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“So we find a dirty dealer,” Eagle said.
Cali shook his head. “The last dealer who tried to sell that ring ended up in the Mystic River.”
Hawk’s hands began to sweat. “Who was the dealer?”
Cali shrugged. “Some hotshot Boston lawyer who worked for O’Cleary. Although it’s not clear who did the killing, the details of the man’s torture point toward the IRA with help from the Black Jacks.”
Hawk suddenly felt nauseated. “That same lawyer tried to kill Izzy by poisoning her. But the Black Jacks may still want the ring. They may not know about that antiquity law.”
“Hawk?” Acid asked. “Do you have the ring?”
“No.” His heart clenched in his chest. “Izzy wasn’t wearing it, and I didn’t have a chance to ask her about it.”
Eagle placed his hands on his hips and slipped into the lecture mode they all knew well. “We can’t kill our attackers or show our weapons to scare them away. We don’t have the ring to trade or sell. We are screwed.” Eagle looked at all of the men who now surrounded Acid. “The only way to end this without us going to prison—and without bloodshed—is to give the Black Jacks something else they want.” He looked directly at Hawk. “We give them Izzy.”
* * *
Izzy sat on the couch next to Mandy and looked around the basement. She was pleasantly surprised by what she saw. She’d expected spiders, mold, and dark corners. Instead, she found a large room with a modern kitchen in the corner, leather couches and club chairs spread throughout the room, and a giant television mounted to a brick wall. The entire space was even air conditioned with advanced temperature controls.
Hannah, Betsy, and Mandy had changed into shorts and T-shirts. They were now cuddled on a couch eating popcorn and watching a romcom movie on the huge screen. Luckily, Lara had left the compound before things got interesting so she wasn’t around to give evil stares and ask awkward questions.
“Here.” Mandy handed Izzy a granola bar. “You look pale.”
“Because there’s a literal attack going on upstairs,” Izzy said. “With guns.” And Cali still had her handgun.
Hannah waved a dismissive hand. “We’re safe down here. We use this place during lockdowns and nothing has ever happened to us.”
Izzy took a bite of the granola bar, surprised to find she was hungry again. “What’s a lockdown?”
Betsy answered first. “When the club hits some kind of trouble and expects a retaliation at the compound, all the women and children who are around—and any other civilians—are sent down here to wait it out.” She ate a huge handful of popcorn and added, “It’s not too bad in here. You’ll get used to it.”
Mandy offered Izzy a smile. “I stock my own snacks down here now. Just in case.”
She shook her head as if that would change the situation. “How do we know what’s going on upstairs if we’re stuck down here?”
“We don’t know,” Hannah said as she finished a bag of toffee popcorn. “We just wait it out.”
She scoffed and got up to pace the room. Hawk had locked the main door after pushing her inside, but there had to be another way out. She might allow Hawk to give her the occasional order, but she was not awaiting aroundkind of girl. Not after being almost poisoned to death.
As the other women watched the movie and ate snacks, she investigated every inch of every wall in the room. She had another reason for wanting to escape. Back in Hawk’s room, she’d received a text from Agent Miller. But because of how fast the situation changed, she’d not been able to respond to the text. And she had no cell service in the basement.
The text she’d received while carrying Hawk’s breakfast had just requested she confirm her location. She’d responded to that one, but she’d also told her contact she wasn’t ready to make a deal. But the text she’d received after she and Hawk had made love told her that not making a deal was no longer an option. If she didn’t meet them within a few days, with the ring, they would come after her. And if she didn’t hand the ring over, they’d arrest her for theft of a cultural artifact. A federal crime that carried serious jail time.
Unfortunately, the protocol they’d worked out earlier in the day included a clause that said if she didn’t respond to their future texts within an hour, they would come to her at the compound. Where Hawk and his brothers probably stored all their legal and illegal weapons.
She blamed her poor choice to agree to the protocol on her temper. She’d been annoyed at being ordered around by Hawk, upset that Agent Miller had changed the deal, and had agreed just to get off the phone.
She glanced at the clock on the wall. It’d been thirty minutes since she’d received the call. So she had thirty minutes left to respond. Now she just had to figure out a way to escape.
It took her ten more minutes before she found a trap door in the floor beneath a rug in the kitchen area. The women were still engrossed in their movie, so she moved the table herself and rolled up the rug. The trap door opened easily, like it had been recently oiled, and the ladder leading down into the space below smelled like freshly cut pine.
She rummaged around the kitchen until she found a small flashlight attached to a paracord she could wear around her neck. Then she climbed down the stairs, into the cool darkness, praying there’d be no spiders or other kinds of critters. The good news was that once she climbed off the ladder and found herself in a tunnel, she didn’t see any rats or spiders. The bad news was that the tunnel was long and dark, and she had no idea where it led.
She wasn’t sure of the time, but since it was fleeting she walked deeper into the tunnel. She had to respond to that text. If she didn’t, and the FBI showed up, she could lose Hawk forever.
ChapterTen
Hawk was furious. The club had voted on whether or not to trade Izzy back to the Black Jacks to end the standoff before the Ravensburg PD called in reinforcements and arrested everyone. Unfortunately, the vote was seven to two, in favor of trading Izzy. Only Hawk and Thor had voted against the trade.
