Chapter Ten
Just then, the back door opened and several men came inside. They were all armed and they joined the others at the windows.
Pope nodded at his other brother Cardinal and his nephews.
Fox looked up and saw his cousin Raven and several others wearing his cousin’s cuts. There was even a woman there. Fox frowned, then commented, “Cuz, this isn’t really a social call.”
Raven smiled at him, “We know that well, Fox but Scarlette isn’t really the social kind of woman. If this goes the way you said it might, you are going to be thankful she’s here. Don’t you worry about her.” Then he looked toward the front. “What’s going on here?”
“We got Demon’s Rage and the Devil’s Spawn out front and they want one of the Demons back. They threatened to burn us out.”
Raven glanced at Scarlette and shook his head. Then he looked over at Fox and asked, “And just what are we gonna do about that, cuz?”
Cardinal leaned back in his chair and drawled, “Well, if I know my brother here...” He motioned to Pope.
“They have the woods well hydrated so burning us out is not the issue. The issue would be the fact that these bozos think they can come in here threatening us while thinking we’re quaking in our boots. ”
Scarlette smiled and said, “I do love a good fight. What you guys got in mind?” She slid into a chair and crossed her arms over her chest.
Pope just shook his head and asked, “What would a woman like you know about fighting?”
Scarlette’s smile widened. “Honey, I grew up under the Hade’s Demons MC and I’ve got two brothers in the Soldiers of Hades MC. My daddy taught me well and so did my brothers.”
Pope’s eyes widened as did Bishop’s and Cardinal’s.
Then Pope asked her quietly, “You’re one of Python’s kids?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m Cobra’s and Cotton’s sister.” She shrugged. “I’m also a good cook and damn fine mechanic. I’m well versed in hand to hand. I own several guns. I can sharp-shoot and I can use a blade like it’s my bitch.”
Raven gave them all a nod. “Believe me she can handle just about anything.” Then the smile slid off his face as he added, “But I got her back, always.”
The men there with the patches of: Rambler, Bearcat, Thunder and Hunter, all growled.
“And we got her back too,” Thunder stated.
Pope stared at his cut and shook his head. “How the hell are you, Thunder? Been awhile.” He held out his hand.
“I was wondering when you’d greet me,” Thunder grumbled and shook his hand.
“Sorry brother, I didn’t see you until now,” Pope said as he looked at his other brothers. He nodded at Bishop and Cardinal then explained, “Met this guy many years ago. He saved my bacon back then and we sort’ve been friends ever since.”
“Sort of?” Bishop chuckled.
Pope shrugged and added, “Well, when he wants to be that is. He’s got a bit of a temper but he seems to have settled down a bit since the last time I saw him.”
Scarlette laughed. “Yeah, that’s our Thunder. But not to worry, his woman finally came home with his half grown kid and then they had another one. She settled him right down.”
Thunder glared at her. “It’s easy to see that it was Python that raised you, girl.”
Scarlette grinned at him. “I take that as a complement. Though he has the exact same temperament as you.”
The men around them all chuckled.
Thunder shook his head at her then turned to Pope and asked, “Did you come up with a battle plan already?”
Pope nodded, then sighed, “They think they will set fire to the woods and burn us out if we don’t hand over Digger.”
Daisy came out from behind the table Torin had put her behind. “They are gonna try to burn you out anyway. Even if you give Digger back, they will light the woods up. Then they will stand back and watch it all burn.”
Scarlette smiled then turned to Pope to ask, “You got any laundry soap?”
Pope frowned at her in confusion. “What? You want to wash clothes now?”
Scarlette shook her head. “What happens when you spill laundry soap over wet ground?”
Bishop laughed. “Damn girl, I like how you think.” He turned to his brother. “Well, do ya? We’re gonna need at least ten gallons.”
Pope crossed his arm over his chest and asked, “And just how are you gonna get it into the woods? You can’t just put all that soap in the underground lake, you know.”
Daisy shook her head. “You don’t need to put it in the lake.
All you have to do is run a hose out into the woods.
They’re probably watching the front gate.
If you go out the back door you can run a hose into the woods.
Then the soap will hit that water and go where it goes.
They won’t even know it's there until they go deeper into the trees to set the fires.”
Scarlette sat back in her chair and added, “So if the soap runs enough, they will slip and slide all over before they know it’s too late to escape the mud.
Not only that but the soap will make the mud slippery.
It will irritate them more than anything but it will give us more time to set up our defenses. ”
Cardinal smirked and looked at his brothers. “Damn, I like this idea.” Shrugging he added, “At least the soap won’t wreck the trees. You might have bubbles for a while, but that won’t harm anything.”
Pope looked at Torin then glanced at every face in the room. “That water has been flowing since last night, the trees should be soaked by now. There might even be standing water by this time. Are you sure you want to use laundry soap? Oil might make things more slippery.”
Bishop shook his head. “Oil might also hurt the trees and the ground. Soap might be messy but it isn’t going to hurt anything long term.”
Pope nodded. “Ok, let’s do this then. We have to move quickly and quietly. “We’ll have to distract the assholes out front and get the hose deep into the trees.” He looked over at Fox and asked, “You still got cameras there?”
