Page 47 of Bowser (Dragon Riders MC 2)
The radio stayed silent as I tried calling Ash again.
“He’s not responding at all?” Link asked.
“Nope,” Sly said.
“Not even a text?”
“Not one damn thing. Not even a fucking smoke signal.”
The radio beeped. “All right. New plan. I’m sending Knuckles back to the motel in my rented car and I’m hopping in front with our two prospects. He’ll settle things for us and make sure everyone’s good. But you two stick to the plan. Got it?”
“Got it, Link-o.”
“And quit calling me that idiotic name.”
I snickered. “I knew he’d hate it.”
Sly grinned at me. “I can do that, Link-y.”
I barked with laughter as Link grumbled over the radio.
“Stay on their tale. Let me know if more shit changes.”
Then, the radio went silent.
“Thanks for that,” I said.
Sly plucked his cellphone from my hand. “Anytime. Now, we need to keep our heads in the game. You good?”
Not one damn bit. “Yeah, I’m good.”
“Good.”
After sitting in that damn gas station for as long as we did, we were off again. We put a few cars in between us and the Golden Jags van, following them further away from Hillridge Springs. They weren’t headed back to New York, though. They were on a different route. I didn’t recognize the streets and the highways they should’ve been on to return home, and I felt something churning in my gut.
Something very, very bad.
“I don’t like this,” I murmured.
Sly shook his head. “Me, neither.”
“You think we should’ve taken them out at the gas station?”
“You ask me this now?”
I shrugged. “Just a thought.”
“Well, think out loud next time. I would’ve gladly ambushed those fuckers and gotten those girls out of there.”
“We still don’t have Skeleton, though. And if he’s got Hope, she might be collateral if we do something shitty.”
“You really think he’s got her?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know anything anymore.”
“Wait a second, who the fuck is that?”
We came to a stop at a stoplight. “What?”
He pointed. “Those people. There. In the van-side mirrors.”
I squinted to figure out what the hell he was talking about, and I saw it. There were two different guys driving that van now.
“They switched out their fucking drivers,” I murmured.
“I wonder what else they switched out, too,” Sly said.
I picked up the radio. “Link? It’s an emergency.”
The radio beeped. “What now?”
“They’ve switched out their front drivers. Probably why it took them so long to get situated at the gas station. And there’s no telling where the fuck those original guys are now.”
“Shit.”
Sly ripped the radio away from me. “They aren’t on a path back home, either.”
“What!?”
“I don’t know what roads we’re on right now, but we aren’t headed anywhere near home, nor are we headed back to Hillridge Springs.”
“You’ve been burned. You have to bail.”
I snatched the radio back. “We aren’t going anywhere. Those girls are still in that trailer.”
Link snickered. “I didn’t mean bail on the girls. I meant you two bail. Tell me where you guys are, and we’ll switch out. A switch for a switch. They have to know you’re there.”
“If they knew we were here, we’d be dead.”
“Not necessarily. Not if their endgame is an ambush.”
I looked over at Sly. “Got any ideas?”
Sly nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, let me have ‘em.”
He pointed. “Pull over.”
“What?”
He pointed again. “Pull over. Because they’re pulling over.”
I snapped my head back to the forefront and saw what was happening. The van was randomly pulling off to the side. I eased our car to a stop and tucked us beneath some shadows about five car lengths back from the van. But I wasn’t sure we were necessarily cloaked.
“Will someone talk to me?” Link asked.
I placed my mouth to the radio. “The van is stopped.”
“Where?”
“On the side of the road. I don’t know what highway we’re on.”
“Well, figure it out!”
Sly took the radio again. “Just give us a second. They’re opening the back of the van.”
We studied what they were doing as another car drove up. It was clear they all knew one another by the handshakes and the back-clapping hugs as all of the men got out. But once the trunk popped on the car that pulled up, my jaw hit the floor.
“Is that what I think it is?” I asked.
Sly lowered his voice. “I know that man.”
I looked over at him. “What?”
He pointed. “The man with blue hair. I know him. He’s the mastermind behind the Golden Jags’ designer drugs.”
“How the hell do you know that?”
He paused. “We all have a past, Bowser. Let’s just leave it at that.”
Link roared over the radio. “Someone tell me something!”
I sighed. “Link, they’re meeting up with the guy who designs their drugs. That’s not normal, right?”
“Not one damn bit. Tell me what’s happening, play by play.”
I squinted. “They’re offloading trunks from the black car that pulled up and into the back of the van.”
“Can you see the girls?”
“Yeah, I see them.”
