Take Aim and Reload (Forgotten Rebels MC Book 3) Read online

  Kix’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Heart turned his head away to hide his smirk. Guess the leader of The White Death rarely got threats from petite blondes.

  “Loud and clear,” he muttered.

  Church turned back to Wick. “Listen, I know you didn’t agree with her intentions. Hell, neither did I. But that threat is over and now she’s someone who needs saving. Surely you can understand that, can’t you? Hasn’t anyone in your life needed help?”

  Wick’s cold countenance faded and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. Yeah, I do know what it feels like to have a loved one in danger.”

  He gave a pointed look toward Kix, who raised an eyebrow.

  “All right,” Wick said. “We need to figure out exactly where Masterson would’ve taken her.”

  Church’s shoulders slumped a little, probably with relief. Heart’s urgency to find Cherry burned his insides, but he didn’t know where to turn to begin the search.

  “So how the hell do we find her?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Wick replied.

  “We can ask Mac to see if he can hack into any camera feeds to find her,” Kix said. “It worked in finding Abbott.”

  “On it,” Slade said. He pulled out his cell phone and turned away to talk. Heart felt helpless and useless, and he didn’t like it at all. He wracked his brain, trying to think of something, anything, to help find Cherry.

  Because if he didn’t find her alive … he couldn’t even process the rest of that thought. If Cabot harmed one hair on her head, he wouldn’t rest until he’d killed the mother fucker, and he’d rest happily in jail knowing the asshole who killed his soon-to-be-wife was no longer breathing.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cherry sat in the chair in the middle of one of the waste plants on Cabot Pharmaceutical land. Her wrists were zipped-tied together, uselessly resting in her lap. Masterson stood some distance away, feet apart, hands clasped behind his back. He reminded her of a military man at ease, waiting for the higher command to come in and give him orders. She had a sinking feeling of exactly what those orders might be, because after all, she was the last link to Warren Cabot’s crimes.

  The knowledge that all of it, everything she’d done for justice and vengeance, had been for nothing rested heavily upon her shoulders. Perhaps ignorance was indeed bliss, because she wished she could take it all back, to erase the knowledge of what Ricky had done to Church. How did her sister live with it? Cherry didn’t think she could bear it for another minute, let along for years. Perhaps that was why she didn’t mind so much that her death sentence was about to be imposed, because it would be retribution for all the suffering Church had endured. She was responsible, so perhaps afterward her sister could finally find a smidgen of happiness knowing she no longer had to look at a mirror copy of herself.

  Then the faint sound of a door banging shut echoed hollowly through the building, and Cherry’s anxiety caused adrenaline to shoot through her body. She stared at the door, feeling every second that ticked by as she waited for Warren. A million things flashed through her head like a rapid movie reel. The old saying her life flashed before her eyes was accurate, from her earliest memories of Church, their mother, and their grandfather, to Ricky, and the betrayal now festering. Of course there was Heart, and even though he may not have wanted her on a permanent basis, that couldn’t stop the love that had begun to grow inside her.

  All her secret dreams of a happily-ever-after were dashed as soon as she saw Warren Cabot. He seemed pissed, like he planned to teach her a very valuable lesson. He stomped up toward her, staring down his long, autocratic nose at her submissive predicament. A smirk curled the corners of his lips, and he didn’t have to tell her how much he enjoyed her being at his mercy.

  “My errant secretary,” he said mockingly. He held open his arms. “Back in our loving bosom here at Cabot Pharmaceuticals.”

  She didn’t say anything.

  He rolled his eyes. “Even now you defy me? Don’t forget you stole from me, Cherry. You should be groveling for my forgiveness.”

  “You broke the law.”

  “Everyone breaks the law.” He shrugged. “I just happen to do it smarter.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Cherry saw Masterson turn his head to listen to them. She held no hope that she would make it out of the situation alive, but perhaps she could pass along the information she’d obtained.

