Page 69 of The Devil's Ice

“Amen,” Holt said fervently as he followed his President into the massive, open room. He took in the high ceilings, the desks and file cabinets, the rows and rows of boxes and crates. “Hey, King, is this place actually running as a real warehouse? Like, what do the locals think that it is?”

“Yeah, it’s a working warehouse.” King rolled his massive shoulders. “I employ a few people who handle factory equipment shipments in and out. It’s actually a great source of legal income for me, since Wyoming has a huge cattle industry, so we’re shipping out machine parts to some farm or another almost constantly. This placemorethan pays for itself.”

“So how can it double as a safe house, then?” Cain asked with genuine interest. “Don’t things get…uhhh…noticedwhen you show up here with a bunch of King’s Men, armed to the teeth, and dragging someone who’s blindfolded and needs some ‘encouragement’ under questioning?”

“Yeah, well,” King said. “We use this place rarely, and if I have no choice, I invent some reason why the workers get a few days off.”

“What’s the reason today?” Ice said.

“Deep cleaning and power washing,” King said promptly. “They can’t be here for any of that, so they’re getting a week off, paid. And of course, tomorrow therewillactually be a company here doing the deep cleaning – so if anyone drives by, they’ll see the trucks.”

“And let’s face it,” Scars said. “This placewillneed a clean after today. Can’t leave anything behind that shows that Bale was here… or any of us.”

“Goddamn straight,” King growled. “Speaking of which, how far out are your boys?”

“Drake texted me about thirty minutes ago that they were maybe forty-five minutes away,” Scars said. “So we have a bit of time to chat to our good buddies from Nebraska before they get here.”

“Shall we?” Ice said. “Go say hi?”

“Indeed.” Scars nodded at Cain. “Stay here and let the twins in when they arrive.”

“You got it,” Cain said.

Scars, Ice, and Holt followed King to the back of the warehouse. He slid open a massive steel door that led to another large space – where there stood three men wearing cuts with The Howling Highwaymen MC insignia emblazoned on their backs.

Fox Patton, President of The Highwaymen, turned as the door opened, his hair bright red in the sun steaming through the skylight. He grinned at his fellow Highwaymen.

“Told you that Scars and Ice would be bang on time,” Fox said to them. “I think you can set a world clock by their time-keeping.”

“Fox,” Scars said, advancing with this hand extended. “Good to see you, man.”

“You too, though I hate like hell the circumstances.” Fox shook Scars’ hand, then gestured at his brothers. “My Veep, Scorpion Morse, and one of my Enforcers, Ink Dixon.”

“Scorpion, Ink.” Scars nodded at them, and they nodded back silently. “You guys know Ice and Holt, of course, but this is King.”

“Hell of a safe house you got here,” Fox remarked as he shook King’s hand. “I might have to think about setting something like this up back in Nebraska. Smart to use it as a legit business, gives it an extra layer of cover.”

“And some extra cash,” King said. “Which I never say no to.”

“Ditto.” Fox looked at Scars again. “I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about what you and your boys are going through – I admit that when Wolf took you guys straight, I was pissed off about it. Told myself that me and The Highwaymen would be cordial with you all, and that would beit… but Viper Grant dragging a bunch of kids into his shit is something that I won’t ignore. When we get them back – those babies and Wolf too – me and my boys will have your backs in the future, no matter what. You just have to ask.”

“Thanks, man.” Scars sighed a bit. “It’s actually been surprising how many MC’s have offered to step up and help us, guys who swore to never even utter Wolf’s name again.”

“Yeah, well,” Fox said. “Kids getting hurt changes everything, even when they ain’tmykids. But I know damn good and well that theycouldhave been – ifI’dbeen the one to piss off Viper.”

“And here we thought that Crusher Alcott was the loose canon, huh?” Scars said, trying to lighten the mood marginally. “We gotthatfucking wrong.”

“Right?” Fox shook his head. “Nobody saw Viper coming, and I meannobody.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I know. We’ve all been saying that for days now.” Scars looked at the door at the far end of the room, guessed from the muffled cries and the sound of a chair scraping across the floor that their guest was behind it. “Did you have any trouble grabbing him up?”

“None,” Fox said. “You’d think that a dirty cop would be a bit more vigilant, but this asshole was walking to his car like it was just any other fucking Thursday.”

“My guess is that he was looking for Scars and his boys only,” King said. “He probablyalsothought that having Viper’s protection was enough, that nobody would dare touch him.”

“Well, he was fucking wrong, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah, we’redefinitelygoing to touch him.”

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