Sawyer (Great Wolves Motorcycle Club, #5) (17 page)

“Yep,” the girls that were being kidnapped were 13, Dusty was 22, but she looked about sixteen right now. Hopefully, they wouldn’t get close enough to figure it out.

“Okay, start acting drugged up Corie.”

“No problem Georgie.”

The handoff of girls happened from car to truck off the highway exit, far enough off, that it was in a wooded area. Alexis had described what she could remember and we were about to find out how much that really was.

The van came off the highway and rolled onward to the wooded meetup area. Georgie was a blocky bald man. I was about the same height but had more hair than I knew what to do with.

I solved that problem in the dark with a ski cap. In the dark and from far away they wouldn’t realize until it was too late.

A small white truck rolled up and killed its lights. I kept my headlights on. Hopefully, the lights would also make it more difficult to see me.

I lifted Dusty out of the back and hauled her over my shoulder. Thanks to Alexis I knew how Georgie normally did it. She remembered being thrown around like a sack of potatoes.

“Oof,” said Dusty as I adjusted her weight.

“Shh.” I walked toward the truck and someone got out of the passenger side. We figured two in front and a cab or probably six maybe twelve girls in the back.

The man who was in the passenger seat got out and I walked forward. He’d take Dusty and load her in back.

As he got close I saw a movement in the bush, it was what I needed. I was about to hand Dusty over. As Dusty’s weight shifted from me to him, my hands were free, and his were busy, I shot him in the gut. She knew it was coming.

Dusty leaped free of the melee and I finished him with a bullet to the head.

The next risk was the driver. If he’d had time to alert anyone else. I looked up and saw Steel and Ridge doing their job. The driver was down, dead. They’d finished him almost in the same instant that I’d killed the passenger.

We had two dead Russians and hopefully it would be easy to deal with the girls in the back of the truck. We needed them out, and fast, but we knew they’d be in no state to help themselves.

Ridge and Steel opened the back and a pop of light hit us all.

No one had figured there’d be a third man in the back with the girls but there was. And he came out shooting. Steel charged him and knocked the gun from his hand. Then nearly knocked his jaw from his face.

Ridge dispatched the third Russian, it was significantly more bloody than we’d intended.

“Steel? You okay?” Dusty ran to him.

“Fine, it’s nothing.” I hoped it was true.

Then we had a moment to look inside the van. At first, it looked empty, that we’d cleared the shooter out but we had missed the girls we were supposed to be saving.

And then I saw it. Pale arms, legs, hair in tumbles. The “cargo” was towards the front huddled together and away from the doors. I hoisted Dusty up and walked in behind her.

For the next step we relied on a few friends outside the M.C. We’d invested in their business and they were happy to return the favor. A flash of headlights came around the corner and it was our signal that new transport had arrived.

StrongArm Movers pulled up in a truck that looked completely different than the non-descript one the Russians were using to haul human cargo.

StrongArm Movers were a traditional moving company but they had a mission. The movers were all badass athletes. The company was founded by a former Marine and some of my MMA fighters had moved on to work for him after their careers were over.

The main qualification for the job was complete strength and total sensitivity.

They were strong as hell. But what made them different than any movers I ever met was their mission. If a woman was in a domestic abuse situation and needed to get out StrongArm would show up in a hurry and free of charge to help her safely flee.

Joe Stachek, the marine, ran the company. He also went on a lot of runs since they were still building the business.

When I told him what I needed, he didn’t hesitate. I gave him enough of the details but not too much. He also only brought himself and one guy. He knew how to get this story right on his part of the mission.

His crew was used to being sensitive in bad situations.

We needed the girls out of harm’s way for the next step in the plan.

Joe pulled up in one of his moving trucks. He jumped out and you could see why people felt safe when he arrived. While the M.C. was populated with tattooed and leather bikers, Joe wore work shirt with rolled up sleeves.

