Authors: Jenika Snow
“Can you speak English?” Kink asked, leaned back in
his seat, and crossed his hands behind his head. He stared at the lawyer that
was working on his custody battle with Sarah, and waited for the spindly little
man to finish speaking. He looked like the stereotypical attorney: thin,
wearing a designer suit, hair perfectly styled, and thin-rimmed glasses perched
on his beak-like nose. But Kink didn’t care what the man looked like as long as
he made it so that bitch didn’t take his kid.
“Well, since Callie will be eighteen in about a
month, even if she did try to take her, the minor could leave of her own free
will anyway—”
“I don’t fucking care when she turns eighteen, or if
she is only in California for a month. Sarah isn’t going to take her to another
state, that much I’ll fucking make sure of.”
The lawyer shook his head. “Mr. Roberts,
your
ex…” Sheldon, the attorney, looked down at his
paperwork, like he was searching for the right term to call Sarah.
Manipulative bitch.
Sadistic asshole.
Unsympathetic wench.
Those were all names Kink had called Sarah to
himself, or to his brothers, and although it probably wasn’t the right thing to
do, calling his daughter’s mother those names, the truth was she was all those
things and more. She used Callie against him, had her entire life, and those
couple of weeks that he tried a relationship with her after he found out she
was pregnant had been pure hell. It had been because of Sarah that he had
stayed away from a relationship and claiming a woman as an old lady … until now
that was. He hadn’t talked to anyone aside from Cookie about wanting her as an
old lady, and although he knew the other members would back him up, he also
knew now was not the time to get into it with them. They had to talk to the
hacker in a few, so he needed this problem with Sarah solved and behind him. He
only had the weekend with Callie, per the custody agreement, but because of the
lockdown he wasn’t going to send Callie back. That would probably cause a whole
new shit storm with Sarah.
“Just calling her my ex is sufficient.” Kink lowered
his arm back on the table and drummed his fingers on the table as he stared at
Sheldon.
“You’re ex doesn’t have any legal right to take your
daughter out of the state without speaking to a judge, and having you in
agreement. Since you are in the picture, to put it in laymen’s terms, she would
have to go through a lengthy processing situation, in which her attorney would
need to bring this up with the judge.”
“She said she is having her lawyer look through it,
but I don’t know if she really is, or is just hopeful I’ll back down. I know
she can’t afford to go through a big court hearing, so it’s probably bullshit.”
Sheldon nodded and started organizing the papers.
“Well, I can start filing for a hearing right away, whereas we can bring the
threats she has been telling you to the judge’s attention, and the fact she is
planning to flee to California without notifying anyone legally.”
“You think that we can get this done quickly?” Kink
asked and leaned forward to rest his arms on the table.
“Honestly?” Sheldon didn’t wait for Kink to respond.
“Things like this can take months, but I’m going to expedite it because of the
situation with her trying to take the minor out of the state. All we can hope
is that it gets pushed through quickly.” He grabbed his briefcase, stood, and
held his hand out to Kink.
Kink looked at the offered hand, exhaled, and
grabbed it. He shook it, exerted pressure, and stared into the man’s eyes.
Sheldon winced but plastered on a smile and took his hand back. Kink stood,
cracked his knuckles, and rolled his head on his neck.
“I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything.”
Sheldon went to move past him, but Kink reached out and placed a hand on his
shoulder. Sheldon was tense, but glanced over at him and smiled. He looked
nervous as hell.
“Thanks for helping me out with this,” Kink said,
and let go of his shoulder. “I know this is a lot of shit, and I’m pressuring
you to get this done quickly, but that’s my little girl in the other room.”
“I understand, Mr. Roberts. I have a daughter, and
if I was in your situation I’d be taking the same actions as you.” Sheldon
nodded, and Kink took a step back so the man could leave. For a few minutes he
stayed in the meeting room, leaning against the table, and staring out the
window into the main room. Lockdown had only been enforced for the last twelve
hours, and he didn’t know how long it would stay intact. They still had to find
out where the cult was, take them down, and only then they would feel safe in
letting their loved ones leave the safety of the club. He didn’t even know how
he was going to work this out with Sarah, because he was sure there would be
serious problems. She may know about the whole lockdown routine from hanging
around MCs—hell, she had even been unofficial club pussy, sleeping with several
club members at one point in time—but she was still a selfish bitch.
He saw Callie sitting on the couch with a book in
her hand. God, she had grown up so damn fast. She had already graduated high
school a few months ago, and he wasn’t ashamed to say he had gotten choked up
seeing his little girl walking across the stage. The whole club had shown up to
show their support. She was as much their family as she was his. He smiled as
she read up on some college information he had all but forced her to get. She
might not know what she wanted to do, or even if she wanted to go to college,
but he at least wanted her to look at the information. He was pleased she
wasn’t giving him a hard time about it, too. He watched Lucien walk up to the
couch, and something in the back of his mind stood up and took notice. Lucien
sat in the seat across from Callie, and although neither spoke to each other,
he noticed Callie glance up at Lucien with just her eyes. She shifted on the couch,
and then Lucien leaned forward and braced his elbows on his thighs. Whatever he
was saying to Callie had her cheeks turning red, had her nodding, and finally
had her getting off the couch and leaving the main room. Lucien leaned back,
scrubbed a hand over his face, and Kink saw the way the President of the club
tightened his hands on his thighs.
Kink
stood,
about to go see
what that was all about, but when he left the meeting room and headed toward
Lucien, their hacker stepped through the front doors. All of the members moved
forward, and everyone else was ushered into their rooms. Malcolm looked like he
hadn’t slept all night, judging by the dark circles under his eyes and the
mussed clothing he wore. Kink glanced around the room and made sure everyone was
gone. Cookie had still been sleeping when he got up, but it was early, and he
had kept her up pretty late last night. That thought had him grinning and had
his dick stiffening despite the fact they were about to get into club business.
