Page 38 of Fury

“Try to give me a week’s heads up at least, and I’ll let you know how to get there.”

As I listened to his smooth voice, my insides squeezed with the knowledge that I was one step closer to what I wanted most in the world.

“Dig?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks, man.”

“Means a lot that you’d come to me for this.”

“Means a lot that you agreed.”

The huge yearly meeting ofthe Flames was set to happen in LA, and all the officers and most of the members from our chapter were going. At the same time, the huge yearly meeting of the Smoking Guns was happening not too far away in San Diego. The two clubs often managed to have these convention like meetings in close proximity and at around the same time. Provoking each other and making the FBI and local police forces freak out were opportunities too good to pass up.

“Finger!” my President’s voice called me from down the hallway as I passed.

I went into his office. “Hey, Kwik.”

“Listen, I appreciate all the prep you’ve been putting into this trip.”

“Yeah, of course,” I replied.

“But I’m going to have to ask you to stay here. Dwyer got taken to the hospital this morning with pneumonia. Idiot never took those antibiotics he was supposed to be taking when he got that bad cold last month after his run up to Canada, and now he’s fucked but good. Need you to cover his pick up in Sioux City. You know how big this one is for us. No one I trust more.”

My face slackened, my mouth opening to protest.

Hold up.

That Sioux City run wasn’t for another four days. Also, Med wouldn’t take Serena along to California. Old ladies weren’t welcome at these conventions. My muscles tightened. This was my time.

I raised my chin at Kwik. “No problem.” If anyone found out what I was planning, I’d be thrown in a cell and locked up for insanity.

I took care of a few last minute errands for the run, then headed back to the laundromat payphone to contact Dig.

No answer.

No answer.

Shit. I’d try again tonight. I had to make this happen tomorrow.

Fucking hell. Tomorrow.

12

She wasn’t at the houseshe shared with Med. She wasn’t anywhere in town. Not at the grocery store, not at the Army & Navy store, the only stores in town. There was no way to contact her, and frankly, I didn’t want to give her a heads up, ‘cause she just might tell me no. She’d been with him a while now. Maybe she’d gotten used to being a prisoner? Gotten comfortable in her hell? You either got desensitized to constant fear or you were a ball of fear yourself.

I rubbed a hand across my mouth. She’d said yes though, hadn’t she? She said she’d come with me if I showed up to get her out.

My skin crawled as I guided my bike through the quiet roads of Emmet, a small town west of Agra, Kansas, just below the Nebraska state line.

Along with watching their clubhouse for over a day, I’d been watching a house a few members frequented, but no sight of her. Did they keep her at the club 24/7? I’d spotted a young girl enter and leave with a backpack, but that was it. Was she part of Med’s harem?

I’d managed to find out that this morning at nine thirty a delivery truck from the local grocery store with booze, soda, and food would make a delivery there. I checked my watch. Nine o’clock. I had to get on that truck.

At the store, one middle-aged man loaded crates of beer, sodas, and two large kegs into the back. Another man came out with a wad of papers in his hand and got in the driver’s side of the cab. He lit a cigarette and waited.

I stashed my bike in a far corner down the street behind an abandoned store. There were plenty of closed businesses in this area. The recession had torn through here like a tornado. Keeping my gloves on, I put a thin black hoodie over my colors.