the darkness, but a moment later, the kid tripped and went face-down, skidding across the grass with a quiet yelp.
“Still got it,” he muttered, and went to collect his captive.
Twenty-Six
“I wanna question them,” Carter said, his voice firm, his arms folded. Reese hadn’t ever seen him try to project anything like authority, but he was doing an admirable job of it tonight, and, given he was the only patched member present, he supposed it was only right – and easy – to follow orders.
Interrogations were never held in the clubhouse, a rule that Reese already knew, and which Carter reinforced. Evan and Deacon were sent ahead to the bike shop, along with specific instructions given by Carter in a calm, authoritative tone.
He and Tenny had worked silently to bind their three captives with duct tape, and they sat now huddled against the bar, waiting to be transported, all awake now, and in various stages of panic. All staring up at them with wide eyes and trembling lips, pale, hair plastered to their sweaty foreheads. Two of them Reese recognized from the night outside Bell Bar, when he and Tenny had jumped down from the glassless window and frightened them, their little charade with Carter. The third was unknown, but just as greasy, pimply, and unremarkable as his friends.
Reese glanced toward Tenny, but Tenny didn’t glance back; watched their captives with hawkish intensity, eyes gleaming, lips frozen in a tight smile. Anticipation, Reese thought, with a mounting sense of foreboding.
The change in Carter was remarkable. He propped his hands on his hips, and there was something very Ghost-like about his stance, and his air, despite the baggy workout shorts and t-shirt. He wasn’t wearing any of the patched leather regalia of a Dog – the regalia that struck fear in the hearts of regular citizens. By all rights, he shouldn’t have looked intimidating, with his golden hair, and his blue eyes, and his clean-cut style…but something had shifted in him. Something dark and hard making itself known at last. Whatever it was, whatever had inspired it, it had these three boys cowering.
“Jimmy,” he said, nudging one in the shoe with his own. “What brings you out tonight?” There was a hint – just a faint one – of Mercy’s Cajun drawl in his voice. He’d watched the extractor do this, and was going to copy his tactics as best he could, of which Reese approved. He wondered how far Carter would want to take it.
The boy – Jimmy – took a big breath and said, “We were just out for a joyride. Please don’t tell my dad – he’ll be pissed we took the boat.”
“A joy ride. With bolt cutters,” Carter deadpanned. “Right. Try again.”
Jimmy looked up at him, breathing harshly through his mouth a moment. And then his jaw firmed, and his nostrils flared, and he said, “You hit me in the head with a fucking rock. Your buddy bounced Kyle’s head off the concrete. You’ll get arrested for that.”
Carter regarded him, and then slowly sank into a crouch, his voice dropping low. “Only if you can prove it.”
Jimmy’s eyes widened.
Reese looked again toward Tenny, an automatic gesture, seeking out his partner in arms, his club brother, his friend, delighted with this transformation in Carter.
But Tenny still wouldn’t look at him.
Thumping footfalls heralded Evan’s return. “We’re ready.” His voice quavered a bit, and Reese remembered that he’d been worked over in London; he knew exactly what awaited these boys.
Carter stood, and turned to face Reese. “Call Mercy.”
Reese nodded.
“Gag them and bring them.”
Tenny finally moved, but he never made eye contact with Reese as they sealed the boys’ mouths with duct tape, hoisted them to their feet, and marched them out into the night.
Some prisoners would have tried to make a run for it, even with their hands bound behind their backs. Reese and Tenny could have managed to get loose, incapacitate their captors, and then walk, not run, away.
But these were high school boys, and so they walked, and went into the bike shop when ushered, where the windows had been covered with black trash bags, and three chairs awaited above the drain in the floor. They sat when pushed into the chairs, and Reese secured them all himself, to make sure the tape would hold.
“Alright, Jimmy,” Carter said.
Tenny stepped forward and snatched the tape from his mouth, leaving him gasping and hissing.
“You ready to tell me what you were really doing?”
Behind him, Reese heard Deacon mutter, “Shouldn’t we wait