The One I Need (Snakes Henchmen MC 2)

The second those cunts flashed the camera to Willow, I thought Hammer was gonna turn into the fuckin' Hulk and smash everyone's heads in, and then find those fuckers and end them too.

I have no doubt that this war – because it is a war – is gonna end in the deaths of many. Every member of that club will be disposed of. And they have their new president to thank for that.

“Four hours is all we have to save my daughter.” Shepard slams his fists down on the meeting table, hunched over the thing.

He isn't taking this well at all. Not that anyone would expect him to. Willow may not be of his blood, but that girl is his daughter. She means so much to all of us. We all want her home safe.

Trouble is, we know what the fuckers want, but they're playing games with us, won't tell us where the hell they're keeping Willow, nor where they even want Shepard to go, so how the hell is our Prez supposed to give himself up to them? They're playing with us, they're enjoying watching our Prez going out of his mind. No doubt that's what they want, it'll be easier to kill him that way.

Not fuckin' happening. They ain't getting their damn hands on our Prez!

“Four hours. They've already made their damn point by beatin' the crap outta her.” I've never seen Shepard almost collapse before. But right now, he does. He slumps down in his chair, Jett standing by his side, hand on his shoulder. “My little girl.” He mumbles.

“It's gonna be okay, Dad. We are going to find her. We'll bring her home.”

“We need some outside help.”

“We don't need outside help, Hammer.”

“Yes, we do!” He screams at Jett while getting to his feet. This is killing him, I can see it clear as day.

“He's right.” Shepard looks up. “Sit down, Hammer.” He does. “I want you to find this Exorcist person. I know you can. I know you hired him to avenge Cindy.”

Oh, fuck, no.

Both Jett and Red's eyes shoot to me. Yes, they know who Nova really is. Jett might be her brother, but she's my woman, only I can agree to this.

I shake my head slightly. I won't let her get involved in this. I won't lose her!

But am I being selfish?

After all, the girl is a trained killer. The Snakes might kill, but we ain't trained killers. I have a lot of faith in my girl, I know she can handle herself and anything this world has to throw at her. And this is Willow we're talking about, the girl I grew up with. The little girl I, along with Jett, and every other member of this MC has spent forever protecting. She's Nova's sister. Can I really just keep Nova out of this when I know deep down we could and more than likely will lose Willow without her help?

Ain't no man wants to admit that he needs a woman's help with something like this. But I gotta face facts, my girl is no shrinking violet. She is a violent killer, strong and proud. Physically stronger than half the men in this club. If we are to get Willow back in one piece, we're going to need Nova's help.

“I know where to find what you're lookin' for.” I look to Jett. “Say nothin' until I come back.”

He nods.

“What do you know, Tank?”

“You'll find out soon enough, Prez. I'll be twenty minutes. Nobody go anywhere.”

Takes me less than five minutes to get to Coral's with the speed I'm doing. I park my bike and rush inside without knocking. There's no time for that shit right now.

“Tank, what are you doing here?”

“Where's Nova?”

“I'm here.” Yes, she is. Walking out of the kitchen and into the den, holding Ember, whose eyes widen with delight when she sees me. “What's wrong?”

I take Ember from her arms, kiss her chubby cheek and hand her to Coral. “I need you to take care of her for a while. I need Nova to come with me. It's important.”

“Of course.” Coral. Never asks questions, just seems to know when something is too important to talk about. Also knows Stryker will fill her in when he gets home.

I take Nova's arm, ignoring her protests and drag her out of the house. “Tank!” She shrugs free of me and folds her arms around herself.

I wish she wouldn't be so stubborn right now, she fuckin' knows what it does to me. If this wasn't a life or death situation, I'd be fuckin' her up against my bike right here, right now, neighbors be damned!

But this is life or death. Willow is in danger and we need Nova's help more than we've ever needed anyone's help before.

We've lost too many men and women over the years to violent deaths because of rival clubs, including my parents. They target us because we're the mother charter. Try and take us all out and take over our turf. They might take out a few of ours, but we'll end every one of theirs.

You wanna mess with the Snakes? You and everyone you love will suffer.

The motherfuckers who took Willow will soon learn that.

