Chapter 14

Chapter 14ForgeTop speed on my Harley was a hundred and fifteen, and I was maxed out by the time I neared Crystal’s position. When she caught sight of us, she slammed on her brakes.I had been praying to find my sweet Bella in the passenger side of the vehicle, and was devastated to discover she was nowhere to be found. Hash jumped off his bike, pulled Crystal’s door open, and hauled her into his arms. Crystal was crying so hard, she could barely catch her breath, much less speak.“What happened to Bella? Crystal, please. We have to find her.” I could hear the desperation in my voice.Crystal reported between sobs, “Corey’s dead. He managed to keep them off us but then another one came out of nowhere. I tried to speed up to get away, but they were catching up fast. Bella knew they wanted her, not me. She was traumatized by losing Corey and said she wasn’t going to let me throw my life away too.”Hash squeezed her shoulders and asked, “What did she do? Is she still alive?”Crystal nodded. “She jumped out of the car. I saw her running in my rearview mirror. That’s all I know. I’m so sorry Forge, I tried to stop her, I really did.”I jumped back on my bike and sped ahead. There on the pavement I saw something small and dark. As I got closer, I could see it was Crystal’s cell phone. She probably dropped it when she jumped. I slowed down to pick up the phone and inspect the area. I saw a smear of blood on the edge of the pavement. I gripped her cell phone in my hand as I stared down at the only thing that remained of the woman I loved.Suddenly, the area was swarmed by my club brothers. Jav was screaming for his brother, Corey. All I could do was stare at the bloodstain on the pavement.Fingers snapped in front of my face. “Wake the fuck up, brother. Snap out of it. We gotta find your lady friend,” Mason said.When I looked up into Mason’s worried face, he slowly took Bella’s cell phone out of my hand and lifted it into the air.Storm snatched it out of his hand. “I’ll see that Hacker gets this. Maybe he can get some kind of useful information off it.”I slowly stood up and asked Mason, “Where do we start looking?”He gave me a shit eating grin. “That’s the spirit, brother.” He pulled me back toward our bikes. “I say we look in the unlikeliest place ever. Those fancy fuckers normally stay in nice hotels and eat at nice restaurants. So we check the worst of the worst. Dive hotels, cheap diners, and every place a city slicker wouldn’t be caught dead.”We climbed onto our bikes. “Good idea, but not quite on target. I say we check out the hotel we found the two old bastards hiding out at.”Mason frowned at me. “They’d have to pretty fucking ignorant to go hide out at the same damn place. That doesn’t even begin to make sense.”I nodded. “I learned a lot living in their world for a few weeks. Mobsters are arrogant fucks who not only think they’re smarter than everyone else, but also believe they deserve the best. They crave luxury like we crave brotherhood. They’ll go back to that hotel because it’s the best one in town and they probably think we’d never suspect they were brazen enough to hide in plain sight.”Mason didn’t look at all convinced. “Only a complete idiot would go to the same hotel their two friends disappeared visiting.”Strom walked up and got on his bike. “Forge is right. They think they’re smart and we’re dumb. They’re about to find out how wrong they are.”We sped off with a few club brothers trailing behind us. As were pulling off, I saw Jav and Celt with a very banged up Corey between them. He looked like he had a broken leg and road rash, like he’d been thrown from his bike. Relief surged in my chest that the prospect was still walking and talking. That prospect had more lives than a cat. Knowing he survived was one less weight on my mind as I focused all my energy on finding Bella.We sped to the hotel in Pattersfield, only to find there were no dark SUVs in the parking lot. I went in to talk to the desk clerk.I came out and reported to Storm what I’d discovered. “The woman at the front desk was pretty tight lipped. After I slipped her a hundred-dollar bill, she discretely shared that some men in suits had been there for a week. Said they’d just returned, packed up their stuff, and left. We missed them by about twenty minutes. Unfortunately, she didn’t see which way they went, nor did she see a woman with them.”