Link

 

  The place smells like a fucking piss factory.

“Hey, you seen a red-head around here. About this tall?” I ask the old man that’s leaning against the apartment wall, showing him her height with my hand.

“She left a while ago. Was stayin’ with Martha.” I look over my shoulder at the guys before looking back to the man.

“Which one?” I ask nodding to the doors on the hallway. He looks as though he isn’t going to answer when I grab him around the throat. “Which one old man?” I growl in his face.

“Three. Right there,” he says quickly. I release him and check the door. It’s unlocked. I pull my gun and cautiously step inside. I can’t believe she left me to come to this shit hole. I make my way in, only to find that it’s empty. There are no rooms in here. It’s one open floor plan. I stuff the gun back into my jeans before running my hand through my hair.

“Link. Look,” Dax says. I walk over and take the paper out of his hand and read it over.

Martha,

  Thanks for your offer. I can’t stay here, though. I don’t want you in harm’s way with Roach or any of the people looking for me. Here’s $100. That’s about all I have to give right now.

                 Stay safe. Jordyn

I crumble the note up and throw it across the room.

“Where the hell did she get money?” Kane asks stepping up next to us.

“I hid it in the apartment. I knew she’d look.” Bomber slaps a hand on my shoulder.

“We’ll find her, brother.” I shake my head before I say, “No, we won’t. She doesn’t want to be found.”

“Since when has that stopped us?” Bash walks into the room scanning it like I did.

“Since she was lyin’ to me!” I roar. I grab the bottle and throw it at the wall, watching it shatter into a million pieces much like my world.

“She’s scared.” A little voice comes from the doorway. We all turn to look and see who it’s coming from. A small framed girl stands there with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Who the hell are you?” I ask not giving a shit really, but if she has information on Jordyn, I fucking want it.

“You are standing in my apartment. I should ask you that.” I watch her walk in, not caring that there are a shit load of big-ass bikers taking over much of the space in her tiny apartment. Instead, she walks to the fridge and grabs out a beer.

“You know where she went?” I ask. She shakes her head before looking over and saying, “No. Didn’t know she left until now.”

“You said she was scared. How do you know that?” Bash asks this time. She looks between us before she shrugs.

“I’ve lived like this for years. I know that look. She was scared of something—someone.” She eyes us all again before Micah laughs.

“We’re the good guys in this mess,” he tries to assure her, although I don’t know why. That girl is giving him a look that could kill.

“Any man that a woman is running from isn’t the ‘good guy’.” She takes another pull from her bottle. “Besides, if she wanted to talk to you, I’m sure she’d call.” My hands clench and unclench at my sides. Rage is burning its way through my system and there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t like being out of control. I don’t like being in this position.

“You got cameras around here?” I ask, a new idea popping into my head.

“Who the hell are you, the police?” She watches me pull my phone out and begin typing shit into it.

I take a few short steps toward her before sliding the phone back into my pocket. I reach down and grab her face in my hands before forcing her to look up at me.

“We can do this one of two ways. You can answer my goddamn questions, or I can beat the fucker’s out of you.” I grit my teeth, making my point get across a little faster. I know I won’t hurt her. She doesn’t know that though, and that’s what I’m going with.

“This building doesn’t have cameras. The one next door does. If any of them picked her up it would be that one. There’s only one bus that runs around here and if she got on it, the camera at the diner probably has that footage.” I lean down closer to her face before I say, “See.... Was that so hard?” She snarls at me before I let her face go. I reach into my pocket and pull out a couple hundred before handing it to her.

“What do you want for this?” she asks licking her lips. Fucking hell.

“You just gave it to me, darlin’.”