CHAINED: A Motorcycle Club Romance (13 page)

As he hauled the captive back to the house, he found himself met on the front porch by half a dozen of the other Iron Skulls, mainly some of the older officers who hadn't been hitting the sauce as hard as their fellows. Most of them were armed, as well, with an assortment of weapons ranging from pistols all the way up to automatic weapons.

At first, several guns were trained on Cain as he emerged out into the house's lights, but they quickly dropped as the other officers recognized him. "What the hell happened?" called out one of the men, as Cain dragged the semi-conscious prisoner up the steps of the front porch, not bothering to cushion him at all against the hard wooden steps.

"No clue," Bucky replied, as Cain muscled the man's arms back behind him, wrapping them around one of the porch's posts and knotting them together with a scrap of thick rope that had previously been keeping nis deck furniture from blowing off the porch. "But someone's clearly got it out for us, at least."

As Cain straightened up, he looked with dismay at the back of his house. Talon stepped forward, patting him on the back. "Looks worse than it is, mate," he commented. "We dragged just about everyone out of the back area, and kept them all inside when the gunfire started."

"Anyone killed?"

"Doesn't look like it," Talon said with some relief. "A couple people with broken limbs, but that's about it."

He chuckled. "In fact, on the other side of the house, people were still partying! They thought that the sound was a backfire, or maybe someone cranking up a speaker too much. Didn't even realize that part of the house collapsed!"

After a moment, when it was clear that no one else was laughing along with him, Talon closed his mouth.

For a minute, silence fell over the assembled Iron Skulls, even the officers glancing back and forth. But then, one man stepped forward, and the rest of them felt the silence shift from uncomfortable insecurity to respectful waiting for orders.

Stepping forward to the front of the porch, Wolf turned around to glare at the other men.

The President of the Iron Skulls had held the position for many years, now, and his hair, buzzed short on the sides but sweeping back over his head in the middle, was now mostly gray. Even still, the man's hard features showed no trace of compassion, and would have instantly commanded respect anywhere.

Even Cain felt a little quiver of unease when Wolf's dark gray eyes ran across him. The man had a way of seeing right through anybody in front of him, as if he could read their minds, their innermost thoughts.

Wolf took a moment, sizing up the situation, and Cain knew that the gears inside the President's head were spinning furiously. Finally, Wolf turned to Cain. "You know something about this."

It wasn't a question. It was a statement, hanging open and waiting for Cain to complete it.

Cain nodded. "I think so, sir."

"Tell us."

Cain took a deep breath, trying to organize his thoughts as best he could to tell the other bikers everything. "Last night, in the middle of the night, a girl stumbled into my home," he began, figuring that it was best to begin at the beginning. "She told us that she escaped from some sort of captivity, linked to James Archon."

A little growl came from some of the men at that name. James Archon presented the spotless image of a successful and honest businessman, but some of their contacts had reported mutterings of the man involving himself in the drug trade, as well as other illegal and unsavory ventures.

"She told us that she escaped from a van, transporting her somewhere. I didn't learn anything more about who the men that took her might be, but I am guessing that they came back to recapture her. Even if Jenna, the young woman, didn't remember much, they couldn't be sure of that," he finished.

Wolf nodded, a quick little jerk of his head. "So they stole her, and tried to destroy the evidence, any witnesses."

"Didn't do such a good job of that, did they?" Bucky grinned a little as he spoke, but he gripped the rifle in his hands a little tighter. "In fact, all they did was leave me itching for a chance to pay them back."

As if triggered by some invisible signal, the eyes of every biker standing on the porch tracked over to the man tied to the support pole.

The man had looked up and was watching them. He shivered as all of the eyes fell down on him. Cain hadn't bothered to gag him, but he had his mouth clamped resolutely shut.

Bucky glanced over at Wolf, but the Iron Skulls President had chosen to abstain from leading for the moment. When Wolf saw Bucky's eyes on him, he just gave the slightest, barely perceptible nod.

Nodding back, Bucky stepped over to the tied-up prisoner, squatting down. "Hello, there!" His voice sounded jaunty and optimistic. "What's your name?"

The prisoner didn't respond, just stared back at the biker with wide eyes.

"Well, that's okay," Bucky continued after a moment. "See, I don't give a fuck about it. What am I gonna do, make a gravestone?" He tossed back his head and chuckled, as if he'd just made a joke.

As the prisoner realized the meaning of those last words, Bucky reached back for his pocket. "See, you just kidnapped this girl, didn't you?" He paused for a second. "Shit."

"What?" Talon was glancing over at him.

"Lost my phone somewhere. Last thing I remember, I had passed it over to Jenna, so she could take a picture of us-" Bucky's mouth clicked shut. Then, a second later, he straightened up and turned to Cain. "Do you have your phone?" he asked quietly.

Cain felt confused, but he dug out his own phone. "Why?"

Bucky flicked the screen open. "Because I remember setting up tracking with your phone, mainly so I could see if you were home or not. And my phone's probably just buried in the rubble of your kitchen, but there's a chance that it's-"

When Bucky stopped mid-sentence, Cain edged closer, peering over his shoulder at the phone screen open in front of them.

There, overlaid on a map, a single blue dot blinked reassuringly, moving along a road.

"Is that-"

"That's her," Bucky nodded. "Or at least, that's my phone." He grinned with admiration. "Clever little minx! She must have held onto it when they kidnapped her, hoping that we'd think to track her."

And then Bucky turned back to the terrified prisoner still tied to the pole. "And, I'm afraid, that means that we don't need you any longer."

"Wait!"

The word came bubbling up out of the prisoner as Bucky aimed his own assault rifle at him. "I can tell you where they're going! Don't kill me! Please!"

