Chapter 1

1

Tank

D rake arched a brow at me when I finally emerged from my room down the hall. I was exhausted as fuck. I'd spent the past three days on my bike, only stopping long enough to crash in a motel room for a couple of hours each night before hitting the road again. I wanted to be in bed, getting a few more hours of sleep. Uninterrupted, at that.

But River had rung, and I was expected at the table. If he called, I went. It was the way the club worked and the least I owed him after everything he'd done for me. The Sons of Death had been falling apart at the seams not long after River was kicked out of the club for sleeping with Adelaide, who had then been Tristan's woman at the time but was now River's wife. And when his club had gotten attacked while he was away from home and he'd found the Sons of Death partially at fault, he thankfully hadn't turned that hatred on me.

Instead, he'd offered me a patch within his own club, which I took with both hands. I needed to belong somewhere, which was the only reason I hadn't left the Sons of Death on my own. Belonging somewhere gave me stability. Purpose. Kept me from spiraling. But I knew if I'd remained with the Sons, it would've only been a matter of time before my life ended. I was the kind of man who had to have a purpose.

And after Tristan lost his battle to cancer and Jesup took over the Sons of Death… well, the club hadn't lasted long. They got caught up with the Russians, went to war with us, and their club fell.

The Russians were still at large, but they seemed to be keeping to themselves. I was sure we owed that to Alejandro Garcia, the leader of the Mexican Cartel, who we'd gotten tied up with because of Joey, the President of the Sons of Hell. Joey's love for Adelaide put us under his protection, which was nice in the grand scheme of things. Gave us an added layer of protection.

"You look like shit," Drake dryly commented before he took a bite out of the apple in his hand.

"Tired," I supplied as an answer. "Coffee?"

He grabbed a mug and poured some of the black liquid into the ceramic cup before passing it over to me. I sipped at it, closing my eyes to relish the caffeine hitting my system. This cup would get me through this meeting, at the very least. Hopefully, whatever River was bringing to the table wouldn't require my immediate attention, and I could go back to sleep after church was over.

Bikes riding onto the lot caught my attention. Drake and I looked at each other, sharing a look of confusion. River emerged from the chapel with Adelaide at his side. Their recently hired nanny, Angel—a forty-year-old woman—ushered their three kids out of the chapel and to the playroom down the hall. Axel, the oldest and their adopted son, glanced my way before looking back where he was being led without a word.

Kid never said much. The older I got, the more I saw psychopathic tendencies in him. And I knew River and Adelaide were picking up on it as well. But they were raising him as normally as they could, teaching him right from wrong, and when he had moments where he wanted to hurt himself—the kid craved pain in a very weird way—they found him outlets so he wouldn't harm himself.

Jaxon, their middle child, waved at me. "Hey!" he happily called before he disappeared down the hall. I chuckled. Jaxon was a handful—rowdy, wild, and he didn't have a single fucking fear. He was the polar opposite of his older brother.

The youngest—Treina—was the spitting image of Adelaide with dark hair, her father's blue eyes, and Adelaide's fiery temper. For the most part, she was sweet and quiet, preferring to stick with her books, unless someone pissed her off… which was usually Jaxon.

That kid loved pushing her buttons.

The clubhouse doors opened, and Joey strode in, followed by his Vice President, Ink, who was followed by Whiler. And then Alejandro Garcia followed in behind him with his second in command, Miguel.

Fuck.

"Well, there goes any hope of sleep," I muttered as I grabbed the coffee pot and topped off my mug. Drake snorted.

If River had called them in, then whatever he knew was fucking bad.

"Glad to have you back home," Adelaide softly told me as she settled on River's lap. I gave her a small smile before focusing back on River. The door shut, Alejandro finally entering the chapel, and then River cleared his throat, bringing the room to attention.

"One of the girls that works the streets called Adelaide early this morning." Adelaide had taken to doing her best to help the women in the surrounding cities find safer work. Some refused to leave due to circumstances we weren't allowed to know, so Adelaide made sure they had a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs, as well as healthcare and birth control to protect them. All one of them had to do was call Adelaide, and she would come to their aid without question or judgment.

