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I watch from my position as Rides sneaks up on the woman and grabs her around the waist with one hand and covers her mouth with the other. He lifts her off her feet and hauls her ass to where I’m watching.

“Don’t scream. You’ll alert the fuckers to where we are,” Rides whispers to the woman. She nods her head in agreement, and he releases her.

I’m watching closely because if she tries to scream, I’ll shut her up fucking fast. “What were you doing spying on them?” I ask and lean forward so she doesn’t have to speak loudly.

“I’m trying to see if my stepsister is with them willingly or if she was taken. I have a feeling she’s with them willingly, but I need to be sure.”

“We’re not with them. We are also watching them to find out what the fuck they are doing, and where they are going next.” I watch her closely for any reactions that will put Rides and me at risk.

The woman studies me for a few minutes before doing the same with Rides. Both Rides and I know that in situations like this you show patience and give the person enough time to decide that we are not going to do anything untoward.

While she is studying us, I take a moment to look closely at her. She has short hair with soft bangs across her forehead. The style is choppy, not lying smoothly on her head. It looks like someone has run their hands through her hair, which for some damn reason is not sitting right with me.

You can tell the moment she decides to trust us. Her shoulders loosen and her body relaxes. “My name is Miri. I work at the diner, and I’ve stayed out of sight when any of them have come into the diner to eat or take food back to the others. I’m nearly positive my stupid stepsister is with one of them. If she is, I’m going to step away and leave her to it. I don’t want or need to be involved with them.”

“My name is Rides, and this is Joker. We are not here to hurt or threaten you, but those fuckers are bad news. They are not a good MC. Most clubs are legit these days and own businesses that are fully legal. The days of gunrunning are mostly over, and those that continue doing that often end up behind bars.” Rides settles against a tree and continues speaking. “We know they originated from the Oregon area. They traveled from state to state, pushing MCs to see if they could find a weak one. It’s good that most MCs are not weak and not stupid. They’ll push back if another club tries to take what is theirs.”

“They are going back to Nebraska. My boss, Vanessa, overheard them speaking yesterday. They have been threatened by The Steel Henchmen MC who are somewhere in Colorado. I don’t know because I’m trying not to get involved in anything other than being sure Geri has not been taken against her will,” Miri has provided the information that we needed, and without her knowing she’s done it.

“We can go home now, Joker…”

Rides doesn’t have the chance to say more before we hear a shout and a bullet whizzes past us. I grab Miri and haul her to my hog. “Get on,” I snap, and fire up my baby. As soon as Miri is behind me, I get us the hell out of there. Rides is right behind me and glancing back I can see he is pushing me to go faster. I’m happy we have this fucking track to use, or we could have had to run miles to get to our bikes.

Once we hit the road, we slow down because we are not being followed. Rides pulls up to ride at the side of me and points to Miri. I shrug because I don’t know what to do with her at this point. Rides shoots in front, and I follow him. We end up at the diner where Miri is living, and after Vanessa, the owner tells us to push our bikes behind the garage out of sight, we head inside and up to where she, her brother, and Miri live.

Chapter 13

MIRI

Iam sitting in the diner with Vanessa, and who I was informed are Joker and Rides.

“So, you went over to check out the place the bikers are staying? What were you thinking?” Vanessa snaps while giving me the most exasperated look I’ve ever seen.

“You know what we saw and heard. You know she sent me that message, Vanessa. I just want to be sure of what is going on. I’m about sure she is there because she wants to be, but why is she trying to drag me there, too?” I respond and look at Rides when he shakes his head. “What?” I ask Rides.

“They need women. They are taking innocent women off the street, just snatching them and using them as club whores. If the law knows what’s going on they are ignoring it, but they will take the wrong woman and a gang, MC, brother, or father will start a war with them. Your sister is more than likely pulling you in so you can be a whore, or an old lady to one of them. My advice, Miri, is to stay as far away from them as you can,” Rides says it all in one tone, which has me believing what he is telling me.

My phone pings alerting me to a message.

Geri: Miri, are you going to answer me? I want you to come and visit. I have some people I’d like you to meet.

Vanessa leans over and reads the message. “Do not answer. Something is very wrong with Geri.”

“We have been watching them closely. What does your sister look like?” Joker asks, and I flick to my photograph album on my phone and find the latest picture I had taken of Geri. Turning the phone, I show him the picture. “Yeah, that’s her. She is with the president of the club. She is not there unwillingly. In fact, from what we have seen she is the one who is making sure the women taken off the streets behave and do as they are told. I saw her punch and beat one of the women until she was thrown to three men to do as they liked with her.”

“I wish we’d brought our sniper brothers and taken out a bunch of them,” Rides snarls.

I’m surprised when I find myself nodding at the thought, and noticing Vanessa is also nodding in agreement, I don’t feel so bad about wanting these assholes dead.

“What are we going to do about these women? We can’t just leave them,” I ask and look at Joker, Rides, then Vanessa.

Trace has arrived without any of us noticing, but when he speaks, we all turn to listen. “We get some of the local veterans together, we go when they are low in numbers, and we take the women out of there. No arguments, we go in, grab, get out.”

“How many local vets do you have?” Rides asks as he leans forward with interest.

“Enough, and we can call in more. I’m part of a veteran group that we built in town. Two of our own took their own lives due to PTSD, and that led us to form a support group. We meet once a week, but contact each other continuously, if we don’t hear from someone within forty-eight hours, we go to them. We’ve had no incidents for five years. We took out a gang that was forming on the outskirts of town, not literally, but they now live in another state. We can get in and out, and if we need to bury some of the assholes, then we’ll do it,” Trace said all this with no sign of concern. Vanessa had told me Trace could handle himself, but I never imagined what he had just told us.

Joker has spoken little, but he asks, “How many are snipers?”