Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

Callow

"You sure you got this?" Brooks asked, clearly conflicted.

True, he'd started to loosen up a bit ever since he met his girl and started to build a life outside of the club. But he still struggled to loosen up the reins, even if Fallon thought shit would be fine.

To be fair, Brooks had been around to see more of the club antics than Fallon had. And when you saw us all shitfaced and stupid more than a few times, I could understand why he would question our ability to do a job without a bunch of other senior club members.

My gut instinct was to feel offense. I mean, fuck, the shit I'd seen. The shit I'd done . He had no idea. I could handle a little drop to some small-size MC from out of state.

And as much as Sully didn't look it in his bright pink Hawaiian shirt with little palm fronds all over it, he was also incredibly capable in action. Maybe even more so than me. I'd only met a handful of other men with as finely-tuned natural instincts as him.

On top of that, Perish was a mammoth of a man who didn't shy away from violence if it was needed.

Nave had years of living on the road and having to solve all his scuffles by himself.

And the twins, while we didn't know exactly what went down during the years they lived in Puerto Rico, something about how they both carried themselves made me think they were involved in… something there. If not in charge of shit.

We were a solid crew.

"If I didn't think we were capable, I'd insist on finding someone else to come with us," I answered Brooks.

Brooks looked at me for a moment before nodding, accepting that I was right.

"Phones," he said, pointing to the bar. We all took turns dropping our phones and any other electronic devices that might have tracking capabilities on the bar top. "Here," he said, handing me a new burner. "You know the numbers?" he asked, since we clearly didn't want to program something that we were just going to toss as soon as the job was done.

"Got yours and Fallon's memorized," I confirmed.

"Alright," he said, nodding. "The SUV is gassed up and loaded."

"Nave and I will take our bikes," Sully offered.

Then, without much more conversation, we were heading out.

It was a shitty day for a drive, especially with Nave and Sully on bikes when the gray sky looked ready to open up at any moment, soaking them in cold autumnal rain.

But it was just a fifteen-minute drive. And the drop itself would likely not go longer than half an hour.

We couldn't exactly complain about the job, given how little work it actually was most of the time.

Thanks to generations of this club existing and making deals with international weapons traffickers, shit ran like a well-oiled machine.

Guns came in every few weeks. Some of us went and picked them up, stored them in the basement, and called it a day.

Then, every once in a while, we had a drop like this to do.

It left a fuckuva lot of leisure time and paid a nice amount of money.

The SUV was silent for the drive, save for the low alt-rock station playing as I drove.

In the passenger seat, Perish's hands kept opening and closing into fists. The twins' posture was unusually stiff.

There was some kind of tension in the air. We all seemed to be picking up on it.

I swallowed past the lump in my throat as the sky started to spit halfheartedly onto the windshield.

While I trusted my instincts, had learned to listen to my gut a long time ago, I also had to remember that if anyone on a crew was feeling off for personal reasons, that shit infected the whole team. It could be as small as someone just being in a bad mood, getting up on the wrong side of the bed.

Yeah, I'd be a little more alert. But there was no reason to think we needed to turn back and say to hell with this drop.

The SUV followed Nave and Sully on their bikes north up the highway, the area getting a little more desolate as we drove away from the beach area and more toward the side of town that used to feature a lot of business, but was now dominated by old, uninhabited buildings.

Bad for the area.

Good for doing our kind of business.

Nave and Sully turned off the highway and into a lot full of cracks, the grass and weeds still sticking up between them as I looked at the long, low building that used to be an industrial store of some kind. Before my time, even before I left Navesink Bank for the military.

It still seemed in relatively good shape even after being abandoned for so long as we drove around to the back of the building, not wanting to be seen from the highway. The cops in this area didn't have much to do with their time other than do speed traps or investigate suspicious cars in an abandoned lot.

Thanks to the L-shape formed by the loading docks, once we were back there, we were completely hidden by the building to the front and sides and a strip of woods between the building and a neighborhood behind it.

