Page 9 of Sackett (Demented Souls #17)

W orry sat like a lead weight in Sackett’s stomach.

He was acutely aware that every moment that ticked by was one moment closer to when Donna’s ex and the crazy group she’d once been mixed up with got closer to their deadline.

Whether or not they would actually cut pieces off Selena he didn’t know. He wasn’t willing to find out.

Forty-five minutes after he’d started making calls, Savage, Sackett, and the club leadership, along with Krissi and Gizmo, sat in the locked back room of the clubhouse.

There hadn’t been time for more to get to the clubhouse, but unless they were needed for something specific, they weren’t need anyway.

They’d managed to distract Donna by asking her to keep an eye on Amber, Ruger and Krissi’s baby.

She was somewhere around six months old, small enough that Sackett didn’t want to have to pick her up.

She looked too small and fragile. He didn’t want to accidentally hurt her.

“Driving up will take too long. It’s more than half the time limit, leaving us little time for recon and planning.

We’re going to need to fly at least one person up,” Tuck said, scanning the table.

“I’m torn. I don’t want to send Donna. I don’t want her that close to this group of nut jobs.

I also think Savage should stay with Donna if we can manage it, but we need at least one person who this attorney has met.

Someone she’ll recognize, so she doesn’t fight the rescue. ”

“I’ve met her,” Sackett spoke up. He didn’t say he wanted to be there. He wanted to beat the ever-loving shit out of this son of a bitch. He didn’t have to.

Tuck watched him long enough he fought the urge to shift in his seat, but he managed to meet the president’s gaze without flinching, or hopefully, revealing what he was thinking.

“All right. We’ll send you. Who else can go from here?

” He glanced at Ruger and Sadist, but didn’t wait for an answer.

“I’m also going to call Lurch and have him send some men down from the ranch.

Depending on when the next flight is, they can likely make it down before you’ll get there.

That way we won’t need to worry about weapons, either getting them on the plane or acquiring some once you land. ”

Sackett wanted to insist that he be one of the ones to go, but held his silence.

He didn’t know if anyone else, other than Savage and Donna, knew Selena.

If not, then he would be on the list by default, without having to fight for it, or reveal how strongly he felt about going.

About her, though he couldn’t say why. Since he couldn’t explain it, even to himself, there was no way he was ready to tell anyone else about it, even his brothers.

Krissi tapped away at the laptop on the table in front of her.

“How many are we sending up from here?” she asked, looking up from her laptop and over at Tuck, both brows lifted as she waited.

“I’m not sure yet.” He glanced around the table. “Has anyone other than the three already named met Ms. Leighty?”

Sackett kept his mouth shut and looked around the table.

He wanted to say something. He wanted to insist that he be included, but since they’d already said that Savage and Donna would be staying, it meant through process of elimination that he would likely be going, even if he wasn’t the only one. He could live with that.

“Not that I know of,” Savage said. “She was recommended to us by Gizmo,” he turned to where Giz stood in the open door to the command center that stayed locked whenever this room was open. “How did you know the attorney?”

“I don’t.” Gizmo didn’t bother turning around as he answered Savage. “Jill has a friend who’s a criminal attorney, she asked her to recommend a family law attorney licensed both here and in Colorado. She gave us Leighty’s name. I’ve never met either woman.”

“Shit,” Tuck said with feeling. He took a deep breath, held it a moment, then let it out, his eyes scanning the room.

“That makes it both easier and more difficult. Sackett will go, but I don’t want to send him up alone.

Who else can go? I want a fully patched brother, not a prospect and at least one more, if not two.

We can’t expect Gillette to do all the heavy lifting for our chapter. ”

Krissi tapped a few more times.

“We need to decide quickly. The next non-stop flights leave in,” she checked her watch, “just over three hours. Those will arrive in Denver at 5 p.m. local time. There are other flights, but they either have lay overs or leave later and won’t get you there until after eight or later.

” She looked up at Sackett, then Tuck. “I don’t think you want to wait that long, right? ”

Sackett fisted his hands in his lap, hoping the table would hide them as he fought to keep from saying fuck no, they didn’t want to wait. He wanted to slide his driver’s license and credit card across the table, tell her to book the flight, then grab his go bag and leave.

But he couldn’t. He had to wait for the command from his president.

And he would need to take a couple of things out of his go bag.

Things that wouldn’t be allowed through TSA.

He made himself keep his breathing even and his expression clear as he turned to Tuck and waited to hear what he had to say.

“Gizmo, reach out to Maverick, Snake and Bubba, see which and how many of them can make the trip. I know it’s short notice, but we’ll send what we can.

” He turned back to Krissi. “Get the flights booked. Start with Sackett, as we know for sure he’s going.

Use club funds. This is a club issue, the club foots the bill. ”

Gizmo reached for his phone, using his free hand to start closing up the secure room that held most of the electronics and specialized tools that would give their club away as being more than they appeared.

Sackett had no doubt he’d be back in there later, but they had to close that room up before they could open the other door and let people out of here.

Sackett saw Krissi nod out of the corner of his eye.

“I need your info for the ticket,” she said.

He was already pulling out his wallet and retrieving his license. “As soon as we get out of here, I’ll clean out my go bag and I’ll hit the road as soon as I can.” He’d end up waiting at the airport, but he wanted to be sure he didn’t miss the flight. The last thing he wanted was more delay.

“Clean out?” Sadist asked, one brow lifted.

“There are a couple things in there that won’t make it through airport security. I’ll take the time to clean it out now, so I don’t get delayed there.”

The VP didn’t say anything more, just nodded and turned back to Tuck.

“Get him booked and we’ll let him go,” Tuck said. “As someone agrees to go, have them text you a picture of their ID so we have all the information for the tickets.” He turned his gaze from Gizmo to Sackett. “What else do you need?”

