19. Ace
ACE
The mood at the compound is somber as we contemplate what is coming tonight. This isn’t going to be easy in any way, and lives are most likely going to be lost. I’m alone in the office, and the quiet settles over me like a heavy blanket.
Rook has taken Cash, Phoenix, and two other bikers to Jarrod’s house.
Zoo, Tank, and Becker are with Camile over at the hospital.
I’ve been poring over maps and trying to figure out the ways we can plot the routes to have a group of us go directly to the airstrip for the exchange.
Then we’ll have a larger number of us take the back roads and surround the damn place so we can ambush them.
It’s one advantage we hold over Hector—we have pre-knowledge about where he’s holding Ghost. It’s unlikely he realizes that we’ve figured out where they are.
Planning routes is my role in the club, but doing it for a fun ride out, and doing it when lives will be on the line, are two entirely different things, hence I’m psyching myself out.
Big Mike left a while ago to go nurse a beer in the bar, saying he was thirsty.
I told him to stick to light. We’re all going to need our heads on right later tonight.
That’s if we do the exchange then. It would suit us better to do it in the dark, but Hector might insist on it being the morning.
Then again, I’d think he’d want his son back as soon as possible.
Sighing, I stare at the maps, marked with various colored routes, and chew on my cheek.
A few minutes later, there’s a soft knock at the door, pulling me out of my focus.
I lift my chin. “Yeah?”
One of the barmaids, Kelly, pokes her head around the door. “You want a drink, Ace?”
“Just a lemonade, please. Lots of ice.”
“Gotcha. Shelley is in the bar and asking for you.”
“Oh?” I straighten in surprise. “Send her through, I guess.”
She gives me a quick nod and vanishes from view.
I don’t know what Shelley wants, but she’s a sweetie who has been more welcoming to Camile than any of the other women here, so I’ll gladly give her a moment of my time.
I hope she’s not wanting relationship advice, because there were rumors last year that her man, Bear, had been flirting with one of the bar staff. I’m not sure I’m the best qualified for that shit, especially with everything else going on.
Shelley appears in the still open doorway, and at the sight of her, all thoughts of lending her a moment for her relationship woes disappear. Whatever Shelley is here to see me about is fucking serious.
“Hey, Shelley. You look like you’ve just been beaten black and blue by life.”
She shrugs. “Things aren’t good, Ace. I, um… I need to talk to you about something.”
Her voice is shaking. Her cheeks are pale, and even her lips look almost white, as if all the blood has left her upper body.
What the hell? I've never seen her like this.
Shelley is a real sweetheart who always brings warmth with her into any room she enters.
She's been with her partner for a long time, and they were members of Jack’s previous club, before they took the chance to join this one and moved back into the area.
Because she's a nurse, it was easy enough for her to move hospitals, and she said it gave her a chance to start afresh and to be closer to her remaining family.
I'm not sure if she has parents left alive, as she is probably in her early forties, so they might have passed already, but I’m sure she has a sibling.
She's still wearing her scrubs and has a bag thrown across her body, and she fiddles with the buckle on the strap nervously as she chews on her lower lip.
I pull out a chair to the side of the desk where the prez normally sits.
Rather than taking Jack’s seat and sitting behind the desk, which I feel might be somewhat hierarchical, I sit beside her on another chair that I pull around.
She looks so damn scared that I want to put her at ease and make her feel as if she can open up to me.
I'm getting a bad feeling about this, and my stomach churns as I wonder what the heck this is about.
Shelley sighs, and, just as I'm about to speak, the door opens and Kelly walks in from the bar, holding a large glass of iced lemonade for me.
She places it beside me on the desk and gives me a flirtatious smile.
I’m with Camile now, and I guess most of the club knows, but Kelly will always have that flirtatious side to her.
I don't mind smiling and flirting back a little with anybody, but it would never go any farther than that now I'm with Camile.
She owns my heart and soul, and I can't imagine looking at another woman again.
I guess I've always been loyal; it's just that I've never met anybody I wanted to settle down with.
It was the strangest thing, but the moment I saw Camile, it was as if part of me already knew her.
