RUNNING GAME (A SECOND CHANCE SPORTS ROMANCE) (102 page)

W
hile the others
began their preparations, Hunter put several men on the task of guarding the prisoner cell where they’d placed Fang. He specifically chose a few club members who were better kept out of the impending gunfire – bikers slower on their feet, or weaker with the weapons.

Grizz, as the Devil’s Dragons second-in-command, volunteered for the task of ensuring full prisoner cooperation.

“I need you by my side,” Hunter reminded him. “The Dragons can keep this fuckers behind bars, but you? Your place is with me tonight.”

The burly biker’s piercing blue eyes met his, and he nodded solemnly. Grizz understood his place, and knew that Hunter could use all the help he could get when it came to assaulting the cartel… Without another word, Grizz accepted the role of overseeing preparations among the seventy bikers as Hunter disappeared into his war room.

Eager to contribute in some way, I brought him a cup of coffee. Glancing up from his maps, he gratefully accepted the steaming mug and turned his attention away from the sprawling notes.

“You can stay here if you want,” Hunter reminded me. “You understand, of course, that I’m not asking you to implicate yourself in cross-border infiltration and cartel warfare…”

“I want to be there,” I told him firmly. “This is your fight, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use this to my own ends. If you take another hostage – especially one further up the chain – then I can probably extract some information on where to find those cheerleaders…”

“You don’t want to be a part of that process,” Hunter grimaced.

“You haven’t let me in on any of this yet! You stole my case files. You’ve kept me as far in the dark as you can. When are you going to let me into your world and start explaining these things? I still don’t know what exactly happened to your sister… how you organized this bikers’ alliance of yours… who this
interrogator
of yours is, or what you’ve been doing for the last eight years to rebuild the Devil’s Dragons… and that’s only what I know about.”

I gave him a meaningful, heartfelt glance. “There are so many mysteries with you, Hunter… I feel like I’m just scratching the surface. When are you going to open up?”

“In due time,” Hunter replied, sensing my frustration. “I know that you want to know everything right now, but we don’t have the time for that… You want to come, fine. Help me through this ordeal tonight, and I promise you that I will keep no secrets. Just give me the time to finish this.”

“You’re going up against the
Víboras Verde
cartel,” I mused aloud to myself. “The Vipers of the Green. You think you have a chance to snuff them out, to destroy their central order and let their outlying operations collapse, wherever they are…”

“That’s right,” he confirmed, glancing down at the maps again as he set his coffee aside. “The hostage gave us some solid intel on their workings. Everything that was finally pulled from him correlates to the understanding I already had…”

“What happens if we get down there and he fed you a thick stack of lies?” I asked, playing Devil’s advocate.

“The information is good,” he promised me. “There’s no doubt about that. The Desert Owl is
very
persuasive…”

“Right,” I nodded, crossing my arms and holding my elbows. That wasn’t convincing me, and Hunter knew it… but I wasn’t willing to keep the topic going.

“You’ll want to get some rest if you can,” Hunter reminded me. “Fit in a couple of hours’ sleep if you can. Our guests are going to do the same. God knows my club needs it.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” I replied softly. “What about you?”

For a second, Hunter looked amenable to the idea. After all, we hadn’t slept in a bed together since reuniting.

But his glance slid over to his tabletop, covered in maps with revised information and new details, and I knew his answer before he parted his lips.

“I have to go over everything a few times,” Hunter replied softly but firmly. He pointed to a nondescript door to the side of the war room and continued, “Go on ahead without me. I’ll be in there in a little while.”

I gave him a quick kiss, my hand lingering on his shoulder for a moment. After a quick squeeze, I slid into the room. It was a small room with a full-sized bed in the corner, some basic wooden furniture, a tall floor lamp, a small bookcase, and a standing closet.

This is his bedroom away from home
, I realized to myself as I shed down to my underwear and slipped beneath the covers of his bed.

With my head against his pillow, I could watch him study the table. He descended back into his work, glancing between maps and pinning papers to the walls.

I knew he wasn’t going to rest.

He
couldn’t
rest.

Although he clearly wanted to climb into this bed with me and enjoy my company just as much as I wanted him to, he couldn’t pull himself away from his work. The safety of his men, and the lives of these last abductee victims, weighed too heavily on his mind.

The binding chains of responsibility weigh heavy,
I thought to myself as I drifted to sleep, gazing sleepily upon my man as he worked hard to protect us all.

