Rycks, page 7
“So, you’ve already decided I’m guilty.”
“The evidence is pretty damning.”
“I suppose it is,” she said softly. This wasn’t the woman I’d met last night who had decided to take a chance and tell me as much as she knew of what was going on with Kiss of Death. This girl had lost hope. She’d resigned herself to whatever came next and would take it as best she could. It felt like a knife had just plunged into my belly and twisted.
“You gotta give me something, Lyric. Anything.”
“I already gave you everything. I’ve got nothing left to give anyone.” Her statement seemed both literal and metaphorical.
“What rooms were you able to access? Did anyone help you?”
“I already told you. I was alone because we don’t know who’s in the group. Only one person does so he or she can keep an eye on us and report back. I couldn’t get the bathrooms because most of them have tiled walls. I planted three in the walls of the common room. I’ll be happy to show you where.”
“Who gave you the tech?”
“Pretty Boy at Kiss of Death.”
“Where else did you plant them?”
This time she was silent. An annoyed, frustrated look came over her face, but she said nothing. I decided to change tactics.
“You can’t have done all this by yourself. You’re not our rat. You’ve not been here enough over a long enough period of time. Who else is working this?” When she continued staring out the window, I swore, slamming the flat of my hand down on the table. “Dammit, Lyric! You may think you’re safe here, but you’re not! These men are every bit as dangerous and ruthless as the most vicious member of Kiss of Death! They won’t like torturing a woman, but they’ll do it and never regret a second!”
“I’m aware of that,” she said, breaking her silence.
“Then help me help you!”
Finally, she looked at me. “I have no love for anything or anyone at Kiss of Death, Rycks. I gave you every scrap I had. All I wanted…” She swallowed, clearing her throat before continuing. “All I wanted was a way out. When I said I was just trying to survive, I meant it.”
“I get that. You planted the bugs to make it look like you were doing what you were supposed to. You did the same thing last night. Just tell me that, and I’ll have something to go to Thorn with. I can’t promise all will be forgiven, but it might buy your life!”
“Don’t you think I’d tell you that if I thought it would help?” For the first time since I’d gotten that fucking phone call this morning, Lyric was showing some fight to her. She raised her voice as she finally started pushing back. “I’d tell you anything I thought you’d believe! I’d tell you how Rat Man told me he’d give his men free rein with me if I came back empty-handed. I’ll tell you how I’ve watched what they did to women who failed them for years and how I watched them die a slow, horrible death and wanted to avoid it myself. I’d even try my best to play on the things we shared last night, how you were special, and I don’t regret anything about that or our first night together six years ago or how I never regretted giving you my innocence. I’d throw all that in there and sob like a baby if it would help! Neither you or Thorn would buy any of it. True or not. It wouldn’t negate anything you believe I did. You’ve caught a spy in your home. What does it matter why I did it? A spy is a spy!”
“Are you saying you’re guilty?”
“I’m saying that if enough people believe I am, it doesn’t matter what the truth is!” She shut her eyes, an errant tear making a trail from the corner of her eye down her cheek, and I wanted to howl in anguish. The last thing I ever wanted to do was make her cry. Again, my gut was screaming at me so hard, I thought I might vomit. There was no way Lyric was guilty. At least, if she was there was a fucking good reason. But I just couldn’t let go the damning evidence I’d seen. Nothing made sense. It felt like my whole world was spinning out of control, and I had no way to stop it.
“OK. Look at me.” I crouched in front of her. “One last thing. But you have to look me in the eyes. I want your full attention.” She nodded, and I asked the one question I absolutely did not have an answer for. “Why are you insisting on going back to the Kiss of Death compound?”
For a moment, her eyes widened just that little bit. There it was. I didn’t know what it was, but it was something she was desperately trying to hide.
“I -- I just…” She swallowed. “Rycks, I just have to.” This time, she shook her head slightly. Just a little bit. She seemed to be begging me not to go further, but I had to.
“Lyric.” I tried to be gentle, but I’m sure it came out stern.
