Chapter 15
Diesel
I woke up panting with my cheek planted into the carpet of my apartment. Birds started chirping even though the sun hadn’t risen yet. I pressed my hands into the floor and groaned as I hoisted myself into the air. What the fuck had happened? Why the hell was I on the damn floor?
Then, everything came rushing back at once.
I looked up and saw my broken window and scrambled to my feet. I stumbled over to it and leaned out, looking every which way I could. My mind was still in a haze. My legs still felt weak. My jaw hurt and my ribs hurt and my back fucking screaming out in pain.
“Brynn!” I roared.
But all I heard were the chirping of birds.
I pushed myself off the railing of the window and stumbled over to my phone. Fucking hell, I needed to get my feet underneath me. I scrolled through my contacts and pressed down onto Grave’s number before I held the phone to my ear. It rang and it rang, and I almost hung up to try and call back.
Until his gruff voice came over the phone.
“What?” he asked.
“Brynn’s gone,” I said.
“What?” he asked again.
“They came into my fucking apartment, drugged me, and took her,” I said.
I heard shuffling and the sound of Everly’s muffled voice before Grave came back on the line.
“What happened, Diesel?” he asked.
“I don’t have time. Call the guys. Get their asses to the lodge. Once I can shake this drug from me, we have to figure out where the fuck we go from here. Get Rock’s ass out of bed. We’re going to need his help.”
Then, I hung up the phone and blasted a text message to the Black Hornets.
I sure as hell wasn’t about to tell Dean over the damn phone that his daughter had been taken. I reached down and pulled a shirt from my floor and slid it over my head. The more I walked, the more I got my legs underneath me. But I grabbed the pot of stale coffee and tossed it back anyway. I tossed my leather cut over my shoulders and grabbed my shit, then looked around for my fucking gun.
I grabbed it and holstered it at my side before walking straight out of the front door those assholes had walked through.
The faster I rode to the lodge, the higher the sun became. And every minute I rode through the desert was a minute Brynn was still in their grasp. The wind whipping through my hair and wrapping around my body pulled me from my drug-addled state, and I pushed my bike as fast as it could go to get to the guys quicker. Motorcycles rumbled off in the distance, revving their engines at top speeds. Dust kicked up and the wind circled it around, causing sand tornadoes I dodged at every turn.
Even the Earth was rebelling at the fact that Brynn was gone.
I skidded into my parking space and kicked down the kickstand of my bike. I strode up to the lodge and burst through the front door as anger rushed through my veins. The guys were all there and they stood to their feet, taking me in as I drew a deep breath through my nose.
But before I could address them, I heard a very familiar voice.
“Where the fuck is my daughter?”
“Dean, now isn’t the time to argue. We have to find--”
His fist connected with my jaw and the brawl began. I stood to my feet and cocked my fist back, bringing it down into the old man’s cheek. He fisted my cut and barreled me into the wall of our lodge, knocking over chairs and breaking dishes. The Black Hornets tried to peel him off me, but it was no use. His fist came down into my chest before I head-butted him, busting his nose and watching his blood flow forth.
“Cut it the fuck out!” Knox exclaimed.
I went to lunge for Dean as he wrapped his arms around me.
“Dean. Stop. This isn’t gonna help.”
I watched a tall, built man wrap his arms around Dean and pull him back. My nostrils flared, taking in the smell of Dean’s blood trickling down his face. I was out for revenge. I was out for heads. I was ready to take lives and set the damn city on fire just to watch it burn if it got me Brynn back. And if Dean stood in my way, he’d be the first to ignite.
“Breathe,” Knox said as he pulled me back. “Breathe, Diesel.”
“Get off me, Jace,” Dean said.
He shoved the tall man off him before bringing the back of his hand to his nose. He wiped at the blood as Knox’s arms fell from my body and I tugged on my jacket. I eyed every single one of the Black Hornets. I committed all of their faces to memory. My mind was digesting everything at once. Reading everyone at once in a feeble attempt to figure out what my next move was when it came to getting Brynn back.
“How the hell could I have been so stupid,” Dean said.
His eyes turned back to me as the bleeding of his nose stopped
“I should’ve known you would’ve gotten reckless. Unable to control yourself around my daughter. I should’ve known the past the two of you had would’ve made you vulnerable to the one thing you said you could protect her from!”
