“Okay, listen up,” Jace Kaiser said, turning in his seat to look at them. He was holding an iPad and had a Google Earth map on the screen. Or what was probably a classified version of Google Earth. HOT had those too. “The terrain is wooded. There’s one road in and it’s probably being watched. The building they’re in is an old tobacco barn that’s been out of use for years and been converted into a storage facility at one point and a flea market at another. Most recently it was a garage. It’s fallen into disrepair and hasn’t been used in about ten years, but it has recently been leased to King Makers, LLC, which is supposed to be an auto repair and painting facility.”
“Yeah, right,” Dirty muttered.
“Hey, just telling you what it says,” Jace replied. “We’ll insert via the woods. Once we’ve got a visual on the place, and the heat map data, we’ll proceed.”
“No wonder there was no sign of those assholes,” Camel said as he looked over Jace’s shoulder. “That place is way out in the boonies.”
“Yeah, but that’s a good thing for us,” Neo said. “It means nobody’s gonna hear it when we start shooting.”
“If there’s a well, we can drop the bodies down it,” Dirty said. “Toss some quicklime in after.”
“Holy shit,” Cage replied. “You crazy bastards are gonna get us booted out of HOT and into the darkest basement Mendez can find. Heads in the game. Now.”
“I know, I know,” Dirty said. “Just blowing off steam.”
“All I want is my wife and daughter back,” Neo said. “I don’t care what happens to Gentry and his sick fucks so long as they never come after my family again.”
Camel clapped him on the back. “Amen, brother.”
Neo closed his eyes and thought of how good it would be to hold Kayla again. To spoon with her in bed, and to see little Ana’s face light up when she held her arms out to him and wanted to be picked up. His stomach was in knots but that didn’t matter. It wouldn’t affect his ability to operate. He knew how to push that shit down deep and do what had to be done.
All he had to do was pray that Kayla was still alive and Ana was with her and not headed for someone’s nursery. If either of them were gone, then he wouldn’t be responsible for what he did to Dal Gentry. And he wouldn’t care how dark a basement Mendez threw him in, because nothing would ever matter to him again.
When the door opened again, Dal swaggered in with Steve on his heels. Kayla hugged Ana closer and tilted toward Chloe, who’d stiffened at the appearance of the two men.
“Well, well, well, what have we here?” Dal said. “Two bitches ripe for fucking and a brat that’ll bring some good money from rich people who can’t have kids.”
“Fuck you, Dal,” Kayla said, anger flaring bright. She’d spent a year with the Kings of Doom and she knew how they operated. How a biker wouldn’t respect you if you cowered before him. Oh, he might still hurt you if you talked back—probably would in fact—but he’d take a bit more time to toy with you.
And time was what they needed. Kayla still didn’t have Chloe’s faith that Zach and Ryan would come, but if there was the slightest hope then she had to try and prolong whatever this was. Even if it ended up costing her more pain by the end.
“Go ahead and talk back to me, bitch. It won’t save you. If that military dick of yours doesn’t give me my money, then I’m sending you back to him in pieces.”
“I would have gotten the money if you’d given me until Wednesday. You broke your word.”
Bikers like him didn’t like it when someone accused them of going against their word. Dal snorted. “That wasn’t my deal, bitch. That was your fucking ex-lover’s deal. But he’s dead, and I’m in charge now.”
Kayla’s heart thumped. “James is dead?” Her gaze slewed to Steve. He didn’t show any emotion, but she wouldn’t have expected him to. He and James were related, not close.
“Hanged himself this morning. Damned shame, ain’t it?”
Kayla processed that. James was dead and she felt nothing. Gladness maybe. Relief. He would never try to claim Ana, never show up one day and say he’d been deprived of being a father. But hanged himself? No, not James. He was too selfish and too scheming to ever give up.
“I can’t say it’s a shame,” she said. “But I doubt it was his idea.”
Dal laughed. “No, probably not. Can’t say whose it was, but it’s amazing what you can get done when you know folks on the inside.”
“What are you going to do with us?” she asked. Chloe was silent because Kayla had convinced her that she needed to be the one to do the talking. She understood bikers, and she understood the complex systems which had dictated their lives. It was all about honor and duty and the club. These men were a feudal system, and their loyalty was to the king. And Dal was angling to be the king. James was dead, and he’d been a VP. The president of the club was in jail as well. How long before Dal greased the right palms and had him killed too?
“Well, doll, if I get my money, then I suppose I could let you go. Or, more fun, you and the swinging dick you’ve shacked up with could end up dead in a murder-suicide.” His gaze shifted to Chloe and then back again. “Such a shame that you caught him with that bitch right there. Shot them both and then turned the gun on yourself. Though maybe the two of you are the lovers, and he’ll be the one dead. You two can run away together.”
Which was code for making them into sex slaves for the club’s business and pimping them out to anyone
