Daredevil Chapter 21

Our frantic ride to the location the kidnapper gave us wasn't fast enough for me. When he called, he insisted on talking to Carnage to verify we weren't lying about them being here. Once he was satisfied, he gave us an hour to make it to an address outside the next town over. We'd have to push it to make it in time, which I knew was the idea. He wasn't leaving us enough time to plan a move against him or to bring in reinforcements.

When we rode out, we left enough guys behind to guard the compound, as always. We wouldn't risk this being a diversion to get us away from home, so he was able to attack our families. With him possibly being an arsonist, no one wanted to have him try to burn down our homes and clubhouse.

With Carnage and his guys arriving early, we had time to plan who would go and who would stay and how we'd split up those who went to give us the best chance of getting Shain free safely and capturing her kidnapper. There was a chance he wasn't working alone. Just because we only heard one voice didn't make it true. For all we knew, it might be a whole crew.

I was in the main group going to the meeting spot. He'd stipulated only me, Moose, Carnage and Sin were to come. If he saw more, he'd kill her. This was what prompted the others to break off from us several miles out and to take other ways in and travel the last bit silently. We had earpieces which allowed Phantom and Maestro to continue to feed us information on what they were finding out about the meeting spot as we rode there.

We knew it was a former storage building for a company that had gone out of business a few years ago. It had been where they stored extra stock and equipment. They'd gone under, and the place now sat empty. No one had bought it since the location wasn't good for anything other than storage. Everyone with businesses wanted them to be where the people were, in towns or at least surrounded by other businesses. The only people likely to want this space were those wanting absolute privacy, which most likely would mean they were up to no good.

I was sick and about to lose my mind when we pulled up to the warehouse-looking building. There was a black van that matched the description of the one Phantom and Tamysin had seen on the video cameras in Tenillo. There was no sign of anyone. I hurried to shut off my bike. We were barely swinging our legs off our bikes when the small door at the front swung open. I froze, thinking I was hallucinating, when I saw Shain. What snapped me out of it was seeing her take off running toward us. I ran to meet her. We crashed together with our arms around each other. I hugged her tightly as I buried my face in her hair and murmured her name over and over. She was sobbing my name. Next thing I knew, big, meaty arms came halfway around me. I glanced up to find Moose hugging her from behind and, by extension, me.

We were shaken apart by Sin urgently asking her, "Where's your kidnapper, Shain? Did he send you out here? Is there anyone else with him?"

This made me switch from lover mode to protector mode. Moose let go of her at the same time as I did. We both moved to put her behind us and away from the building. There were windows, and he'd have no problem shooting us from one of them. What a stupid amateur move on our part.

"It's alright. He's inside, but we're safe. He's working alone. Come with me."

"Baby, you don't know that. He may have told you he wouldn't hurt us, but don't believe him," I warned her.

"Oh, I wouldn't believe him if he told me the sky was blue but I know we're fine. Come. You'll see." She had a smile on her face as she said it. Exchanging puzzled looks, we let her take us inside. The rest of the guys were able to hear everything going on, on our end, so they would be on alert.

She wound her way through several areas until we came to a large open space, likely where the main storage was before. I stumbled when I saw a man lying on his stomach on the floor. His arms and legs were tied up behind him. Hog-tied was what we called it. His head was turned in our direction with his eyes closed. Around his mouth was a piece of cloth. She walked up to him, stopped, then folded her arms across her chest as she smiled.

"I thought while I waited, I should do some work. I got bored. I think you should get the others in here so we can finish off this fiasco, and we can go home. I'm tired, and I want a long, hot soak in the tub."

"Shain, what the hell happened here?" Moose asked loudly.

In my earpiece, I heard several of our guys asking what the hell was going on. Sin answered them.

"You have to see it to believe it. Get over here ASAP. I can't fucking believe this. No need to come in quiet," he muttered in amazement. He was shaking his head in disbelief. I noticed Carnage and Moose seemed less shocked.

As we waited for them to join us, we held off on questioning her about him or what he did, but I scanned her body. Her clothes were rumpled and dirty but intact. There were no marks on her face. I itched to take her into another room and strip her bare to inspect every inch of her, but I held off. I had to believe she'd tell me if she was hurt. I'd ask her about the other when we were alone.

It wasn't long before we heard the roar of engines. Carnage went to show them where we were. When they came marching in, the looks on their faces were comical, just as I knew ours were when we first saw him. He was still unmoving. I wondered what she did to knock him out.

"What the fuck?"

"Do you see this?"

"This is some weird shit."

"Remind me why we're here?"

Those were the main things uttered when they saw the situation. Everyone gathered around. As they went to hug her, Sin held up his hand. "Hang onto those hugs. First, we need to get some information before this guy wakes up. What the hell went on here, Shain?"