We all climbed out of the SUV in unison as Nave and Sully removed their helmets.

"Guess we're early," Sully said, glancing around.

Did he feel the tension too? Was it just me?

There was a prickle up my back as I moved around the edge of the loading docks, glancing at the highway.

But no cars slowed.

"They're not from the area," Nave said, shrugging as he leaned against the back of the SUV. "Probably estimated the time wrong."

Still, we were all a little tense, shifting uncomfortably as the moments passed.

I was wound so tight that when I heard my voice called, I felt my heart leap up and lodge in my throat as I whipped around.

I didn't even realize that my name hadn't been said in one of the deep male voices of my brothers.

Until I saw the source of it.

"Daphne?" I asked, blinking hard, sure I was seeing things.

"I thought it was you," she said, giving me that uncertain smile of hers.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I asked, too aware of what this situation was to be kinder.

"I was getting ice cream across the street. I thought I saw you," she added.

The ice cream place was a couple-minute walk away. And with no cut in the stone guard, she'd hopped over it and crossed traffic to get here.

The fuck was up with this kid?

Could a silly teenage crush make a girl so reckless?

"You need to leave," I said, striding toward her.

"Ah, afraid it might be too late for that," Sully said. And just then, I heard the rumble of bikes getting closer and closer.

" Fuck ," I hissed, rushing forward to grab Daphne's arm, pulling her with me back to the SUV, opening the back passenger door, and pushing her inside. "Get on the ground and stay there," I demanded, watching her eyes go round, finally having some fear slip into her, it seemed.

Good.

"Don't listen while you're at it," I said, slamming the door.

All the guys' gazes cut to me as three bikes came around the back of the building as a car came around the other side.

Trapping us in.

My hand itched to go to the gun at my waist. But I didn't want to set these guys on-edge if the drop hadn't just gone sideways and they were just too clueless to see that caging in another crew was not the right move.

The Henchmen were a bit of an eclectic club. Lots of different looks and shit. These guys were all practically mirror images of one another. Long hair, tattoos, scruffy beards, worn jeans and jean jackets with patches instead of leather cuts.

The four men in the car climbed out and approached us. When no one reached for weapons, everyone on my crew relaxed.

The one who must have been the leader, if not the president, moved forward toward me as I stepped toward him.

"Bon," he said, offering his hand.

"Callow," I said, shaking it.

Bon waved behind him, making one of the men move forward with a tan tote bag that looked appropriately heavy and stacked.

Bon took it, holding it open for me to look inside, then offering it to me. An act of good faith since he hadn't even seen the guns yet.

"It's all there," he assured me as I handed it off to Perish to check.

"Nothing against you," I said, as Perish did a quick fan of the stacks then gave me a nod. "You're just new to us," I added.

"Yeah, I get it. The product?" he asked as Perish took the cash over toward the front passenger seat.

But he only got halfway there when we all heard it.

Gunshots.

I swear, I was so accustomed to guns now that I heard the swooshing sound of it cutting through the air even after the explosion from the barrel.

My hand went to my gun as my head went on a pivot, checking the other crew, but finding them just as shocked as my crew was.

"Eyes!" I shouted, making Sully scan the area from his better vantage point.

A bullet whizzed past my ear, sinking into the brick building behind me.

"There!" Sully called, pointing through the trees.

In fucking unison, the twins took off into the woods even as there was another hail of bullets.

I watched in horror as Perish's body jolted as he took one or two or fuck-knew how many bullets before his body fell to the ground.

Sully abandoned his path toward one of Bon's men who was down, rushing instead toward Perish along with Nave.

As a new horror filled my system.

Gunshots.

By the car.

Where Daphne was hiding in the floorboard of the backseat.

"Fuck," I hissed, running behind the SUV.

I ripped the passenger door open, finding Daphne crying on the floor with her arms covering her head.

"Get out," I demanded, tone hard. There was no time for softness.

