Chapter Three
At the far edge of town, Torin slowed down and took a right turn. Then he rode down a gravel driveway. Soon, they came to a front gate.
The man on duty ran over and opened the gate.
Torin rode in and right up to the front door.
Daisy stared at the huge front door and saw the emblem of the club.
A skull with hollowed eyes. Wings were spread out behind it. A pair of old fashioned long barrel guns crisscrossed at the base of the skull.
She swung off the bike and just studied the emblem for a moment. Then she turned to Torin and asked, “Who are you guys anyway?”
Torin shrugged. “We’re the Warrior Saints, the Texas branch, but we’re actually spread out, we have a sister club in Louisiana, and another club in New Mexico.
My uncles run the other clubs but we all have the same values and morals.
Like we have two bars and some of our men run Uber services.
” He chuckled. “Minus the cuts of course as that biker stuff sorta throws people off. More importantly, our clubs are all legit.”
Daisy shook her head. “I don’t even know what legit means. My dad’s club breaks every law they can on a daily basis.”
Torin stared at her and shook his head. “Yeah, we need to talk about that.” He motioned her toward the front door. “And talk about your safety. A girl on the run from big ass bikers? This is bad for our image too.” When he opened it, they found a good number of men waiting for them inside.
Four larger men stood to one side, one was the man she knew as Torin’s dad, Pope, but she didn’t know who the others were.
Torin took her straight to his dad.
Stopping in front of him, she looked into Pope’s eyes.
“Are you ready to tell us who you are and who the shooters were yet?” He glared at her.
Daisy glared back then she sighed. “My name is Daisy and the guys on the bikes that shot up your bar were most likely, my brothers.”
One of the men standing there said, “I have a few questions too. They call me Bowman, by the way.”
She nodded her head at him.
He went on, “So when you say brothers, you mean your actual siblings?”
Again, she gave him a nod. “One of my brothers tried to stop me from finally walking out of the place they call home. He busted my lip and bruised me up a bit, but I got away. He thought I stole something from them.”
Bowman frowned and had to ask, “And did you take whatever they think you stole?”
Again, Daisy nodded as she admitted to it without an ounce of shame, “Oh yeah, I took it alright.”
“So, let’s get this straight,” Pope broke in. “You stole something from them and ran away?
Another nod from her.
Bowman looked perplexed as well as he asked, “And that is why your brothers are hunting you?”
“It was copies of records and payroll files. Only these files show corruption and illegal dealings. They have gotten away with everything for all this time. I took it and intended to bring it to the law. Only I wasn’t going to the cops back home.
My dad has too many on his payroll there.
He’s been paying them to look the other way for years now.
No... I was going to find an honest cop and turn everything over to him and let the chips fall where they may.
” She paused then shook her head. “But now, I’ll be lucky to find anyone I can trust enough to turn over what I’ve got before they get to me. ”
Torin smiled and tipped his head at her. “You came to the right place though. Or the right bar, I should say. We know the right kind of lawman you need to do just that.”
Glancing over at him, Daisy did not look convinced.
“Do you know what exactly they’re doing?” Pope finally asked.
Daisy sighed heavily. “Yeah, I know. I sure as hell am not proud of it either. I grew up in that MC and my dad never tried to hide what he was doing.” She shrugged. “He let the boys grow up in the club too and trained them himself. So I wasn’t really surprised that they were mixed up in this too.”
“What exactly are their crimes, honey?” one of the older guys asked.
Daisy just stared at them for a long moment before she made up her mind. “I’m gonna trust you. I mean I hardly have a choice now.” She removed her backpack from her shoulders and opened it. She took out a very small flash drive and passed it to Torin. “I guess you better look for yourselves.”
Torin stared down at the flash drive then he handed it off to one of his other brothers.
The brother with a patch that tagged him as Fox, took it and sat down at the table.
Then he removed his laptop from his bag on the floor.
He set that up and powered it on. Finally, he loaded the drive into a slot and opened the files.
All the men stood waiting. They seemed to look patient.
Daisy didn’t feel patient. She knew she shouldn’t be here at all. She sighed again and crossed her arms over her chest.
Torin stood next to her as he glanced at her. Then looking back at Fox and his laptop, he looked curious as to what was on this drive that seemed to be worth her life.
A moment later, Fox pushed his chair back and raised his head. Looking stunned, he just stared at Daisy. Turning his head, he looked over at Pope. “Pres, you aren't gonna believe this.”
Pope and Bowman walked over to read what Fox had up on his screen.
After a few minutes, Pope raised his head and stared at Daisy. “You’re dad is Demon? From Demon’s Rage MC?”