  “You’re selling pseudoephedrine to the motorcycle club who turn it into meth. I take it this building is the dummy corporation I read about, Complete Waste Services? You write off the drug as waste to hide it from the FDA, right?”

  “Your point?”

  “Do you deny it?”

  He pointed a finger in her face. “There will always be people who manufacturer drugs because the demand is exponential and I am merely the provider of a need.”

  “You haven’t denied it.”

  “I don’t need to deny anything,” he said with a smirk on his face. “People like me will always prevail over people like you. Hell, our own government is full of self-serving men who will do anything to assume power. It’s not about the will of the ordinary citizens. It’s all about how much money one can attain, and I’m in the position of getting a lot. Now where’s this evidence?”

  Masterson stepped forward and held out a flash drive. Warren took it and looked at it for a moment before squatting down. On the concrete floor, he placed the small device and then pulled from his coat pocket a small container of lighter fluid and a book of matches. He squirted a generous amount of the flammable liquid and then ignited it. Cherry watched dispassionately as her only bargaining chip burned, along with any hope of bringing Warren Cabot to justice.

  “And with that all your heroics equal nothing,” Warren taunted. He brushed his hands together as if making them clean. “What did you think you would accomplish by all of this?”

  “I was hoping to end drugs falling into the hands of kids.”

  “Oh, come on, you can’t be that naïve to believe that getting rid of me would stop people from doing what their natural proclivities crave. Humans are animals and the alpha always want the most delicious meal available.”

  “So you cut off the head of one snake, a thousand more are behind it?”

  He shrugged. “I wouldn’t personally use that analogy.”

  “If the shoe fits,” she murmured.

  “And to think I thought you were a docile little nobody,” he said with a chuckle. “This is the most I’ve ever interacted with you, and you know what? You have balls of steel! What a discovery! Now I’m almost sad to know you are going to die this evening.”

  Cherry’s stomach clenched. “Someday you’re going to be caught, and when that day comes, I want you to remember me spitting on your soul.”

  With that she spat as much saliva at his feet that she could muster and it landed on the tip of his shoe. Disgusted, he gave his foot a little fling to try to get it off before leaning down until his nose almost touched hers. “Spit at me all you want. Just remember the drug trade is worth about three hundred billion dollars, far more than a mere owner of a company makes here in the backwoods of Missouri. Why shouldn’t I have a piece of that pie?”

  “It’s against the law.”

  “So is data theft.” He tapped the tip of her nose with his finger. “But you won’t have to worry your pretty little head about my business anymore.”

  He stepped back. Tears rushed into her eyes as her breaths came in short blasts. All she hoped was that it was fast and she wouldn’t feel anything.

  “Masterson,” he called out. The big man walked over and stopped next to him. Warren smiled at her. “If it’s any consolation, you were an excellent secretary. Perhaps too good.”

  “Assistant,” she mumbled. “I was your assistant.”

  “Oh, right. Gotta be politically correct, eh?” He turned to look at Masterson. “Kill her.”

  Masterson pulled out his gun from a shoulder holster and aimed the
barrel at her forehead. She could no longer stem the tears, and they flowed down her cheeks like rivers as she forced herself to stare at the gun. If it was the last thing she did, she would hold onto the slim measure of bravery she still retained to see her death coming. Church and Heart swam through her mind, and she hoped they wouldn’t feel too guilty over her death. God knew she’d caused them enough suffering. Still, she couldn’t even summon an ounce of regret for the actions she took by taking the data.

  Seconds ticked by, and then suddenly, Masterson turned the gun away from her and shot Warren Cabot in the forehead. A stunned look flashed upon his face just before he fell back. Shocked, Cherry looked from Warren’s lifeless body to Masterson. Instead of finishing her off, however, he slipped the gun back into its holster. Then he pulled out a knife, flipped it open, and cut the ties on her wrists.

  “I-I don’t understand.”

  “I don’t know who he thought I was,” Masterson said darkly, “but I was hired to protect the company, not the greedy pockets of an embezzler. Besides, I don’t kill women, especially innocent women.”

