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"Ace! Get up." I blinked, the early dawn light began to come through the curtains. I couldn't have been sleeping for more than an hour or two.
"Ace."
I turned and was startled to see Gunner standing there with my phone in his hand.
"You must've left this on the dryer. It's been going off with all kinds of alarms. Charlie was up and thought it might be important, so she woke me."
I immediately sat up and started hitting buttons on my phone. "Someone tried to get into my house. We have to ride. Now. I'll make some calls."
"What's going on?" Alex sleepily said from beside me.
"Shh. Go back to sleep. Gunner, and I have to run out. Do not leave the house, okay? We'll be back. Reggie's outside watching the house. You're protected." I kissed her on her temple, then moved through the kitchen. Charlie was pouring coffee and speaking with Gunner in a hushed tone as I hustled into the laundry room. I grabbed my clothes and got dressed, all while my blood boiled. I hated the idea of anyone near my fucking property. I heard Charlie say to Gunner, "Be safe," as I walked back out to greet them.
"You ready?" I asked, lifting my chin at Gunner as his eyes met mine. He took one last, long swallow from a cup of coffee.
"Yeah. Let's ride."
As we rode to my house, I was grateful that the rain from last night had stopped. It was still getting cold, nearly too cold to ride. I was glad for my leather and that I had enough sense to put a bandana in my pocket the last time I did laundry so I could cover my face from the nearly freezing wind. Gunner wasn't as smart, and I knew he was freezing when we finally pulled up outside of my home.
I didn't want to pull into the garage in case my house had been breached. Gunner and I both had guns out as we walked the perimeter. I could see footsteps in the mud around my house. There was more than one man here, but it appeared that they were gone. A window on the back of my house had scratches like they tried to break it but couldn't get through the thick shatterproof glass.
"Fuck," I muttered a curse low in my throat, then moved to the back door and put in a code on the keypad for the door to unlock.
We moved through the house, checking from room to room. I didn't think that they had gotten in, but I had to be sure.
"It's clear," I finally said to Gunner after going through the entire house. We put our guns away just as I heard familiar pipes heading up the drive. "Shane's here."
"How the fuck do you do that?" Gunner was referring to my uncanny ability to tell bikes apart based on their pipes. Sometimes it was easy, but sometimes it had more to do with how the rider slowed than the actual pipes.
I shrugged. "Fill him in. I'm going to check my cameras."
I moved to my office and opened my laptop, waited while it did a retinal scan, and began to click through the various screens. Fuck. My first two cameras were taken out. Whoever this was probably wasn't Hades. They were too dumb to take out a camera. This person was good, but they weren't that good. I had four other cameras in various locations. I clicked on the first camera and moved through the feed. It faced the house, so I was able to see the black SUV as it pulled in and my gut roiled. I went through my other camera feeds and saw several large men wearing all black. They kept their heads down, so it was hard to identify them.
"Was it Hades?" Shane asked from the doorway.
I looked up, "I think this SUV is the same from the hotel last night." I zoomed in on the plate. "Do you have that screenshot of the plates you took last night?"
Shane walked over to me. "I do, hold on." He scrolled through his phone and handed it to me. I zoomed in on the image, and sure enough, it matched. Shane, looking over my shoulder, cursed, "Shit."
"Who is it?" Gunner asked, walking in as Shane cursed.
"Seems to be the guys we staked out last night."
"Not Hades," I added.
"Gunner, make some calls. I want eyes on that hotel at all times. Tell them not to take a cage and to be as inconspicuous as possible," Shane ordered.
"You think it's the grandpa?" I looked to Shane for his response. That's where my mind was, but I wasn't one hundred percent positive that is who it was.
"It'd make sense."
"It would to an extent, but it doesn't seem like the old man gave that many fucks about her. I mean, it stands to reason that it could be because he sent men after us in Colombia, but I'm really not sure. Something feels off."
"I know what you mean," Shane added.
"What do you want to do with Alex?"
"What do you mean?"
"I don't think you should keep her here. You should think about going to a safe house?"
"Our houses in the Alleghenies aren't really all that secret anymore, but I think I know a place I can take her where we'd be safe. I don't like the idea of taking her out of town, but she's been through enough already."
"Yeah, I slept like shit after we got back. I kept thinking how Gunner must've been hearing about what she'd been through. If that was my sister that was kept from me and used the way she was, I'd seriously be livid. We need to keep a mind to that, and hope he doesn't go all half-cocked."
Heavy footsteps thundered down the hallway, and I immediately knew something was up. Gunner ran into the room, causing me to jerk my head to the doorway. "Charlie just called. Reggie's been shot, and they got Alex."
Fuck.