Warlords MC: Book 5 – Joker : Chapter 3

“Damn right, they won’t,” Charli stated as she joined them. “If they do, I’ll fill their asses with buckshot and they know I’ll do it too.” She stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips and frowned at Joker.

Joker chuckled and looked at Rowen. “She would do it too. Charli, meet Rowen. Rowen, this is Charli. She owns the house and the farm.”

Charli rolled her eyes at him. “We all own this house Joker. You and your brothers know it too.” She turned toward Rowen and smiled. “I’m Charli. Pleased to meet you.”

Rowen nodded. “I’m so happy to be here. Thank you for taking me in.”

“Are you ok, sweetie?” Charli asked her.

Rowen nodded and sipped her coffee.

Charli looked over at Joker. “Your brother will be out in a moment. I’m going to get breakfast going.”

Just then, several doors opened and everyone joined them in the kitchen. Ace, King, Deuce and Jack sat down at the table and they all looked over at Rowen.

“Well, you look better,” Deuce told her. “You even got a shower. Are you feeling better?”

Staring with wide eyes, Rowen took the four large men sitting there and she swallowed hard. She couldn’t even speak.

Joker reached over to her and took her hand in his. “It’s okay, Rowen. They aren’t going to hurt you. We may be an MC but we aren’t like the Eagles.”

“Is that your name? Rowen?” Ace asked her.

She nodded.

“Well Rowen, I’m Ace.” He motioned to the brother next to him. “This is King, Deuce, and Jack and of course, you know Joker already. And he’s right, we aren’t like those bastards the Eagles.”

“Speaking of them,” Joker interrupted his brother. “She told me this morning that Grinder said he would find her anywhere she went. He might be tracking her somehow.”

Ace turned his head to stare at her. “Is that right?”

“That’s what he said.” She nodded slowly. “I don’t know if it is true or not. He told me not to run because he would always be right behind me. He would always know wherever I went.”

“Damn, we must have missed something last night.” Deuce growled.

Ace turned to his brother with a frown on his face. “Find it quickly and get rid of it. She’s been here long enough to track her right to our front door.”

Deuce got up and disappeared down the hall.

Rowen felt scared when he left, not knowing what all this meant, really.

When he returned a few minutes later, he walked over to Rowen and began to scan her body looking for the tracker. He had a small scanner in his hand.

It wasn’t until he got to her left shoulder the scanner began to show anything. He took the bandage off and the scanner showed more. Deuce looked over at Ace and tightened his lips. “Whatever he used it’s in the brand.” Deuce leaned in and examined the brand a little better. He began scratching the edge of it.

Rowen pulled away and winced.

“I’m sorry darlin, but I think he put something over the brand,” Deuce explained. “I know it hurts but I need to check it out.”

Rowen turned to Joker with tears in her eyes.

Joker reached over and took her hand in his. “Lean on me, ok? He has to do this.”

Rowen leaned toward him and planted her face in his chest as Deuce picked at the edges of her brand. She whimpered as he caught the edges of something covering the branding.

Joker winced as her grip tightened on his hand and wrapped his hand around the back of her head. She pressed her head deeper into him as Deuce began to carefully peel off a thin transparent covering from the injured skin.

Rowen whimpered and edged closer to Joker as Deuce continued to pull at the layer.

He had it about halfway off, when she finally reached up and just ripped it off. She screamed and buried her face in the hollow of Joker’s neck. She was sobbing and fresh blood rolled down her arm.

Joker reached out and hauled her onto his lap at that point. He held her close and just let her sob.

Then someone placed a cool cloth over her shoulder. She cringed but Joker wouldn’t let her go. Finally, her sobs stopped but she couldn’t look at anyone.

Deuce and the others were studying the device that Grinder had used on her. It was a sophisticated tracker indeed. Too high tech for anything Grinder might be able to get his hands on, that was for sure.

Deuce looked over at Ace and King. “I’ve never seen anything like this and a man like Grinder? No way, would he have something this sophisticated. Whoever his friends are, they have to be big time.”

“What the hell did we stumble into here?” King asked.

Rowen turned her head and stared at the men. “Grinder thinks he has the protection of some pretty powerful people,” she whispered through her tears. “His compound is practically impenetrable. I have no clue how that man got me out, but I wouldn’t be alive if he hadn’t.”

The silence in the room seemed to agree with her.

“What else can you tell us about this MC?” King asked, finally breaking the quiet.

Rowen sniffled a bit then answered him, “They took me from my home in Butte. Actually, they broke into my grandfather’s mansion. How they got in is anyone’s guess. They broke in and grabbed me from my own bed. They had to have watched me come home that night. They tied me up and gagged me, threw me into the back of a van with two other women and drove me to the Laurel area. Their fortress is behind cement walls, so there’s no chance of escape.” She shook her head. “I still have no clue how that man got me out of that place but I’m sincerely glad he did.”

King looked at his brothers and turned back to listen to her story.

She turned her head and stared at Ace. “They took me on July 30th. We were told we wouldn’t be there very long as they had a boat almost ready to go.”

“A boat?” King asked.

Rowen nodded. “Their compound is adjacent to the Yellowstone river. There was a staircase leading down to a pier I think but I was kept inside the second building. All of us were kept there. They kept us in small cells and we could hear each other but we couldn’t see anyone else. After three days, Grinder had me transferred to the cells in the main compound. I did overhear Grinder say something about how they had to leave on time in order to meet the other boat. They all had to meet the connections on time, or they wouldn’t get paid.”

King looked over at his brother as his eyes narrowed.

“How many men did he have at the compound?” Deuce asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. The morning they took me to the main compound, I saw the other women though. Well, I could see a long line of women ready to go to the boat. They were chained together like convicts. They were scared as hell, but no one said a word as they were led to the staircase.” She shuddered. “I have no clue what happened to them.”

“I’m wondering why they use the river system.” Jack got up and disappeared for a moment, when he came back, there was a massive frown on his face.

“What did you find?” Ace growled.

“An out of the way clear path to the gulf,” Jack dropped his bomb. He laid out a map of the United States on the table that included the rivers and traced a path all the way to the gulf. “The Yellowstone meets up with the Missouri which hooks up with the Mississippi and that will take them all the way to the Gulf, then to international waters.”

King sat back in chair and shook his head. “All they would have to do is switch boats. Holy hell boys, what the fuck did we just find here?”

“An international skin game,” Ace finally said the words out loud. Words no one wanted to hear but that was the only explanation there could be.