“Do you think Lewis will ever find who he’s looking for?” Jackson asked.
“I don’t know.”
“He’s going to keep hunting for her,” Blake said. “I don’t blame him. We’re all in this together, and I will keep on fighting these bastards until they no longer hurt women.”
The B. B. MC members all had a reason for being where they were. Each member had a past, and none of them had openly shared it. Russ knew the important details of the men he rode with. They believed in what he did, in fairness, and the law. Their club was the only part of their lives that wasn’t bound to the unwritten rules that society placed on them. Russ didn’t want to hide behind his lawyer because he fucked a woman in a bar. The club allowed them to be open with each other, and take what they wanted. It was an unconventional club that worked for all of them.
Thinking about the club reminded him of Tina. Since Lewis had interrupted them, he’d not gone back to Tina. He didn’t need the release just yet.
“None of us are ever going to stop looking for her.” Lewis hadn’t told them what had happened. They all knew that he’d lost a friend, and that was it.
“It must be hard. Each place we go, she’s not there. It has been too long. She could be dead,” Sean said.
“Don’t let Lewis hear you say that. He believes she’s alive, and I’m not going to break him by telling him that she could be dead. We’re all brothers here.”
“I’m sorry. I just know he’s going to need to come to the conclusion that he’s looking for a ghost.” Sean shrugged. “I hate being the one to say it, but you’ve all got to admit that you’ve thought it.”
Resting his head against the van, Russ closed his eyes. Sean wasn’t wrong. He’d wanted to talk to Lewis about the possibility of the woman he was searching for being dead. Each time he thought about bringing it up, he balked at the last minute.
“Let’s take it one mission at a time,” Russ said, opening his eyes. “Lewis is our brother, and when we came together as an MC we made a promise, an oath, to serve the club and each brother’s needs. I’ll fight for Lewis every step of the way.”
“We all will,” Jackson said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
They all had a past, and a story to tell, but none of them were going to talk to each other about what they faced. He didn’t mind. Russ didn’t have a past, not really. There was nothing in his past worth reliving, or going back to see.
“I’m turning off the lights,” Sean said. He was driving them to the ranch.
They climbed out of the back of the car, having parked several yards up from the wooden gate, far enough away not to raise suspicion. No one would see the van that was parked away from the road. Lewis pulled in next, and Russ was already climbing over the fence.
Lewis was handling the radio signals to the law enforcement.
They could all die at any moment, and Russ was ready for that. These women needed a man willing to die to get them out.
Lewis stood beside him, and together, they held their guns and walked through the thick grass.
“They’re here,” Lewis said.
“I know.”
His gut was telling him that they were close. When the grass started to thin out, he saw the first of the cages, and inside them women sat silently crying. Russ lowered down, as did the rest of the men.
“Heavily guarded?” Sean asked, crawl-walking toward them.
“No.” There was one guard who was pacing up and down.
“You think we’re fucking cowards? How do you feel now, bitch?” A man shouted, and the sound of him spitting echoed through the night.
Russ heard that cry again, the same cry he’d heard the night before.
“Jake, ease up. She gets the message. You fuck her over too bad, and Henry’s not going to want her fat ass. She’s useless to us too fucked up.” This came from another guy.
Russ parted the grass, and watched as they dragged a woman back to her cage, throwing her inside so that her head hit the back. Rage filled every part of him.
Closing the grass, he turned to his nine brothers. “I’m going to unlock those cages. I’ll warn the women we’re here, and I want you to keep an eye on the guard. They have a chance to escape while we take care of business.”
They had learned the hard way about not preparing the women. Russ wouldn’t have another woman’s death on his conscience.
Leaving his gun with Lewis, Russ crawled toward the cages. One of the women stared up at him with large, dilated eyes. She was shaking, probably coming down from the drugs. He pressed a finger to his lips.