6. Wilder
WILDER
The vehicle burning on the east road has a brick holding down the accelerator and nobody behind the wheel. Gunfire stops before we reach the tree line.
Gray circles north through the woods. Tank checks the drainage cut with Colt. I ride past the wreck far enough to see fresh tracks turn toward the county road and disappear on gravel.
Perdition wanted smoke, noise and every officer facing east.
“Compound,” I say into the radio. “Looks like it was a decoy.”
Kane answers at once. “Moving already.”
I turn the bike and make it back to the compound in under two minutes, but the common room is empty.
“Lucy?” No answer.
Her phone sits behind the bar beside her bag. Her keys are inside it, and her car is still in the yard. I check the corridor, then my room. Nothing. She didn’t leave willingly. For one second, I can’t fucking breathe.
Then I’m moving. Cash comes out of the garage as I cross the yard.
“Where’s Lucy?”
His expression changes. “I thought she was inside.”
“She’s not. Search every building. Nobody leaves through either gate.” My voice stays steady. The fear beneath it doesn’t. Men react at once. Doors open and rooms clear. Kane and Tank ride back through the main gate as Judge starts sending brothers across the compound.
“Who was on the rear gate?” I ask.
Cash names the two prospects.
“Bring one to me. The other stays there.”
The taller prospect arrives at a run less than a minute later. He slows when he sees my face.
“Did Lucy come through your gate?”
“Yeah, Chains took her out.”
The yard seems to narrow around me. “When?”
“While the shooting was still going. Fifteen minutes ago, maybe longer.”
Fifteen minutes. Enough time to reach the county roads. Enough time to change vehicles and disappear in three different directions.
“Why did you open the gate?”
The prospect’s face loses its color. “He said you changed the position. Said you wanted her moved.”
“I didn’t.”
His eyes close for half a second. “Fuck.”
“Which way?”
“Down the service track. He had her on the back of his bike.”
I key my radio. “Chains has Lucy. He left through the rear gate at least fifteen minutes ago. Get a bike on every road out of Ransom and find them.”
The decoy was never meant to breach the compound. It was meant to pull us away long enough for one of our own to ride out with my wife.
Chains used my patch, my name and the trust I left her with. He fucking betrayed this club, and he can answer for all three after I bring her home.
I turn toward my bike and Kane catches my shoulder. “Wait.”
“He’s taking her to Perdition.”
“And they chose the track. You chase alone, you ride into whatever they built past that turn.”
“Then come with me.”
My phone rings inside the clubhouse, and every man hears it. At my nod, Cash answers, puts the call on speaker and sets the phone on the bar.
Bishop’s voice fills the room. “You can have your lovely new wife back on one condition.”
“And that is?” I reply.
“Bring the rifles you stole and both steel boxes. No trackers and no fucking games.”
Kane looks at Cash. “Load them.”
No debate. Cash runs for the garage while Tank and Gray pull the club truck around.
Bishop names an abandoned boat ramp twelve miles south of Ransom. One bridge in, a logging track through the hills on the other side. It’s a place chosen for exits.
“You hurt her,” I say, “and every mile home costs you a man.”
“Just bring the fucking goods.”
The call ends. Kane pulls the map toward him. “Judge takes the north tree line with Gray and Colt. Griz stays with me. Tank stays on the truck. Cash handles the transfer. Wilder stays where Lucy can see him.”
“If I get a clean shot, I take it,” I say.
“Use your head, Wilder,” Kane says. “Her life comes before your anger.”
The wooden crates come from the locked garage. New rifles lie beneath canvas inside, the same shipment Bishop tried to move through Ransom after Kane closed Perdition’s access. Cash loads both steel boxes behind them. Bundled money shifts with a heavy slide.
Kane could send scrap or plant a tracker. He does neither. We take the real cargo because Lucy comes home before anything else. Kane climbs into the truck beside Tank. I take my bike. Judge, Gray, Colt and Griz fall into position behind us.
The ride south narrows to blind turns and broken asphalt. Tank drives the truck carrying the crates and cash while the rest of us ride around him. Judge scouts ahead. Gray watches the rear. Kane holds the center.
The old boat ramp appears below us, cracked concrete sloping toward black water.
One Perdition SUV waits beside the river with its tailgate open. Six bikes stand higher on the logging track, riders spread around them.
Lucy is between the SUV and the water. Her wrists are bound in front. A red mark cuts across one cheek, and a Perdition brother has one hand locked around her upper arm.
She’s alive. Relief lasts until I see his fingers digging into her. Then everything inside me turns violent. Lucy finds me across the open ground. Her shoulders loosen, but she doesn’t move.
