Page 83 of Race or Ruin

The van came to a stop outside the cabin they’d seen on satellite. It was bigger in person. The rest of the brothers had parked at the end of the private drive and were now coming in on foot. They would need to stall for a little bit to give them time to surround the house and take out Jacob’s men patrolling the perimeter.

Two armed men in suits and wool coats stood on either side of the door, their guns out to dissuade any shenanigans on Race’s part. Their shiny dress shoes left them ill prepared for the cold winter weather. They’d die quickly if they ever wandered far from the cabin and got lost.

Jackson shut off the van and everyone piled out. Race slid the side door open and hopped out before turning to Preacher. “Watch your step,” he mumbled low enough for only his ears.

Preacher stumbled and righted himself with help from Race. His crumpled, torn shirt and dirty jeans helped sell the image of being held captive. Jackson took him by the arm and Trick took the other. Race led them up the stone steps and was stopped at the front door by Jacob’s security.

As expected, Jacob’s men patted down Race, Trick and Jackson, but failed to do so with Preacher. One of the men opened the door and motioned for them to enter. The two men from Bellamy’s security videos were waiting for them. The front door closed behind them, the guards retaking their posts outside on the porch.

The inside looked much like Race expected. Lots of dark wood, antlers and stuffed animals. One of the kidnappers punched a code into a box on the wall below the stairs. A hidden door popped open. They followed him down the stairs to a finished basement. Again, it looked pretty much like he would expect. He surveyed the room and almost tripped when his eyes landed on Charlotte. What the fuck was she doing here? Was she being held against her will also?

Across from the stairs, he spotted Jacob standing next to a lit fireplace, a smug smile on his face and his hands clasped behind his back. He was dressed in a suit that had to cost more than Race’s monthly mortgage payment on his house and Bellamy’s rental combined. His blond hair was slicked back with some kind of gel, not a single strand out of place. He rocked back on his heels. The man obviously thought he held all the cards.

“Nice place you have here,” Race started.

“Thanks, but it isn’t mine. It belongs to one of my friends. He’s letting me borrow it while I worked on getting Kurtis back.” Jacob started walking his direction. “Follow me.”

They turned a corner and it was all he could do not to pull out one of the guns at Preacher’s back and start shooting. Bellamy and Liza were standing in a metalcage. What. The. Fuck? He guessed that answered the Charlotte question. Since she wasn’t locked in the cage with his girls, he had to assume she was in on Bellamy and Liza’s kidnapping. Bitch was dead after he dealt with Jacob.

“Motherfucker, get my woman and daughter out of that God damn cage,” Race growled. Two more men he hadn’t noticed yet stepped forward on either side of the cage, making their presence known. They each held their guns loosely at their sides.

“Now, that’s not very civilized. Why don’t we introduce ourselves? I’m Jacob Jacobson, and you are?” He tipped his head Race’s direction.

Race wasn’t going to indulge the man. “You know who the fuck I am. I want my woman and my daughter out of that cage. Now.” His tone brooked no argument.

Jacob nodded his head to one of his men. “You’re right. Why bother at playing nice?” The man unlocked the cage and waved them out with his gun.

Liza exited first. “Daddy!” She started to run straight to Race, but was stopped by the man with the gun with an arm across her chest. “No. Not yet.”

“Kurtis?” Jacob nodded in Preacher’s direction.

Preacher stood hunkered over and moaned when Jacob called out his name.

“What did you do to him?” All appearances of civility disappeared as Jacob allowed his fake smile to completely disappear. In its place was not the look of a gentleman, but a stone cold killer.

“What do you think? He kidnapped his woman,” he hiked his thumb in Trick’s direction. “And threatened to sell her as a sex slave. How do you think he would respond?”

Jacob did something Race doubted he allowed himself to do very often. He showed his anger by clenching his jaw tightly and flexed his hands at his sides. “Maybe I should fuck your woman for payback while you watch?”

Race growled and took a menacing step forward. “Maybe I should break your fucking neck.”

Jacob shot a quick glance, no doubt to confirm the Sons had been searched for weapons. One of the men nodded his head, telling Jacob they had no weapons on them.

Jacob began to pace back and forth in front of the cage. “Maybe I should fuck your daughter, or better yet, maybe I should sell her to make up for the losses I’ve suffered since Kurtis has been with you? I have a buyer upstairs as we speak.” He snapped his fingers as an idea struck him. “I could even make a video of her having sex for the first time. I could make a nice chunk of change to recoup lost profits.”

“You fucking touch my daughter and I’ll gut you and feed you to the wild hogs.” Race was just about out of patience. He was tired of the power play Jacob was trying to make.

“Take off Kurtis’s hood. I want to see him.”

“I’m not stupid. As soon as you have your guy you don’t plan on any of us leaving here alive.” He watched Charlotte in his side vision as she slowly moved closer to the man holding a gun on his girl. What the fuck was she doing?

Race searched Bellamy’s eyes, trying to let her know to be ready. She winked at him and he felt a moment of ease. He knew Bellamy would protect Liza with her life, but he didn’t want it to go down like that. He wanted them both out of there safe and sound. Jackson and Trick slowly eased a hand behind Preacher’s back and freed a gun.

Trick pulled the mask off Preacher. “Hello, motherfucker. I hear you’ve been looking for me. I’m the one who sold your boy to a whorehouse in Mexico. And I’ve gotta say, I like the idea of feeding you to the wild hogs so much better than having you join Kurtis.”

“What the fuck?” Jacob hadn’t expected Preacher to be under the hood.

“Yeah, I’m the one that fucked up your last shipment and took your boy.” That wasn’t entirely true. Race and his club had been in on the action, too. They’d been there to rescue Lindsey and as luck would have it, Preacher was there with his men to rescue Levi’s sister. Every single one of the men involved in the trafficking with Kurtis was dead and Kurtis was in Mexico living the life he’d often sentenced others to.

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