18. Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Eighteen
Cecilia held onto Torrent’s waist as he took the turn to Willow’s farm.
It was hard to believe she’d been with him almost two weeks.
This morning, she, Sally, and Calliope were going to hang out with Willow while Torrent and the club met with another club who was supposed to help with their problem.
Torrent had only told her what she needed to know and said the rest was club business. He’d explained that some things she’d never know, and she was fine with that. Whatever kept her and Calliope safe was fine with her.
Sally was driving the SUV and bringing Calliope. She was also picking up fresh flowers from Willow for the mortuary.
Cecilia had thought she’d be scared being on the back of a bike, but Torrent made her feel safe. He’d shown her how to get on with his help and where to keep her legs away from the hot pipes. He didn’t wear a helmet, but he’d had one for her to wear.
Between Monster and Torrent beside her in bed, she didn’t remember waking up from nightmares. Calliope was becoming comfortable at the clubhouse as well. Cecilia still worried about what would happen when Eustace, or Useless, as Torrent called him, returned.
Torrent turned into a driveway that had two large gates swinging open as they got closer. Dragon and Mav were leading the group as they pulled in. They all backed in close to a large farmhouse. Sally drove the SUV behind Willow’s house. Willow walked out as they pulled in.
Torrent helped Cecilia off the bike then unbuckled her helmet. He stared at her.
“Good?” he checked.
She nodded. He patted her shoulder and walked to where Dragon was waiting. Each day she spent with Torrent had her feeling a little more relaxed with him.
Sally, Calliope, Harley, and Monster walked around the house, joining her but not before Sally paused to give Dragon a kiss before the men left.
Monster immediately stuck himself to Cecilia’s side.
She adored how she was his person and he was constantly looking for threats.
The only time he relaxed was when they were in their suite or when Torrent was with her.
She scratched behind his ears. He’d let her know from day one what he liked best. She was so thankful Torrent had thought of an animal and then decided they needed the group of them.
Shadow, Beast, and Reaper were great additions.
“So, what do you all want to see first?” Willow asked.
“Can we go see the greenhouse and the flower fields?” Calliope wondered eagerly.
Willow smiled. “Of course, it’s one of my favorite places to be, and we’ll have to stop back by the gift shop because I have a lot of jams and jellies along with other gift items.”
“Got any jelly with Willow’s Wish I can get for Mav’s birthday?” Harley quipped, grinning.
“Harley,” Sally cautioned.
“Sorry, Mom,” he mumbled.
Willow led them across the paved driveway to a large greenhouse, greeting a couple workers as they walked through.
Cecilia wasn’t sure how sorry Harley really was, but she appreciated him not sharing anymore about Mav’s escapades.
She was positive that eventually Calliope would see something eye-opening, but until then, Cecilia was going to live blissfully in denial land where Calliope was innocent until her thirtieth birthday.
“Ask any questions or if you see something you want for the clubhouse, let me know,” Willow said.
Calliope skipped and stopped at a flowering plant.
Cecilia hadn’t worried much about flowers or plants because her apartment didn’t have great sunlight and she’d worked long shifts.
The plants would have been just one more thing to take care of, but she loved the fresh flowers in their suite. Maybe some plants might be nice too.
Making the suite feel more like home was happening gradually. Torrent had the cute items he’d made that she’d placed around the rooms. Sally had brought them some cute throws for their suite.
“So, what plant would be good in our rooms?” Cecilia asked.
She hid a grin at the animation on Willow’s face as she started talking about the best indoor plants and how much water and sun they needed.
Torrent waited in the barn on the back of Willow’s property while Fury guarded the door and Mammoth waited at the gate to let the Honey Creek Badgers MC in. Dragon had wanted a friendly face at the gate for them, and Mammoth had gone on the run and met them.
Bravo and Deacon had stayed back to keep the shop running.
The door opened and Fury led them in.
“Dragon, this is Mace, President of the Honey Creek Badgers MC, his VP Guru, and his Sgt. at Arms Axel,” Fury said.
Dragon shook their hands and introduced his officers. Torrent was impressed that Dragon didn’t show any surprise that the VP, Guru, was a woman. She and Axel weren’t in their MC cut either, which Torrent found strange.
“Shall we get down to business?” Dragon asked.
Mace nodded and took a seat after Dragon did on one of the hay bales arranged in a circle.
“First, I want to say I’m sorry about what happened to your woman,” Mace offered, his tone genuinely sincere.
