Page 22 of Warrant (The Berserker’s Rage MC: Wyoming Chapter #1)

Warrant

A s soon as we rounded the corner of the building, I saw my brothers congregating in front of the SUV and bikes. I shrugged the little girl a bit higher so she was more comfortable to carry and moved toward them.

The moment Aella saw her dad she started squirming in my arms. She didn’t have shoes on, but it wasn’t that hot out today, so I set her down and watched as she ran toward her father. “Daddy!”

Riggs’s head snapped to the side at the sound of his daughter’s voice and he all but mowed down Butcher as he turned and ran toward her.

“Fuck me,” Butcher bellowed as he managed to get out of the way before Riggs stomped all over him with his boots. “Where’s the fucking fire…” He froze as he saw the little girl. “Oh, I guess that’s okay.”

Most of the guys hadn’t heard her call out because they’d been focused on their conversation, but Riggs’s ears were clearly tuned in to his kids. He swept his girl up into his arms and squeezed her close.

I walked past and slapped Jury on the shoulder. “It’s okay, don’t cry.”

“Someone’s cutting onions out here,” Jury said with an exaggerated sniff. The man was covered head to toe in tattoos and was a tough bastard, but there was a soft smile on his face.

In all reality his eyes were dry, but all of us were likely feeling a little soft inside watching the reunion. How did you remain emotionless in the face of a missing kid being reunited with her father? Shit was sweet. And despite the exterior we presented to the outside, we weren’t made of stone.

“Pyre,” Cypher called, “give her a quick look over. Make sure she’s good, then you can do a more detailed exam once we get back to the clubhouse. Everyone else, load everything up.”

I walked over to Cypher and Scythe. “There was a guy in there with her.”

“Is Forge coming back?” Aella asked as Pyre held her hand and led her over to a nearby SUV.

“No, he’s not coming back,” I told her, realizing that was the name of her friend inside.

“We have a body to move?” Scythe asked, keeping his voice low so the little girl wouldn’t hear him. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“We can help with that,” Toxic said, pointing at himself then Butcher. “We’ve gotten good at getting rid of bodies.”

“No body. He got away.”

They both scowled at me, but didn’t ask questions. They knew I’d answer without them needing to.

“He was watching over the kid. Making sure no one hurt her.” I rubbed the back of my neck under the stark gazes of my president and vice president. “I don’t know. I sort of got the feeling he was only there to help her out.”

“Then why was he with this crew to begin with?” Cypher asked.

“No idea. Maybe he was only sticking around for the kids? I really don’t know,” I told them. “But my gut said he didn’t deserve a bullet. Besides, I wanted to get Aella out of there.”

“Thanks for that.”

I turned and met Riggs’s gaze. I hadn’t realized he’d been standing behind me.

Pyre now had Aella sitting in the back of the SUV while he looked her over, and Riggs was close enough she wasn’t panicking that he was away from her.

“Of course.” That was the whole point. To get the kids back.

“He didn’t tell me anything useful. I’m not sure he knew anything useful. ”

“He didn’t say where he was headed?” Scythe asked.

“Going back to his crew,” I answered.

“Does this seem too…easy…to anyone else?” Demo asked.

Everyone nodded.

I gave the Austin guys an apologetic glance. “Here’s my take on it, though it’s just a theory.”

“Your theories tend to pan out,” Cypher said.

“We figured from the start that the target was Jared, though we don’t know why yet.

They ended up with two kids and I think Aella was just along for the ride.

A way to keep him as compliant as they could until they could dump her.

I think this was them just getting rid of her so she wasn’t their problem anymore.

” I kept my voice low so the kid wouldn’t overhear me.

I wasn’t even sure if Riggs had. Probably better if he hadn’t.

“So why have a guy watching over her?” Jury asked.

The Tucson and Austin guys were quiet, but there was fury stamped all over their faces. The thought of just discarding that sweet girl like she was trash pissed us all off.

“No idea. But like I said, I got the feeling he was there to help her. Maybe he volunteered. I didn’t get much information from him,” I explained.

“Well, whatever the reason,” Cypher said, “she’s safe with us now.”

“Could it be a trap?” Scythe muttered.

“If it was, this would’ve been the best place to utilize it,” Butcher pointed out. “They had us spread out. Could’ve taken us out a couple at a time. Plus…they had the best bait.” He pointed over at Aella.

“Good point,” Steel replied. “Why wait until we have Aella and leave with her?”

“To find out who we are? Where we’re based out of?” Toxic pointed out.

“Maybe,” Cypher mused, “so we’ll keep an eye out and be ready for anything.”

“But this fucker didn’t know where his crew was?” Scythe asked, the skepticism there in his tone. “If we knew where they were, we could hit them first. Go on the offensive.”

“The members likely text whoever’s in charge when they’re finished with assignments,” Cypher replied. “Then they get the next location. Happens a lot in crews where there’s not a lot of trust amongst everyone.”

