Page 27 of Sinful Lies
Chapter 16
Tank
The ride back to theclubhouse leaves me alone with my thoughts for too long. I think about who might have her and where. I think about what they might do to her and the terror she must feel, but mostly I think about how this is my own damn fault. She’s paying the price for my selfishness. I used her. Not only to dig up information for the club, but to pull her back into my life. I should have left her the hell alone. My chest is so tight it hurts. I inhale the fresh air deep into my lungs and blow it out. I want to scream, but I open the throttle instead and ride harder. Wanting her as bad as I do put a target on her back. Even if I find her, she’ll always be in danger just for being with me. Which is what’s kept me away for so long. She deserves someone way better than me, but I’m all she’s got now. Ben keeps her prisoner in a loveless marriage. I’ll keep her in a different kind of prison when this is all over. Cause when I find her, and I will, I am never letting her go. I swallow down the guilt eating away at me and let the anger boiling under the surface free. Guilt won’t get her back, but my rage will. There’s so much of it pumping through me that any man who touches her or so much as looks at her cross will feel it.
Our bikes climb the steep hill in front of the compound and the gate rolls open. Slowing my speed as I pull into the lot, I notice the extra bikes lined up out front. With everything that’s happened, it slipped my mind that the Savage Saints were here. I park my bike in my spot. Fuel, Reaper, Hound and Cobra pull into theirs alongside of me. I kill the engine and climb off my bike. My duty is to my club and carrying out the planned attack, but I also need to find Dia before it’s too late. My head is thundering. I’m not sure how much more I can take.
I trudge into the clubhouse, and the somber feeling festering inside the walls of my home hits me all at once. Raven, Cat and Mercy are sitting around a table quietly talking with Siren, one of the old ladies of the Savage Saints. They lift their gazes at me. I know what they're thinking. This is all my fault. I put Dia in danger, asking her to dig up info on Ben. It could be him and not my old man for all I know. That’s the problem. I have nothing to go on. It could be anyone. She could be anywhere.
A few of the club whores are bickering in the back and Elle is wiping down the bar. I’m pissed at her for listening in on my conversation, but if she hadn’t told Chainz where I was meeting Dia, Cobra wouldn’t have found me. I’d be clueless, waiting for her to show up. The guys and I walk past the girls without exchanging words. There’s no need to. They aren’t strangers to this life. They know the dangers and they’ve seen their fair share of battles. This is not the first and it certainly won’t be the last. For either club. What is a first is our clubs joining forces to rain hell down on our enemies.
Fuel, Reaper, Hound and Cobra follow me into Church, where I know the rest of my club and the members of the Savage Saints who made the trip will be waiting. They are all gathered around the large table in the center of the room. Chainz, Kayne, Blayde and Rooster are at one end hovering over papers sprawled across the top. Freedom, Taz, Crusher and Kayne’s Ol’ Lady Poison are on the other end of the table doing something on the computer. The rest of the members are in various positions around the room. Some are loading the weapons stockpile and others are on their cell phones. We rarely allow phones in Church unless we need to reach out to our contacts in private.
I blink rapidly at the frenzy of activity. “Tell me you found something.”
“We think we found her.” Chainz taps his finger on a map. I lean in to look. He’s pointing to a warehouse in the business district on the outskirts of the city. My heart is hammering in my chest.
“How do you know?” I cock my eyes at him suspiciously. I’m so knotted up I can’t think straight. Chainz is my President and my closest friend. There’s no reason not to trust him, but how the hell could he know where she is when Hound just finished telling me we have no information?
“I tracked the van’s movement with street cameras.” The one the Savage Saints call Rooster speaks up. “It was last picked up making a right turn at this intersection.” Rooster points to the map on the table.
Chainz picks up the map our prisoner Lucas used to circle the locations the Black Market railroad uses to move girls. Drops of his blood stain the page, but it’s clear enough. Chainz lays Lucas’s map over top of the bigger map.
“Fuck.” I growl, seeing what he’s showing me. If this is true, my father didn’t take her. Ben did.
“We need to move up the attack.” I growl. There’s no time to wait. I need to find her before something worse happens. I don’t trust Ben and if he took her, he’s on to us. God only knows what he has planned for her.
“We can’t go in there halfcocked. We send someone ahead to scope it out first.” Kayne cuts a sideways glare in my direction.
I don’t know who this mother fucker thinks he is, giving orders at our table. My fists clench at my side. I’m having a hard time holding in my rage right now. “Fuck that. I can’t sit around for twenty-four hours knowing she’s in danger. I’ll go alone if I have to.”
“You’re a loose cannon right now, Tank. We send Cobra to run reconnaissance.” Chainz orders.
“I agree. Stryker will go with him.” Kayne looks to his boy Stryker, whose nodding in agreement.
I’m not a loose cannon, I’m a fucking ticking bomb and I’m about to detonate. “Fuck no. If anyone is going, it’s me.”
“Tank, you’re my right hand but you’re sitting this one out.” Chainz is not giving me an inch.
I don’t need this shit. I need to find Dia. My eyes jump around the room, landing on Fuel, our Sargent at Arms. I can see the concern in them. He knows there’s no way I can sit here and wait. He knows time is not on our side. The longer we wait, the less of an impact our strike has. “Speak up, asshole.” I’m so pissed my words come out as a roar. “You know I’m right. We need to move up the attack.”
Fuel runs his hand through his hair and lets out a heavy breath. Chainz is wrong and someone needs to speak up. “No disrespect, Prez, but Tank is right. We can send Cobra ahead, but we need to move on this tonight. Their game has changed. Their timeline might too.”
Chainz draws a hand rolled spliff from the pack of cigarettes on the table and lights it up. He inhales a deep drag and blows it out, while my heart flip-flops in my chest. He’s studying me. He doesn’t trust me right now, and I can’t blame him. My emotions are wound as tight as I am. He hands me the cigarette. I bring it to my lips and inhale, but never lower my eyes from his. I give him the time to consider our objection. I exhale the smoke from my lungs and draw in another before passing it back. “I need you to have your shit together for this Tank. You’ve been running on alcohol and pussy for days.”
He’s right about half of that. My dick hasn’t come near a pussy since I laid eyes on Dia again. It might not have been very long, but for me it’s a record. Thing is I don’t want anyone else. I’ve always known it, but I never let myself believe I could have her again. I fucked every pussy I saw to forget her. When I saw the look in her eyes, that all changed. I won’t deny myself what is mine any longer and I won’t let anyone fuck it up. “My head is clear, Prez. We need to do this now.”
Chainz nods. “Cobra and Stryker take the lead. Recon both locations. The rest of us head out at midnight.”
