“Bring out the boy, and send Mac to the airport, remind that idiot that he can’t bring anything in there or the cops’ll get him,” Charlie said to a man slumped over in an old armchair.

 

The man slowly got up and walked to one of the doors in the large room, unlocked it, and emerged a few seconds later, bringing a battered and beaten Joey out with him.

 

Dakota looked at Joey and he attempted to give her a smile, but it turned into a wince and he gave it up. His nose was bruised and broken, his left eye was swollen shut and his bottom lip had been split open, but he didn’t cry or beg for help. He stood as tall as he was able and glared at his captors.

 

“If the money is there, Joey is yours. The name of my backer, however...that I cannot so easily part with,” Charlie said as Joey was dropped onto his knees on the floor and the man walked out into the night.

 

“All I want is a name. However much your backer has paid you, I can pay you more. And let’s be perfectly honest with ourselves, you haven't done a great job with this, and I can’t imagine your backer is happy. You give me the name and then you won’t have to work for him or anyone else for quite a while. No need to clean up this mess. We can just sweep it right under the rug.”

 

Charlie looked at Dakota. His eyes travelled up her body until he finally looked her in the eye, but Dakota was used to this by now and she stared at him as he treated her body like something that existed solely for his pleasure. She refused to be intimidated by this man who treated her life and the life of her father as if it were nothing.

 

“Two million,” she said with confidence. “Two million for the name of the man who hired you to kill my family. Cash, unmarked bills.”

 

Charlie licked his lips and looked from Dakota to Joey. “And what about Scarred Angels?” he asked.

 

“Scarred Angels doesn’t work for me anymore. I can’t tell them what to do. You took one of their own. That’s on you, not me.”

 

“Yes, we’ve made some enemies. But with three million dollars, the Soul Stealers won’t be a joke anymore. We’ll be a real threat. Are you willing to do that to Scarred Angels, to Adam Mendel? Are you really willing to fund their enemies?”

 

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to protect my family. We don’t want any of this. We never did. Three million dollars gets us out. Whatever happens after isn’t my concern,” Dakota said.

 

Charlie opened his mouth to speak, but then he stopped and cocked his head to the right. Unconsciously, Dakota did the same thing. They were both listening to something they could not yet identify. They could both hear the roar, but it took them a moment to figure out what it was. It was the roar of dozens of bikes racing down the dirt road; Scarred Angels had arrived.

 

“Judgment Day,” Joey said, still kneeling on the floor. But he didn’t look scared or weak. He looked defiant.

 

“I didn’t call them,” Dakota said to Charlie who was staring furiously at her. How did Adam know she was here? What would he think when he saw her? What would he say when he heard what she had done? He would never forgive her. But while Adam put Scarred Angels in front of everything else in his life, Dakota couldn’t say the same. She needed to protect herself and her father, and this was the only way to do it.

 

“Everybody up!” Charlie screamed, as he pulled a gun out from underneath the table and pointed it right in Dakota’s face. The men around the TV scrambled, grabbing guns and positioning themselves at the windows.

 

“Don’t bother,” Joey said, “you’re outnumbered and outgunned.”

 

“Shut up!” Charlie repeated, but his gun and his eyes stayed on Dakota. “You still hooking up with Adam Mendel?” he sneered. “Did you enjoy slumming it with a biker?”

 

Dakota didn’t answer, though she wondered how this man had found out. She remained frozen to the spot, staring past the gun to the man who held it. The gun was pointed right at her face; she could see down the barrel. She could die at any second, and there was nothing she could do about it.

 

“Move,” he ordered, pointing the gun at Joey, as well.

 

Dakota walked over to Joey and helped him rise unsteadily to his feet. She felt pressure on her back and realized that Charlie had his gun pushed up against her back as she and Joey were shuffled over to the white door.

 

“Open it,” Charlie said, and Dakota reached over and slowly opened the door. The roar of motorcycles was getting louder. The ill-lit headquarters was bathed in bright light from the motorcycles’ lights outside.

 

But Dakota could only get a glimpse of what was happening; the Soul Stealers were lining themselves up against the walls near the window, guns at the ready. And then the door was slammed shut and locked, leaving Dakota and Joey trapped in a dark room.

 

“Are you all right?” Dakota asked as Joey slunk to the floor.

 

“Oh, yeah, never better,” the young man joked as he let out a beleaguered cough. “Just a couple of bumps and bruises. Nothing to worry about.”

 

“I’m so sorry this happened to you, Joey,” Dakota said, sitting down on the floor next to Joey. The room was small, only about five feet by five feet, and there was no furniture or anything on the walls, just four bare walls and a single light bulb in the ceiling.

 

“Don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault. The Stealers got desperate. They couldn’t get you, so they lashed out at us. It’s not your fault. Were you really going to pay them a million dollars for me?” he asked, a small smile appearing on his face.

 

“Of course,” Dakota answered. “I wasn’t going to leave you here. It’s so gross.”

 

“Yeah, it’s a real shithole. Worse than I ever thought. Half these guys are on crack. I don’t know what kind of crew they’re trying to make here. But I don’t think it’s going well.”

 

“What’s going to happen now?” Dakota asked, listening to the roar of the bikes outside.

 

“Probably Adam will tell them that if they let us go unharmed and scatter themselves, no one will get hurt,” Joey answered with a sigh.

 

“Will they?” Dakota asked.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

They both stared at the closed and locked white door. Dakota was desperate to know what was going on outside, what was going to happen to her and Joey, what was going to happen to Adam. Sitting in the room, Dakota felt her adrenaline leave her, all the energy that was fueling her confidence draining out of her. It was one thing to negotiate with Charlie, to have some control over her situation. It was quite another to be trapped in this room, stuck waiting for whatever would happen to happen. She drew her arms around herself and fought back tears as she looked at the locked door. Her money and wealth were nothing now. All she could do was hope that Adam was prepared and that he would be willing to save her.

 

Dakota and Joey both jerked their heads up as they heard the sound of locks being undone and the doorknob slowly twisting. She reached out for Joey’s hand and when she found it he gave her a reassuring squeeze. Slowly the door opened and Charlie walked in, gun drawn. He wasn’t alone, though. James Hastings was with him.