Daphne kept crying, and I had no choice as the glass behind her cracked as a bullet shot through it, then sliced through my arm, but to grab her and yank her out, pulling her with me toward the front of the car, hiding us behind the engine block. It was the safest spot to hide behind during a shooting.

I still turned her, pulling her back against me as I sat against the car, figuring a bullet would have to get through the car, the engine, and me before it got to her.

"Shh. I need you to be quiet," I said as she sobbed.

Daphne turned her head, pressing her mouth into her arm to muffle any sounds as I listened to what was going on around us.

All I heard then was heavy breathing and the yells of instructions from Bon's crew and the curses of, I imagined, the wounded being pulled toward cover.

The bullets had stopped.

At least for the moment.

But experience told me that a cease in firing was often a way for the attackers to lure you out, thinking it was safe, then gun you down.

"Wait. We have to wait," I told Daphne as she tried to move away only to find her sleeve snagged by me.

"Get out of here," Rune called, sounding winded. "Give me the bike keys," he demanded as the car suddenly jolted as, I imagined, Sully and Nave shoved Perish inside.

"It's clear, let's go," Sully said, running around the front of the car to jump into the driver's seat.

That meant I had to drag Daphne up into the backseat, pressing her down into the floorboard again as I squeezed in next to Perish.

The door barely had a chance to close before Sully was peeling off.

The rumble of the bikes followed suit, but Sully had to take a sharp left to avoid ramming into Bon's car as they fled at the same time.

"Is everyone okay?" I asked, pressing my hands down into the wound on Perish's upper chest. Too high—I hoped—to be life-threatening at that very moment.

"Phone," Nave demanded, making me reach for it, getting blood all over it as I passed it to him. "Fallon," Nave said, tone serious. "Ambush. Yeah. Perish. What do you want… okay. Yeah."

"Where am I going?" Sully asked.

"The clubhouse. Fallon said he will have Chris send medics from Hailstorm down to deal with the wounds. Is anyone else hit?"

"Hey, Daph, are you hit? Look at me," I demanded, making her lift her head, her face splotchy with tears, eyes wide with fear. But not, I didn't think, pain.

"No," she said, sniffling hard. "You're bleeding."

"Where are you hit?" Nave asked, turning in his seat.

"I'm fine. It's a flesh wound," I insisted. "We're gonna get you patched up, man," I assured Perish as he tried to deep-breathe through the pain.

"Bet some of the club girls would love to get all dressed up and play nursemaid for the next few weeks," Sully said, keeping his tone light, but in the rearview, I could see the tension in his jaw, the dark look in his eyes. "Sponge baths and all."

"Easy," I said, looking down at Daphne.

"Yeah, that's… gonna take some explanation," Nave said, shaking his head.

"Were either of the twins hit?" I asked, thinking of how they'd charged into the fire instead of trying to find cover.

"Not Rune," Sully said. "I didn't get a look at Croft.

"He's still on his bike, so he can't be bad even if he is hit," Nave said, turning to look out the back window.

The SUV barreled into the lot a few moments later, finding the place fucking filled with bikes and cars.

Nave flew out of the car, rushing toward Fallon to, I imagine, forewarn him about the kid in the backseat.

His head whipped up, tension tightening his features as he nodded at whatever Nave said before he sent several of the guys rushing toward the backseat, opening the door, and pulling out Perish.

"It's alright, Daph," I said as she shrank further into herself. "You're safe here," I added as I climbed out, then waited for her to do the same, still shaking from head-to-toe.

"You need to get looked at," Fallon said as I passed.

"I'm fine. Gotta handle… this," I said, waving at Daphne's back as she walked ahead of me into the clubhouse.

"Yeah… the fuck?"

"She saw me driving past the ice cream place. Then followed us. If I had time, I'd have sent her away. But the other bikers pulled in. Shit went down too fast."

"You gonna find a way to explain this to her mother?"

"Don't see having a choice in the matter."

Fallon sucked in a deep breath. "Okay. I'll get the rest of the brief from the others. Go calm down the kid and call her mom."

