~ Ace ~
Ace paced back and forth, unable to stand the wait. They needed to get on this immediately. Right now they had the element of surprise. That was an advantage that wouldn’t last long.
“You’d better calm the hell down, brother. Anxious fuckers make mistakes, and you cannot afford that right now,” Ryder pointed out.
“Where the hell is he?” Ace barked.
“Darkness ain’t the kind of man to come running for nobody. He’ll be here when he gets here. Everyone’s safe, so give the man a minute.”
“I thought the two of you were going to fight,” Jack piped up.
Trying his best to ignore the mouthy student, Ace stated flatly, “Fuck no, kid. We ain’t got time for that shit right now.”
Peb explained quietly, “We just needed some time to brainstorm without the women freaking out about everything.”
Nodding, Jack smirked. “‘Cause we don’t need no bitches harshing our ride, right?”
Ryder spun around to face off with him. “You got a big fuckin’ mouth, kid.”
Grinning, Jack replied, “I’m almost twenty-five, so I’m no kid. I sure as hell don’t look it either. My mom called me a late bloomer, and Gran says I’m aging like a fine wine.”
Ryder appraised him. “That sounds about right. Get all your intel from your mommy, kid?”
“Nope,” Jack said smartly, “my drill sergeant said I was irreverent. That might explain why I got the boot. The marines don’t play, man.”
Snorting a laugh, Ryder pointed out the obvious. “You don’t seem like a dude who’s served in the military.”
“Since they sectioned me out before I completed boot camp, they tell me that technically I wasn’t in the military.”
“It figures. You seem more like a wet-behind-the-ears kid who prefers spinning a tale to hanging with the big dogs.”
Grabbing his crotch, Jack intoned sarcastically, “Hey, dude, I got your big guy right here.”
“I will make you dickless, kid,” Ryder threatened. “Keep pushing my buttons, pretty boy.”
“I am pretty, and I guess that looking ten years younger will come in handy when I’m an old man like you.”
“That does it, kid.”
Before anyone could blink, a furious Darkness perp-walked a prospect into the crowd, threw him against the brick wall of the clubhouse, and began beating the shit out of the stunned man.
Jack dropped down on top of a nearby picnic table. “Damn, where’s the popcorn?”
Tank was not going to be walking out of here today, Ace was fairly certain of that.
“What the hell is this all about?” Ven shouted.
Darkness stopped beating the man senseless long enough to stalk over to Ven and poke his finger in the man’s face. “Do not mess this up for me. His ass is mine, not yours.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Prez?” Ven asked, clearly confused by the accusation.
Ace spoke up. “I already gave him a good punch-up for messing with Rose. I’m guessing the stubborn bastard didn’t listen.”
“He did what? I’m gonna kill the fucker,” Ven snarled, seriously pissed off now.
Glancing at the man holding his ribs, Ace realized he had no idea what was going on. “If this isn’t over Rose, what’s he done?”
“I caught the stupid fucker trying to break into my office.”
Ryder stepped closer. “Jesus, I never would have thought that.”
Hickory and Ven moved closer, and Ryder’s father asked quietly, “Are you sure he’s not somehow related to this situation with the bodies?”
Ace shook his head. “He can’t be. The fucker was with us for weeks before that farmer even found the fossil deposit on his property.”
Hickory stared down at Tank. “Do you think he could be a pig, ‘cause he sure ain’t the kind of guy we thought he was.”
“Peb, get the fuck over here,” Ace said, motioning with his hand. They needed their expert on the case to dig up any and all information on this Tank guy.
“I’m already on it, man.” Ace waited breathlessly for Peb to finish the internet search he was doing on his high-class smartphone. “I’m getting conflicting information. There’s social media accounts under the name he uses with the club, but I used the time machine app, and it was all created on the same day about six weeks before he showed up here.”
Walking over, Ryder squatted down to look the man in the face. “If I gut you today, who’s gonna show up to claim the body?”
The man jerked his head, refusing to look him in the eye.
“Give me a hint, would they be state or federal agents?”
His question was met with yet more stony silence.
“I hope the fuck the DEA isn’t spending taxpayer dollars on sniffing around our club.”
Ven made a sound of disgust. “The stupid fucker ain’t talking.”
Ryder grabbed a handful of Tank’s hair and jerked his head back. “We don’t mule drugs for nobody. You gotta know that by now. Why are you still here?”
“Maybe the dude’s FBI,” Jack suggested. “This place looks ripe for a Ricco bust.”
“The stupid fucker who ain’t supposed to be here, much less talking, is right. Maybe our prospect is looking to dig up all our secrets and use a little of this and little of that to take us down for being an ongoing criminal enterprise.”
