"I need you here.How soon can you make it?"
Mac sighed.He knew how long the drive was but added ten minutes so he could get dressed and leave Elyse a note."Give me thirty, maybe thirty-five."
"I'll be waiting."Tuck didn't say goodbye, just hung up.
Mac scrubbed one hand over his face then headed back to the bedroom for his clothes.
Mac pulled his bike into the yard at the clubhouse and frowned.Only a few bikes sat in the row in front of the building.He'd expected if he was being called in, then they all had been — this only confused him.After backing his bike into line with the others, Mac went inside where he found Tuck sitting at one of the tables in the main room, a mug of beer on the table in front of him.Mac joined him, pulling out a chair and sitting without waiting for an invite.
"What's up?"
Tuck watched him a moment, silent, then finally spoke."You were involved with that guy last month, right?"
Mac frowned, not sure what guy the president was referring to, then he remembered."You mean the pedophile?I wouldn't say involved, but I'd been out there and knew who he was.I was one of the votes for his getting lost in the desert."He drew air quotes around the word lost.
"I think most of the brothers felt that way, but more voted to do it legal."
Mac nodded while Tuck was silent for the space of several heart beats, then spoke again.
"I need some advice from someone I trust, someone with more experience than some of the other guys, and hopefully a cooler head."
Heat washed through Mac as he shifted in his seat.Tuck had never done this before.Had never singled Mac out to ask his opinion.It made some of Mac's irritation at being called out of Elyse's bed fade.
"What's going on?"
"I think we've got a trafficking ring running through our territory."
"Well, yeah.We're part of it, bro."Mac scowled.This couldn't be why the president wanted to talk to him.
Tuck waved a hand."No, I know about that one."The bald man shot him an unhappy look."That's not what I'm talking about.I've received a tip about a group bringing in some women from out of country, but more frequently moving kids from one part of the US to another.Kids that were kidnapped here."
"Fuck," Mac said the word with conviction.He looked around and found Savage behind the bar.The new prospect had taken Sackett's position as bartender when he'd arrived, and after Gizmo had tapped the other prospect to work in his security company.They had another, Jake, who often worked behind the bar as well, when he wasn't driving the tow truck for Mac, but it looked like the newbie got the shit shift at 3 a.m.Mac waved and signaled to Savage he wanted something.
"What can I get you?"Savage sounded bored, but at least he didn't sound pissed to be on shit duty.
Mac stared at the president's mug and thought about what he wanted.What he wanted was about half a bottle of good scotch, but this wasn't the time."Bring me what he's drinking."He nodded toward the mostly full glass on the table.
"Coming right up."Savage's tone lacked enthusiasm, but he didn't waste any time delivering the drink."That all?"
"For now," Tuck said, pulling the shiny half dollar from the small pocket on the side of his kutte and rolling it across the backs of his knuckles as he continued to watch Mac.Once the two of them were alone, or as alone as they would get with just the three of them in the room, and Savage halfway across the room at the bar, Tuck spoke again, "Tell me what you're thinking."
"I'm thinking we need to find a place to dispose of some bodies then we need to do some hunting."Mac took a sip from the cold brew then set the glass on the table.He forced himself to unclench his teeth and shook his hands to keep from fisting them on the table.
There were a lot of things Mac would tolerate, but abusing children was not one of them.It was one of the few things that made him angry enough see red and lose all control of his good senses.
Tuck sighed, bringing Mac's attention back to the situation at hand.
"Okay, I know that's not what you were looking for.I'll try to be more helpful.First, is this a credible tip or just one of those here, this will keep you busy ones?"
"It's possible the whole thing is a distraction, something to keep us busy enough to not notice something else going on, like they did when they sold arms to the cartels more than ten years back."
Mac nodded, remembering the incident, and the fallout from it.
"But I don't think so.I trust this source.I think it's on the up and up.Which only makes the whole thing harder."
"Fuck."Mac hadn't wanted to hear that.He'd been hoping it was a distraction, not that they'd be fooled again, but at least it would tell them what they weren't looking for, because who would distract you from what they were doing by claiming someone else was doing the same thing?
"You said that already."
