Chapter 6

Shadow POV "Update?" I called out once the meeting was over and I could get to the surveillance room. The meeting dragged on too long; we know a group of bikers are out and about, causing trouble. They call themselves a club, 'The Raiders,' but they are not registered anywhere as a club; most have bank accounts, or the name is registered, but that club had nothing in that name that we could find legally to make them a legit club, and what they are doing was giving other riders a bad reputation. They don't come to the annual club meetings, where most registered clubs meet up. We don't have many club wars, but they happen from time to time when one club grows and wants more space, encroaching on another club's turf. Yes, don't get me wrong, we are no angels and break the law often, but we are not out hurting the public, like these guys are; they are out and about riding in like the Wild West and doing drive-by shootings. That's not our club's thing, or that of those in those meetings; they want to stop that group before it gets out of hand. Even the police approached our club and asked what was going on; we had no answer, but we promised to investigate. "We tracked the woman; she left the back of the club, dumped the rubbish, saw the shooting up close- too close. The footage was dark, but we could see her jump the fence, and we found her again the next street over, entering a house. Later we saw her enter a shed and ride out on an Indian Brave, Blue, license plate PIP001. Heading north." Got to love those street cameras; they make tracking people in the town so much easier, if they have them. "Has Pip ridden through our town yet?" Pip would have had to ride through our town; it's the only main road heading north. "Yes, about two hours before you arrived, topped up her bike, ate and continued north." "Right, keep me in the loop. We ride out in a few hours; need to get some sleep." I had a room in the clubhouse for when I was too tired to ride home. My father would never kick us out of our room; Mum would make his life miserable if he did, even though Dad was the club's boss. Mum was the boss when it came to us and our home. Someone was in my room when I opened the door. I stepped back out and headed down the hallway to find Mum; she might have assigned someone to the room. Although it's rare, it's not impossible if Mum thought we wouldn't be home for a while. But she would normally ask me if it was alright. Mum was in the kitchen, going over the grocery list of things we needed to stock up on. "Mum?" I called out as I entered. "Hey, what's up? Thought you were going to catch some sleep." Mum came over and hugged me. She was a small woman, coming up to my chest; even on tiptoes, she could no longer reach my cheek to kiss it or run her fingers through my hair. "Did you assign someone to my room?" I don't know how anyone else would get in unless it were for cleaning; Mum had the spare keys. "No. What is someone in there? Come, let's go. Drag their ass out of there." Mum stormed out of the kitchen; her long strides ate up the floor. She was used to taking long strides to keep up with Dad, who forgot to take smaller steps to accommodate her normal walking. Mum pushed the door open and strode to the bed, pulling the covers off the woman lying there. The woman screamed at the sudden action, turning and sitting up. She was naked; her hands moved to cover her chest. Her mouth hanging open, her face flushed with embarrassment, I was glad I went to my mother for this; no one would believe me. If I tried to kick her out, I could already imagine the lies she'd tell. "Want to explain why you thought it was okay to climb into Shadow's bed when he's not home? Or uninvited? Trudy!" Mum spat out, using the tone of voice that made most people stand straighter. "I wanted to be here when he came home, thought he might need some relief," Trudy replied shyly, her guilty look fading fast. Mum leaned over, grabbed her by the ear, and pulled her off the bed; my mother might be small, but she was strong. "Where did you get the key to get in?" I asked before Mum led her out the door. "When Amanda was here cleaning, I came and helped her and pretended to lock the door when we left; she didn't double-check." "Of course, Amanda didn't check; she would have trusted you. Guess what: you just lost some trust and privileges. You are on laundry duty for the next month." Mum dragged her out the door. I bent down, picked up her clothes, and threw them out, then slammed the door shut. When will those girls stop trying to get into my bed? I am not claiming any of them. Plus, I found the one I want, and I have to get her, bring Pip home safely, then work on making her mine. Sounds easy enough, but I bet she will make me work for it. Sleep hit me the moment my head hit the pillow. I was exhausted, so it wasn't so surprising. Four hours later, I woke up, showered and headed for food, and found the rest of my team. We've been a team for years; we were friends at school and know each other well. Sometimes it's scary when we know what each other is thinking. They were eating in the kitchen, waiting for me, the last to arrive. "We are out in half an hour; time to find Pip and bring her back here. You want her, don't you? I saw that look in your eyes." Spider spoke softly, keeping it quiet, and looked around the kitchen to make sure no one was listening. "Our person of interest is heading north; she had a few hours ahead of us. We need to move fast to catch up and hope our surveillance team has seen her pass through any towns and can update us while we are on the road. Grab what you need; we will be gone for a while. Finding our person of interest is only part of the problem. Convincing her to return with us might be the bigger problem." I informed the men. We hit the road, moving a little faster than the legal limit; music played in my ear. It was Spider's turn to pick the tunes. The weather was cool but not wet; the scenery was pretty, but we didn't have time to look around and enjoy it; this was a personal mission. We drove, stopped, ate, topped up the tank, and moved on. Twice we had to stop and sleep till we reached the town where it was confirmed Pip was still in; we parked down the road from the house she was seen taking in her bags, parked up her bike, and waited. Pip returned to the house, and we watched a light go on. "Gotch ya." Spider said, with a grin. He wasn't named Spider for nothing; if we can't get in the door, he can scale almost any wall. Spider and Jacks waited downstairs, searching the wall while Jugs and Riddler looked for her bike. Jugs followed me up the stairs to the door where we had seen the lights come on. I took a deep breath; butterflies settled in my stomach, unlike anything I had ever felt before. I swallowed, raised my hand, and knocked. The door flew open. There she was, the love of my life, yet she didn't know it yet, full of fire and anger.