Dean lunged at me again, but Jace caught him around his chest.
“Let me go!” Dean exclaimed.
“Use your energy to find her. Not tear him apart. He doesn’t have her. It’ll do you no good,” Jace said.
“I suggest you listen to the muscle with eyes,” I said.
“Let’s try not to insult them any further, huh?” Knox asked.
I panned my gaze over to him and felt my blood boil. Who the fuck did he think he was?
“The only way we’re getting Brynn back is if we work together,” Jace said.
“He’s right,” Rock said. “So, Diesel. You gotta walk us through what the fuck happened at your place tonight. Starting with what happened after you two left the bar.”
“The bar?” Dean asked. “She was at your bar!?”
Dean lunged at me yet again and Jace had to hold him back. I had to give him props, for being as tall as he was, he was fast. But before I could start in on my story, the main phone at our lodge rang.
And I froze.
The only people who had access to that number were standing in the lodge. And none of those people included anyone from the Black Hornets.
Fuck.
I’d almost forgotten about Mick and his rat-like ways. For all I knew, he’d given that damn number out to every single one of those Black Saddle fucks. If that man were still alive, I’d put a bullet right in his dick. The ringing of the phone pulled me from the darkness of my anger and started my legs on a journey towards the phone.
“Fucking Mick,” Brewer said behind me.
“I got this,” Rock said as he reached into his satchel.
“Who the hell’s Mick?” Dean asked.
“The reason why you’re helping us,” I said as I picked up the phone. “Rock, you ready?”
“Pick up the phone and give me ten seconds. Then, I’ll have that damn call tracing,” he said.
I put the call on speakerphone and rose my finger to my lips. Everyone in our fucking lodge needed to shut their mouths. I didn’t answer the person automatically. I took the time to listen to the sounds that came through the second I picked up the call. There was shuffling and some muffled words. Something crashed in the background and raked against the floor. The sounds were hollow. Not close by. So, wherever this person was calling from, they were in a wide space.
Which ruled out The Black Saddles lodge.
“Get off me!”
The second I heard Brynn’s voice my eyes whipped up to Dean. He pushed away from Jace’s grasp and came barreling for the phone, but I wouldn’t give it to him. Every sound that came pouring forth was more information I could use to track her down. And the anger in Dean’s eyes when I pulled the phone away from him could’ve sparked the fire that burnt this entire place down. I put my finger back to my lips before I held the phone between us, hoping and praying the man could contain himself long enough to keep quiet.
“Anyone gonna answer me?” the voice asked.
But not just any voice.
Rex.
His voice echoed. Kind of like when someone’s standing in a bathroom. Which meant there was no carpet or anything around to absorb the sound. Large space. Echoes. That meant the walls and the flooring were things like cement. Or metal. Or tile. But not at their lodge.
“Maybe,” I said. “Depends on who I’m speaking with.”
“Don’t act like you don’t know who this is,” Rex said.
“It’s easy for me to forget the names of those that don’t matter.”
I heard a crack off in the distance and I cringed. Dean lunged for the phone again, but I held my hand out. Jace and Knox both came up to peel the man away from me and Knox immediately clamped his hand down onto Dean’s mouth. He roared into Knox’s palm and I saw Jace ready to attack, but then Brewer stepped forward and got right into Dean’s face.
“You have no idea what Diesel’s capable of. Let him work,” he said with a whisper.
And I watched Dean’s body relax.
I looked over at Rock, but I saw the frustration on his face. He was having trouble locking onto the signal to get a decent trace. He looked up at me with fire in his eyes and I held out my hand, trying to let him know that an exact location wasn’t necessary. So long as he could triangulate and give me a fifteen-mile radius, I could do the rest.
Then, another sound came through the phone. A beautiful sound that made me smile with delight.
I heard the sound of a train rumbling through the line of the phone.
“I promise you I matter. I’ve always mattered. I told Dean one day Brynn would be mine, and I always keep to my word. But, I’m willing to make a trade,” Rex said.
“A trade, huh? Sounds like you really have the hots for that woman, then,” I said.
“I think you’ll find the trade interesting.”
“I’m sure I will. Hit me with your best shot.”
I strode over to Rock and put the phone down on the table. I reached for a pen and a piece of paper and began to scribble things down. Warehouse. Large rooms. By a set of train tracks.
