Ride with the Wind [The Ghost Riders 1] (19 page)

“Let’s go find Raven.” Reece had a cautious expression on his face. He was fighting to remain in control.

Dominic bit back a curse at how his buddy was attempting to cover up his feelings. Maybe hiding their feelings about her wasn’t a good idea. Maybe they needed to take a chance and tell her how they felt. The worst she could do was tell them no and leave. She was going to leave anyway.

He grabbed Reece by the shoulder. “Wait up, man.”

Reece turned and looked at him with a puzzled expression. “What?”

“I think we need to open up to Raven and tell her how we feel.”

“Are you crazy? She’ll walk all over us if we do that.”

“I don’t think so. Even if she doesn’t feel the same way, I can’t see her deliberately hurting us. I think she feels something for us.”

“I don’t know, Dom. She has money and a good career as a writer going for her. She can live anywhere in the world and do what she does.”

“Exactly. She can live here with us.” Dom didn’t want to give up the dream that she would want to make a life with them.

“I don’t know.” Reece was shaking his head.

“Just think about it. We don’t have to say anything right away. She plans to stay at least until she has the book finished. We have a few days.”

Reece stared at him. Finally, he nodded and turned toward the kitchen. He followed his friend through the kitchen toward the bedrooms. When Reece opened his bedroom and found it empty, Dom crossed to his bedroom and opened the door. She wasn’t there either.

“I didn’t see her in the den, did you?”

Reece walked over to the bathroom and slammed the door back against the wall when he opened it.

“Where the hell is she?”

Reece walked into the office with Dominic right behind him. No one was in there either. He walked outside and turned toward the garage area. All three of the open bays were full. The fourth bay was kept closed for painting purposes. He stopped at the first bay and asked if anyone had seen Raven. The two men shook their heads no. He walked to the next bay and asked the man working on a Honda the same question.

“Yeah. She walked outside and sat in the chairs by the office while I was filling out some paperwork on a job. I asked if she should be outside. She said she wasn’t going anywhere. She just wanted some air.”

“Fuck. Did you see her go back in?” Dominic frowned.

“No. I came back over here and got back to work. I’m sorry. I didn’t notice when she went back inside.”

Reece stormed out of the bay and headed back toward the office with Dominic right behind him. He found where she’d dragged the chair to the side of the building. Then he cursed. There was a set of boot prints right behind the chair that led off to the left.

“Looks like someone snuck up on her.” Dominic squatted next to the prints and looked at them. “Cowboy boots, not biker boots.”

“Let’s follow them and see where they lead.” Reece felt the tiny spot of worry in his stomach grow into fear for her.

They followed the two sets of footprints for nearly thirty minutes before they dead-ended into a set of tire tracks.

“There’s another set of boot prints here, and the truck is heading toward the northwest.” Dominic walked a little ways with the tracks before returning to where Reece stood waiting.

“I don’t think it’s either of the gangs. I think it’s whoever Michael has looking for her. Somehow they found her with us.”

Dominic’s cell phone rang. He grabbed it off his belt and answered it.

Reece was only half listening until he heard Raven’s name. Then he waited impatiently as Dominic finished the call and pressed
off
before saying anything.

“What?”

“That was Chaz. He just found out what was going on in his house. It was someone from outside of the gang feeding lies about him and Raven to his wife. They had connections to Michael and his group. She believed them and blew up. He said that while she was gone, she met with a woman who showed her pictures of them together. They had obviously been Photoshopped according to her. She realized that she had been duped, but not before telling them where Raven was.”

“Fuck! How are we going to find her? Michael is in jail and won’t be going after her. Whoever has her will kill her when they realize they’re stuck with her.”

Dominic turned and started walking back toward the house. Reece followed.

“She’s strong. She’ll survive. We just have to figure out where she is.”

“How in the hell are we going to do that?”

Reece pushed past Dominic as soon as they reached the house. He hurried into the office and called for Turk as soon as he was inside the house area. Turk came running out of the back of the house frowning.

“What’s up?”