Darkness walked up and stood over them with his arms crossed over his chest. “That sounds about right to me. I’m going to give you one chance to walk the fuck outta here today. Tell me what agency you’re with.”
“You run guns,” Tank said through clenched teeth.
“ATF it is then. What’s your name?”
“Gaven Petella.”
“Peb, run his name and see if he’s with the ATF,” Darkness instructed, his shrewd gaze never leaving Tank’s.
Ryder began searching the man and quickly divested him of his cell phone and pulled the battery. Ace knew it was in case it had a listening device. Ryder quickly pulled out the sim card and stuffed it in his pocket. Dropping the phone onto the ground, he stood and crushed it under his foot. “Funny, I never took you for a pig.”
Scrolling on his phone, Peb said, “I found him, sir. Gaven S. Patella. He’s from Arizona. He has a wife and a child on the way. His FB pictures are him but without the beard. He normally has blond hair, and he’s wearing brown contacts right now. His eyes are usually green.”
The man on the ground cursed under his breath.
“Ain’t too good with disguises, are you?” Peb taunted.
Darkness stared at the man as he rubbed his jaw. “Make a note of his personal information, Peb.” Turning his attention back to the turncoat, his voice turned to ice. “I’m gonna let you walk the fuck on outta here, lawman, but I want to make something loud and clear. If you disappoint me in any way, I’ll track you down. You will regret it, and I might even enjoy some one-on-one time with your missus. Am I making myself clear?”
“Abundantly,” Tank sneered.
“Why is he being so quiet and not looking anyone in the eye?” Jack asked.
“It’s a special technique they teach them in their field training for hostage situations,” Hickory answered. “They think looking us in the eye will be perceived as an act of aggression, so they teach them to avoid it. They’re also taught to say as little as possible. His limited verbalizations are meant to give us less to get angry about.”
Darkness stepped aside, giving the man an out. “Go, before I change my mind.”
The man rolled to his feet and made a run for it. As they watched him jump on his bike and head for the gate, Ven spoke. “I’m not sure letting him go was such a fine idea.”
“We sure the hell ain’t gonna give him a damned dirt nap in front of a bunch of college kids,” Darkness said. “Him disappearing is a good way to get ATF to drop down on top of us when we need it the least. In case you haven’t noticed, we have a situation on our hands.”
Hickory agreed. “They were wasting their time here anyway. We call what we do running guns because back in the day, that’s how it was done. The fact is, our operation may be different but our terminology isn’t. Now, we have a wholesale license and nobody cares what we sell to who, so long as we keep up with the paperwork. Tank probably thought we were running illegal guns because we do the paperwork on the front end when we get payment. He’s only ever seen the back end, which is the delivery. The stupid fuckers could hang out with us all damn year and still be hard-pressed to figure that shit out.”
“It’s damned hard for career criminals to make a decent living these days, ain’t it?” Jack quipped.
Darkness turned on him. “Who the fuck are you and who gave you permission to speak?”
Jack held up both hands in surrender. “I’m just kind of here, hoping not to get shot by the crazy serial killers dumping bodies all over the place.” Darkness glared at him. “I’ll just shut up now, ‘cause I can tell you’re thinking about giving me a dirt nap. I love that phrase by the way. It sounds menacing and so goddamn final.”
“Make yourself useful, prospect, and get me a beer.”
Jack hopped off the table and ambled over to a huge keg-shaped ice cooler and pulled out an amber bottle. Closing the distance between them, he tossed it to Darkness.
After twisting off the cap and taking a long pull, Darkness looked around. “Peb, where are we on this Ace thing?”
When Peb walked forward, Ace honestly felt bad for the kid. He was all of about sixteen or seventeen and being asked to perform tasks well above his pay grade as a prospect. His brother, Cork, had only just been patched, and the pair of them were all alone in the world. The sickly, small gothic kid was really stepping up his game as their IT expert. If he were being honest, Ace would admit the kid was miles more competent than the company their club used before Peb wandered into their midst.
Forcing himself to stand up straight, Peb answered in a forced voice, “My facial recognition is still running, and I can’t do much until we figure out who these people are.”
“Maybe the crime lab has identified them already,” Ace mused.
“No, sir, they haven’t. I hacked their system, and it looks like it’s gonna take weeks for them to figure this shit out. I lifted some of their information and found a partial print. I enhanced it and drew connecting lines by hand. The lab techs aren’t allowed to do things like that ‘cause it’s tampering, but I’m thinking we don’t give a big shit about stuff like that, if it gets us the information we’re after.”