“Well, your gut instinct was right on the money, Forge. We just need to figure out where they went. Let’s split up and begin canvassing the area. If anyone gets a lead, share it immediately and we’ll converge on the location.”Mason and I jumped back onto the interstate and pushed the speed limit as hard as we could without getting pulled over. We rode harder and further than I thought it was going to take, making it all the way to the outskirts of LA. Failing was not an option. Another idea was forming in my mind, a backup plan that seemed more like grasping at straws than anything. I exited the interstate and headed straight for the Trip Easy. By the time my club brothers and I arrived, it was coming up on time for the bar to open.When I came blustering through the door with my club brothers at my back, the bartender jerked to a stop right in the middle of wiping down the bar.“Tell Marco to get his ass out here. I want to talk to him.”The bartender straightened up, leaving his cleaning cloth behind on the bar. “I recognize you. Were you misrepresenting yourself when you dressed nice or are you misrepresenting yourself now?”I pulled the gun out of the holster strapped to the small of my back. “Not interested in chitchat with the hired help. Bella’s been abducted and I think your boss had something to do with it.”An angry voice came from the back. “Like hell I did.”I shot him a glance out of the corner of my eye and motioned him over with my gun. “Nice to see you again, Marco. Have a seat. We need to talk.”His eyes jumped anxiously from me to my club brothers as he walked out into the bar. “Sure. I’ll talk to you. I’ve got nothing to hide.”“I want to know where Bella is. She was abducted earlier today while out with a friend. Like I said before, I think you had something to do with her disappearance.”“Where did you get a dumbass idea like that?“Maybe because you were trafficking her very recently.”“That wasn’t my decision. It was my old man and his business partner. You wouldn’t know what happened to them, would you?”“Not a clue,” I lied. “Tell me everything you know about Bella.”“My old man thought you abducted her, we saw the security tapes. He and his associate went to look for her and never came back.”“She was with me, alright, but there was no abduction. She saw a way to escape your grasp and took it.”“Like I said before, I had nothing to do with Bella being trapped here.”I took a step closer, and my voice turned harsh. “All I know is when I asked her about you, she swore you’d protected her and done right by her. It’s the only reason I didn’t come back here and beat your ass.”“Gee, thanks for that, I suppose.”“Do you seriously want me to believe that she was being held here against her will for a year and fucking half and you had nothing to do with it? God, you must think I’m fucking stupid.”“Actually, I don’t think you particularly stupid. Have a look around. If you find one shred of evidence that I had anything to do with her disappearance, I’ll eat a bullet straight from your gun.”Storm stepped forward and gestured everyone forward. “That sounds like a fair offer.”My club surged around us and began looking through everything behind the bar. They were pretty thorough as they moved through the entire bar and then into the back of the building.Marco tried to follow them, but I held one hand against his chest to keep him in place.He yelled, “Don’t trash my damn office.”“Let them look,” I insisted. “If I find anything at all that connects you to her disappearance, I’m gonna beat the fucking information outta you.”“Damn. You went from sipping expensive scotch to full-on thug at the speed of light.”I didn’t particularly care about this man thought of me. So I just waited patiently for my club brothers to toss the place.About halfway through the search, Storm walked up to me with his cell phone out. “Tell Forge what you just told me.”“I got Bella’s phone up and running, only to discover it had been hacked. Someone added a tracking program to monitor her movements,” Hacker said.I grabbed Marco by the front of his shirt so he couldn’t run when Hacker ratted him out. I was pretty surprised when Hacker said, “I traced the IP address back to Russo Enterprises.”I let Marco go, shoving him away from me. “Fucking hell. Are you saying the Russo brothers double-crossed us?”Hacker responded, “It sure looks that way.” Storm gave me a funny look and gestured to the side of the room with his head.I turned back to Marco. “You’re on good terms with those three shitheads. Get on your fucking cell phone and call Diego. Tell him you want to talk to him about a business proposition. Keep it vague. If you say anything to tip him off, I will put a bullet in your head.”“Fucking fine,” Marco spat out. “But from now on, I want you all to leave me out of your nefarious deals and double-crossing.”