I wonder if we'd met each other in a previous life. Perhaps had even been married. She just felt like home, and I knew I wanted her to be mine straight away.
Dragging my mind from thoughts of my Princess, I focus back on the here and now.
“Would you like a drink?” I ask Shelley, thinking she looks like she could use something stiff and strong.
But she shakes her head.
“Thanks, Kelly.” I smile at her, but it’s in dismissal.
She gets the message because she shoots a curious glance between me and Shelley but leaves, closing the door firmly behind her.
“God, Ace, I’m so scared.”
Shelley bursts out crying, shocking me to the core. Not a little bit of crying, no, this is full on ugly crying, with great wracking sobs.
Fuck me, what do I do? Awkwardly, I reach out and put my hand on her shoulder.
“It’s okay, Shelley, take a breath. Whatever it is, we can deal with it.”
“No, no, no, we can’t. I’m dead. I’m fucking dead, and if I’m not dead, my sister is.”
She sobs some more, and I wait it out, my heart racing.
She’s come to me, and she wants to talk, but if I push her, she might close up.
This is obviously some messed up shit, and I can’t have her freaking out and deciding not to tell me.
I might relish cutting digits off fuckers who deserve it, but Shelley is a woman, and a sweet one at that.
I could no more hurt her than one of my kittens.
This calls for persuasion, not violence.
“Shelley, it’s okay. Take your time. Just breathe, okay? In fact, hang on a minute.” I take out my cell and call through to the bar. Kelly answers on the second ring. “Can you bring us a large brandy, hon?” I ask.
Shelley might have said she didn’t want a drink, but she damn well needs one.
“Sure thing, Ace, give me a moment.”
It seems like only seconds before Kelly knocks on the door and brings in the brandy, glowing golden like an autumnal sky in the big tumbler, with ice added. She places it by me and leaves without saying a word, casting a worried but also speculative glance Shelley’s way.
The girls will be talking soon, and word will spread that something is going on with Shelley. If it’s what I’m thinking, that she’s somehow betrayed us, then things could get very bad, very fast.
“Here, take this,” I tell Shelley. “Have a big drink. Calm your nerves.”
Calm your nerves? I sound like my grandmother, goddamn it.
She does as I say, though, and knocks back half the glass. She grimaces before placing it on the desk, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth.
“So…” I gently push, hoping to get her to talk.
“I can’t,” she whispers.
I take hold of her hand and squeeze it between both of mine.
“Shelley, you came to me. You obviously want to talk. I’ve kind of half guessed what this must be about.
Someone betrayed us to the cartel. We’ve gathered everyone’s phones and have been going through them, except for the people who were at work.
And you were doing a long shift, so we didn’t have yours.
Although, I will need to take it. Now you’re here, and you’re scared and upset.
” I smile at her softly, but she’s staring at the floor. “It doesn’t take a genius, sweetheart.”
She lifts her swollen, tearstained eyes to meet mine. “I got back a short while ago and Bear told me that… th-th-that… oh, God.” Her eyes spill over with tears again. “It’s my fault, Ace. Jack, Ghost, all of it.”
Fuck. I knew it, of course, but hearing her say it makes my stomach drop.
“Why?” I ask, my voice ragged because, fuck me, she might end up dead for this.
“They took my sister. My pretty, sweet little sister, who has already been through so much. They had pictures of her, all bruised up and shit. They said… th-th-they promised that if I gave them the details, they’d only waylay the ride out to get the information they needed on Ledger.”
I frown at her. “But you knew Ledger was dead, right?”
She sniffs and nods. “I know, but I didn’t dare tell them that.
Oh, my God, my sister would be dead for sure then.
I thought about telling you, I truly did, Ace, but they said if I told anyone, even my Bear, that they’d gut her like a fish.
But they said they’d r-r-rape her first.” Her voice drops to a horrified whisper.
“That they all would. Each of the men on Hector’s crew, all taking their t-t-turn. ”
Her lips are trembling so bad, she keeps messing up her words.
“I was such a mess at work, which was terrible because I was assisting in a twelve-hour surgery all day, but they told me to act normal. Then I come home to find out what had happened during the ride out. Bear told me that I’d have to hand my phone in, but even before he said that, I’d already decided to come to speak with you because I can’t have that on my conscience.
