Chapter 18

 

My stomach churns as I try to make sense of this. Nothing comes to mind, though. Who the hell is C? Someone was in here before us, but how? All the guards were alive until we showed up? I grab the picture off the desk along with the note, stuffing them into my bag when the door flies open.

“Got the guard. You findin’ shit?” Ghost say as he walks into the office. Ghost nods toward my hand where I hold the note. “What is it?” He asks. This is insane. Who the hell would be after her? Why?

“I found a note. Someone was here before us,” I say, not sure how to handle it. Ghost looks as shocked as I feel.

“Who?” He asks looking to me for answers. Shaking my head, I wish I knew the answer to that.

“Don’t know, but they are after Aria,” I say. I take a deep breath trying to come up with any kind of answers but I have nothing. His laptop isn’t here, which doesn’t surprise me.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” I say while Ghost watches me. Ghost nods before disappearing into the hallway.

I take one last glance around before closing the door behind me. I’m abnormally silent as we make our way back out of the building. So many things run through my head that I can’t control. Who the hell is after her−and why? That’s my main concern. Killing Tomlin would be easy. It would bring me much pleasure, but I can’t risk anyone else finding out about the club. I can’t put my family in that kind of risk. More so, I don’t know who is after Aria, or why. That alone sets my insides on fire. The guys talk around me but I don’t hear a word that they're saying.  I’m too lost in myself. Worry eats away at me. I slide my phone out, sending a quick text to Devil, to check in and see that everything is ok on that end. When he writes back and says they’re good, the tension in my shoulders ease slightly. The knot in my stomach is still there, and in full force. Something isn’t adding up. Tomlin wants his own daughter dead, but he clearly didn’t realize that someone else did also. Or, does he know? Was he trying to get her out of the way first? I drop my head into my hands. This whole thing is turning into a complete mess.

“You ok?” Trick, of all people, slaps a hand on my shoulder. Lifting my head, I glare at him.

“Would you be ok, if someone wanted the girl you love dead?” His eyes tell the answer that his mouth couldn’t say.

 

***

Papers are strewn about the room. I’m trying to piece it all together but it makes no sense.

“Who the fuck, is C?” Dragon asks. My head snaps up as my eyes lock with Dragon’s. The paper I found in Tomlin’s office rests in his hand.

“Found that with the picture of Aria.” Lifting the picture in his hand, he grunts.

“I haven’t seen shit with the letter C,” He says. I nod my head, neither have I.

“Me either, but it clearly means somethin’ to him.” I agree. Shuffling through some more papers, I can’t shake the feeling that there is something I’m missing. Something so Goddamn obvious.

“Why kill your own kid? She may know a lot about your shady ass but why kill her?” Talking mainly to myself, Dragon chimes in.

“Threats maybe? She threatened to oust him?” That doesn’t make sense to me. Why not threaten her back?

“What does she know? Obviously, he has some background that isn’t worth a shit but he’s a damn lawyer,” I say as I run my hand through my hair. I find my fingers coming to rest on the necklace that rests there. The chain that Aria had pulled free from her own neck that day didn’t break. She bent the clasp but it’s since been around my neck. A reminder of her that I don’t want to let go.

I twirl it around my fingers as my mind wanders.

“Who the hell is C, and where do they come into play?” I talk to myself like I usually do. Dragon sorts through a few more papers before he looks up at me.

“What if she saw somethin’? You know, he saw you that night, maybe she saw somethin’, too. Daddy’s associates find out, she’s a target.” That could make sense. She could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I suppose that is an option. It did happen to me.

“Now, how do we narrow that shit down?” Mumbling to myself, I keep flipping. There has to be something that I’m missing here.

“Look.” Dragon says holding up the pictures that Tomlin once showed me.  Dragon laughs, “What a fuck.”

“Hold the fuck up!” I yell, pointing to the pictures.

“Son of a bitch! You see where this was?” Dragon asks before I reach for it. It takes me a second to realize what I’m looking at.

“The fuckin’ event up north? Who the fuck?! Aria wasn’t even with me before that!” I yell louder.  Alarms ring in my head. A picture slowly begins to form, even if it’s only bits and pieces.

“She said they were there on vacation. That they didn’t know the place was booked with bikers.” I say. Dragon nods his head slowly.

“Whoever was after her−was there.”