“True, but we don’t have enough water to keep us hydrated for that many miles under the afternoon sun,” Ginny says.
“So, are we just sitting around and wait?” Maggie asks.
Ginny looks at me, and I look at the empty highway. There is no sound of cars coming and none of us have any knowledge about cars besides driving them.
“I guess we are walking,” Ginny says.
Without instructions, we all grab our bags, stuff snacks and water bottles and I make sure I lock all doors of the van before we walk away from the vehicle. I think we are three to four feet from where we left my aunt’s van when we hear them.
The booming sound of motorcycles coming our way. Four men in leather jackets. Their faces cover by black helmets with a white skull wearing a lopsided crown.
CHAPTER TWO
I hold back the visceral need to scream fuck as me and Curtis, my twin, rush out of the building and onto our motorcycles. I’m sure they didn’t see us thanks to our oldest brother’s careful planning and my quick thinking. I want nothing more than to kick the six feet tall, curly short mass of black hair and stupid face that’s too similar to mine. If he had messed this up, dealing with Los Cuervos de Plata would be the least of my twin’s worries. It has been a few years since we travel through these paths and that is how they take advantage of us. We meet Caleb and Colin seventy-five miles away from where we left. I get off my bike and immediately slap the back of Curtis’ head, who just got his helmet off.
“What the fuck was that? You almost gave us away.”
“Relax Cooper. I didn’t.”
“I fucking know, but not thanks to you,” I yell.
“Knock it off, you two. What happened?” Caleb, the tallest of us four, stands between us and asks. He keeps the same body he built through his military years. Big broad shoulders, muscular back, arms, and legs. The color of his hair, both head and beard, is a reddish brown. His dark jacket hides his tan skin and many tattoos.
“We were watching and recording like you ask us as they got people out of gray vans. Mostly women looking scared. I think they are smuggling people to sell as sex workers.” I answer.
“Tell him about the children. Fucking tell him. I’m a lot of things but stupid is not one of them. I know what’s at stake, but did we really couldn’t do anything to save those children? None of those kids were ten yet.”
“Children?” Colin, the shortest of us four, steps closer. Colin is the less physically imposing of us, but his network and resources make him more intimidating. When people talk about the kings of Black Reign, my twin Curtis is always the mad one, the crazy one. They are not wrong. Curtis is, sometimes in a concerning way, too crazy. But when people talk about Colin, they always say he is the cunning one. Curtis crazy is always visible. Colin has a million and one masks on, and you never know who you are dealing with. His short stature, lean muscles, and cleaner look serves as another distraction meant to catch you off guard.
“Yeah. Most of the people they are smuggling in are women, but today they were five children, all under ten-years-old. I already crop the video showing the kids and the faces of the Silver Crows members to the detective trying to crack the case against them. I sent it through the anonymous email with one of our burner accounts. We have to do something about this, Caleb.”
Everyone knows those roads are still Black Reign’s territory. Caleb’s mission since he took over the club is to create legal, legit business to help drive our town’s economy up. We thought of retiring all together to start these businesses but the reality is we need to money from our illegal business to build something new. We also can’t leave our town unprotected. The police department is incredibly under-funded and corrupted to trust them with the well-being of Cross Hollow. At the end of the day, if we want to retire, we can do it when our legal business is enough to provide for us and our community. For now, we willkeep doing what we are well-known for and deal with the crooks of those crows using our old trails to traffic humans.
“They are not gonna get away with this. You did good sending those clips to the police. We are gonna let them try to do their job, but I’m getting us ready to protect our people, our family, our club. The Crows are gonna pay and learn once and for all not to leech off Black Reign. Now get on the road.” Caleb pads our shoulders and turns to his motorcycle.
On our way to Cross Hollow, we see, ahead of us, an empty van and four women already walking away, carrying their bags in this heat. Caleb gives us the sign to slow down and stop. They must have heard us because they turned towards us. I can see in their body language that they alert in case we don’t come with good intentions. Smart women.
I leave my helmet on my seat and walk closer to them.
“Seems like you guys might need some help. I’m Cooper and these are my brothers. I’m a mechanic. Can I take a look at the van?”
“Oh, yes.” The blond woman says.
“Finally, some help.” Says the woman with curly hair up in a bun simultaneously.
The other two, one has fiery red hair, and the other has long brown wavy hair trying to spill out of her braid, glare at me. I try to hold back my smirk. Time to win people over.
“I’m not gonna get any closer until allowed.” I yell, standing five or six steps away from the van.
The redhead woman and the one with the braided brown hair look at each other. I’m too far to see their facial expression and only catch a couple of head movements. The redheadwoman tips her chin towards me and, as if that’s the push the other woman needed, she walks towards me.
The wind pulls a few strands of her hair out of the braid. The other three move closer with the redhead in front of the other two, but not as close as she is to me. This is an interesting interaction. Her and the other three women’s body language, I can tell the redhead, is the leader. She oozes the same energy as my brother Caleb, but this stunning woman walking towards me is also a force to be reckoned. What could be her role in the friendship between these four ladies? Is she more like me or like Colin? I’m sure she is nothing like my twin, Curtis. I feel certain there is no one like him.
“Cooper, right?” she says, standing two steps away from me.
I nod. From up close, she looks even more beautiful. If she has any makeup is very little. The first thing I notice is the heat in her eyes. I don’t mean it in a lustful way. Her powerful soul reflects in her eyes and a stare that commands attention. The way she carries herself makes it hard not to stare.
“I’m Rosalie. Will you look at the van? It’s my aunt’s car, and she assured me it works perfectly. I don’t know if is something I did while driving, maybe the heat.”
