Page 30 of Laying it Bare Biker Style - Grayson

Releasing a loud whistle, I copied his action before slamming my weight into the front door. The hinges gave way without much protest and Ryder and I burst inside. Eyes searching the expanse of the room as best we could in the dim light – the windows had been boarded up but a well-placed kick could remove those obstacles – nothing seemed out of place. The inside was as decrepit as the outside. We stood in what was once an open layout to the living space and kitchen area, but no furniture or appliances remained. Dust and dirt covered the floor, windowsills, arch ways, and staircase that led to the bedrooms upstairs. The interior walls were crumbling and holes had been punched into the boards allowing a bit of light and heat into the place. It was quiet – a quiet that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

Giving Ryder a nod, I stepped along the perimeter of the right side of the room while he took the opposite, both of us moving toward the stairs. As I passed one of the covered windows, I knocked twice on the wooden panel to signal we were inside. When I was about half way around the room, a bullet buzzed by the side of my head before a second one grazed my upper arm. A split second later, pounding feet down the stairs filled the silence before four guys opened fire on us. With nothing to use as a shield, I crouched down as low as I could and shot at our attackers. In less than a minute, the four rival members lay in various sprawls at the bottom of the steps and off to the right. Shaking off our brief burst of excitement, I stood.

“You okay, Grayson? Did the bullet go clean through?” Ryder stepped in front of me.

Twisting my arm so that the two of us could get a better look, I shrugged. “I might need a couple stitches since the bullet just grazed me. Let’s make sure there aren’t any more upstairs waiting to pounce. And I’m willing to bet my left nut sac there is something stored here.”

Movement at the front door drew our gaze to Pip and Twist standing at the entrance.

“Badger and Skip grabbed one scaling down the outside from a room upstairs. We’ll follow you guys up there in case there are any more. You okay?” Pip nodded to my arm.

“Yeah. Might need a Band-Aid though.”

After securing the hands of our unconscious adversaries with zip ties, the four of us crept upstairs with me in the lead.

At the top, the four of us broke off to search the rooms. Six doorways were spaced along the hallway, leading to possible bedrooms and closets and I was sure a bathroom. Inside the first room I ducked into, I didn’t encounter any more foes, but instead a huge heap of guns of various makes and boxes of ammunition were stacked along the far wall. If the police hadn’t already been alerted to the confrontation taking place at this farmhouse, we’d have to call it in to get this merchandise removed. No way in hell were we moving it for them. Chief Wolfe was already looking to use any excuse to put the hammer down on us.

When I stepped back out into the hallway, I met up with the other three guys.

“A nice stash of drugs in the closet in that bedroom.” Ryder gestured with his head to the room beside the one I had just exited. “But I’m not touching anything. And I didn’t find anything else or anyone else.”

“The other rooms are clear as well of goods or people.” Pip answered. “I guess it’s time to alert the police. Cuz I’m with Ryder, not touching anything.” He jerked his hands up in a mock surrender. “We did enough of their dirty work already.”

Sirens sounded in the distance.

“Guess someone already called in our little incident. Let’s go greet our friends.” Hopefully we could give our statements quickly and be out of here before any more shit went down. And I wasn’t talking about another fight with enemy club members – I itched for that type of shit. I was referring to an argument with the chief or interference from his daughter or both.

At the bottom of the stairs, Axel stood in the middle of the room surveying our handiwork. “Did you even break a sweat? Looks like you didn’t even give them a chance to come at you. Where’s the fun in that?” He shoved a mass of his dark blond hair out of his face, his brown eyes amused. “Couldn’t you at least give them a second to think they had the upper hand?” Then his gaze caught on the bright red dripping down my upper arm. “I take that back. You gave them a little satisfaction before you wiped out their asses.”

Shaking my head, I released a chuckle. “Why don’t we head out and join the others? That should make it easier to take off then once we briefly converse with the police.” At least I hoped our interaction was swift.

Outside, the others were gathered in two groups – Pyro Devil members and Twisted Flame members – but at least the huddles were near one another. And someone had dragged the one botched escapee around and had his bound unconscious body lying in front of the house.

“No one else attempted to flee?” Twisting my head toward the end of the driveway, I tracked the two police cars driving up, lights flashing but the siren silenced.

“Nope. Just this unlucky bastard.” Axel chuckled.

When Chief Wolfe hopped out of his cruiser with Jimmy at his side, I sucked in a deep breath.Just tell him what your club had heard and what you found here and then be on your way.

“What the hell were you guys thinking? You should’ve waited for back up.” The chief stormed up to our group, his expression seething with irritation.

Great. This wasn’t going to be a brief interaction. I spared a glance over my shoulder in the direction of the neighboring stable.

“What if they’d have run and taken a neighbor hostage or something?” Chief was still in the middle of his rant. “Or if the gun fight had moved outside and an innocent got caught in the crossfire?”

“We had it under control. We have a decent team here. And we had the building surrounded before we entered.” I gestured to the members from the two clubs. “And it’s not our first rodeo. By the way; you’re welcome.” I probably shouldn’t have added that little jab, but he pissed me the fuck off.

The look he shot me was nothing short of murderous. And I caught his gaze slide over the red staining my upper arm.

“I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” My tone dripped with much warranted sarcasm.

Ignoring my retort, he gestured with his head to the two officers who had hopped out of the second cruiser. “Make a sweep of the interior. Make sure there aren’t any others hiding.”

Since there wasn’t any sense in arguing the fact we knew how to handle incidents like this, I merely informed him of our discoveries. “One of the rooms upstairs is storing weapons and the closet of another room has a nice stash of drugs. We left everything untouched so as to not interfere in your investigation.”

He grumbled something under his breath that I was sure was accusatory and no doubt offensive, but didn’t address us. He was well aware he wouldn’t find any stolen merchandise on our persons. We didn’t deal in illegal stock.

“Hey, what’s all of the excitement here? We heard gun shots.”

---