“Dix! I need you to meet us at Dunes right now! The Firechrome are at WCP and we’re going to pay them a visit,” Cale said. “I’m rounding up a many brothers as I can.”

 

“I’ll be there in five minutes,” Dix replied, tucking his phone away.

 

“What?” Daisy asked. It was mid-morning and she was watching as he disassembled the Pontiac, helping where she could.

 

“The Firechrome are back,” he said as he sat aside the impact wrench. “We’re going to pay them a visit.”

 

“I’m going, too,” she said as she followed him out of the shop.

 

He stopped and turned to face her. “No. Stay here.”

 

“I’m not staying here!”

 

“You are staying here,” he said firmly. “This is club business and if things get ugly, I don’t want you anywhere around.”

 

“Leo has my son!”

 

He turned and started walking again. He didn’t have time to argue. “I don’t know that Leo is there, and it is unlikely, don’t you think, that even if he is there, Riley is with him?” He stepped into the trailer and went immediately to the bathroom to wash his hands. “I know what Leo looks like. Let us handle it, okay? The best thing you can do for Riley right now is stay out of the way.”

 

He pushed past her and turned into the bedroom. He opened a drawer and pulled out a pistol then shrugged into his Cutthroats jacket. “We’ll get Riley back, don’t worry. Stay here. You being there will only weaken our position, okay? If we get Riley, I’ll call James and you and he can come get him.” He gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “If you’re ever going to trust me, trust me now.”

 

She watched as he strode quickly from the trailer, his Harley rumbling to life a moment later then racing away. When the yard was quiet once again she pursed her lips, trying not to cry.

 

“I trust you,” she murmured to herself before she went to find James. She was going to be his shadow until that call came.

 

***

 

The Cutthroats arrived at West Coast Performance, eighteen strong, and knew immediately they had missed the Firechrome. “Shit!” Cale barked as they stepped of their bikes.

 

Randy stepped out of the WCP building and shook Cale’s hand. “I tried to stall them, but I think they knew what I was doing. You missed them by five minutes, maybe less.”

 

“Damnit!” Cale swore again. “Which way did they go?”

 

“South.”

 

“Goddamnit! We probably rode right past them! What did they want?”

 

“Just what Dix and that woman said. They wanted to buy a share of my business. They offered one and a half million for a twenty-five percent share.”

 

“What did you tell them?”

 

“I didn’t tell them anything. I was trying to keep them around long enough for you to get here. But I’m not selling, and I’m damn sure not selling at that price.”

 

“How many were there?”

 

“The same four as last time. The guy that girl pointed out is the one who did all the talking. Making all these big promises how the Firechrome were going to take over the town and how he knew I would want to be on the side of the winners, not the losers. He’s a sycophantic bastard.”

 

“A what?” Cale chuckled.

 

“Sycophantic. A butt-kisser, an ingrate. He tells you what you want to hear.”

 

“Oh, a brown-noser. Why didn’t you say so?”

 

Randy snickered. “I did. Anyway, I told him I would think about it and offered him the tour, but I must not be a very good actor because it didn’t take him long to get nervous and get out of here.”

 

Cale unconsciously scratched at his helmet. “I don’t guess there’s anything we can do right now, since we missed them.”

 

“One thing, Cale,” Randy said. “He didn’t make any direct threats, nothing like, ‘If you don’t play ball, were going to kill you.’ Nothing like that. But he made it pretty clear if I didn’t get in bed with the Firechrome, things were going to start happening.”

 

“What did he say?”

 

“He used that line about making sure my insurance was paid up again. He also said having a partner would allow me to spend more time with my family because you never knew when something could happen to them.”

 

Cale nodded. “Okay. We’ll talk about getting some protection on you and your family.”

 

“I’m not selling to these cock-suckers, but I need to know my family is safe.”

 

“Hang in there, Randy. We’ve got your back.”

 

“I’m depending on you, Cale.”

 

Cale nodded. “We’ll take care of it, but do me a favor.”

 

“What?”

 

“Give Steve and Greg a call and tell them what went down. It’ll be better coming from you than us. Let them know if the Chromes show up there, to try to hold them if they can and to contact me. We may have to put a couple of guys on them, too. That will stretch us pretty thin, and I’m not sure how we can cover all this, but we’ll figure something out.”

 

Randy nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”

 

“Thanks, Randy,” Cale said as his bike barked to life. “We’ll make this happen. Just hang in there with us.”

 

***

 

“How are we going to cover Randy and his family?” Cale asked the men assemble in their room at Dunes.

 

The eighteen men who just returned from WCP looked at each other. “We all have jobs, Cale. The day is going to be tough.”

 

“I can cover the day,” Cale said, the only one in club retired. “But we need night coverage.”

 

“How about two hour shifts, six to six?” Thad asked. “We each pull a shift then it rotates back around and starts over. Our old ladies will probably be glad to have us out from underfoot for a couple of hours.”

 

Cale snorted. “So I pull a twelve, every day, and you lazy bastards pull two hours once a week?”

 

The men chuckled. “At least yours is during the day so you can sit inside and watch television or something. We’re going to be stuck standing outside in the rain,” Thad pointed out.

 

“I can probably spell you for a couple of hours during the day,” Dix offered. “We should also ask Randy if he wants or needs us during the day on the weekend. Well, maybe Saturday since he works that day, but maybe not Sunday.”

 

“Thanks, Dix. That’ll be helpful, and good idea on the weekend. How are we going to cover Steve and Greg if we have to?”