“Just make the fucking call,” I gritted out.Marco got on his phone and pulled up his contacts list. Before he could press the button, I instructed, “Put it on speaker phone. I want to hear every fucking word of your conversation.”“Paranoid much?” Marco muttered. He hit the button and put it on speaker.While the phone was ringing, I stepped over to where Storm was standing, he leaned close and whispered, “I don’t know what’s going on here, it looks like the Russos, but they’ve been true to their word. Let’s just see where this goes.”I nodded, just as the call was picked up.“What could the proprietor of my favorite club possibly need?” Diego answered, sounding suspicious as hell. Then again, he always did.“I was wondering if you have a moment to talk to me about a business proposition.”“What kind of business proposition?”“A lucrative one. And not the kind you discuss over the phone.”“How cryptic. I can’t wait to hear all about it. Should I come at my regular time?”Marco glanced up at me before answering. “The bar is going to be closed tonight for a private party just for you and your brothers.”“Well, that’s quite unusual. We’ll head your way shortly. Drinks are on you tonight, my friend.”Marco ended the call and immediately complained, “You crazy fuckers are going to get me killed. This is not going to end well for us. Mark my word.”I glared at him. “Are you finished freaking out?”He pointed at me, jabbing his finger into my chest. “You should be freaking out more than you are. The fact that you’re not tells me you don’t understand what you’ve just gotten yourself into.”Storm grabbed him and tossed him to Renegade. “Take him and the bartender. Keep them contained and quiet.”My club brother responded happily, “You got it, boss.” Renegade caught Marco when he stumbled forward and chuckled. “You’re small, like a kid’s toy.” Renegade was almost twice his size bulk wise and had a good six inches on him.Grit began shoving the bartender toward the back room. We still heard the two men complaining from the next room. More so when my club brothers made them sit on the floor.We waited around an hour for the Russo brothers to show up. We had carefully positioned ourselves around the property, both inside and out. We got a call from Mack that the Russo brothers relaxed a little when they saw our bikes.Sure enough, they strolled in without a care in the world. Diego’s face lit up when he saw Storm.“Long time, no see, Storm. Never thought you’d pay me a visit here in LA.”Storm pulled out his pistol and tapped it on the top of the bar. “Come and have a seat, all of you.”Diego flung back, “You can fuck off. You’re in my territory now. So I call the shots.”Nicco placed himself between Storm and his older brother. “What’s this about? We have a longstanding alliance cemented by blood. Why are you suddenly treating us like enemies?”I spoke up. “Bella was run down by a bunch of mobsters and abducted. Our IT guy just reported her phone was hacked. He traced the IP address and discovered it was registered to one of you.”“What phone?”“The one you returned to her with all her belongings.”“I don’t know what you guys are playing at, but we didn’t have anything to do with this.”“One of you did,” I shot back hotly, what is it with these suspicious bastards? I remembered Mr. Russo Senior going all Godfather on me when I was waiting outside their home doing security detail. Though, looking back, I guess I must have sucked if a retired mobster spotted my cover in ten seconds flat. “The IP address was registered to Russo Enterprises.”Nicco lifted on hand. “I swear to God it wasn’t me.”“I wasn’t me either,” Diego said. “I never double-cross allies without a good reason.”When Lucas didn’t speak up, everyone turned to look at him.He shook his head. “It wasn’t me. But we’re one Russo short.”That’s when Sophia’s words jumped forward from the back of my mind, I thought she was exaggerating, but looking back, when Mr. Russo started waving his gun at me, he didn’t look like he’d given up the lifestyle and was ready for retirement anytime soon. “You think it might be your old man?” I asked incredulously.Diego cursed a blue streak. “God damn that infuriating bastard for fucking up everything we try to do. I swear to God, that old man is outliving his usefulness. The sooner he retires to Florida the better.”“Calm the fuck down, Diego. We don’t know for sure if it’s him. It might be someone trying to implicate us,” Nicco said.“To what end?” Storm asked.Nicco shrugged. “To watch us turn on each other. Together we’re strong. Separate we’re weak. Nah… I don’t think Papa is involved in this, he’s just too technologically ignorant to even know about IP addresses or covering his tracks to try and set us up.”