“As much information as we can get about the compound, and the people there. Who, how many, what kind of training they have. Everything we can get. You said Gillette will bring weapons, that’s good. I’ll text Jake with a list of things I specifically want.”

“They may not have it all.”

“That’s okay. They can bring what they have, and I’ll make do.”

Tuck nodded then turned to Sadist who had his phone out and was busy typing on the screen. Sackett didn’t know if he was taking notes or texting someone, but did it matter? He knew his role here. On top of that he knew better than to tell others how to do theirs.

“Here’s your ID back. I just emailed you a copy of the receipt with all the flight info, confirmation and that kind of thing. Let me know if you need anything else and I’ll do my best to arrange it.” Krissi handed him back his driver’s license.

He had a moment to wonder how she’d gotten his email but before he could ask, Tuck tipped his head toward the door leading to the rest of the clubhouse, telling him to go.

Sackett didn’t waste any time. He got up and left, leaving the others to figure out who would go with him and make sure they got there.

S ackett sat in the hard plastic seat at the airport gate, elbows on his knees as he typed out a text to Jake, listing the equipment he wanted, if they had it.

The backpack he used as a go bag sitting between his feet.

He put the last few things on the list that he could think of then checked the time as he leaned back in the seat and looked around the room for the first time since sitting down.

He'd deliberately chosen a seat where his back was to the wall, and while he’d been aware of movement around him and people coming and going, he’d been focused on the importance of getting the list to Jake as quickly as he could so they could gather what they had and hit the road.

He didn’t know how long it would take them to get to Fort Collins, but he suspected that if they didn’t get out soon, it would be after he did.

A few minutes after arriving at the airport he’d gotten another email from Krissi, this one with the information for a rental car reservation.

He was glad she’d thought about it. He hadn’t gotten that far in his plans.

He’d thought about getting up there, but not past the flight.

Armament and gear had been his first focus.

If he’d gotten up there with no reservation, he would have rented whatever they had and used his own card, but knowing there was a vehicle waiting was one less worry and let him focus on other things.

He pushed his reluctance to fly out of his mind, concentrating instead on what he was here to do and why.

There was no time for him to drive. If he was going, he had to fly and there was no point in worrying about it.

As he scanned the room and didn’t see any of his brothers, he wondered who would end up going with him, and if any of them would.

It was last-minute notice and how many of them would be able to drop everything and make it to the airport on time?

Especially the three that Tuck had named.

They all had women, who likely wouldn’t want them to drop everything to run to the aid of some woman they didn’t know.

Whether each of the men would let that sway them, he didn’t know.

He was torn. He wouldn’t turn down help, back up you could trust was always welcome in a bad situation.

And he had the feeling this wouldn’t be a good one.

But at the same time, he didn’t want other men around Selena.

He forced himself not to think about what they might be doing to her. Dwelling on how they could be hurting her wouldn’t help anything and it could hurt. All he could do was get there and get her out as soon as possible.

Sackett tried not to watch the minutes that seemed to crawl by as he waited for the flight to board but found it difficult to distract himself. He’d about given up on any of his local brothers making the trip with him when Maverick showed up.

“Hey,” Maverick said, sitting in the chair beside Sackett. “I only got the basics before I packed and ran, so you’ll have to fill me in. I was afraid I wouldn’t make it on time.”

“I’m glad you did.” Sackett glanced around, trying to gauge who was close and how much he could say without being overheard, possibly by people who they didn’t want to know their business. “What did they tell you?”

“Only that some woman was taken, they want Donna, and we have—” he checked his watch, “twenty one hours until they start removing pieces to prove they mean business.”

“That’s it in a nutshell.”

“Who’s the woman?”

“Donna’s attorney. She was in Colorado for some case and while she was there, she had an appointment with a judge to discuss whether or not Donna needs to file for divorce. I don’t know if that meeting happened or not.”

“I take it the ex that she’s not sure if she has to divorce is behind this?”

“Since he’s the one who contacted Donna, from the attorney’s cell phone, I’m going to say yes. But he’s not alone.” Sackett turned and looked at Maverick. “How much have you heard about how Savage found her? I mean, you were there of course, but did you hear why she was in Casper?”

“She was on the run from her ex, wasn’t she?” Maverick looked confused. As if that was all there was to the story. It was probably all he knew about it.

Sackett debated for a moment how much to share. It was Donna’s story, not his, but if Maverick was going to go in beside him to help get Selena back, he needed to know.

“Yes, but there’s more to it.” Sackett didn’t know if he knew more because he and Savage were closer, because they had the bond of having been prospects together, because they’d roomed together for the trip north or what, but he’d known there was more to Donna’s story from the very beginning.

Well, most of it. He suspected there was more even that he didn’t know, or Savage wouldn’t be quite so protective of her, but he didn’t insist on every detail. He’d back Savage in anything.

“Wow. Just wow.” Maverick shook his head in disbelief when Sackett had finished filling him in. “I don’t know how people keep falling for that shit, but they do.”

“I don’t either. Looking at Donna, I can kind of see it. She was young, na?ve, idealistic. That seems to be the type that fall for that kind of shit. At least among the women. Men? I think that’s a different story, but we don’t have time to get into it.”

Boarding was called for their flight. They got in line and onto the plane, because of the last-minute nature of their trip, their seats weren’t near each other.

Sackett wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

They couldn’t have talked about what they were doing on the trip, not on the plane where people would overhear, but having someone to talk to about something else, nearly anything else, would have been a welcome distraction.

Instead, he tilted his head back and closed his eyes.

He likely wouldn’t get any sleep tonight as they made and executed plans, so he’d get some rest while he could. He had no doubt he would need it.