Luckily for us, Harmony’s so-called father was famous, and when there was a famous person lurking in unlikely places, it was like a homing beacon.
It didn’t take Mix and Wrench long to find information online that there had been sightings in the area of the rich music producer. From there, tracking down where he was staying only took a few phone calls and a bit of cash. Knowing that he would be renting a house because he didn’t own one in this state, unlike the thirty-six other states in which he did.
We didn’t take as many men with us on this trip. Daniel Ashley was a dangerous criminal, part of a large enterprise that stole women. That asshole needed the protection of armed guards. Edward Keaton was wealthy and reasonably famous. But these type of men usually only traveled with a handful of bodyguards who were only there to protect him from paparazzi and wannabe musicians, who’d bail him up in the streets with their self-recorded music.
The house he had chosen was in the countryside as opposed to the city. It suited us just fine because I’m sure there would be plenty of room to hide his body if I found out he had touched a hair on my girl’s head.
Adrenaline coursed through my veins as the eight of us, four of my boys and four of Optimus’, road the long paved driveway lined with perfectly spaced trees. The house that came into view had a large fountain out the front of an enormous late model villa-type home. It looked old, but had obviously been restored and had plenty of upkeep.
The tall trees that surrounded us only made the noise from our bikes louder, allowing the low rumbles to echo within the space. We parked in a perfect line, not even bothering to hurry or hide our presence. This fucker may have been dirty, buying women from creeps like Daniel, but he still needed to be portrayed in a positive light in the media. That automatically gave us an advantage. We knew he or his boys wouldn’t come out guns blazing. The possibility of being thrown into a scandal involving an outlaw motorcycle club is not something he would want on his record.
Optimus passed me my gun as we walked up the steps to the front door. I’d learned my lesson about carrying and wasn’t risking my shit again if for some reason we were pulled over on the way here. No one had even bothered to come out to greet us. It was almost too easy, or this guy just simply thought he was invincible and we wouldn’t come knocking.
My Brothers all looked at each other.
“Do we knock?” Slider asked.
“Nah, places like this have doorbells man. Ain’t no one gonna hear you knocking, if they’re down the other end of the house,” Tie told him.
“So ring the doorbell,” Slider shot back.
“Why are we even ringing or knocking anything?” Tie laughed. “What are we going to say? Hey man, think your boss has one of our girls in there. All good if we just pop in and grab her? Yeah? Sweet.”
“Okay, so we don’t knock, and we don’t ring.” Slider moves to push the doors open.
“Wait! Maybe we should knock.”
I groaned. “I could have fucking got her and been home fucking her by now. Will you two shut up?” Just as I spoke, one of the doors swung open to reveal a tall guy with a spare tire around his stomach and a donut in his hand.
“Can I help you?”
I pulled my piece from my holster and held it directly against the fat guy’s skull. His mouth flopped open and his donut fell to the ground, rolling down the stairs.
I smiled tightly. “Edward Keaton. He has something that belongs to me and I’m here to get it back.”
“U…umm…Okay. I…I can get him for you.”
“How about you just lead the way, tubby.”
He nodded. The motion causing some parts of him to jiggle. I pushed the doors further open so my Brothers and I could move inside. My gun never faltered even as the older man who sat off to my right stood sharply from his chair – another seven guns now aimed at him.
“Where is he?” Optimus demanded.
The guys held their hands in the air, the larger one gesturing with his head to a hallway at the side of the room. “He’s uh…having breakfast.”
“Great, I’m fucking starving,” I growled. Wreck stayed with the older guy as we followed the other down the hall and into a large kitchen. There was a young girl standing at the counter washing dishes. She turned when she heard our presence and jumped.
“Ain’t here to hurt you, love,” Wrench told the girl with his hands in the air. Ever the kind peacemaker. “Just looking for our girl. Blonde. Goes by Harmony.”
The girl took a moment to eye us all with wide eyes before pointing across the kitchen to two swinging doors. I could hear raised voices on the other side and my body wanted to leap through them, but I convinced my head to stop and think first.
The young girl slid herself along the bench until she reached a door and quickly slipped out of it. I didn’t care. I wasn’t here for her.
Slider kept his gun focused on the bodyguard as we slunk quietly closer to the door, the voices becoming more understandable.
“Your friend, Chelsea is it? She’s very beautiful,” I heard a deep voice taunt. Optimus’ clenching fists caught the corner of my eye and I wondered if I would be the one having to stop him from killing this guy.
“Leave Chelsea alone,” Harmony demanded, her voice still very firm which was a good sign. He hadn’t had time to break her.
Edward made more threats and began to use money to try and bargain with her. Things went quiet for a moment and I placed my hand on the door handle, ready to rip her a new one if she even thought about sacrificing herself, when she knew we would do whatever it took to protect Chelsea.
“You want an heir?” she asked and he confirmed. “Maybe you should post an ad in the paper, cos there’s no way in hell I want the world to know I’m related to you.”
I grinned and pushed the door open. “That’s my girl.”
She didn’t turn to face me, but her shoulders were pushed back and she stood a little taller, her confidence clearly shooting through the roof as soon as she knew we were there.
“Hey Dad,” she sneered. “Let me introduce you to my real family.”