“Something about this isn’t making sense,” I said.Diego walked behind the bar and pulled down a bottle of liquor. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I need a drink if I’m going to stay up all night figuring this shit out.”He set up every shot glass he could get his hands on and filled each one. He dropped the empty bottle in the trash can with one hand and threw back a shot with the other.Nicco frowned. “Could you possibly be serious, just until we figure this shit out?”Diego brazenly threw back another shot. “When are you going to learn that I’m never anything but serious?”I looked from one to the other of them. “Are you two stalling for time until your backup arrives? Otherwise, I can’t imagine why you’re wasting our time with sibling bickering.”“It’s all they ever do,” Lucas explained, and I realized this was the first time I’d ever heard him say more than two words in a row. “Where’s Marco? He might know something we don’t.”Once we hauled Marco out, he was too terrified to answer any of our questions. It was like seeing the mobsters and bad ass bikers all in the same room was too much for him. Suddenly, he didn’t know quite where his alliances should be.Diego hauled his ass over to the bar and made him drink six shots in a row. The brothers took turns pestering him with questions until he cracked.“Your old man paid me a visit after Bella disappeared.”“What did he want?” Diego demanded.“He said he was going to be the new Don and demanded that I open my father’s safe for him. There was nothing valuable in there, so I decided that giving him whatever he found was smarter than pissing off our new Don.”“He’s not going to be your new Don, that old bastard is gonna be taking his retirement pretty damn sharpish if I have anything to do with it. I can’t believe you bought that load of crap,” Diego said.Marco scratched the back of his neck nervously. “Well, he seemed pretty sure of himself.”Storm interjected, “In case you’re wondering, Sophia thinks Lucas is the only one fit for the job.”“Not interested,” Lucas intoned. “Now, tell me exactly what was in the safe.”Marco flinched and knocked back another shot before answering Storm’s question. “I can tell you, but you’re not going to like it.”“Damn, you’re tedious. Spit it the fuck out,” Storm ordered.Marco grimaced. “My father’s business partner ran insurance scams.”“Explain,” I demanded.“Tony would take out life insurance policies on his girlfriends and sometimes they would have accidents. When that happened, he’d collect.”“Are you saying they had a life insurance policy on Bella?” I asked.Marco nodded. “When she came to us, he took out a generous insurance policy her, her grandmother was in a nursing home and she had no other family to contest it. Two million dollars, with a payout after two years.”Nicco glared at him. “What you’re saying is my father found the insurance policy when he robbed your safe?”Marco nodded. “Yeah. I suspect that’s what happened.”Suddenly, Lucas rushed over and grabbed him by the throat, “You suspect, or you know? Think carefully, because the wrong answer is going to get you a slow and painful death.”Marco looked nervous. “I know. Tony took out policies for employees, but also other women he dated over the years. It was a pattern, and Tony really had a thing for Bella.I stood listening horrified. I never liked the look of the guy, but learning what he did opened up a whole new level of hatred.Storm muttered, “Piece of shit.”Lucas gave the man’s neck a final squeeze and threw him against the wall. I guessed that as far as Lucas was concerned, he’d given the right answer, because Marco was still breathing.“Your father is going to give me the woman I love back or I’m going to give him a dirt nap,” I announced to the three brothers.Lucas moved closer to me, and I could feel the danger radiating off him. Sophia was right about him being the most dangerous of the three. “I need you to understand that we’re getting your woman back, but if our old man needs killing, we’ll be the ones doing it, not you.”“I don’t understand how your old man would collect on the policy if it was in another man’s name?” I asked.“It was in mine,” a hoarse voice came from the floor, and we all turned to look at Marco.“I’d get a cut for hiring her. It was better that the policy was in my name, after the cops showed a bit too much interest when the last singer died. I was promised a cut, and Don Russo said he’d honor that.”“Goddamnit! That interfering old bastard has really gone too far this time,” Diego spat out.