“That’s damned smart, Peb.” Darkness rarely gave out a compliment, but when he did, it was pretty amazing.
Peb shot a look to his older brother, Cork. The smile on his brother’s face was infectious, making the younger man stand a little taller.
“If I could hack into the federal crime database, I might be able to get a match on that partial print.”
“I do not want you hacking into any federal databases, Peb,” Darkness said, his tone final. “You’re too valuable to risk for a low-grade fingerprint match that we don’t even know will yield results. I don’t mind bending the rules, but I won’t get you messed up in seriously illegal shit that could get you real time.”
“Yes, sir.” Peb went back to scrolling on his cell phone, his long fingers pecking away at the speed of light. The proud little smile on his face gave Ace a momentary lift.
Hickory suggested, “Why don’t you shoot the print to our attorneys, Peb. Ed has a pretty good relationship with the local sheriff’s office. Maybe he can get them to do him a solid.”
Without looking up, Peb murmured, “Will do, Hickory.”
Darkness asked, “Do we know of any gangs working out of that area?”
Ven pulled a tiny flip notebook out of his back pocket. The man was nothing if not old school. Standing in neat black jeans, button-up cotton shirt, and Harley boots, he began reading information he’d scribbled inside. “I asked around and discovered there are three criminal enterprises operating out of the badlands. One is native and housed on a local reservation. They sell rebuilt ammo and turn a tidy little profit each month. I don’t think they have any beef with local gangs.
“The other two enterprises are the Seven-six and Outlanders MC. The Seven-six, as you all know, is a prolific gang operating throughout the badlands. They’re heavy into drugs and the skin trade. Since their primary moneymakers are lucrative, I imagine they’re constantly defending their connections and turf.
“The Outlanders MC is a one-percent club that pretty much takes ex-military and law enforcement types. I believe they focus on what you might typically think of as victimless crimes. They act as go-betweens in arms sales, own and operate a string of topless bars, and occasionally do some low-key, white-collar jobs. They’re all about family and the local town they live in.”
“I’d put my money on the Seven-six, except two of their guys were among the bodies,” Ace said gruffly.
Darkness threw in his two-cents worth. “Well, it sure as hell ain’t the natives. They’d tuck the bodies away on their vast private lands, where no law enforcement is welcome to come. They have certain protections and operate like individual nations, in a lot of regards.”
“That leaves the MC, but I gotta say, this does not sound like that particular MC. They seem to be smart about managing their risk. What Ace photographed in that cave was some seriously sloppy shit.” Ryder, as always, was opinionated and never held back.
Jack spoke, even though Darkness had warned him not to. “It could be that the MC found a couple of rats in their club or they had a couple of men who were too stupid to live. Maybe stashing them with the other bodies was a half-assed way of making them disappear with the added benefit of throwing law enforcement off their trail if the site was ever discovered.”
Darkness shot the young man a half-smile. “You’ve got a good nose for this shit.”
Jack smirked. “I watch a lot of television.”
Ignoring his flippant comment, Darkness added, “After looking at Ace’s pictures, the footprint stands out as the main clue. We know that Aryan gangs usually chalk their boot and stomp their victims on the back. Since no other groups we’ve talked about are Aryan, we need eyes and ears in the local area. Tonight we eat, sleep, and booze it up. Tomorrow we break up into pairs and swarm the area. Leave your cuts at home, ‘cause we’re going undercover. I don’t want any nastiness with the MC who’s claimed that area. If anyone asks, we’re just passing through.”
Ryder reiterated the safety piece. “You heard the prez. No one goes off half-cocked by himself. You know the rules. Two riders are likely to be seen as friends out for a ride. Three riders are concerning but more will put the local MC on high-alert for possible incursion.”
“I’ll go out myself and have a sit-down with him. Hickory and Ven will accompany me. Ace, you are in charge of the clubhouse and the strays you dragged home,” Darkness instructed.
“I can help you dig up clues,” Ace offered. The last thing he wanted to do was play babysitter. He wanted in on the action.
“I don’t want you in that area. Let your club brothers handle this. Stay here with Peb and hold down the fort. Remember we have ATF breathing down our neck. That situation is going to circle back around and bite us in the ass at some point.”
Nodding solemnly, Ace felt like shit for having his club brothers doing all his dirty work.
Darkness’s rough voice asked, “You hearin’ what I’m layin’ down, Ace?”
“Yes, sir. I’m hearing you loud and clear. We eat, drink, and be merry, and tomorrow we untangle this mess.”
Darkness nodded grimly. “Get the hell outta here. I’ll see you all at dawn.”