Page 49 of Mace
His whole attitude changed from casual to tense. “Yeah, I get that old ladies come first. I’m on it, bro.”
“Do not let her out of your sight, no matter what. Got it, prospect?”
“Yeah, I got it,” he responded, sounding like he was in a flat out run.
I hung up and called Storm. “We got a problem, Prez. Alicia just ran off and I think she’s gonna do somethin’ stupid. Benny’s going after her but he’s gonna need some back up. We can’t let her get away.”
“Well, she’s not a prisoner and you need to remember that, brother.”
“You know damn well that’s not what I mean!” I shot back, feeling panicked. “She met with my mom and gran today. They think she’s going to take the deal the feds offered. Said she was afraid of me getting hurt helping her.”
“Shit, I hate it when women do that kind of shit. Hang on a moment, we’ve got a tracker on her phone. I’ll see if Hacker can get a trace on her.” I could hear Storm shouting at someone thensome muttering before he jumped back on the line, “Okay, we’ve got her. She’s moving at car speed, so I’m gonna guess someone picked her up.”
“Or someone just fucking abducted her,” I pointed out. I was fairly sure it was her own doing, but we shouldn’t rule out other options at this point.
Storm’s calm voice was pissing me off. He explained, “Look, either way it doesn’t matter, cause she’s gonna lead us straight to her old man who we’ve been trying to locate over the last few weeks. We’ll stay close and make sure to prioritize her safety once the fighting starts.”
“Once the fucking fighting starts? So, we’re using her for bait?” Every damn thing about this situation was pissing me off.
“Yeah, about that,” Storm responded. “That wasn’t the original plan, and you know it, but sometimes, things on the ground change. She chose this, not us. Our priority now is backing up her bad decision.”
“I don’t like how you phrased it, but point taken, I guess. I want to be there. I can’t leave her safety to anyone else, even my club brothers.”
“Turn on your tracking app and meet us at the Griffinsford city limits sign, looks like that’s where they’re headed. We’ll keep track and follow at a safe distance and update you if anything changes. Don’t worry, Mace. We’ll do anything and everything to keep your old lady and her mother safe.”
Feeling somewhat mollified but still extremely scared of her catching a bullet I said, “I’m in my truck and can be there in about five minutes.”
When my phone went dead, I pulled out as I quickly brought Coyote up to speed in the passenger seat. We hit the road to meet up with Storm and the rest of the brothers supporting today’s mission. I couldn’t understand why Alicia didn’t contact me if something popped off with her father. She knew that our club spent the last few weeks searching high and low for the bastard. I know my mom said that she was worried I’d get hurt, but still. I was pissed she didn’t trust me to protect her.
Although I didn’t know what this meant for our relationship, one thing I was certain of, was that I was determined to put a bullet in her old man’s head, so we didn’t ever have to worry about him lurking around and tricking her into another vulnerable situation.
I couldn’t imagine her being foolish enough to meet with him all on her own. But then again, he could have lured her out to meet with her mother in a public place. That I could easily understand, because Alicia had been desperate to be eyes on with her mom, just to know she was okay.
***
When we caught up with our club brothers, they were outside an abandoned chicken farm in an isolated area just outside of the city limits. Nine’s sniffer started going crazy, probably because he smelled chickens but didn’t see any running around that he could chase.
The more I mulled it over, the more I thought it must be like my mom said in her text. Alicia was trying to solve all her problems at once by setting her father up for a sting by the US Marshals.
We were only there for a few seconds when Benny came running full speed towards our group. The prospect had beaten us here and had snooped around the farm, despite my orders just to tail them. In the time that he’d been prospecting, it was clear that following direct orders was an alien concept to the guy. I kind of got it, because I’d been used to being a lone wolf myself.
“Who the fuck told you to go off like that? What are you, a rebel without a fucking clue?” Storm growled out.
Benny grinned as he ran up to Storm. “Sorry Prez, I saw my chance and took it. Alicia’s in the building. I planted a listening device on the windowsill outside the room they’re in. If we’re lucky we’ll be able to pick up at least some of what they’re saying.”
Storm narrowed his eyes, “When you say listening device, you mean your phone, right?”
Benny gave him a lopsided grin, “Well, we both know I ain’t no spy or computer genius. So, yeah, I propped up my phone and called our group chat.”
“Good thinking,” Storm said grudgingly, as he took out his cell phone and glared at it. We could hear voices, but it was all a bit indistinct.
“Reckon Hacker could work some magic?” I asked.
At that moment, Hacker rolled up in his off-road wheelchair, seemingly out of nowhere, clearly excited. “What’s that I might do?”
“Reckon you could turn this shitty audio into something useful?” I asked. I saw Benny glaring at me, and I quickly added,“Not your fault Prospect, what you did was quick thinking, but the signal here ain’t too good.”
Hacker pulled out his laptop and started tapping away, “I might be able to hack into the app and get us a visual. Or remotely turn on the camera.”