 

The men groaned. “I don’t know what we’ll do about the day, but I guess we can cover the nights the same way. We need to get a handle on this before it comes to that. Marla isn’t going to be happy with me being out in the middle of the night, even on club business,” Thad said then grinned. “I have certain husbandly responsibilities, you know.”

 

The room groaned and rolled their eyes.

 

“Agreed. Anyone have anything else? Try to stay loose and available. I hope we’re going to get a call from a motel or someone letting us know the Chromes are trying to check in.” Cale waited a moment. “Okay. Let’s get to it. Dix, hang around a moment and let’s work out the who and when.”

 

***

 

“Where’s Daisy?” Dix asked. “Her car is gone.”

 

“I sent her to the store,” James replied. “She was hanging around, nervous as a cat, and needed something to take her mind off it.”

 

“I’m surprised you were able to get her to leave.”

 

James grinned. “It wasn’t easy, I tell you. But I finally convinced her if you hadn’t called by now, you weren’t going to.”

 

“Yeah. We completely missed them. Maybe I should have taken her with us because we think we rode right past them. If she’d been with us, she may have recognized them.” He shook his head. “I know what kind of bike he rides and I should have noticed him.”

 

“If you passed them. But how would you know? There are motorcycles everywhere now. Is Leo’s so unique you could be sure?”

 

“No. In fact we saw one Saturday Daisy first thought was his, but wasn’t.”

 

James nodded. “See? The last thing you want to do is swarm over some poor unsuspecting guy just out for a ride. That will really endear you to the community.”

 

Dix chuckled. “Yeah, I know.”

 

***

 

Dix was fitting some junk wheels to the Pontiac so it would roll, having removed all the sellable parts from the car, when he heard Daisy’s Beetle straining hard. As he watched, she skidded to a stop in front of James’s house and stomped around the car. As she started yanking bags out of the car, he could tell she was pissed about something.

 

“What’s wrong?” he asked, bringing the last of the food into the kitchen.

 

“I saw them! I was on the way back from the store when I passed Leo on the bridge. I turned around as soon as I could, but I couldn’t find them again. They must have pulled off somewhere,” she explained as she put away the refrigerated items.

 

“Shit! We’re getting you one of those cheap prepaid phones so you can call the next time. Did he recognize you?”

 

“I don’t think so. The car looks completely different than it used to and he didn’t pay any attention to me as we passed.”

 

Dix pulled her into a hug then kissed her on the forehead. “Don’t feel bad. We missed him at WCP this morning, too.”

 

“Yeah. I figured as much when you didn’t call.”

 

“Don’t worry. He can’t avoid us forever.”

 

“Maybe, but he was right there! All I had to do was follow him to where he was going. Riley might have even been there.” She placed her head on his shoulder as a single tear trickling down her cheek, drawing strength from his embrace.

 

He was still holding her when James stepped into the kitchen and saw the distress on Daisy’s face. “Uh-oh. What happened?”

 

“She passed Leo on the bridge, but by the time she could turn around, she’d lost him,” Dix said as she pulled out of his embrace and wiped her cheek.

 

“Tough break,” he muttered, not sure what to say.

 

“Yeah,” she said softly, turning away. “That’s all I seem to get.”

 

Dix took her arm and turned her to face him. “Stop. That won’t help anything. We’ll get Riley back to you. You have to believe that.”

 

She looked at him then smiled sadly. “I try, but it’s hard sometimes.”

 

Dix looked at James, unsure of how to respond. “Hang in there, Daisy. You have thirty-four good guys on your side. As soon as they get a break, Leo won’t stand a chance,” James said, his voice full of confidence.

 

Daisy nodded, wanting to believe, but it was hard. It was so hard sometimes.

 

***

 

“You doing okay?” Dix asked as they undressed. Daisy has been subdued all night, her bubbling personality buried under worry.

 

“I guess. I feel like I let Riley down.”

 

“Don’t! Don’t even go there! You haven’t let anyone down. You’ve been in there clawing and biting for him the entire way. I don’t think he could ask for a better mom.

 

She snorted. “Some mom.” She didn’t know why she was beating up on herself so much, but she couldn’t stop, the guilt over losing Riley then coming this close to finding him making her angry with herself.

 

“You need to stop!” he barked. “I know you’re worried. Hell, I’m worried and he’s not even my kid. But feeling sorry for yourself accomplishes nothing. Nothing! You need to believe you’re going to get him back because before this is over, there may be a time when you have to believe in yourself.”

 

“I do!”

 

“Do you? Do you really?”

 

She thought about it. “I know I’ll do anything for him.”

 

“That’s not what I asked. I asked do you believe in yourself?”

 

“I don’t know what you mean!” she cried, throwing her shirt into the floor.

 

“When I race, I believe I’m the fastest man there and I’m the guy everyone else has to beat. So when I get on the track, I race with confidence. No hesitation, no holding back, no second-guessing. As far as I’m concerned, so long as I run my race, I’ll win. I don’t care what everyone else is doing.” He paused, looking into her eyes, trying to make her understand. “This isn’t a race, but it’s the same thing. I need you to believe you’re going to get your son back so when the opportunity arises, you can do what you have to with no hesitation and no second-guessing. I need you to believe it because I believe it.”

 

She nodded. She wanted to believe in herself. She wanted to believe she’d get Riley back safe and sound, and she knew she’d do anything, make any sacrifice, to make that happen. “I do.”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

She nodded. “Yes. I’m sure.” He kissed her on the forehead again. “Will you just hold me tonight?”

 

He smiled. “I would be delighted.”