Joe helped us carefully, but quickly get the girls out of the back of one dark cab into one that was decidedly safer and more comfortable. Dusty joined them. She’d argued that she wanted to stay with me and finish the entire cycle. I would not hear it. She’d been in enough danger doing what she did. And now I needed her to help Joe do whatever he needed to get the girls safely transported.

“You got this?” I asked Joe.

“I’ll take them where you said.”

“Don’t linger there long unless you want to explain this.”

“Go it.” As a former Marine, I knew Joe would be able to get his part of the mission accomplished.

The next part of ours would be the ugliest. I watched Joe drive out of site with the girls. I didn’t know what would happen to any of them but hopefully, we’d intervened before this group had been fully immersed in the Bratva’s trafficking situation.

Thanks to Stone’s surprise find, Raleigh’s computer work, and a little luck we found out exactly what shitty hotel the Bratva were using to do the worst part of the operation.

The Sunny Side Motel off the highway was recently acquired by The Bratva. They ran it like a motel but many days the rooms were the rendezvous point where the evil asshole client would meet the girl he’d ordered online.

Raleigh had learned that the main operations for the Bratva were now at the Sunny Side. We’d torched their operations at the storage place and they’d set up an office here.

It was oh so convenient really. They could make sure the end product got delivered and also provide a better set up for their customers. It was all about as seedy and evil as a crime could be.

We’d interrupted the delivery this night. There would be no new Grand City girls headed to the Sunny Side.

Steel, Ridge, and I made our way to the motel. I drove with Ridge next to me to mimic the two-man team. If they anyone looked through the driver’s window they’d not be immediately suspicious. Steel was in the back of the truck. We’d planned to strike hard and right away.

We pulled in and up to the office where three men approached the truck. I put it in park. As they opened the back doors, Steel opened fire. He struck one down immediately.

The other two tried to scatter. It was no use, though, Ridge had the guy who went right and I had the guy who went left. We didn’t ask if they were guilty, we didn’t tell them to put their hands in the air, we killed all three.

We knew that would alert whoever else was working in the hotel. That’s where the full force of the Great Wolves M.C. Grand City Charter put the hammer down.

From all directions, I heard the roar of the bikes. The headlines were off but the sound was some sort of iron dragon curling itself around the Sunny Side Motel.

There were going to be a half a dozen Russians or so, based on our surveillance. The leader, a dude named Demetri, would be the last out. They’d protect him.

The officers were all there except Larry, I wanted him to be around for the club if our perfect plans turned out not so perfect.

Every guy in the M.C. volunteered for this job but I needed two-dozen or so.

The gunfire came from the office area of the Sunny Side and so did three men. So many bullets rained down on them from so many directions it looked their bodies were popcorn on a skillet.

“They’re going to hold up there,” I yelled to the guys. There were three men inside and they’d make a stand.

“I’m going to smoke them out,” Stone said. He was never one to wait. Neither was his buddy Ryder. Ryder stood up.

“Hey you Mother Fucking Russians! Why don’t you come out there and fight?

A bullet whizzed by Ryder and he hit the dirt like he’d been dropped but I heard him laugh at how close that was. He was fine but too reckless by half.

Ryder’s little distraction let Stone do his part of the job. I shot a window out and Stone dropped a can of tear gas into the motel office.

“It won’t be long,” Stone said and he took cover. One by one the Russians filed out. They shot wildly at us but it was for nothing.

The Great Wolves were here to bring fatal judgment down on those that would hurt kids in our town.

When it was all done, we had eight dead Russians and one in the hands of Detective Murray.

As the customers arrived, they too were handled.

The evil asshole customer would arrive at the appointed room and walk in. As they did one of my guys greeted them to take a lovely picture as evidence.

Only one customer ran and he joined the eight dead Russians.

We did a thorough clean up job. We may not have needed 24 men to cut down the Russians, that took only a few of us. But we were 24 strong to search, clean our tracks, and dispose of the bodies.

