Warlords MC: Book 3 – Jack : Chapter 11
“Alright, first we need to get that list of personnel that just left the Pentagon, or are planning too in the next day or so,” Pappy made the announcement. “Right now, we have the element of surprise on our side. They don’t know we know yet. That should give us some time to set up protection for those on the list. Then we can begin our search for the bastards before they find….” He raised his head and looked at the brothers. “All of you.”
Shay was already on his cell. “No worries, I have the departments due to be hit, covered. We will have to have both buildings cleared out, all personnel need to leave immediately. I have men on standby to protect all the ones that are on the hit list.” He turned to Pappy. “I have a number on the table I wrote down. Have Reaper fax all of this to them.”
Pappy nodded and walked over to the table.”
“What about the bombs?” Ace asked. “What do we do about them?”
Trudy was looking down at the last page. “These are the bomb schematics and something else is here too, that I can’t make out yet. It’s still mostly in code, but I can make it out in about twenty minutes.”
Ace stared at her then looked over at his brothers. “The fuck?”
Pappy laughed. “We told ya, no one better.”
The brothers all nodded, as did the rest of the men in the room.
Dewey went over at the table and handed her a bottle of orange juice then sat next to his wife.
Jade came back in. “I got eggs and sausages and oh, toast.” She looked over at Deuce. “If you can get it set up?”
He nodded.
“We’ll help,” Doc stated. “Seems we aren’t needed too much now.” He laughed as he took Viper and Recon with him into the kitchen.
Jade looked around. “Seems she got this figured out.”
“Damn right, she did,” Dewey told her with a grin.
Then men came back in with plates and everyone grabbed their own breakfast.
Jack grabbed a plate and Jade did too.
They all sat and ate, as the only sound for the next while was forks clattering and people eating as all fourteen people had breakfast.
The men all then got up and stacked plates then went in to clean up the kitchen.
“Ok, I’m going to check on Belle. She’s probably hungry too.” Jade looked at Jack.
Jack grabbed her hand. “I’ll go with you.”
Ace and King raised their heads from the pages they ben studying and stared.
Jack shrugged at them and turned to go down the hall with Jade.
They peeked in and Belle was still sleeping.
Jade smiled, then stepped back and shut the door. “She has had an exhausting time of it and is probably catching up on her beauty sleep.”
“She doesn’t need that, she is beautiful already.” He swung his gaze up. “Runs in the family.”
Jade looked away as her cheeks went pink. “I’m all she’s got now. Well, she’s all I have too.”
Jack grabbed both of her hands. “Not true. You have me and that also means you have my whole family.”
She stared at him. “You can’t mean that.”
Jack tugged her close. “I never say something that I don’t mean, Jade. You are mine. I told you already.”
She stared into his eyes. “Dang, you do mean it.”
Nodding, he leaned closer to brush her lips with his. “I do.”
Jade raised her hand and scratched the back of her neck. “Oww,” she grumbled.
Jack pulled back and stared at her. “What is it?”
“I don’t know but it must be a sore spot from when…Gauntlet hit me.”
Jack pulled back. “Hit you? You mean when he knocked you out that first time?”
She shook her head. “No later on. And that time, I was out for a while.”
Jack clenched his fists. “H-he didn’t like…do anything else to you, did he?”
Her gaze swung up. “You mean like…”
He nodded as anger boiled up in him.
“No, he never did.” She rubbed the spot again, then brought her hand down.
Jack sucked in a breath. “Your finger is bleeding.”
Jade looked down. “Oh wow, so it is.”
Jack turned her around and pushed her hair away from the back of her neck.
There, near her top vertebrae was a purplish bruise and her rubbing had broken the skin open. He peered closer and then gritted his teeth. Dropping her hair down, he grabbed her hand and tugged her down the hall.
“What are you doing?” she asked looking confused.
Jack said not a word as he marched her back into the dining room. “Stone!”
Pappy looked up from a laptop. “Why the hell are you yelling, boy?”
Jack tugged her over. “You said you had a tracker on Jade. Well, your men or whoever did it did a lousy fucking job. It’s infected or something.”
Pappy looked confused.
“It was all done cleanly and it is state of the art,” came another voice.
Jack looked around to see the one they called Doc. “Oh yeah, well…” He turned Jade around and lifted her long hair to show them the wound. “This is crappy work!”
Doc looked stunned. “That’s not—”
“Not?” Jack cut him off as he seethed. “This is infected and could have seriously hurt her!”
“Jack, you need to calm down,” Jade said.
“No! I won’t. It’s bad enough with all that you went through while working undercover for these guys but to put this in you and—”
“It isn’t ours,” Pappy cut him off.
Jack shut his mouth and stared at him.
“He’s right. “ Jade turned around and showed him her hand. “Theirs is right here.” She pointed at her hand, where she had a small butterfly tat near her thumb and pointer finger. “It’s right under this.”
“Oh, fuck,” Ace swore.
