Page 88 of Trick or Treat

Trick couldn’t believe it. They’d saved these six women and who knew how many in the other truck from being sold and used as sex slaves. There were going to be some very happy families when these women were returned home. The God-awful fear at not knowing where their loved ones disappeared to and why was enough to want to dig your own grave and join them. He’d only experienced the feeling for a handful of hours. Some of these women’s families had been living it for weeks. He shouldn’t count himself lucky until he laid eyes on his woman.

“Lindsey over there?” Trick shouted as he made his way to the other truck. He passed Preacher’s man going the opposite direction, hoping to find his sister in the truck Trick opened. One of the traffickers moaned where he lay on the cold concrete floor. Maverick shot him square in the chest, stopping the noise and ending his life. Mav harrumphed in satisfaction. Jed fired at another man who was reaching for his gun, stopping him in his endeavors.

“No.”

“Where the fuck is she?” Trick looked through the women, double checking for himself. “Fuck!” He grabbed his hair in both hands, scanning the whole room, looking for any place they could have hidden her from him.

From the squeal of joy he heard, Levi’s sister must have been in there. He was happy for Levi but also jealous. Where was Lindsey? Where was Kurtis? “Anyone got eyes on Kurtis Black?”

“Over here!” Tuck shouted from across the room. He was standing outside a partially glassed-in office, his gun pointing at something on the floor.

Trick took off at a jog, coming to a sliding stop. His hopes crashed at finding Kurtis but no Lindsey. He was kneeling on the floor, his hands behind his head. He was looking a little green, like he might throw up. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Lindsey racked me up. I’m trying not to throw my nuts up.” A fine sheen of sweat dotted his brow.

One side of Trick’s mouth went up, pleased his woman was well enough to do some damage against Kurtis. He stepped farther into the room. “I’ll ask again. Where is she?”

“I don’t fucking know.” He wheezed. “She crippled me and took the fuck off.”

Trick held out his hand and waited for Jackson to hand over his gun. He held it to Kurtis’s forehead, then clenched his teeth and repeated, “Last time. Where. Is. She?” He emphasized the last three words with a shove of the gun barrel to the man’s forehead.

A phone rang somewhere behind him. “Yeah?” Jackson answered. “She all right? Okay. Good. I’ll tell him.”

Trick felt a hand land on his shoulder. “Trick, Chris and Tulsa have Lindsey. She’s good, man. They’re taking her to the clubhouse.” He didn’t say anything. He didn’t make a movement indicating he’d heard Jackson. He was so caught up in what could have happened to Lindsey if they hadn’t found her.

“Trick, did you hear him? Lindsey is safe.” Race tried to get through to him this time.

He breathed a sigh of relief. One at a time, his muscles released and his head dropped forward. He nodded his head slowly, letting it sink in. “Lindsey’s safe.” Handing his gun off to Jackson again, he grabbed Kurtis by the throat. “She should never have not been safe, you motherfucker.” He punched Kurtis in the jaw hard enough to knock him out. He watched with minimal satisfaction as he crumpled to the floor. Trick wouldn’t feel completely satisfied until he’d gotten his payback. And he would get his payback.

It was Race who broke the silence. “Valley or cabin?”

“Cabin.”

“Maverick, you, Jed and Darren load up this piece of shit and get him to the cabin.” Race started issuing orders. “Preacher, you can ride with me. Dagger, get on the phone and tell your brother-in-law where to find these women.”

The Sons might be thought to be coldhearted or mean or bloodthirsty and that was fine. They lived their lives by their own rules. One rule was you take care of family. In this case, these women’s families didn’t know where they were at, so the Sons would take care of them. The club also had a soft spot for abused women. Any man that was any kind of a man always looked out for women.

“Trick, let’s go.”

The cabinthe MC owned was situated in the middle of two hundred acres, surrounded by miles and miles of woods. The brothers came here from time to time to get away, sometimes with their families, sometimes just to be one with nature and center themselves. Yeah, it was totally a pussy thing to say, being one with nature, but it was true. Sometimes a man just needed to go somewhere and give his soul a break from the pressures of life.

Trick had brought his kids up to the cabin last summer with Jackson, Calliope and Ryder. Between running through the woods like a bunch of heathens and riding trails on four-wheelers, the kids had had a blast. He planned on bringing them again, this time with Lindsey, when the weather got nice. But first, he wanted to bring Lindsey up here for a weekend, just the two of them. After everything that had been going on, they desperately needed time to themselves.

On the ride to the cabin it was discussed how best to deal with Kurtis Black. Trick voted for shooting him, tying his bleeding body to a tree and letting the feral hogs take care of clean up. Preacher didn’t think that was enough justice. He was debating between forcing him to confess on tape to all his crimes and leave it as a present for the police or sending him to a friend of his in Mexico to live out his life.

“Trust me. Shipping him to my friend in Mexico would not be a kindness.”

Before everyone could pile out of the vehicle, Race turned his head toward Preacher. “It goes without saying that we might be working together in this trafficking thing, but we are not best friends and you will not tell anyone the location of this cabin. Forget it even exists. Get me?” That was Race’s way of telling the crime boss to keep his damn mouth shut or he wouldn’t be leaving here. Ever.

“You have my word.” Preacher inclined his head and got out of the car.

“You think Kurtis will talk?” Jackson asked from his position at the back of the group.

“Oh, yeah. Men like him crack every time,” Preacher responded, trudging through the snow.

“Why’s that?” Jackson asked.

“Because deep down inside, he’s still the same pathetic, insecure geek he was in school. He might have money, a nice car and a better body now, but when push comes to shove, and it’s his life or his boss’s, he’ll revert back to the same weak, scared guy he was in high school. He’ll do whatever it takes to survive,” Trick replied.

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