I stop eight yards away. Tank brings the truck in behind me while Kingdom Come spreads across the ramp. Colt takes the bridge. Judge and Gray disappear into the trees. Cash stays with the cargo. Griz steps off his bike beside Kane with a shotgun resting against his thigh.
Bishop waits near the SUV.
Chains stands beside his bike, still wearing Kingdom Come colors. The sight of that cut hits harder than the guns. He wore it at our table, rode beside us and drank after we buried brothers. Then he used that patch to take my wife through our gate.
Kane’s gaze settles on his back. “Take it the fuck off.”
Chains rests a hand near his belt. “Come take it.”
“You used our colors to steal one of ours. You lost the right to wear them.”
“I chose the club King built. Cyrus still knows what a club is. Not the weak shit you turned Kingdom Come into.”
Kane looks past him to Bishop. “Your president sends you onto my road while he hides behind his own gates.”
Bishop’s mouth tightens. “Cyrus gives the orders.”
“A president stands with his men.”
“Like King did,” Chains says.
“King sold anyone he could make money from and called it club business,” Kane says. “I kept the brothers worth having.”
Chains looks toward Griz, and his confidence returns. “Still time,” he says. “You remember what this club was before it was handed to this weak fucking excuse of a president.”
Griz looks along our line at Kane, Tank, Cash and the younger brothers waiting beside their bikes. His gaze reaches me last. For one hard second, I can’t tell what he is weighing.
Chains smiles. “You coming?”
Griz spits into the gravel. “Nah. I’m good.”
Chains’s smile disappears. Griz lifts the shotgun and settles it against his shoulder. “Take off our cut before somebody takes it off with skin attached.” A low sound moves through Kingdom Come.
Chains’s face turns ugly. “You ungrateful old bastard.”
“You’re mistaking loyalty for weakness,” Griz says. “You’re the one standing with Perdition.”
Bishop cuts across him. “Unload the property.”
Kane doesn’t look away from Chains. “Lucy walks when the last box is in your vehicle.”
The man holding her tightens his grip. My hand closes around my pistol, but I don’t draw. Not while she is in front of him. I read the ground instead. His gun rides behind his right hip. Another Perdition brother carries a shotgun. Bishop has a weapon under his cut, and Chains carries two.
They have six men in the open and haven’t found Judge, Gray or Colt.
Lucy shifts her bound hands, testing the plastic. Her captor jerks her arm higher. Rage presses against the back of my teeth, but she keeps her eyes on me. I slow my breathing and let her see it. Wait. Find the opening. I am coming.
“Do it,” Kane says.
Tank and Cash lower the first wooden crate.
A Perdition brother opens it, cuts through the canvas and checks the rifles before loading it into the SUV.
The next two follow. Then come the steel boxes.
Bishop opens both, pushes through the bundled cash and closes them again.
He takes his time, wanting Kane to stand and watch. Kane gives him nothing.
“It’s all there,” Cash says.
Chains swings onto his bike, and our eyes meet across the ramp.
“You took my fucking wife,” I say.
He starts the engine. “Should’ve kept her away from the club then.”
The gun is in my hand before the last word leaves him, and Lucy’s captor pulls her against his chest.
Kane’s arm bars mine. “Not yet.”
Chains grins because he knows I won’t risk the shot while Lucy is in another man’s grip. He turns toward the logging track, the SUV and two escort bikes following.
I watch him leave because Lucy is still here.
The vehicles reach the first bend, and Bishop lifts one hand. The man holding Lucy drags her toward a waiting motorcycle while another rider brings a helmet.
“Release her,” Kane says.
“She stays with us until the cargo clears county lines.”
“The deal was property for Lucy.”
“Terms changed.” Bishop shrugs.
Kingdom Come goes still. Bishop glances at the men he can see and mistakes restraint for weakness. Kane almost smiles. “You should look again.”
Judge steps from the trees on Bishop’s left. Gray appears higher on the slope. Colt closes the bridge while Tank, Cash and Griz raise their weapons.
Every visible Perdition gun has two Kingdom Come weapons trained on it. Bishop’s eyes move across the ramp and his expression changes.
“You came onto our road outnumbered,” Kane says. “You’re leaving because my Road Captain’s wife is standing between us. Don’t confuse that with mercy.”
The man holding Lucy starts to pull her toward the bike, and she drops her weight.
Her heel drives into his knee. He buckles, and she twists beneath his arm, slamming her bound hands into his mouth and breaking his grip.
Lucy throws herself left. He catches the back of her blouse and reaches for his gun.
I fire.