Crossroads: Book 1

Chapter 37

Mike

As I throttle down Ashley lane, my pulse starts to relax from the adrenaline of almost getting caught... I wouldn't say that I'm afraid of her dad. I'm not scared of anyone. My grandpa Chuck made sure that all emotion was drained from me - even fear. Still, I just know that if we ever get caught, he'll take her away from me, and that's the last thing that I want.

Who knows... maybe when this whole thing is over, maybe I can convince Detective Cobra that I am worthy enough to date his daughter – for real. Technically, I am dating her – so she thinks. However, maybe we could be more open about it with him...like perhaps be able to kiss her on the mouth in front of him without the possibility of having a gun pressed to my temple.

Who am I kidding? That will never happen; he wouldn't let me.

I can't get the last few moments out of my head. Her body was practically begging me to take her right then and there.

She's not ready for that - quite frankly - I'm not sure I want to let it go that far...

Yeah...okay, Mike.

Taking a turn onto a dirt road, I can't believe she let me touch her. It was a surprise, given what has happened. She trusts me... My chest feels warm from the thought.

The darkness nearly swallows me whole as I park Layla under the one light that is still illuminating our Devil's Henchmen's sign. I need to fix that other light.

My hand wraps around the steel handle of the door as I step through. The smell of booze and perfume stings my nose. Some of my men are masking in their glory with a few of the half-dressed biker bunnies.

A couple of them try to stop me on my way to the bar. I politely decline them; they weren't too happy but sauntered over to Tick to cling themselves to him. Walking over to the stereo behind the bar - I turn the volume down, then bring my index finger and thumb up to my lips to give a loud whistle.

"Brothers," I announce. "We need to have a meeting. Ladies, thank you for your time, but we've got some business to take care of."

Hearing groans, as well as other throaty protests from the biker bunnies and my brothers - I take my chair at the head of the table in our meeting room.

The pine walls give off a homey- warm-like vibe to it. The whole club is like this. A lot of the men live here down the hall, where there are numerous amounts of bedrooms with attached bathrooms.

This place is literally a bar and an apartment complex all in one. Five months ago, I stopped living here because the Detective made me buy that house next door to his. I must say, I do like having my own place...

As the men start to pile in and take their seats, I focus on the table. The table is made from hickory wood - the toughest wood anyone can buy commercially. The center of the table is designed with our cut carved into it. We all figured that the table should be the only thing made of hickory in this place because of all the hard decisions that will have to be decided around it.

Given the decisions we've had to make between life and death, gun runs across state lines, moonshine runs, and of course, the decision of making our first and last d*******l for that damn slimy hick – Marcus...the wood choice fits the purpose of this room.

My brothers start to spill in to take their seats. Jace is to my right, followed by Tick, Aces, Jax, Axel, Ron, Squirrelly, Shady, then Paul at my left.

"As ya'll are aware, I am working a job that requires a lot of my time. However, hopefully, that will start to dwindle down here soon. But the reason why I called this meeting is because Jace, Paul, and I have come up with an idea on how to get Marcus to come out of his little shadow." Looking around the table, I see a lot of head nods as they listen.

"There's a kid that I know who lives in a particular house. It's the mansion off 46." Some grunts fill the room at the knowledge of the location. "There was a party there a few weeks ago - someone drugged and tried to r**e the Detective's daughter. I'm willing to bet that it's Marcus's house and the kid who lives there is his son. His name is Declan Young." I pause. It feels weird saying his stupid frikken name. I never knew Marcus's last name until I found out Declan's. "I'm also betting that the kid knows the creep who drugged Elena - I want his ass too."

"You want us to kidnap this Declan, Red?" Tick asks rather eagerly. I look up at Tick, even with his black buzz cut and a long beard that I begged him to trim from being all sorts of shaggy - he still looks crazy. It's in his blue eyes. I think he got the name Tick because he's like a ticking time bomb. You never know what will set him off or who he'll blow up on.

"We might need to." It is what I want. "I want us to scope the place out first, see who enters and exits the house, how many people live there, etcetera. We need to be smart about this. We can't get caught." My voice deepens to let them know just how serious this is, "We can't mess this up." Elena's life depends on it.

Axel speaks up, "When do you wanna start?"

Looking at him in his grey eyes below his long curly brown hair, I say, "Tonight." My gaze drops at each set of eyes, and I repeat, "Tonight, possibly over the next few nights -just to make sure there won't be any surprises." They all nod their heads in agreement.

We each scoot away from the table to walk out the door and turn left down the hall to our weaponry room. The room is always locked -only Jace and I have the keys. We walk in, and each of us shed our coats, shirts, and vests to shrug into bullet-proof vests before dressing again. Each of us put on our two-way radios to communicate in vast distances; there's also night vision shades, and of course – weapons of choice. We are only staking the place out, but there's always that chance of something going wrong.

