Road Tripped (Satan's Devils MC Utah #1) - Manda Mellett Page 0,46

front of us, and signs, Wheels down in ten.

I give him a thumbs up.

Road touches my arm lightly to get my attention on him. He points at my hands, then at himself, his gestures followed by a questioning rise of his eyebrow.

“You want to learn?”

He shrugs, then nods.

Maybe this partner thing might work, if we can communicate even when my aids are off. I start to feel more optimistic about working alongside Road. He could have dismissed me when he discovered my weakness, but instead it appears he wants to find ways around it.

Ten minutes later, we do indeed touch down, Preacher bringing the plane in smoothly, with only a slight jerk as the wheels meet the ground. As I turn my hearing aids back up, Road’s face fills with visible relief as we taxi along the runway and finally come to a halt in front of a hangar, not much different to the one we’d left only a few hours before.

“It’s another private airfield,” I tell Road, seeing him looking around curiously.

“You’ve used it before?”

While I’m unbuckling my seat belt, I reply, “No, but Duty will have set it all up for us. He’s great at logistics and seems to have contacts everywhere. Finding a discreet airfield for us to use near Santa Barbara would have been easy for him.”

“You avoid the big airports?”

I nod. “When we can. We’d rather not draw attention to ourselves.”

“So, what’s the plan?”

“Snatch didn’t fill you in?” The question is redundant, I can tell from the look on his face. “Duty will have arranged accommodations for us, and I suspect we’ll head there. Then we wait for more info to come through. Hopefully it will be a clean in and out—we’ll rescue the kid and go home.”

Road looks disbelieving. “That’s how it works?”

I shrug. “That’s what we hope for, but often it’s not like that. We’ll plan for every eventuality and be ready to change course based on information those back at base feed us.”

“You rescue kids a lot?”

“Kids, men, women,” I confirm. “We do what we can when a call comes in, Road. Look, Pip will explain what you need to know. For now, our focus is the mission on hand.”

He looks at me, then nods sharply. “What about the kid’s parents? Will we make contact with them?”

I have to remember Road is completely ignorant of how we work. “The parents have been told not to contact the cops, and they’ve decided to follow those instructions. There’s a risk the kidnappers might have eyes on them, and if so, they’ll be suspicious of any stranger visiting their home. A tradesman, or salesman, for example, entering at this time would be risky. The kidnappers might think it was an undercover cop. We stay well away so nothing looks out of the ordinary. One wrong move, and we could cause the death of a child.”

That brings the seriousness home to Road. A stare, another of his chin lifts, then he follows my lead as we exit the plane. Road is carrying his stick, some of us hefting the duffel bags Rascal hands out over our shoulders once we’re outside. He’ll have packed them with all the equipment we could need to rescue the little girl. As always, I offer up a plea to whichever deity might be listening that we get to her fast and before she becomes too traumatised, or worse, abused at the hands of the men who’ve taken her. It’s not been unknown for photos to arrive showing things being done to which no parent would ever want their daughter subjected, or a severed finger is used to hurry the payout along. Speed, as always, is of the essence.

As we’d been told, two SUVs are waiting, and we separate four of us to each. Road is with me, obviously, and Snatcher is driving, while Piston, after laying his burden down carefully behind the rear seats, goes to the front passenger door and sits beside him.

As we drive, a call comes in. Snatcher answers and puts it on speaker.

“Duty. Whatcha got?”

Duty’s voice comes through. “I’ve narrowed it down as best I can. The call came from a residential area where there are a dozen houses or so. I’ve gone through the records, most have been owned for a year or more, some rented out. The newest tenant was six months back. There’s one that’s supposedly vacant at present.”

“Sounds like it could be our target,” Snatcher replies. “Or the one rented most recently if