  She stood up, keeping her distance because she was still leery that he wouldn’t kill her. After all, she’d just seen him shoot Warren Cabot in the head so technically, she was liability. “Now what?”

  “Don’t look at him,” Master replied with a nod toward Warren’s dead body. She locked her gaze on him. “You have two options. One, you can keep quiet about what happened here and live a long life. Or two—”

  “I’ll take option one!”

  She didn’t even have to wait for him to spill out the second option because she knew what that was. He flashed her a mocking smile.

  “That’s what I figured. I take it you can keep quiet about what happened here?”

  “You don’t have to worry about me.”

  “Are you sure?” he probed. “After all, you did take data from him in hopes of bringing him down.”

  “It wasn’t a well-thought-out plan,” she whispered. She rubbed her arms as a chill settled into her body. “By the way, he’s left handed.”

  He cocked his head to one side. “What?”

  “He’s left handed,” she said again. “In case you were thinking of making it look like a suicide.”

  A grin lifted one corner of his mouth. “How very ingenuous of you, as well as a little surprising. However, a glabella shot without gunpowder burns around the hole would pretty much rule out a suicide.”

  “Oh,” she said. She’d forgotten about forensics. “Right.”

  Masterson walked around the perimeters of the room. “What is this place?”

  “It’s a waste management shed,” she said. “The EPA has specific guidelines and Cabot Pharmaceuticals usually waits until—”

  “So I take it those vats have chemicals?”

  She nodded.

  “He told me to bring you here, you know,” he murmured. “I think that leaves little doubt to his intentions. You were never going to leave this place, at least not alive and definitely not whole.”

  He bent down beside Warren’s body and rummaged through the man’s pockets until he pulled out a key fob. He held it out to her. With a slightly shaking hand, she took it from him, trying very hard not to look at Warren’s lifeless face.

  “This is what we’re going to do,” Masterson said. “You will drive Cabot’s car out of here so they’ll have surveillance footage of him leaving. The tinted windows will conceal who’s driving. Find some place to make it disappear.”

  She already knew where she would take it.

  “Then what?” she asked.

  “Then I’m going to make sure everyone knows about what Cabot has done, along with the fact he must have skipped out of town.”

  “But he said there’s no evidence.”

  “I may not be able to link his ties to the meth trade, but there are invoices on the other side of the transactions that will show the discrepancy. The DEA will investigate, and when Warren Cabot doesn’t show up anywhere, they’ll assume he fled the country. So in a way, you succeeded, Cherry. You’ll help shed light on Warren’s duplicitous dealings and end a source in the war on drugs.”

  She didn’t ask him anything else because she didn’t need to know anything more. She was sure she’d find out about it through the news. Cherry placed her hand upon his arm. “Thank you.”

  “Go on,” he said, nodding toward the exit. “Leave Cabot Pharmaceuticals behind.”

  “What if the FBI wants to talk to me?”

  “Then think long and hard over what you want to say. But know this. I won’t go to prison over killing this piece of shit, so if that’s your intention—”

  “No!” Cherry said, interrupting him. “You saved my life. I won’t repay that debt by betraying you.”

  “Then you and I have a pact.” He held out his hand.

  Without hesitation, she took it and shook firmly. Then Cherry ran out of the building and didn’t look back.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “By hacking into the DMV I found the make and model of Warren Cabot’s vehicle,” Mac said as soon as Heart opened the door to the man’s computer network array. Numerous screens lined one wall, with thick cables running from them to various computer houses lined throughout the room. It looked a bit sci-fi and a bit high-tech, and the man himself, Mac, looked like the stereotypical nerd with skinny limbs and glasses.

  Church was next, followed by Kix as they all stepped into the complex labyrinth of equipment and shut the door. Heart stuck his hands into his jeans’ pockets to keep them warm and he noticed Church haunch her shoulders as if trying to preserve body heat. Since she had no fat on her body he suspected she’d get hypothermia long before he did. Why Kix didn’t warn them was beyond his comprehension. Mac rolled his chair from desk to desk, clicking keyboards and staring at the televisions which had various data scrolling across them.

