Burn (3 page)

The door opened at noon and Danni shot upright off the bed.
 
She pretended to be happy to see Tommy, but really, she was checking to see if there was anyone else outside the cabin.
 
It didn’t look like it, from what she could see.

“Hi. I brought you a sandwich,” he said.
 
“It’s bologna.
 
I wasn’t supposed to put anything on it, but I managed to sneak some mustard on there. I hope that’s OK.”
 

Danni took the sandwich from him and gave him the sexiest smile she could manage.
 
“Thanks. It means a lot that you did that.”
 

Tommy’s face was blank, she couldn’t get a read on him.
 
“It wasn’t a big deal.”

To Danni’s surprise, he didn’t leave right away.
 
He stayed and watched her eat, which was kind of creepy in an innocent way.
 
Like the way a thirteen-year-old boy would stalk a girl he liked.

“How long you been with the Rattlers?” Danni asked, between bites.
 

“Couple of months.
 
I was too green to go fight Black Ice, so I stayed behind to watch the clubhouse.
 
Fixer said it was going to be a bloodbath.”

“It was,” Danni said.
 
“Only for the Rattlers, not Black Ice.”

Tommy nodded.
 
“Maybe it would’ve been different if I was there.”

Danni pressed on.
 
“What made you join up with them?”

“My father was a member.
 
He died about ten years ago, but he was a Rattler ‘til the day he died.
 
His wish was that I join up.
 
I don’t think they even wanted me around, but sons of members are hard to keep out.
 
I pretty much had a pass.
 
It’s not what I expected, though.”

Danni leaned back and rested her head on the wall.
 
“What were you expecting?”

“My dad always talked about the brotherhood.
 
How members always had each other’s back.
 
I never had that growing up.
 
I didn’t have any brothers or anyone to watch out for me.
 
I wanted that.
 
But this…”
 

Danni waited for him to keep talking.

“This is a lot more than I was expecting.
 
The violence, the darkness in it all.”

“You can get caught up in that stuff, it can bring you down,” said Danni.

Tommy shook his head.
 
“No, it doesn’t work that way.
 
You don’t get dragged into the darkness.
 
This life lets it out of you.”

Danni realized what he wasn’t saying.
 
The things he had seen didn’t bother this stupid and confused kid; it was giving him the avenue he needed to let it out of him.

Tommy’s eyes went wide.
 
He realized he was talking too much and left the cabin in a hurry.
 
Danni was left alone, wondering what she would find out the next time they met.

“H
ey, check this out,” Cruz called out

Mercer walked into the room.
 
Cruz was holding a map.
 
It showed Montana and parts of Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
 
There were X’s drawn on the map in a few locations.

“What do you think this is?” asked Cruz.

“Not sure.
 
It could be land owned by the Rattlers, safe houses, something like that.”

“Someplace they could’ve taken Danni?”

They had been searching the Rattler clubhouse for an hour and this was the only lead they’d found.
 
The Rattlers had left behind a lot of stuff, but none of it gave them an idea of where they might’ve taken Danni.

Mercer was feeling torn up and raw.
 
Danni was missing and he was forced to search for her with Cruz, a man he didn’t entirely trust.
 
Mercer had to admit that Cruz had come through when the Rattlers attacked the Black Ice clubhouse.
 
He no longer doubted Cruz’s commitment to the MC.
 
No, where Mercer still didn’t trust him was Danni.
 
He knew there was something going on he didn’t know about.
 
That feeling, coupled with his lack of sleep, was making him very irritable, and he was taking it out on Cruz.

They didn’t have much else to say to each other as they tore apart the Rattler clubhouse for the third time.
 
They had even gone so far as to pull apart the vents to see if anything was hidden.
 
They only thing they found was a stash of gay porn.
 
Mercer guessed being gay wasn’t allowed in the Rattlers, so whomever it belonged to had to hide it.

Finally, they had to admit there was nothing of interest, besides the map.
 
They walked outside and stood next to their bikes.
 
Both men lit cigarettes.

“What places do those maps show?”

Cruz pulled it out of his pocket and unfolded it.
 
“Looks like there’s spots marked outside of cities.
 
Got one near Billings, then another right in Casper, Wyoming.
 
Then even further south, somewhere near Cheyenne.
 
What do you think?”

Mercer smoked and thought.
 
“Since these are the only leads we got, makes sense to start at Billings and work our way south.”

“Hell of a ride,” said Cruz.
 
“Take us an hour and half just to get to Billings.
 
Then we’re talking four hours to Casper.
 
Probably another three to Cheyenne.”

“If you’re too much of a pussy for the ride, then just say so.
 
I said I’d do this on my own, and I still can.”

“Fuck you, Mercer,” Cruz fired back.
 
“You’re not the fucking president yet, you can’t talk to me that way.
 
I was just stating some goddamn facts.
 
This is going to be at least a two-day trip.
 
Maybe three, depending on what we find there.”

Mercer didn’t say anything else.
 