Fox nodded. “Yeah, we still have eyes there.”
“Alright,” Pope said. “You watch the cameras and we’ll deal with the front gate.” He looked over at Torin. “Get everything set up and get the soap started.”
Daisy took a step toward Pope. “If my dad’s out there he’ll try to make a deal with you.
He’ll probably demand you turn my brother over first then he’ll pretend to leave but he won’t do that.
Once he gets Digger back, he’ll still try to set the trees on fire.
If you dare fight back he’ll start shooting.
With Satan out there watching them, the Demons will have to try to kill whoever fights back. ”
“Your dad would break his word?” Cardinal asked quietly.
Daisy scoffed then looked at him. “Without batting an eye. He would look you in the eye or shake your hand then stab you in the back. That’s just how he does business.
But he would need to get Digger back first. Those two have so many secrets that he has to protect him.
” She shrugged. “Digger has plenty of secrets too.”
“Would he ever go against your dad?” Cardinal wanted to know.
Daisy just stared at him then she sighed hard. Lifting her hand to rub her temples she closed her eyes and replied, “I don’t know. Maybe if you can show him that dad might turn his back on him, then maybe? But I have no idea what you would say to convince Digger of that.”
Hacksaw smiled. “We’re pretty smooth. We can convince Eskimos to buy ice if we need to. But you have to tell us what we can use. Do you know some secrets we can toss at them?”
Daisy paused at this idea then she finally smiled. “I might know one or two,”
Bishop leaned forward in his chair. “I might know one or two myself.”
Pope and Cardinal looked over at their brother in shock.
“What?” Pope shook his head at him. “You holding out on us, brother?”
Bishop shook his head. “Naw, I ain’t holding out on you, big brother.
I didn’t even remember I knew something until now really.
I’ve been hearing things, you know? Just rumors but you know what they say about rumors?
There’s always a little bit of truth in them and a whole lot of exaggeration, right? ”
“What have you heard?” Daisy asked him.
Bishop leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Heard about this drug operation your dad plans to start. Rumor has it that he recently acquired a farm for next to nothing.”
Daisy hesitated then she nodded. “Yeah, he got it for the price of human lives. He waited until midnight then he blocked the doors, before he poured gasoline all around the house and lit the match. He didn’t even give that farmer a chance to get his family out as the house burned too fast.” Tears filled her eyes as she looked angry.
“He then picked it up at auction for almost nothing.”
The whole room went quiet for a long moment.
Bishop shook his head. “I never heard that part.” He growled and looked over at Pope. “We need to eradicate these stone-cold killers.”
Cardinal nodded at both his brothers, Bishop and Pope. “Yeah, it’s long overdue. They will be stopped now. We have the best fighting men in this part of the US.” He looked around at the Soldiers Of Hades and the Warrior Saints.
Bishop agreed, “They’d better say their prayers.”
Pope grinned at his brothers. “Who better to dispatch them, eh? The Unholy Trinity."
The three brothers, Pope, Bishop and Cardinal, all stepped toward each other. Then they actually did the sign of the cross over themselves and stated loudly in unison with their raised fists in the air, “AMEN!”
Everyone in the room paused to stare at the three brothers with the holy titles that weren’t road names.
Staring at the three brothers, Daisy leaned close to Torin and whispered, “Is this for real?”
He slowly shook his head and whispered back, “Maybe? But I’m thinking Holy Hell, not heaven.” He smirked.
Fox glanced up and murmured, “Holy shit.”
Torin was unsure if he was also making a joke until he saw that his eyes were cold as ice.
Pope, Bishop and Cardinal snapped their gazes over to the IT.
“What’s going on?” Pope asked him as his voice had gone hard.
Fox then looked down at his monitor again and saw a whole lot of the enemy gathered at the front gate. “There are quite a few of these assholes at the gates and some of them are carrying blow torches.” He then glanced at Daisy and said, “You were right, they are going to try and burn us out.”
Pope looked over at his brothers, then at his son. “Get that soap in the trees before it's too late.”
Torin rushed toward the back as Scarlette and several men joined him.
Within minutes, they had rigged up a portion of PVC pipe long enough to reach the wooded area behind the compound.
Scarlette and Raven were pouring the soap into the piping while everyone else watched the area on the monitors.
They were happy the grass was long enough to hide the pipe.
Then as soon as they loaded the last bottle of laundry soap into it, everyone gathered around and watched as the enemy bikers began shouting at the front door again.
Pope went to the front door and opened it.
Some of the men ran for the stairs to the roof.
Bishop called out to all the men, “Just watch for now, we can’t show them how many of us are here. They think you guys are just a few men. And be careful, don’t give them any targets.”
Pope stood in the doorway and shouted at the men gathering at the gate, “What the hell do you want here?”
Demon cupped his mouth and yelled back. “We were here earlier and my son got left behind. I want him back.”
Pope snarled, “Would that be the same guy who tried to throw a grenade over the fence?”
“Yeah, that’s him,” Demon admitted. “But that was just to show you guys we meant business. You didn’t show us any respect last night and for that we had to show you not to mess with us.
” He began to pace in front of the gate.
Then he turned back and shouted, “Give me my son back or we’ll burn this whole place down. ”