Hopping on our bikes, Pops orders, “Church, now. Get there.”

* * *

“I believe him.” I cut in to the argument that has been going on for the past fifteen minutes. These fucking men are making my damn head ache. It needs to stop. “He’s got no reason to lie and he wants the fuckers just as much as we do.”

“You don’t think it’s a fucking set up?” Dagger asks his eyes piercing mine.

“Nah. I don’t. Saw it in his face.”

“I agree.” Pops cuts in. “We need to get rid of Rabbit. Get Buzz in here and have him pull it up on his GPS.”

Dagger leaves the table and brings Buzz inside. “Buzz, we need to see this place.” Pops hands him a piece of paper. Buzz leaves the room coming back seconds later with his laptop. A quick click of the keys and he is pointing to our destination.

Buzz shows the screen to all of us. An old warehouse stands in the center with a large number of trees surrounding it.

Sure enough, there are tons of spots for people to hide, so getting in and out undetected isn’t an option. “We need to do it remotely.” I say looking at Buzz and then Pops who nods. “Can you rig up explosives and detonate them from your computer?”

“Fuck yeah.” Buzz’s huge smile reminds me how much he gets off on this shit.

Looking over at Pops, “It’s our only option. There will be a shit ton of guys and with such short notice, we’ll barely have enough time to get in, rig it and get out.”

“It’d be cleaner too, but fuck I want Rabbit.” The fire in his eyes burns bright. We all want Rabbit, but doing this remotely will be the best thing for the club and that is what matters.

“I know. Buzz, we’d need cameras to see who goes in and out. We need to make sure that fucker is inside before it blows.”

“Not a problem. I’ve got a stash,” we all stare at the man. What the fuck. He shrugs and continues, “Of shit that’d be perfect. Got all the equipment to rig it up. I’ll just need some cameras.”

“Breaker!” Becs calls through the door, he rushes in.

“Yeah?”

“Need cameras to be rigged up remotely. Ask your brother. Get at least ten and pay cash.”

“Got it.” Breaker nods his head and leaves the room, closing the door behind him.

“Buzz, tell your brother what you need, then you ride with us. We go check out the place, quietly.” Pops orders.

It’s time to roll, God it’s great to be back in the mix.

* * *

After scoping out the place, we head back to the clubhouse and make the plan, and head back out to the site after dark. The place is deserted which I find eerie. Either Rabbit doesn’t think we know anything about it and isn’t afraid or the meeting isn’t happening. I am hoping for the first.

After rigging the explosives and the cameras, we meet back at the clubhouse and discuss everything, laying out how we expect everything to play out and hope it does exactly that.

“Hey, Angel.” I walk up behind my girl and she jumps. “Sorry, babe. It’s just me.” I pull her long blonde hair to the side, raking my lips over her neck. Shivers take over her body making me smile. The smell of cherries emanates off of her and I want to lick her from head to toe.

“Hey.” She whispers turning around in my arms. I crash my lips to hers and suck her bottom lip. Her moan spurs me. She wraps her arms around my neck diving into the kiss.

“As great as it is that you two got your heads out of your asses, I don’t need to watch it.” Princess barks.

Angel pulls away and grins. “Come on baby. I need you.”

* * *

“Did he go in?” I ask Buzz who has been eyeing the three computers he’s got set up in Pops office.

“Yeah. Here, I snapped a shot of it so you can confirm it.” Buzz pulls up the picture and sure enough, Rabbit and his VP just walked into the building.

“How many inside and out?” Pops asks.

“Inside. 87. Outside. 6.” Buzz answers not skipping a beat.

“You counted?” I ask surprised that he thought of it.

“Fuck yeah.” Buzz smirks, his finger twitching to push the button.

“Alright. Give it here.” Buzz’s face falls and Pops laughs.

“Bud, you’re not a full member yet and Pops needs to do this shit.” I answer holding back my own smile.

He hands over the computer. “Push these.” He points to three buttons. “Once you do, it will be thirty seconds before it blows.”

Pops stares at the screen. Who the hell knows what is going through his head. When his eyes lock with mine, I nod curtly. He does the same with Becs.

Pops hits the buttons Buzz told him to and we wait staring at the three screens. I never realized how long thirty seconds is until this moment. The small countdown clock on the screen is down to 5… 4… 3… 2… 1.