He got on his bike and started out towards Billings, not bothering to see if Cruz was coming along.

***

Cruz knew his distances.
 
Mercer figured all the time spent roaming from town to town had given him a good idea of how long it took to get anywhere.
 
They made Billings in just shy of ninety minutes.
 
What neither man had accounted for was the imprecise X’s on the map.
 
The location marked was south of the Yellowstone River, a few miles west of U.S. 80, but whoever had marked the map was obviously making a mental note for himself, not actually showing someone else how to find the place.
 
Mercer figured the X was designed to remind someone of the location, assuming that person would know how to find it when he got close.
 
Mercer and Cruz didn’t have that knowledge, so they spent two hours riding in the area, finding nothing.

Cruz checked the map again.
 
There were on a dirt road five miles west of the highway.
 
The land near them was flat and empty until the small mountain range started some distance away from them.
 
They had searched the area directly indicated on the map and made their way out from there.
 

“Whatever this map was leading us to is long gone.
 
We don’t even know how old this is.
 
They could’ve had a headquarters here before they moved to Rawlins, and this is just out-of-date information.”

Mercer agreed with Cruz, but said nothing.
 
He didn’t feel like admitting Cruz was right about anything.
 
“Keep looking.
 
If we don’t find anything in a couple of hours, we’ll move on to Casper.”

“In a couple of hours, it’s going to be dark.
 
You’ve been up all night.
 
It’s time to rest up.”

“I’ll fucking rest when we find Danni.
 
Until then, we don’t stop.”

They split up and kept searching.
 
Cruz went east and Mercer went south.
 
Another hour passed as they rode their bikes down the road and into the grass.
 
Mercer gunned his engine to crest a small hill and felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.
 
He stopped and killed the engine.

“I’ve found something.
 
Can you see where I am?”

Mercer pulled out a small pair of binoculars and saw Cruz in the distance.
 
He was waving his arm above his head.

“I see you,” answered Mercer.

He started the bike again and took off down the hill.
 
Cruz was off his bike at the entrance to a long dirt road.
 
Blocking the road was a small metal gate with large trees on either side.
 
Not impenetrable on foot, but they wouldn’t be able to ride their bikes up the drive.
 

“What the hell does that lead?” asked Mercer.

“Not sure.
 
It’s right near the mark on the map, though.
 
We missed it because the grass is overgrown. I got off the bike to take a piss and saw it.
 
Never would’ve seen it otherwise.”

They walked the up the drive cautiously.
 
After five minutes, they came to a barn.
 
It was several stories high and appeared to be very old, but well maintained.
 
The door was bolted with a shiny new padlock.

“What you think’s in there?” asked Cruz.

Mercer looked for another entrance but didn’t find one.
 
He pulled out his gun and fired at the lock.
 
The first one scarred it, the second shot knocked it loose.
 
Inside the doors, they found a room so large, the light from their flashlights couldn’t illuminate the entire place.
 
They could see metal shelves along one wall containing with wood crates.
 
Mercer slowly moved his light across the wall until he found an industrial-sized light switch.
 
Cruz flipped it on and fluorescent lights came to life.

The room was at least the size of two basketball courts end to end.
 
All of the walls were lined with the same metal shelves.
 
Some contained more wooden crates; others had canned goods and bottles of water.
 
At the far end of the room, twenty military-style cots were grouped together.

“Son of a bitch.
 
What hell is this place?” said Cruz

“They’re stockpiling weapons, we know that much.” said Mercer. “We just don’t know why.
 
It’s like they were preparing for a war down here.”

They continued to explore the area.
 
Judging from the number of cots and food supplies, the Rattlers were expecting to house a lot of people for at least a year.
 
Cruz went over to a crate and pried the lid off one of them using his crowbar.

“Holy shit, Mercer.
 
You have to come see this.”

Mercer peered into the box.
 
Inside were five SR-47 assault rifles.
 
The next crate over contained a series of handguns.
 
They opened one more and found a rocket launcher.
 
There were a lot more crates down there.
 
If each one of them contained weapons, they’d have enough to arm a small army.

“Come on,” said Mercer.
 
“Let’s see what else is down here.”

They ventured further into the bunker.
 
They found a utilitarian bathroom facility, complete with flushing toilets and even a working shower.
 
Whatever the Rattlers had planned, they wanted to make sure they could stay there for a very long time.

They walked back outside so Mercer could get a signal.
 
He opened up Google Maps on his phone and marked the exact spot, then sent that location to Doc, then called him.

“Doc, you’re not going to believe this.”
 
Mercer told him about what they found. “Get a truck, a big moving van, biggest one you can find, and get to the spot on the map.
 
Take everything of value and hightail it out of here.
 
We’ll be gone by the time you get here.”

When Mercer hung up, Cruz asked, “You think that’s a good idea?”

“No choice.
 
All those weapons down there, we find the right bidder and we could be talking close to a million dollars.
 
Plus, we keep a few for ourselves and finally get the guns we need to defend the club.”