Page 5 of Blaze

“I’ll call Jack Glazner before I leave,” I told King. “They want my help, they’ll have to wait. This run is time-sensitive.”

King shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle the DNR. Just get on the road. Echo has the paperwork, and Kevlar is carrying the necessary supplies. Keep the footprint small, don’t want to draw too much attention.” A rare smile curved the prez’s lips. “Maybe check around the house for any fireworks before you light the flame.”

“One damn time that happened,” I growled and pivoted around, stalking toward the lounge, where there was an exit into the garage. The client should have warned me that there was a stash of aerial fireworks in the fucking kitchen pantry.

When the flames reached the skyrockets, we’d been long gone. But my brothers just couldn’t let my oversight the fuck go after hearing about how some of them made it into the sky where they exploded, raining colorful sparks over the house.

Our sergeant at arms, Kevlar, and Road Captain, Echo, were waiting for me in the garage. I lifted my chin in greeting, then mounted my hog, and we took off.

The place we were visiting was about an hour out of town. It was an office building set in a business complex. Luckily, most of the other companies who’d occupied the surrounding buildings had moved on a couple of years ago.

A man waited for us at the rear entrance when we arrived. We parked our bikes, and after hopping off, I grabbed the shit I needed from a saddlebag and walked straight for the door, letting Echo handle the client.

The guy was an accountant and had stumbled across some questions with the books. When he dug deeper, he discovered money laundering happening within the company. He brought it to the attention of the wrong people, and now he had a price on his head.

The man was a cocky son of a bitch, so I’d been a little surprised that he was the honest one among the bunch. From the wiretap we’d put on the CEO’s phone, it turned out our clienthad even been offered a bribe—a very generous one—and he’d turned it down. But Echo had a fuck of a lot more patience than I did, which was why he was the one handling the whistleblower.

He’d come to the Hounds of Hellfire because we were known for our ability and willingness to help people disappear…for the right price. Not that we turned away everyone who couldn’t pay, but these gigs were a huge part of our livelihood.

We had several legitimate businesses, but most of the time, we adhered to our own laws. Our brand of justice included crossing lines drawn by a flawed legal system. Sometimes even the local police looked the other way when we could accomplish something they didn’t have the authority or connections to handle.

Donations from the MC to the police fund hadn’t hurt that cause either. We weren’t ones to buy politicians, but having friends in high places made many of our jobs easier.

The building had no surveillance, and Wizard—our tech genius—had diverted any satellite footage. So I was free to go to work without worrying about staying invisible. After putting everything in place, and doing a thorough search of the building, I ambled outside and waited for my brothers near our bikes.

We’d already handled the “death” of the client, providing a body from one of the coroners we worked with. It had similar characteristics and the same build as our guy. We’d also laid the groundwork for it to appear as if he was being pursued by multiple organizations, then made the body appear unrecognizable from torture. Wizard had done his magic, changing the DNA, dental, and medical records to match our client. Now, I was getting rid of the evidence he’d discovered.

The guy had been afraid of having only digital copies, but our servers were more secure than the CIA’s. We even had a SKIFF room for any sensitive information that needed extra protection. Wizard had the digital files, so I’d prepped a small electricalfire that would burn the paperwork before the sprinkler system put it out so the flames wouldn’t spread beyond my chosen perimeter.

After so many years as an arson investigator, I knew how to get away with all kinds of shit. When it came to fire, I was the best.

Kevlar loaded his bike into the back of a nondescript truck and took off with the client. He’d ensure the guy made it to whatever transportation would take him to his new life.

Echo walked around the building for a final perimeter check, then strode over to where I straddled my bike.

“Think he’ll follow our instructions?” I asked casually. This client was an asshole and had been very obstinate, trying to tell us how to do our fucking jobs when he didn’t know shit about what we did.

Echo shrugged. “Pretty sure King scared the fuck outta him the other day, but who the hell knows? Jackass might have blown the whistle on those fuckers, but if he ends up sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic for running his mouth, it wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Nah,” I disagreed with a shake of my head. “They’re more of the bury the body in concrete type.”

Echo chuckled and mounted his motorcycle, then we rode back toward the clubhouse. About ten minutes from the compound, I turned onto a different road to the south side of town, where the warehouse was located.

A minute before the building came into view, I received an alert on my watch that a fire detector was going off.

What the fuck?

I briefly wondered if it was a false alarm due to a battery malfunction, then tossed that theory because that wasn’t how they worked.

However, false alarms due to other factors had been a problem from time to time, just like any fire system, which was why the warnings came to me before the fire department. We preferred that no one except Hounds, patches, or prospects set foot on our property. If the issue could be handled without the fire department's help, we didn’t involve them.

I pulled up to the guard shack, which was empty as I expected. We didn’t man it unless there was a meeting or something happening. As I glanced up at the large structure, I let out a string of curses when I saw smoke billowing out of a back window. One that shouldn't have been open.

By the time I rolled through the gate, the smoke coming out of the window had been replaced by flames.

Fuck.

4

---