I pushed forward, my Brothers following me into the small space. My gun was aimed at the slimy asshole who looked like he not only had a carrot up his ass, but possibly the whole damn vegetable garden. My other arm wrapped around Harmony’s waist and I used it to pull her backward a few steps, needing to get her out of this guy’s space.
“You can’t just barge in here—”
“We didn’t barge, your boys opened the door and let us in,” Tie chuckled.
Harmony melted in my arms and I spun her around to take an inventory of any injuries. She looked up at me with misted eyes and my heart ached to just scoop her up and take her out of here. Her head had a nasty gash, cheek was bruised and her lip split, but it was the finger marks around her throat that made my blood boil. I kissed her on the cheek.
“I’m okay,” she whispered.
I nodded and quickly handed her to off to Tally, who hooked an arm around her shoulder casually. “Hey there, Harmz. Good day for an ass beating don’t you think?”
She chuckled softly.
I stalked toward Edward, who quickly scuttled backward, fear in his eyes. “You know, I’m usually against violence toward women. But for a little bitch like you, I’ll make an exception.”
I launched myself at him, catching the collar of his shirt and pounding my right hand into his face. He screamed and I let him fall to the floor, flailing around like a fish out of water and clutching his nose which was probably now broken judging by the amount of blood spewing from it. I kicked him in the ribs and he squealed like a stuck pig.
Fury was burning through my body, controlling my movements. I wanted to rip his throat out. The desire to see him die was strong.
I pointed at him. “You messed with the wrong people.”
“I…I have money,” the wimp stuttered.
“So do I asshole. Lots of it. I don’t need your dirty ass money.”
“I just wanted to meet my daughter.”
Change of tact.
I laughed. “Yeah, fucking right. Ever heard of a phone? It’s what normal people use to get a hold of others.”
“I have rights. I am her father and she was kept from me.”
“And now I know why,” Harmony yelled, but Tally kept a good hold on her, keeping her back. “I refuse to acknowledge that my DNA has any part of you in it!”
“So why did you really want Harmony? Need someone to leave your business to? Someone to take the fall when people started to figure out what you’d done?” I threw the questions at him, knowing the truth.
Harmony’s eyes grew bigger, the reality dawning on her. It only increased my anger.
You know when someone has been caught with their fingers in the cookie jar. His emotions turned from flight to fight. All of a sudden his face changed, as did his demeanor. He pushed himself off the floor and dusted off his rich guy suit.
“You think you can just come in here and attack me? I’ll have you all arrested for this,” he spewed as he glared at each of us.
Laughter filled the room and I heard Slider yell from the kitchen, “He’s trying the, I’ll have you done for this, line isn’t he?”
“Yeah, let’s run for it. I’m shaking in my boots,” Tally added.
I smirked as the older man struggled to hold his composure. We were taller, we were stronger, and we had a lot less to lose. My Brothers and I had discussed how to approach the situation. Edward Keaton was well known, more than well known, he was famous. Taking his life would bring a lot of heat down on the club if someone were to find out even a speck of information. We didn’t want that attention, so it came down to beating them at their own game. Bargaining and bribing.
“Now listen closely,” I said lowering my voice and making sure I had his attention. “We are going to walk out the front door, get on our bikes and leave. Do you know what you’re going to do, Ed?”
He narrowed his eyes at me but didn’t speak.
Smart man.
“Nothing. You are going to do nothing. Do you know why, Ed?” I took a step closer and he took a step back in reply, a perfectly choreographed dark dance. “That’s okay, I’ll tell you – I’m a nice guy like that. Because if you even insinuate to anyone that something happened here today, we will give the media everything we know. About your contacts with slave dealers, about your love for underage girls, about your kidnapping of Harmony, and about your dirty accounts you use to rip off your high profile clients.”
His eyes continued to glare at me until that last point, at which his eyes widened in fear. I couldn’t help but smile. I loved it when I had them by the balls.
“Fine. Are we done here?” he growled. I grinned and stepped forward again. With his back now against the wall, he had nowhere to run. I reached over and straightened the lapels on his suit jacket, brushing them off when I was done. I turned to walk away, but before he had a chance to relax I spun back and threw my fist into the side of his jaw sending him sprawling across the room, hitting the dining table before falling to the floor.
“Just one more thing. If you decide to ignore our little agreement and go after my family – I will kill you.” I pointed at his pathetic form as he cowered beneath me. “I will remove every one of your filthy child molesting fingers, cut your cock off, and shove it up your own ass. Do you understand, Ed?”
He nodded furiously before I turned to my Brothers and my girl who all stood with varying looks of rage to amusement.
“Halleluiah, he gets it. Let go home.”
Optimus looked over his shoulder. “He got a private doctor that will keep his mouth shut?”
Too-many-donuts-and-not-enough-balls nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, he can be here in ten minutes.”
Optimus turned back to Edward and held out his gun. The shot resonated in the small room, making my ears ring. Edward’s screaming soon followed as he gripped his knee.
“You go after Chelsea, and next time your man over there will be calling the morgue,” his voice boomed before he turned sharply and stormed from the room.
I pulled my girl into my arms and ushered her out.
“Time to go home.”
She hugged my waist tightly. “Time to go home.”