Page 37 of Torching Vixen
“Your words mean shit to me now. I know this whole thing is your fault. You’re the reason I lost everything: my club, my power, and my allies,” Fire screams irrationally, pulling at his hair. He is losing his shit.
“Fire, come on, man, we can talk about all this later. We’ve got to fucking go,” Ice says calmly like he is talking to a scared animal. They lock eyes and have a silent conversation.
“Are we going or not? If you haven’t noticed, the shooting has stopped, and the fact that none of the men have come to find us tells me that we lost. If you don’t mind, I’d really like to get a fucking move on.” Moose says again, looking nervous, and that’s when I smell it.
Fucking smoke.
26
Torch
The plan is in place, and we head out, making the unbelievably long drive to get my family home. We are taking no prisoners this time. We are just over halfway out when we come on a truck on the side of the road. As we approach it, a figure steps out onto the road.
Prez has us all come to a stop with guns drawn. The figure puts up both hands and turns, letting us know he has no weapons.
“You O’Malley’s man?” Prez asks, relaxing into the seat of his bike.
“Oh, you have it all wrong, my man. I’m nobody’s. Just seem to find myself in the right place at the right time is all. Did your boy get my message?’ he asks, holding himself loose and unthreatening.
“Yeah, we got it. Thank you for that information. What do we owe you for it?” Prez doesn’t like owing anyone anything. If you owe them, they have leverage over you.
“When this is done. I have a couple of questions about when your boys were held captive. Have a sit down with me, and we’ll be even,” he says like it’s nothing.
“That easy? A conversation, and we’re even?” Prez asks skeptically. There is no way that a man like this just wants to sit down for the kind of information he gave us.
Worse of all, I don’t rightly give a fuck what he wants for the information if I get my woman and baby back. I shift my weight on my bike, bringing his eyes to me. We size each other up for what seems like forever. He finally smirks at me, giving me a stiff nod.
“We are twenty-five minutes from the house. Continue up this road for another ten miles, you’ll find a service road to your left. If you take that until you hit the clearing, the house is then a ten-minute hike. The coked-out dumbass has men walking around the property. Take them out, and then there aren’t but a handful of men in the house,” he states.
“Where’s Vixen?” I ask, not caring that the question came off like a demand.
“She is in the basement. You’ll want to be at the basement exit as fast as possible. Once I verify that all your men are out of the house, let’s just say that’ll be the only way out,” the stranger says with a smirk on his face. I’ve seen some scary and fucked-up shit. That look though, gives me pause.
“Mind telling us what we are up against?” Prez asks.
“Get your girl and get the fuck out is all I can tell you,” he shrugs before turning back to his truck. Once inside, he leans out the window. “I’ll be in touch about our sit down.” He peels away, leaving nothing but dust.
“Let’s get this show on the road. You heard the man, in and out as quickly as possible,” Prez yells out. Our bikes start like the sound of thunder, shaking the ground under our boots.
There was a time in my life when all I needed was the feel of my bike between my thighs. I lived for the ride and knew that I would go out riding my bike for the club and the men in it. Returning is always the goal, now returning and still able to live is completely different. The ride will always be my life. Now it’s just not all my life. I have a woman and baby to live for.
We make the drive to the clearing, parking so that we don’t have to spend time turning them around. We gather around the back of the cage to gear up and go over the plan just one more time. Splitting into three groups, like always, I have Smith, Wesson, and Razor at my back. I hold my fist when Lo speaks over my earpiece. I needed Razor at my back, so we decided to bring her in to help keep an eye on all the moving parts and watch for Vixen’s tracker to come online if these shitheads decide to move her.
“Guys, Vixen’s tracker came back online. She is in the middle of it all,” Lo says so calmly that you would never know this was life or death.
“Lo, the way you talk, you’d think you’ve done this before,” Smith quietly replies.
“What am I supposed to do? Not act like we’re all on edge?” She retorts.
“We hear you, Edge, loud and clear,” Wesson cuts us all off and finally gives Lo her road name. Falling quiet, we start moving again silently and as a team. When the house comes into view, we stop to wait and hear that everyone is in position.
“All righty, gentlemen. Let’s get this done and get our girl home,” Edge says over our earpieces, and it’s not half a second after the command that Prez’s team opens fire on the guys guarding the front of the house. Then, Pretty Boy’s crew opens fire on the ones at the back of the house.
We sit and wait, watching the basement door. Waiting around isn’t my strong suit, but this is what it takes. We watch as the shadow of our men move into the house, clearing it and making sure we finally put all these assholes to ground. It takes them all of ten minutes, and they are filing out of the house. Nothing has happened in the basement.
“Do we think that fucker played us?” Razor asks the question on everyone's mind.
“No, I show that she is still right there,” Edge says.