When I made my way inside, I found Daphne had sat down on the same couch she had the last time she was here.

"Daph, come in here," I said, aware of all the men around.

She stood, following me on stiff legs toward the kitchen.

"Do you drink coffee?"

"Yeah."

With that, I started to make a pot as she sat down at the table.

"Are you going to call my mom?"

"Don't exactly have a choice," I said as I grabbed two mugs.

"We… could… not call her."

Turning, my brow shot up. "What?"

"I don't want her to know I cut class. You don't want her to know I got shot at…"

"You got shot around ," I corrected. "Because you cut class and put yourself in danger."

As much as I would love to not have to tell the already stressed to the max mom of this troublesome teenager that her kid followed me again and could have been shot or killed because of it, I couldn't let her manipulate me into silence.

"She could call the cops on you," Daphne said. " I could call the cops on you."

"Kid, don't fucking threaten me," I said, shaking my head at her. "You're about as intimidating as a gnat," I said as Brooks moved into the kitchen, holding out my phone to me. "Thanks."

"Need anything?" he asked, glancing at my arm. The wound was still bleeding halfheartedly, a little trickle that slid down my wrist and off of my hand.

"Not right now," I said, sucking in a steadying breath as I swiped to my contacts.

I hesitated, not wanting to do this part, but knowing I had to.

"She's at work," Daphne said as the phone rang and rang. "She can't answer."

"Sabrina, this is Callow. Can you call me back at this number as soon as possible? It's… important," I said, looking at Daphne as she traced something on the surface of the table with her fingertip.

I heard the shuffle outside and glanced out to see the medics from Hailstorm had arrived.

Worst case, they'd take Perish up to Hailstorm where they had their own hospital ward equipped with just about anything that they could need to treat him.

My experience said he wasn't going to need that, though. I'd seen more than a few gunshot wounds. He was likely going to be up and worrying about the fucking lawn in a day or two.

My phone started to vibrate in my hand, making me almost drop it before I brought it up, seeing Sabrina's name, and swiping to answer.

"Is she there again?" she asked, whispering into the phone.

"Y…yes."

"Why are you pausing? Is she okay? What's going on?"

"She's okay. But you need to come and pick her up."

"I…"

"Fake being sick. We… need to talk."

"Okay. Alright. Give me… twenty."

"Don't speed. She's airtight. It's just… complicated."

"Okay," she agreed, hanging up.

"Can I suggest something?" I said as I poured the coffee.

"What?" Daphne asked as I brought the coffee to her, then went to grab the cream and sugar.

"Start thinking of the ways you're going to make this up to your mother," I said. "You've been a real pain in her ass, in case no one has been straight enough to tell you that."

"You don't understand—"

"No, you're right. I don't. Got a mom busting her ass to try to give you a good life. And all you're giving her is grief? I don't get that shit."

"She doesn't let me do anything."

"Pretty sure not letting you sneak into bars and hang out at biker clubhouses makes her a good mom, not a bad one."

"She just doesn't want me to have fun because she doesn't have any either."

Christ. I hoped to fuck I wasn't so dramatic at her age.

"Maybe she's just too tired from working all day and tracking your ass down to have any energy to have fun," I suggested. "Ever think that if you went easier on her, she might go easier on you?"

"All she wants is for me to hang out with Allie."

"What's wrong with Allie?"

"She's just… lame. All she wants to do is hang out at home and study. She's boring."

Sounded like the kind of kid I'd want my kid to hang with too. Though, yeah, I could see why Daphne was looking to branch out. I'd been looking for interesting new experiences at her age too. And, from the sounds of it, so had Sabrina. Until a pregnancy forced her to grow up quick.

"You know, the way I remember it, your mom was trying to give you a longer leash, let you earn back some trust. Only to have you ditch your friends and show up here."

To that, Daphne had no comeback, knowing she'd been in the wrong.

"Cal," Sully called. "Gird your loins. Pretty mama is on her way in."

Here we go.