Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Rigs

Within an hour we are at Pope’s ranch. It’s at least a hundred acres with a modern sprawling house and several outbuildings. We all spread out, Siege and I head inside along with Tank and Dutch.

Everything looks like you’d expect in a farmhouse, until we get upstairs to the master bedroom. The stupid fucker has guns and ammo out the wazoo. There’s a safe in one corner, and I experimentally turn the handle fully expecting it to be locked, the door swings open revealing one-ounce gold bars, money in small, unmarked bills and a ton gaudy gold jewelry from the eighties which I’m certain he’s collecting it for the value of the gold than the esthetics. There’s paperwork showing evidence of multiple bank accounts and an offshore account in the Cayman Islands. There’s some more paperwork on the bed and looking in the drawer of his nightstand I find what appears to be a key to a safe deposit box. I put the key in my pocket for safe keeping. It looks like Pope got interrupted and had to leave quick sharpish, I guess seeing Evan alive and well at the courthouse, and having his plans of getting rid of him derailed means he’s having to destroy as much evidence as possible before the Feds catch up to him. We gather up all the bank info and valuables as we go along. There is zero evidence of any kind of national affiliation, when we first came across the syndicate, the members were boasting of a coast-to-coast operation, but it soon became clear that was not the case. Once the Hendersons were arrested and the FBI got onto their trafficking operation, the syndicate had all but folded. Pope might have been the last man standing, but it was becoming obvious that rather than being some criminal mastermind, he was more the facilitator. This man seems to be running his own little criminal enterprise.

We head back outside with pillowcases full of valuables. I already know we’re going to burn his place to the ground, along with his precious walnut orchard. It falls into the category of hitting him where it hurts. When we meet up with our club brothers, Smoke looks sick to his stomach. “Found his dog fighting operation. The pups are pretty young. It looks like he killed the adults already, not sure why he left the pups. Sure as fuck ain’t because he’s got a heart. I’m guessing plausible deniability—there’s no adults, so no trained fighting dogs. The barn’s a bloody mess and there’s trash bags filled with bodies in the dumpster. We’re gonna load up the pups and see if we find good homes for them.

Siege gasps and curses under his breath. I turn to see what he’s looking at and my blood runs cold. Vapor is walking toward us carrying a body wrapped in a tarp. Haze is walking solemnly at his side and is quick to explain. “Ben’s body was exactly where Evan said it would be, we can’t leave him here. He deserves a proper burial, not a shallow grave behind a blood-soaked barn.”

Siege nods solemnly. “Absolutely, put him in the van. We’ll contact family, it’s not the sort of news you want to give a parent, but they’ll have closure.”

Turning to Tank, Siege says, “We’ll torch the place and hunker down until the stupid fucker shows up to see where all the smoke is coming from.”

“Then his ass is mine,” I say vehemently.”

Pope won’t be getting a proper burial, like Ben. He’s going to wind up face down at our favorite dump site. Pope is the kind of garbage that never stops hurting other people until someone takes him out. He’s tried to kill almost every member of my club at one time or another, as well as our old ladies. I’ll kill him and sleep like a baby.

Haze and Vapor put Ben in one of the vans and corral the puppies in an old wash tub from the barn. The rest of us get down to the business of torching Pope’s property. He had a large fuel tank and a meth cooking unit, so he might just think something went terribly wrong with that operation when he sees the smoke.

We’d disabled his security before we stormed his property wanting the element of surprise, so now it’s a case of waiting until word gets out that the farm is on fire. Zen is tracking Pope’s cell phone and after about two hours, he tells us that he’s making his way to his little wilderness retreat at breakneck speed. When he starts driving down the dirt road toward his house, we can see he’s not alone. He has a police car and three pickups totally full of men.

“Looks like there at least fourteen men, including the ones standing up in the backs of the trucks with rifles,” I say as I watch through my binoculars.

“Well, there’s a dozen of us. That’s not even gonna be a fair fight,” Siege replies. “It’s a shame we’ve got to take out so many. You sure you don’t want to show restraint and just make sure they get locked up instead of killed?”

I shoot Siege and an annoyed look “Who in the hell are we supposed to call to arrest them? This dude is the highest-ranking police officer in our town. If ever there was a situation that justified giving someone a fucking dirt nap, it’s this one.”

“We could call the highway patrol.”

“And say what, that we stole a dead body off his property, a boy, that he may or may not have murdered, that he’s dog fighting and had a bunch of valuables that we stole, before burning all his shit to the ground?”

Siege smothers back a smile. “Well, when you put it that, narking on ourselves doesn’t seem like the brightest move.”