"I need to start at the beginning since I know you all want to know those details, too. I think he'll be out a while longer. He was waking up when the four of you pulled up, so I hit him again with the board."

She told us how a young boy along the road flagged her down, acting as if his car had broken down. From there, she talked about waking up here and then the first call he made. She ended up retelling how she lured him to her after she got her wrists loose and attacked him, then knocked him out. Since she had no idea where she was and knew we were on the way, she decided to wait for us.

I knew she was only giving us the highlights. I wanted to know everything. First, though, I wanted to know who he was and why he was so angry with the Regulators. "Do you recognize him? Did he say why he did this?"

"I didn't at first, but he said something, and now I know who he is and why he did it. If you give me a minute, I'll let him explain."

"Am I the only one who smells gas?" Crash asked suddenly. As soon as he did, I smelled it, too. I was so concerned about her that nothing else registered.

"Yeah, be careful. No open flames. He poured gas all over this room." she warned us before she went over to him.

I stayed with her as she began to slap his face. She didn't do it lightly. He moaned after a couple of slaps, but what woke him up was Moose pouring water on his face from a bottle he got somewhere. He sputtered, then blinked. When he opened them, I saw they were bloodshot. He glared at her, then at us.

"Well, look who's decided to join us. I have a bunch of guys here eager to talk to you. I hope you're up for company. You need to explain to them why you did this and who you are," she said.

"Cut him loose and take off the gag. He's not going anywhere," Sin stated. It was Executioner who cut his restraints. When he was free, Ex and Crash jerked him up and threw him not gently into a nearby chair. It rocked back on its legs but didn't tip over due to hitting the wall. They took up positions on either side of him with their arms crossed. They cast him looks that dared him to try something. I was the one to reach over to remove the gag.

"Talk," I barked.

He sneered up at me. I went to hit him to see if it would loosen his tongue, but Shain stopped me by placing her hand on my arm.

"Let me. You were all eager to talk a while ago, and now the cat's got your tongue. I think they really need to hear what you have to say. Come on. At least tell my cousin and his club how they all deserve to pay for what they did to you and how you planned to burn me alive in front of them before you killed them. Oh, and how I deserved it because of what I did to you. Tell them how you know they're not saints, and you deserve a medal for getting rid of them. Go on. Do it," she egged him on.

Hearing he would've burned her alive made me see red. I punched him in the stomach as I yelled, "Cocksucker!"

"Honey, don't. Not yet."

He spit at her, but she jumped out of the way. This time, he was backhanded by Crash, but only due to him being closer than Moose or me. She continued to smile, laugh, and prod him. I was about to send her outside so we could make him talk and then make him pay when he broke. He started screaming all this stuff about how they never should've done what they did to him and how she should've never been allowed to tell him anything. He babbled and didn't maintain a coherent sentence, so it was impossible to understand what he meant. When he ran out of steam, we exchanged puzzled glances.

"I have one word for you, and I bet it'll clear some of his prattling up. Does the name Gilly mean anything?" she asked the Regulators. Looks of astonishment followed by outrage overtook them.

"No fucking way," Carnage muttered as he leaned closer to the man and squinted his eyes. The others were moving closer.

"Shain, who the fuck is Gilly?" I asked impatiently. It didn't matter to me what his name was. He was a dead man.

"Do you remember the story she told you about the prospect who almost burned down the clubhouse ten years ago when he used a turkey fryer inside?" Moose asked.

"Yeah, he ended up leaving, and you never heard from him again," I acknowledged.

"Well, his name was Gilly, which is short for Gilbert. Are you sure?" he asked her.

"It's him. He referred to himself as Gilly. He seems to think you should've never ordered him around, nor should the women or me be allowed to tell him to do things. I wasn't even a member."

"This is all because of that!? Are you kidding? We didn't fucking make you do anything we didn't make anyone else do. It was us testing you. If you can't do as you're told or back up your club family, then you're of no use to us. And in case you forgot, we didn't kick you out. You were the one to leave in the middle of the night after we gave you a reminder not to do stupid shit like the turkey again. You almost burned the club down, and people might've died!" Carnage shouted.

"It was an accident. How was I to know it would do that? As for telling me what to do all the time, I didn't need you to do that. I was just as good as any of you. Actually, I was better, and if you were in the club, why not me? And there was no reason to let those bitches boss me around. This one thought she was untouchable because of him."

This time, it was Shain who hit him. She punched him in the jaw. "Don't call me a bitch. It seems that fire gave him a taste and started his firebug fascination. He's been waiting and, I assume, getting his courage up to make us pay all these years. One of his fires caused that beauty mark on his face. He had to be the one setting those fires in Nebraska."

"You thought you'd get away from me by moving, but I fooled you. It wasn't hard to follow you. You ran back to this one like a whore," he sneered.