“Raven is missing. We need to know where she is. Is there any way to find out from Michael where they would have taken her?”

“Reece, the feds aren’t going to let him talk to anyone.”

“Then how are we going to find out where she is?”

“Hell, even if we could talk to him, he isn’t going to admit to having her kidnapped and tell how to find her.”

Turk spoke up. “They’ll put him in jail in Dallas until his arraignment. We need someone on the inside who can direct the questions to him in a manner he won’t be able to say no to.”

“Do we have anyone inside who could help us?” Reece asked.

“I’ll check and see. Give me a few minutes.” Turk hurried away.

“Time is running out, Dominic. The longer they have her, the less chance she has.”

“I know that, Reece. I don’t know what the hell we can do until we have a direction to go in.”

Reece closed his eyes and nodded. “Sorry. I know. I’m just worried.”

“Yeah, me, too. Turk will come up with someone who can help us.”

They both grabbed a beer from the bar and leaned back against it, waiting for Turk to return. Hopefully he would have good news.

After nearly an hour, the other man walked into the den and located them. Reece tossed his bottle in the garbage behind the bar and stood up straight.

“Okay, I found someone inside who can help us. The problem is he’s one of Tussler’s guys. You’re going to have to talk to him to get the man to do anything.”

Reece cursed and ran a hand through his hair. He looked over at Dominic. His friend didn’t look much happier with the news. They didn’t have a choice though. They needed the information. Evidently Dominic came to the same conclusion. He nodded at Reece.

“Let’s go.”

Reece followed Dom out to the bikes. Irish rushed out behind them. Reece nodded. It wouldn’t hurt to have the other man with them. They hoped to have the information they needed before they left Tussler’s place.

This time when they rode up to the other gang’s place, the three men stopped at the gate to talk to the guard.

“We need to talk to Tussler.” Dominic didn’t bother getting off the bike.

“What about?”

“His business, not yours.”

The guard shrugged and stared at them without moving. Reece climbed off his bike and walked over to the man. Evidently something on his face registered with the other man, because he grabbed his phone and called someone. Reece just stood there staring at him.

“Tussler said you can come down there. Just the two of you though.”

Reece nodded and climbed back on his bike. The guard opened the gate for them to ride through. Irish would stay back and wait on them. He would go get the rest of the gang if anything happened or they didn’t come back anytime soon.

They stopped outside the house and climbed off the bikes. Immediately there were five guys surrounding them. He and Dominic kept their hands out to their sides. It wouldn’t help matters if they got themselves killed. A few seconds later, Ray walked outside and stared at them.

“What do you want with Tussler?”

“We want to talk to him about someone he has in jail in Dallas right now.” Reece spoke up.

“About what?”

“It’s not for just anyone to hear.”

Ray seemed to think about it for a few seconds before nodding and stepping back toward the door.

“Fine. You can come in. Keep your hands where I can see them.”

Reece led the way inside. Then they followed Ray through a hall to a room in the back of the house that was attached to the kitchen. Tussler stood up from where he had been sitting on the couch. His bandaged nose and blackened eyes reminded them that they were walking a tight line with him. The two men exchanged looks.

“They insist that they need to talk to you without other ears around.”

Tussler looked at them for a few seconds then nodded toward the chairs for them to sit down.

“What do you want?”

Dominic took the lead. “You have a man in the Dallas jail who could do us a favor. We’re hoping you will get him to help us.”

Tussler laughed. “Why in the hell would we help you?”

Dominic stared at him. “Because you know that your sister is going to be living with us before long and because you need more eyes on The Skulls right now.”

“I have my own eyes on them.” The other man ignored the part about his sister.

“Yeah, but they’re expecting you to be observing them. They would have heard by now that we’re not interested in violence and didn’t join you. We can watch and let you know what we see going on.”

“My sister isn’t going to come back with those two bastards. She knows who has her best interests at heart.”

“I wouldn’t count on that. Love has a way of screwing up things.”

For the first time, Tussler looked a little worried.

“What is it you want my man to do?”