But we can't risk losing her, she's a massive part of this club, every one of us is feeling it. Everything we've done since Cindy was killed to protect the women of this club suddenly means nothing because it wasn't enough, they still took her, they've hurt her. None of us wants to think about what else they might have done. Those Dogs are known for raping and torturing women, it would mean nothing to them to take turns with Willow.

What's their excuse for taking Will from us?

Our Prez killed one of their men.

Lie.

Shepard tries to keep the peace between clubs where he can. You cross him, you die. Simple.

Most clubs work with us, not against. They know it's better to go with what Shepard tells them. They can run their turf without the whole sex trafficking thing. Don Vidal does not like that shit. Anything else? Yes. But Shepard made a deal with the Don to make sure we keep things peaceful as best we can. We do that, he won't start a war with us. No one crosses the Don, he would end every MC in America.

The guy talks out of his ass if you ask me. But what the fuck do I know?

Then you got some MC's like those Devil Dog, Barber Bastards, who don't want to work with us. Those who defy even Vidal. They wanna take over the biggest MC charter this side of the Atlantic. Us. So they make their little plans, wait until they think it's perfect before striking.

The women of the club are rarely out alone anymore. Someone is always with them. It might sound like prison, but these women are our lives. Would you risk your girl’s life? No. No one would. These women aren't dispensable to us.

Until Nova came into my life, I never really understood Shepard's need to trail the girls, to make sure they went out in groups and always with a prospect trailing them, so if anything happened, he could call us and we'd be there in minutes to deal with it. Now I understand the need to keep them safe.

Willow wasn't taken while she was out shopping for shoes, or whatever it is women do while out and about. Willow was home waiting for Jordan, her fiancé, a prospect with the club, renamed Trace, to come home. Trace was busy dealing with a clean-up Jett had ordered him to do. That's what we have prospects for. It doesn't matter that Trace will be Jett's brother-in-law, and mine, I guess. It means nothing. We all had to go through the same shit as prospects, even Jett. His grandfather was Prez, his dad VP, didn't stop them giving him shit jobs to do in order to prove he was worthy of his membership patch with the Snakes.

As soon as Trace was done he should have gone home. But he didn't. Trace received a phone call to let him know his grandfather had died. So he shot straight over to his grandmother's place. No one could blame him for that.

Back to Willow.

Those motherfuckers must have been watching her house. They waited until Trace was out of there before breaking in and taking her. She'd put up a fight, the state of the place was evidence of that.

Like I said earlier, motherfuckers stated in the live feed they sent that they wanted Nova. But any of Shepard's daughters would do. If they wanted Nova so badly they should have gone to our place to find her, not Willow's, dumb cunts.

If anything could hurt Shepard. It's this. Hurt a man's daugh

ter and he won't be in the right mind to think straight. You can take down a man with nothing on his mind but his daughter, and nothing in his heart but pain and anger. A man like that becomes reckless.

Ain't nobody taking out our Prez. We're too fuckin' big, too smart, too strong, and now we have the one thing all MCs would kill for, the one weapon that could end every MC around. My girl. Nova. The Exorcist.

I grab her face in my hands and kiss her softly before resting my forehead against hers. “We need you, baby. You're the only one who can help us find Willow before it's too late.” She nods against me. I lift up and look at her. There's no cockiness in her expression. No, “I told you so,” just understanding. She's good at what she does, if anyone can find Willow, it's Nova.

We have all the firearms we could ever need, more explosives underground than the damned army. But we can't do this on firepower alone.

“I'm going to have to tell them who I really am.” It's not a question, she knows what needs to be done.

“Yes. I wouldn't ask you to do this for any other reason than finding your sister and bringing her home alive.”

“I could just find her myself. There's no need to bring anyone else into this.”

“This isn't like your other assignments, Nova. You're not just going in there to kill someone. This is a rescue and the possible takedown of a whole MC. We need your help, but you won't be going alone. Please, baby.”

She nods and smiles, no argument. “Okay. Anything you say.”

Why do I not believe her when she says that?

The clubhouse is eerily quiet when we arrive. Tank told me that they're all in the meeting room, even the prospects, which is unusual when they're not usually allowed to hear club business without being full patched members.