Then, right before my eyes she seemed to just… deflate. Tears sprang up as if some kind of fountain had been turned on and she just started sobbing. I pulled her with me to the floor and just held her while she cried. This was a woman who’d given me everything she had, including her innocence. Never once had she cried. She hadn’t when Venus had hit her or when the club girl had attacked. In fact, when Venus had started, Lyric had looked like she intended to take everything Venus had to give without a fight. So what the hell was this? More importantly, how did I fucking stop it?
“Talk to me, baby,” I whispered in her ear. “You know it’s safe in here with me.”
She shook her head. “I think it is, but I don’t know for sure. I may have already set things in motion by agreeing to let you come rescue me at Kiss of Death, though I’m hoping they’ll think I was just trying to appease you. Now, if your room is bugged…” She let out a broken sob. “Oh, God!”
“My room’s safe. I’m absolutely sure of it because I have this.” He brought out a small device from his pocket. It was about the size of a standard die. Only instead of pips to mark numbers, there was only one small LED light. “El Diablo gave me this before I left Lake Worth to come here. It’s a jammer. My cell phone works because I have an app that lets my phone read through the signal. Anyone else in here would have any electronics jammed while this thing is on. No one knows about it because El Diablo told me to keep it secret. I have no idea why. I imagine it’s to torment Thorn. For some reason, the man sees everyone in authority as a rival. Not necessarily in a bad way, but a rival nonetheless.”
She looked at the little cube, then back up at me. For the first time there was genuine hope on her lovely face. “Are you certain it works? Against everything?”
“Honey, I can’t even get a radio signal in here unless it’s turned off.”
She took a deep breath, nodding several times as if trying to convince herself this was what she wanted to do. She looked up at me, then cupped her hand to my ear and whispered. “I have to go back because I can’t leave Bella.”
I looked down at her in confusion. Just as softly I asked, “Who’s Bella?”
She shut her eyes, fresh tears spilling down both cheeks. For a moment, I wasn’t sure she’d answer me. Then she looked up at me, meeting my gaze with intent. “My daughter.”
For a long time I sat there, not daring to move. “Your… daughter. Lyric, is she…” She nodded, not daring to say it out loud, but it was painfully obvious. Her gaze clung to mine. “Sweet God, Lyric,” I whispered. “You can’t be lying about this.” When her face crumpled, I quickly added. “I’m just saying I’m not sure I could take it. Not about this.”
“I swear to you on all I hold sacred and dear,” she whispered in a tremulous voice. “She’s five. And she’s my entire world, Rycks. Everything. She’s alone and scared. If I don’t make it back, they will kill her. Eventually.”
“Motherfuck,” I swore, standing, urging her back in the chair. I stalked across the room. I needed to talk to El Diablo more than I needed to breathe. I needed to see if his eyes and ears knew any more than I did. Then I remembered I had my own set of eyes and ears.
Moving to the door, I opened it. Sure enough, Justice stood outside the door, his arms crossed as he stood guard. Funny thing was, he stood with his back against my door. Like he was guarding us from the rest of his club.
“Come inside, Justice.”
The other man did so without hesitation. Again, he snagged a straight-backed chair and planted himself, back against the door.
“You expecting trouble?”
“Always. Can’t let anyone take matters into his own hands. Someone kills you, Mae would probably never speak to me again.”
I couldn’t help it. I grinned at the other man. “She’s got you all wrapped up, doesn’t she?”
“Without a doubt. Tell me.”
“Treat every room in this place as if it’s bugged. I’m betting only church is safe.”
“What about here?” Justice raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t worry about that, brother. Leave it at that.”
Justice shrugged. “What do you need?”
“As discreetly as you possibly can, without talking to anyone who could possibly have ties to Kiss of Death, I need to know if there is a child there and what her status is.”
Justice immediately stiffened. He glanced at Lyric’s stricken face and nodded once. “I can tell you that right now. There is, and word is she’s not to be harmed unless Lyric sends someone to rescue the girl, or we start digging.”
I blinked. “When the fuck did you get that?”
