Halley leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss me, her hands trailing over my leather jacket. The kiss wasn't chaste by any means, but it was guarded. I smiled a little because I knew what she was trying to disguise was her anxiety, but I already knew just how worried she was about this. “I'm going to be fine,” I told her for the umpteenth time as we broke apart.
“I know,” she said, and I could hear an honest conviction in her voice. “I just don't like seeing you go off on a raid like this,” she said. “I know what happened in the last one, remember?”
“This one is better planned, thanks to you,” I reminded her. “And anyway, if this is successful, this could be the last raid that I ever have to go on. And if it is, then I'll have plenty of time to take care of you and Cole the way that you deserve.”
Halley sighed. “I know,” she said again. She leaned up to kiss me again, this time just barely brushing her lips over mine. “Be safe, Jake,” she told me, giving me a serious look. “I swear to god, if you die out there, I'm going to figure out some way to bring you back from the grave so that I can kill you myself.”
I laughed. “You know, I don't doubt that for a second,” I told her. “You really are quite the headstrong woman, despite your parents' conservatism. It's no wonder that I was drawn to you all those years ago.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Halley said, but she was blushing a little, clearly pleased to hear that. “Go on, I want you to be back here and free of this whole mess by the end of the week when Cole and my parents get back.”
“I still can't believe you didn't go with them,” I said, shaking my head. Even though we'd already had this out multiple times and I really didn't want to start an argument just then. I understood where she was coming from, of course, understood that she would be too worried if she was too far removed from the action and didn't know what was going on. I knew that things were probably better this way, that her parents would be less suspicious if she wasn't around to make things seem suspicious.
But still. I didn't like still having her there in the city, even if she was under 24-hour guard at the Devil's Route clubhouse.
I swung my leg over my bike and flipped my visor down. There was no time to dwell on any of that for any longer; I had meetings all across Oregon and Nevada over the next few days to assemble riders from the other branches of the Devil's Route.
Without another word, I pushed my bike forwards and gunned it down the road.
Despite thinking that Halley's plan was a good one, I didn't really know what sort of a turnout we would have for this “memorial ride” that was really a front for a raid on the local branch of the Holy Flames MC. Of course, I had to tell them all about Halley so that they would understand Emilio's leverage against me, and I was afraid that they'd all think I was thinking with my dick rather than my head or even my heart.
I was lucky that anyone had even granted me a meeting.
As I strode into the Oregon branch's clubhouse, Victor, the regional president, met me in the hallway. “Hey man,” he said, pulling me into a quick, brotherly hug, thumping me soundly on the back. “You okay? We all heard about Frank, and that's bullshit, man. How are you holding up?”
“The club is doing fine,” I told him. “And my leg's doing a lot better. I was hit with a stray bullet during the raid. But that's actually what I'm here to talk to you all about.”
“Awesome, no problem,” Victor said, leading me away into the clubhouse. “I already assembled everyone, just like you had asked.”
“Thanks, man,” I told him as we entered their meeting room. I looked around at the faces gathered there—some familiar; some whom I'd never met. “Hi everyone, nice to see you all. As I'm sure you've all heard, Frank Cordell has, sadly, passed away earlier this month, as has his son, Max Cordell. Both were killed at the hands of our local rivals, the Holy Flames motorcycle club.”
A murmur went up around the room.
“Now, the last thing I want is to go storm their clubhouse with my men,” I continued. “Because that's exactly the kind of thinking that got Frank killed to start with. And as you know, any loss within our brotherhood is a heavy loss indeed. We are armed and ready to go, but we need your help.”
Another murmur.
“I'm no more ready to have my men killed than you are, Jake,” Victor said, looking uneasy. There were nods around the room.
“I get that,” I told him. “But that's why we have to surprise them. If they don't expect us to come after them, and don't expect us to have a serious advantage in the number of men that we have, then we can outflank them and pick them off one by one.”
Victor laughed a little in disbelief. “How many men do you think that we have?” he asked. “And how would we escape the notice of the Holy Flames long enough to get into town and get settled and ready for a raid?”
“The Devil's Route branch in Nevada is also considering joining us,” I told him, trying to soothe his worries. “You don't need to pledge all of your men, just anyone who would even volunteer to join us would be welcome. I think we'll have enough men that we should have no problem. The Holy Flames aren't the best shooters anyway. As for how we're going to all get into town and surprise them with an attack, we have the perfect cover story: we're on a memorial ride for Frank, starting up here, going down through Nevada and picking up more of our brethren, and then ending up back in Millhaven to visit Frank's grave. By the time Emilio even suspects that something is up, we'll be picking off his men left and right.”
There was a long silence, but I could see that some of the men seemed interested.
“If I may,” one of Victor's guys said, standing up. He turned to look at me, tilting his head to the side as he considered me. “My name is Jason Grey,” he finally told me. “You probably don't remember me, but I was staying with a couple of the Millhaven Devil's Route guys back when Frank adopted you.”
“I vaguely remember you,” I told him, trying to think back.
“You've grown up a lot since then,” Jason said. “Frank must have been so proud of you. You seem really mature, and a ready leader for our club.”
I ducked my head a little. “Thanks,” I muttered bashfully.
Jason turned to look around at the other members of the group. “Look, I'd trust this man with my life,” he said. “Because I saw the kid that Frank pulled out of the streets, and he was half feral. Here he is now, in front of us all, asking us for our help because his brotherhood is in danger from another motorcycle club—that's not the kind of action that we might have expected out of the kid when he was fresh off the streets.” He laughed a little. “No, the Jake Ryce that Frank took off the streets only cared about one thing: his own survival.”
“Your point?” Victor asked, thoughtfully studying the other man.
Jason shrugged. “This is what we do this for, isn't it?” he asked, looking around at the other members of his club. “We're all here for the brotherhood. And because, hey, we like riding bikes together, right? But what really brings us all together, what makes us all successful, is the brotherhood. Now, Frank was able to take a kid who didn't believe in anyone except himself, and Frank made him believe in the brotherhood enough that he could come up here, to people he'd never met before, and ask us for our help. Isn't that what the brotherhood is for? I think we should help the kid. I think we owe it to Frank to help the kid.”
Victor nodded his head a little and looked around. “Wise words, Jason. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?”
“I'm going whether you want us to or not,” another man said, standing up. He studied me as well. “I think your plan needs some tweaking, but I think it's mostly sound. And I think that as Jason said, this is what the brotherhood is meant for. We have to help each other out, whether it's just within our region of the club or across regions.”
Victor snorted and stood up. “All right, all right, everyone, calm down. If we have no dissenters...” There was silence in the room. He smiled a little. “All right. Well, if there are no dissenters, then I will pledge a maximum of twenty people to your cause, Jake Ryce. You'd better bring them all back to me in one piece.”
“I'll do my best,” I told him seriously. “We'll ride out of here in the morning, if that's okay. It's been a long ride up from Millhaven, and I didn't get as early a start as I had intended to.”
Victor nodded at me. “I'm sure we can find a place for you.” He looked around at his group. “Well, you heard him. You'll ride out in the morning. So why don't you all go home and give your wives a night to remember, and then meet back here early and ready for a memorial ride first thing in the morning? Bring your best weapons. For now, you're all dismissed. And Jake, let's see what we can find for you.”