Warlords MC: Book 6 – Traven : Chapter 10

“The man was masquerading as a Ghost Rider?” Phantom asked with a growl.

The other brothers all looked like they wanted to tear something up.

Traven looked over at him. “No, apparently he was one. But it was a local chapter in the Braaken Ridge area.”

“Fuck,” Phantom swore as he shook his head. “Now, it makes sense.”

Traven stared at him. “Well, it doesn’t to me.”

“Pepper runs the chapter in that area, man. He put a bulletin out about a member running drugs and he wanted him caught.”

Traven nodded. “Okay yeah, that makes sense, if this Chewy was undercover with the Ghost Riders, he couldn’t wear his own cut.” He turned to his crew. “The real question here is do we welcome the Warlords into our group? I need to call and let them know.”

Heathen nodded. “This is bigger than we’re used to and they might be able to bring something in to help. I for one am not willing to let this go. This group needs to be stopped and we need to bring down this Shadow camp.” He motioned toward the news feed. “Especially, after this. They didn’t even care who they might kill with that bomb.”

“I agree.” Traven nodded. He looked at the rest of them and when he did, he saw they all agreed. “I’ll make the call and bring them in.” He returned to the office and made the call.

When Deuce answered he said, “We’re in. We called some of our brothers in to protect our base camp here but we’ll be there as soon as we can get there. Also need let you know Pepper from the Ghost Riders wants in too. He said he could add to your numbers and if you were going against the Thorn you’d need him.”

“Look, I’m with the Ghost Riders here,” Traven stated.

“What?” Deuce asked. “That makes no sense, man.”

“It’s another chapter. I didn’t put it altogether until just now. But my men here know this Pepper well. It seems anyway. So I will have them give this Pepper a call.”

“Ok. From what we have figured out on our end is Chewy must have known his cover was blown and he never went back to the compound. He walked away from not only his partner but also the club and Pepper wants to get him back to face a tribunal. Besides, he hinted that he knew about the Black Thorn. He said to tell you he’s got info on that group and he needs to share it.”

Traven took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Ok, it seems we will have more than the dozen Ghost Riders I’m with. I’ll be waiting for you at the wayside outside of Bozeman in three hours. Better bring both a cage and bike.”

“We’ll be there.” Deuce hung up on his end.

Traven just hoped he hadn’t made a mistake. He trusted the Warlords. If he didn’t Luna sure as well wouldn’t be with them. But now more men were coming with them. The men Chewy had been running with before. This simple scouting out of a survivalist camp had become something much larger than any of them had thought.

Traven and Flint met them three hours later. They were waiting at the wayside when several trucks lumbered in. Seven trucks along with several bikes parked in the back. When Traven and Flint got out of their vehicles, so did the nine men that drove in. Traven recognized five of the nine men but he had no idea who the others were.

He held out his hands for the Warlords and as they shook hands, Ace turned to introduce them to the Ghost Riders. “This is Pepper, president of the Ghost Riders and his men Jackman, Bumper, and Dax.”

Traven nodded at them. “I’m Traven and this is Flint. You might know him. He is—”

“I’ve never met him, but I know Phantom better than the rest.” Pepper stepped up to Flint and gave him a nod.

Flint nodded back.

“The rest of the brothers are waiting for us back at our compound.” Traven turned away.

Pepper took a step forward and asked, “Do you know where this bastard Chewy is? He never returned to face the MC.”

“Yeah, the fucking coward just rode off.” Bumper snarled. “He must have known we found him out. He left his partner to take all the blame.”

Traven held up his hand. “Whoa, hold up. If you’re only here for revenge, you came to the wrong place. You need to turn around and go back to where you came from. I won’t take you anywhere.”

Pepper narrowed his eyes and glared at the other man. “What kind of deal are you running here? I thought you had Phantom and the Riders backing you.”

“They are with me, yes. But I don’t belong to the Riders. They were helping me in …” he paused as he thought of the human slave ring they had busted up. “…other endeavors and we just stayed as a group. But we need men willing to take down a whole group, not just one man. I get what you’re saying but this mission is bigger than just one man.”

“We get that, we do and we’re willing to help but you have to promise us something too.” Pepper stared at him. “You need to promise us the life of this man Chewy. He played our MC and we want justice.”

Traven nodded. “Justice I can do, but I will not do vengeance. The Riders here know this too. They feel betrayed as well. But we need to work together, not just hunt one man down.”

