Page 9 of Coal
We wait for him to disappear silently towards where we’re meant to meet. It’s not at the main house, that much I know. Instead, Kelly has us meeting at a barn-like structure further back on his property.
Turning to our other ex-military brothers, “Iron, Brass, you take the lead, and we’ll follow.”
“Pres,” they agree and set out. It’s immediately noticeable the difference between them and us. As quiet as we were trying to be, we still made noise, while they seemed to glide smoothly along the same terrain.
I make a mental note for my brothers and myselfto get more training hours in. We’d need it to be able to work smoothly as part of a team.
Brass holds up a hand, showing that he wants us to stop, then he and Iron have an entire conversation with each other using only hand signals. Copper, Nickel, Bolt, and I share a look. I think it’s just hit them how out of our depth we are. We’re good with going in like battering rams and handing out a beating, but we’ve never had to do the stealth thing, not with the number of brothers we had at our backs in the US. This was a whole new kettle of fish, though.
Iron and Brass finish their conversation, and Brass turns towards us, mouthing, “Stay here.”
I nod and give him a thumbs up. We understand, and we’ll wait.
They melt away, leaving us to wait. They’re not gone long, maybe ten minutes or so, when they stealthily reappear again.
Brass comes in close to us, leaving Iron keeping watch near the tree line.
“We’ve found somewhere to hole up for a few hours,” he whispers. “It won’t be comfortable, but you’ll have a good view of everything. Iron and I are going to check out the big house, and then we’ll make our way back to you.”
Bowing to their experience, I nod my agreement, and we follow them to a massive barn-like structure that looks like it’s never been used until you see the chains and hooks hanging from the ceiling and the dark splashes on the floor. When we see this, we’re left in no doubt as to what type of man we’re dealing with.
Brass points towards a rickety ladder and the loft. He murmurs, “There're slits cut into the walls for you to watch out of up there. Nobody should be able to see you as long as you don’t get too close to them, but you’ll be able to see for miles. Try to keep talking to a minimum because sound carries when it’s so quiet. Iron and I’ll be back in about an hour or so, could be longer, depending on what we see.”
“Be careful,” I warn him.
“We will, Pres,” he answers. Turning on his heel, he goes to the ladder and disappears from sight. I hate that we’re all separated, but I have to have faith in my brothers that they know what they are doing.
We spend the next few hours walking from window to window. There’s not a lot of activity. I’m leaning up against the wall, looking out towards what looks to be a cottage, although it looks almost derelict. It has thick curtainscovering the windows. The garden is overgrown with brambles and weeds, but the path is clear, and that should have been my first clue that there was somebody inhabiting the cottage.
A flash of colour catches my eye, and I straighten, moving closer to the window as a woman appears. I can’t see her features from this distance, but I can see she’s tall, has bright red curly hair hanging loose down her back, and she’s dressed in dungarees and work boots with a coat thrown over it all to ward off the slight chill. There’s something about her that piques my interest, and I want to curse. Nothing good can come from it, not if I want to do business with Kelly. Then I perk up. Unless she’s a daughter, then that could work. She looks older than the two we’ve been offered, not that we were seriously thinking about the offer, but that could change if she was part of it.
“What are you looking at?” Copper wants to know.
Tilting my head towards the window when he stands next to me, we watch as the woman turns back towards the door, but we can’t see who she’s talking to. She says something and waves before walking quickly towards a large building close to the cottage. We’d assumed itwas another barn, but as I watch her putting in a code on the door before opening it, I know it is something else.
We’d have to find out what it was.
“What do you think?” I ask Copper.
“I think we wait for Brass and Iron to come back, then have them look. None of us are quiet enough. We need to do something about that.”
“I agree. We’re going to have to step up our training before we go on any missions,” I answer. We stay watching the building and the cottage, but when nobody comes out, we rotate to another window.
Brass and Iron come back close to three hours after they left us. Both are filthy, making me wonder what the hell they’ve been crawling through.
“Let’s go, Pres; we’ll talk at the sleds,” Brass tells me, motioning towards the stairs.
We leave as quietly as we came, not saying anything until we’re back at our sleds. Blue is waiting for us, his rifle dismantled and stored away.
Once we’re all together, I turn towards them all. “What did you find?”
“He’s a fucking dick,” Brass fumes. “Caught him forcing himself on one of the staff members. I was just about to intervene when one of the daughters interrupted them. The youngest one, and while she made as if she didn’t care, I noticed her making hand motions to the maid, getting her out of there. I don’t think the kids are in on anything, including the son.”
“I have to agree,” Iron continues where Brass leaves off. “I overheard the son, Aiden, talking to someone about the plan going ahead tomorrow, depending on the meeting with the bikers. From the rest of the conversation, it seems like there’s about to be a restructuring in this organization. It seems the last straw was him putting the girls up for sale.”
“Okay, is there any way to get in touch with the son without raising suspicion?”
They both shake their heads. “Not that we can see, Pres. It’s probably better that they don’t know that we know. It will all play out the way it should then.”