Bucky hesitated, but this time Wolf decided to intervene. "They attacked us, stole one under our protection," the President announced aloud, clearly now coming to this decision.

A moment later, the President lunged forward, moving past Bucky. He crouched down in front of the scared prisoner. From somewhere in his clothing, Wolf had drawn a long, slim dagger, and he now tickled the prisoner's eye with it.

"You're going to tell us everything, right now," he told the man. Again, Wolf's voice was deadly calm, not filled with any anger or rage or emotion. That flatness only made it more terrifying.

Wolf glanced up over his shoulder. "And Cain, I assume that you'll be leading the charge to rescue this girl?"

Cain didn't bother wondering how the President had managed to read him so deeply, so quickly. He just nodded. "With great pleasure," he growled.

The President held Cain's gaze a moment longer, staring into his face. Cain did his best to not shiver in that flat, measuring stare. Finally, he spoke once more.

"If you look in my saddlebags, you might find a couple useful items," Wolf said. "But Cain?"

"Yeah?"

Wolf grinned, and in that moment the man resembled his namesake more than other. "If you do happen to find Archon, try not to kill him right away," he suggested. "A man like that could be very... useful, for a club like ours."

Cain started to open his mouth to reply, but Wolf kept talking. "Of course, the man just has to be able to talk and think," he went on, musing more to himself than to the other bikers. "If he gets roughed up a bit on the way over, well, that's no problem of mine."

The President paused, looking at Cain. He didn't need to ask if Cain understood him - both of the men had known each other long enough to be certain that they were both on the same wavelength.

With one last nod, Cain headed out to check out the President's saddlebags, while Wolf returned his attention back to the shivering prisoner.

Chapter twenty-one

Cain expected to find a shotgun, maybe a pistol stowed away in Wolf's saddlebags. And sure enough, those weapons were present - but they weren't the only things.

"Holy hell," Bucky murmured in a soft, awed whisper as Cain pulled out a couple of grenades, examining them for a moment before tucking them into pockets of his jacket. "Are you actually going to use those?"

The older biker just shrugged. Better to be prepared than to find himself in a situation when he needed something he didn't have, he thought privately to himself.

Once he'd loaded up his motorcycle with the weapons, however, Cain didn't waste any time in turning the engine on and getting on the road. For the moment, that blue dot on his phone's screen was still active - but he didn't know how long he had until Jenna's captors discovered the hidden phone and destroyed it.

He knew that the phone's discovery would not bode well for Jenna. Gritting his teeth, Cain promised himself that he'd find her before then, that he'd save her from being hurt - or worse - because of his lateness.

Cain wanted to take the lead, but Bucky stepped forward and convinced him to give up the front seat as they rolled out. "Trust me, I'm better at both tech and reading maps than you, old man," Bucky commented, easily snatching Cain's phone from his fingers. "Just follow after me, and keep that shotgun ready to blast anyone who tries to take a shot at us."

After a second, Cain decided not to protest. Instead, both he and Talon rolled their bikes up behind Bucky's, as he examined the map.

Cain was a little surprised that Talon had also decided to join them. Bucky was young, headstrong and impetuous, but Talon generally seemed to be focused more on just having a good time than on any sort of vigilante justice.

When he glanced over at the tall, rangy officer, however, Talon returned a stare that was almost as icy and flat as Wolf's. After a moment, Cain shrugged and let the matter drop. Talon clearly had his own reasons for going along on this mission, and Cain wasn't about to turn away a volunteer.

After examining the phone for a minute, Bucky started down the driveway, the other two bikers following closely behind him. They headed down the main road towards the town, but took a couple detours, turning off of the main road and instead using some of the little-used two-lane country roads that stretched out around the periphery of town.

Close to half an hour later, Bucky's brake lights lit up as he slowed and pulled over to the side of the road, near a driveway's turn-off point. Once his bike had come to a stop, he turned off the engine and dropped the kickstand, stepping off the bike and signaling to the other two that they should do the same.

"If they haven't ditched the cell phone, it looks like she's in there," he commented quietly to the other two bikers as they approached him.

"In where?" Cain asked, looking around. The darkness that surrounded them was near-absolute.

Bucky pointed along the driveway. "There's a big building up this driveway, just a little bit. Looks like some sort of warehouse or something on the map, which makes sense since this whole area is all abandoned industrial park. That could be where Archon's running this operation, keeping these girls prisoner."

For a moment, all three men stared up through the darkness, trying to make out any detail of the warehouse. Once again, Bucky spoke first. "So, how do you want to play this? Run in, guns blazing?"

The idea certainly appealed to Cain, but he shook his head. He was gratified to also see Talon doing the same. "I think stealth is our best bet, here," the rangy biker suggested, digging out guns from his own bike's saddlebags. "At least until we can find this girl - and see if there are others that need our help."

Cain looked at Talon for a moment. This definitely didn't sound like the normal party-loving Iron Skull! But the man looked murderously busy as he armed himself, and Cain decided to nod and do the same.

A minute later, Bucky had his seized rifle up against his shoulder and pointing forward into the darkness. Behind him, both men held shotguns, and all three bikers had shoved pistols into their waistbands. Cain also felt the comforting weight of those grenades in his pockets; he hoped he wouldn't need them, but he also had to admit that he enjoyed knowing how much firepower he carried.

With Bucky leading, they advanced up the driveway, crouching and moving slowly. All three men kept their eyes and ears peeled, watching for any sentries.

Two minutes in, they spotted one, as a match suddenly flared into brilliant life, less than a dozen feet from them.

Fortunately, the sentry was just as blinded by that sudden light as the bikers. The guard seemed focused only on lighting his cigarette, and Cain seized the opportunity to creep closer. He moved through the grass until he crouched behind the man.