“Good enough for me,” Pepper agreed.

“We just need honesty between us, that’s all I ask,” Traven stated.

Pepper nodded. “This is too big a deal not to have honesty above the board.” Shaking his head he commented, “We’ve dealt with other MC’s that have not been above board and they almost cost us everything. We lost a lot of good men and I don’t want that all over again.”

“Neither do we.” Traven snorted. “We’re a small group but we specialize in what we do. But this case is just too big for us to handle on our own.”

Ace nodded. “This is also linked to our last mission that’s why we were called in.”

Flint nodded. “It was.”

Traven nodded. “We keep peeling off layers.” He looked over at Ace. “This damn onion is deeply rooted.”

“Then let’s get to where we need to be and share our information so we can get started,” Pepper called out.

They made the trip back to the compound as a small convoy. Traven worried about drawing attention.

Finally, they arrived and Traven led them into the compound by the back door as they didn’t want to take the chance the Shadow camp had eyes on them.

Phantom and Pepper met with a handshake and they went over to a table to talk.

Traven immediately looked around for Winter. Of course, he did, as she had been on his mind for hours. He had a lot to think about as it was, but her face kept popping into his mind on the drive back here. He finally spotted her and watched her for a minute.

Winter caught Pepper’s gaze and frowned.

Traven walked over to where she was sitting. “What’s wrong?” Traven asked her as soon as the new men began pouring over the material they had dug up so far.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” she told him with a shake of her head. “But that man with Phantom seems so familiar to me somehow, almost like I’ve seen him before.”

Traven paused then turned to stare at Pepper. “Do you remember when or where you might have seen him before?”

She shook her head. “No I don’t, maybe he just reminds me of someone else. I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever met the man before.” She began pacing back and forth in front of him. “I need something to do. This waiting is driving me crazy. Where is your kitchen? Cooking always helps me relax.”

Traven shook his head and pointed the way to the kitchen. “Most women wouldn’t think a kitchen is where they belong. You know that right? They would rather be out in the corporate world being equal to the men they despise.”

Winter paused and stared at him. “Wow, that’s a deep thought and a strong analogy, there Reaper. Did you ever think there are different women out there with different drives? You might find out someday that you’re wrong about this theory of yours. Women just want to belong. At least, I do anyway. I just want a place to call home and a good man to lean on. My brothers ripped our family apart for no reason. At least no reason I can think of. Family is worth more than what they think.”

He watched her walk away and disappear into the kitchen.

Will wheeled his chair over to him. “Where did she go?”

“To the kitchen.” Traven turned to look at Will. “Is she going to be okay?”

Will shrugged. “I don’t know. She’s strong because she’s had to be but everyone has their breaking point and she’s very close to hers right now. I think the house being blown up might just be the one thing that could break her. That house was the last thing she had left of our parents.” Shaking his head he admitted, “I haven’t seen her cry in five years. She didn’t cry when my dad died, she didn’t cry when the state took me away from her, she didn’t even cry when she got me back. I know I can see the pain in her eyes but she won’t cry. Matty and Brady are going to break her, I think and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

“You might not be able to stop it but you can be there for her when she needs to pick up the pieces when she does break,” Traven told him.

Will shook his head. “I can be there but it’s not me that’s going to help her. She’d never let me see her fold.” Shaking his head again, he said, “I’m watching her die by inches and its killing me. I think she needs this to be over, so she can get back to living. She’s been in limbo for too long now.”

Traven watched him wheel himself back to the main table and fool around on his laptop for a while then he turned to watch Pepper. He couldn’t help but wonder why Winter thought she knew him from somewhere.

Ace motioned him closer to the table. When Traven joined them Ace asked, “Did you actually see this camp?”

Traven nodded. “Yeah, Venom, Nite Stalker, and I were there but so was Winter. We were in the trees but she was actually on the ground. Apparently, she’d been watching the camp for some time and we had only gotten there.”

“So you didn’t get to see too much of the camp itself,” Pepper wanted to know.

Traven explained, “I had just gotten settled in my perch when I got a message from Venom that we had company. I looked around for her heat signature but I found one of the sentry’s walked toward her. I knocked him out and got her away from the camp. Someone inside must have found him quicker than I would have guessed and they searched for us but we were hidden. After they left, we got the hell of there.”

“Why was she already there?” Ace wanted to know. “How did she find this camp?”