One of the brothers behind Thor crossed his arms over his chest. “Maybe we’ll just wait then until the two of them go head to head and we’ll take on the winner.” He snorted.
Lola shook her head. “Then you have to do battle with two very strong cartels from hell.”
“What the fuck you saying girl?” another biker asked.
Cobra growled and glared at the brother. “Watch yourself Reaper. That’s my daughter you’re talking to.”
“Just wondering what she’s saying Pres, that’s all.”
Cobra turned back to Lola. “What exactly are you saying?”
“Lonnie Steele is trying to set up a partnership with the Mexican Cartel. He’s working with a man who calls himself Hector Gratis. But Hector isn’t his real name, we think his real name is Manny Gola. He’s connected to the Romane Cartel and the Gola Cartel.”
“Fuck,” Cobra swore.
“Not only that but if this comes to a war Ginger, Lonnie’s girlfriend and the reason I’m even in this mess is going to see Hector dead by fair means or foul. She may or may not know who he is but she really doesn’t like him. Oh, and she’s a spy in the Steele group for her brother, Liam Stroughton.”
Someone in the group whistled.
“Holy, fucking shit girl.” Thor shook his head. “When you said it was a mess… it’s really is a mess.”
Lola nodded at Creed. “He got me out of Beaumont. The Steele brothers were there looking for me and I think I got away clean but the fact is they won’t stop looking for me until they find me and put a bullet in my head.”
“That will never happen.” Cobra growled.
Lola shook her head. “You can’t stop it.” She glanced over at the front window. “They are out there looking for me and pretty soon they’ll come here. No matter how long it takes, they will find me one day.” She turned back to Cobra. “Hell, you found me, what makes you think they won’t?” She turned into Creed’s arms and snuggled in.
Creed wrapped his arms around her and held her close. He looked over the top of her head and found her father glaring back at him.
No one said a word for a long time then Cobra cleared his throat. “So what’s your plan then?”
“Our plan?” Silas replied. “We got plans to take back our MC, why what’s your plan?”
Cobra frowned. Straining at Lola, he motioned toward her. “I meant what’s your plan in regards to protecting my daughter.”
Lola sighed heavily and without turning her head she told them, “They aren’t in charge of protecting me. They have enough on their plate as it is. And you don’t need to protect me either old man. I’m a grown ass woman who can and has taken care of herself. I’ve been doing it since I was four years old.”
“She’s under my protection now, whether she agrees to it or not,” Creed stated firmly. “I’ll take care of her.”
Lola pulled back from him as she tapped her foot and glared at Creed, “Didn’t we just have this conversation? You can’t own a person. I am not your property or anyone else’s.”
Creed glared right back at her, not backing down. “You gave a big piece of yourself, a piece a woman can only give once. You chose me and now you belong to me and me alone. In my world that’s all it takes.”
“But I don’t live in your world.”
“But you were born into it,” Cobra told her. “As my kid you were born into the biker world.”
She glared at her father but didn’t say anything else.
Cobra looked over at Silas and reached out his hand.
Silas shook it and finally introduced himself. Then he introduced the rest of his family.
Cobra introduced his men and they all settled in. Cobra sat down at the table and looked over at Silas. “Now tell me what’s going on here.”
Silas crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Cobra for a long moment. “Why are you so interested in what we’re doing?”
Cobra looked over at Lola and nodded. “Because I missed out on her entire life. When her mother left me, she left under suspicious circumstances. My brother had just been killed and the club safe was open and well over a million dollars was missing. Wyatt Westerly gave us a cock and bull story that made sense at the time and Nora went missing. We thought we knew what happened but today we found out Westerly lied to us.” He shook his head. “Now Lola needs us even if she doesn’t want our help she needs it and I’ll be damned if I’m going to turn my back on her again. You’ll just have to deal with it. I’ll be around until I know she’s safe and happy.”
Thor leaned forward in his chair. “You said something about taking your MC back. What’s the story with that? How did you lose it in the first place?”
“That’s a long and sordid story.” Silas sighed. “But the short of it is we had an MC brother who wanted more than he had. So to get it, he set up Creed to go to prison for a crime he didn’t commit, to get him out of the way. Then when my son was about to expose him, he murdered him and took the club away from our family. He used the MC to run drugs and guns to bigger clients than we had before. He didn’t care who they were, if they could meet his price, he delivered the goods. Before Bandit took over our club, it was a decent place to be, after he took over, it was nothing more than trash. Not a place any decent biker would be associated with.”