Not Jack being shot and Ghost being taken.
Not when they’ve only ever been kind and nice to me. ”
She wipes her eyes with her free hand, her other still nestled between mine.
“Promise me something, Ace. Don’t take this out on Bear, and don’t let any of the others, either.
He knew nothing about this. And please do whatever you can to save my sister.
I know my life is going to be over, I know.
” She nods as if convincing herself that it’s okay.
“But not my sister. She’s been through too much.
She lost her daughter to cancer, Ace, a few years back.
And then her damn husband left her. She’s just found happiness again.
Remarried, got an adorable little step-baby.
Her new husband was a widower. Can’t you see?
” Her big eyes beseech me. “I can’t let him go through that again.
Please, I can’t lose my baby sister. She’s my only real blood left in this world. ”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
I let go of her hand and stand abruptly. She gasps and sobs again, but I need to move, so I can think.
How did the cartel find her? Why her? Out of all the members of this club? I look at her, and my gaze lands on the chain around her neck. It’s thick, silver, and at the end of it is a large flat pendant with VF Riders, then underneath, Bear, in an engraved heart.
“Shelley, did you treat anyone at the hospital who could have been from the cartel over the past few days?”
She stops crying as my words sink in and thinks. “I don’t know. How would I tell?”
I can’t help but think they monitored the comings and goings of people, maybe followed a few of the women, saw Shelley and, for some reason, maybe her soft, kind face, picked her as a possible target. How else did they know about her? Unless… there’s another betrayer in our midst?
If they’d been given her name, then investigated her past and her family, and found out she had only one sister left, who’s had, let’s face it, a truly tragic time of it, they’d have seen she was the perfect mark.
“Shelley, we have to get Ghost back. I need to know everything you can tell me about the men who spoke to you, okay? Every minor detail, no matter how small, could help us. We’re going to try to make a trade for Ghost. You could provide us with the puzzle piece that helps us more than anything.”
“How can you make a trade when we don’t have Ledger?” She frowns.
“Leave that to us.” I wink.
“You’re freaking me out,” she says softly.
“I am? Why?”
“You’re not acting like you hate me. In fact, you’re acting the same as you always do.”
I sigh and scrub my hand over my face. “I don’t hate you, Shelley. You fucked up, but God, you were in a difficult position.” Then I pick up my phone and swipe the screen.
“Are you going to call Jack?” she asks in a whisper.
“No. I’m messaging Zoo to tell him and Camile to get back here. I also need someone to go over to your house and bring Bear here. We have to tell him what’s happened, and I’m scared of how he’ll react if you’re alone with him. We should tell him together.”
“You think he’ll hit me?” she asks, shocked.
“No, sweetheart, I think he might lose it and try to do something crazy to save you. The man worships you.”
“No one can save me.” She sits straighter and sniffles, as if she’s finally accepting the fate she thinks she faces.
“Don’t be so sure of that, and I can promise you one thing. I will try.”
“Why?”
“Because, Shelley, I don’t truly see what choice you had.
Yes, you should have come to us and told us because we could have prepared for the hit, but you wouldn’t have been thinking straight.
They had your sister—your remaining family—and you just went straight into panic mode.
They said they wanted a swap, and I do believe that’s true, but things got out of hand.
I don’t believe they meant to shoot the prez. ”
“How bad is it?” She nibbles on a nail. “If I had known he was in the hospital, I’d have gone to see him and confessed while I was at work, but I had no idea until I got home because of assisting in surgery all day.”
“It’s a good job you didn’t,” I tell her. “Jack’s fucked up and in pain, and I doubt he’s thinking too clearly right now. He might have lost his temper with you. It’s better coming from one of us.”
“What do we do now?”
“You have to stay with me, I’m afraid. I can’t really let you out of my sight. You understand that, right?”
She nods once.
“Then when some of the guys get back, we bring Bear in here and break the news to him. In the meantime, you start to talk.”
I take up my phone again and swipe to the notes app. “Tell me every single thing you can recall.”