Chapter 17
Diesel
“Wait just a fuckin’ second!”
Dean’s voice all gave us pause as we straddled our bikes.
“What?” I asked. “We know where your daughter is, and you want to hold us up?”
“How the hell do we know that’s where she is? What the fuck just happened?”
I peered over at Rock and watched him draw in a deep breath. The sun had risen high in the sky now, which meant so many things would be exposed about what we were doing. And since I’d essentially hung up on the one man who was in a position to hurt Brynn, I knew we had to act quickly.
“Rock is our technological guru. He triangulated--”
“I don’t give a shit what he did, or what you did for that matter. We’ve got one shot to roll up on these assholes and get my princess before all hell breaks loose. I wanna hear where she is from someone’s fucking mouth.”
“She’s at--”
“No,” Dean said. “From one of their mouths.”
I bit down onto the inside of my cheek. Of course, this asshole would wanna do this the old school way. That’s how the Black Hornets did all their shit. The old school way, with old school tactics, and old school attitude and strength. But we were wasting time. I knew where Brynn was. I was confident in what Rock had found as well as what I’d heard. But I knew if I wanted Brynn’s father’s fucking club on our side, I had to compromise and do this at least a little bit their way.
“Fine,” I said. “But there’s only one place where any Black Saddle will be right now.”
“Then lead the damn way,” Dean said.
I struck up my bike and everyone else fell in line. I was in front, Dean eased up to my side, and everyone else fell in two distinct lines behind us. The two leaders of the two clubs The Black Saddles had fucked with. We cruised down the road as we made our way to the Saddles lodge, making sure no one was lost in the process. And once we hit the back roads that led straight to their place, we kicked it into gear.
“You guys go around back! We need them surrounded!” I exclaimed.
Dean gave me a thumb’s up before signaling for his men to break off. All of my guys lined the front of the beat-up lodge, still riddled with bullet holes from the last time we were there. And the Black Hornets rounded around the back of the building and covered the rest of the exits. Dean even had a couple of guys stationed at the sewer dumps at the road, in case any of them got really desperate.
But I knew they wouldn’t.
The Black Saddles would shoot their way out before cowering into the sewers.
All of us hopping on our bikes meant we weren’t going to agree to turning ourselves in. And Dean’s club coming with us meant they backed up that decision. Which meant the time we spent doing this shit his way was more time we risked Rex hurting Brynn. Word would get back to him the second we rolled up onto his property, so we needed to be quick about this.
So, I drew in a deep breath before I got off my bike.
We crashed through the front door of the lodge as Dean came through the back. And just as I suspected, a few of the prospects waiting on Rex’s orders were sitting at the damn bar, slinging back beers. By the looks of it, they were a few too many in. Their eyes were a little glassy and their cell phones hung out on top of the bar.
Easy for us to get to.
“Unplug the telephones,” I said to Rock. “Every single one you can find.”
“On it,” he said.
“Grave? Smash their cell phones.”
“With pleasure,” he said.
“Lock the doors and turn down the lights, boys. Because this is about to get intimate,” Dean said.
Then we began picking off the prospects, one by one.
Dean became heavy-handed with his fists, but since none of his guys made a move to stop him, neither did I. He beat one of them within an inch of their life before he dragged them off to talk to them, but I was saving my energy for Rex. I dragged one of the prospects to a chair in the corner and sat him down before Brewer duct taped his hands and wrists to the chair I sat him in.
Then, I leaned forward and spoke very carefully.
“You’ve got one shot before I hand you over to the man dragging your buddies down that hallway,” I said. “Do you understand?”
The prospect nodded his head rapidly as screams of pain and terror echoed off the corners of the bar. I had no idea what Dean was doing to that man, but I knew it wasn’t good.
“Are you familiar with a woman by the name of Brynn?” I asked. “And don’t lie to me, because I’ll know when you are.”
His eyes darted around to the guys that surrounded him as I drew in a deep breath. I studied his carotid. I watched it speed up and slow down as he debated on what to say to me. I looked back up to his eyes and watched his pupils dilate and I readied myself for a smackdown. I wasn’t going to tolerate this fucker lying to me, no matter how young he was.
His boss had the woman I loved.
And I wasn’t leaving without the answers her father wanted.
“You’ve got four seconds to answer me,” I said.
More screams of terror before the cracking of bones resounded from the hallway. And I could tell the prospect in front of me was about to shit himself. His eyes locked with mine as his pulse grew, but I watched his pupils settle back into place.
Good. The adrenaline of a lie was no longer coursing through his veins.
“I know of her, yeah,” the guy said.
“Good. You told the truth. I like that,” I said with a grin. “Now, tell me. Does Rex have her?”
“Yes,” the guy said.
Steady pulse. Even eyes. No awkward shifting in his seat.
