Rain Falls (13 page)

The worst part was, all of them knew if their women found out, there was gonna be serious hell to pay. Slider and Cajun especially knew it, and they had already voiced their concern, but serious as shit, none of them wanted their nuts cut off. But to the men, the good outweighed the thought of sleeping on the couch as long as their women were sleeping safe and sound in the bed.

“You think you’re cute? What the fuck, Fork?” Shady kicked the metal chair that was in their line of path, sending it skirting across the concrete floor.

“Don’t, Shady,” his warning didn’t go unheeded, but from the lethal vibes Shady and Abi were casting out from the front of their mob, it went unacknowledged.

“Don’t?” Abi took a step forward, one thumb tucked in the front pocket of her jeans, the other opening and closing into a fist. “You gotta be fucking kidding us. You men tell us to get the guns packed, and make sure all of our bikes are in working order, because that is what you are all doing to get ready for the road trip and we find out you all called Church? Really?”

Fork sighed loudly and then went to speak when Harmony spoke up.

“Be very careful with the next words outta your mouth, honey, remember, I know how to torture a man, and I am not above doing it to you.”

Fork rolled his eyes, he knew his woman was pissed but she wouldn’t actually hurt him. Then he looked into her eyes and stopped, shit, maybe she would.

“Okay,” Fork said and held up his hands. He had only come out to grab a fuckin’ page they printed and was waiting for Maxi to get back from his errand. The women had then stormed into the main room, shoved him into a chair, and began yelling. “We are meeting to finalize the plan.” Ya, that was vague enough.

“What plan?” Shady barked loudly and then leaned over and got right into his face. “OUR plan is set. Come on, ladies, let’s go and see exactly what plan they are talking about.”

The women strutted down the hallway to the men’s meeting room, one of the Prospects was standing outside, but Shady only put her hand to his chest and pushed him out of the way when he stepped forward to stop them.

With two hands, she pushed open the doors loudly so they slammed against the wall. Yep, they were all there, well all the ones who were going with them on the road trip, which was mostly all of the men who had women going. The rest of the men were going to be provided by Freebyrd. It explained why they didn’t realize at first what was going on, because they had the rest of the club running around doing shit, distracting them, helping them while they were holed up in here once again planning something they had no right to plan. Rain eased to the side and saw Charro and Knight and she was fucking livid. How could they?

Creed stood and held up a hand. “Before you blow let us speak.”

Shady laughed loudly. “You got about five minutes before we serve your nuts to you on a platter.”

Creed sighed and looked around the table. “Fine, here it is. We get that you feel the need to do this, but you are our women. We protect what is ours, always. It may not seem fair—it may seem fucked up, but if anything happened to any of you we would have to live with that.”

“Just like we would have to live with something happening to you when you go out on a run or some other shit,” Harmony snapped back. “And yeah, we worry, and yeah, we get that we need to let you do your thing because that is who you are.”

Creed looked at the ceiling and Easy said, “Free, you know what we mean. This is dangerous, and you know as well as I do, that we can’t let you take point.”

“Are you fucking high?” Freedom yelled. “We were there in Mexico, we have been in situations like this for months. It is not pretty, it is ugly, but dammit, we know exactly what we are getting into by doing this. You thinking you can just make plans without talking to us is fucked up. Point, none of us actually said we cared if you took point, the only thing we cared about was being fucking involved and informed of what the hell was going on. Instead of talking to us in a calm manner, you Neanderthals do this shit behind our back. Not fucking cool.”

Tonto opened his mouth and Rose shook her head. “Think before you speak, because you know we are right. You all agreed to treat us as a Chapter of the clubs. You are not, you are patting our heads and humoring us, probably thinking that we all can plan the parties and maybe have high tea or something like that, but serious as fuck, that is not gonna happen. We have all proven ourselves, time and time again. We can handle this, we know the risks, and we also know how to protect ourselves. But most importantly, until this very moment, we knew when we went into this shit we thought we had you at our backs and we don’t.”

“Not true and you know it,” Raven yelled and Heaven stepped up.

“Bullshit, you want to stand in front of us, not back us up,” she snarled.

“What is wrong with that?” Poke said calmly. “I can say I would rather take a bullet than Freedom. She almost died already.”

“And what would happen to me if you died?” Freedom said. “We all know this shit isn’t safe, but we also know it is something we will have to deal with. Maybe next time a bunny will be held hostage and we have to steal some carrots to save it. But right now that isn’t what we are dealing with, and we are going to be safe, hell, the body armor alone we agreed to wear should put your mind at ease.”

“This is not what I am talking about and you know it,” Poke said.

