Page 16 of My Veteran Biker

What happened here is that Marrow tried to attack us at our own clubhouse and failed.

We lost nothing, but it was close.

Too close.

Cain hauls the man Tate secured to his feet. Dutch. I recognize him from the descriptions. Six-three, scar on his left cheek, mean eyes. He's bleeding but not badly. Tate didn't hit him hard enough to do real damage.

"Inside," Clint says.

We move Dutch into the clubhouse. The main room has broken glass on the floor from the shot-out windows. Bullet holes in the walls. But no brothers bleeding, no one down. Our defensive positions held.

The restructuring worked.

Cain shoves Dutch into a chair and zip-ties his hands behind his back. Dutch doesn't struggle. Just sits there breathing hard, blood running from his nose down his chin.

"You know what happens now," Clint says.

Dutch spits blood on the floor. "Fuck you."

"Where's Crane?"

"Fuck you!"

Cain steps forward and drives his fist into Dutch's solar plexus. The man doubles over, gasping, trying to breathe through the pain.

When he straightens his face is red and his eyes are watering.

"Where's Crane?" Clint repeats.

"I don't know."

Cain hits him again. This time Dutch vomits, thin and bile-yellow, onto the floor between his feet.

He's shaking when he lifts his head.

"Has a property," Dutch gasps. "Next county. Don't know the address."

"What property?"

"House. Old place. Goes there when he wants to be alone."

Cain looks at Clint. Clint nods once.

"Chuck starts looking," Clint says. "We find that property."

Movement outside. Tate at the door with his gun raised. Then he lowers it.

"It's the other one we secured," he calls. "He's waking up."

We haul the second man inside. Young, maybe twenty-five, scared shitless. He talks fast when Cain stands over him. Confirms what Dutch said. Crane has a property in the next county, uses it when he needs to disappear.

This whole attack was supposed to pull us out, make us vulnerable.

It didn't work.

Clint makes the call. The two younger Marrow members get zip-tied and left for the sheriff with an anonymous call. Dutch stays until we extract everything he knows about Crane's movements, his remaining loyal members, his plans.

By the time we're done it's almost five in the morning and Dutch is being hauled outside by Tate and Axel.