I’m surprised when I walk into church, the woman herself is sitting at the end of the table, Peg behind her cutting off her escape route. Still unable to get my mind totally off Mariana, I listen incredulously as it all comes out. How despite what we’ve all been led to believe, Rock’s not a traitor who joined the Chaos Riders,a club I should have been investigating, to bring us down, but instead he’s a fucking hero.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell us?” I yell as the details all come out.
Drummer shoots me a look as if to say I wasn’t here anyway, but shakes a weary head as he points out, “Chaos had to believe Rock’s story. It would only work if his old club, us, were out to kill him. Rock’s life depends on his backstory holdin’ up and nothing happenin’ to make Chaos suspicious.”
My hand unties and reties my hair as I listen to Becca’s story with my jaw dropping open. How the sweet butt Jill found out the truth. She’s always had her tongue hanging out for Rock, and now, it seems, she’s set on locating him.
“She wouldn’t know where the Riders have set up,” Wraith suggests.
“Er,” Becca’s small voice and raised hand gets our attention. “Allie overheard Rock and the other prospect saying they were heading back to Long Horns. She told Jill.”
For a second you could hear a pin drop.
Prez is looking at me. “Can she find it with that?”
I’m already tapping at the keys of my laptop, quickly unearthing the info I want. “There’s a Long Horns out in the desert south of Tucson. An old ranch. If that’s where they are, then yes. Clearly marked on the map. Even someone like Jill would be able to easily find it with a Google search.”
Now Mariana has to be pushed to the back of my mind as I retreat to my office, digging to find anything I can on the Chaos Riders. It’s not much. Except the club’s got funding behind them. Abandoning their history, I look at the location where my brother Rock currently is. My gut feeling is that Becca’s right, and he’s in danger.
I turn to calling up the location of their clubhouse, and checking on Google View and the satellite images so we’re equipped with as much information as possible and will know what we’re heading into.
“Prez.” His door is open so I walk right in, laying some printouts in front of him.
“Mouse. Got something to help?”
I raise my chin. “That’s the location of the old homestead. Got barns out back. But the rear is totally unprotected. No fencing that I could see.”
Drummer takes out his phone and places a call. Within moments Peg’s joined us. As sergeant-at-arms he’ll need to be involved in the planning. Unfazed, I go through it all again.
Peg studies the photos and plans carefully, then looks up. “We attack front and back.”
“Got the other chapters coming,” Drum informs him.
Nodding, Peg taps on the clearest overhead satellite image. “We draw them out with Becca as the bait, go straight at the front. Get the other chapters circling behind them and flushing them out. They’ll be caught between us.”
“Pincer movement.” Drummer’s lips curve up. “Along the lines of what I was thinkin’, Peg.”
“You need me any more?”
“Nah, Mouse. Thanks.”
It’s not long afterwards that brothers from the other chapters start pouring in. I’ll be fighting alongside these men tomorrow, so I stay in the clubroom to be sociable. Already adrenaline has started running through my veins, anticipation of the battle ahead, and the overriding need to bring Rock home. The thought crosses my mind that tomorrow may be the day that I die.
I know I have a reputation as a cold fish, almost robotically going about my tasks, more comfortable with the machines I spend my life with. I’m in a one-percenter club, living this life until the day I leave it, knowing I’m dancing with the devil, taunting him to take me. Normally it wouldn’t bother me at all. Except now, I’ve got something to live for. People depending on me. I make a couple of phone calls to ensure everything’s in place if I don’t come back, then mentally try to prepare myself.If it happens, so be it. Drew’s in a safe place, Carissa’s looking after Mariana’s interests.
That I’ve taken on the sibling’s burden without question surprises even me. I got myself mixed up in their mess. Could have walked away, no one would have blamed me, I only met the woman once. For once I’m invested in what happens in the human world, rather than binary code and machine language.
As I watch brothers from all chapters catching up, discussing the wrath they’ll be raining down tomorrow, the Chaos Riders they’ll be dispatching to Satan, I realise that while I have no fear of death, this time I want to come back. Want a chance. A chance with Mariana.What would it be like if I really was engaged to her?Thinking of making her my old lady?When she rode at my back, it was as though she’d been made to ride behind me. Only a few short hours that we had spent together, but it had felt right.
It’s when I consider her being deported and – if she could evade her father – starting a new life, finding a man who wasn’t me, my blood boils hot. Ask me and I couldn’t explain it, but I’m feeling possessive. Over a woman I’ve barely met.
I don’t know much about her.
But what I do, I like.
The next day I stand up beside my brothers as one by one we take all the Riders out. I might be a nerd, but I can shoot and kill as well as anyone else who wears the same patch. Rock, hell, Rock.What the fuck have they done to him?Beef’s been shot, but he seems to be walking wounded. While the two injured men are taken back to the compound, I stay behind and do my share of moving bodies and cleaning up. For once my mind is quiet, focused on the task. When we ride away and Slick blows that shithole up, I’m happy to celebrate.That’s what we do to our enemies.
I’m just frustrated I can’t take the government on in the same way. Face it head on and fight. But no, I have to do what I can through the lawyer, and hope for the best. Used to being a man of action, a man able to find information where it’s needed, it’s hard to sit back and wait for someone else to pull it all together.
