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CHAPTER

SEVENTEEN

INDIANA

The moment I set my kickstand down and lean my bike to the side, the roar of engines has my head turning toward the entrance of the parking lot. When I recognize the cuts of the Kings and Riptide leading the brigade, that part inside of me that was tense settles. There’s something about having your brothers at your back that eases you.

When they break in two and several of my brothers turn off and go the back way from the warehouse, my brows wrinkle. We meet the members who came our way and I ask Rip, “Where are they taking off to?” At first, I thought they were going to case the back and make sure nobody escaped but the bikes haven’t shut down, as a matter of fact, they’re riding away.

“Saw some pussies hauling ass down the back road so they went after them,” he briefs me. “Renegade will chase and capture them. You know he doesn’t admit defeat. He’ll stay out there all damn night if he has to until he’s rounded every damn one of them up and has them hogtied in the tomb.”

“We done?” Icer interrupts, his entire body vibrating with angst. Standing still is not his best attribute, he detests it. And with Elodie in danger, he’s wound up tighter than a Jack in the box. Only when he pops his top, you hope you’re not anywhere close to the danger zone.

“We’re done,” Rip announces, twirling his finger through the air. Without further direction, we split into groups. Icer, Rip, Nova, and I are taking the front. Since we no longer have Renegade, Slayer, Shade, and Ozzie with us, because they’re chasing the cowards that fled, our clusters are smaller than usual.

“Time to play ball!” Icer roars, lifting his automatic weapon above his head, issuing a war cry.

Sketch pulls a Louisville slugger from the side holster on his bike and takes a practice swing. “Let’s hit a home run!”

Icer points his finger at him and turns around on his feet, seeing he’s the club enforcer, he’s always the first man to infiltrate our enemy’s homebases. You may think he’s leading this charge without all of his faculties online, but that’s a load of bullshit. He’s always aware even when you think he’s preoccupied by something else. His head isn’t shifting from side to side as we make it through the front doors, but his eyes are. Nothing gets past him. “They left a few behind,” he tells us.

“They left their disposables behind for us to play with,” Sketch rabidly chuckles.

“Keep at least one alive for questioning,” Rip orders. “Preferably one with more than two working brain cells.”

“If you can, but that’s not necessary,” I tack on with a straight face.

A few of my brothers are snickering despite the seriousness of the situation and the fact that somewhere in this building my woman and my daughter are being held against their will, Rip’s not wrong, some of these fuckers you need two coins to rub together to get them thinking. They are the perfect example of an after school program. Don’t do drugs, they fry your mind. The Dragons aren’t really known for their brain power.

I continue, stating, “We know who we’re looking for, even if they manage to vanish, we’ll eventually track them down and end them.”

Rip side-eyes me, and I know I’ll be answering to him later for overriding his dictate. There’s a pecking order for a reason, however seeing as it’s my woman and daughter who have been abducted and held, I have no damns to give at this moment.

“I’ll want a piece of them, whoever you catch,” Icer decrees. “Once I know my princess and my sister are okay, that is because if they’ve been hurt, I may have to get… creative in my punishment of the offenders.”

I scoff in my head because at the end of the day, every one of the Dragons will be facing the reaper. Whether that’s being beaten then hung in the catacombs or riddled with bullets is anyone’s guess at this point. While Icer is icily calm, his rage is still simmering and I know he’s only holding it together because the sheriff caved and told us where Zoey and Elodie were located. If we were still trying to find them, he’d have already taken out a few people at minimum, regardless if they were innocent or not, but probably a shit ton more. Our crematorium will still be getting a workout when all’s said and done.

“Let’s find them, Ice,” I say. “Check every room and if you find a leftover Dragon, see if you can beat the information out of them. The sooner we find Zoey and Elodie, the sooner Rip can call church so we can fill everyone in on what else we found out earlier.”

“Glad to see I still get to oversee church,” Rip deadpans, considering I basically issued directives. He doesn’t look too pissed, which is good because Zoey and Elodie are mine and I need to take point on this to save my sanity.

The call of battle escapes my brothers as they venture off, going after the deadbeats left behind. We don’t keep quiet, we don’t give that first fuck that they know we’re here. We want them to know that this is the day they meet their maker.

I don’t waste time trying to open doors, I simply kick them in, quickly check inside, then move on to the next in the lineup. Icer isn’t even doing that, he’s shooting the doorknob off, then kicking the door open before he makes a visual inspection.

“Icer! Slow your fucking roll, brother,” I yell.

“Gotta find my princess, Indy.” I roll my eyes. I fucking hate when he shortens my name and he knows it, but I’ll give him a pass right now since he’s jittery as fuck.

