Burn (2 page)

“No need to be afraid, Old Lady,” said Fixer.
 
“I’m just here to have a little fun.”

Danni looked around for a weapon but found nothing.
 
While living in Rawlins, she had become used to carrying a baton on her, but she had left it at the Black Ice clubhouse after the attack.
 
“You come near me, you’ll lose an eye.
 
I promise that.”

Fixer came further into the room. He casually flipped his knife in his hand and gave her a little wink.
 
“Don’t be like that, Old Lady. Don’t you want to have some fun? Come on.
 
Let’s have some fun.
 
We can take pictures and send them to Mercer.”

“Go fuck yourself,” said Danni defiantly.

Again, she searched for a weapon. And again, she found nothing. There was nothing she could do to stop Fixer.

Fixer laughed and put his knife away.
 
“I was just funnin’ you, Old Lady.”

“Why do you keep calling me ‘Old Lady’?” asked Danni.

Fixer laughed again and shook his head.
 
“What the hell was Mercer teaching you?
 
Don’t you know anything about motorcycle gangs?
 
An old lady is the main woman of a gang member.
 
When you’re someone’s old lady, none of the other gang members can fuck you.
 
And none of them can fuck
with
you.”

Fixer went to the door. He checked the lock to make sure was working, then turned back to Danni.

“I was just having some fun with ya,
Old Lady, but I’ll be back.
 
And I’m going to have some questions about Black Ice.
 
You’re going to answer those questions, or my knife’s come back out, and it won’t get put away until it’s nice and bloody.”

M
ercer rode his motorcycle down the quiet streets of Rawlins, Montana.
 
He rode past the baker’s shop, the diner, and the library. It was his town, and he enjoyed the quiet streets.

It had been a long day.
 
The Black Ice Motorcycle Club had battled the Rattlers and beaten them.
 
It hadn’t been a long battle, but it had been bloody.
 
Mercer himself had been stabbed severely, the pain still hadn’t gone away, but Black Ice had defended their town and come out victorious.
 

Mercer was tired.
 
He just wanted to get home to Danni, take a long, hot shower, and make love to her for hours.
 
He pulled up outside his apartment and dismounted from his bike.
 
His eyes felt like there were grains of sand under the lids.
 
He walked up the stairs, so tired from the day that he was barely aware of a flowerpot kicked over out front.
 
Nor did he pay much attention to the broken light bulb outside his door.
 

When he reached his doorway, he stood dumbly outside his place, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
 
The door was hanging open, the light spilling out into the hallway from a lamp lying on the floor.
 
The coffee table was knocked over, a broken coffee cup next to it.

Mercer snapped into action, the exhaustion forgotten.
 
He ran through the small apartment, calling out Danni’s name.
 
There was no answer.
 
She was nowhere to be found.
 
He checked his phone; he hadn’t missed a call or text.
 
She was just gone.
 
The only evidence that she had even been there was a wrecked apartment.

He pulled out his phone and sent a mass text to Doc, Cruz, and Red:
My place. 911.
 

***

The next morning, Mercer paced around the clubhouse like a caged animal.
 
He had stayed there last night, unable to stay in the place where Danni had been abducted.
 
Despite being so tired that he’d almost fallen asleep riding, he couldn’t rest, and had spent the night boarding up the windows and doors that the Rattlers had blown out in their fight.
 
It occurred to him that Black Ice would be much more stable financially now that the Rattlers weren’t around to blow up their damn clubhouse.

Doc came in holding two cups of coffee and a bag of doughnuts from Al’s.
 
He had offered to stay with Mercer the previous night—all the MC members did—but he had sent them home.
 
He knew he wouldn’t be getting any sleep, but he wanted the others to be rested and ready for anything the day could bring.

“Any word yet?” asked Doc.

“No,” said Mercer.

Doc handed Mercer a cup coffee, which he gratefully took.
 
Mercer drank deeply from the cup, hoping it would waken him up more, but knowing the effects of the caffeine wouldn’t replace a good night’s sleep.

“Don’t worry, kid. We’re going to find her.”

Mercer nodded.
 
“I just want to know who’s responsible for this.
 
The obvious choice’s the Rattlers.
 
Some got away yesterday. I asked around; no one’s seen Fixer.”

“That’s the best guess,” said Doc.
 
“But I don’t know if it’s their style.
 
They’d be more likely to kill her and leave her there, to send a message to us.”

Mercer agreed with Doc, but he knew something Doc didn’t.
 
“That’s what I thought, too, but take a look at this.”

Mercer went to a cardboard box sitting on the floor, reached in, and pulled out a bag of white powder.
 
“It’s coke. This box is full of it and there’s more in the Rattlers’ clubhouse.”

“When the hell did you go to the Rattlers’ clubhouse?” asked Doc, anger and fear in his voice.

“Last night.”

