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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

MASON

We park our bikes two blocks from Benji’s house and walk the back alley until we reach his backyard. There aren’t many subdivisions still occupied, most of the homes we see are vacant, which may be to our advantage because nobody will hear him squeal if he wakes up before we get the chance to slide the needle into his skin and plunge the drug into his system.

When we jump the fence and end up on his back porch, Gadget smirks. “He’s so damn sure of himself that he doesn’t even have an alarm on his house.”

“Let’s show him how wrong he was with his safety,” Hydro says with a smirk.

“He thought his position of authority would keep him safe in his home, the sucker,” Kruger cackles. “He doesn’t realize what making us an enemy means.”

“He wasn’t as prepared for us as he thought he was,” I add, ready for my fist to meet his face until he tells me where he’s stored my brother.

Tex pulls out a lock picking kit from his shirt pocket and without much effort, breaks in. When the door swings open, Rock, the club's enforcer, takes the lead.

I’m not in the mood to be stealthy, and it seems none of the others are either because Hydro passes Rock and heads to the hallway. Rock grits his teeth and a hissing sound makes it through the gaps of his teeth. His job is to secure scenes and keep his president from facing any unseen threats so I know Hydro taking the lead has chapped his ass.

Hydro simply grins at him, not threatened in the least by Rock’s malicious look. In a line, we follow behind as Hydro and Rock begin opening doors. Most of the rooms we pass either on the right or the left are empty until we make it to the last door situated in the middle facing the hallway. Guns are drawn as we gently swing it open, Hydro cupping it so it doesn’t hit the wall with our entry.

Benji doesn’t stir as we circle his bed, leaving no room for him to flee. Tyson pulls the syringe from his belt where he sheathed it in one that’s for his knife and uncaps it. He pushes the end of it up to where liquid spurts from the needle then as one, we all leap on Benji and hold him down while Tyson interjects him. He wakes long enough to put up a weak struggle, but soon, the medication does its job and his eyes close and his body goes limp.

“That was anticlimactic,” Gunner muses, sounding disappointed that it was as easy as it was. “I was hoping for a little bit of a struggle.”

“Who’s the big man on campus now, Dickface?” Tex taunts the unconscious man, bowing up at him.

“Tex,” Gunner sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It doesn’t have the same effect if he can’t answer you.” We all chuckle, breaking up the tension as we systematically begin checking his room.

“Made me feel good,” Tex mutters, leaning over and hoisting the man over his shoulder. “How are we getting this fucker to the fields?”

“Strap him to the back of your bike for all I care,” Gunner answers, sifting through Benji’s desk tucked away in the corner of his bedroom.

“Good thing I have some rope in my saddlebag,” Tex snickers. “Don’t worry, ol’ Benji boy, I’ll make sure you don’t get any road rash. I can’t say that you won’t get any burns from my pipes, but that’s a problem for you, not me.”

“It’s almost like that movie, Weekend at Bernie’s, ain’t it?” Kruger asks, snickering. “Only he’s still alive, of course.”

“For now,” Gunner mutters as he glares at the pair of jokesters. I’m beginning to see some of the things that Mane told me about her uncles in real life, and she may have under-exaggerated their willingness to get into shit.

“I’ll grab his laptop and break into it, see if he was stupid enough to write anything down that could be used against him or tell us where he’s hiding Myles.”

Gadget doesn’t just grab his laptop, he snatches up a tote bag and fills it with files and loose papers. I doubt the man would keep anything printed that would incriminate him, but again, with someone who thinks he’s above the law anything is possible.

“Let’s see if he has a home office separate from this,” Hydro directs. “And grab his phone, too. He may have encrypted stuff on it, but I know Judd and Jagger have the tools to get into anything.” Jagger looks proud that he was acknowledged and nods his head indicating that he won’t have any issues in regard to breaking into it.

It doesn’t take us long to scour the rest of the house and gather up additional items that we hope will hold the clues as to where my little brother is being held. The anxiety in my gut has increased, and I find myself biting my tongue so I don’t yell at all of them to hurry the fuck up.