“Don’t shoot my old lady or kid,” I sneer. I’ve never seen him look sheepish before, but they say there’s a first time for everything. “A bullet could stray from its intended target and hit one of them whether it’s intentional or not.” Admonishing a grown ass man, especially not Icer, was not on my day’s to-do-list, but I seem to have taken on that role more often than not these days and I’m not sure if that’ll be my job from now on or not. I suspect it will since Icer is apparently part of my new family whether I want him to be or not. I mean, he’s my club brother, of course, and that’s not going to change, but with his pronouncement that Zoey’s his sister and Elodie’s his niece, I expect he’ll be around a lot.

“You’re right,” he murmurs, looking abashed. “Fine, kick them in, shoot if there’s an enemy, but don’t hurt my princess. Got it.”

“Or my old lady!” I remind him, shaking my head.

“My sister,” he adds, almost to himself.

Wood continues to shatter and I’m glad this place has been abandoned for a while because shit’s not exactly in good shape so the doors don’t take much to be turned into kindling. This facility was abandoned when Kmart shut down throughout Texas and it hasn’t been maintained in years. The fire department used it for training shortly after they closed their doors, but even they found something bigger and better to use in its place thanks to the hard earned money from tax payers. When we take the stairs and go up to the upper level, the hair on the nape of my neck raises and I instinctively know that this is where I’ll find my old lady and little girl.

“They’re here,” I announce.

“You feel it too?” Icer asks, his eyes taking in two doors. “Hear that?”

“Yeah, I do,” I say, smiling. “They’re separated but on this floor.”

“Thank fuck for that,” Rip adds, and for a few short seconds, I forgot he was with us. During this mission, we are his problem kids so it’s not surprising that he decided to tag along with us instead of leading the charge to take out the pussies left behind.

“Indiana!” Zoey hollers.

“Daddy! Uncle Icer!” My little girl cries, breaking my damn heart. The fact that this is the first time she’s called me ‘daddy’ nearly has me stumbling, but I want to keep my man card intact since I’m in this hallway with my brother's standing witness so I ignore the deep feeling that conjured up in my chest. Later, when there are no witnesses, I’ll probably shed a tear or two.

“Move away from the door, Elodie,” Icer instructs. “I’ll get you out, okay?”

I want to rush to release Zoey from her prison, but since I’ve heard her voice I know she’s alright, for now, and kids always come first. It’s something she and I vowed one night as we sat on the back porch, stargazing. The stars are big and bright in our neck of the woods and it’s a good way to let the day slip away. Especially when it’s done with my arms wrapped around my woman and her head nuzzled on my chest.

“I’m at the back wall, Uncle Icer,” Elodie yells. Less than two seconds later, the door to the room she’s in is in smithereens and I watch as the scariest man I know turns into mush as Elodie rushes through the room and jumps into his splayed arms.

“I got you, princess,” he says, looking closely at her. “Did anyone hurt you?” he queries.

“The bad man was going to whip me, Uncle Icer,” Elodie whispers. “And he said some really mean things. But then he left.”

Icer’s demeanor has steadily changed, although it’s highly likely that only Rip and I are aware because Elodie keeps talking, basically signing the death warrant of whoever was stupid enough to fuck with her head and threaten bodily harm. “What did he look like, princess?” Icer asks.

“He wasn’t as tall as you or Daddy, he was skinny and had no guns, and his hair was long,” she replies.

I chuckle because the guns she’s referring to are muscles, and Icer has made it a game to ‘show her his guns’, so we both understand what she’s saying. “How long, Elodie?” I ask.

“To here,” she says, touching her shoulder. “It was greasy too,” she whispers. “He was stinky and I didn’t like him at all.”

Confident now that Elodie is in good hands with Icer, I move to the door that’s hiding my woman, then kick it in after warning her about what I was fixing to do. A whirling, sobbing woman rushes into my arms, clinging to me like a spider monkey.

“I’ve got you, babe, I’ve got you,” I murmur over and over while she cries in my arms.

“I need my Elodie,” she sobs.

“Mama!” Elodie shrieks.

Zoey breaks free and rushes to Icer, practically snatching Elodie from his grasp. She runs her hands all over Elodie multiple times as tears continue to flow down her cheeks. “Are you okay?” she finally asks. “I… I saw you in the room. There was a special mirror that let me see you and hear you, El. You were so, so brave, sweetie.”

“Mama, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. Pepaw said so.”

Chills roll through me because I remember Zoey’s grandparents from the one time they came to town and Zoe introduced me to them. Good, solid, Christian people. Nothing like Zoey’s parents whatsoever. I knew they passed away, so Elodie saying something like that is a bit… disconcerting, to say the least. Still, she’s just a child, so maybe, to keep from being frightened, she imagined that Zoey’s grandfather was there.

“He did, did he?” Zoey questions. “Well, he was always our biggest protector, so if you talked to him and he told you that, he was obviously right.”

“Yes, because Daddy and Uncle Icer showed up a few minutes later,” Elodie replies.