********

The gaudy house is gated and patrolled. I'm not surprised. However, I am amused by the fact that they have a standard iron fence around the property instead of brick walls with electric fencing on the top. I didn't notice this before, of course, when I was here last time - I only had one thing on my mind, and it wasn't the landscape.

Marcus probably doesn't think anyone would be stupid enough to break in.

Having myself positioned at the edge of the property - just on the other side of the fence beneath some bushes -I'm lying on my stomach. Through my Barrett M82 rifle's scope in between the iron fence gap, I search for any movements inside the house.

The ground is soft and muddy from recent rain. The insects, frogs, and every other living creature on the planet seems to be out tonight.

I was a little worried that we may not be able to see much movement in the house, but luckily for us, this oversized house is in the country. No one really thinks to close their blinds out in the country – we have a full view of the house's activity.

My brothers are scattered around the place, watching, waiting. I see some movements in the house of people I don't recognize. I've been propped up on my elbows for the last hour and a half - waiting to see that Drake kid. No doubt, Tick is probably getting antsy. The radio line has been silent, aside from the occasional narration from Axel about stabbing an approaching snake.

Mosquitos are buzzing in my ear with that annoying high-pitched sound that just makes you cringe. Nails on the chalkboard have never bothered me, but the buzzing of mosquitos - can't stand that.

Clap.

I squish one on my neck and wipe the blood on my sleeve. Frikken’ tiny vampires.

"Hey, Red, what does this kid that you have a boner for look like?" Squirrelly thinks he's so funny.

"He's a skinny kid with darker skin, black hair, and brown eyes. Why? Do you see him?" I ask, looking through all the windows on my side of the mansion.

"Naw, man, this kid has a piercing in his eyebrow." I tense up.

"Where?" I ask, tunneling my vision from room to room.

"Just give it a minute, he's walking across the hall to your side, he's wearing a red Bulldogs t-shirt," Squirrelly informs.

Searching, waiting for that moron to come in my line of vision - I'm frantically searching each window. "What floor?"

"Second floor," Squirrelly answers.

I move my sights to the second floor and finally... I see him. The fool is smiling while he's facing a kid with dark hair who is on the shorter side of this pierced asshole. I can't see the shorter kid's face. The back of him looks like it could be Donny boy.

"That's him, boys," I say. "The twerp with the piercing is the one who drugged and tried to r**e Elena."

"Just take him out right now," Shady says. I could; I have my sights right in between his eyes.

"No. I want him to suffer a bit," I say while I watch him walk through a door and up to a room. He closes a bedroom door with a poster of a naked chick on it - grabs a comic book, and lands on a bed. I'm willing to bet he lives here, and that's his room. Could he be related to skinny fingers?

"Hey Red, I see that kid that you talked about – Deck... something or other. He's over here. He's leaving the premises, but he's not alone. Connor's with him," Ron says. I move my sights to the front lawn. Damn Connor - the middleman between Marcus and us - he's apparently a babysitter too.

Skinny fingers won't be any fun to torture -he's weak and will most likely c***k within a few seconds of my fist meeting his face. I switch my focus back to the pierced fool - he put up quite the fight.

Sure, I don't like Dumbo, but this kid lying on the bed in front of me pisses me off like none other. He clearly lives here too - which means he has ties to Marcus as well.

"We'll deal with him later - I want this kid. Jace, do you see him? Third floor, red shirt, blue bed?" Jace is a few yards away to my left; I know he can see what I see.

"Yeah, I see him," Jace confirms.

"You don't want to use Declan anymore?" Paul asks, a little surprised.

Nodding my head as if they can all see me, I answer, "Right. I want this guy; he needs to pay for what he did."

"Are you sure you're thinking clearly here?" Paul is really getting on my nerves.

"Yes. Paul. I am." He shuts up. Good. "I see a guard here. He's been at that post for a while now; how many do ya'll see?"

"Two by the front," Ron says, who is with Shady.

"One over here," I hear from Axel, who is at the other corner across from me.

"Two back here," Squirrelly says, who is with Aces on the far back corner of the house.

From Tick and Jax, I hear, "Three straight out back."

"One here at the back corner," Paul and Jace say.

That's ten guards. "Any cameras?" As soon as I ask, I see one above my guard. Confirmation from my men tells me that the guards are placed near or around the cameras. There must be one, possibly two, by the front and back entrances.

"Alright, guys, fall back. We'll come back tomorrow night to see if there's anything different or suspicious."

I'm curious to see if they switch any guards around or see how many visitors they get throughout the week. This type of scouting will take a little time; for the bastard lying on the bed reading one of those anime comic books crap... I have nothing but time.