CHAPTER NINE
Michael Jerroe paced the floor in his office. When he got up yesterday morning everything in his world had been looking up, but just in the last few hours, everything had gone to shit. In fact, ever since the phone call from his son last night things had gone wrong for him.
Frowning, he paused for a moment then began to pace again. What the hell did his kid do? All he had to do was get two women and bring them to him. Had he been caught? Is that why he hadn’t heard from him?
That might be part of it but there was something else going on as well. About four hours ago, his money started disappearing. His accountant called him this morning in a panic. Someone had systematically drained his accounts. At first, it was just his business account but now his banker had called and his personal accounts were gone as well.
Then at lunch, his wife called and told him his credit cards had been frozen. What the fuck was going on? Michael had no idea but he was going to find out and lord help the accountant who screwed him over. His regular accountant Simon was going over his accounts with a fine toothcomb, tracking all the movement since his money began disappearing but he hadn’t found anything yet. One minute he was flush with cash and the next minute he was broke. Nothing made sense to him.
Simon hadn’t been able to find a dime of his money and Simon was the best. Even the money hidden in secret, away from the government was missing. He paused long enough to punch in a phone number and while he waited to be connected, Michael lit a cigar and took a deep puff.
When Simon’s voice came over the phone line Michael asked, “Did you find anything yet?”
“No I haven’t.” Simon’s voice sounded strained.
Michael could almost see him sitting behind his desk. The top he knew would be cluttered with papers, calculators and a desktop computer. He had several monitors that took up every spare inch of his desk.
“What do you mean you haven’t found it yet?’ Michael roared. “How can the money be gone in the first place? I thought you protected it.”
“I did Mr. Jerroe,” Simon insisted. “Someone breached the firewalls protecting your accounts.”
“How the fuck can that happen?” Michael yelled. “You told me you had the best security money could buy!”
“I’m trying to track it now but whoever did this is very good.”
“You’d better fucking find every last dime.” Michael growled. “I can’t even buy a pack of gum at the moment.” He paced the floor again. “My wife took some friends to the club for lunch today and she couldn’t pay the bill. I had to run cash out there for her. She was so embarrassed, she cried. My wife is not a pretty crier.”
“I’m sorry Mr. Jerroe. I’ll find the money and restore your accounts.” Simon groveled. “I just need some time.”
Michael slammed the disconnect button. He was tired of excuses. He picked up his cell phone and dialed his son’s number. The phone rang and rang, then finally went to voicemail. Michael growled and threw the phone against the wall. It shattered in several pieces. “Where the hell are you Eli?” he called out to no one. Then he picked up the receiver on his office phone and punched out his son’s number. When it began to ring, he put the phone on speaker and listened to the ring echo through his office.
At the fourth ring, someone picked it up, “Hello.”
“Who the fuck is this?” Michael demanded.
“Well, who the fuck are you?”
“My name is Michael Jerroe, who am I speaking to and why are you answering my son Eli’s phone?”
“Hello Michael Jerroe. My name really isn’t important but I have something that might be.” He chuckled. “That is if your son is important to you.”
Michael crushed the cigar in his fingers. “Where is my son? What have you done to him?”
“I haven’t done anything to him yet,” the voice assured him. “So how is business going today Mr. Jerroe?”
Michael frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You have a decision to make.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Michael demanded. “Are you the asshole that stole my money?”
“I’m one of them yes. But that’s not what you have to decide today.”
“I want my fucking money back asshole!” Michael shouted.
“Your son kidnapped one of our women today and for that you’re paying a penalty. Consider the money a down payment on that penalty,” the voice taunted.
“No woman is worth all that money.” Michael sat down hard in his chair. “You took millions of dollars from me.”
“Your son took our woman on orders from you. He only got one of the two you ordered him to take but one was bad enough.”
“What do you want?” Michael asked.
“You made a terrible mistake several years ago when you went into business with Janelle Walden. That was your first strike. Then you made a second mistake when you thought you could take our women without paying for that mistake. That was your second strike and shame on you for what you did. Eli tells us you were going to send in a team and kidnap them if he couldn’t get the job done quickly. But don’t be too mad at him…he did admit that under duress.”
