Chapter 11
ACE
It’s time.
We’re outside the Revenants’ compound. I’m surrounded by around six other men, and we’re all waiting for the go signal.
We’ve divided our members into four groups, so we can take the compound from all directions.
Adrenaline makes me feel like I’ve done a gram of cocaine. I can’t keep still. I’d swear electricity is zinging through my limbs, and if I don’t release it soon, I might implode.
Camile is just beyond that fencing, and I will take down every motherfucker who stands in my way.
I’m armed, but I don’t even want to use my gun, preferring to tear them apart with my bare hands instead.
I imparted this to Jack, who told me that it might not be practical, or convenient, but I don’t fucking care.
She needs to be all right. I can’t get my head around the possibility that a future together isn’t in the stars for us.
The moment I saw her, I knew she was going to be mine one way or another, and now, I want more.
I want her to be ours. Mine and Rook’s, and maybe Ghost’s, too.
Even Jack’s, if he wants. I’d be happy to share if she wanted it, but I don’t know if Jack would allow that.
I remember the future I’d pictured for us, with the white picket fence and her with a pony in the barn.
I want to call her my wife one day, to see her belly swell with our child.
I want to spend every fucking day making her the happiest person in the world.
I’ll surround her with fluffy creatures and feed her fresh fruit from a fucking platter and rub her feet whenever she wants.
I’ll dedicate my entire life to making hers perfect.
We’re all aiming for one particular building on the compound.
Narrowing it down to this one has taken a little guesswork, and some detective work on Ghost’s part.
I singled out this building as the best possibility, because it’s far from the central part of their compound, somewhere people wouldn’t hear if she screamed.
Ghost has provided the most helpful intel, though, as he’s managed to hack into some of the communications going back and forth between the Revenants’ members.
While most of what he found wasn’t between any higher-ups, and didn’t mention Camile, it didn’t mean it wasn’t of help.
One really useful nugget he got was that the outbuilding I’ve highlighted is used by them for interrogations.
It makes an even more compelling case for it being where she is.
No one has heard from Rook, still, which is pissing me off and worrying me in equal measures.
Ghost said he told him to get lost because he was listening in on our meeting, and so he must have taken off then, but I’m concerned there’s more to it.
I saw how he looked at Camile, and how he was with her when we took her virginity together.
The kid has fallen and he’s fallen hard, and that he’s vanished when she needs him the most isn’t a good sign.
He’s probably my best friend in the MC, despite me sometimes being an asshole to him, and I don’t know why he wouldn’t be taking my calls.
I have a sinking feeling that he’s done something crazy like go off on his own. What if he’s already alerted the people who have her to our plans to rescue her? He could have blown this entire operation. He might be my friend, but if he’s put Camile in danger, I’ll murder him myself.
My phone buzzes, and I glance down at the screen, my heart rate kicking up a gear.
Phoenix and I are leading group one, and we will enter the compound at the far northern end, using the tree cover to hide us from the Revenants.
Jack is leading group two. They will be entering the compound to the east of us and taking the back route, to meet us by the outbuilding.
Farther down toward the bottom of the Revenants’ fenced off territory, Ghost and Big Mike lead group three, and finally, Saul and Zoo will lead group four, who will enter to the far west of the compound.
Luckily for us, the Revenants’ patch of land is much smaller than ours, and it isn’t fully fenced off all the way around, the way ours is.
They have drones, but Ghost has already done some hackery wizardry to make sure they won’t be working correctly when we get the go-ahead.
As I wait for that final go, I’m still surprised at how little security fencing they have in certain areas.
Why would they fuck with us when they aren’t very well fortified? It makes no sense.
Their security cameras will be cut when the electrics are, so at that point, we just have to pray they don’t have guard dogs, and that it takes them some time to get any backup power generators working.
Two of our men are waiting to cut the electricity to the compound on Jack’s word.
The message I’ve just received says to be ready to go the moment it goes dark.
From where we’re positioned in the tree line, I can see straight down the hill toward the clubhouse and some of the other buildings, and the lights are glaring brightly into the night sky.
I sit and watch, my breath shallow as I wait…
and wait… and wait. It seems like an eternity passes within the two minutes I’m staring at those buildings.
Then suddenly, like magic, the lights blink out. There’s nothing but darkness now.
Cutting the electricity supply to the Revenants will throw them into chaos and means they won’t have access to their security feeds, but it also means there won’t be the noise coming from the music at the clubhouse.
Will it allow them to hear our approach?
We’re on foot, having taken trucks rather than bikes, and parked them half a mile down the road from here.
But that doesn’t mean they won’t hear many men running through the woods.
Hell, I don’t even know if they have lookouts around the compound, who could easily see some of us as we approach.
We’re armed to the teeth, though, and we’re prepared to face down whatever we might come across to get Camile back.
Ducking low, and with hands on our weapons, we race down the hill toward the outbuilding where I believe they’re most likely holding Camile.
Our position on the northern side means we’re the group closest to the building, so we’ll get there first, and Jack will meet us there.
The reason we’re approaching from different directions is in case any of us are stopped.
At least one group should reach the building and get Camile out of here.
The final two teams will surround the clubhouse, to ensure that, in the chaos, the Revenants don’t get the chance to interfere and halt the rescue.
