Ice (Regulators MC 1)

With my gun trained on dipshit two, he moves from hiding. Face to face with me, the man shows no fear.

My brothers begin moving the crates as the women start to panic. One by one, my men are passing the still caged women out of the room to Hammer. Soon, they will be moving safely away from this hellhole we have rescued them from. I don’t let myself relax, though. There is still work to be done here by moving up the floors until one of us takes out Sandoval, ending his little empire of selling drugs, weapons, and flesh.

“This is bigger than you and your team of heroes,” Dipshit two says to me with a sick smile. “Kill me. You won’t end this. You won’t find them all.”

Disgusted with his apparent twisted pleasure in the threat, I lunge at him, surprising him before he can put his hands up to defend himself.

I grab him by the throat and shove him backwards until his back is against a cement pillar before I pin him in a choke hold. Ignoring his gurgles and gasps for air, I growl. “Mark my words, asshole, since they’ll be some of the last you ever hear. If it’s the last fuckin’ thing I do, I will shut this setup down and every single person involved in it. I’m not who you think I am.”

Grabbing the front of his shirt, I shove him forward and he stumbles. Fighting against my hold, I maneuver him in front of me and start walking towards the service elevator. This way, I can approach upstairs from a different entrance point. I plan to use the piece of shit as a human shield, just as he tried to do with the helpless woman he hid behind.

“You won’t take me alive,” he yells, ripping himself out of my grip before lunging at Rocks and grabbing for his gun.

There is a shuffle between them as I train my gun on the Cuban scumbag. My finger tightens on the trigger the second I know I can take a shot without hitting my man.

Pop.

The sound of the weapon firing rings out as both men go deathly still. Rocks stares his attacker in the eye, unflinching and uncaring, as we all watch dipshit two fall to the ground. The blood quickly starts to pour out of him, and I breathe a sigh of relief that he took the bullet and not my brother. No matter how skilled the soldier, you can never be a hundred percent sure when taking that kind of shot, and sometimes the choice is taken out of your hands in the name of necessity. It was either take the shot or risk Sandoval’s man taking control of Rock’s gun and ending his life.

Tying the gravely injured man to the pillar to bleed out, we leave him behind and move to help load the last girls before moving on. I might have been ready to head upstairs a few seconds ago with my hostage, but the faster we get these girls out of here, the sooner we know we can move on. It also ensures we aren’t worrying about whether or not Hammer has been able to get them transported to safety. We can’t take the chance that one of the subjects Coal is engaging upstairs might make his way down here and sneak up on my men.

Once we load the last crate, I bang the back of the van for Hammer to pull off so the other two vans can switch places and be ready to pick us up.

Just as I am making my way to the stairwell entrance, Coal is exiting it with a gun pointed at Sandoval’s head.

“You and your band of brothers come here for what, Ice? I should have known that a bunch of low class bikers would betray me, steal my stock, and try to take over my business.” The venom in his voice rolls off my name.

“I’m not here for your fucking business; I’m here to shut you down,” I respond coldly.

Shock crosses his face. “I underestimated you and your club.”

“No, you misunderstood our objective.” He looks at me inquisitively. Unwilling to explain myself, I end our pointless conversation with a promise. “You’ll soon understand.”

Hammer pulls up to us, and Coal pushes Sandoval into the van then gets in beside him. Big Jim climbs up and immediately starts to restrain our captive with zip ties under Coal’s watchful eyes. Hammer rounds the van, letting Skid take over driving that vehicle, while I hop in the front passenger seat, leaving Hammer to do clean up in the hotel. Rocks left with his team in the other van after loading the last girls. Hammer and his team will finish up and meet us later.

We take off and round the corner of the parking garage. As we do, a black sedan roars past us, entering the facility. I yell out Hammer’s name into our comm. link, trying to warn him of the incoming threat.