Exquisite Karma (Iron Horse MC Book 4) (15 page)

“What’s up, cuz?” He grinned at me, then squinted his eyes. “You look like shit warmed over.”

“Thanks.”

We left soon after that and piled into Poppy’s Land Rover. I ended up in the back with my cousin, while Poppy and Mimi sat up front. “How did you get up here so quick? I only called Poppy three hours ago.”

“Lady Karma,” Mimi said with a smug smile while Vinnie groaned.

Like most of the Stefano men, Vinnie didn’t believe in “woo woo bullshit” like karma and fate. The women, however, were very superstitious and made their men’s lives hell because of it. I can still remember my aunt Theresa whacking her husband over the head until he turned around the car we were riding in so she could get a turtle out of the road. She was convinced if we drove past it without offering aid, we’d be cursed. Her husband had been pissed about wasting time over a turtle, but he did it.

“It was fate.” Poppy nodded her head in agreement. “Not five minutes after I hung up with you, Sarah, Mimi just happened to show up on my doorstep, letting me know she was leaving Vinnie with me to act as a bodyguard.”

“What?”

Smiling at Poppy, Mimi looked into the rearview mirror and met my gaze. “When Mike told me about Poppy being part of the transport deal, and where she lived, I knew where one of our first stops in Colorado would be.”

“You think they’ll come after her? I mean, she’s not really a part of Iron Horse, other than business.”

“Possibly.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Poppy said as she passed a slow-moving sedan, “I’m an expert in about a zillion different plant-related things. There are very few people in the world that have the credentials that I do, and only one or two in the US besides me. While I don’t know what kind of saplings they’re moving, I do know they’re delicate and priceless.”

“A priceless plant?”

“Don’t look at me like I’m crazy.”

Vinnie totally was.

“Think about it this way, what if it’s a tree whose fruit cures cancer? Or produces leaves that can eat up oil slicks? Or a new type of apple tree that can grow even in the desert and produces three crops a year?”

“They can do that shit?” Vinnie asked in a low voice.

“Maybe. Science is advancing at an exponential rate, the new discoveries that happened once every fifty years now coming every month. Who knows what kind of crazy shit someone invented.” We stopped at a red light and Poppy’s worried gaze met mine in the rearview mirror. “Or it could be a biological weapon. A new flower with pollen poisonous to humans, or some type of new disease-bearing tree found deep in the Amazon rainforest. These saplings are with a shipment of weapons; it would seem odd to have a cancer-curing tree amongst so much destruction.”

“
Dio
dannato
,” Vinnie whispered.

Mimi drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We can guess all day long and it won’t do us any good. Poppy, can you recall anything else in your instructions that might give us a clue?”

“Nope. I was told my role would be explained to me when I joined the transport crew. If I had a look at the plants I could probably tell you something, but so far I know next to nothing about them.”

I looked down at my ragged nails, almost afraid to ask the next question. “Have you heard anything about Iron Horse?”

Mimi stiffened while Poppy shook her head. “No, I’ve been out of the country in Japan until a few days ago.”

I examined my stepmother, who was giving off some really weird vibes. “Meems, do you know something?”

She sighed. “We will discuss it later.”

“Mimi, what do you know? And don’t lie to me, please, even if you think it’s for my own good.”

“Last night, two members of Iron Horse were killed in a hit-and-run that we believe was no accident. But that’s not the worst part.” Her voice cracked as she said, “One of the teenage daughters of one of the members was abducted from her afterschool job last night. We believe it was the Sokolov
Bratva
.”

Poppy made a soft, mournful noise as I breathed out, “Who? Wait—Sokolov, like Tom Sokolov?”

“No.” Mimi’s expression was downright frightening. “Tom Sokolov is nothing like his Russian relatives that now run the Sokolov
Bratva
. They are animals, scum, and he is a good man-nothing like his cousins overseas. In fact, he hates them. Now, I said we will discuss that later and I mean it.”

