Page 67 of Motorycle Daddies

“I don’t think we’re going to get used to this type of thing, brother,” Dart says with his own grimace.

“I know I never will,” Grizzly adds. “I mean, when we saw Mer in that place I nearly shit my pants. We know her. Can you imagine how many women go through these places and don’t get saved? The ones we don’t know or get told about?”

I don’t want to think about it. I can’t. For now, we fall into silence as we sit and wait for the van with the girls in it to show up. Sure enough, at six on the dot, it pulls up in front of the house.

Dart, Grizzly, and I stay put, out of sight out of mind for a few moments as the driver and his passenger get out of the white van with no windows in the back and make their way up the front stoop of the house with the red door. We continue to watch as they go inside and close the door behind them after looking out both ways to make sure they’re alone.

It’s such a stupid mistake leaving the girls out here like this…one that will cost them their inventory. As long as my informant keeps up the good work, we might be able to keep saving more than what will slip through the cracks.

“Come on,” I say, waving at the guys. We slink across the road, and for now, the van hides us from view.

“You go that way, I’ll guard the door,” Grizzly says, motioning for Dart to go to the head of the van for lookout. “You get those girls and get to the alley across the way quickly,” he says to me as we all nod.

It’s a great plan.

I do as instructed and head to the back of the van. I take the bolt cutters I have in my hand and line them up with the chain on the back door. It’s padlocked…something I anticipated. These guys like to keep their women under lock and key.

I place the cutters just above the lock and add leverage, allowing them to snip through the thick metal. I flinch when it makes more noise than it should, but I don’t let it fall all the way to the ground as I catch the shards of chain and the lock halfway down.

I lower the chain and the lock to the ground and at the same time I throw open the back door. I’m horrified at what I see. There are two girls in here, but there’s also a dead man lying in between them.

I can tell from here that he’s been tortured badly. Both women look horrified but are gagged. I jump in and pull their gags, helping to free them from the binds that tie them. I reach for the first’s gag, and the moment I do, she begins talking.

“They say you can have us, but we’ll be the last,” she cries as I haul her out of the van and begin working on her friend.

“They say you will have no more since your informant is dead,” the second girl sobs as I help her out of the van.

They both are dressed in very little, but it’s clear they have a message for us. They both point to the dead body in the back of the van. Other than seeing that he’s been abused badly, I ignored who he is until now.

Lying there, battered and dead, is Tag.

Fuck. They must have figured out he was a mole.

“Shit,” I say under my breath as I usher them toward the ally. “We just lost our guy,” I say to Grizzly and Dart as they come out from where they’ve been hiding.

They both glance back at the van, seeing the guy lying in a pool of his own blood. They turn toward me with a grave look on their faces and we continue to run until we get back to our bikes.

With one girl on the back of my bike and the other on the back of Dart’s, we head back to where both the girls can feel safe and comfortable. We’re taking them home.

38

DART

“Ineed more fucking information!” Screaming at the informant seems to send his brain into pause mode, making him stare at me like there’s nothing in his head at all. Fear emanates off him like a deep fog.

“I don’t wanna die,” he stammers after I wait so long for an answer I’m ready to cut his damn head off and be done with him.

“I didn’t say I’d kill you, you fool. I want more info than you’re giving me. I know you have more. Your fucking lips twitch, and your eyes roll around in your damn head when you’re holding something back. Give me all of it or face my anger,” I growl.

“I don’t wanna die,” he repeats, then holds up a hand in front of his face as if he expects me to knock his teeth out and stumbles a couple of steps backward.

“I’m not talking about you,” he says from behind his hand where he’s cowering. “I heard talk of one of your informants getting himself killed, and I don’t wanna be the next one taken out just because I need cash enough to tell you some shit.”

“You don’t have the right kind of information to make you noticed by our enemies. You’re just full of knowledge about where I can get the real facts, not the facts themselves. So, spill it before I kick your ass and drop you from our list. You’re not much use anyway.”

This one’s Larry, and I haven’t bothered with him in a while. Tag was so much better at this. They’re all slimy cowards, but Larry takes the cake. He’s a common thief and gambler, always needing money and only working for his advantage when it strikes him. And he doesn’t take sides. That can be a problem.

I reach out to yank his scrawny, filthy hand away from his ugly, pockmarked face. I shake him just a little and he turns ghostly pale.

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