Jack stared at her as he realized what this meant. “No way! They didn’t!”
The men in the room all stared at Jade.
Her eyes widened as she gazed all around at the men in the room. She looked scared now, and confused. “Why are you all staring at me like that?”
Doc came over. “Turn around Jade and let me have a look.”
Jade stared at him then at Jack.
He nodded. “You’d better let him have a look at it.”
Jade released a frustrated breath and turned, grasping her hair and tucking it over her shoulder.
Doc studied it. “It is a tracker and it is live.”
“What?” Jade gasped.
Pappy stood up and leaned in. “Gauntlet had her tagged.”
Ace stepped over and looked too. “God Dammit!” He then looked over at Jack. “The Guns might know exactly where we are.”
“They do know,” someone spoke up.
Everyone turned to look at Trudy.
She looked pale. “I just decoded the last of this and the plan was…” she paused to look at Ace. “There’s a missile called the Spade. It is to be deployed to wherever…” She looked over at Jade. “You took her to.”
“Oh, God!” Jade looked white as a sheet.
Trudy spoke again, “They will be deploying it…” She studied the paper. “Well, as soon as her tacker stops moving around the map and stays in one location.”
The room went silent as this news sunk in.
Ace stood up. “Everyone out!”
Jack stared at him. “To where? We can’t go out to the bikes and SUVs, we’ll be sitting ducks out in the open.”
Ace shook his head. “No, this ranch has a bunker underneath it. Apparently, the previous owner was paranoid about nuclear war,” he kept talking as he headed into the kitchen and to a door on the far side. “My contact mentioned it when we set this safe house up. In case, we needed to go below ground.”
“Well,” King spoke up. “Looks like we fucking need to do just that.”
Everyone followed Ace.
“That’s just a pantry,” Jade told them as he opened the door.
Ace nodded as King followed him inside. “Yeah and then there’s supposed to be…” He tapped the wall switch. “…another door.”
Jack stood close behind King to see the shelves swing back and a metal door came into view. “Well, fuck a duck,” he swore.
Ace nodded as he called out, “Pappy, get everyone down here and now!”
Shay shook his head and swiped his phone. “I can’t get a signal at all. I need to call someone in to help with this. Someone will need to know we’re down there.”
“I can get some help,” Trudy offered as she ran back into the dining room. “I think they will have to dig us out if what I think is gonna happen… happens.”
Jade seemed to take this all in and she looked stunned. Then she gasped. “Belle!” She turned and ran out.
Jack followed her.
They went into the room and Jack scooped the child up.
“W-what…” Annabelle sleepily asked.
“It’s okay, Belle. We just gotta move right now,” Jack told her.
Jade grabbed a set of clothes for her, the teddy bear, and the doll.
They both then rushed back down the hallway.
They heard voices as they came back to the kitchen.
“How many can you call in?” Ace asked Trudy.
“As many as you need.” She tapped the keys on her laptop.
“Well, tell them they may have to dig us out.” Ace grabbed up his go bag and turned to head to the kitchen.
Trudy typed a little more.
Dewey came over and tapped her shoulder. “Come on babe, we gotta go.”
Trudy nodded. “Ebony, Ivory,” she called.
The dogs came in and sat in front of the table.
Trudy tisked at them. “No, we gotta go, you two. To the kitchen.”
The dogs cocked their heads and then did as she said, they headed toward the kitchen.
Trudy then shut her laptop and tucked it under her arm. “It just lost signal and that means someone blocked all the wireless here.”
“You two need to hurry,” Jack stated to the couple as he carried Annabelle while Jade followed him to the kitchen.
The men had all been gathering stuff and most were already down below, as Jack didn’t see anyone in the kitchen except Deuce.
Deuce was grabbing bottled water and bags of chips. “Come on!” he yelled at Jack. “I got cookies for the kid!” He then went into the pantry.
A loud hum sounded overhead.
“Fuck!” Jack grabbed Jade’s hand and forced her ahead of him.
Dewy was tugging Trudy in as they got to the inner metal door.
They made their way down the steps to a well-lit room that was entirely decked out with the works. Furniture, a full kitchen, a large screen TV, along with a few beds here and there.
Jack set Annabelle down on one of the couches.
The little girl clapped her hands. “Oh, doggies!” Annabelle looked thrilled to see the two dogs sitting at attention.
Ace now stood at the top of the steps. “Is every one in?”
Pappy looked around. “Shay and all my men are here.”
“Spades are all here,” King yelled up.
“Shut that damn door, Kid!” Pappy yelled as an odd roaring sound bounced down to them.
Ace shut it and slid a huge metal bar across it.
They all heard a hydraulic sound as the door seemed to seal itself off.
The dogs let out one yip each as they rushed over to Trudy and climbed up on her to make her lay on the floor.
“What the hell?” Deuce stared down at the odd sight while the dogs actually covered her with their large bodies.
Ace barely made it down the steps when the whole place rocked.
Annabelle screamed as all the lights went off.