CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
B-ry
I hesitated at her door. I didn’t want to assume she wanted me in there but fuck, did I hope she’d invite me in. Not that I had any intentions of doing anything other than sleeping. I had to recharge fast because there was a lot of shit to take care of.
She stood there for a long moment just outside the threshold to her room. Her eyes darted over everything as if she needed to see that it was all real. I stood right behind her, ready to give her anything that she might have needed.
She took in a deep breath, then reached for my hand as she stepped inside.
We shed our clothes silently, until I was left in nothing but my boxer-briefs and she was down to her shirt and panties. She climbed under the comforter and I did the same.
I didn’t make a move to crowd her. I needed to know that she wanted it before I touched her.
She curled up with her back to me and I tried not to take it personally but something about it hurt a little.
The room was silent for a long time with nothing but the sound of our breaths filling the air. There was only a foot of space separating us but it felt like an ocean.
It started quietly, her body shook as she tried to hold back the tears. Then the sharp inhale rang out and was followed by the saddest, most heartbreaking wail.
“Shhhh,” I said calmly as I curled myself around her. “I’ve got you.”
“I’m sorry,” she said and I didn’t have the first clue why she was apologizing. She didn’t have a fucking thing to be sorry for. If anyone should have been saying those words, it should have been me.
“No, baby, there’s no reason for you to be sorry.”
“Yes,” she sobbed out. “Yes, there is. This is all my fault. If I just wasn’t so stupid. I put so many people’s lives in jeopardy. Two people are dead, Bryan. Dead because I was stupid.”
“That’s not on you,” I said almost defensively because she had to see that none of this was her fault.
“But it is. I made the choice to walk home that night. I knew I shouldn’t have gone out that night. I just knew it. But Cami called me and sounded like she wanted me there and well… maybe I was a bit desperate to see you, too. And look where that got me, got your friends. Or members. Brothers? I don’t know what you call them.”
“No,” I whispered into her ear. I didn’t bother to set her straight on that last part, it wasn’t what was important right now. “How could you have known?”
“But I did. I knew that I shouldn’t have gone. I knew that I should have walked back to the bar and told them I didn’t really have a ride. I was too hurt and too ashamed. Because of that, people are dead.”
It was clear that no matter what I said she wouldn’t see it any other way.
“He has been watching for months. He knew… he knew things. He knew that you came to my place. He knew about my sister. He knew that you never brought me around the club.”
I held her tighter as she cried harder.
“He knew that everyone watched out for Cami and Gwen. And he knew that no one was watching me. He said he took me because he thought it would hurt you, but really, he took me because I was easy to grab.”
“Laurel,” I whispered feeling my own tears begin to fill my eyes.
“Why did you have to do it? Why did you have to come into my life?”
I knew it wasn’t a question she expected an answer to.
Too bad for her, I was going to let her have it.
“Because, I felt something that day even if I couldn’t see it. Because you got to me like no one ever fucking has before. There are a million fucking things I would go back and do differently. But kissing you that day will never be one of them.”
“I hate you,” she said softly though I knew she didn’t really mean it.
“You hate the things I’ve done, but you don’t hate me,” I said calmly. “And I don’t blame you. I don’t deserve your heart or forgiveness and I know that. But you can’t sit there and lie to me like that. You think this is on you? Well, it’s fucking not.”
“Don’t.”
“What? You get to take on everything and I don’t get to feel like shit for what I did that night?”
“Bryan,” she whispered softly.
“Fuck if I can ever forget that I let you walk away that night. I did that. So if this is on anyone, it’s on me.”
“How did we get here?”
“I don’t fucking know.”
At this point, I was a little irritated. Not at her, necessarily. I just couldn’t believe everything that happened. I couldn’t believe that two people were dead and there were two more that might not pull through. I hated that she’d been taken and locked in a cage. And I really couldn’t fucking wait another second to get my hands on this fucker.
“This blame game isn’t getting us anywhere,” she said a few moments later.
“Then stop,” I answered in a low tone.
