Chapter 1
Paul Rankin lookedover at the people he rode in with and scowled when they all looked at him with raised brows.He then looked over at the two men standing there as he shut his Harley down, removed his helmet, and slowly dismounted.Just as slowly, he approached the people and held out his hand to shake, saving the older gentleman for last.
“Gilbert,” he nodded to Witt, then turned to the people with him to point as he introduced them.“This is Snake, Bull Dog, Vulture, Hillbilly, and Wheels.Guys, this is Witt Gilbert, and Jeb, the men I’ve been telling you about.”
“Rankin,” Witt Gilbert nodded to him as he shook his hand, then smirked when he did the same with the others.“What’s your code name, Rankin?”
Paul grinned, and waggled his brows up and down, causing the tattoo in the middle of his forehead to move wildly.“Psycho.”
“Fitting,” Jeb said, then shook the other men’s hands with a grin.Before anyone could do anything, they all paused when they heard several motorcycles in the distance.If they hadn’t known what the sound was, they would have looked to the clear blue sky to see if any dark, thunderous clouds had rolled in.The new arrivals looked at each other with a grin, because of the sound, it sounded like they were having fun on the curves out on the road, the same way the six of them had.When Paul realized they were slowing down, he turned to face the driveway, and after several minutes he saw the bikes start to arrive where he and his buddies stood.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”Paul demanded as he turned and glared at Witt.“I told you I only wanted to talk to George.”
“Sorry,” George said as he shut off his bike, removed his helmet, then continued to sit there and glare at the man standing next to his uncle.“We come as a package deal.If you wanted me, you get all of us.”He pointed to the others as they began shutting their bikes down and removed their helmets.Paul ground his teeth harder and harder as the people were revealed.Not only was George there, but he’d brought his former military team with him, along with his brother-in-law, who happened to be the president of the local motorcycle club, as well as the husband of the person Paul had kidnapped a time or two in the past.Paul also noted that several members of the club were present.As much as he wanted to ignore the others, he knew he had to stay and talk to them.There was no other way to get the information he and his own buddies sought.His only hope was for George, Colt, Hank, and the others to be understanding in what he was asking of them.
“Where’s Mary?”Colt asked as he dismounted from his bike, and looked over at Hogan, who was the president of yet another motorcycle club in the area.Paul also noted that Casey was there, another president from another club.
“At my house,” Hogan grinned.“Witt called and told me what was going on, and Mary came to spend time with the kids while Hayley was at work.”He then turned to the other men, and walked forward, holding out his hand.“Hogan Meyers, president of the Outcasts.”Introductions were made, and they all moved to the house, and Witt settled them around the gigantic dining room table they used when the kids were there for summer camp.
Once they were settled around the table, Witt and Jeb passed out bottles of water or cups of coffee to the newcomers, and before anyone said anything, he spoke in his best military voice.“I want you gentlemen to remember, this ismyhouse, and you’ll abide by my rules.Rankin asked if he could meet George on neutral territory, and I agreed.”He turned toward George, and the other bikers from the Steele Men, Outcasts, and Wanderers.“Before anything is done, I want you to hear him and his buddies out.”When no one said a word, he firmed his voice and barked out, “Did you hear me?”
“Yes, Sir,” all of the men said as they sat up straighter and nodded their heads, as one, they turned to look at Rankin on the other side of the table across from Colt Matthews and George Wittmore.
“First, I need to get something personal off my chest.George, I’m not here for the reason you think I am.I trust that everything is okay with Suzie.I’m trying not to be a bastard.I’m not.As long as I know she’s happy, then I’m okay with that.”
“She is,” George nodded and left it at that.
Paul drew in a deep breath and looked at the men who had come with him, then at the others who had just arrived.After receiving a nod from his comrades, he let the breath out in a rush. “Most of you here know why I left.”Paul looked over at one of the men and nodded to him.“Dave, I thank you for all the years I worked with you as a Sheriff’s deputy over in Franklin county, and for encouraging me to take the job the ATF and DEA offered me.Without getting into any details, you all know that I left here two years ago to infiltrate a motorcycle club that had the reputation of smuggling drugs, women, children, and even weapons from Tucson to San Diego.It went both ways.”
