Page 21 of Found Through Fire

“Wait a minute. You got a hold of the Fox? Does he know that this is an MC? They say that he’d rather work for cartels and the mafia instead of us. We can handle this within the club. You should cancel the contract,” Red says after a moment.

Jaz meets Red’s eyes, smirking. “I won’t. I took care of it, and I just barged in here to let you know that it’s done. The Fox already has her, and is going to meet me somewhere to return her.”

“The Fox got her?” Blitz says with relief in his voice, releasing an exhale like he can finally breathe again. “I’ll go pick her up.Jaz, you stay here, and I’ll bring her home. Send me the location of the meet.”

“Hold the fuck up!” Red says as Blitz stands from his chair. “Your wife was able to get a contract with the Fox after a few hours? How much did it cost? I hear that he won’t even look at a job for less than half a mil,” he asks, swinging his look from Blitz to Jaz. “And you’re saying that the Fox got her back in the five hours that we’ve been holed up in here?” He looks at Jaz like he’s trying to find inconsistencies in her story.

Jaz just raises an eyebrow in response. “I called three hours ago. The first two hours of your ‘planning’ took too long for my taste.”

I finally speak up when I feel that no one’s grasping how weird this sounds. “Blitz, this doesn’t sound right. Do we really believe that the Fox just dropped everything, had the time to travel here, make a plan, and retrieve Sophia in three hours? And now you want to go without backup to a location that you don’t know to pick up your daughter that a killer has?” What if it’s a trap by the Reapers to get the National President and his daughter?

Blitz turns to Jaz, having another conversation with just a look. Jaz nods, and Blitz fixes his cold glare on me, chilling me to the bone. I broke one of the biggest rules in the MC. I disrespected not just a Charter President, but the fuckin’ National President, in front of his club. I’ve witnessed him shoot Brothers in the past for doing what I just did.

I’m not sure if it’s because he is so worried about his daughter or if he is actually seeing my concerns, but after a tense moment of waiting for a bullet to hit me, he shocks the shit out of me and says, “Smoke, you’re coming with me, then. Only you, since you’re questioning my decisions. You’ll stay back. You can be visible, but give me space to meet with the Fox,” he says in a tone that does not leave room for arguing. At the end of theday, he is the National Pres, and we know not to question his decisions.

I stand up and walk towards the door, and Jaz gives me a worried look. I’m not sure who she’s worried about in this situation, but I just give a head nod and walk past her as I follow Blitz to the bikes.

“Follow me and don’t talk. When we get close, I’ll raise my hand. When you see that, you’re to stop. Do not get off your bike. You’re there to watch, not to interfere,” he says as he throws his leg over his bike and gets it started. I nod in response and do the same.

We head to the front gate. I’m just blindly following since he didn’t share the location with me. This entire situation is getting more and more strange as it plays out, but I am not making the mistake of questioning Blitz again when I don’t even have a title yet.

I follow him on a straight stretch for thirty minutes before he turns towards the older, industrial district in town. It’s mostly abandoned warehouses from when big manufacturers were based in Hidden Hills before they moved overseas to save money.

We hang a right into the block of factories, and Blitz gives me the signal. I stop, keeping my bike on, in case I have to get to him quickly if shit goes sideways. He keeps inching closer to the entrance of the building. I don’t see anyone else as he stops, turns off his bike, and takes out his phone. He glances around before stepping towards the open door. I’m assuming homeless people got it open and have been staying there.

I’m getting a little nervous about letting him walk into an abandoned building when we have no idea who’s in there. He’s a smart guy, so I don’t understand why he’s going in blind.

I’m about to start heading over when I see the silhouette of Sophia running out and jumping at him before he reaches thedoor. I let out a bated breath as I watch him catch her midair and hug her to his chest.

He looks up and starts talking to someone in the doorway that I cannot see. He nods and responds, his mouth moving as he still holds onto his daughter, not wanting to let go. After a few minutes of this, he sets his daughter down and moves towards the doorway. He must be saying something to him, because he steps out of sight.

After a second, he returns, holding something and nodding. He turns around and takes Sophia’s hand, walks to his bike, puts his helmet on her, and helps her get on the back. He starts it and passes me; I take that as my cue to follow him back to the clubhouse.

I still have a sense of unease that I can’t shake. That was way too easy for it to be over. But then it dawns on me—even if we got Sophia back, this war had started, and it has National’s full attention.

CHAPTER 8

BLITZ

This is fuckin’ ridiculous. I was going to stop at Hidden Hills clubhouse for a “visit” and make the introduction between the club and Michael. I was going to go in and make it look like I was making a visit because I was in the area. No one from the club knew we were here for a week. Fuck, they didn’t even know that most of my chapter was in town the day of the memorial.

This chapter’s gotten too comfortable, and now they’re making mistakes. What kind of 1% MC doesn’t know when an entire chapter is on their territory? After Will and Michael let me know the MC that tore apart their family wasmyfuckin’ club, I had more of a reason to stop in.

Usually, I stay the fuck out of chapter politics, but Lilly is family. I can’t do shit about what happened in the past, but I’ll sure as fuck make sure they know not to mess with her family again, even now that she’s gone. They’re still dealing with her loss and don’t need any more bullshit.

Over the twelve years that Will has been in our lives, she has been family—not just to Jaz, Sophia, and I, but to my entire club. She knows all of my guys’ names and the names of their families. Fuck, she’s even friends with some of the club girls. She savedmy Jaz and my baby when I couldn’t, and I can never repay her for that. Jaz became best friends with Lilly, and it was a done deal. Michael and I formed a friendship because of our wives and Willow, and now, he’s my best friend outside of the club.

Now Will went and saved Sophia again. When Jaz said she called her, I was surprised. Jaz knows that Will’s family, but we normally handle things “in house.” I haven’t told anyone outside of my club about Will’s business. The only reason that they know is because I got the go-ahead from Will and Michael. I know my guys would never betray her, and if they did—if they betrayed family—they’d have a fuckin’ bullet in them before they could blink. They also know there would be a good chance that it wouldn’t even be from the MC.

Michael’s business, Vital, is well known. I never had to hire him, but the nature of our businesses is something we have in common. I was able to vouch for every single one of the brothers in my club before I told them her secret. I’m not sure if I can do that with Hidden Hills with how much they’re slacking, but because of my loyalty to my club, I don’t have any other options.

I pull up to the warehouse to meet Will; she’s standing in the doorway, blocked from view since I called to give her the heads up that I had a tail. She looks conflicted, even through the smile that I see on her face when Sophia jumps to me, seeming relatively unharmed. Her long black hair is messy, but her beautiful face that looks just like her mother’s doesn’t look bad. It looks like she has a busted lip, but nothing life threatening. I’m pissed that she was hurt in any way, but I tried to brace myself for the worst.

I’m so fuckin’ thankful that Will was able to get her out fast. “Was it clean?” I rasp out, trying to hold back my anger at the world that’s been brewing all day. I am not an emotional guy, but this is the most scared that I have been in years, since my Jaz was taken twelve years ago.

“As clean as I could make it on short notice,” she replies, looking at her feet as she kicks at the concrete floor. It’s a nervous tick that she had when I first met her. I guess she hasn’t grown out of it.

“I know you wanted to go in with the MC, and I’m sorry if you’re upset, but I wasn’t going to give them the time to break Sophia,” she explains in a voice full of uncertainty, and it pulls at the spot in my chest that is reserved for Jaz and Sophia. Will hates it when the people she feels are family are upset with her. She kills people as a job, but she’s still as sensitive and selfless as the day that I met her, covered in blood and dirt, driving a van that she stole.