I slid the piece of paper into Rock’s vision and he started typing away on his computer.
“I want you assholes to turn yourselves in,” Rex said.
“To the feds, I’m assuming,” I said.
“You claim this is your town, but you have no idea the seeds we’ve planted. You don’t give a shit about this area, but we do. We always have. The Black Hornets pushed my gang out of Redding for no other reason than they could, and I was more than willing to move on to bigger and better things once Brynn had died.”
I heard boots falling against hardened flooring before I heard her voice. She whimpered, and my heart stopped in my chest.
“When I caught wind that she was alive, I didn’t believe it. But once I saw her racing down the highway into Redding blasting Matchbox Twenty from the speakers of her car, I knew that was my Brynn. She had come home to me. She had somehow survived the assault and she had come back for me. I was happy. Until I saw her with you.”
Another crack resounded over the phone and my hands began to quiver. I couldn’t wait to wrap my hands around that motherfucker’s neck and snap him in half. I watched Rock’s computer screen as a flood of dots popped up on a map. And with each parameter he entered in, they slowly faded away from the screen. They blacked out and faded into nothingness until ten dots remained. Then, the triangulation of the phone call tightened, getting rid of four more.
Six possible locations for where Brynn could be. It still spread us out too thin.
“Keep talking,” Rock mouthed to me.
“Once I saw her with you, I realized how much she meant to you Diesel. How much this pretty little thing had you wrapped around her finger.” Rex said.
“Leave Brynn out of this,” I said. “This fight is between you and me.”
Rex out a laugh. “It is so much more than just me and you now, Diesel. Now that I know she is alive, it is time to teach her and her father a lesson. And as an added bonus, I get to hurt you in the process, now that I know how much she means to you.”
“Brynn is innocent in all of this. This fight isn’t with her. It is between our clubs.”
“Fine!” Rex yelled. “If you want your precious piece of ass back, then your club and Dean’s will need to take the fall for everything that the feds are building.” Good, I got him focused on the feds. That would take his attention away from hurting Brynn and keep him talking.
“So, what? You started colluding with the feds to push us both out?” I asked.
“Don’t act like you don’t know. I know you know about Mick. I know your guys were the ones that blasted him away in the woods a couple of weeks ago, after you figured out what he was doing for us. Now that our source is gone, the feds have turned up the heat on getting them information. They told me that either way, one of the clubs is going to jail. And there is no way in hell it is mine.”
Then, a beautiful sound happened again.
Yet another train passed by on the other end of the line.
I watched Rock pull up another window and he began hacking as fast as he could. He pulled up train schedules and sifted through information, trying to see which track had two trains so close together barreling down the same damn track. My eyes widened as his fingers flew. The Black Hornets and my club were gathered around us as we worked as diligently as we could. And the second Rock pulled up the schedule, he entered the last parameter.
And only one dot remained.
“So, what’s your endgame?” I asked as I rose up from the table. “What do you expect to get out of all this?”
“Turn yourself into the authorities and get the fuck out of Redding. Trust me, I’ll know when you do it. And once you do, I’ll return Brynn to the Black Hornets. Maybe Dean and I can negotiate for Brynn’s hand on a different set of terms. One that doesn’t require her protection. It was very easy getting to you, Diesel. Who knew that out of all the people in your pathetic club, it would be you who wouldn’t lock your front door?”
My eyes panned over to Dean and I saw his nostrils flaring. I reached down to Rock’s computer and turned it around to him. Showing him the one little dot blinking on the screen. His eyes danced between mine and the computer, then he put his finger in the air and circled it quickly. And like lightning, the Black Hornets were silently maneuvering around us, gearing up and heading out to their bikes.
“How about I think about your offer?” I asked.
“What?” Rex asked.
“Yeah. Let me make a cup of coffee and sit on it. I’m sure Brynn will still be alive once I call you back. I can call you back, right?”
“The fuck are you talking about? She’s dead if you hang up this fucking phone.”
“No, she’s not. Because she’s your only bargaining chip. We don’t agree to this, and the feds come after you.”
The phone call went silent as Rock pinged our phones with the location of that warehouse.
“Exactly what I thought, mother fucker.”
Then I hung up the phone and shoved it into my pocket. We were headed to find Brynn.
Once we got her I would kill Rex myself.