Hell Fire Riders MC: The Complete MC Series, page 60
“Did you see his business?” Dewey asked.
Calico nodded. “Barrone made no attempt to hide what he was doing. He thought no one would be able or dumb enough to stop him and his gang. He was working on establishing a drug route for one of the Mexican cartels. He used intimidation tactic to stomp anyone into the ground that didn’t see things his way. His gang might have been only ten men but he handpicked those men for his backup. They were his brothers Jose and Enrique along with Carmen Bangor, Alberto Moran, Josepf Kilgore, Manny Kilgor, Benny Keeler, Lonnie Nestler, Payne Thomas and Gilroy Jacks. Each and every one of them was bad news. They were a brutal bunch with no one to hold them in check. They had no care who they hurt to get set up. I watched them murder three people just because they could.” He paused.
Jolene looked upset and covered her mouth with her hands.
“Those people didn’t do anything wrong and Barrone just murdered them out of spite. That’s when I got hold of Shay and brought down Barrone’s little empire. Just before Shay took over, Susan told Barrone she was pregnant. Barrone was ecstatic about the news and he told me until his son was born I would watch over her keeping her and the baby safe. When Shay came in hot and heavy bullets flew. I protected Susan and when the bullets stopped… there were seven of the ten men dead. Enrique got away but was badly wounded. Tomas and Payne were arrested. Everyone else was gone. When Tomas saw Shay and I talking, he connected the facts and knew I turned them over. He threatened my life and vowed when he got out of prison he was coming after me. The feds put Susan in witsec and I moved on. Seven months later, I got a call from her and she told me she’d been found by one of Tomas’s enemies. I got to her before anything could happen but shortly after I got to her, she was shot by Stephan Grant. Barrone tried to get together and join forces with Grant but Grant wanted nothing to do with him. Barrone took the slight and turned it against Grant. He tried to ruin Grant and take over his business interest but he couldn’t get to Grant himself. Grant survived and went after Tomas. It was all out war between the two of them.”
Pappy nodded his head. “A bloody war.”
“Yep, and no one was innocent apparently,” Calico agreed. “Susan went into labor and barely survived giving birth, then an hour or so later, she passed away. The damage from the bullets was too great. I buried her and took her son. I placed him with a good family with the promise he would never learn who his father was. That was eleven years ago.” Calico paused in his tale and glanced over at Jolene. He shifted his seat to face her head on. “Honey, I never thought Barrone would get out of jail. He was sent up for life. I should have been notified he was out.” He took her hand. “Shay knew where I was living. He should have called me or got ahold of me somehow.” Then he paused and noted, “I did hear someone shot the hell out of Grant’s crew a year or so ago. I never put it together with Barrone though.”
“Is that why you came down here?” Pappy had to ask.
Calico shook his head. “Like I said, I didn’t know he was out. I never would have put my family or you guys in Barrone’s sights.”
Pappy nodded. “I believe you. First off, we have to find out how he got out of jail. Then we have to discover if he’s had time to get a new crew together.”
“How are you going to do that?” Jolene asked.
“We have someone who can get the information we need,” Dewey spoke up now.
“Can they find Sawyer for us?” She begged.
“I don’t know.” Dewey shook his head. “I doubt Barrone is advertising his whereabouts.”
“We can probably narrow it down but I doubt we can pinpoint his exact location, at least not in time.” Pappy informed her.
Just then, the phone in Calico’s pocket began ringing and he jumped. As he drew it out of his pocket, he noted it was Sawyer’s phone. He’d found it on the floor of her car. His fingers slowly curled into a crushing fist. He didn’t hold them as tightly as he wanted too. The phone rang again and he snatched it up and growled, “What?”
“I’m looking for Sawyer.” An unknown man’s voice came across the line.
“Who the fuck is this?” Calico snarled.
“Who the fuck are you?” the voice came back.
“I’m her father,” Calico informed him.
“Is she there?”
Calico could hear the other man hesitate then he heard him say, “She was supposed to call me when she got home but never did. Is she there?”
Calico gripped the phone hard. His daughter had been missing all day. This was the first time he’d heard she was meeting someone. “She was with you today?”
The voice didn’t say anything for a moment then admitted, “Yes she was. When she left, I asked her to call me when she got home. Where is she?” he repeated.
Calico had a feeling he knew who on the line but he needed to be sure. He looked over at the bed and saw Jolene staring off in the distance. She’d been a mess when the envelope had come and she’d seen the lock of Sawyer’s hair. He looked around the room and noted everyone’s attention. “She never made it home.”
Now there was silence on the other end. “Where. Is. She?” each word was spoken softly but distinctly.
Calico straightened his spine. He could hear the fine edge of rage in the other man’s words and for some reason it pissed him off. “Who the fuck are you to speak to me like that? Maybe I should be asking you that question.”
“If I had her I wouldn’t be asking you where she is, now would I?” the other man pointed out. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Calico snarled. “I don’t have to tell you shit. This has nothing to do with you. My daughter is no concern of yours.”