“You need to sleep. I’m sure there is stuff you have to take care of soon.”
“Yeah,” I replied but refused to let her go.
I didn’t sleep. I couldn’t.
My mind raced with all the things I was going to do to this guy when I got the chance.
I was pretty sure she didn’t sleep either but we passed the time in silence.
My phone chimed with a text and I knew it was go time.
Sure enough, as I unlocked my phone, I saw it was Iron letting me know he was headed back.
“Don’t say anything,” she said like she knew I was trying to think of the best way to slip out of here. “I get it, I guess. Just go take care of what you need to.”
“I’m not done with you,” I said and then placed a light kiss the side of her head. “Don’t think that just because I haven’t said anything means that I have nothing to say.”
She let out a sigh and rolled onto her back as I slipped out of the bed and got dressed.
“I don’t want to fight,” she said in a resigned kind of sigh. “I just want to be there for you and… them, right now.”
“And I love you for that,” I replied pinning her with my eyes.
My lips met hers briefly, and I was a little surprised when she didn’t pull away from me.
“Thank you,” I said then headed for the door.
I grabbed a cup of coffee in the kitchen then headed to the second floor.
Mouse came walking up the stairs, stack of mail in one hand while he shoved something into his back pocket with the other. He looked up at me surprised for a split second before he unlocked the office door. I watched as he tossed the mail on the desk then closed the door, checking the handle to make sure it was locked.
“You ready for this?” I asked. I really wanted to ask him if he was doing okay but I knew better right now. We both needed our heads clear for what was to come.
“Yeah,” he said with a nod.
We were all waiting outside the meeting room when Iron and Mason showed up.
He didn’t waste any time getting started.
“Dade made it out of surgery but he is still in critical condition. They aren’t letting anyone see him right now. I’ve called his sister and she is catching the first flight in from Texas. I’ll send someone to get her once she lands.”
With that out of the way, he started in on the other stuff.
“Okay, we’ve figured out about half of everything Laurel told us. This guy, Steve Hughes was the son of Dennis Hughes, also known as Mercer, who used to belong to the Moon Hill chapter. The guy was booted when he started roughing up some of the club girls. Then the club found out he killed his own daughter. Needless to say, Diesel took care of him. My guess is that the son is looking for revenge. He used to belong to The Devil’s Kings.”
Why did everything have to go back to that?
“He was the one that ran Ethel off the road before shit went down. I’m only guessing here, but I think Steve joined The Devil’s Kings because he knew Savage was coming after us. And since that didn’t work out so well, he’s found another way.”
“So he took Laurel to hurt us for killing his pops?” I asked just to make sure we were all on the same page.
“Yep,” Iron said with a nod. “That’s my guess anyway. And his plan was for you to come running in to save her. He probably had the house rigged all this time. We should have been more cautious.”
“So is he working for someone else now or on his own?” Fitz asked.
“Laurel said she heard someone else. She mentioned that he had an accent but couldn’t say what kind. By their conversations, Laurel thinks this guy was a boss type. Cable?”
“Yeah,” he said standing. “Steve and his mom moved around a lot after Mercer… went missing. She died four years ago. Looks like she stumbled down the stairs and broke her neck. Toxicology report says she had both drugs and alcohol in her system. After that, he shuffled around until he landed down here.”
“What happened after The Devil’s went down?” Brand asked.
“He moved to Charlotte. He moved from job to job. The last one he had was working as a janitor for a building that holds a lot of different offices. Mostly, investment firms. I couldn’t find anything there but didn’t really think I would. Then it’s like he just vanished. Nothing. Until he rented that house about four months ago. But that’s all I was able to find.”
“What are we missing here?” Iron asked the question I knew we all were thinking.
“Let’s track him down and find out,” I said a little too eagerly.
“Any clue where he is now?” Mason asked.
