8. King

Chapter 8

King

I snap my mouth shut. I shouldn't have responded and gave Dragon an answer. He doesn't deserve shit from me. I know how he feels about me. I've always known. My mother made it clear over and over. Those kinds of lessons go deep. They scar you. You never forget them. Not that I blame my mother. She did the best she could do. It was just the two of us and after Dragon kicked her to the curb. She lost everything because she was pregnant with me. A lot of women would have gotten rid of the baby. Mom said she would rather die than give up her boy. She never regretted me, even though her life would have been better without me. Unlike this piece of shit in front of me. He thought nothing of ditching my mother and me. Guess he already had his life mapped out, and we didn't fit into it.

I look around the small motel room. I'm not sure how we're all fitting in here. We're in a clean, but definitely not luxury, rent-by-the-hour-or-by-the-week cheap motel. It's just outside of Cherokee in Maggie Valley. The Stoney Creek Motel is a local favorite and not a bad place if you need a cheap, but clean place to crash. Ford chose it because it's within walking distance of where I'm staying—allowing me to get here undetected. It's also about two and a half miles from Ghost Town in the Sky, which is an old, shutdown amusement park that the Feral Kings MC has taken over and claimed as their own. There's a base building beside the main road that they've claimed for their main clubhouse. There's also a chairlift that will take you to the top of a mountain where the rides for the amusement park used to be. Running up the mountain alongside the chairlift is an abandoned service road the club has been using to reach the top. There's another road, but there are residential homes nearby, so they chained the gates there, and put electric on them.

"You want to throwdown then let's do it right now, King. I'm fucking ready," Dragon growls, bringing my attention back to him.

"Fine, we can. Just make sure your men don't retaliate by having me thrown in the slammer for abusing the elderly," I snarl with a vicious smile. Dragon comes after me, but his boys and one of his men pull him back. I stand still and just face him. My arms are crossed at my chest, as I wear a fuck you smile.

"Qu-Quit antagonizing him, King," T grumbles. I rub the back of my neck, sighing out in frustration. Actually, liking T has complicated my grand plan of vengeance. I can't do it now. Hurting his father would hurt him. I may not have grown up with T, but there's a bond between us now that I won't even try to deny. He's there for me, even before my club. In fact, he's the only one I've spoken to about the problems I'm having with Shelby. It's not that I don't trust the others. I love my club. Mostly, it's because I just don't want to talk about this shit.

"Call his ass down. I'm the one laying my neck on the line here. I'm doing it for you and your mom—not his fucking ass," I mutter.

"How w-was she?" he asks quietly, and I don't miss the way Dragon gives up fighting against them, his gaze looking directly at me. He's a desperate man. I get it. You'd be a fool not to see how torn up he is. I guess he can care about a woman—just not my mother.

"How's my hija?" a guy I don't know also asks. He must be the blonde's dad. She obviously must take after her mother.

"They're scared. They don't exactly trust me. I have to act one way in front of them. Eyeball and Demon have a camera in the room where they're hostage. Squaller is the fuckhead who monitors it. I'm going to deal with all three of them and break the girls out. There's a party going on tonight. I'm supposed to …" Shit, I can't even make myself say the word. Disgust fills my gut as I struggle to find a way to say something that I know is going to hurt T.

"You're supposed to rape them," Dom says, looking at me.

I nod. "They have Squaller filming it. Eyeball and Demon will be in the control room, watching the monitors. There's a party going on at the main club. The rest of the men will be there. Once I finish, Squaller and I are supposed to transfer the girls to the clubhouse. That's when Demon and Eyeball are supposed to take their turns in front of the rest of the men. The plan is to toss them out to the others once they finish," I explain.

"I'm going to gut them. Every fucking one!" Dragon howls, pain and fury laced in words that feel like they could cut and slice you open from the inside out. The other guy—his Devil's Blaze patch says Skull—is letting out a stream of curse words, but they're all in Spanish. My Spanish sucks, but I do recognize a few words, so I get the gist.

"Did you get chosen for first because of Dad?" Dom asks. He's very calm, but I know there's fury beneath. He's keeping a tight rein on everything, but it is visible in his eyes. He's different than he used to be. I find the change surprising, but I shrug it away. Now's not the time. Besides, it's not like Dom and I will ever be friends. T and I are a fluke. If he hadn't joined my club, we probably never would have had a relationship.