I let out a growl, and then I punched him three times before I was pulled off him. The pussy didn't even try to defend himself even though he had his hands free to do it.

"You fucked with the wrong woman and the wrong clubs," I snarled.

"Go ahead, call the cops. They can lock me up, but we'll see how long I get," he said smugly. The wildness in his eyes made me think he would be found mentally incompetent, and if this happened, he'd go to some mental hospital rather than prison. Neither was an option because eventually, he'd get out and then we'd have to watch our backs. No amount of medication or counseling would fix him.

"Shain, I need you to go with a few of my brothers back home. I'll join you there as soon as I can."

She snorted as the Regulators chuckled. "If you think she'll leave so we can kill his ass, you don't know her. She's gonna stay here and watch, hell help do it," Moose clarified.

I shook my head. "No, babe, I don't want you involved in this. Your hands stay clean. What you don't know won't hurt you."

"I'm in this whether you like it or not. My hands got dirty when I attacked him. In some instances, I understand the need to protect me, but not this time. This is Regulator history and was set in motion long before we met. Sending me away won't help me to sleep at night. Only seeing him removed as a threat with my own eyes will do that."

I glanced at the others. I knew my brothers, on more than a couple of occasions, had their women involved in shit with the club. They never liked it. How did they do it?

"Brother, it's better if sometimes you let them have this. Remember what Cuffs and I said," Omen reminded me.

I tried to convince her for the next several minutes, but she was stubborn and turned every argument back on me. In the end, I gave in to her, but she had better not think she'd get her way all the time.

"Fine. I need to talk to Shain for a minute, alone." Not waiting, I took her by the arm and moved her away from everyone. I had to know something before we got down to the deed.

"I don't like this, but I'll go along with it. Before we do this, I need to know if he touched you in any way. Don't lie."

"Honey, he hit me on the head and kept me tied up. He never touched me inappropriately. He didn't rape me. I know you're worried he did. I swear he didn't."

I sagged as relief rushed through me. I hugged her then gave her a kiss. When we parted, I led her back to the others.

"How do we wanna do this?" I asked all of them.

"Wait, you can't kill me," the dumbass shouted.

"Watch us," Moose told him.

Gilly tried to get up and run, but Crash and Ex held him down. As he struggled and wailed, then swore, the rest of us talked about how to go about this. Typically, we'd torture the guy and then end him.

"I want to go home. If you're open to a suggestion, I have one," Shain volunteered after we bounced a few ideas around.

"Sure, hit us," Sin told her.

"Give him the send-off he intended to give me, give us. We let him die enjoying his favorite thing. If the authorities investigate, they'll discover it was arson and assume he was either a victim or an arsonist who got caught in his own fire. It happens. When the other arson fires stop, that'll reinforce he was the guy. He's poured the gas already."

She had a point. "Can you live with him going out this way? It's a gruesome way to go." I'd seen a few people when I was overseas who'd died in fires.

"I know better than any of you how gruesome it is, and yes, I can. It was only a matter of time before he killed someone, and we have no guarantee he hasn't done so in the past. If he caught the bug ten years ago, he's been doing this since and perfecting his techniques. It takes more and more to satisfy the need."

"She's right. We can make it appear he got trapped by the flames and had no way out. He was out here working on his technique. I can help her set it up," Boomer volunteered. We should've known he would. He may not start fires, but he loved to blow stuff up.

One final time of me checking she wanted to do this, then we set the stage. Not wanting to leave anything that might indicate he was a victim, we couldn't tie him up. Instead, she showed us the bathroom. It had no windows. A quick scouting of the rest of the building showed he had more containers of gas. She and Boomer worked to spread it. A line of gas was run into the bathroom. When they had it all ready, he was forced in there.

You would think he'd be begging for his life. Nope, he was smiling and had this gleeful expression on his face as if he was looking forward to what was to come.

"You get outside. I'll light it," I told her.

"No, I will. I can get out if something goes wrong. All I need to do is get his firesuit on. I need all of you outside so I don't have to worry about rescuing any of you."

I stayed with her until she was fully dressed, She gave me a passionate kiss then pushed me out the door. Standing outside I almost lost it and ran inside a few times, but I was held back by my brothers. Moose had to be held the same way by his guys. As minutes ticked by smoke began to seep out of cracks in the windows and walls. I swore I heard the crackle of flames.

Panic welled up inside me. "Shain!" I shouted.

Seconds after I did, the door opened and out she came. I almost hit my knees in relief as she made her way to us. I helped her to remove the fire clothing. By the time it was off, the smoke was worse. No time to waste, we got ourselves on or in our rides and took off in small groups. There were a couple of ways to get away from the building and back home and we took them all. She rode nestled up behind me.