Player Chapter 18

I ended up getting an hour and a half's worth of sleep. I'd had worse. As soon as we got back to the clubhouse, I found Saylor and hauled her to my room. We decided to stay close in case I was needed, and it kept her near Freya. Due to all the activity, we'd held off on bringing in Dr. Wolf. Didn't want him running off to the cops after seeing all the armed men and the hole in the wall. Between Vex and Zara, even though she wasn't a veterinarian, they were ninety-five percent sure Freya wasn't in immediate danger. Nothing vital had been hit.

She was resting comfortably and even trying to get up and walk. Saylor wasn't thrilled, but she agreed. While we slept, Zara took Freya to the house with her and Alex. The houses and the rest of the compound had all been cleared. Based on the information Payne and Sarge got out of their prisoner, the number of bodies we had matched the number brought to take Saylor.

When the knock came on my door, I groaned but didn't procrastinate getting up. Whoever it was was nice enough to do it softly. I thought Saylor would sleep through it, but I forgot her years in the Marines and her acute hearing. She came instantly awake with me.

"I'm up," I called out, and then I gave her a kiss. I couldn't do what I needed to do without tasting her. She eagerly kissed me back. I hated breaking it off, but I had to get moving. I took time to piss, brush my teeth, and brush my hair, then into my clothing, and I was off. She was up getting dressed.

"Juno, go back to sleep. I'll be in church for a long time. Rest."

"I can't. If I get too tired, I'll lie down, I promise. I need to check on Freya and then see if there's anything I can help with. I need to stay busy and be useful, Brooks."

"Alright, just don't push it. I'll see you when I can."

"See you when you can. Love you."

"I love you too, baby." I allowed myself one more quick kiss, and then I was gone.

The common room was busy. Guys were coming inside to sleep, others were going out to patrol, and then the core group was preparing to go into church. Seeing the officers were still in there, I snagged a big cup of coffee. I'd need the caffeine. I sat down next to Animal. He was drinking coffee, too.

"Did you get any sleep?" he asked.

"A little. You?"

"About the same. How's your woman doing?"

"She's back up and getting dressed to go check on her dog and then see what she can do to help. Christ, if she could see, she'd be out there with us."

"She was a Marine. It's ingrained. From what I heard, she doesn't need her eyes to kick ass. Three fucking bodies and injured another. Damn. Can't wait to meet her."

I laughed. "Yeah, serve them right if we let Saylor loose on their asses. We could sit back and relax."

"Why didn't you say so? I'll go get my guns," her amused voice said from behind me.

Damn, she was so quiet it was scary. Turning around, I had to smile. I'd seen her minutes ago, and I still loved the sight of her. She was dressed in plain leggings and a T-shirt with her hair in a ponytail, but her smile lit up the room. Those around us who didn't know her all stopped to look at her. I saw curiosity there and a lot of male appreciation from the single ones.

"Sweetheart, if I were one of the bad guys, I'd gladly let you whoop my ass," Animal teased as he got to his feet. More of the Dublin Falls and Marauders came closer to meet her.

"Introduce us to this ravishing creature," Jinx said as he came between me and Animal.

"Okay, for my Dublin Falls brothers, this is Saylor. For you panting dogs from the Marauders, this is Saylor. She's taken. No stealing or I'll stab you."

"And if you try, I'll shoot you. He's a pain in my ass, but I'm used to him, and I just got started on his training. I'm not looking to start over," Saylor told them with a smirk.

This broke the ice, and they were all calling out comments, introducing themselves, and so forth. It took several minutes before she was rescued by Bull.

"You can all get to know Saylor more later. Honey, I've got to steal your man and some of these others for a while. The rest either need to get to bed or be on patrol. Will you stay on top of things and make sure they do as they're told?"

"Bull, I'd love to order a bunch of men around. Makes me feel like a Staff Sergeant again. Oorah," she said with a smile.

There were shouts of oorah from the former Marines, hooah from the Army guys, and finally, hooyah from the Navy ones. I left her in the midst of giving orders. I followed the officers and selected men into church.

Once we were all seated, I saw that all of Jinx's officers were with him. Terror had most, but some remained behind to protect his compound. All of us for Hunters Creek were there, along with Outlaw. That was sixteen men. We easily had double that on the compound, and that wasn't counting those not here. In addition, if we needed more, we had several clubs we hadn't asked for help from. Bosch had fucked with the wrong group. He obviously didn't do his homework.

By now, everyone knew the background of what was happening, so there was no need to go into it again. This was purely to hear what was discovered from the prisoners and any research Outlaw had done. No doubt he'd been hard at it. By the looks of him, he hadn't slept. Bull brought us all to order.

Despite three strong club presidents being in the room, there was no fighting for control. They worked seamlessly together. Bull might have taken the initial lead, but that was only due to it being his club's problem. They'd easily hand off to each other. You wouldn't see this in most clubs.