Justice just shrugged. “When I realized there was a possibility the video footage had been altered. I wondered why they’d go to that much trouble. Didn’t seem like gettin’ us to kill your woman here was worth all that trouble. So I asked a couple questions. This came up, along with a bunch of shit that didn’t matter.”
“Any idea why?”
“Oh, yeah. I have a very good idea. But if there is even a possibility you’re bugged, we need to go to church. Besides, I think Thorn needs to hear this as well.”
I held out my hand to Lyric. “Come on, honey. I’m gonna fix this. I swear it.”
“Please, Rycks. You have to be careful. She has a hiding place, but it won’t take long for them to find her if they decide her time’s up.”
“I will. Let’s go.”
Chapter Seven
Rycks
Thorn listened to me in silence as I explained what I’d learned from Lyric. I could tell he wanted to interrupt but, thankfully, just listened intently.
“You confirmed this?” Thorn looked at Justice. The other man nodded.
“Confirmed the kid. Can’t confirm who she belongs to. Not without digging, and I’m not sure I’m willing to risk it.”
Thorn seemed to mull this over. I wanted to punch his fucking face in. Finally, he said, “The fact that there’s a kid in danger is really all we need to know for now. We can sort it all out once we have her safely with us.”
“Took you long enough to decide,” I grumbled. “If Bane is the kind of club that has to think over whether or not to rescue a child, I’m not sure Reign needs any of you.”
“Watch your fuckin’ tone,” Thorn snapped. “You’re lucky I don’t just off the both of you and say to hell with it.” He glared daggers at me. I’m sure the look was returned. “There’s no question we’re going after the girl. I’m just trying to decide whether or not she’s lying.” He pointed at Lyric. “Could be her kid, sure. But who says it’s yours? Hell, maybe it’s a girl she took in to protect.”
“Does it matter?” I might yet beat him to a pulp before this was over. I understood his caution, but, in my position, I didn’t appreciate it. “If she’s protecting the girl, if things were as bad as I believe them to be for her, maybe she feels like the kid’s mother. We’ll never know until we get the kid, now will we?”
“I’ve had just about enough of you, Rycks,” Thorn said, standing and pacing across the room. “This isn’t your fault, and I don’t hold you responsible for the situation, but I will not stand the disrespect in my own fuckin’ club.”
I should have apologized. Or at least backed down. But I couldn’t. I felt like my heart was racing out of my chest. Thorn still had doubts about this kid, and I could even see his point. But I knew in my heart that every word Lyric told me was the truth. She had a daughter. That daughter was my daughter. She was currently in a world of danger. That’s really all I needed to know.
“You don’t want to do this, Thorn, I’m more than happy to call in Black Reign. We’ll put these guy down like the fuckin’ rabid dogs they are.”
Thorn slammed his fist down on the table. “Shut the fuck up or get the fuck out, Rycks! And if Black Reign comes into this fuckin’ city to execute a raid on anything, Salvation’s Bane will not let it go quietly.”
“All right, that’s enough,” Vicious said softly. “We all need to take another step back. Thorn, Rycks is worried about a girl who could possibly be his child. You can’t fault him for wanting all hands on deck.” He turned to me. “And you are way out of line.”
Justice sidled up to me. “I have a close tie to the bastard, but even if I didn’t, I have to agree with him. We need to move quickly.”
“Fuck,” Thorn spat. “I never said we weren’t, but this ain’t a fuckin’ democracy!” He scrubbed a hand over his face. Other than Justice and me, only officers in the club were present for this meeting. Thorn wasn’t taking any chances and I was grateful for it. The man was taking the threat of an infiltration into his club seriously. I wasn’t telling him that because he was still a prick. “We do things my way. If I thought for one second you’d actually do what El Diablo said, I’d call the man and have him give you a direct order to take your woman and return to Lake Worth until we got this done.”
“He wouldn’t issue the order so I wouldn’t have to disobey.” No sense in letting him think he had that option. “I’m not sitting on the sideline and leaving someone else to rescue my daughter.”