The minute the vehicles pull up, we’re all over them before they can even get to their weapons. Unfortunately, I recognize one fucker I don’t want to kill, so our plan of shoot first ask questions later goes to hell. If he’s got that dumbass then who else might be on a ride along

When we start pulling them out of the vehicles one by one, I curse under my breath when I get to Tracker. “What in the fuck are you doing hanging out with the syndicate? Your old man would be livid.”

Tracker had a busted lip and a black eye. “Thank God you guys are here. I was about to be killed and used for chicken feed.”

I snort a laugh, but it’s Siege’s amused voice that speaks up. “How did you get messed up with these guys?”

“A cop found me at your bar and decided I was moonlighting as a member of the Savage Legion. They were pretty pissed when I didn’t have any intel for them.”

“Where’s Pope?”

“Like I know anything. I’m their fucking hostage, remember?”

“You’re like a bad penny that always turns up,” I respond thinking how disappointed I’d be if Tracker was my kid.

“That’s not the first time someone’s ever told me that.” I hear him mumble.

Tank yells, “I’ve got him. One syndicate head honcho coming right up.”

We line all the others up with their backs to us and focus on Pope.

By the time Siege and I make it to him, he’s spitting mad. “You fuckers burned my house down?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about. It was on fire when we got here, looks like your meth cooks fucked up. What’s with bringing the cavalry?”

Tank’s amused voice answers my question. “He wasn’t bringing anybody. I found him locked in the trunk of his own car.”

“Ah, you ended up with a little mutiny on your hands, did you, Pope?”

“Fuck all the way off,” he spits back.

I stomp over to the small group of law men. Three are wearing police uniforms. “Which one of you is in charge?”

An older man steps forward.

It takes me a minute to realize who he is. “Is that you Rufus?”

“Yeah, that’s me. You and your boys are putting a crimp in my day.”

“I haven’t seen you for at least seven years, and the last time I talked to you, you were about as far away from a cop as a person could be.” Rufus was an old friend of Siege’s father, our paths used to cross frequently until he ran afoul of the law.

The older man shrugs. “It’s camouflage, nothin’ more.”

“What the hell are you doing here Rufus?” Siege asks.

“I got out of prison three days ago. Looking for my boy, my grandson, got word that he was here.”

Shock roils through my gut. “Ben was your grandson?’

Rufus points at Pope. “Yeah, he was. And that fucker right there killed him.”

I gesture at the long line of men in front of what was once Pope’s home. “Are you saying that all these men are yours?”

“Not Tracker. When we found Pope, he had knocked that one out and was dragging him out the back door of a bar in town. We took them both just on the off chance the boy knew something useful. Once he woke up, we realized he didn’t have any useful thoughts at all.”

“Yeah, I wanna argue that one,” Tracker says.

“Want to tell us how you got onto Pope?” I ask, curious as to how Rufus ended up here.

“Got word in prison, some guy called Charlie wanted to come visit me, said he had some useful information. Told me my Benny hadn’t run off, that he’d been killed, and he knew who did it. He told me about that dirty cop and said he had some leverage on the man and wanted me and my men to come into business with him. He reckoned with what he knew, he could take over the organization and would split the proceeds with me.”

“What did he know?” I ask, though I know full well, after Evan told us earlier.

“He wouldn’t tell me, said once I got released, he’d tell me everything. I didn’t trust the bastard, but I wanted answers, so I let him believe I was interested.”

We still hadn’t found any trace of Charlie Boyles, I had a feeling that Rufus might know something about the man’s fate, “When did you last see him?”

“He met me two days ago after I got out. Started telling me about this kid he’s been holding captive for months who knew stuff that could destroy Pope—made me sick I tell you, I was all but ready to put a bullet in the fucker’s brain, but I had to hang fire.”

Siege nods in understanding, “We’ve been looking for Charlie, you happen to know where he is?”

“Taking a dirt nap in the desert.” Rufus says with a look of satisfaction.

Well, that’s one less fucker I have to hunt down and kill.

“We found your grandson. He was buried behind the barn. We were taking him for a proper burial,” Siege says solemnly.

“I’ll take him if you don’t mind. Our family burys our own, we have a family cemetery. His parents are gonna be destroyed, but we all knew a good kid like him wouldn’t just run away. When I got word about what happened, I had to see for myself before I broke the news to them.” Rufus says.

I speak up, “If you have a funeral, Evan would like to attend. He’s the one who sent us here to look for Ben. They were good friends.”

“He’s the kid that Charlie took? When I met up with him and he took me out to the shack, he was mighty pissed the kid had done a runner. Once I knew the kid had gotten away, I had no other use for him, so I shot the fucker, got me some men together and went after Pope. Is the boy okay?”

“He will be.”

“Poor kid,” Rufus says.