Anger bubbled up in me as my mind ran through the long list of children I’d met who belonged to the members of the Iron Horse MC, hundreds of bright eyes, shy smiles, and happy laughs. One of those sweet girls could be suffering right now, having God knows what done to her by monsters pretending to be men, and Mimi wanted to discuss it later. I struggled to contain myself while Vinnie gave me a weary look.

“A young girl might be being
tortured
right now and that isn’t important enough to talk about?”

“No,” Mimi snapped, turning in her seat to glare at me. “Because we need to stop the next young girl from being taken, and the only way we’ll be able to do that is if we find your mother. Besides, Beach is handling things back in Austin.”

“Have you talked to him? Crap, are you going to tell him I’m here? I’d really rather you didn’t; if he found out, he’d kill any chances I have of finding my mom.”

She slowly shook her head, looking not happy in the least. “No, I’m not going to tell him you are here, but not for the reasons you think. He’s keeping Iron Horse from fragmenting beneath the onslaught of its enemies and he needs to focus all his attention on what’s going on down there. If Carlos knew you were here, he’d drop everything, no matter how delicate, and come get you.”

I slumped back into the comfortable leather seat, my head resting as I looked out the window. “Yeah, he would. He really loves me.”

Tears welled in my eyes while Vinnie grunted and muttered something about “chick shit” before saying louder, “I hate to interrupt this Lifetime Movie moment, but Swan is gonna be arriving in town soon with some fuck-up named Smoke—who the fuck names these guys anyway?—and they’re stayin’ in a place filled with bikers, some of whom are most assuredly traitors. So while I’m all a-fucking-flutter that some stupid biker asshole is sticking his dick in you— Ow!”

His words cut off abruptly as I gave him a titty-twister that left him rubbing his chest and scowling, “Don’t talk about Beach like that, ever, do you understand me?”

“Fine! Shit, you nearly ripped my damn nipple off.”

I bared my teeth at him as Mimi said in an exasperated voice, “Children. Back on task, please.”

Vinnie sneered at me, but returned his attention to Mimi. “Yes, ma’am.”

Mimi arched a brow at me and I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. Now, we’re going back to Poppy’s house. Your cousins Mark and Paul are hacking into some of the traffic and security cameras around the city as we speak. They have this new facial recognition software that they swear is the greatest thing since pasta.”

I took that in, my thoughts racing as I tried to process everything happening around me all at once. “How did you know where I was?”

“Actually, I followed Swan up here. She told us what was happening and I decided to pay a visit as well. While she’s driving up with Smoke, myself, Marco, and Vinnie flew so we could beat her here.”

My mouth went dry. “Is Dad coming up here as well?”

“No, your father is working with some of his buddies to try to hunt your mother down.”

“Is he mad?”

Vinnie cackled. “Yeah, you could say that. You could also say he’s gone off on a murderous rampage, ready to take apart anyone who’s harmed his sweet girls. First stop, your boyfriend who loves you soooooo much.”

Shit. “He’s going to Austin?”

From the front seat, Mimi sighed. “He found out last night about the young girl and went on the warpath. You know your father has a very, very negative view of men dragging children into their dangerous bullshit.”

My stomach clenched and I tried to relax by taking a couple deep breaths before I spoke in a faint voice, “Is he going to help Beach or try to kill him?”

The arch look she gave me made me want to hunch down. “Really, Sarah, if your father wanted Carlos dead, he would be. He’s going there to help.”

A weight lifted from my shoulders. “Really?”

“Yes, really. I know your head was filled with terrible thoughts about Mike when you were with Billie, but Sarah, I promise you, he loves you more than anything in the world and wants you to be happy. We’ve seen you and Carlos together, we know you love each other, and we’re grateful you’re with a good man—in his own way. That doesn’t mean your father will stop threatening to neuter Carlos, but he doesn’t really mean it.”