When I next opened my eyes, Hunter was nowhere to be found. Grumbling and wiping the sleep from my eyes, I crawled out of bed and threw my clothes back on.

How long has it been?
I thought to myself, throwing my boots back on and walking out into the hallway. There was a bustle of activity as bikers from every present club flooded towards the front, snatching up gear.

As I stepped into the front den and finally encountered windows again, I realized that the sun was already setting outside.

Well… that answers how long I’ve been out,
I thought to myself numbly.

I needed to find Hunter, and fast.

While scanning the crowd for him, I noticed that over half of the collected bikers weren’t in bulletproof vests… There must have not been enough time to secure more protection for the assembled forces.

A feeling of foreboding came over me.

Hunter knew better than to lead these forces into the fight unprepared. So far, we had been lucky to survive no casualties and only a few wounds. We might not be so lucky in the future…

Was
one more day
enough time to prepare for a grander, larger scale of attack? After all, we were trespassing across the border… heading into the enemy’s territory and striking them on their own turf. We would be bringing the fight directly to them…

I shook my head.

Have more faith in him,
I reprimanded myself. After all, this wasn’t the first time he’d done this. He’d been a part of the Dragons when they’d descended a lot further than this into Mexico, striking at the cartel to free his sister before…

This time, he had the advantage.

Hunter had assembled a considerable force here. While they brought their own weaponry, there was still extra to go around.

We also had the luxury of a nearby target. We would be heading less than a dozen miles outside of Juarez. We could be there in an hour if we caught the right trail.

More men.

More guns.

More time.

Hunter had spent countless hours pouring over this plan, uniting the necessary manpower to his cause, and studying the revised trivia he now knew from the survivor of the cartel border brawl.

My man’s got this in the bag.

I finally spotted Hunter off in a dark corner speaking to Grizz. The two were in some kind of hot debate, and I hesitated to interfere.

Before I could turn and find something else to do, Hunter spotted me. With a sly grin, he gestured for me to join them. As I reluctantly approached, Grizz whispered something in his ear before disappearing into the crowd.

“What was
that
all about?” I asked Hunter after coming into earshot.

The Devil’s Dragons president glanced over in the direction that his second-in-command had chosen, and shook his head.

“He’s just worried. He thinks that I should stay behind on this one.”

“Why’s that?” I replied, crossing my arms.

“He caught me awake,” Hunter replied simply. “Everyone else got some shut-eye, even the Dragons on our operation last night. Grizz got restless and he spotted me bent over those maps…”

“He thinks you’re going to be too tired?”

Hunter ran his hand through his hair. “Grizz is careful. He’s methodical.”

My expression soured. “Grizz has a point.”

“I know,” Hunter replied. “But tired or not, I
have
to ride…”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Look at us,” he indicated to the bikers as they wrapped up their work, suiting up for the coming fight. “Everyone is prepared to follow me into the fight. If I stayed behind, it would send the wrong message. There’s no turning back now… Can you feel it in the air?” He pointed upwards.

I shook my head. “Tension?”

“
Anticipation
,” Hunter corrected. “These men are hungry for a piece of the action. It’s not just about the money, either.
Everybody
wants to be the hero sometimes…”

I glanced over the dissipating crowd as it swept outside, snatching up weapons and patting each other on the backs on their way out.

They seemed… oddly jovial.

“You’ve noticed,” Hunter read the expression on my face. “You’ve seen how ready for this they are… how they almost don’t take it seriously.”

“Why is that?” I asked, turning my head to face him. “Why aren’t any of them
scared?
They could lose their lives. We could be riding into something a lot more dangerous than they think…”

“It isn’t often that the Outlaws are seriously put to the test,” Hunter observed.

I only hoped they were ready for the road ahead…

Hunter pulled my thoughts away before I could voice any concern. “We need to get going, Sarah. The men are assembled, the night awaits, and the time has come.”

T
rue to his word
, Hunter led the charge… and he looked
damn
good doing it. The wind whipped at his leathers as the engine roared beneath us, rocking us towards our destiny.

With my arms tightly wrapped around his strong, rugged chest, I glanced over my shoulder and briefly studied our escort squad under the moonlight. Our improvised biker fleet, totaling members from
five
motorcycle clubs, was right behind us and kicking up an impressive storm of dust.