Somehow, I doubt that would go over very well since I’m the low man on the ladder. “We’ll find him,” Hydro says, walking over to me. “I know you’re practically crawling out of your skin wanting us to hurry, but we need to make sure we don’t miss anything of value in our haste to get back to the house.”

“I know,” I tell him. “But I’d like to know where the fuck my brother is. But I have to warn you, I’m not going to be able to hold off on telling my parents much longer.”

“Give us until he wakes up and we get an hour or so to try and get him to talk,” Hydro proposes. “We’re good at what we do, Mason. It can’t always be given a time restraint.”

It’s not like I can argue with the man, I don’t know how they operate. For now, I’ll have to bide my time and hope we can get this resolved and Myles home before we have to break the news to my folks.

* * *

As we ride back to the ranch, I snicker in glee when I notice the way Benji is shifting on the bitch seat of Tex’s bike. He’s loosely secure which means every bump we hit he is jerked up and slams back down. His limbs are tied on each side of the bike, but again, not tightly, so he slips from side to side. Tex isn’t cautious when he resituates him, doesn’t give a damn if his fingers or bare feet touch the hot pipes.

Earlier, Maverick showed the men the back way onto our property so that’s the route we take as we ride over the rocky path. I know that alongside pipe burns and potentially a concussion, Benji boy is going to be sore as fuck and I couldn’t be any happier about that hypothesis. He’s made his bed and now it’s time he lies in it.

When we hit the patch of land where Laura is still strung up, wide-eyed and panic stricken, I shoot her a blinding, maniacal smile. As she tries to talk through the bandana shoved in her mouth, I ask, “How are you liking the accommodations at the Triple M, Laura?” As she struggles to speak through her gag, I laugh. “You’re being treated more hospitably than you deserve. You won’t receive any sympathy from me, you bitch.”

Tears streak down her cheeks as she pleads with her eyes for us to give her mercy. As I stated, she won’t find any from this group of men. We all believe you reap what you sow.

“Wah. Wah. Wah,” Tex mock cries as he cuts the ropes from his motorcycle. “Stop being a little bitch, you put yourself in this circumstance. Murder is not okay, unless you’re us, then it’s always okay because we’re rectifying a wrong. Like you and old Deputy Dickface here being born.”

Kruger walks up behind Laura, leans around the tree and whispers, “Boo.” When she jumps he bends over laughing. “Gotcha, didn’t I? Don’t worry, our play time isn’t over, it’s just on a temporary pause.”

“Quit taunting the dumb bitch, Kruger,” Gunner admonishes. “Help Tex string up her bestie.”

Murmurs in rapid succession can be heard behind her binding, but none of us stop and try to understand what she’s saying. We don’t give a flying fuck, nothing she says can save her now. She was going to kill Cotton in cold blood. She may not have been the one to pull the trigger, but she was planning on being an active participant.

I watch in amusement as Benji’s head lolls from one side to the other as Tex, not so carefully, drags him by his ankles to the tree across from Laura. When his head bounces up because of a rock, I shudder then say, sarcasm thick in my tone, “Well, that’s gonna leave a mark.”

“One of many,” Tex concurs, glancing over Benji’s bare legs which bear the marks of his body hitting the hot pipes. “He won’t have to worry about infection setting in, though, because he’ll be worm food long before those white blood cells start multiplying to show one is coursing through his body.”

“You’re so poetic,” Kruger says, assisting with stringing up the not-so-good deputy. “Think we should gag him or wait until he wakes up? I don’t want him choking to death before we get answers. Pres?”

“There’s enough land out here that no one is gonna hear either of them scream,” Gunner muses, looking at Hydro. “I say, we keep him ungagged for now. Who knows what we’ll hear when he wakes up? Tex, put something on that head wound, he’s bleeding like a stuck pig from that fucking rock.”

“Great, Benji, now I gotta give you first aid,” Tex sneers. He rips off the deputy’s T-shirt then ties it around his head. “That good, Gun?”

Gunner pinches the bridge of his nose, which seems to be a common occurrence around his brothers, and I instinctively know that all of these men have given him many headaches over the years. “Yeah, Tex, that’ll work for now.”

Tex beams as though he just performed brain surgery and takes a bow. “Now we need to figure out how long before the fucker will wake up.”