Dominic filled him in on Raven’s kidnapping and Michael’s incarceration at the Dallas jail.

“It’s got to happen now. They’ll be transferring him as soon as they can.”

Reece watched the other man’s expression as he thought it over. There was a calculating look in his eyes. He didn’t like that look one bit.

“Okay. Give me a minute to contact him.” Tussler and Ray got up and walked out of the room.

“He’s got something else on his mind, Dominic.”

“I could tell. We’ll worry about that when the time comes. Right now we have to concentrate on getting Raven back.”

They waited for another thirty minutes for the two men to return. Reece thought about how much he loved Raven while they waited. He realized that he had nothing to lose by telling her that he loved her and everything to gain. If they got her back alive, he promised he would confess his feelings to her.

His heart stuttered at the thought that it might already be too late for her. If the men who had her had gotten word that Michael was in jail, they might already have killed her. He couldn’t stand the thought of that.

Looking over at Dominic, he saw the same worry on the other man’s face. They had to be in time. He refused to even consider the idea of losing her when they had just found her.

A noise down the hall alerted him that Tussler and Ray were on their way back. He nodded at the two men as they walked up.

“Okay. My man is going to get your information. I’ll call you as soon as I have it.” Tussler grinned at them.

“How long?” Dominic asked through gritted teeth.

“Shouldn’t be more than an hour or two.”

“We’ll wait. I don’t want to take a chance that there’s a break in communication. Time is very important in this.”

Reece was glad Dominic wasn’t going to trust them to call them right away. If he knew Tussler, the other man would delay the phone call as long as he could.

“I’m going to call my man and tell him we’re going to be here a while.” Reece indicated that he was going to grab his cell phone off his belt.

Ray nodded and watched him as he did. Then he called Irish and told the other man what was going on. He carefully returned the phone to his belt after finishing the call. Now all they could do was wait.

After the first hour passed, Reece felt as if his nerves were already shot. Then the second hour passed with no phone call. He began to worry that they weren’t going to get what they needed. He could see the same thoughts in Dominic’s eyes.

The sound of a cell phone ringing drew acid into his mouth as he waited for Tussler to answer it. The biker stood up and walked out of the room as he put the phone to his ear. A few minutes later he walked back in with a grin on his face.

“That Michael dude wasn’t very hard to get information out of. Seems he’s a bit of a pussy.”

“What did he say?” Dominic asked with a growl.

Tussler relayed the information to them. Even as he finished, they were headed for the door. No one gave them any trouble as they were leaving. When they made it to the gate, Irish was already on his bike with the engine revved up. He pulled in behind them as they headed for the cabin using the directions Tussler had relayed to them.

Reece prayed they would be in time. No matter what happened, he was going to tell her he loved her if she was still alive. Dominic led them around gravel roads and dusty trails until finally he pulled off a dirt road and stopped.

“I don’t want them to hear us coming. We’re on foot from here on out. There are two of them, Irish. When we get sight of the building, we’re going to split up. Check out the windows and doors to determine the best way to get in.” Dominic led the way through the thick scrub.

Reece made his way around the back of the cabin and checked the windows. They were all covered in newspaper and nailed shut. There was no back door. If they didn’t take them by surprise and get the two men together, it could mean a death sentence for Raven.

“What do you think?” Dom asked them.

Irish shook his head. “Somehow we need to get them separated so that one doesn’t get to Raven and use her as a hostage.”

“Any ideas?” Dominic looked at both of them.

“Only one way in and out. We’re just going to have to bust in and surprise them.” Reece saw no other alternative.

“Reece, you look for Raven. Irish, we’re going to cover Reece and keep whoever is inside away from them.”

“Got it.”

They sneaked up on either side of the door under the windows. Then Dominic and Reece kicked in the door. It fell half off its hinges from the blow. The building wasn’t in that great of shape. The first thing Reece saw was a closed door across the room and one man standing up from the chair he’d been sitting in. By the surprised expression on his face, he had probably been napping. There was no sign of another man. Reece hurried to the other door. It slammed back against the wall when he opened it.