I reach into my pocket and pull out one of our club’s business cards. “Here, my number is on the back. Call us and we’ll come out.”

“I want the fucker who killed him. That crazy fucker needs to pay for his crime.”

Siege nods. “I wholeheartedly agree. We’re of like minds on that. The thing is this bastard has done more than just kill your grandson.”

“What are you saying? That you’re not going to give him to me?”

“We’ll hand him over to you, but I want some kind of verification that he’s dead,” I explain.

Rufus smiles. “That’ll be easy enough. When you come for the funeral, you can see the dead body. Does that sound fair?”

“Yeah, but that fucker is responsible for a bunch of missing kids. We need to interrogate him before you have him.”

“Missing kids?”

“His organization has been selling them to pedophiles. They’ve been trafficking women and men too. This fucker has his fingers in a lot of nasty pies. The Feds have shut down the trafficking side of the operation and most of the perpetrators are in jail or awaiting trial. But we still have a bunch of missing kids, he dies, and the intel dies with him.”

“I’ll take him with me now. Tonight, you come out to my place, and we interrogate him together. The longer he lasts, the better for both of us.” Glancing at Siege, he asks, “Your club down with that plan?”

Siege nods his agreement. I would have preferred to choke the fucking life out of him myself, but Rufus deserve to kill him more than I did, so I’ll have to be satisfied with participating in the interrogation.

Sticking out my hand, I say, “Yeah, that’s fair enough for me. Don’t get started without me, though. I want to find those missing kids and this fucker is the last man alive who knows what happened to them.”

Pope has been quiet up until this point, but all of a sudden, he takes off running, trying to get between Rufus and me. I slam my arm into his throat, and he goes down like a lead balloon.

Rufus shoots me a dirty look, grabs Pope up by the arm, and throws him to another of his men.

Siege asks, “Did your family have a hard time while you were locked up?”

Rufus looks pained. “Yeah, my no good son-in-law kept getting fired from jobs, and with me locked up I couldn’t help them. That’s why Ben was working weekends. He was a good kid and look where that got him.”

Siege holds out one of the pillowcases. “Here, maybe this will help.”

Rufus’ eyes light up. “What ya got there, Siege? It looks like loot.” He takes hold of the bag and peers inside. “Well now, your old man would be mighty proud of you helping out one of his friends during his time of need.”

Siege snorts a laugh. “Loot is free money, and I know all too well that having you and your men as allies beats the hell out of having you as enemies.”

The older man shoots Siege an indulgent smile. “I always did like the Legion. You know that, Siege.” Jerking his chin at Tracker, he asks, “You want me to get rid of that Hound for you?”

“Believe it or not, that’s King’s grandson.”

Rufus throws back his head and laughs. “Well, he sure as hell didn’t end up with the old man’s sharp brain, that’s for damn sure.”

Siege glances over at Tracker. “He ain’t bad. I have a feeling that one day he will come into his own and be a match for any of us.”

Rufus slaps Siege on the shoulder. “We’ll see what happens then. Good seein’ you again, Siege.” When he passes me, he says, “Later, preacher.”

“Later, Rufus. You say hello to that old lady of yours from me.”

Rufus just threw up his middle finger without looking back at me. I chuckle, Rufus never did change. He was just like I remembered him being when he hung out with Claw all those years ago.

I turn to Siege and hand him the other pillowcase of loot in my hand.

He shoves it back at me. “You always take your ten percent right off the top. Want to look through this when we get back to the clubhouse?”

“Not this time, brother. I wouldn’t feel right about it. Not with you all putting your lives on the line for Mattie and Evan. I don’t want anything that ties me to this place.”

A look of understanding crosses Siege’s face. “Can’t say I blame you, brother.”

“I’m sure you’ll find a good cause to spend it on. You always do.”

“You know it, brother. Are you heading back now?” Siege asks.

I nod, feeling relief, sadness, and a multitude of other emotions filling up my soul. “I just need some time to myself before I go back to Mattie and Evan. I don’t want to drag home the ugliness of this situation.”

“I’ll call and check on you later.”

“That would be great, brother.” I walk away from the still burning building and get on my bike.

Within moments I’m on the highway and slowly heading home. The wind blowing through my clothing is refreshing, flushing the smell of smoke and death away, cleansing and purifying me.

The realization slowly set in that this situation with the syndicate is finally over, once and for all. My Mattie and I can keep looking for the missing kids without worrying about the syndicate getting in the way. Once I beat some information out of Pope, our chances of finding them would increase exponentially. The thought of being able to recover more of them made my heart sing with excitement and happiness. We were a good team, my Mattie and me. Those kids need us, and we won’t stop looking until we track down every single one of them. Dead or alive, we’d find them and get their families some closure.