“Which is why I’m letting you go with us.”
I shook my head. “I’m here to tell you what’s going on. So you know what I found out from Lyric. You may or may not believe her, but my gut tells me she’s not lying. Knowing that, this is my daughter we’re talking about! I’m not asking for permission to do this raid, and I’m not sitting back while someone else leads it. I’m going in and crushing every single motherfucker who stands in my way. When I get a hold of Rat Man, I have something special planned for him.”
“I feel a nightmare happening,” Thorn muttered. “Fine. But only because this is your daughter. And, believe it or not, I do realize that, even if she’s not yours, you can’t take that chance. Nor should you. You can lead a team in, but Blood is still the cleaner. You make his job difficult, and he’ll be the one to deal with you.”
“Understood.”
“I want to know every detail, Rycks. If you’re using my men, I get to be in the loop.”
I snorted. “Thought you’d insist on going.”
Thorn shook his head. “Normally I would, but you don’t trust me, and I wouldn’t be able to stop from reining you in.”
I shrugged. “You could try.”
“So, let’s hear it. What’s your plan?”
Looking around the room, I knew there was only one person here I wanted with me. Fucker. “I’ll need Justice, if he’s willing to come with me.” I looked to the other man who simply nodded, his arms crossed over his chest and standing shoulder to shoulder with me. As much as I wanted to hate the bastard, he was a solid ally. My ward had chosen well. “Other than him, I only want a couple of my own men. Assuming El Diablo will spare them.”
“Who?” Thorn was a demanding son of a bitch, but he had every right to know. We were still in his territory after all.
“Shotgun and Fury.”
“We could use Shotgun here,” Thorn said. “He could be your eyes and ears if you wanted to use drones or access remote cameras. I know intel isn’t his real strength, but he’s still good.”
“No. I want him on the ground.”
Thorn nodded. “I’ll give El Diablo my blessing. Now, lay out your plan.”
I did. Which was basically, get in unseen. Get the girl out. Go back in and kill every motherfucker we could find. If there were other innocents, they could get out when everyone else was dead.
“I like it,” Thorn said after a long silence. “Simple and effective. Can you do it?”
“I’ll get an idea of the layout from Lyric.” I hated putting her name out there again to give Thorn something to scoff at, but she was going to be a huge part of this.
“It’s your life. If you’re willing to trust it to her, who am I to judge?” Thorn was a stubborn, annoying son of a bitch, but maybe he was OK. “When do you want to leave?”
“As soon as it’s dark. I’ll call El Diablo.”
It wasn’t long before I had my requested men, armed to the fucking teeth. This was a rescue and an execution. I found it ironic that I thought Fury was well suited to this. As a doctor, he was supposed to save lives. Not take them. Yet, I’d never met a man more singularly suited to killing than Fury. He’d save the life of my daughter, but he’d also execute her tormentors without mercy. But only if he got there before me.
The plan wasn’t that difficult. Get in when they were too drunk to notice, get Bella out. Go back in and kill anyone we felt needed to die. We picked the fucking perfect night to do it, too, though not by accident. Justice was a fucking genius not only at getting information, but distributing it. How he managed it, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but he convinced someone at Kiss of Death that a raid on one of the local shipping yards was a fantastic idea. He said he dangled an out-of-town rival MC’s drug shipment in front of them, then messed with the shipping manifests to make the rival think their shipment would be on a different transport. Leaking the mix up to Kiss of Death meant there were free drugs to be had with little to no security other than whomever they had to bribe. Everyone had someone at the Port Authority on their payroll. Kiss of Death was no different.
We waited for several hours to see if they’d take the bait. Then, sure enough, they took off in force. From what Ripper could get from the city cams and intercepted cell phone messages and calls, the only people left at the clubhouse during the raid were about five prospects and Rat Man himself. Which was great because it meant a quick in and out. We could probably do the rescue and capture at the same time. Thankfully, El Diablo agreed with my brand of justice. He also had money to burn. Which was how I had a Gulfstream on the tarmac awaiting my instructions for later tonight.