“No, what you are talking about is going behind our backs and making a plan without us involved in order to be in control. All we asked is to be treated as equals and respected. You are not doing that, we could argue all day on men versus women shit and get nowhere. None of us want to get hurt, none of us want to see anyone else get hurt, but we are talking about scum of the earth who if we don’t deal with, they will come after us. So either we deal as a group or we don’t. I am not sending anyone out if they are not all in on the plan,” Shady said quietly. “You told me you were down with that and then you did this shit. We don’t have to prove a damn thing anymore, you do.”

With that, the ladies turned and left the room.

Rick had been standing at the door the entire time, and damned if he wasn’t proud of those girls, especially his daughter. After learning everything his stepdaughter and Rugel was involved in, he had been pissed. Something had to be done and for the one time in his life things weren’t black and white, there were definite shades of gray in this plan.

He wasn’t sure he would be able to, in his mind, do what the guys had talked about. He was black and white, right and wrong, but looking at his baby, and knowing even if he did what was right and turned Zane over to the authorities, the man would still find a way to make her life hell. He knew it; he could feel it, and then what. He could possibly lose his daughter to the scum.

After hearing them talk, and knowing that if this club and these men actually pulled their heads outta their ass and worked with the women, they could do what needed to be done, and he was going to be right there with them because as of fifteen minutes ago he resigned his commission. There was no way he could do what he had to do and still be in the military.

He loved his time in service, and he will retire with honors, nothing will change that. But he needed to move on and think about what he wanted to do in life. He had spoken to a few of the guys while they were working. Apparently, his daughter and her friends were helping and working with the women who had been victims of the trafficking. After briefly seeing what some of their plans were, he was impressed. After thinking most of the night, he thought this was something he would like to be a part of, and he had the connections to pull it off.

Now standing here listening, he also knew that his soldiers had not remembered the most important lesson they needed to learn, teamwork. He hammered it in the soldiers’ heads time and time again, they knew it, they lived it, and they forgot it.

As the women filed past him, he nodded to them. When Rain reached his side, for the first time in ten years, he pulled his daughter to him and kissed her on the forehead. When he pulled back, he looked her right in the eyes and made sure she was listening and said.

“I love you, I am proud of you, and there is nothing in this world more important to me than you.”

He saw the tears instantly and she smiled.

“Badasses don’t cry,” he whispered and kissed her again and pushed her after her friends.

When he saw them clear the hallway, he slipped into the room. The guys were still silent looking at the table. He clapped his hands loudly.

“Okay, boys, that was FUBAR’d to the hilt. Now what are we gonna do to fix this clusterfuck?” Rick said.

Creed cleared his throat and said, “Uh no offense, sir, but you are not a part of the club and this is club business. We’ll deal with it.”

“Son, did you just have a fucking brain fart. You know who you are talking to?” Rick said and then stood straight and looked at him. “I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles, which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America. This is an oath I took, and even though as of twenty minutes ago, I am no longer with the military, I am still a soldier. Now, the way I was told, you have something called Prospects, which means they do a bunch of shit jobs for you until they prove themselves. Now, Creed and Easy, why I show the bullet holes I have from covering your ass, tell me if I haven’t already proved myself. I also will point out I can still kick most of your asses, even you, Easy, and if you need that lesson I will give it to you. So, why don’t we just pass on all that, I go to the dealership, grab me a bike, you give me one of those leather vest things, and we move on.”

Everyone in the room was silent. Tonto finally spoke, “That’s not really the way things work.”

“Really? ‘Cause I can shoot a mosquito off a cow’s ass from a thousand yards, and I also have the contacts to keep the authorities off your back while you take down Rugel and the others. So how do things really work?” Rick asked and pulled a cigar from his inside pocket and stuck it in his mouth and then lit it slowly.

Damn he felt good again, shit, sitting behind a desk for the last few years where they thought he would do the ‘most good’, had been okay. Right now, he felt liberated. It was crazy, the military had been his life, and for once, he was looking beyond it. Wow.

The guys looked at him and Tonto turned to Creed who chuckled, “You aren’t gonna be a General here, Rick.”

He took a pull of his cigar and then smiled. “Don’t wanna be, I seem to remember how to follow orders when I need to. Besides, I am thinking maybe I can be your liaison to the women. You fucked that up, and I like what they are planning, but I don’t wear pantyhose.”

The men all looked at each other and then Creed said, “Give us a few.”

“No worries, I will be in the bar having a drink and finishing my cigar.” Rick shrugged. “Though if you wait too long, I may not have to worry too much. The women looked like they were going to arm up.”