Silas sat back in his chair and glared at Cobra. “That man nearly beat me to death and then he tossed me into the ditch to die. Kimber, my granddaughter was fifteen at the time, she found me. Then when she turned eighteen, he came looking for her thinking to make her come back to the club as a whore. I wasn’t going to let that happen, so we’ve been waiting for Creed to get out of prison until we made our move. We’ve got three of the four brothers together now, and tomorrow we’ll go to Wichita Falls and collect the last brother then we’ll figure a way to get the MC back and dispose of the standing president and VP. We’re taking not only the club back, but we’re taking our damn town back. Bandit’s got a strangle hold on it all at the moment and he’s using fear and intimidation to ride shotgun over the town.”
Thor nodded. “You come from around Killeen don’t you?”
“We did.” Silas snorted. “When Bandit took over our family scattered. I had a ranch near Temple and the boys had to go into hiding. One of them, Jack moved to Beaumont, found himself a woman and they had a baby. Harry moved here and this is his house. Daniel is in Wichita Falls. We’ve been gathering the information we need to clear Creed’s name and take back the club.”
“Well, I’m not leaving until I know Lolannie is safe from the Steele brothers,” Cobra stated.
Silas shook his head. “That’s between you and her but if you want an outside opinion, you have to give the girl some slack. For her whole life you weren’t there for her and she must take after her daddy when it comes to being stubborn. You can’t force yourself into her life any more than Creed can. If either of you push her too hard, you’ll both lose her.”
“I never asked for your opinion old man.” Cobra narrowed his eyes at him.
Silas nodded. “I’m aware of that.” Shrugging, he admitted, “I’ve seen a little bit more of life than you have and I’ve been in your shoes before. You don’t have to listen to an old man. But if you were smart, you’ll give it some thought.”
“So why are the Steele brothers after her?” Jett asked to break the tension in the room.
Silas glanced over at Jett. “Liam’s sister Ginger was sent into their camp to spy for him. She found a flash drive with every contact they have and every transaction since day one on it. She copied it and took it to her brother and Lola found it when she went into that office. Lonnie found out and began hunting her. She had to get out of town in a hurry and we caught her when she was trying to jack Creed’s ride. The brothers were going street to street looking for her, so we decided to bring her along with us.” Shrugging he added a footnote, “You know to keep her safe. Creed claimed her this morning.”
“We can take her back to Hondo with us to keep her safe too,” Cobra suggested. “The Steele brothers wouldn’t dare come for her there.”
Silas just raised an eyebrow at him. “You could try. I don’t think you could do it but you could try.” His words were low and there was a certain tone to them.
“Even if she went with you,” Harry began to say as he sat down next to his Grandfather. “The Cartels would come for her. If this man Hector gets killed, they will wipe out everyone associated with the Steele brothers and Liam Stroughton’s group. Both sides have just as much to lose if word gets out that she knows their business. Liam can’t afford to leave her alive any more than Lonnie can.”
“How do you figure that?” Thor asked.
“Because of this,” Harry announced as he turned his laptop toward them.
On the screen was a wanted poster of Lola. The poster was on a site only bikers and gang members used. The poster was put out by Liam Stroughton.
Silas read the poster and paled. “Creed, get your ass over here boy.”
A moment later both Creed and Lola joined them at the table. “What’s going on Gramps?” Creed asked.
Silas turned the screen shot toward him and waited.
“What the hell?” Creed swore.
Lola gasped as she saw it herself. She plopped down in a vacant chair and stared at the screen in a stunned daze.
For a moment, no one said a word then Cobra leaned forward and asked, “What’s this all about?”
Lola shook her head. “I have no idea. I don’t even know this Liam.” She looked over at Creed. “I mean I’ve seen him a couple times with Ginger but I’ve never met him.”
Creed grunted. “Ginger must really be worried about you breaking her cover with the Steele brothers. She’s Liam’s inside woman and if Lonnie found out, she risks her life. No matter what he may feel for her, he will kill her to protect himself and his business. Or telling Lonnie about her fling with Hector. Either way, he’d kill her for betraying him.”
Lola hands covered her mouth in shock. Ginger did this to her. Before this, she was only a target for the brothers, now she was a target for everyone out there. She stared at the screen and saw the bounty Lonnie had put on her head. One million dollars. He’d offered money to anyone who could prove she was dead.