“The hell she isn’t,” the other man informed him. “She’s mine, do you hear me? She belongs to me. Now tell me where she is!” His voice came across the line hard and filled with rage.
Calico could feel his own rage growing and he felt the need to hit something. Then suddenly the phone was snatched from his hand and he stared at Jolene in shock.
She brought the phone to her ear and whispered, “Is this the man they call the Priest?”
For a moment, he didn’t answer her. “Yes ma’am I’m known by that name,” he finally admitted.
“Please, you have to help us find her.” Jolene sobbed.
“Find her?”
“She never made it home.” Jolene told him. “We found her car, it had been forced off the road, and there was blood in it.”
“What the hell are you telling me?” Bastian snarled into the phone.
Jolene sobbed. “My daughter is hurt and she’s been taken. We know why and who took her but she’s in real bad trouble. Can you find her and bring her home to me?”
“Let me speak to your man,” he demanded.
When he heard Calico’s growl, Bastian didn’t waste any more time. “Do you know who has her?” he demanded.
“I think so and if it’s who I think it is, she’s as good as dead.”
Bastian heard Jolene scream in the background. “Give me a name.” He growled.
“It won’t do you any good.”
“Give me his name,” he repeated. Bastian wanted to hit something hard. He wanted to smash the whole world down.
“Tomas Barrone,” Calico informed him. “But you won’t find him.”
“Why did he take her?”
“That is a long story,” Calico admitted.
“Tell me anyway.” Bastian sneered. “He took my woman and I want to know why.”
Calico’s grip tightened on the phone. “She’s not your woman, she’s my daughter.”
“She was your daughter and you didn’t do a very good job protecting her,” Bastian retorted. “When I find her and I will find her, I will protect her. She belongs to me now.”
“If you find her, you bring her home!” Calico shouted. “You bring her back to her mother and me.”
Jolene wailed. Grabbing the phone she begged, “Please bring her home. I know you have no reason to do that but I’m begging you, please bring her home to us. I need to know she’s alive and safe.” She paused then dropped a bomb on both men. “I know she’s in love with you and you didn’t hurt her when she was with you before but there’s more on the line than just Sawyer this time.”
“What do you mean?” Bastian asked with a pang in his chest.
“She’s carrying your baby,” Jolene whispered brokenly. “She didn’t know if she would ever see you again, but she knew your child was growing inside her and she wanted that child.”
Bastian was stunned. She hadn’t said anything about a baby. For a moment, he didn’t know if he should be mad or happy about this turn of events.
“Please find her and bring her—home,” Jolene begged brokenly.
“Fuck a duck!” Calico swore. Stomping over to the wall, he fisted his hand and slammed it into the wall. He didn’t even feel the pain as his knuckles bit into the plaster. Then he shifted and grabbed the phone from Jolene. “Listen, there is something you need to know before you go up against Barrone.”
“I don’t need to hear anything—”
“Yes you do, so listen carefully.” Calico snarled. “Tomas Barrone hates me and he has good reason too. I don’t know how he found her but my daughter has no part of the reason he’s gonna kill her for. That’s on me and me alone but he will use her to try to get to me.”
“Go on.”
“I met Tomas about twelve years ago.” Calico began his story all over again. This was his biggest fear and had been for some time. “He was a mean sonofabitch then and his rage has had twelve years to fester. He should still be in prison but for some reason he’s a free man. Twelve years ago, he and his crew were running guns and dope in New York. Back then, Tomas was nothing more than a killer who only had one thing he cared about, other than the money and the power he had. He had a woman, Susan. He owned her body and soul whether she wanted it or not, he owned her. She was terrified of him but she didn’t want to die, so she pretended to love him and hid her fear from everyone. After he was finally arrested, he knew he’d had made more than his fair share of enemies and screamed that she wouldn’t be safe without him. I told him Susan would be going into witness protection and that she would be safe from him and the rest of the world. I told him he would never see her or the baby again and that set him off. He was almost rabid in his rage. He told me he wouldn’t be in jail very long and one day when he was free, he would find her. Then he was coming after me and I would know his pain.”
“What happened to Susan and her child?” Bastian asked.
“Susan was found by one of his enemies. She was about three weeks to having her baby when Stephan Grant found her. He ordered a drive by and she caught a bullet in the chest. She lived long enough to give birth to her son. Before she died, she begged me to hide her son so Tomas would never find him. She made me promise to never turn him over to his father.”
“Why would she ask you?”
“We became friends over the months she was finally away from Tomas.” Calico admitted. “Tomas had seen her one day and just took her away from her family. She was only sixteen when he took her. He kept her by threatening her family. I did get word that someone disseminated Grant’s crew later on, they were the ones to make the hit on her. They took out Grant’s entire family but missed Stephan and a few of his most trusted men. I haven’t heard from Barrone until today.”
“What makes you think he’s got her?”
“When Sawyer didn’t come home I got worried. When I found her car along the road with blood inside and evidence of a crash I came home to get the guys together to look for her. That when I received a message tied to the gate of the compound. It was an envelope and in the envelope was a strand of Sawyer’s hair along with a gum wrapper. When I opened the gum wrapped I found a smear of blood.”