Daisy nodded. She didn’t have to say a word as it seemed the whole club knew her family.
“Who are your brothers?” Bowman wanted to know.
“My oldest brother is Danny or Digger,” she told them. “My middle brother is Colton and he goes by the odd name of Forty-Five, and the youngest of the three is Hayden, but his MC name is Clipper and as you said, my dad goes by Demon.”
Hearing these names and who they were, there were grumbles from several of the men in the room.
Suddenly, she began to feel weak and she swayed on her feet. Pressing her hand to her belly... her knees buckled. She reached out to grab the table for support but she missed and slid to the floor.
Torin rushed over to her but she hit the floor before he could catch her. He reached out and scooped her up into his arms, heading down the hall. “Patch,” he called out. “She’s gonna need you.”
One of the brothers broke away and followed him down the hall.
A few minutes later...
Pope shook his head then glanced over at Bowman and Fox. He then followed them as well. By the time he got to the Infirmary and stepped inside, he saw Patch pushing her shirt up. He stopped and stared at the bloody bandages or what she used as bandages on her side and shook his head.
“Well, damn,” Patch swore as he carefully peeled the bloody gauze away from her side.
Then he pulled the sanitary pads off next.
With a gasp, he just stared at the open bleeding wound on her side.
He looked up and said, “It looks like she took a blade and someone sliced her open without a care.” He gazed down at the wound again then moved his hand closer to pick at something on the cut.
Shaking his head he admitted, “Looks like she tried to hold it together with super glue and the glue gave way.”
Torin nodded. “After you guys left, we went out the back way and heard their bikes again. She tackled me and tipped my bike over because her stupid brothers started shooting again. She saved my life. The shooters were almost past us when our men came flying out of the bar. Fury and Riot shot back but they were long gone.”
Pope snapped his head over to stare at Torin. “She tackled you before her brothers started shooting?”
Torin nodded. “As soon as we hit the ground, I rolled over on top of her to protect her and my bike protected both of us.” He shook his head.
“That must have been when the wound was opened. That’s when I noticed the fresh blood anyway.
I thought she took a bullet but she told me she didn’t.
I got her back here as fast as I could, then we got busy talking and I forgot she was bleeding. ”
Patch scoffed. “Well, whoever slashed her did a damn good job. I’ll have to stitch this up.
” He poked around a little more then glanced at Pope.
“This wound is at least two days old, maybe three. The edges of the wound are already drying out.” Then he placed his hand on her forehead.
“She might even be starting a fever. We have to get some antibiotics into her before she gets really really sick.”
Pope nodded, then looked over at her face. He noticed Daisy’s eyes were open.. “Why didn’t you tell us about this girl?”
Daisy turned her head away and whispered, “I didn’t think you would care.”
Pope glared at her. “Damn girl... We may not know you very well but you’re a human being and you deserve so much more than you got from them.”
Turning her head to stare at him, she asked, “Why do you even care about someone you don’t know?”
Pope crossed his arms over his chest as he felt disgusted by this whole conversation.
“Because I’m a man and I care about the people I meet.
You’re right I don’t know you yet and I may not like your father or your brothers.
But it seems to me, you aren’t like them.
So until you prove me wrong, I’m trying hard not to judge you. ”
Daisy shivered. “You’re right about that, I’m not like my father or my brothers, but they never minded that.
They tried to beat the good out of me, every chance they got.
At least that was my reasoning for it. But I learned not to notice the pain anymore and after that it seemed to take the fun out of the beatings for them.
When they could no longer make me cry or scream they finally backed off.
” She snorted. “Hell, after the second year, I didn’t even feel the pain anymore.
Yes, afterward, the beatings still hurt but I could bury that and get up off the floor to do my work again.
After that, they began leaving me alone. That is until recently anyway?”
“What happened recently?” Torin frowned.
“They’ve got something big coming in the next few weeks.
I’m not sure exactly what because they just stopped talking shop at home and I was never allowed in the clubhouse for like the last couple of years, but suddenly I was being watched by everyone in the club.
I mean I couldn’t move without one or more of the guys following me around. It made me really nervous, you know.”
Pope frowned, then asked, “Did you ever figure out why they were watching you so closely?”
Daisy shook her head. “I left that place three days ago and it was Clipper that caught me sneaking out. Before I left though, I downloaded all of dad’s files and I had only taken that backpack with me.
Clipper was outside smoking a cigarette when I tried to sneak away.
He stabbed me to try and stop me from running but he only caught my side and I got away from him anyway.
I had to keep to the alleys to even get out of that damn town.
And I had to be really careful not to get caught the last three days.
” She sighed hard then said, “Then tonight, I screwed up and they caught sight of me.”