Chapter 18 Five to One #3
Blood ambled up the drive to us. “Don’t take too much time, Punc.”
I dug into my pocket. “Hang on. Here’s your money, Blood.”
He took it with a strange expression. “You probably ought to keep at least fifty bucks. We shattered a huge terracotta pot when we attacked Beauford.”
I shrugged. “That’s all right. Cat and I aren’t good with gardening.”
He nodded and sauntered to his bike.
Punc grabbed my hand and led me inside the house. Blood’s motorcycle roared to life as I locked the door.
“Hurry up, Savannah,” Punc called.
In the kitchen, Punc jerked his head toward the garage. “I don’t want you here alone. Go to the clubhouse. Beast will be there, and he’s gonna text to let us know you got there safe. Stay there until I call you.”
“Okay. Where are you going to—”
He shook his head. “It’s club business now, babe. Less you know about where I’m going, the better off we’ll both be.”
Punc
Punc’s right hook connected with Frank’s eye, and his face jerked to the left. The large shed felt smaller even though it was just Punc, Razor, and Tundra dishing out what Frank deserved.
When they arrived at the remote property in Callahan an hour and a half ago, the brothers forced Beauford into the BMW with Cal. Blood had swung off his bike, and climbed into the backseat of the Beamer with a gun trained on Beauford to make sure he didn’t try anything.
Frank inhaled through his nose. “Are you done yet? You Riot pussies aren’t going to kill me.”
“You’re awfully cocky for an asshole who’s tied to a chair in a shed in the middle of nowhere,” Razor muttered.
“Where’s Beauford?” Frank asked.
Tundra glanced between Punc and Razor. “Did you notice that’s the third time he’s asked about Beauford?”
The door to the oversized shed opened, and Cal entered the room followed by Blood.
“Beauford sampled some of your product. It didn’t seem to agree with him,” Blood said.
Fury filled Frank’s eyes. “You killed my nephew. You’re gonna—”
“I didn’t say that, Frankie,” Blood muttered.
“Is he alive?” Frank asked, his voice husky.
Blood leaned against the wall, staring at Frank. “EMTs were at the scene. If you lace your product with fentanyl… well, better hope they have Narcan on hand.”
Frank tried to stand even though he was tied to a chair. From behind him, Cal pushed down on his shoulders to force him back to sitting.
“Did we know he worked with his nephew?” Punc asked.
Blood shook his head once. “He had a brother, who died four years ago. We also know he’s got a twenty-eight-year-old sister, but she’s too young to be Beauford’s mom and she’s currently living on the state of New York’s dime in a women’s prison.”
Razor stepped closer to Frank. “When did you last talk to her?”
“Fuck you,” Frank muttered.
Razor brought out a straight razor. “Last time. When did you last hear from her?”
“Last week,” Frank said.
Razor shot Cal a look and he held Frank by his shoulders.
Razor drew the edge of the blade along Frank’s hairline. “Liars get what they deserve where I’m from.” He looked at Punc. “Get the first aid kit.”
Punc grabbed the travel kit and opened it wide.
Razor jerked his chin toward the kit. “Open one of those sanitizing wipes for me.”
“What the hell? You never clean your blade. Why start now?” Tundra asked.
Razor grinned. “It’s not for me, man.”
Punc understood Razor’s plan and he dragged the alcohol wipe down the cut.
Frank hissed and jerked in Cal’s hold.
“Hurts, don’t it?” Razor asked.
“Fuck you,” Frank said through clenched teeth.
Razor shrugged. “Our lawyer could check on those records for us, and that might take hours. Gives me plenty of time to make you bleed.”
“Last year,” Frank said.
Razor aimed a skeptical look at Frank. “You sure? That means you heard from her last July.”
“Christmas,” Frank hissed.
Cal shook his head. “Still sounds like bullshit to me, but she won’t report him going missing. At least not any time soon.”
“Punc, if you want to cut this asshole, now’s the time, but remember not to get carried away. We can’t fuck up the next part of the plan,” Blood said.
Punc pulled out his knife and just kept himself from getting carried away.
“Goddamn, it’s dark out here,” Cal said.
“Not any darker than back at the shed,” Blood said.
“You aren’t tryin’ to drive in this shit,” Cal complained.
They were riding in Frank’s BMW heading west on US-90 toward MacClenny.
