A couple of the Jackal Riders’ rookies sit at a table, with a few of the club’s more experienced members, and finally, at the far side of the room, watching it all with that calm gaze of his, is Phoenix. The man is one stone-cold badass, and I’m so fucking glad he’s here. He got his nickname after he crawled out of the burning vehicle that was hit while he was on military duty. The man was literally on fire himself, and he still managed to stand, pull out his weapon and shoot some of the attackers. It’s left him with scars, but as he likes to say himself, they’re just a reminder of how he rose out of the ashes of that event.
They’ve left the Jackals’ compound with around ten men standing guard, but their most skilled fighters, and the most senior among them, are here. I hope it doesn’t bring down any trouble on the Jackals by leaving them exposed and vulnerable. But why would it? No one will know what has occurred, and even if they saw the guys leave, they’d have assumed it was an ordinary ride-out and be expecting them back any time. I doubt they’ll face an impromptu attack.
As I lay the maps out on the table and sort them into some form of order, the door bangs open and Ace strides in. Good. He’s the one who can talk them through the routes that we have available to pick from. The guy might be all kinds of crazy, but he’s a pretty decent Road Captain. I’ll take his advice on which is the best way for us to get in.
A shadow falls over the map to my left, and I glance around to see Phoenix has come to stand beside me.
“So, this girl they’ve taken, she’s a student at the same college as your daughter, I understand?”
“Yes,” I reply.
“Hmm,” he hums.
What the hell does that sound mean? It’s one of those noises that normally indicates the person is skeptical or thinks there’s more to the story.
“What?” I snap.
“It just seems to me that you’re going to a hell of a lot of trouble for a missing college student. I would have thought it would be the college’s business, or her family’s. I mean, you’ve got your entire MC on it, almost, give or take a few, and now we’ve come down here to help.” He gestures around the bar by sweeping his arm out.
“If you don’t want to help, you can always go on back home.”
He chuckles, low and deep. “You know that’s not what I’m saying, Prez. But what gives? You’re going to a hell of a lot of trouble to bring one lost girl home.”
“She means something to some of my men,” I say instead of giving him the full story.
“Some of your men? As in more than one?”
He raises his brow, but he doesn’t say anything further. A good decision on his behalf because if he did, I might take that as an insult against my daughter and her living situation.
“Yeah, as in more than one. It seems that one of the rookie members here has kind of gotten himself into a situation with her, as has this idiot.” I jerk my thumb at Ace, who merely grins.
My mind briefly goes to our rookie, and I wonder where he is. Even though he’s not patched in yet, there are rookies here from the Jackal Riders, so I thought he’d have wanted in. It’s not like him to not be around.
“And you’re quite fond of her, too, aren’t you, Prez?” Ace throws in with a wink.
I want to punch him in the face.
“We all like her,” I say firmly. “She’s a good girl, and she doesn’t deserve this, so we’re going to get her back. Never mind the fact that she was onmyterritory when she was taken, Phoenix, and I can’t let that stand. Would you?”
He shakes his head at that. “No, I wouldn’t.”
“And the rival MC took some of our weapons,” Ace adds. “So, they’re making themselves a nuisance all around, and we need to put an end to it. They’re smaller than us, too, so the audacity of them is really pissing me off.”
“Did you ever do any extracurricular work in the military?” I ask.
“As in…” Phoenix frowns at the question.
“Perhaps some torture of one sort or another?” Ace says, obviously reading my mind.
“I was trained in interrogation techniques. Why?”
“Before we set out, there are three idiots being held at the moment, in the cooler, who might know something. I’d like to get whatever I can out of them without actually doing them too much physical harm. We need to keep them coherent and cogent in case we need more information down the line.”
“Coherent and cogent,” Ace repeats. “Fancy.”
I turn around and shoot him a laser stare of anger. “One more fucking word from you, and I swear you will be out of this rescue mission, do you understand?”
He holds his hands up and backs away, nodding. “I was only trying to lighten the situation,” he says. “I’ll leave you guys to talk.”