Michael swallowed hard. “Is my son still alive?”
~* * * *~
“Please…what kind of man do you think I am?” Iceman laughed over the phone. “Yes, he’s still alive for the moment. Now, let’s get back to the decision you have to make today. So far, you have two strikes against you. You have to decide if you want to live or not. If you choose life then you end up with nothing left to your name. No money, no business, no house, no fancy cars, nothing. You walk away with nothing more than the clothes on your back, the same for your wife, and Eli. If you chose death then you take your own life and your wife and son still end up with nothing but you won’t be here to see them suffer.”
“That’s not much of a choice is it?” Michael sneered.
“Oh, there’s one more thing,” Iceman continued. “If you choose life, you have the choice to start all over, you can rebuild your enterprises and your business, but if you come near us or our women again, the choice will not be yours to make. The next time we meet, you will not live through it. You won’t know when or where it will happen but a bullet will get you. If you even think about crossing us again, you won’t live through it.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” Michael asked.
“I told you, you went into business with a bad woman and you took one of our women and threatened two more of our women. We don’t take bullshit from people and you are the worst kind of people there is. You think because you have money you can do whatever you want? Well, we’re here to teach you different. You have to learn you can’t push good people around and not pay the consequences. You messed with the wrong people today, you messed with not one but three MCs. This is your lesson of the day.”
“You can’t just take everything I own.”
“We already did.” Iceman smirked into the phone. “By now, they’ve repoed your cars and the bank just foreclosed your house. There should be a sheriff at your door escorting your wife from the premises and a locksmith changing the locks. There is also a security team in your outer offices waiting to escort you out of the building.”
“You dirty rotten bastards!” Michael growled then knocking could be heard on his office door. “I’ll see you all in hell before I give up. I will get it all back somehow, someway and then I’ll bury you all!”
“Now that would be a mistake on your part,” Iceman warned him. “We can leave it at this or we can take it a step further and ruin your good name. This is a warning to everyone who’s ever done business with Janelle Walden in the past. Stay away from our women or prepare to lose everything you own, including your lives and the lives of your family.”
“My wife is going to leave me anyway, so what the hell do I care?” Michael growled. “She won’t stay with me if I have nothing left. She likes the high life too much.”
“You still have your son.”
“No I don’t,” Michael insisted. “You have him. How do I know you’ll release him to me?”
“Well, we sure as hell don’t want to keep him. He’s no good to us,” Iceman replied with a grin. “Oh, and if you’re thinking about tracing this call, don’t bother. You won’t find us and you also won’t know if we’re watching you or not. We will be watching you for some time and if you do anything that might constitute a threat to us, well, we will stop you and any associates you choose to help you. Word is already spreading on the streets to that effect, so no one will help you.” He paused then added, “And believe me when I say, we know every lowlife in the area and they have all been warned to stay away from you.”
“You really are a bastard,” Michael grumbled.
“Thank you, I have worked hard to get where I am today.” Iceman chuckled. “Oh, you should also know you pissed off the Vincinti family as well.” Iceman paused long enough for Michael to think about that for a moment. “I know you know that name and the family. I don’t have to tell you Janelle made the same mistake and she paid a very high price for her stupidity.”
~* * * *~
“You’ve taken everything I have and left me with nothing,” Michael whispered as reality hit him hard.
“You’re still alive aren’t you?” A moment later, the line went dead.
Michael heard the echo of the dial tone and someone was pounding on his door.
When it burst open a moment later, there were several security personal standing there. One of them came forward and placed a legal document on his desk.
Michael didn’t have to look at the paper to know what it was.
“We’re here to escort you out of the building.”
Michael got to his feet. Standing tall, he smoothed down his jacket and stepped around his desk. Walking toward the door, he joined the other office personal and the security officers escorted them to the main doors. No one spoke until they got down to the street.
Everyone began crowding around him, and with everyone talking at once, Michael couldn’t even think. Finally, he held up his hands and told them all, “Just go home. The office is closed and you’ll all have to try and find new jobs. I have nothing left to offer any of you.”
“What about our pensions?” someone called out.
Michael glared at them all. “Everything I ever had is gone. I can’t give you what I don’t have.”