The dark cacophony of the rolling engines formed a symphony of bitter vengeance. With Hunter as their conductor, each biker in our merry band had their prospective instrument nearby: a pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, a knife…

I was still stunned that he had successfully mobilized such a force. Minus a traitor, about seventy motorcycles flanked us beneath the stars as we rocketed forward, all of us aligned to the same goals:

Find the girls.

Overthrow the cartel.

Instead of heading towards the farmhouse, we were flying the opposite direction. The collective beam of headlights rolled around us, several bikers unable to resist a couple of burn outs or firing a few weapons into the sky.

Hunter had warned them upfront:

Get your fun out of the way now.

Once we reach the fence, we’re all business.

He’d known that they needed to get a little adrenaline out of their systems first, ramping themselves into the mindset of attacking a nearby sex-trafficking cartel.

After all, he was a good leader.

He knew what his men needed.

Hunter signaled back to the closest bikers, and they began to slow down. The decreased momentum trickled backwards through the biker armada. We were soon flying forwards from them, breaking away as a single motorcycle.

His voice shouted over the roar of the engine. “Hold on, Princess. It’s about to get bumpy…”

When he felt my grip tighten, Hunter leant into the handlebar, pushing us off the main road and onto the dirt trails. The bikers followed suit, matching our change in direction and roaring to keep up.

We left the ground a few times over the bumps in the trail, cutting across the empty desert under the full moon. I could hear the hooting and hollering of some of the others as they did the same, sometimes hitting the acceleration to catch more airtime.

After twenty minutes of this, we cut off from the trail and started driving across open desert. Hunter navigated us across a strip of steady flatlands, avoiding the prickly flora as we rode out into what looked like pure nothingness.

Five minutes later, a small dot appeared on the horizon. It grew in size until I realized that it was a house – much smaller than the one that played host to our gunfight the night before.

It also looked ramshackle and abandoned, barely jutting out into the sky. I imagined that even on a clear day, it would be incredibly easy to miss if you were sticking to the roads and trails.

Hunter double-tapped his brakes, signaling to the others to begin slowing down. We pulled up in a cloud of scattered dust beside the house, and he killed his ignition and hopped off. I could see the border fence nearby as I shielded my face from the coming dust.

As he signaled out with a closed fist to our closest followers, I dismounted as well. I followed him to the torn-apart siding on the other side of the abandoned shack, where he turned on a flashlight.

The shack was ripped to shreds on the inside.
Something
had happened here, decimating the place. I was surprised that it was even still standing, no matter how isolated we were from the rest of the world.

“What are we doing here? Do we need something?” I asked him cautiously, following the beam of light as he scrutinized the interior.

His light beam shot downwards to the floor.

“We’re here for
that
,” he informed me.

That
was a massive hole in the living room floor. It was a tunnel, digging downwards at a slope beneath the house.

“So when you said we were going
under
the border,” I murmured aloud.

“When I first enlisted with the Devil’s Dragons they were still running drugs. It was a huge operation, kept totally under wraps and beneath the noses of the law. Eduardo commissioned some people to excavate this little smuggling tunnel… It runs right under that fence, and straight out the other side.”

“Jesus,” I muttered. “This is how you guys flew down to attack the cartel before?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Since guiding the club away from drug-running, I’ve kept this avenue open just in case I ever needed it. Looks like that decision finally paid off…”

“I’ll say,” I nodded.

We walked back outside and climbed back atop his motorcycle. The bikers were sitting in silence around us, shelving their antics for the rest of our trip.

“Tunnel’s secure!” Hunter shouted. “Everyone, follow me!”

Every engine near us revved in anticipation as his motorcycle flared to life. I covered my ears briefly to keep my hearing intact, and heard a little chuckle from my chauffeur.

Always the charmer, Hunter flashed me a quick grin, and then we were off. We drove straight into the shack and roared down into the tunnel, followed by our fleet of armed bikers.

I clung to him as we shot forward in the dark, our way illuminated only by headlights. The sounds of the other engines rumbled down the tunnel around us, threatening to deafen us.

Hunter didn’t seem even remotely bothered by the ear-piercing sound. I found myself wondering how he managed to hold quiet conversations, given how unwavering he was when it came to deafening engine roars.

It was exhilarating.

It was frightening.

But I felt secure here, my hips straddling Hunter’s engine while we were backed up by a large flock of his Outlaws. His own men were mingled into the crowd, and every one of these bikers had undoubtedly killed men and performed all manners of illegal, illicit activities.

