Exquisite Danger (22 page)

I’d hoped she or Mike would contact me with some information, but I didn’t expect it this soon. In all the shit that was going on, I’d lost sight of just how deadly Swan’s loved ones were, and I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of hope that I could get my baby girl though this bullshit relatively unscathed—a miracle that had been appearing less and less probable as time went on. Now we had something…or someone to work with.

The clouds were gathering overhead and a brisk breeze had stirred up the dusty land in the industrial complex, throwing stinging grit into the air that pebbled my skin and skipped off my leather. Thunder rumbled across the distant mountains, and it looked like we were going to get one hell of a storm. I hoped that Breaker would get Swan back before the skies opened up.

We were all wearing protective facemasks. Mine made the lower half of my face, from just below my eyes down, look like a skull. My brothers were all wearing equally intimidating masks. Hulk’s made him look like Frankenstein, and Frame’s was a snarling demon face. Normally, I’d just wear my plain black face protector, but today, we were here to get some answers from a very unwilling piece of shit, so it helped to have the psychological advantage of intimidation. And it would help mask the smell if our target happened to shit, piss, and/or puke himself. That’s one side effect of torture that they don’t tell you about on the news, that the area will stink to high heaven until you bleach the hell out of it or burn it down.

And burning hair leaves a funk that’ll never come out.

As I dismounted the Harley Davidson Road King I borrowed from Breaker, I pulled my black gloves out of my back pocket. These gloves were specially designed to keep any and all body fluids from reaching my skin and I carried them everywhere with me. As I stretched them over my fingers I had to turn my face away from the growing wind. Gonna be a hell of a storm.

“Let’s get the fuck inside.” Hulk yelled over the increasingly loud gusts that whipped between the buildings, throwing more grit into the air by the second.

I nodded and follow him with Frame close behind me, squinting my eyes against the fine grit being picked up by the approaching storm front. The door opened and my brother Icarus’ old lady, Wild, ushered us in. Her dark hair was streaked with silver, and she had more lines around her eyes and mouth than when I last saw her, but she was still hot and knew it. Wearing jeans that looked like they’d been painted on and a black tank top with a plaid shirt over it, she appeared right at home surrounded by spare parts despite looking like an aging super model. After we were all inside, she slammed the door and bolted it to keep the rising storm outside. The squall against the steel framed building created an eerie howl, and I brushed the sand off and gave Wild an apologetic look.

“Smoke.” Her cigarette-roughened voice hadn’t changed, and she gave me a hug that smelled of tobacco, motor oil, and a faint hint of perfume. “So good to see you again, honey.”

I returned her hug before releasing her. “You too.”

“Talked to Breaker a little bit ago. He wanted me to let you know that he and Swan had left his place and he’d call you as soon as he met with Khan.”

The urge to ask Wild if she knew how Swan was doing and was my girl was okay burned in my gut, but I didn’t want to look like a pussy-whipped schmuck in front of my brothers. Fuck, I hated to admit it, but I was worried. My gut was going crazy right then, and the feeling that someone was sneaking up behind me was making my back twitch. I had this bone-deep feeling that something wicked was headed this way, and I didn’t like it one fuckin’ bit. Liked it even less that my baby girl was out there somewhere right now without me to guard her back.

I regretted that I’d been a prick with Swan earlier this morning, but there was a lot of shit coming down on me right now, and I was afraid I’d slip up and she’d get hurt. The last thing Swan needed to deal with right now was knowing that back home in Austin my sister-in-law Veronica had lost it, big time. My sister, Julia, had texted me earlier to let me know that Veronica had been taken to the ER last night after another suicide attempt, which meant I might have to go down to Texas at some point and deal with all the legal red tape that came with being her guardian. To complicate matters, Veronica was off her meds again and out of her damn mind. She needed to be committed, but no one wanted to bother my brother-in-law right now to let him know his sister was goin’ to the insane asylum. He’d been under deep cover for about a month overseas with no contact with home, and we were all starting to get worried. I didn’t know what my sister would do without him, and I didn’t want to find out.

That thought made my fear for Swan roar to life. I was in the fucked up situation of having to decide between my family and my woman. It was possible Veronica could be released after a three day psych hold. If she was off her meds, for her bipolar disorder, my sister was pretty sure Veronica would try to off herself again, and she might succeed. This was the fourth attempt to kill herself that I knew of, and it seemed like the older Veronica got the crazier she became.