Her first reaction was to run, except she’d never run from anything in her young life. Besides, she reasoned she wouldn’t have anywhere to go that this poster couldn’t be seen or acted on. There were MC clubs all over the states. She would spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder waiting for the bullet that would take her life. Even if it were recalled now, too many people had seen it already. There would never be any peace for her, not now, not ever.
“Okay,” Cobra growled. “How the fuck do we stop this? How the fucking hell do we turn this around and let the truth be known?”
“I’m not sure we can turn this around now,” Silas grumbled. “This has been up for twelve hours already, and too many people have seen this.”
“Well, I’ll be damned if this bitch is gonna get away with this,” Cobra griped. “There must be something we can do about it.”
Harry shrugged. “About the only thing we can do is expose Ginger for the fucken traitor she is but that might start the war we’re trying to avoid.”
“No!” Lola called out.
Everyone turned to stare at her in surprise.
She was pale and trembling but when she looked up at them, they could see the steely look in her eyes. “No, I will not sink to her level by tattling on her just because she got me into trouble.”
“What do you have in mind?” Creed narrowed his eyes. He could see she had an idea.
“We have to neutralize the situation before it breaks wide open, don’t we?” she reasoned out loud. She looked over at Annie and asked, “When you were researching the cartels, did you find a way to contact them?”
Annie shrugged. “I suppose there’s a way, why?”
“We could try and contact them and warn them because Lonnie has a traitor in his employ their son Manny could be in danger of being killed. Maybe that would be enough for them to pull him out of the situation and maybe they could warn Lonnie about Ginger. Then it would be between Lonnie and Liam and have nothing to do with the cartels at all. Lonnie might even get the news and break it off with Ginger before it came down to a war neither side could win.”
Cobra shook his head. “That’s pretty lame girl. Why would they take the word of a stranger over a deal that could cost them millions?”
Lola turned to glare at him. “If Hector is their son and nephew and they thought he could be killed, wouldn’t they pull him out of harm’s way? Would money really be enough to compensate them for his death if they don’t pull him out? I mean yeah, they have more than one son, but if I had a child someday, I would move heaven and hell to keep him or her safe. My child’s life means something to me even if it doesn’t mean a fucking thing to you.” She got up from her chair and reached for her pack. Pulling out her cell phone, she flipped through the videos. “It might not be enough but I recorded Ginger and Liam together. It might be enough to prove their connection. They might not be ready to believe just the words but the video should be enough to cast some doubt.” She tossed the phone on the table and started to storm off to the living room when Cobra grabbed her arm. His fingers bit into her skin when she tried to pull away. Finally, after a moment she turned her eyes to him.
“I know you think that you mean nothing to me but you’d be wrong. I might not have loved your mother like she wanted me to, but I did care for her. When my brother King was murdered, the evidence did point to her, now we found out that it was a set up to frame her. Nora didn’t tell me she was carrying my baby when she left. She told me about you when we found her four years later but I didn’t know if she was telling me the truth or not. At that point, she might have been lying only to save her own skin.” He shrugged. “I was wrong about a lot of things but that’s my bad. All I can do now is try to fix this.” Turning his head toward the wanted poster on the laptop, he nodded at it. “You could be right about calling this to his family’s attention. It might be enough to bring things to light, I don’t know.”
Lola didn’t say a word, just jerked her arm free. She walked down the hall and into a bedroom. Closing the door behind her… the sound echoed into the kitchen.
Cobra glanced over at the Young family.
Creed stood there with his arms crossed over his chest glaring at him, while Silas just glared. Jack and Bear were shaking their heads and Harry was busy typing keys and whizzing around the internet. Annie was also on her laptop digging into connections no one could find.
No one said a word as Harry and Annie continued their search then after a while, Annie looked up with a dazed expression on her face. “Damn…”
Harry looked up at his woman. “What did you find?”
“She might have been right.”
“What are you saying girl?” Silas growled.
“I was able to hack Hector’s private email and he has been sleeping with Ginger up until recently. He’s beginning to suspect something’s off about his association with the Steele brothers. He’s not sure what it is yet, but he’s sensing something.”
“Who is he communicating with?” Cobra wanted to know.
Annie stared at him for a moment. “That’s what he’s saying to his father.”
“And what is his father saying to him?” Thor asked.
Annie glanced down at her computer. “His dad is telling him to beware of everything. His dad wants him safe most of all.”