Punc sat in the backseat with his gun aimed at an unconscious Frank who was slumped on the passenger side.
He wished he was on his bike, but that wasn’t feasible.
It was ten minutes after ten, and the sound of his bike’s pipes might attract attention.
“It’s been a while since Turk ran sports bets. Are we sure this isn’t some kind of trap?” Punc asked.
Blood turned in the passenger seat to look at Punc. “How pissed are you that your sweet Ava was stripping to pay that asshole?”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“No, I asked the wrong question. Consider how much more pissed you’d be if you’d found out she was turning tricks to pay this asshole… what would you do for retribution then?”
“No disrespect, Blood, but I’m that fuckin’ pissed already. I’d rather not walk into some kind of fucked-up trap.”
In the dim moonlight shining into the sedan, he saw Blood’s expression turn serious. “Turk’s our brother. He’s not gonna give us bad intel and send us into a trap.”
Cal nodded. “Anything happens to us, Volt and Turk know where these assholes live, work, and spend their free time. They know not to double-cross us.”
Blood looked at Punc. “The way Turk put it, we’re bringing these country boys a gift.”
“And it might give them a fighting chance at getting their sister clean,” Cal added.
“What about this car?” Punc asked.
“After I take you and Blood back to the cabin for your bikes, we’re going to a bar Frank’s known to frequent. They don’t have any outside cameras in the back, and Razor’s in his truck waiting for me nearby.”
Punc nodded. “Are we certain these men aren’t gonna go soft on us? It’s one thing to say you want someone dead. It’s another thing to carry that out and deal with the body.”
Blood sighed. “There’s four of them, and they’re pissed about what happened to their sister. One of them has land out here. He bought chickens before he had the coop fully built, which he admits was stupid on his part, but that’s how he learned there’s feral hogs in the area.”
Punc hesitated a beat. “Hogs aren’t gonna take care of the bones.”
Blood’s teeth gleamed in the faint moonlight when he smiled. “No, but it’s easier to bury bones than a man’s body.”
Cal cleared his throat. “If it makes you rest easier, we can make sure they kill him, but…”
“No, Blood’s right. Turk wouldn’t steer us wrong on something this big.”
Punc rode his bike into the Riot MC compound at eleven-fifty-five and parked in the back. With Frank no longer a threat, and Catalina safe at Muriel’s, Punc decided he and Savannah would spend the night at the clubhouse.
He walked into the common room and froze.
Savannah stood next to a pool table holding on to a cue stick like it was keeping her upright, while her head was tipped back with pure, beautiful laughter.
She’d never looked more gorgeous.
Lisa stood across the table from her with a hand on her hip. “Laugh all you want. I still got time.”
Rage sat at a high-top near the pool table, and he lifted his chin at Punc.
Lisa noticed Rage’s gesture, turned, then turned back to Savannah. “Now you can be distracted because your man’s back.”
Savannah sobered instantly and locked eyes with Punc. “Thank God,” she said on an exhale.
Rage sauntered to Savannah’s side. “I’m thinking you’ll want me to take over your side of this—”
Lisa narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t you dare, Rage. I can beat her fair and square.”
Savannah let Rage take the cue stick while she aimed a sympathetic look at Lisa.
“I’m not kidding. Dad used me to con people any which way he could, and I learned how to shoot pool as soon as I was tall enough to hold a cue stick over the table.
If it weren’t for Beast mixing the best batch of sangria I’ve ever tasted, we’d have finished this fifteen minutes ago. ”
Lisa pointed a finger at Savannah. “I’m getting a rematch when you’re sober. One on one.”
Savannah turned her hands up. “If you insist. Thanks for making me laugh, Lisa. You’re a hoot.”
Punc waited at the corner of the bar for Savannah to walk to him. He would have gone to her, but he wanted to see if she was still as tipsy as Lisa mentioned.
She walked to him in a straight line while shaking her head. “If you’re trying to see if I’m drunk, the sangria wore off over an hour ago.”
Punc glanced behind the bar then aimed a grin at his woman. “Still half a pitcher left. We can split it because we’re staying here tonight.”
She turned her head a fraction. “Is everything…handled?”
“Definitely, and I wouldn’t mind a drink before I hit the sack.”
“And you’re down with sangria?”
Punc smirked, leaned over the bar, and grabbed the carafe. “I know what Beast puts in the sangria, so yeah, I’m down with that. Let’s go, baby.”