It took the better part of the night but at dawn, the Sunny Side Motel was fully engulfed.

There would be not one shred of evidence that we were there.

We’d wiped out inventory acquisition, transport, and the meeting place for the Bratva’s trafficking operations in Grand City.

It was a violent and complete gutting of a snake in our midst.

We’d been clean and legitimate for a year in Grand City.

I’d never felt so good about getting dirty as when watched my bullets sink into their flesh.

The Mother Country would find out and think twice about preying in Wolf Territory again.

B
ess

It was a tense night but in the morning, I had a part to play. I got a pre-dawn phone call to wake up and get over to the group home.

The call was from an unlisted number and the voice was unfamiliar.

Shortly after that, Mrs. Williams awoke to the blare of horn that faded quickly. No one could say they saw the vehicle that honked to wake her.

She ran out just as I drove up.

In the yard of the halfway house, carefully covered with blankets were six, mostly unconscious, girls. Waifs really. She’d called 911 and then me. In fact, I got there before the police and medical teams.

No one saw how they got there and the girl themselves were all in various states of drugged out fog.

It was chaos to sort out but we got them all in ambulances.

Detective Murray and I took statements, did our best, but they didn’t know how they’d gotten to the group home.

Figuring out who was who, where they should go, how to help them would take weeks. Many of the girls were already broken before they were kidnapped. It was scary to think we might yet fail them even after getting them out of trafficking.

But at least, we’d done that. Gotten that far.

Detective Murray suspected I knew more and cornered me at the hospital after we’d gleaned as much as we could from the girls.

“You don’t know where the other Russians are?”

“I can give you a location on Georgie. He’s in your jail. That’s it. I wish I could give you the rest. We’ve got the girls. That’s what I’m holding on to.”

“What about Kirstin Jones and the newer name, what was it?”

“DeAndre Parrish,” I replied.

“Are they in this group?”

“DeAndrew Parrish is. Cassidy was working with her. She will be very happy about that.”

“What about your Kirstin Jones?”

“Your leads are as good as mine on that.” Kirstin was still missing. She was still out there. Maybe she always would be.

“I could haul Sawyer in,” Murray was testing me. He believed I knew more.

“For what?”

“Bess I sure hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I’m working to find catch these girls that fell through the net. Do you want to help me or chase after middle-aged biker who runs several successful businesses in Grand City?”

“I want to help you.”

“So make sure the case against Norm is solid and pray I don’t get fired.”

“You know I’ll go to bat for you if I have a chance.”

“I know. Thanks, Murray. Let’s help these girls.”

I literally did not get home for 24-hours after the girls appeared on Mrs. Williams’s doorstep. Sawyer texted me that he was okay.

And Chris texted me that he picked up Henry.

Sawyer had done it. With an assist from me. I didn’t need to know the details. I saw in the paper the next day there was a fire that destroyed some crappy motel.

Sawyer quite literally knew where the bodies we buried and I wasn’t about to ask.

He’d gotten the job done, evil men had been stopped, and innocent children saved.

I trusted Sawyer with my life and so could dozens of other people.

He wore leather and a cut but he was a hero in my eyes.

S
awyer

I had my beautiful Bess curled up, head in my lap, reading the paper while I passed the time doing nothing but watching her do it. I was worried about her, though.

“How’s Cassidy doing on all the placements?” Bess was on paid leave while an investigation into her department was underway.

“She’s okay, overwhelmed.”

Bess was surprisingly calm about the very real possibility that her career at Children’s Services could be over.

“I know you’re itching to get back in there and help her.” Bess put the paper down and sat up. I mourned the loss immediately. She turned to face me.

“Sawyer, the thing is I don’t regret for one minute the things we did to save those girls.”

“Which in a court of law you know nothing about.” I had a lot of regrets. I brought trouble to Bess Geary in the form of bullets, career suicide, and not the least of which complications to her custody agreement.

“Right. Here’s the thing, I’m going to resign, even if they don’t fire me.”