“None. He could have taken off.” Cable shook his head. “But, thanks to the cell phone, I was able to see where he went the last couple of months. He did circulate Royally Brewed a lot. He could have even been there when Laurel and Gwen were working. But if Laurel didn’t mention that she recognized him, then maybe not. Maybe see if Gwen or anyone else that works there has noticed him hanging around. Then again, he could have just been waiting outside or something. I just know he was in that area.”
I didn’t like that. Sure, I got the feeling that he’d been watching for a while now, but hearing it like this, only made it worse.
“There is a diner across town and what appears to be a vacant building a few blocks away from the diner.”
“That all?” Iron asked.
“I was able to pinpoint a few other areas but nothing that really showed a pattern. A few fast food joints near that house. A gas station here and there.”
“Alright. We’ll start with the diner and building,” Iron said.
Then we began to formulate a cautious and well thought out plan. We weren’t going to enter the building, we’d decided. There was no way we were going to be stupid twice. But we were going to plant a few prospects to watch the place. It was a small chance that he’d return, but it was a chance I wasn’t going to pass up.
Honestly, the guy seemed pretty dumb. So it might not have surprised me if he did show up there. And I sure as fuck hoped he did.
“What about these clues? We got any idea about that?” Iron asked.
“No,” Cable said shaking his head again. “I searched all the feeds outside the buildings and didn’t notice anything. I combed through our text and emails, but nothing that stuck out.”
“What about his email?”
“Couldn’t find one for him. Nothing on the phone and nothing when I searched. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have one, I just can’t find it.”
“Okay. I’ve filled Axe in on everything that happened. He was the one that filled in the blanks for me. I want—”
“Wait,” Cable said abruptly, cutting off the Prez. “Shit.”
“Cable?” Iron asked with a brow raised.
That was when Cable looked up from his laptop and it seemed like all the color had drained from his face.
“I found it. Well one of them,” he said and hesitantly spun the computer around so we all could see. “For some reason, it got filtered through to my trash. I’m not sure how or even why he did that.”
Then he hit a button and a video started to play.
It was bad enough hearing about what happened to Laurel. Bad enough to know that she’d been naked and locked in a cage for weeks. Bad enough to picture it in my mind.
But it was worse to watch it play out in front of me.
To actually see her naked. See her cramped up in that cage. See her crying with that look on her face that said she’d lost all hope.
It went on for five minutes. It had been cut together like a movie, each section a minute long. At the end, it faded out to black and his voice rang out.
“If you really care about her, you’ll come find her. Four. Two. Three.”
What the hell did that mean?
“Time on that?” Mason asked.
“Uh, six days ago,” Cable answered after he turned the computer back around so he could look at it. His fingers kept working while he talked. “Those numbers are the house number. There’s another one. Sent two days ago.”
I didn’t want to watch. I couldn’t take much more.
I was ready to get this son of a bitch and tear him apart limb by fucking limb.
The second one wasn’t as long. Two minutes of her this time. Crying.
I wondered how many times she’d cried in there. How many times had she felt lost and alone. How much she must have hated that she did.
How much she would hate it now, knowing that we’d all seen it.
Damn.
This shit just kept getting worse. I probably shouldn’t have even thought that because it wasn’t even over. There was shit that could still happen.
At the end of the second video, there was a message. This one typed out and now paused up on the screen.
Since you are fucking idiots, I’ll make it easy for you. You have one day. One day and your little whore will be gone forever.
Then there were GPS coordinates.
Yeah, I bet we did look like fucking idiots. Only, we never got those stupid clues.
I wanted to demand that those videos be erased. Laurel would die inside if she knew we’d seen them. But I was also smart enough to know that Cable would need to go over them again to search for anything that could give us a clue to where he was.
“Forget you fucking saw this,” I said in almost a growl. “Laurel will never fucking know.”
And right there I knew I had to protect her at all costs.
“So he wanted us there,” Mouse said.
“Yeah, it seems like his plan was to use Laurel to lure us in and then blow up as many of us as possible,” Iron answered.
He wanted us to find her. Only she got away and her life was saved. But we still ended up losing people.
How was it I could be so happy and so pissed off at the same time?
This was all so fucked up.