“You went to the Rattlers’ clubhouse by yourself in the middle of the night?
 
Are you insane?
 
Do you know what could’ve happened to you?”

“Don’t worry, I staked it out first.
 
The place was dead, not a soul inside.”

“That was still fucking stupid,” said Doc.
 
“What else did you find?”

“Drugs, and a lot of them.
 
They weren’t just selling, they were using.
 
I think they fried their brains on cocaine.
 
I don’t think Fixer is making rational choices right now.
 
And if he took Danni, that means he’s even more dangerous than we thought.”

Cruz and Red showed up, looking solemn as they came through the door.
 
Cruz also asked if there had been any word, but he knew the answer before Mercer spoke.
 
The look on his face said everything.

“I’m glad you’re here.
 
There’s something I need to tell you.”

The men gathered around Mercer.

“I’m leaving Rawlins. Danni’s out there somewhere and I have to find her. I can’t just sit around waiting for the phone to ring, I have to do something.”

“Where’re you going?” asked Cruz.

“I’m not sure yet.
 
I’m just going to ride for a while.
 
I’ll check out different towns, ask questions, maybe someone saw something.”

“That’s not a good idea,” said Doc.
 
“The last thing we want to do is split up right now.
 
We beat the Rattlers back, hopefully for good, but there’s too much to do around here.
 
We have rebuild the club and get back on our feet.”

Mercer shook his head.
 
“I won’t be good for any of that right now.
 
You guys stay here, get the work done, find new members.
 
I’m going to ride out and see what I can find.”

He looked to them.
 
Red, as usual, had almost nothing to say, but Cruz and Doc both disagreed with Mercer.

“What if it’s a trap?
 
Until yesterday, the Rattlers were staying one step ahead of us.
 
What if this is just a way to lure you out into the open?”

“I have to take that risk.
 
She’s out there.”

“Then I’m going, too,” said Cruz.

“The hell you are,” said Mercer.
 
“This club is in a dangerous spot.
 
We won against the Rattlers, but we’re still weak.
 
We’re open to attack or even a patch over right now.”

A patch over was when a stronger club would take over the area of a smaller club and instead of running the smaller club out of town, they would become members of the bigger club.
 
It was seen as a peaceful alternative to fighting, but it meant the weaker club would lose their autonomy.
 
These bigger clubs usually had hundreds of members, and even at their largest, Black Ice had only had 12 members.
 
It was easier to govern and make decisions this way.
 
There had been attempts to patch over Black Ice in the past and they had always resisted—but right now, with only four members, if bigger club tried to patch them over, they didn’t have to strength to say no.
 

“She’s my friend, too,” said Cruz.
 
“I want to help look.”

Mercer gave him a hard look.
 
He didn’t want to think about Danni and Cruz being friends.
 
Mercer knew there was something he was missing, something between Danni and Cruz, but he also didn’t want to know what it was.
 
He hadn’t been there for Danni over the past couple of weeks, but that time was over and they were making it work.

“No way,” Mercer said. “I’m going alone.”

“Actually, kid, you don’t get to make that call.
 
You’re not the president of Black Ice.
 
We’ve never held a vote. You might be president when we do, but for right now, were all equals, and that means we vote. Show of hands, who thinks Mercer should go alone?”

No one raised a hand.

“That settles it.
 
Cruz is going with you.”
 

T
he only way out was through the front door, Danni knew that now.
 
There were no windows, there were no trapdoors.
 
She had spent the last twenty-four hours searching the place.
 
It wasn’t a large place, and it hadn’t taken long, so she searched it again, and then again.
 
Finally, she had to admit to herself that they only way out was through the front door, which was locked and probably guarded.
 
She wasn’t going anywhere unless they wanted her to.

The only good thing about her predicament was that Fixer had not shown up again after his initial visit.
 
Instead, a young man with long brown hair and a goatee brought her meals.
 
He didn’t even speak to her when he brought her dinner, but there was something about him, something in the way he acted, that set Danni off.
 
He didn’t seem dangerous, but there was something about him that was wasn’t like the rest of them.
 
It was like he knew that what he was doing was wrong.
 
Fixer didn’t seem to have any morals, or anything inside him that said kidnapping was a terrible crime, but this kid seemed sorry to be there.

Danni thought she might be able to use it against him.
 
When he brought her breakfast, she started working on him.
 

“Thanks,” she said, when he brought her a bowl of plain oatmeal.
 
She took it from him like it was the greatest gift she’d ever received, and made sure to flash her eyes at him.
 

“You’re welcome,” he stammered.

“What’s your name?”

“Tommy,” he said.

“Nice name.
 
My name’s Danni.”

He nodded and quickly left.
 
It had been a short conversation, if it even could be called a conversation, but it laid the foundation for later.
 
Sure enough, when Tommy brought her lunch in, she was able to say a little more.