Cobra sat there thinking about this new information for a moment before he said, “Is there any way you can get a message to Hector without giving him a way to track you?”
Annie nodded. “Yeah, I can do that. What do you want me to say?”
“I want him to know that Ginger is the traitor that’s going to get him killed and she wants to start a war on her brother’s behalf. A war that will wipe out the Steele Brothers, so her brother can take over their territory.” He nodded. “That might give him enough to think about. Make sure you add his father in on that message. That way, both of them know what’s coming. You might want to add a footnote to that message that the only reason Ginger threw Lola under the bus is because she can prove that Ginger and Liam are related and that it was Ginger who gave Liam the Steele brother’s info, not Lola. That should give the bastard something to think about. And it will bring his father up here to deal with the Steel brothers and Liam, if he’s stupid enough to step in the way.”
Silas sat there thinking. “You know that might work, it just might work. Like Lola, I’d do anything for one of my kids, even moving heaven and earth to find them if they ever got lost. I lost one son to a war that nobody won and I lost the other to a bastard who has yet to pay for his sins but karma’s gonna slap the shit out of him for that and I’ll be right there to make sure that happens.”
Cobra stared at Annie. “Make it happen girl. “Stir up some doubt in the enemies camps. We got things to do and people to meet and we don’t need them riding our asses.”
“We?” Creed growled. “Since when did this mystical ‘WE’ come into play?”
“Since you rescued my kid. I may not have been aware of her before today but now that I know about her, I’m not walking away from her again.” Cobra snarled. “And you’re going to have to deal with it same as her.”
“Besides, you might need our help to get your numbers up,” Thor added.
“And once we get the MC back, we could use an ally.” Jack shrugged.
“We can talk about that when the smoke settles.” Cobra brushed that to the side. “First thing first, we have to get the brothers and Liam off Lola’s back and focused on the traitor in their camp. Texas may be big but I don’t think it’s big enough to manage the Cartel and the Irish mob going head to head in the streets.” He sat back in his chair and glared at Creed. “And the bitch that set up my daughter needs to pay for that.” He smiled a cold kind of smile that meant he took no prisoners. “Call me a bastard if you like but she set Lola up to take a fall that’s hers to take, I’m just making sure karma gets the right person.”
Creed lifted his head and looked down the hall at the closed door between him and Lola. He hated that she didn’t know him well enough to trust him to protect her, come hell or high water. But she would learn and he would teach her.
~*~
Bandit and Snake rode the highway from Killeen to Copperas Cove. The fifteen minute ride was one they seldom did together but tonight, they rode together. This trip was always done by a true loyal brother, a brother Bandit brought into the club after he took it from the Young family. It had to be someone his old president didn’t know or this wouldn’t work. But for some reason, tonight he and Snake made the trip together. Branching off the main road, they traveled a distance through the rural area.
The road was barely passable and they had to slow their bikes in order to stay on it. They finally reached the end of the road and they looked around the area carefully. Before they began the walk to the cavern, they each grabbed the box of supplies they brought with them. In the growing darkness, they couldn’t see anything out of place so they left their bikes and began hiking the trail to the cavern that held their darkest secret.
This all began six years ago when he surprised Tate Young on the road. Tate had been on his way back from San Angelo when they surprised him. When he got off his bike demanding what they wanted Bandit smiled and said he wanted his MC. To say Tate didn’t want to give it up wasn’t surprising to Bandit, but he had the numbers to do a takedown on Tate. They should have left him on the road to die alone but Snake had another idea. He told Bandit it would burn more if no one could prove he was dead or alive.
Tate had beaten bloody and was almost dead already. Snake told Bandit he knew of a place they could keep him where no one would find him for a long time. Bandit finally agreed and they moved him off the road and to this dump because it was the only place Tate had known.
When he came to, they discovered Tate had no recollection as to who he was or where he was. He was so badly hurt Bandit didn’t think he would survive but he did. It took almost two years but he did come back from the beating he took.
Tate showed no signs of remembering his past but Bandit and Snake had kept him their prisoner for four more years. But now they had to see him. Creed was out of jail and while they weren’t worried about anyone finding Tate, they needed to check and make sure he was right where he was supposed to be, and that he still didn’t remember who and what he was.
One of these days, they wouldn’t need him anymore and that’s when they would bury him somewhere that no one would find him, for a very long time, if ever.