  “Know what’s great about Cadillacs?”

  Kix, Church, and Heart all glanced at each other questioningly, shrugging their confusion.

  “Hooker headroom?”

  “Their resale value from chop-shops parts?”

  “Playin’ slip and slide on the leather interior?”

  Mac glared at them over the rim of his glasses. “They’re equipped with OnStar, which as you know, has GPS.”

  “And where there’s Cabot’s car, there’ll be Cabot,” Heart concluded.

  “And Cherry,” Church whispered.

  Mac snapped his fingers. “Bingo. For a moment there, I was questioning your cognitive skills.”

  “You make us sound like uneducated hicks,” Kix replied darkly.

  “You said it, I didn’t.” Mac scooted across the small space to another smaller laptop at the end of the table. “OnStar is a subsidiary of General Motors and they partnered with Verizon a few years ago to bring the Internet into their expensive rides, so that makes my job extremely easy.”

  “Where is she?” Heart demanded.

  “Hold your horses, Kemosabe,” Mac snapped. “I said easier, not instantaneous. You’re warming up my vibes.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Mac made a shooing motion with his hand. “Step back. There’s way too many people here. I need space to work.”

  Heart glared at him for a moment before he leaned closer to Kix. “Does he ever go outside?”

  “I think he melts if sunlight touches him,” Kix whispered.

  “I’m like three feet away from all y’all and my hearing is excellent,” Mac retorted. “Now, according to the grid, Cabot is heading east on Interstate Forty-four.”

  “Away from Joplin?” Heart demanded, trying to look over Mac’s shoulder. “So he left Cabot Pharmaceuticals and is heading where?”

  “How would I know that?” Mac asked, sounding exasperated. “I’m not a mind reader. The dash camera is turned off so I can’t show you who’s driving or what’s going on.”

  Kix pointed at the laptop. “Can you erase the OnStar data?”

 
“Yeah,” Mac said with a shrug. “Easy.”

  Urgency gripped Heart. “I’m going after him. Can you send me the coordinates to my cell?”

  Mac nodded. “Of course.”

  As Heart turned away, Church gripped his arm.

  “Please,” she said. “Bring her home in one piece.”

  “Will do,” he vowed.

  ****

  Cherry drove the speed limit even though she wanted to floor the gas pedal and get to The Forgotten Rebels compound quickly. Anxiety was her co-pilot, hitting her from all angles. A mess lay scattered behind her, and all she could do was hope Masterson would uphold his end of the deal, although she didn’t have a choice but to trust him. Yet ahead of her was much the same since she didn’t know what type of reception Heart would give her. Anger? Indifference? Would he forgive her for running away with the intention of turning in the only evidence that could, potentially, destroy his world?

  As she segued from the interstate onto Highway Sixty, the bleak landscape mirrored her inner turmoil. She harbored no hope of a happily-ever-after, and the only reason why she was going back was to assure Heart, as well as The White Death MC, that they could relax. Everything that pointed fingers toward them had vanished with the ignition of lighter fluid.

  Weariness caught up with her about half an hour out of Stevens, and a huge yawn made her eyes water. Sleeping on a concrete floor hadn’t been exactly restful and the adrenaline that had surged through her blood earlier had long ago burned out and left her struggling to keep her eyes open. So it came as a complete surprise when a motorcycle suddenly pulled up alongside. She jumped slightly since she hadn’t really heard the thing, which was amazing since the damn bike made the air vibrate. Cherry recognized Heart and she waved, but the darkly tinted windows blocked his recognition. Just as she was about to roll the window down, Heart pulled a handgun out of his shoulder holster and motioned for her to pull over. For a second, she thought about stepping on the gas and trying to outrun him, but a sliver of common sense prevailed. The Caddy was fast, but Heart’s determined face told her he would continue to hunt her down.