"They know your dad is my sperm donor, if that's what you're asking. I pushed to go first. Making sure they knew that with as much as I hated your father and knowing what he was supposed to be to me, it would hurt him more. All I had to do was plant the seeds, and the fuckers fell into line, not even realizing it. I'm going to share drinks with the three in the control room. Once that's done, I'll go get the girls. We'll have very limited time for the rescue. If this is going to work, I'm going to need a few men waiting for me at the bottom of Buck Mountain?—"

"Why can't we just drive up the main road?" Dom asks.

"There are gates blocking the park. They're chained and charged with electricity."

"We can ram it. That would get them in our custody and safe much sooner," Skull interjects.

"That would alert the Ferals to what we're doing. That's the last thing we want. We may be close to Cherokee, but it would leave a lot of room for not only the women and our men to get killed, but the residents of this quiet town would be collateral damage. This is the best way to go here. I can get the girls out and bring them down the mountain. We can load them up and get quickly into Cherokee. Ford has already cleared it with the Saint's Outlaws. There's an old mill in Saunooke Village. It's in the middle of the Cherokee reservation. That's a line even the Feral Kings MC won't cross. They have strings they can pull with the locals, but causing a war on federally protected land is the main reason Feral Kings haven't just attacked the Saint's Outlaws outright and tried to take everything over."

"Fuck," Dragon growls.

"We can proceed like this, then hide the girls in the basement of the mill. That will get the girls out of the crossfire. Hangman and his men have already sent out warnings to people in the area they trust. They're set to lead the charge against the Ferals. They want them gone and were gearing up to attack them soon. Viper said their club was just trying to wait until their Prez, Blade, gets out of the Federal pen. Since the Feral Kings have bumped up against the SOMC's territory and taken over an old, abandoned amusement park as their unofficial clubhouse, that can't wait any longer. That's why they're throwing their hats into the ring."

"Can we trust them?" Skull asks. Dragon just keeps staring at me.

"I trust them before I do you guys and we're defending your women—so you do the math."

"Me and Skull will be at the foot of the mountain," Dragon grunts.

"T and I are going too. We'll walk up the mountain and help."

I frown. "Dragon and Skull can walk up and help. You and T wait in the SUV at the bottom."

"Man, that's my mom?—"

"Not about that, Dom. That girl may cause trouble if it's you. T has filled me in on the drama. Dragon needs to be there for Nicole and Skull has a better chance of containing his daughter. That's if your old man thinks he can make up the hill. I know when you get his age, arthritis can be a bitch."

"King," T grumbles.

I watch Dragon. I'm pretty sure he's grinding his teeth into dust, but he doesn't respond.

"Okay, it's settled. If you're going to be at the top of the hill, you need to be there by nine. It will take us an hour to get down the hill. The shit I'm going to give Eyeball and the others should knock them out for a few hours."

"Why not just slit their throats?" Dom asks.

"I'd rather no one know I'm double crossing the club until I have the women safe. Plus, it'd be a fight and I can take on the motherfuckers, but it wouldn't be easy to take out all three. I could slit their throats when they're out, I suppose, but what if one of the other men finds them before I get away with the girls? The old service road is grown up, full of huge rocks and trees. It's an hour hike for me one way. Having the women with me, will only add to that time. I need in and out of there quickly, all while doing it without being discovered."

"I want to be the one to end Eyeball's life. He will pay for touching what's mine," Dragon snaps. "Besides, I need to find out what that picture of Irish was about. That motherfucker is dead. We all know it. So, why did they send a picture of him?"

"Fine, whatever. Just get it done," Dom mutters, holding his hand up in surrender, clearly not agreeing. "I think it's a stupid move. Ending the threat should come before revenge."

Dom's right. In his place, I would want the threat gone immediately. Still, I wasn't lying. I need time and I have to move quickly. This is the safest bet—even if Eyeball needs to be feeding the worms more than any other motherfucker I've ever met. I shake my head as I stare at Dom. I think I'm starting to have a little bit of respect for the asshole.

Jesus, what is going on with me?