Vinnie spoke up from next to me, his voice cold and hard, without a trace of the usual teasing laughter. “I know the men Beach are dealing with, I’ve done business with the Russians in the past, and I spent some time with the Israelis. Both will consider it their sacred duty to destroy the Iron Horse MC.”

Tears of frustration burned my eyes and I looked away again, training my gaze on the freeway speeding by in orange-ish patches of light followed by darkness as the sun fully set. “I know.”

Poppy cleared her throat. “I can’t help but notice you don’t look very good, Sarah. Have you been to a doctor? Why do you need the Zofran? That’s not something they usually prescribe for minor things like the flu.”

I considered lying for a moment, but Mimi had to know my limitations right now. Where I’d usually rush into danger like a bull through a field of clover, now I had to protect the innocence growing inside of me. One good kick to my stomach during a fight and I could lose him or her.

I rested my hand on the small baby bump, growing harder and bigger by the day. “It’s not the flu. I have super-bad morning sickness.”

Silence filled the car and I swear to God everyone held their breath for a few seconds before Mimi shrieked out, “You’re pregnant?”

Unsure if she was super-mad, super-happy, super-pissed, or super-excited, I wearily nodded. “Yeah. I’m somewhere between thirteen and fifteen weeks right now. I haven’t been to the doc yet for my second trimester visit, for obvious reasons. You don’t have to say it, I know I’m a terrible mother already, but I swear I’ve done my best to stay as healthy as I can.”

For a long moment Mimi said nothing, and I became a little worried as she stared out the Land Rover’s tinted windshield without blinking. “Meems?”

She held up her hand, then turned as much as she could in her seat, her dark eyes glittering fiercely as she pinned me to my seat with her gaze. “I never want to hear you say that again.”

I blinked back tears, confused and stung by her words. “What?”

“You will be the best mother in the world for the baby growing inside of you. So filled with love, so smart and strong, you will be amazing and your child will know nothing but love from you.” Her hair fell forward as she tilted her head slightly and gave me a sad smile. “Does Carlos know? I’m guessing not, or he’d have you locked away in some gilded cage on his private island to keep you safe.”

Ignoring the truth of that statement, I nervously smoothed back the synthetic hair of my wig. “I—well, I haven’t really had a chance to tell him yet.”

Vinnie let out a low whistle. “Wait, wait, lemme get this straight. You not only ran off on this guy—who is a hard-case psycho motherfucker, by the way—you also failed to mention that you were pregnant with his kid before you took off after your
puttana
mother who fucked them over sideways. Shit. How long you been gone now?”

“Two weeks,” I muttered.

“First, let me say congratulations. Like my aunt, I know you’re gonna be a great mother.” Vinnie crossed himself before laughing. “Second, lemme know when you tell the proud papa you’ve been hunting a group of professional killers—alone. I wanna make sure I’m at least five states away when he loses his shit.”

With a groan, I removed the glasses and shoved them into my purse before rubbing my face. “You really think he’s going to freak?”

The look Vinnie gave me was an odd mixture of sympathy and amusement. “Oh yeah.”

Shit.

The next morning, I woke up in a nice room with thick gold curtains blocking the light, wearing what looked like a pair of silky pajamas with cupcakes on them. They were strangely familiar. I flopped back and stared at the textured white ceiling above me, my eyes drawn to the beams of streaming light as I tried to figure out what I was going to do. Even in my dreams I’d worried about what was going to happen, and I’d been haunted by nightmares of girls I knew getting kidnapped as revenge against the Iron Horse MC for losing all that valuable merchandise.

Cupcakes…I was wearing Mimi’s cupcake pajamas. I’d had to borrow a pair because I only had the clothes I was wearing with me. They were loose on me everywhere except the chest and I absently rubbed my curved belly.

My wig sat on a white-pine dresser, along with my neatly folded—and no doubt washed—clothes. I’m a light sleeper, odd noises will pull me from a deep sleep to instant alertness, but somehow Mimi had been in and out of the modest bedroom without waking me once. It was either a testament to her skills, or an indication of how worn out I was.