“Brass.” Shelly grabbed me on my way out. “Bring everybody home safe, and that means you too.”
I managed a thin smile. “Thanks, sis. Uh, sorry about the truck. I hope like fuck nothing's happened to it. I'll bring it home too, if I can.”
“You know I don't give a shit about the wheels. It's just one more thing to deal with.” She rolled her eyes. “The girl was upset. Crazy. I haven't even told her little sister yet...”
“You work on that,” I said. “With any luck, I'll have her home with your ride so you don't have to tell Jackie how fucked up things are. She's been through too fucking much for a fourteen year old.”
“I know.” She looked at the ground sadly. “And I remember what it was like for us at that age. You've got to be honest to keep them from going off the rails. Mom tried to hide how bad off she was until it drove you away and locked me down.”
“Yeah.” There was nothing more to say about it. She'd forgiven me for falling in with the fucks who'd slaughtered our disabled mother. The guilt still weighed heavy on my black heart, and saying shit about the bitter past would only feed it.
“You turned yourself around, Brass,” she said, throwing her arms around me. “I'm so damned proud of you for that. I know you can fix this too. Go get the bastards who did this.”
Yes. Fuck yes. I couldn't do anything less than tear their throats out like the angry wolf I was, but this only sealed the deal.
I pressed her tight to my chest and then I was gone, following the Devils out to the garages. The guns just needed to be loaded into their rides, waiting for the battle to come.
My bones ached on the trip down, and not just from the fight. Crossing a good quarter of the continent in a week without much rest took its toll. Fuck if I was gonna let it slow me down.
I was wide awake. The pain stiffened my resolve. The Devils and I didn't say much to each other – they understood what was on the line, and that was enough. The men glowered, half as intense as me, big bearded Moose looking into the darkness like a one-eyed viking sailing toward Valhalla.
We took turns driving, following the convoy of bikes all the way to Redding. We finally veered off toward a remote spot near Shasta Lake, just north of town. Blackjack and the boys were using an old lake cabin as a base.
Everybody took a breather for a few minutes after the long drive, and then filed in. Shit, and here I thought the tension between the Devils and I was thick. In the little makeshift cabin, it was fucking suffocating.
Devils and Grizzlies eyeballed each other like warriors from separate worlds. One wrong move was all it'd take to make bullets or knives start flying, murdering the uneasy alliance we both needed.
Rabid came up and slapped my back. “Welcome home, brother. I'm sorry as shit I couldn't get her out in time like Christa back there.”
He pointed to the little bedroom. Fucking typical Rabid. If there was any pretty redhead who needed comforting, he was always the man for the job. Though I wasn't so sure how pretty she'd be after the brutal number Fang and his crew did on her.
“There's still time,” I growled. “It's not over 'til Missy's outta that fucking dump and we've turned this club around for good.”
A loud whistle silenced us before we could say anything else. Blackjack and Blaze were gathered at the little wooden table. All twenty guys from the two clubs coalesced in a circle.
“Make a little room for Brass,” Blackjack growled. “He needs to see this.”
Fuck. See what?
I pushed my way through a couple big Grizzlies, taking my place next to the de facto Prez. Blackjack was holding a phone, his dark eyes glued to the screen.
“Sorry, son. This just came in a few minutes ago.”
He held it up for everyone to see, especially me.
They had Missy in the dank fucking storage room, parked on the same rickety chair where they'd tortured Christa. Fang was behind her, his sharp knife with the custom bear claw handle at her throat.
Don't fucking do it, don't fucking do it, don't...
My vision started to blur to red again. My fists shook at my sides. For a second, it felt like the whole fucking universe was compressing into a tiny hot ball around me.
Smaller, darker, and deader. My soul prepared to rocket outta my body and swing straight down to hell, screaming and killing anything that got in its way.
The knife fell back. Not even a trickle of blood on her throat.
Thank God.
“You know the drill by now, assholes.” Fang's voice was more irritated than I'd ever heard it. “Different girl. Same terms. Except you've just cut your remaining time in half. You're down to five hours to comply. I expect the tape, the confession, and the rats by o-sixteen-hundred or I'll be carving two pieces off this cunt for being so troublesome. Starting with those pretty tits.”