Page 64 of Gypsy Angel

Diesel turned around to look at her girls, all three nodding that they believed him on not having seen Katrina or Raven. Turning to look at Viper, she deflated when she saw him nod his agreement with the other women.

“He’s telling the truth. The camera isn’t finding them anywhere in the compound.” Taz advised over the comms, sounding defeated in Diesel’s ears.

Diesel didn’t even respond to Woody or react to his statement. She just walked towards her motorcycle, straddled her bike, and fired her bike up. Without waiting for her team, she backed up and rode off, leaving the others to follow suit.

FORTY-THREE

Viper pulled up beside Diesel’s bike and took off his helmet. He waited for everyone to get their bikes situated and their helmets off. “Who thinks we’re going to have a problem between the Fangs and the Dragons now?”

“Oh, definitely the Dragons. Show made a call to Symon and set up a business arrangement. We’re meeting with them tomorrow while the club is closed.” Diesel shrugged her shoulders as she walked past Viper into the house.

“I’m sorry what?” Viper chased after Diesel into the house, confused by her statement.

“Simple. Showalter called Symon and set up a meeting for tomorrow at the club. We’re going to set up an offer for the information on Kraven and point the finger at Woody. Let Symon know what we know. While he’s doing that. Taz and Oz, sounds weird when you put them together like that, huh…anyway, while we are offering the cookie to Symon, well Show will be, Taz and Oz can do their thingie with the drone and we go from there. In the meantime, Symon can deal with the Dragons. One less thing for us to deal with and one more thing to add to Symons’ coffin.”

“Babe, you realize you’re a cop and that’s entrapment, right?” Viper looked at Diesel, tilting his head to the side, aware of the others coming into the house, surrounding them as they discussed the bomb Diesel had dropped on him.

“One, I’m not here as a cop. I’m here as someone whose daughter was kidnapped. Two, not only am I dealing with that, but I’m also dealing with the fact that my past has come to the surface. Something I had buried since I was fifteen years of age. Both have come barreling to the surface in a nice gift wrapped fuckery. They can have my fucking badge because I’m doing this as a mother. The only difference is, I have plenty of people behind my back that are holding me up and willing to face my fucking demons, both for me and with me, whichever I decide. I didn’t have that when I was fifteen.”

Viper watched Diesel stand up to him, her fists clenched at her sides, the fire in her eyes as she glared at him, silent tears sliding down her face, her anger clear as the memories that she’d fought so hard to keep buried rushed to the surface. What he hadn’t noticed until now, while the men stood beside him, his wife’s team, her friends, her family, those women now stood behind her, their arms crossed over their chests and glared at him as if they were ready to go to battle and tear him limb from limb.

“What’s the new plan?” Viper sighed heavily as he placed his hands on Diesel’s shoulders and pulled her into his embrace.

When he felt Diesel let out the breath he hadn’t realized she’d been holding, he let himself relax. Wrapping his arms around her and placing his chin on her head, he looked over at Showalter waiting for her to respond.

“Keeping her out of it as much as possible until we have confirmation that they have Raven. Myself, Toi and Angel are going back tomorrow with Peaches, Duong and Gigi as back up. I don’t want to pull your boys in just yet since we don’t know if they have anyone watching you and your boys yet down in San Diego. I am going to use Odin and the boys he brought up with him. He’s currently talking to Jackson about adding a couple of his to the mix so we’re not alone. We know how Symon thinks of women. It’s why I’m continuing the charge. I personally think that if I’m the one he deals with, he’ll make mistakes since he has a huge hatred where women in authority are concerned. That will give Taz and Oz time to do their magic and we can get a definitive.” Showalter confirmed for Viper.

“If it’s confirmed that he has Raven?” Highlander asked, rubbing his face as if he already knew the answer.

“Then we go in, make an appearance and let the shenanigans begin.” Pratt shrugged, smirking at her husband in response.

“What’s to say he won’t give the signal for them to remove her when you make an appearance?” Jacko asked, ever the voice of reason.

