, and as long as I’m still breathing, I will be contributing to the cause.
I’ve even started to develop an online system to trap predators who solicit kids online.
The big companies aren’t gonna like it, but when I saw a documentary about predators chatting with kids on some high-profile online games, it made me fucking sick.
There has to be something I can do, and this is what I know.
I want to expose them, bring them all down since they aren’t doing anything to protect kids or their parents. They spew lies about how safe their apps are yet a stranger can pose as a kid and directly message your child in a game with instant, private chats. What in the actual fuck? I shudder.
“All we can do is be here,” I say. “Fight the fight. Make sure that no matter what happens, we have our heads in the game. We fight for those that don’t have a voice, and it’s one of the reasons I love this club so much.”
I feel all eyes on me. “Ride or die,” Pipes says, our club motto.
“Ride or die,” we say in unison, and I feel it, with every beat of my heart.