“See? You’re getting the hang of this,” I said. “Is she being held in a warehouse? By some train tracks?”
“Don’t tell them any--!”
A gunshot popping off before something hit the floor rose tears to the prospect’s eyes. I felt bad for the kid. He looked to be no more than twenty years old. I remembered back to when I was twenty. When I was just a prospect for the Dead Souls and thought I had my entire fucking life ahead of me. The young man looked positively petrified at what was going on, and I had no doubt that Dean had just killed his little drinking buddy.
“You’ll suffer the same fate if you don’t talk, boy,” Dean said as he came up behind me.
“Y-Y-Yes,” he said, “Rex took Brynn to a warehouse just outside of Redding. By the train tracks that bridge Anderson and here. Please, don’t kill me. I swear, all I was doing was waiting for Rex to tell me when to--”
“When to what?” I asked.
The man whimpered as Dean cocked his hand back and slammed it down onto the boy’s cheek.
“Was that really necessary?” I asked as I looked up at him. “If you break his jaw, he can’t give you what you want.”
Dean eyed me hotly before I turned my attention back to the young man in front of me.
“Before you what?” I asked.
“I was only waiting for a call from Rex telling me when to come get him. That’s it. I don’t know why I had to go get him, but I have the address. It’s in my phone your friend smashed.”
“Don’t worry. We already have the address of that warehouse. We only needed your verbal confirmation,” I said.
“You… you already what?”
“Dean?”
“Yeah, Diesel?”
“He’s yours,” I said.
“Wait. Wait, wait, wait. I have more information! Rex is informing the U.S. Attorney on you guys! Mick wasn’t the only rat! Please, no. Don’t. Stop it, please! Rex is a rat, too!”
“Trust me,” I said as I turned around.
I watched Dean level his gun to the young man’s head as my eyes connected with his.
“We already know that, too.”
I eyed Dean carefully, then shook my head. A man as young as him didn’t need to die tonight. Dean grunted before he lowered his gun, then shot a bullet into each of the boy’s knee caps. Even if he got free from his binds, he wouldn’t be able to get himself anywhere. And the last thing I needed was Dean’s lust for death getting the best of him. He had what he wanted. He had the verbal confirmation an old school guy like him needed. We all walked outside, leaving the phones unplugged and the young man bound and bleeding as we made our way for our bikes.
“Convinced my guys can do a damn job now?” I asked.
Dean glared at me before him and the rest of the Black Hornets got onto their bikes and struck them up.
“Let’s go get my daughter,” he said as he revved his engine. “Then we can figure it out from there.”
We took off down the road, racing as quickly as we could. Even with the phones out and the cell phones not working, it would only be a matter of time before Rex called and knew something wasn’t right. And we were still thirty fucking minutes out from that damn warehouse. Doing it Dean’s way meant backtracking fifteen fucking minutes just to get him what he wanted. He was a father on a mission and he wasn’t thinking straight. But I knew that anger of his could be turned on myself and my men in a heartbeat, and I figured my fiancé wouldn’t enjoy me having to slaughter the only people she considered family on principle.
We weaved in and out of traffic and I was no longer concerned with whether or not people could keep up. All I cared about was getting to Brynn. Because if Rex laid a finger on her, I wouldn’t stop until the entire lot of them were dead. Until the Black Saddles’ blood lined the streets of Redding. I’d gladly do myself in and run my ass out of town if it meant destroying their club. So many things ran through my mind as I raced through town, each one sicker than the last.
In a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, no one would hear Brynn scream. And if Rex was operating under the mentality that he knew Brynn and I were engaged, then he could be acting as a jilted lover. Which brought everything from rape to death onto the table. If Rex was acting like a man still hell-bent on taking down my club, then he could be acting as a torturer. Trying to find some sort of leverage to still get us out of town once his phone call went awry.
Either way, we’d left Brynn in his hands far longer than I ever planned.
Which meant if Rex had done something to her, Dean was partially responsible for it.
“Diesel!”
Knox pulled up beside me as I turned to look at him.
“What!?” I called out.
“Slow down! We’re gonna get our asses pulled and tossed in jail before we get there!”
I revved my engine and pulled away from him, leaving him in my fucking dust. I’d outrun the cops if it was necessary. And if we got pulled, Brewer could work some of his magic. But nothing was standing in my way, not even a threat of going to jail. I tore off the main road and began taking back roads. I knocked into trash cans down alleyways and hopped backyards to get to other side roads. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the sign that told me I was leaving Redding, because I knew that meant I was only a few minutes out.
“Come on, Brynn,” I murmured to myself. “Hang in there.”
The only thing I could hope was that Rex needed us to turn ourselves in as much as he led on. That was the only way he would keep Brynn alive for this long.