“You got something more important to think about than this meeting?” Wolf barked at Ash. He started at the sound of his president’s harsh voice. He hadn’t been mentally present, and of course Wolf noticed. Charlie had been missing for four days, and there had been no sign of her at all. Ash checked in with Mack daily and he had Hunter, from the Southside Skulls, looking for her too. He was working on getting a GPS location on her phone, and he had assured Ash it shouldn’t be much longer. Allison had called and gone completely ballistic on him, accusing him of orchestrating the entire thing, and hiding Charlie at the clubhouse. Ash didn’t say anything other than to tell her he was as worried about Charlie as she was. She didn’t believe him, and he still thought she was a bitch. But he had to keep in mind that on top of that, she was still a mother and she had to be hurting.

Wolf had been preoccupied with finding out who had beaten poor Tex, and Ash hadn’t wanted to bother him with his problems, so he still hadn’t told him about Charlie.

“Sorry, boss. I’m here. Sorry.”

“His sister is missing,” Sledge said. Ash sighed. He was planning on telling Wolf after the meeting since Allison had insisted on the phone that she was calling Fresno PD herself if NYPD didn’t. She wanted them to search the premises of the club and find out once and for all if the “thugs” were hiding her baby.

“She’s missing?” Wolf said. “Since when?”

“Four days now,” Ash said. “She was mad at her mom and she took off. She’s got plenty of money and expensive tastes, so I’m sure she’s just cooling her heels in some fancy hotel, eating a lot of room service and watching MTV or whatever the fuck kids watch these days.”

Wolf frowned. “Why the fuck aren’t you out looking for her?”

Once again, Ash found himself on the defensive. “She took a shit-ton full of cash from my father’s safe before she left the house so she’s not using her credit cards. I did call Hunter, and he’s looking and NYPD are looking and they’re both trying to track her cell phone. Honestly, boss, I don’t know what else to do. If I did, I’d be doing it.”

Wolf nodded. “What about her friends? She’s a teenager, right? Don’t teenage girls tell each other everything?”

“Her mother and Mackenzie...my ex...have already talked to everyone they could get in touch with and if they do know, they’re not telling.”

Wolf looked thoughtful for a minute. “You have a picture of her...a recent one?”

“Yeah.” He hoped he didn’t look as guilty as he felt about that. He’d had to ask Mack to text him one. “I sent it to Hunter. I figure the police will be looking places where a runaway kid might usually turn up...but Charlie’s not your average fifteen-year-old. Hunter’s looking in the fancy hotels in Manhattan...” Hunter was also looking in other places. He’d mentioned sex trafficking and Ash had gone off at him. He’d had to spend fifteen minutes apologizing and he felt like shit afterwards. It was just an unfathomable thought. Charlie was a kid...his little sister. If anyone put their hands on her, he’d kill them with his.

“Fuck, fifteen?” Wolf said. “I knew she was a kid, but damn, that’s young to be out there on the streets alone...” He looked like he suddenly realized his words weren’t making Ash feel any better. Clearing his throat he said, “You need to go home.”

“Seriously, boss, I don’t. I’m doing all I can from here...but there is something I have to tell you. I was going to talk to you after the meeting,” he said, with another sideways glare at Sledge. He cleared his throat and said, “The cops are likely to turn up here looking for her. Her mother hates me and wouldn’t take my word if it was handed to her by Jesus Christ himself. So, when NYPD gets in touch with FPD, they’ll be knocking on the door, unless she convinces them on her own. Hopefully they’ll just want to talk, and they won’t be showing up with a warrant.”

Wolf grumbled under his breath and picked up his phone. A few silent seconds later he said, “Meeks! Who you harassing this week?” He laughed and then said, “Hey, one of my guys has a teenage sister who went missing in New York. She’s not here, trust me, I wouldn’t be harboring no teen. But her mother might just be calling you guys and telling you a different story. All I’m asking is a heads-up before they come knocking on my door.” Wolf didn’t keep anything dangerous near what he considered the MC’s home. If they did run guns, which was rare lately, he had a warehouse way up in the hills where they stored them. But when had sixty or so guys between the ages of nineteen and sixty-five congregating in one place...some of them felons by history...there was no telling what you might find if you shook things up a bit.