“He’s too arrogant. Oh, he’ll give the signal. to get her, but not to remove her from the building, but to bring her to him. He’ll want to show me Raven. He’ll want me to see what he does to her as punishment for getting away from him. Krieger may think he controls things as the head honcho of the Fangs, especially nationwide, but in reality, Symon is in control of his own destiny. He pretends to play by the rules if it gives him leeway to do what he truly wants.”

Leaning back, Viper looked down into his wife’s eyes. “What does he truly want love?”

“To own, possess, control, devour, destroy. Absolute chaos. Symon has a hatred for women. Something I’ve never understood before. Even now. He was babied growing up. Never wanted for anything. The men were put on a pedestal in our community. They were the ones that were revered in our culture. The power holders. Women were considered lower than pond scum. Women are only good enough to stick your dick in, carry your seed, fix your food, run the house kind of thing. Men can do whatever they want, and the women had to accept it. I don’t know how it is with other gypsy cultures, that’s just how our community is, or was. Not sure how it is now since I left home at fifteen.”

“Was Symon like that with your other sisters?” York asked, tilting her head to the side as if in thought.

“No. Only me. I was the rule breaker according to the family. I didn’t sneak out of the house, do drugs or anything like that. But I studied, I loved school. I didn’t want to learn how to cook and clean and kiss a man’s ass and be the thing he walked all over like the others were apt to do. I was the black sheep. I ran on the track at school. I played basketball with Alex when he would allow me. Alex and I were close at one time. That is until I told Krieger I wasn’t marrying him. Once I did that, what protection I had from Alex went out the window.”

“What are you thinking, Peppermint Patty?” Jacko asked, giving his full attention to York, making the others smirk at the interactions between the two.

“I know we’re batting a thousand here. Not only are we trying to find Raven, but we’re also looking for information on Viper’s sister. Red, reach out to your contacts that has Kraven in lock up. While we’re giving Symon that cookie crumble, I say they put Kraven in interrogation, see what we can find out about the NY operation, where Viper’s sister is concerned. Viper, do you have a photo that was taken of her at the time of her disappearance, while she was in NY by chance?”

“Yeah, one that she sent me and my family in a mass text. Why?” Viper hesitantly asked as he pulled out his phone to get the photo he had saved on his phone.

“It’s a long shot…”

“We put Kraven through interrogation, military style. These guys are black ops, they know more styles than the fucking Kremlin does. Kraven and the rest of their crew have never been truly interrogated the way these guys do it. These boys think they know intimidation, but reality is, they don’t know shit. If we can get Kraven to break before the meeting, we can get them to send a photo of what he looks like after they have their fun in the interrogation, pass it off as Woody and his boys doing this, Symon fucks up, goes after Woody…”

“Red, even if we get Raven out of there, there’s still the issue of finding Viper’s sister, and still the issue of dealing with the Fangs. Even if they take out the Dragons, we will still have to deal with them. They can’t be left to operate. They would recoup and come back to take Raven, Viper’s sister and this time come after Diesel.” Showalter reminded Pratt as they both sighed realizing they were stuck in an expanding quicksand.

“What about your godfather, the one with the FBI. Think he would assist us in a mass operation? We can’t use the SEALs, Delta, or any of the military in this operation. CIA can’t even operate on this. One thing with Krieger, he’s managed to amass locations fast and wide. We’d have to have multiple locations to take them all down at once.” Toi admitted, rubbing her face as she sighed heavily.

“Actually, I may have a plan. You boys stay here and talk about boy shit. Show, get your team together. Toi, I know your team followed behind you two. I’ll see if we can’t get the captain and the rest of Alpha Squad, and those on the roof top across from the club on video. It’s a long shot, but it’s the best one we have. I’ll also have two other faces on the screen for all of us to meet and join in the conversation. Let’s meet up in about thirty minutes.” Pratt clapped her hands, walked over kissed Highlander with a loud smack against his lips and ran up the stairs as she made some calls.

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