“I appreciate it,” Torrent replied, giving a tight nod.
“That being said, it gave us the break we’d been looking for. We’ve had Chief Fink and his brother on our radar for the last six months and have been trying to figure out how to get someone close to them,” Mace explained.
“Why have you been surveilling them?” Dragon interjected.
“I’m not sure how much Fury told you about what we do,” Mace admitted, glancing around the circle.
“I told them that you are former military and first responders who are working to track down who killed one of your friends,” Fury said.
“Okay, let me back up a little,” Mace began, leaning forward.
“I was FBI. When my sister was helping to prosecute a man, she was killed by his followers. When I realized that the case was going nowhere and there had to be someone higher up in my organization helping, I approached my family and friends from high school about forming an MC with our purpose to be to track down and eliminate the man responsible for my sister’s death and his followers, workers, whatever.
You traffic in humans as far as I’m concerned, you’re slave owners and deserve to be dealt with accordingly.
“Chief Fink and his brother pinged on our radar when they met with another cog in the trafficking business we’re tracing.
The brother being taken out of the picture and the Chief on vacation,” Mace continued, air-quoting, “presents a unique opportunity. Guru and Axel, who will go by their government names, Abby and Jonah, will go undercover as police officers. Jonah will play that he’s looking for opportunities for cash and is willing to step across the line.
Abby is going to play a different part. She’ll be the sweet, unaware sister of Jonah who never asks questions.
She’ll be loyal and look like a great face for the department.
Once we get enough information from the Chief, Honey Creek Badgers will plan on taking him down and having him leave a resignation letter.
If all goes as planned, Jonah will move up and meet the next layer in the ring,” Mace laid out.
“How are you going to make sure you get the job?” Dragon asked.
Torrent was wondering the same thing.
“Our tech person has been culling the applicants until Jonah looks fantastic, and his resume says that he has a sister who wants a job too. I think that there’ll be no way he won’t choose them,” Mace assured them.
“To cement our cover, as soon as I get hired, I’ll be pulling over whoever of you I see first. If we want to set up a time, I’m good with that too.
I need him to believe that I hate your club, bikers, and anything to do with you because you want to live outside the law,” Jonah added, mapping out the strategy.
“Makes sense. How do you propose to help keep Cecilia and Calliope safe?” Torrent demanded, his protective instincts kicking in.
“Well, we plan on adding so many issues that he won’t have time to focus on anything else.
Prior to him hiring us, we’re still going to mess with him.
Our tech person has planted multiple lines of code that will screw up his day.
Between computers crashing, files going missing, or his personal insurance having issues, he’ll be too swamped to bother her,” Abby replied.
Torrent could live with that. He listened as Abby and Jonah gave them what information their club had, and Dragon shared the Grave Prowlers’ information.
What still concerned Torrent is that the Chief would be a threat until he was neutralized. Torrent couldn’t see having Calliope go back to school in Demise. It would put her too far away and directly in the Chief’s territory.
Harley attended school in Hazard. Maybe Calliope could transfer there, or maybe Cecilia would want to homeschool. He wasn’t sure, but he wanted to examine every option to keep Calliope safe.
“Thanks for coming. I’ll look forward to hearing what you find,” Dragon concluded, extending a hand.
“Thanks for having us. We’re anxious to get this moved along. It’s one more step to getting to the guy who had my sister killed,” Mace stated, his expression hardening.
“Our sister. Big head much, Pres,” Jonah quipped.
Once the Honey Creek Badgers MC were on their way, Dragon closed the door to the barn.
“Thoughts?” Dragon asked, turning back to his men.
“I think they are the best bet. I know we don’t like working with law enforcement, but they’re different. They’ve left behind that life to avenge their sister. They’re willing to cross the line again and again. I don’t have any concerns,” Fury weighed in.
“I agree. There’s no option that I love, but this one, I don’t hate. It has the best chance of working,” Mammoth rumbled.
Dragon stared at him. He didn’t particularly like having the Chief still alive, but Torrent didn’t want to go back to prison either, and two officers disappearing brought unwanted attention to the club.
“Agreed,” Torrent muttered, crossing his arms.
Dragon nodded, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. He pulled in a drag and then blew it out.
“Best option in a sea of not-so-great options is still the best bet. Let’s go see what Willow has for us for lunch, then we’ll have Church later this week to finalize what’s next,” Dragon said.
Torrent followed Dragon out, hoping that they were doing the right thing.