“I don’t understand,” Jeb spoke then.“What went both ways?”
“What they were running, it didn’t come from one place and go to the next.Whatever they were smuggling came out of both locations and went into both locations.”At Jeb’s confused look, the man called Snake spoke.
“They, I’m talking about the one percenters motorcycle club we infiltrated, would go over the border into Mexico from San Diego, kidnap women and children off the streets, and then take them to Tucson.In Tucson, they’d get more women and children, and take them back to San Diego to take across the border to sell.Because they did some of these activities south of the border, then it was classified as an international event.”
“Damn,” Jeb said with raised brows, then shook his head in disgust when the others did the same.
“The name I go by is Snake, I won’t tell you my real name, because I’m deep undercover with both the DEA and ATF.As is Psycho here, but it’s my understanding that you all know him as Paul Rankin.All of us here with Psycho are, technically we are still cops, but because of what we did to take out that motorcycle gang out west, we came up with an idea, and was granted permission to go with it.”
“What’s that?”Hank asked and scowled at the men sitting across from him.He would be the first one to admit that he didn’t judge a book by its cover, but seeing all these men with all their tattoos, and the hardened look in their eye, he didn’t want to meet them alone in a dark alley anytime soon.He’s been in some suspect places during his military career, and nothing scared him, but these guys were way up on his scale of men to avoid.
“We won’t get into details, because we want to protect both you and us, but we are going to be forming our own motorcycle club.We will have a different objective as to what regular clubs have.”He looked at Colt, Hogan, and Casey.“Psycho has told us that your clubs are of the good variety.You don’t do drugs, you don’t share your women, you don’t demand your members turn all their property over to you, you don’t take out life insurance policies on them, making yourselves the benefactor, you don’t demand that a member has to commit a murder in order to receive their center patch, and you sure as hell don’t deal in trafficking children.”He held up his hand to stop what they might say.“The group we’re starting will be us, along with others that will be joining us when they can.We all have fifteen to twenty years’ experience on a police force, and then an additional few years working with Flynn and Kessler from the DEA and ATF.With that experience, we will be forming our group, and once we’re established we will be taking out these one percenters.We all still hold a badge, by the way.”
“Where do we come in?”Colt asked.
“To answer your questions,” Paul said.“All of us here are cops, working undercover.Again, we won’t tell you all the details of what we’ll be doing, but as Snake just said, we’ll be forming a group and to make money, we’ll be having different runs.You know, pig roasts, dice runs, poker runs, the same thing as you guys do, but we know of several local bike clubs, where we will be setting up shop, that were like the Vultures were here a few years back.”Paul watched as the others sat up straighter and paid attention.Everyone across from him knew what he was talking about.
“You’ll be taking these fuckers out?”Colt asked.
“Yes, but don’t worry,” Paul quickly held up his hand when he saw the questions on their faces.“It won’t be anywhere near here, it’s in an entirely different state several hours away from here.These people you see before you, including myself, will be the founding charter members of our group.I’m the President, Snake is the Vice President, Bull Dog and Wheels are the road captains, Vulture is our Sargeant at Arms, and Hillbilly is our enforcer.”
“What’s your club name?”Colt asked as he moved uncomfortably in his chair.
“Tainted Shield MC.Like I said, we still carry police shields, but they are a little tainted.”Paul sighed and shook his head.“What I did back when I joined the Vultures as an undercover, and then what I did to your wife, that proves that I’m tainted, but still a good guy.I know you nor your wife think so, but I did what I did back then to try to get to the bottom of what you guys were investigating.I know I should have told you first, but I didn’t see any other way to help you.”He shrugged, waiting to see if anyone would correct him.When they didn’t, he looked at all of them, then turned to the first person that spoke.
“First,” Riley said as he took a sip from his bottle of water.“I’m sure Colt, Hogan, and Casey can tell you this better, because they operate their own clubs their own way, but I wouldn’t be calling yourselves a group.To me, that shows you lack the knowledge of what you’re doing.”
“So, what do we refer to ourselves as?”Bull Dog asked.
