Outlaws’ Property (Property of Outlaw Sons MC #1)

8. Tex

8

TEX

I settle to the side next to Riot, and watch Jessica and Anne follow Bonnie out the side entrance. Jessica casts a glance over her shoulder at us, looking lost. I nod, and her lips twitch in just the barest hint of a smile.

This whole situation is fucked up. I’m not her man, but we were the ones that found them hiding during the raid, and I can’t shake the feeling of responsibility. This is no place for an innocent girl and a kid.

Ghost and Savage step up onto the altar, sitting opposite Hellfire.

"Alright boys, get fucking comfortable, because this is a fucking story and a half." Hellfire sweeps his hand at the crowd.

He starts at the beginning, outlining what went right—most if it—and what went wrong—Terrence fucking Cooper. That jackass let his thirst for revenge stand in the way of actually getting it. The mood is grim as Hellfire details how Kane got away, taking our client with him. More than one guy looks fit to kill when they hear how Kane sacrificed both his daughter and his woman.

“He just let her fall? That’s fucking cold, man.”

There’s a lot of nods. The boys don’t even know the names of half the girls they screw, but that’s just fun and games. If they claim a woman, they take responsibility for her. You don’t turn your back on the people who rely on you.

"And he left his fucking kid behind without a fight," growls Riot. "Ratshit coward."

Crank raises a hand. “So we’re in the hostage business now? What’s the plan?”

“Looks like it.” Hellfire nods. “I’m not fucking happy about it, but on top of not getting paid, it’s not going to be good for business if it gets out that we lost our fucking client.”

“If it’s not his woman, then who’s the other chick?” Junker asks.

I look his way. “The nanny. Just some poor girl who got dragged into our shit. Should we let her go?”

It would be a shame. She's cute in a mousy kind of way. Reminds me of the smart girls in high school who used to check me out during practice when they thought I wouldn’t notice. The ones who would blush and get all shy, but were usually the freakiest if you managed to get them alone. Damn, I wouldn’t mind seeing Jessica’s hair out of that braid, and those pretty lips wrapped around my cock.

“Not yet. We keep both of them until we know more and figure out what the fuck the next step is,” Hellfire adds. “Shitty for her, but having her around might help keep Kane’s daughter calm.”

I put my hand up. “Question. The whole mission was to give Cooper a clear shot at Kane. We did everything but put that fish in a fucking barrel, and he still fucked it up. Let’s say we arrange a clean exchange. Do we just turn the girls over, collect our guy and go on our merry fucking way? You think Kane isn’t going to turn around and take a shot at us as soon as it’s over? No matter what happens, we just put a target on our heads.”

Savage crosses his arms in front of his chest, nodding. "You’re not wrong, but good options are fucking scarce. For now, we should play dumb and focus on getting Cooper back in one piece. Rich assholes like Kane are always happy to think we’re too stupid to think ahead. It makes it easier to get the jump on them later.”

"We could cut our losses," Ghost says with a careless shrug. “Sacrificing Cooper would be a small hit to our reputation, but we’ve built back from worse. Kane’s a professional. He understands the difference between a personal hit and a job. Besides, as long as we have his kid, he’s the one at a disadvantage.”

"Just keep her around as insurance? I don’t like it." Hellfire frowns.

"Neither do I, but it’s an option. She's worth more to him than Cooper is to us. Cooper goes down, we're out some money. His little girl gets hurt, it makes him look weak." Ghost leans back like the cold mother fucker he is.

Everyone looks to Hellfire, who weighs Ghost’s words before shaking his head. “Even if that’s true, we’re not doing it. That’s not who I am, and that’s not who we are. We took the job, we see it through.”

Heads nod all around the room.

Outside these walls, where people like black and white answers that help them sleep at night, they call us the bad guys. But they don’t know shit. We live in the gray zone between their white picket fences and the real evil. Clubs like the Outlaw Sons are a fucking life raft for men who fall through the cracks and might otherwise keep falling until they hit rock bottom.

Not that every MC draws their line in the same place. Some are nothing but law abiding, white-collar weekend warriors, and others wouldn’t hesitate to put a bullet in that little girl’s skull if it got them a paycheck.

General’s cut, with his blood still staining the leather, hangs on the wall as a reminder that we paid a steep price to keep from going down that road.

“Man, if I didn’t know Ghost as well as I do, I’d think he was a goddamn monster sometimes,” Riot says softly.

I nod. “No shit. Glad he’s on our side.” Ghost learned early that you can’t throw away options just because they’re distasteful. He’s a better leader for it, but if he hadn’t managed to hang onto his own humanity, he’d be fucking scary.

Poe stands up from his spot towards the back. "Yeah, alright. So we all agree this hostage situation isn’t a long term solution, but it’s what we got. Kane has access to shit we could only dream of. For all we know he can take out the whole damn compound from fucking space. The only thing keeping him from doing that is his daughter. We probably have a couple days tops before he’s recovered enough to hit back.”

The members go back and forth, debating as Hellfire listens from the altar, sipping his beer and letting us throw our thoughts around. It would be easy to think he’s too easy going to be president, but that would be a mistake. We’d follow him into hell because he respects our opinions and suggestions, and at the end of the day, every single man here trusts him to make the final call.

Finally, he shut us all up by coming down the steps and walking down the center of the church. “We keep the girls close and put the ball in Kane’s court. I’ll make contact when we’re done here. We need to keep all options open. Stay close to home, and don’t go out alone. Anyone with a civilian family, if they can be traced back to the club, think about getting them behind the walls or sending them on a little vacation. We don’t know what the fuck Kane will do, but we know he don’t play nice.”

"Jesus Christ, I hope we take this guy out by the time everything is over," Riot grumbles.

Hellfire grins. “And since Ghost and his team have already been dealing with the hostages, they can keep doing so.”

Ghost snaps to attention. "What the fuck? You’re putting us on babysitting duty? What about Bonnie?"

"She’ll help, and she’s a damn good shot, but they need more protection than even a tough old bitch like her can give. The girls already know you a little, and I trust you to keep them safe. Clear?"

I nod. "Crystal."