prepared him for shit like this.” Lynch was Badger’s sponsor, and he took his role seriously. Knowing him like I did, I had no doubt that he was holding himself responsible for what had happened. “Poor kid didn’t stand a chance.”
“Don’t.” Viper turned to face him, looking him dead in the eye. “None of us would’ve been prepared for something like this.”
“Maybe, but I can’t help but feel partly responsible.” His voice was riddled with anguish as he asked, “What are we going to do with him?”
“The kid doesn’t have any family to contact, so we’ll take him in and clean him up. Once we get him ready, I’ll give Gary a call down at the funeral home to set up the cremation.” Sadly, this wasn’t the first time we’d found ourselves in this kind of situation, so we’d already established a protocol. Whenever a brother was killed and had no family or burial request, we called Gary. He owned the local funeral home. We’d made it worth his while to tend to our deceased. Once he’d cremated the body, we’d have a ceremony on the grounds and a last ride to spread the ashes. It was our way of paying tribute to those who rode alongside us, celebrating the life they’d dedicated to the club. Viper glanced down at Badger and shook his head. “Under the circumstances, we can’t do a last ride until we’ve dealt with the assholes who did this.”
“Understood.”
We carried Badger’s body into the infirmary and laid him down on one of the beds. Doc came over and emotion filled his eyes as he looked down at our young prospect. “Damn shame. The kid was gonna make a hell of a brother.”
“Yes, he was.”
Doc started cutting away at his charred leather cut and blood-soaked clothes, and when he pulled it back, my stomach sank at the sight of all the cuts and stab wounds that covered his burnt chest. From the looks of it, they’d been torturing the poor kid for days. Like the rest of us, Viper was distraught by the sight and grabbed a container from the counter, slamming it against the wall. “Damn it!”
“We’ll get ‘em, Prez,” Lynch assured.
“You’re damn straight we will.” Looking more eager than ever, Viper looked to me as he said, “We need to see if Shotgun’s made any progress with Grant.”
I nodded, then followed him out the door and down to the holding room. When we walked up to the window, Shotgun was towering over Grant as he sat in a chair with his hands bound behind his back. With his bruised and swollen face, he looked like he was on his last leg. Shotgun’s voice was low and threatening as he warned, “You’re not gonna be able to hold out forever. You might as well save yourself the trouble and tell us what we need to know.”
“I can’t...Casey...Sadie....I just can’t.”
Viper was looking straight ahead as he asked, “Who’s Casey and Sadie?”
“Got no idea.”
“It’s time to find out.”
Viper opened the door, and I followed him inside. I stood back as Viper went over to Shotgun. They spoke for a moment, and Shotgun filled him in on the fact that Casey and Sadie were Grant’s daughters. As soon as he had all the information, Viper went over and grabbed a blowtorch off the counter. He took it over and lit it in front of Grant. “Your buddies did a real number on one of my prospects, and they still have another. Got no idea what they’re doing to him, but I got a feeling it’s more of the same. So, my patience is running thin.”
Viper took the torch and lowered it to Grant’s knee causing him to bellow out in agony. “Please, for the love of God, stop!”
“You want me to stop, then tell me what I want to know!”
“I can’t!”
“You can and you will!” Viper growled, still holding the flame against Grant’s leg. The smell of burnt flesh filled the room, making it difficult to breathe, but Viper wasn’t letting up. “You want your daughters to make it out of all this alive, then you better get to talking cause we’re the only chance they’ve got.”
“He’ll kill them just like he killed Donavan’s kids...burned them alive when he tried to walk away.”
“He won’t get the chance.” Viper turned off the torch as he told him, “Not if we get to him first.”
“Don’t you see, you won’t win...not against him. He won’t let you.” Grant seemed completely sincere as