The last attempt that I knew of had been when she called me the day I took Swan to meet Mr. Sokolov, known to his friends as Tom. I had told Swan the reason I had to leave was because Veronica was too drunk to drive, but the real reason was that she had called me absolutely off her rocker and was threatening to slit her wrists. I swore to my brother-in-law that I’d look after her, gave him my oath that I’d protect her from herself. I knew my sister was freaking out and couldn’t physically handle Veronica when she was on the downslide of her bipolar swings. Julia was the one who’d found Veronica in her car with the engine running and the garage door sealed shut during a previous suicide attempt. That scared me more than Veronica’s previous threats, because I knew the irrational bitch didn’t have the guts to end her life in a violent way…but slipping into death by carbon monoxide poisoning would be something she would do.

My family needed me right now, but if I left, Swan could end up dead. My soul ached and caused a physical hurt in my body that clenched my gut. This shit had to end.

I had to get the motherfucker downstairs to give us some information if I had any hope of keeping Swan alive.

Frame moved to my left, the glint of his copper orange hair catching my eye. “What’s down there?”

At his words, my focus shifted from my own personal bullshit to our captive in a cold heartbeat.

One thing I love about Wild is that she’s a no-bullshit kind of woman who would do anything to protect those she loves, but she also doesn’t pull any verbal punches. “You mean Smoke’s engagement present from some psycho-scary bitch?”

I swallowed. “What did she look like?”

When Wild described her I knew right away who she was. “That was my future mother-in-law.”

Wild stared at me for a moment, then burst out laughing, tears in her eyes and trailing down her high cheekbones as she clutched her sides. “That was your soon-to-be mother-in-law? Oh boy, I thought my mom was bad, but you? You are fucked.”

Everyone started to chuckle again and I cut them off. “Laugh later. We got business to attend to.”

That sobered everyone quickly, and I exchanged a look with my men, letting ’em know playtime was over.

We wound our way through the various aisles, passing a few brothers who worked for Icarus, before Wild led us to a secret door in the floor beneath the computer desk in her office. We moved her desk, and when the trapdoor swung open, we could hear a man shouting obscenities. There was good soundproofing, which would be handy. None of us flinched at the ragged cries. Wild, her lips curled in disgust, glared at the floor like she could see through it.

Hulk went down first, and I followed soon after, our heavy boots thumping on the stairs. A musty tang flavored the air as we went down the long run of steps, and I wondered how the ventilation was down here. If it wasn’t that good, I couldn’t burn much of anything. Nothing like getting smoke damage to my lungs from a burning corpse. Plus, I didn’t like fire in small places. Shit could go bad quick. I, more than anyone, had respect for the damage fire could do, and I gave it the respect it deserved.

The harsh glow of fluorescent lights illuminated a medium-sized, concrete room with two drains in the floor and a man securely taped to a chair in the middle of the room. He was blindfolded, but that didn’t stop him from cursing us. You know, the usual bullshit—he’d never talk, yada, yada, yada. A growl rumbled through my chest at the sight of his Los Diablos cut. My fingers itched to start to work on him, but first, we had to talk to Icarus who waited on the far side of the room. He stood against the wall, his arms crossed over his big chest, next to a folding table covered with instruments of torture...including a blowtorch.

He grinned at us, his gold tooth flashing in the light before he pushed himself off the wall and gave me a quick hug. “Good to see you again, man. Though I must say, I wish your friends would’ve called before they delivered this present to us. I almost shot their asses.”

I sighed and shook my head. “Feel free to tell Lady Death to call first when she feels like she’s doing you a favor. Be sure to let me know how it goes.”

“That was her? Jesus Christ.” Icarus actually paled beneath his tan and rubbed his mustache. “Fucking hell. How the fuck do you know Mimi Stefano?”

“She’s Mimi Anderson now and my future mother-in-law.”

Icarus smirked and Frame laughed. “Good luck, my friend. You’re gonna need it.”

“Thanks.”

“Well your mother-in-law left a message for you. She said that her boys spotted this fucker following a car with a woman that looked an awful lot like Billie in it.”

“What the fuck? Why didn’t they skip this douche and get Billie?”