We reach the barn-sized outbuilding I highlighted on the map, and I pause to assess the situation. I stare at the dark block looming in front of me. There’s no sound or light whatsoever coming from inside the building.
From my right, Phoenix hisses, “Where the fuck is everyone?”
He’s referring to the Revenants, not the rest of our team.
I keep my voice down. “Not sure.”
I’d figured they’d have put a couple of guys on guard outside the building, and we’d have to deal with them first, but there’s no one here.
Still, if she’s maybe bound and gagged, that’s not so unusual, right?
They’re obviously not expecting her to escape.
A dark shiver of unease skitters down my spine as I look around the outside.
It’s a low, cement block-built, outbuilding.
The kind of storage situation you might see on many properties of this kind.
Normally, it would be used for storing spare bikes and parts, but the Revenants use this to make their enemies scream.
For a moment, I picture the bleak horror of what I might find in there, but I push those thoughts away. I can’t lose hope now. My heart is pounding as I approach the door, my trusty Glock held aloft and trained in front of me.
The other men have their weapons raised, a mix of AR-15 rifles, some AK-47s, and even an Uzi. No one can say we aren’t well armed.
Footsteps to my left have me whipping around, weapon raised, but it’s just Jack and his men coming quietly through the bushes toward us.
He reaches me and jerks his chin in a silent greeting.
I whisper, “No sound at all from inside.”
He turns to two of his men who are carrying Uzis, too, and indicates them to keep their weapons focused on the door as he approaches. I keep in lockstep with him as we near the large double doors, which are secured in the middle by a lock, which is hanging open.
That uneasy sensation flips in my stomach again.
Something is wrong here. From the lack of fencing, the overall lack of security, to the open door, none of this sits right with me.
I shoot Jack a look and can tell by the way his eyebrows draw together that he’s had the same thoughts. Is this a trap?
But we’re still heavily armed men, and if there’s even the slightest possibility Camile is inside, then we’re taking the risk. I picture her bound and gagged and praying for us to save her. There’s no way we can turn away now.
Jack presses his ear against the door and, after a long beat, shakes his head to indicate he hasn’t heard anything. Carefully, he unhooks the open padlock and pulls open the latch.
He holds three fingers up and grabs the door’s old-fashioned metal handles. It won’t open, of that I’m sure, and we’re going to have to kick it in. I press my shoulder to the wood, fully prepared to add my body weight.
Jack counts down on his fingers—three, two, one—and after another beat closes his fist, to signal go, and shoves open the doors.
It flies open with ease, and because I was leaning against it, I stumble in and almost land on my face. Jack is right behind me, and he pulls a flashlight from his back pocket. He turns it on and holds it aloft as he moves around. The bright white strobe highlights nothing but empty space.
My heart sinks. What the fuck? This can’t be right. She must be here.
But it’s just cobweb-filled emptiness. There are gas cans in the corners, some paint pots along the far shelves, and a chair in the middle of the room, which I bet they use for their torture sessions, but there’s no one sitting in it.
No Camile.
I should be relieved, but I’m fucking gutted. I was sure this was the place, and now we’re as far away as ever from finding her.
Rook isn’t here either.
A tightness settles in my chest, making it hard to breathe. Sudden certainty hits me with the full force of its weight. She’s not on the compound; I can feel it in my bones.
“We’ve got the wrong place entirely,” I say quietly. “I don’t think they have her here with them.”
Jack turns to me, his brows raised. “We don’t know that. She could be anywhere on this compound. She could be in the clubhouse right now or being held in one of the houses. We need to search the entire territory.”
“To do that means we’re going to have to bust into their clubhouse and hold the whole club hostage,” Big Mike says as he walks up behind us.
Mike is a good guy, and he’s got a sensible head on his shoulders, and, despite my desperation to get Camile back, I think he’s right.
This could go very wrong. If we become embroiled in a heavy, messy battle with the Revenants and Camile isn’t here, we waste precious time finding her. But how the hell do we find her?
I hang my head, staring at the floor, self-hatred eating me up. I got it wrong, and I failed her. If we don’t find her in time, it’s on me. I truly believed this was the best bet we had.
Jack turns off the flashlight as we walk out of the outbuilding and to the group of men still standing outside, weapons raised, on guard for any incoming men.
“It’s a fucking bust,” Jack says.
Taking his phone from his pocket, he fires off texts that I know will be going to the leaders of the two other groups, then stares off into the distance a muscle in his jaw working as he thinks.
“What’s the plan, Prez?” I ask.
“If we try to take this compound, it could take us hours and involve us in a long and bloody battle,” he says. “Which is worth it if Camile is here, but if we’ve got this wrong … if it’s not the Revenants…”
“It is the Revenants,” I argue. The Numbnuts told us as much when we went back and questioned them again, using some heavy persuasion techniques. And their messages to some of the Revenants members were what gave us the link in the first place. “I just don’t think they have her on their patch.”
A low rumble vibrates the ground a moment before bright light bursts through the tree cover in front of us, about fifty feet away. The lights blind me, but I raise my weapon, and I realize that it’s a mounted spotlight on a truck rig, and as more break through the tree cover, I know we’re fucked.