Nothing happens.

Nothing.

“What the fuck?” Pops roars, standing up so quickly his chair flies to the ground. Buzz scrambles to the computers, pressing all the buttons it seemed like at once.

“Buzz?” I question.

“I don’t know what the fuck happened. It should have blown.” He scrambles, fingers still flying across the keys. There is now no movement on the screens even the guards have disappeared.

“Get the fuck over there now and find out what the hell happened.” Pops yells enraged. Becs puts in a call to the Clayton and Guthree chapters to meet us there. We need bodies and back up, fast. We load up and head to the site.

The tension is so fucking thick you’d need a damn machete to cut through that shit. We all ride in two cages to the site not wanting to make any more noise than needed and park away from the building. There are no people in sight, it looks totally deserted. Four other cages pull up behind us and our brothers from Clayton and Guthree get out with us.

Moving slowly through the edge of the tree line, no one has come out of the building or is guarding it. My phone vibrates in my pocket. It’s a blanket text from Becs saying for everyone to surround the building, he will text us to start the countdown to open the doors when the coast is clear.

I scope out everything around us and there is nothing.

I head to the side door with Buzz at my side. We stand and wait. A few moments later, my phone vibrates saying to start the countdown. My adrenaline kicks in and I hold up five fingers to Buzz and count in my head. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… I nod to Buzz, who kicks the door open which flies with no restraint.

A sudden metallic smell waves into my nose. With my gun drawn, my eyes dart around the building. “What the fuck.” I say softly. Dozens of men lay on the linoleum floor, blood seeping from their bodies, not one moving. Bodies lay with heads practically cut off of them; stab wounds straight into hearts and some have limbs chopped off.

I’ve done some wicked shit in my day, but this… This is a fucking massacre, something I have never witnessed before and never want to again.

“Clear!” is yelled out by several of the guys. I look up into all their stunned faces, not one seeming to put words together at the moment.

Becs reaches for his phone. “Pops. We got a huge fucking problem.” He starts and tells him everything that we see, even to the graphic details that I know will be etched into my head for years to come.

I walk around slowly, careful not step in blood or on a body, which makes it very difficult. “Find Rabbit.” I say out to anyone and everyone. That fucker needs to be gone.

“Found him, I think.” Zed says grimly. “And it ain’t fucking pretty.” I slowly walk over to Zed with most of the guys close by.

A man is lying in a pool of blood, a large knife is impaled through his skull, but there is a piece of paper covering his face. I grab the paper tearing it off of the body. To my relief the man is Rabbit. When I look at the paper, my heart stops as I read the words.

“What’s it fucking say?” I look into Becs’ eyes, hopefully conveying my thoughts.

“It says… ‘This is how Paine is really done.’”

“Paine did this shit?” Dagger asks pissed off.

“Yeah. It’s spelled P-A-I-N-E. He beat us to the fucking punch here.” I growl and turn to Becs. “Needs to go up.”

Becs nods and turns to his phone. “Pops we need to light it up. It will all land on us. We gotta clean it up.” He nods. “Got it.”

“Find whatever the fuck you can and get this shit ablaze and fast.” Becs orders and we get to work.

* * *

Entering church, Pops stands at the front of the table fuming. “That piece of fucking shit!”

“Gotta get rid of him.” Dagger speaks.

“No fucking shit. How the hell do we find him? We’ve got every fucking chapter looking for him and nothing. So you fucking tell me how the hell we’re gonna do that?” Pops fires back.

Pops is always so damn even keeled that having his rage show up is a bit unnerving. I knew shit was bad, but having him go off, shit is worse than I even thought.

“We need to see if Buzz can do some of that techy shit and track him. It’s a long shot, but it’s the only thing we got right now.” I say calmer than I feel. I need to keep my head on straight especially if Pops is going to lose his shit. “Let’s assess this.” I say motioning towards Pops, who takes his chair so we are all at least now sitting.

“Alright. Positive. Rabbit and his guys are dead.” The guys nod.

“Paine could be anywhere. We keep our eyes and ears open, but he won’t make it easy.”

“We need to get over to Ransom’s. How we gonna play this?” Cruz asks.

“Tell him exactly what fucking happened and we question him. We need to know who the fuck his informant was.” Pops states, placing his fists on the table.