Warlords MC: Book 6 – Traven : Chapter 15

The others put Bumper and Jackman in the other SUV. Then Ace and Deuce drove the other trucks back.

On the way back, Pepper groaned at every bump in the road. At one point he looked over at Winter and said, “I met your brothers tonight.” He shook his head. “Those two are crazy motherfuckers, you know that right? The older one Matt was spouting some shit about killing off the rest of their family being for the best. Then Brady said something about a missing some documents and that they should have searched the house before they blew it up.” He grunted in pain then went on, “Those two got some serious problems man. They are full blown addicts now.”

Winter caught her breath as pain ripped through her. Her hand curled into fists and she asked him, “Did you tell them they missed me and Will?”

“I may be a bastard at times honey, but I’m not completely undone.” He growled. “Of course, I didn’t tell them.”

Traven glanced in the rear view mirror. “Did you get your man, Chewy?”

Pepper shifted in his seat and glared at the man behind the wheel. “Yeah, we did. Dax put a bolt into his neck. When he yelled, is when everyone came running and we were caught. After they beat the hell out of us, they threw us into the shack and said come dawn they would put us in front of a firing squad. Those motherfuckers are seriously deranged.”

Traven gripped the wheel hard. He glared at the man in the rear view mirror and growled, “You put us all in danger tonight, going off on your own. Now, I could care less about you and your men but I do care about the Warlords, my men, Winter and Will.”

“You might want to hear what we found out tonight before you kick us to the curb,” Pepper warned him. “Maybe getting caught was just the break we needed to figure this shit out.”

“We’ll see about that when we get back,” Traven barked.

Pepper groaned again as Traven hit a bump in the road. He didn’t feel any sympathy for the other man at all.

A little while later, Pepper passed out from the pain.

Traven just shook his head and continued to drive.

He took the back road in and when they reached the back gate, Heathen was there to let them in. Closing the gate behind them, he reset the locks and turned on the cameras again.

If the men from the camp came after them, they wouldn’t find so easy to discover where they were. Traven had scouted this area good enough when they first set up here to assure them they wouldn’t get caught if they were found.

He drove in and saw them helping Jackman inside. Shaking his head, he opened the doors for them to get the unconscious Pepper inside.

Then Jack and Dax were busy looking them over, as they were both the closest thing they had to medics.

Jack looked up at Traven and his brothers. “They’ll be okay, they got their bells rung but good. They’ll hurt but they will heal. They just aren’t going anywhere for a few days.”

Traven glared over at a now conscious Pepper. “Ok, tell us what the hell you were thinking about when you left here tonight. Give us a reason you broke protocol and the plan we made to go tomorrow night and take down the entire camp, so I can kick your ass out of here.”

Pepper shifted in his spot. “Before you kick us out, you need to listen to what we found out,” he insisted. “You are all going to want to hear this.”

“Talk,” Traven ordered.

Pepper shifted in his seat, he’d been laying down on one of the sofas, but now for this, he swung his legs over the side and sat up with a little help. Leaning back, he looked at Traven then looked over to Ace then finally, at Winter. “This has to do a lot with her and the kid.”

Winter frowned. “Me and Will?” She looked over at Traven then back to Pepper. “What do we have to do with any of this?”

“After they beat us to hell and back, I overheard your brothers saying something about a deed to some land?” He paused and looked at her. “Something about an old man they called Joe? Ring any bells?”

Winter gasped and took a step back. The name Joe did ring a bell with her. Joseph Livingstone Moran lived in the mountains somewhere, or at least he did. He’d been dead for twelve years. Twelve years ago, his attorney came to visit her parents and he gave them a deed to Joe’s place. It was over in the Crazy Mountain range, not too far from where they were now. “Why were they talking about Joe’s place?” she asked.

“They need the deed to turn over to the Black Thorn,” Pepper replied.

Winter snorted. “Well then, they missed out didn’t they? That deed is in my name. So Will and I own it. Dad made sure of that before he was killed.”

“What about the land?” Traven asked her. “Why do they want it?”

“It’s two hundred acres of mountain landscape.” She shrugged. “The attorney told Mom and Dad that the land was for the most part unsettled but he did say there might be open mines on the land.”

“Open mines?” Ace asked, “What kind of mines?”

Winter shrugged. “I don’t know. That conversation was between my parents and the attorney. Matty and Brady weren’t home when he was there, so I have no clue how they found out about the land in the first place.”

“I can answer that.” Will wheeled into the main room. “Matt and Brady came by one day after Mom died. They broke into Dad’s safe and were rifling through the paperwork when I caught them. They were looking for money. They found the deeds and they thought they found the motherlode. Uncle Joe registered three gold mines on that land. And he found it. He left Mom a hell of a lot of money. As far as I know, the money is still waiting for whoever owns that land and Dad made sure those two would never get their hands on it. He left the land and the money to you, Winter.”

Winter shook her head. “Not just to me Will, but both of us. The land may be in my name but it belongs just as much to you as it does me.” She turned to Pepper and asked, “Did you hear why they wanted the land?”

Pepper nodded. “They were going to build a permanent camp for the Thorn. They could hide their purpose and protect the organization. They could use the mines for income and storage purposes but they have plans to hide in plain sight, using the property to build up their base camp.”

“Well, they can’t have it. I have the deed and that land belongs to me and Will.” Winter growled.

“They need the original deed before they can go to court and get possession of the land,” Pepper told them. Then one of their men said something about how he knew a man who could forge it.”

Winter shook her head. “They can’t forge it. Joe’s attorney showed dad a little trick to prevent that. It has to have a certain seal on it and the Attorney’s know this. He will know it’s a fake and when I show up with the original deed, Matty’s plan won’t work.”

Pepper turned his head and stared at her. “But Matt and Brady think you and the kid are dead, don’t they? Besides, all they really need is a quick claim deed, signed by your dad and you. He could always claim the original deed was destroyed in a fire.”

“You are just full of good news aren’t you, old man?” Will glared at him.

“Hey, just saying…” Pepper shrugged then groaned in pain again.