“Makes sense,” Scythe said, then sighed. “So we don’t know where Jared is.”

“We’ll find him,” Cypher said, looking at Riggs rather than Scythe. The promise was to the father. “Let’s head back and get Aella fed and let her get some rest. We’ll see what Glitch has for us.”

He had a lot for us, apparently. As soon as we walked in the door, he handed Cypher an address on a piece of paper. “Just found it or I would’ve texted you.”

“We needed to come back first anyway,” Cypher replied, nodding toward the little girl who was asleep in Riggs’s arms.

“Shit! You found her. Good job,” Glitch said with a grin. “These guys like to change locations a lot, it seems. That’s how they’ve been keeping ahead of us.”

“How long do you think we have on this place?” Scythe asked, looking at the address.

“Day or two at the most,” he answered.

“Then we hit it in the morning,” Cypher said. He held up a hand before Riggs could protest. “We need to make a plan. We can keep an eye on this place to make sure they don’t leave, but if we rush in there now Jared could get hurt.”

“And we need to figure out what to do with the girl,” Scythe added. “Unless Riggs wants to stay with her.”

He glared at me. “I need to find my son.” But he looked torn to think of leaving his daughter.

“We could leave her here with whoever watches the clubhouse,” Scythe muttered.

“I’m only leaving two people tomorrow,” Cypher said with a shake of his head. “Glitch will be busy digging up more information, and the other person—don’t know who it is yet—will be busy watching everything else. Besides, if something goes wrong, I don’t want her here in the middle of it.”

Clearing my throat, I stepped in. I was the Sergeant at Arms after all. Security was my bread and butter. And I had a solution for this. “I have somewhere she can go.”

“Your mother?” Cypher asked.

“No, she’s helping the others with the cattle drive over the next couple days. Someone else.”

Cypher grinned as he caught my meaning. He looked over at Riggs. “Your girl is going to be in good hands. Really good hands. Even if this takes us a couple days, she’ll be taken care of.” He looked back at me. “Do it.”

“Come on, Demo,” I called out.

“Where we going?” he asked, catching up with me as I headed toward the door.

“Shopping.”

He stopped dead in his tracks, a look of dread on his face. “Shopping? What for?”

“Everything a three-year-old girl will need for three to four days.”

He shook his head, then caught up to me as I paused at the door. We walked out together, me smiling and him grumbling. He hated shopping.

It wasn’t exactly my strong suit either, but Demo could help with that. Plus, once we got there I’d have Riggs send me a list of shit that was needed for a kid. He’d be able to text me a checklist.

As soon as we stepped in the door of the first shop, Demo went straight into action. My wallet was crying by the time we were done, but we loaded everything into another one of the club’s SUVs and headed back to the clubhouse.

Leaving all but a few things that Aella would need for tonight in the vehicle, we came inside the building and found everyone staring up at a projection on the wall.

We stepped up and watched as Cypher went over the schematics of the building we were hitting tomorrow. It was some kind of packing plant.

Listening to the plan, I nodded in agreement when Cypher looked my way.

Him, Scythe, and I usually went over all this together, but since I’d been busy they’d handled it.

It wasn’t like either of them really needed my help.

Both of them were prior military—well CIA in Cypher’s case—and could mission plan with their eyes closed.

But this kind of shit was my specialty, so they always had me look everything over for holes.

I knew Cypher would have me go over it again at least once more before bed. He always made sure there were no fucking problems. Enough of those arose when we got into the field anyway. We didn’t need to start out with them.

“Thanks,” Riggs said, grabbing the bags of clothes and other supplies I was holding. “I’ll pay you back for everything.”

“Don’t worry about it. Consider it a baby shower gift.”

“Three years late,” he said with a chuckle, but nodded his thanks. “What’s this?” He peered into another bag.

“Don’t worry about that one, that’s as much for her sitter as it is for Aella,” I said, thinking about how much noise one bag could make.

He’d probably have a fucking heart attack if he saw how much I’d spent today. I nearly had. Demo—the fucker—had just told me to suck it up. Though he hadn’t offered to pay. Asshole.

The others started heading to bed, while I made my way to where Cypher and Scythe were waiting. It was going to be at least another hour of mission planning and I was just fine with that.

After that, I was going to have to figure out how I planned to do things in the morning.

There was no doubt in my mind it was going to go my way, but not at first. At first, I was going to get shouted at, at the very least. I was sure of it.

But as long as Aella was safe, that was all that mattered.

How did a man ask a woman to watch a child—who wasn’t even his—all while giving her zero information on why the child needed watching or what we were all doing that made it so we couldn’t watch the kid?

Especially when her job was to ask questions and piece together clues.

Pesky, pesky clues. I blew out a breath.

I had about twelve hours to figure it out.