After a stunned moment someone asked, “Christ, who did you piss off?”
“Some fucking MC.” Michael growled. “Just three fucking MCs,” he added in a whisper as reality set in. He turned and began walking away. Michael didn’t know where he was going he just needed to be alone. At the moment, he didn’t know what he was going to do but revenge burned in his belly. He turned the corner and the noise of the city was gone. The street was empty and he took a few steps, then a few more. How long he walked, he didn’t know and he didn’t really care.
Then he heard something that caused him to raise his head. In front of him was a sedan. The back door was open and the engine was running. Michael looked around but didn’t see anyone there. Suddenly, someone shoved him from behind and he fell to his knees. Then huge hands grabbed his shoulders and a low voice growled in his ears, “Someone wants a word with you. Get in the fucking car.” Then the hands shoved him into the backseat. The door slammed shut and the car took off at a high speed.
Michael tried to find the handle of the door, so he could escape but both back handles had been removed. He tried to gauge where in the city they were going, but he couldn’t see out the windows. The glass had been painted over by some kind of silver paint. When the car slowed down, then stopped, the back door was opened from the outside and Michael stepped out.
He found himself in an old warehouse. The glass windows were broken and there was a thick layer of dust covering everything. “Hello?” he called out. “Is anyone there?”
Then two men came out of the shadows. One of them was huge, about six foot eight and his body was enormous. His arms were bulging and Michael could see the muscles rippling under his clothes. He had long flowing white hair tied into a ponytail. He must have weighed in at close to four hundred pounds and not one ounce of fat. The other man was no small man either. A few inches shorter but no less intimidating. Both men were older but still well in their prime.
Michael swallowed hard. Both men had a look in their eyes that said Michael was in danger…big time. “What do you want? Why did you bring me here?”
“The woman your son took this morning is my daughter,” the bigger one told him.
“She is also my old lady. Now, it’s time to be crushing some bones,” the smaller one said.
“But you’ve already taken everything I own.” Michael scrambled backwards as they came forward.
“No, we didn’t,” the bigger man reminded him. “That was the MC, this,” Mountain motioned between him and Sam and then included Michael. “This is personal. Your son paid his price for his part in taking her and now you’re gonna pay for your part in her kidnapping.”
Michael stared at the man’s hands. They were huge and curling into fists the size of phone books. He knew severe pain was coming but there was no way he could brace himself for it. When the bigger of the two men reared back and let his fist fly Michael’s head exploded when his fist connected. He could feel his body flying through the air and slamming down on the cement floor. A cloud of dust blew up around him. Michael gasped as the air left his lungs. For a moment, he couldn’t catch his breath, then he felt the pain of the punch he’d just taken. More pain poured down on him as he was hauled back to his feet. It kept coming until finally, he could feel no more and he slid into unconsciousness.
~* * * *~
Mountain and Sam stood over the beaten man. Michael Jerroe had put up a good fight. It hadn’t stopped them from beating him bloody but he had defended himself as much as he could.
A few minutes later, the roar of bikes broke the silence. Iceman, Hawk and several other members of the Boston Sinners MC crowded into the warehouse.
Iceman glanced briefly at the heap at their feet. He stared at Mountain and Sam. “Are we good here?” he finally asked.
Mountain looked at Sam then back to Iceman. “I’m good.”
Sam nodded as he popped his knuckles. “Me too.”
“Good. Let’s get your woman and go home then.” He turned to Hawk. “You’ll take care of the tunnel situation? Muddy it up, so no one care find the door with the symbol.”
Hawk nodded. “Any objection if we try to find it? It might be an interesting claim.”
Iceman chuckled slightly. “I know Melora gave you directions. I hope you find a treasure.” He started his engine and said, “Just make it so Michael and his son can’t find it. Just in case they go looking for a way to get the money back.”
Hawk nodded. “We’ll make sure he sees a doctor. We wouldn’t want either man to claim we aren’t civilized.”
Iceman rose a brow and grinned at him. He then gave him a nod and turned his bike around to lead the way out of the warehouse.
Mountain walked back into the shadows and started his bike.
Sam walked back and started his truck. He was taking Melora home with him. He tore out of the warehouse and went to collect his woman.