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He understood the club’s worries, but there had to be a better way. If he could find that ring, maybe the Black Jacks would take that instead.
Acid stood in the center of the men and said, “Eagle will take the white flag and set up the parley. Then I’ll meet with Nine. If he agrees, we’ll trade Isolde in exchange for them leaving town.”
Twitch raised his hand. “What if they want the ring?”
“We’ll tell them the truth,” Acid said. “But we’ll need to be ready in case they don’t believe us.” He nodded at Thor and Drac. “Set up a perimeter guard, with snipers on the roofs. I want all of our men out there, hidden with weapons, just in case this thing goes south.”
After all the men nodded, Eagle left the room holding a stick with a white handkerchief attached to the end.
Hawk sat in the corner, fuming. This plan was ridiculous, and he hated the fact they weren’t fighting back. He understood the logic, especially since so many of the men in the club had long rap sheets and didn’t want to return to prison. But negotiations like this scraped up against his natural instinct to attack and give in to aggression.
Thor pulled up a chair next to him. “I want you on the Powder House roof with a sniper rifle.”
He nodded and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Look, brother.” Thor lowered his voice. “Once we give Izzy back to Nine, and end this ridiculous standoff, I’ll go with you to Boston and we’ll get her back. I promise.”
He heard the earnestness in Thor’s voice. But Hawk knew the truth. If Izzy went back, without that ring, her stepfather would kill her.
His only chance to end this and save Izzy was to find that ring. That meant he had to talk to Izzy in the basement. “I left my scope in my room.” He stood and gripped Thor’s shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”
Thor frowned but didn’t stop Hawk from leaving. Because all the other men were busy with their own plans and weapons, no one else noticed when he opened the door and slipped out. He ran through the bar and down the stairs. He picked up his pace when he hit the tunnel and made it to the basement in a few minutes.
Inside the basement, he found Mandy, Betsy, and Hannah watching a movie. “Where’s Izzy?”
Betsy pointed toward the kitchen. “Last time I saw her, she was moving furniture.”
He ran to the kitchen and found the trap door open. “Did Izzy leave through this trap door?”
“I think so,” Mandy said. “She said she really needed to get out of here.”
“Fuck.” He went to the closet where they stored tools and found a heavy flashlight. He was running out of time. If he didn’t show up on that roof with the sniper rifle before the parley, he’d be thrown out of the club. Or worse. Then he’d never be able to save Izzy.
With a heavy sigh, he shut the trap door, left the basement, and headed for the roof.
* * *
Izzy came to the end of the tunnel, went up a narrow stairway, and opened an unlocked wooden door. When she walked through it, she found herself in a large shed filled with gardening tools, pool supplies, and bags of boxing equipment. She went to the only window and realized she was in a shed in the backyard of the compound, behind a boxing ring and an empty in-ground pool.
This wasn’t at all what she’d expected, but at least no one could see her. She heard random gunshots and shouts coming from the other side of the property, but most of the fracas had died down.
She held up her phone. Still no cell service.
The shed door opened silently, and she ran across the open field to the boxing ring. The ring was much higher and bigger than she’d realized, and it also provided some cover. Not that anyone was looking in this direction. She was just paranoid—with good reason.
She still had no cell service. She took off the flashlight that hung around her neck and put the flashlight in her back pocket. Then she ran for the back door of the motel. Just as she reached the door, a shadow came out from behind the overgrown bushes that grew along the motel’s walls and grabbed her arm.
“Hello, Princess.” Nine’s voice sounded harsh, like he’d been screaming orders for hours. “Now where is that precious ring?”
“I don’t have it.” She kicked him and tried to pry off his hand, but he backhanded her. Pain shot through her face and into her head. Her vision starred and she tasted blood from where she’d bitten her tongue. She gagged, and when she spit blood out, she felt so faint she couldn’t fight when he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.
Everything around her shifted from light to dark, and her whole body ached. She could barely make out the path Nine took around the motel, toward a remote part of the wall where someone had drilled a big enough hole to crawl through.
Nine dropped her on the ground and pointed his gun at her. “You either give me that ring or go through the wall.”
“Go to hell!” The ring was hidden in the compound, and there was no way she’d ever lead Nine into Hawk’s sanctuary. She could no longer hold back the tears, and she went through the hole on her hands and knees. She was grateful to be in jeans, but brambles and bits of razor wire scraped her hands. It didn’t take long for her wounded hand to start bleeding again. When she got to the other side, another Black Jacks picked her up, tied her hands behind her back, and threw her in a panel van.
She landed on her hip and the pain made her feel faint. She rolled to her back just as the van door shut, leaving her in darkness.
