Page 9 of Property of Rio

“She did and as soon as I’m sure she’s good, we’ll have Church so I can fill everyone else in on what she told me.”

“How’s Issy?” Abyss, my VP asks after I hit the gavel on the table to bring Church into session.

“She’s finally awake and lucid,” I answer. “That’s why we’re meeting today. She mentioned seeing a person that attended a rodeo years ago at the arena she was competing at. It’s one of those fucking Mojave Devils, Brothers. Said he looked older, which he would because we were teenagers when I remember seeing him. No clue what his fucking road name is, but from the sound of it, they may have been targeting Issy for a long-ass time.”

“Fucking road name’s gonna be Dead Meat,” BamBam growls out.

“Thought that was gonna be Gage’s,” Pokey states with a deadpan look on his face.

Something niggles at the back of my head as it pertains to Gage. “Here’s the thing. I’m not discounting that he might be up his neck with this shit, but in all the years he’s been around, he’s always been loyal to the Kings. Why would he suddenly turn on Issy and by extension, the club? Y’all know Paps had a keen sense of a person’s character and he felt Gage was solid. In fact, if Gage had given any indication, he’d have let him prospect, but he’s never shown an interest in riding a bike. Horses? Absolutely. Fucking bulls? Well, he’s got a screw loose there for sure, but still, he’s always been almost anal about keeping an eye on Issy whenever I couldn’t be there with her. What changed?”

“Want me to do a deep dive on him?’ Pokey inquires, pulling his laptop closer.

“Expand that to his cunt of a mother,” I demand. “Somehow, she’s at the root of this. I don’t know why I feel that way, but it’s worth checking into.”

Over the years, I’ve honed my instincts and when my gut screams at me the way it’s doing right now, I tend to listen to what it’s saying. I don’t think what happened was purposeful, but hewillanswer for hurting Issy. Of that, there’s absolutely no doubt whatsoever.

“Where is the locator showing the trailer’s located at now?” BamBam probes, looking at Pokey. “We need to get Stargazer back home if nothing else. I’m sure Issy’s frantic.”

I chuckle then nod. “She wants me to take her down to the barn later to see Starlight.”

“Of course, she wants to see her girl. She’s a horsewoman through and through,” Gopher remarks, smirking.

“You gonna make that official any time soon, Prez?” Chick, our secretary, asks.

“Might wanna make sure Issy’s okay with that,” Preacher muses.

“For sure, for sure,” Q-Ball intones, as the two fuckers high-five each other.

“Alright, fuckers, rein it in,” I command. “Have we heard from any of the other chapters as to whether or not there’s been any movement by the Devils?”

Since I’ve been focused on Issy and staying by her side, Abyss has been overseeing the efforts to find Stargazer as well as Gage.Hopefully, the prick is taking care of Issy’s horse because if not, there won’t be a hole big enough in Texas for him to crawl into and hide. Not only that, but neither me nor my brothers will have to worry about hurting him, because she’ll take him down herself.

“Riptide called and wants you to reach out to him. Bookie’s been helping Pokey with tracking the trailer. Fucking brilliant idea to do that because that also lets us know where transports are at when we have them. Gotta love the technology age,” Abyss advises.

“Except when we don’t wanna be seen,” Pokey interjects. “Then we hope like fuck the cameras and shit are down or malfunctioning.”

“Yeah, like you or any of the Kings who handle our IT shit can’t sort that out quickly,” Gopher retorts.

He’s our chapter’s SAA and has been itching to bust some skulls. Both he and BamBam take their roles seriously, although with it being about my woman, I’m all for it.

“Okay, so first priority is finding Stargazer, second is tracking down Gage and getting him back here so we can find out what the fuck is going on,” I decree. “Anything else need to be discussed before we adjourn?”

Echoes of, “No, Prez,” go around the room so I hit the gavel to end Church. It’s time to check on Issy again, then take her down to see Starlight.

FIVE

Isla

“Hey, girl, did ya miss me?” I coo into Starlight’s neck as she softly whinnies. “Because I sure missed you. Thank you for getting me home to Rafe.” She neighs and nods her head almost as though she’s accepting my thanks and understands my words.

“Here, babe, I know you wanted to give her a treat,” Rafe says, coming up next to me with several apples perched in his hands.

Taking them from him with a smile of thanks, I hold out one in my hand and giggle when Starlight’s lips lightly tickle my palm when she nips it, nibbling on the apple. When she finishes the first one, she snuffles, and I hold out the second sweet treat so she can repeat the prior action.

“She’s always been so gentle with you,” Rafe states. “She could be starving, and I think she’d be delicate, y’know what I mean?”

“I had a good teacher between Pancho, Paps, and you, when it came to raising her,” I remind him while she eats her third apple.“Okay, old girl, how about we turn you out for some fresh air so your stall can get mucked out.”

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