Oh god, if Daddy could see me now he’d lose his fucking shit.
A knowing smile crossed my lips.
Would that be
before
or after
the inevitable heart attack?

After a few minutes of heart-pounding excitement rolling through the wide tunnel, I could finally see the exit.

Hunter double-tapped his brakes again, signaling to the crowd to begin slowing down.

The ground started to slope back up again. When we came up on the other side, it looked like our exit point was disguised as a large and completely empty water tank.

Everyone came to a slow stop as Hunter turned his bike and killed his engine. Although we could only see maybe half of the fleet, the acoustics off the rusted, metal interior of the massive tank meant his voice could travel.

Hunter made good use of that quality. He dismounted his bike, stepping in front to call out to the entire band of men.

“Outlaws and Dragons… this is the last time I address you all. Once we cross outside, we pass straight into enemy territory, and I’ll have to trust all of you to understand how to handle yourselves on cartel turf.

“Tonight, you represent your clubs for the reigning leader of the Outlaws. Show me the best of the
Severed Sixteen
, or the
Winged Scorpions,
or the
Moonlight Riders,
or the
Twin Spears.
Show me, brothers, what it means to you to be a fucking Outlaw!”

The assembled fleet all cheered out, fists and guns in the air. Hunter waited for the sounds to subside before continuing.

“All of you are under my jurisdiction tonight, and my responsibility… and I intend on sending each and every last one of you back to your club presidents with my undying gratitude. There is no dishonor in retreating. I will not speak ill of your clubs, nor will I disbar them from the Outlaws. You have answered my call of your own volition. If you mean to continue riding with me, glory and vengeance await. But if you mean to turn back,
this
is the fucking time to do it.”

“Never!” A biker shouted out, fist pumped into the air. The others met his conviction, shouting at the top of their lungs.

“We are brothers, all of us,” he addressed the clubs, “and tonight…
tonight, we fight together.
Follow my lead. When we arrive at the safe-house, our mission is to rescue every kidnapped girl we find, and put a bullet in the head of every sack of shit cartel member we find. Once we’ve cleared the place, you can fill your saddle bags with as much goddamned cash as you can carry, but make it fast. We want to be in and out before any of their friends arrive. To all who will join me…
let’s show these fuckers how we do shit in Texas. BOYS, LET’S GET SOME!”

The bikers roared into a chorus of cheers, jeers, and vicious taunts as Hunter walked up to me, utilizing the quick distraction.

“We’ll be fine,” he told me, apparently sensing my apprehension. “And I might have a little surprise for you…”

“A surprise?” I shouted, the roar of engines deafening within the confines of the water tank.

“I think we might just find your cheerleaders tonight…”

“What?” His words practically blindsided me. I immediately demanded: “
How?
”

“According to the Desert Owl and the little rat bastard he’s keeping company, the cartel’s been having trouble selling those girls.”

“You’re fucking kidding.”

“Not at all,” he replied calmly. “I guess the national media attention made it hard to pass off their pretty little faces… Nobody wants that kind of potential heat.”

“…Then they might just be
here, tonight
,” I realized with a mixture of hope and disbelief. “That’s one hell of a lucky fucking break, Hunter.”

“Not as lucky as you’d think. My old friends have been getting brash. I’m banking on the hope that they’ve gotten sloppy, too…”

Could it be true? Would we find the missing cheerleaders tonight?
I thought about those implications for a moment as he continued. Maybe my career didn’t have to end. If I showed back up to the lieutenant with those cheerleaders in tow they’d give me the goddamned key to the city!

But… After all I’d done out here… Did I
want
to go back?

This wasn’t the time to be thinking about that… It was time to ride. Hunter stepped over his bike and helped lift me onto the seat behind him. In a deafening roar, we rolled out into the desert. It was about twenty minutes later that we finally met a trail. Hunter swung us south, guiding us along the dirt road until we finally came up on a dilapidated complex in the distance. We stopped for a moment, the anticipation around us buzzing like electricity.

“What the fuck is
that?
” I hissed over the engine. “Is that the place?”

“Welcome to
Víboras Verde
,” he grimly replied. “This is where they’re basing all their ongoing operations… Right in my own fucking back yard.”

“That’s no safe house
I’ve
ever seen, Hunter,” I told him with mounting fear. “
That’s
a fortified goddamn compound… do we have enough men? Can we even
fight
that?”

“Well, Detective… we’re about to fucking find out,” he replied. His body tensed as he hit the accelerator, roaring us forwards.