A hard look passed over Adelaide's face. "She witnessed two girls being snatched up. One is barely sixteen—just had her birthday three days ago. The other is twenty-five. The men who snatched them up were dressed well. The witness is under our protection, and Alejandro is already working on moving her out of the states until we get this cleared up."

"What exactly is this ?" Gin asked, leaning back in his chair with his arms resting on the armrests, his face blank.

"I made some phone calls," Alejandro said, taking over. I sipped at my coffee despite feeling like I was putting pure battery acid in my stomach at this point. Girls being snatched up from our territory without a care in the world… this was goddamn trouble. Real fucking bad trouble. "There's a sex trafficking ring in the area. It's pretty new still."

"Who's running it?" I asked.

"Russians," River answered me. I bit back a curse and carefully set my coffee mug down. I no longer wanted it, and that was saying something. I had my own horrors when it came to sex trafficking, and this shit hit way too damn close to home for me.

I'd been a special case. A fucking baby when I'd been delivered into the wrong hands. My mother had been a sex trafficking victim, and the ring leader had gotten her knocked up. I knew nothing else aside from the fact that she died giving birth to me due to hemorrhaging. Due to me being a bastard child, as soon as I was old enough—a fucking toddler —I was sold off to the highest bidder for the night with promises to be returned the next morning.

I was fifteen when the ring was shut down by federal and local law enforcement, but the damage had been done. Being trafficked—used, abused, broken, raped over and over and fucking over again—had fucked me up a bit. I'd mostly worked through all of it, but shit like this brought it all back.

"We got a location?" Drake asked from beside me.

River nodded. "Alejandro did some digging on his way here. The only thing we need to do is come up with a plan."

"I have a proposed one, if I may?" Miguel asked, looking at Alejandro.

Alejandro nodded once, giving Miguel the floor. Miguel cleared his throat, looking at me. "You're the nicest one out of all of us," he began. Drake coughed to cover his laugh. I cut him a dark look. "I think you should run the rescuing part of the operation. Infiltrate the building with a team of your choosing and get out as many victims as you can. We'll run interference on the outside to do our best to protect those of you who go in."

I leaned back in my chair. "You want me to run a team," I stated more than asked.

Miguel nodded once. "You're calm in high-stress situations. You think clearly, no matter what's at stake. And I know your history." I clenched my jaw. All eyes in the room went to me, but I ignored them. No one, not even River, knew my history. My childhood was a mystery to all of them, and it would remain that way. "You're the best for this operation. You know what those victims are going to be like."

I nodded once, mulling the thought over in my head. "I get to choose my own team?"

Miguel nodded. "Whoever you trust the most. Because you're going to need whoever you choose to be able to not only watch your back, but also their back, everyone else's back, and protect whoever you rescue. Your team will have the hardest part of this entire job."

"And what do you propose we do with the victims?" River asked Miguel. Joey remained silent, leaning against the wall with one booted foot propped up behind him. He was using his knife to clean out from beneath his nails, appearing disinterested, but I knew he was listening to every word that was being spoken.

"Alejandro will organize transport for them," Miguel said, looking at his boss. Alejandro nodded once in agreement.

I looked at River. "Thoughts, Prez?"

He scrubbed a hand down his face. "I trust you, Tank," he said. When we looked at Sam, the VP of the club, he nodded as well. Curiosity shone in his eyes, no doubt wanting to know what Miguel knew about me that they didn't, but he kept his mouth shut. We were family, and we stuck together like glue, but we didn't pry.

"If you want it, you're the head of team A," River finally said, looking at me.

Did I want it? Did I want to see those victims and relive every fucking shitty thing done to me? Not really, no. But I would. Because I wished for so long someone would rescue me.

No one had really come to rescue me, but I could save them.

I nodded once at River. "I'll take it."