Luckily for us, Harmony’s so-called father was famous, and when there was a famous person lurking in unlikely places, it was like a homing beacon.
It didn’t take Mix and Wrench long to find information online that there had been sightings in the area of the rich music producer. From there, tracking down where he was staying only took a few phone calls and a bit of cash. Knowing that he would be renting a house because he didn’t own one in this state, unlike the thirty-six other states in which he did.
We didn’t take as many men with us on this trip. Daniel Ashley was a dangerous criminal, part of a large enterprise that stole women. That asshole needed the protection of armed guards. Edward Keaton was wealthy and reasonably famous. But these type of men usually only traveled with a handful of bodyguards who were only there to protect him from paparazzi and wannabe musicians, who’d bail him up in the streets with their self-recorded music.
The house he had chosen was in the countryside as opposed to the city. It suited us just fine because I’m sure there would be plenty of room to hide his body if I found out he had touched a hair on my girl’s head.
Adrenaline coursed through my veins as the eight of us, four of my boys and four of Optimus’, road the long paved driveway lined with perfectly spaced trees. The house that came into view had a large fountain out the front of an enormous late model villa-type home. It looked old, but had obviously been restored and had plenty of upkeep.
The tall trees that surrounded us only made the noise from our bikes louder, allowing the low rumbles to echo within the space. We parked in a perfect line, not even bothering to hurry or hide our presence. This fucker may have been dirty, buying women from creeps like Daniel, but he still needed to be portrayed in a positive light in the media. That automatically gave us an advantage. We knew he or his boys wouldn’t come out guns blazing. The possibility of being thrown into a scandal involving an outlaw motorcycle club is not something he would want on his record.
Optimus passed me my gun as we walked up the steps to the front door. I’d learned my lesson about carrying and wasn’t risking my shit again if for some reason we were pulled over on the way here. No one had even bothered to come out to greet us. It was almost too easy, or this guy just simply thought he was invincible and we wouldn’t come knocking.
My Brothers all looked at each other.
“Do we knock?” Slider asked.
“Nah, places like this have doorbells man. Ain’t no one gonna hear you knocking, if they’re down the other end of the house,” Tie told him.
“So ring the doorbell,” Slider shot back.
“Why are we even ringing or knocking anything?” Tie laughed. “What are we going to say? Hey man, think your boss has one of our girls in there. All good if we just pop in and grab her? Yeah? Sweet.”
“Okay, so we don’t knock, and we don’t ring.” Slider moves to push the doors open.
“Wait! Maybe we should knock.”
I groaned. “I could have fucking got her and been home fucking her by now. Will you two shut up?” Just as I spoke, one of the doors swung open to reveal a tall guy with a spare tire around his stomach and a donut in his hand.
“Can I help you?”
I pulled my piece from my holster and held it directly against the fat guy’s skull. His mouth flopped open and his donut fell to the ground, rolling down the stairs.
I smiled tightly. “Edward Keaton. He has something that belongs to me and I’m here to get it back.”
“U…umm…Okay. I…I can get him for you.”
“How about you just lead the way, tubby.”
He nodded. The motion causing some parts of him to jiggle. I pushed the doors further open so my Brothers and I could move inside. My gun never faltered even as the older man who sat off to my right stood sharply from his chair – another seven guns now aimed at him.
“Where is he?” Optimus demanded.
The guys held their hands in the air, the larger one gesturing with his head to a hallway at the side of the room. “He’s uh…having breakfast.”
“Great, I’m fucking starving,” I growled. Wreck stayed with the older guy as we followed the other down the hall and into a large kitchen. There was a young girl standing at the counter washing dishes. She turned when she heard our presence and jumped.
“Ain’t here to hurt you, love,” Wrench told the girl with his hands in the air. Ever the kind peacemaker. “Just looking for our girl. Blonde. Goes by Harmony.”
The girl took a moment to eye us all with wide eyes before pointing across the kitchen to two swinging doors. I could hear raised voices on the other side and my body wanted to leap through them, but I convinced my head to stop and think first.
The young girl slid herself along the bench until she reached a door and quickly slipped out of it. I didn’t care. I wasn’t here for her.
Slider kept his gun focused on the bodyguard as we slunk quietly closer to the door, the voices becoming more understandable.
“Your friend, Chelsea is it? She’s very beautiful,” I heard a deep voice taunt. Optimus’ clenching fists caught the corner of my eye and I wondered if I would be the one having to stop him from killing this guy.
“Leave Chelsea alone,” Harmony demanded, her voice still very firm which was a good sign. He hadn’t had time to break her.