I'd been anxiously waiting to hear what we knew and if it was enough to make a move on Bosch and the ones still helping him. I doubted there were many left that weren't directly known to him. The ones who attacked the compound were mainly composed of cannon fodder, no doubt. Carmichael was one of the exceptions. I wondered how many others who came here were.

"Okay, we've got a lot to do and a short time period to do it. First, the information from the interrogations," Bull announced. He ran everyone through what we got out of Clover and Dwight. Once he was done, he got to what I wanted to hear. He turned it over to Payne and Sarge to tell us what they got out of their guy. Sarge gestured to Payne.

"Carmichael wasn't feeling cooperative. It took some heavy convincing to get him to talk. He verified what the other one said. Only certain guys were in the know, and they were the ones who served with Bosch and who he trusted. Carmichael was in that group but not the innermost circle, which was where he was dying to be. Other than him and two others, all the rest they sent to acquire Saylor were the expendable crew. They were the ones brought into the mix by the guys who know Bosch."

"His buddy, Dwight, would've been pissed to hear him confirm that they were gonna be cut loose without pay or anything else if they survived. Some friend. They'd been buddies for ten years," Sarge growled.

"Did he give an idea of how many are left and where they're at?" Terror asked.

"According to him, there's Bosch and six others who remained behind. We asked where they were to take her and if there was a backup plan if they didn't get their hands on Saylor. He told us about an out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere road near Lebanon. It was where he took Clover to meet the three who talked her into helping them. They were to take Saylor there and then wait to be contacted. I think Bosch only trusted those who were in the inner circle with all the information, but we do know where that spot is. We made him give us detailed directions. I gave that to Outlaw before I crashed," Payne added.

"So he didn't know where Bosch's been hiding since he broke out of prison or anything else?" Jinx asked.

"No, but we got the name of one of the men in the innermost circle that he knew. That went to Outlaw, too. I wish we'd gotten more, but he didn't know anything else and fought hard not to tell us that," Sarge finished.

I was feeling let down and pissed. I was about to swear a blue streak when Outlaw cleared his throat and gave us an expectant look. Bull grinned at me. "Before Player busts a nut over there, tell him what you found, Outlaw. If he strokes out or ruptures his balls, Saylor will probably kill us. I'm afraid of her," he said with a wink. This made us all laugh, bringing the level of tension in the room down a couple of notches.

"Amen," Payne shouted.

Outlaw grinned. "Damn right, she would. So I took the spot that these two got out of Carmichael. Beast offered his assistance, so I had him work on getting us maps of that area, including satellite ones. He searched for any structures and activity in that area for me over the past forty-eight hours. While he did that, I dug into the guy whose name we had as part of the inner circle. Over the years, there had been so many who served with Bosch before he was imprisoned that it was taking forever to research into them, trying to find anyone who might help him. Having a name helped.

"Everyone seemed to stay away from visiting him or writing to him. His own family ghosted him. Anyway, not to go into the weeds on what I already did or didn't do, I found something. Jasper Hancock met Bosch in boot camp. Even though they weren't in the same commands or even bases during their time, they stayed in contact. When Bosch went down, Hancock wasn't one who was even remotely under suspicion of helping him. On the surface, he's as pure as snow, which should've warned us he was dirty. No one close to Bosch could be that good.

"Hancock's family on his mom's side is from Tennessee, and they have a huge amount of property in the Morrison area, which is southwest of McMinnville. It's just over an hour from the place in Lebanon where they met Clover. It seems Hancock decided to get back to his roots three months ago. He moved to stay at the old farm on the property. He took a leave from work, saying he was having health issues and needed rest and to be alone. I found it interesting he put in his papers to get out not long after Bosch was convicted. However, his civilian job requires him to work as a consultant over there doing similar work to what he did in the military, which requires him to travel all the time. His specialty was logistics within the supply chain."

This made us all pound the table happily. Yes, this was looking up. When we quieted down, he continued. "I didn't have time to look at satellite footage of activity for the whole three months or even since Bosch escaped, but the last seventy-two hours showed a huge jump. More than one vehicle, and then approximately ten hours ago, nothing. No movement. I think they've hunkered down there once they knew the operation was a go. When they heard nothing back, they knew shit went sideways. However, since no one who knew of the farm's location was in the group who came here, they weren't worried about anyone being questioned and leading us back to them. They're biding their time to strike again. I'd bet money."

And just like that, hope blossomed. From there, pictures and maps were brought up and handed around for us to study and talk about. As the hours lapsed, we outlined and then solidified a plan. By the time we were ready to loop the others in, I was feeling really good about this. If we didn't find him and put a stop to what he was doing and eliminate him and his friends, it wouldn't be from a lack of trying. By the time I could go talk to Saylor, I could barely contain my excitement. In twenty-four hours, this would be a memory, fingers crossed.