“How does all that add up to Tomas Barrone?”
“That was his calling card twelve years ago,” Calico informed him. “Tomas chewed the gum as he tried to quit smoking. The wrapper is distinctive. The blood smeared inside the wrapper was something he used to identify his hits. The blood is Sawyer’s. This is his message to me that he took my daughter.”
“Is he back in business? As a gun runner and a dope dealer?”
“I haven’t heard but he needs to regain his reputation as more than a convict. He grew to like the money and the power he had before he went to jail. He had millions the feds never found.”
“Do you have any idea how big his crew is?”
“Maybe seven to ten men. He handpicks each one of his men and if he got any of his old crew back, they too have a score to settle.”
“Stay home with your family,” the Priest instructed. “I can find her and bring her back on my own.”
“Don’t you dare go after her alone,” Calico warned. “Barrone will kill you and not even work up a sweat. I know him. I want to be there when you find him.”
“I work better alone,” he insisted.
“She’s my daughter.” Calico growled. “My blood and there are people here that could help.”
“She’s my woman now and she’s carrying my child,” he ground out.
“You won’t find her without me. I know things about how Barrone does business that you don’t.” Calico paused then added, “I can meet you anywhere you say, just don’t leave me behind.”
The man didn’t say anything for the longest time. “I’ll find you.”
When the line went dead, Calico looked around the room at everyone’s faces. “He’s coming here.”
“Well fuck,” Pappy swore softly. “Let’s get ready for him then.”
Dewey and Reaper shook their heads.
Calico had never seen them looked so scared. Scared? He shook his head. Well, he didn’t give a good god damn, the man was just a man to him.
Chapter Four
Bastian glanced over at Jim. He’d been staring at the monitor carefully. This hideout had almost the set up as home. Plotting his course and watching the red dot, Bastian checked and rechecked the area around the red dot. He noted the waterway and the terrain.
“That’s a rough part of town boss,” Jim told him.
“I know. There are too many places to hide.” Sitting back in his chair, he looked at the other man. “According to what Calico told me, this Tomas Barrone has a small but ruthlessly brutal crew. They wouldn’t mind slitting your throat just for the fun of it.”
“What are you going to do?” Jim asked.
“I don’t know. As much as I just want to go ahead and rush into the situation from what Calico told me I can’t. She’s carrying my child Jim.”
Jim’s eyes widened and after a moment, he smiled. “Congratulations.” Then he paused and added, “What are you going to do now? I mean you can’t go on the same way you have been, can you?”
Bastian closed his eyes. “No, I can’t.” Shifting in his seat, he looked at the other man. “This changes everything.”
Jim nodded then smiled. “But is that a bad thing? You know we’re both getting older and maybe it was time to do something different. Even though at forty-three, I don’t feel old.”
Bastian laughed out loud. “No it isn’t a bad thing just different. I guess I never planned for retirement.” He shrugged. “I mean who retires at our age.”
“Nobody but who can say they’ve seen what we have?” Jim pointed out. “You and I have seen and done more than the average Joe.”
“That’s true,” Bastian agreed. “But I doubt there’s too much work out there for our kind.”
“Maybe not, but it’s not like either of us need more money.” Jim snorted. “We could live quite comfortably for the twenty years and not even touch the real money.”
Bastian nodded then looked back to the screen. His gut was on fire. His Sawyer was in bad hands. “I think I need more information on this guy.”
“What do you want me to do?” Jim asked.
Bastian turned back to the screen. “They seem to be in the waterway behind a park. They can come and go without drawing attention to themselves just by blending in with the locals. I need you to go in under cover and pinpoint where his men are hiding. Calico tells me there are only ten men at the most. There will be at least one or two on the boat itself. Everyone else will be outside.”
“You need to know how many and where they are,” Jim stated as he knew the score.
“Yeah, that would help.” Bastian nodded. “I’m going out to the compound and talk to her father. He’s worked with this guy before and I need to know him better before I go up against him.”
“I’ve been looking into this group her father is with,” Jim admitted.
“Why?”
Jim rolled his eyes. “You know me. I never go anywhere without knowing what and who we’re up against.” He shrugged. “Anyway, they call themselves the Hell Fire Riders. They are all ex-military, very highly trained. Word around town is nothing but good, given the fact they are also considered a biker club. They’re led by a man called Pappy Masterson.”
Bastian turned to stare at the other man. He’d heard of Pappy Masterson. In his line of work, he knew information about a lot of men and women. “Ok, well before I go I need to run some info down on this man Tomas Barrone.”
Jim shook his head. “I haven’t heard that name in a long time.”
“You know him?” Bastian asked.
“Yeah, I know of him. He ran a small crew in New York area called El Diablo quite a few years ago. He and his brothers, Jose and Enrique thought they could never be brought down. They were running drugs and guns up and down the East coast for one of the cartels south of the border. Then they got stupid and lost everything.” Jim went over to his computer and fired it up. Moments later, he brought up the file he’d compiled on El Diablo.