He put her out of his mind and focused on what was at hand right now. Stepping
beside Lucien, he glanced at the other man. Lucien stared at him, and this
strange expression crossed his face.
“I’m good, man.” Lucien looked at Malcolm. “You got
anything for us?”
Malcolm nodded.
“Oh yeah, a lot of
shit actually.”
“Good.” Lucien tipped his chin toward the meeting
room. “Come on, boys, let’s get the ball rolling and take down these
motherfuckers.”
Chapter Ten
“I was finally able to hack into the mainframe of
the church’s website, but they had a screen over the site.”
“What the fuck is that?” Malice asked on a growl. He
leaned forward and had a scowl on his face. This affected all of the men, but
Malice’s old lady, Adrianna, had been right there, and therefore the brother
was even hungrier for blood.
Malcolm breathed out, clearly exhausted, and glanced
around the rectangular, scarred table. “It basically just means that they have
someone that knows their computer shit. They had malware on the site, which
basically was meant to crash anyone’s computer that was trying to break through
their stronghold they had set up. I know my computer programs, and can get past
the most fucked up firewalls. With a little bit of tweaking, I got past it,
disabled it, and was able to put a tracker on their server location.”
“And?
Can you get to the fucking point, Malcolm? All this technology bullshit talk is
giving me a headache,” Kink said, not meaning to snap, but he wanted these
bastards taken out already.
“Relax, Kink. Malcolm knows his shit. We’re all
stressed out, but we need to keep our heads together right now,” Lucien said,
and the President sounded a hell of a lot calmer than Kink was feeling.
He glanced at Lucien. The other man was leaning back
in his seat with a cigarette in his mouth, his gaze right on Kink, and his
expression patient. The thing with Lucien was he was a calculating biker. He
was hard and dangerous when he needed to be, but was also a smart man. He
waited, bided his time, and then struck like a fucking lightning bolt. They were
all deadly and violent in their own right, but Lucien was something totally
different. Kink knew that in order to run an MC, a man had to be a cold
son-of-a-bitch, and Lucien was exactly that. He knew how to strike, and he knew
how to take down their enemy.
Lucien exhaled, and a smoky cloud covered the space
before him for a second before dissipating. “Malcolm, what did you find out?”
Lucien said, and took one more hit before snubbing out the cigarette.
“Okay, so their IP address led back to their main base
in Utah. It’s registered to the same address they have located on their site,
but after moving things around, and getting into a program they had hidden, I
figured out that they aren’t even operating from Utah.”
“Okay, so where are they operating from?” Lucien
asked in a low, deadly voice.
“The address I found was right here in River Run.”
The table grew cold and silent. “I tracked it down to a warehouse being rented
out in the corner of town, right before the
Willowcreek
county line.”
Kink sat back in his seat. He was surprised to a
point, but he knew the cult had been operating in River Run for the last few
weeks, but he didn’t know they were running their operation right out of a
building located in town. “You think they are trying to set up shop permanently?”
Kink asked Lucien.
“I don’t know. They are in town, obviously, but if
they are actually renting out the old warehouse. It’s been empty for the last
year as no one is stupid enough to take on an investment like that,” Lucien
said. “But apparently someone is now, or at least temporarily. I have a feeling
the cult might be trying to branch out, maybe trying to recruit right here in
River Run, or even Steel Corner.” Lucien took out his cell, looked at it, and
set it on the table. “Malcolm, you get a name of the one leasing out the
warehouse?”
Kink glanced at the kid.
“Yeah, hold up.” He typed something up on his
laptop. “The name is Beatrice
Herving
, but I think it
is pretty safe to say if anyone has this kind of firewall and software
protection on what is just supposed to be a church website, that is probably a
false name.”
Lucien nodded slowly. “Yeah, no doubt it is a smoke
name.” Lucien stared off for a second, and Kink grew itchy as hell. He wanted
to react, but he wasn’t going to go into this blind. They needed to get as much
info as they could get on these fuckers.
“I need all the information on the warehouse, the
occupants, dimensions, blueprints, and whatever the fuck you can gather through
the computer. If you need resources, let us know, and we’ll make sure you get
it,” Lucien said, and Malcolm nodded.
“It shouldn’t take me but an hour or so to find
out.”
“Thanks, kid.
Mind waiting
outside?”
Lucien said and tipped his chin toward the door. Malcolm
nodded and gathered his things before leaving. Once the door was shut again
Lucien looked around the table. “Rock, Ruin, did you find anything out
surveying town?”
“Spoke to some of those junkies that hang around the
titty
bar,” Rock said.
“Wasn’t sure about how much they are legit in
knowing their shit about what happens around here, but then they started
talking about some church people hanging around the strip, and even some
protesting that what was going on with the girls shaking their asses for money
was wrong and immoral,” Ruin said after he exhaled.
“How do we know it is the same motherfuckers that
bombed the cabin?” Tuck asked, and there was a deadly tone in his voice.
“We don’t, but I haven’t heard that there have been
any protesters spouting off their bullshit since these fuckers came here,” Ruin
answered, and the way he was drumming his fingers on the table had the two
silver rings he wore clanking against the wood. “Let’s be real. This is a small
town, and despite the fact that a few residents don’t care for the bars and
strip clubs that have come up, everyone sticks to themselves. There hasn’t been
any kind of protesting like what has been happening since before that church
shit happened.”
There was a murmur of agreement.
“Other than a few of the old folks trying to close
things down the legal way and behind a judge’s door, it’s pretty quiet. In fact
I’m surprised this cult wouldn’t keep a low profile knowing they were going to
do that to our place,” Ruin finished off.