They came to the mound of earth that fitted up against the hill. It was the highest peak in the area. Lucky for them, no one ever came around this area. Bandit pulled out a set of keys then glanced in through the small opening in the iron door before he fit the key in the lock to the heavy iron gate. The opening was about four by eight inches long. It let in a small amount of natural sunlight during the daytime hours but it also allowed Tate to look outside and see just what he was missing, his freedom. They moved inside the structure and it took a moment or so before their eyes adjusted to the dim interior.
Tate Young sat in the corner of the room with his arms on his knees. He barely raised his head when they came in. His long dark hair was generously laced with grey and his beard was long enough to reach well down on his chest. He slowly raised his head and stared at the two men.
He frowned and looked confused for a moment before he said, “Who the fuck are you two?”
Bandit smiled slowly. Their luck was still holding. Tate Young had no fucking clue who they were. “We brought your supplies this week.” Bandit dropped his box on the floor and Snake set his box down a little more carefully.
Bandit looked around the sparse living conditions Tate had and shook his head. He wouldn’t be here much longer so Bandit wasn’t concerned about it. Compared to the lavish apartment he now had at the clubhouse this cavern was barely a dump. There was no furniture here, not even a bed but that suited Bandit just fine.
He took a moment to study the other man carefully. Tate had always had a lean build and that hadn’t changed much in the last six years. But his clothes were a little threadbare and his stature seemed to be a little different now. He seemed bigger than he had the last time he’d seen him.
Bandit shook his head, his fanciful ideas were just that. He knew Creed would come looking for answers and he knew he could lie well enough to answer any questions the other man had regarding his father.
Bandit had been gathering his men in anticipation of a battle to hold on to his MC. He’d worked too damn hard to get where he was today and he wouldn’t go down without a fight. A fight he made sure he would win. He’d lied, cheated and killed to get where he was today and he’d be damned if he was going to lose it all now.
Seeing Creed the other day had startled him. The man was bigger than life when he was sent up but now? Now… he was a powerhouse. And that was why Bandit hired a handful of killers to protect his clubhouse for the upcoming battle.
“We should get going,” Snake commented. “We got a lot of work to do before tomorrow gets here.”
Bandit nodded. Turning to Tate, he grinned. “Enjoy yourself old man. This plush accommodation isn’t going to last much longer.”
~*~
Tate didn’t say a word as he watched the two of them leave the same way they’d come in. His eyes burned with rage and his muscled tensed when he heard the lock snap closed. Over the years, his memory had come back to him. He remembered everything in time while his body healed.
His hands slowly curled into fists. His muscles protested his movements but the pain he felt was what kept him alive all this time. He got to his feet and walked over to the iron door. Where he once was lost and weak, he was now strong and focused. He knew one day, he would get out of this prison and then he would find his sons and take back what Bandit stole from them.
One day…
He walked back over to the boxes Snake and bandit brought to him and began looking over the supplies he got once a week. He paused then snapped his head to glare at the iron door again. He’d heard a noise from outside and he never got more than one visit a week before.
Tate got up and hugging the wall, he made his way over to the portal. Looking out through the 4 inch opening, he couldn’t see much of anything in growing darkness.
Just then, something rose to fill the opening while blocking out the remaining sunlight.
Tate gasped and stepped back his heart pounding wildly in his chest as a man’s eyes filled the small opening.
The eyes caught sight of him and they widened as the man on the other side swore profusely. “Son of a bitch,” the other man swore and he tried the doorknob. When it wouldn’t open, the man swore again. “Fuck! You hang on Tate I’ll be back. I’m not leaving you here to rot anymore.”
Tate frowned. He knew that voice and it was more than obvious the other man knew him. Tate moved away from the door and walked over to where he’d been sitting before. Rummaging through the blankets he had he grabbed a hold of the only weapon he’d been able to fashion. Then he lit his lamps and sat down to wait for whoever it was that was coming back for him…
He didn’t have to wait long. He turned and grasping the sharpened slat of wood, he waited while the other man broke the lock and threw open the door.
Tate’s eyes grew wide as the mountain of a man he knew immediately, rushed through the now open portal…
“Sweet Jesus man, you’re still alive…” the other man cried out as he came forward.
Tate felt his eyes fill with tears at the sight of the other man. He knew him. He knew him very well. He got to his feet and grabbed him in a man hug. “Damn, Bullet, it’s good to see you again!”