“’Cause they found it on surveillance tape at a grocery store from three days ago. Billie headed west out of the city and out of the range of traffic cameras while homeslice here stayed in the city. Lady Death said he was a clean take-down, and no one knows we have him. She also mentioned that he pimps underage girls for Los Diablos. She hopes he will suffer.”

I made a mental note that the next time I saw Mimi I was going to give her a pair of nice diamond earrings for this gift.

Frame stared at the man in the chair with hatred in his eyes. Three years ago, Frame’s sister was killed by her old man, a Los Diablos member who beat her to death. As a result, Frame had absolutely no mercy for any member of the rival MC. This was one of the reasons we brought him with us. Another one was that Frame was an ER Physician’s Assistant and could keep the asshole tied to the chair alive for a very, very long time while we took care of business.

I noticed little white buds in the man’s ears. “Can he hear us at all?”

“Nope, he ain’t hearing shit but the music right now.”

Nodding, I stretched out, my mind going to that empty, dark place inside of me that allowed me to do what needed to be done without compassion or guilt. “You tell anyone about this yet ’sides me and Breaker?”

“Nope.” Icarus grimaced. “I don’t trust phones, computers, or any of that electronic shit right now. Especially after you found all that same crap had been used to spy on us.”

After we cleared out the clubhouse last night we discovered more surveillance equipment that Khan swore hadn’t been there a week ago when they last swept the place. Whoever had done it knew what they were doing, and they’d done it quick. A professional for sure. On the suspicion that there was more equipment we hadn’t found yet, I didn’t blame Icarus for being vague. I never realized how much I used technology until it was taken away, leaving us scrambling to seal up all the leaks. Fuckin’ A, it was safer to use carrier pigeons at this point.

Hulk cracked his neck and began to stretch out his fingers. “So who is this child molester?”

“His name is Steve Miley, just got patched into Los Diablos last year. Got caught sleepin’ on top of a seventeen-year-old girl he pimps.”

“Nasty bastard,” Hulk muttered.

Frame snorted. “Stupid too, thank fuck.”

“Yeah, good for us.”

Frame started to put on what looked like protective gear that one would wear in a hospital and Icarus tossed a pair of thick nitrile gloves to me and Hulk before putting his own on. I held the gloves and gave Icarus a questioning look. I mean, yeah, I used my gloves to protect my hands, but hazmat gear seemed a little much.

Frame caught my expression and gave me a serious look. “Last year we had an incident with a guy we were questioning. Turns out he had HIV. None of us got infected, but it was a scary couple months there.”

“Terrible shit to have hauntin’ the back of your mind, wondering if a scrape on your arm got infected.” Icarus muttered and grabbed one of the gowns after he’d put his gloves on. “Frame tested all of us for six months, and I’ll tell you what, every time I was waiting for that test to come back I was shittin’ bricks. The thought of having possibly brought that home to my wife, maybe my kids? That’s the kind of worry that’ll have you suiting up in hazmat gear.”

I was glad I had obsessively used condoms for sex and blowjobs with everyone, well everyone but Swan. My baby girl had come to me a virgin. Since she was the only woman I planned on doing anything with for the rest of my life, I was glad I wasn’t playing sexual roulette with my cock anymore for brief moments of pleasure. Even last night when a drunk Cyclone had tried to hit on me, I felt nothing but disgust even though I knew how well that bitch could deep throat a cock. After I pissed Swan off, we questioned Cyclone after she’d had a couple shots to calm her down, and I believed her when she said she’d been told that I wanted to see her. I could have had her banned from the club, but I’m pretty sure she was just a pawn in someone else’s game, so I just told her to stay the fuck away from my old lady. Besides, Swan had almost snapped Cyclone’s arm, and I think she was afraid that I’d let my woman settle the score.

I couldn’t forget the blank, hard look on Swan’s face when she’d first glanced up at me while standing over Cyclone like a fucking Valkyrie bent on destruction. When our eyes met, even in my own fury at the danger she’d put herself in, the killer inside of me recognized one of its own. Sometimes it was hard to remember that she was so much more than my beautiful baby girl, but I needed to keep in mind that she could take care of herself. Hell, she could probably take care of herself and me if it came down to it. I needed to get my mind wrapped around that fact so we could work together as a team, not just me doin’ the work while she sat back and stayed safe, hatin’ my guts for keeping her out of the action.