Anything the cops found could and would be used against the club and Wolf knew it. The club was on lockdown as well, which meant everyone was spending a lot more time on the premises. Ash knew that Wolf’s call to Meeks was about it being easier to avoid shaking things up than it was paying the lawyers and doing without a dozen or so of your men for months while it was sorted out. “Thanks, man, I appreciate it. Yeah, I’ll have Ash send that photo over to you now. Thanks again.” He ended the call and told Ash to text Meeks the photo; he was going to circulate it even before NYPD got around to contacting them. To the room Wolf said, “Sorry about the interruption, guys.” He looked back at Ash and said, “I’m gonna leave being here up to you. If you don’t think you can handle it, or you need to be somewhere else, let me know before someone gets hurt because you’re distracted.”

Ash nodded. “I will, Boss. Thank you.” The president’s words sounded like he was only interested in the club, but his warm eyes told a different story. Wolf had a good heart and Ash knew he’d do anything to help him.

Wolf nodded at him and turned his attention back to the business at hand. “So, as far as Ogre and his crew go, we can’t find any reason they’d have a beef with us...but, Ogre does have a fucking lot of enemies. So, the next step is running down any that we might have in common...somebody that would like to see us pissed off enough at Ogre to start a war we’d all end up regretting.”

“Chickenshits,” Bruf mumbled under his breath. Ash agreed. If the fuckers had a problem with their club, or with Ogre’s, they should have just faced it head-on. This back alley, pretending to be someone else, six-on-one bullshit really pissed him off.

“Boss, how is Tex doing?” Ash asked. He’d been so distracted that he hadn’t even gone to see him. He suddenly felt bad about that too.

“He’s young and strong, so he’s healing fast. He’s got around-the-clock nurses watching him right now.”

“Bet he fucking loves that,” Sledge said with a chuckle. Tex’s exploits with women were notorious even though the kid was barely old enough to drink. He and his twin brother had left a string of broken hearts in Nevada and were starting on the ones in California before Tex had been attacked. Ash laughed with his brothers. It wasn’t long ago that a different woman...or two...every day appealed to him...but that had all changed in a heartbeat the first day he laid eyes on Mack at the graveyard. He knew it didn’t make any fucking sense. He was still pissed at her. He’d never trust her again. He sure as hell didn’t want to marry her...but as soon as he’d sent her home, three thousand miles away, he missed her. He’d get over it, though...again. What was he going to do...be celibate? He laughed inwardly at that; he couldn’t imagine it ever happening.

“Did Tensee get back into town?” he asked Wolf, trying to convince Wolf and himself that his mind was where it needed to be at the moment, on the club.

“Yeah, he just got out to the house an hour or so ago. Jagger’s got some stuff going on this weekend in town so he’s there too and I think Jacob and Brock are flying back down this weekend. I’ve got the prospects watching the house right now, but looking for volunteers to take a shift. If I don’t get volunteers, I’ll just assign you a shift.”

Jacob Wright had bought a house out in the country on two acres for when the guys were training at Wolf’s gym, or doing exhibition matches. Jagger, one of their fighters who was also a musician, had played at the grand opening earlier in the year and since then he’d been getting a lot of offers to play at different events in California, so he used the house when he was in town. He and his old lady had a house on an Indian reservation in Nevada somewhere. Jagger had invited Ash out once, telling him how beautiful it was out there. Ash hadn’t had a chance to visit yet, but it was on his list of things he’d like to do, whenever he got time to take a real vacation. He liked Jagger. The guy was as straightforward as they came, and Ash liked that. He’d had his fill of liars and fakes his entire life in New York. He loved his brothers and friends for a lot of reasons, but their honesty and loyalty was number one...and that was why he couldn’t ever see any kind of future with Mack. She’d proven that she couldn’t be honest or loyal the day she’d stood him up at the altar and gone to Aruba with her new boss.

“I’ll take whatever shift you have open, Boss,” Ash told Wolf. The rest of the guys in the room echoed the sentiment. The MMA fighters had become like extended family to them and they were all itching to get their hands on whoever had tried to break the young fighter.

Wolf was moving on to talk about other leads when Ash’s phone began to vibrate. He looked down at it and saw that it was a Fresno number, but one he didn’t recognize. He held it up and Wolf nodded at him, not missing a beat with what he was saying. Ash stepped outside the room, put the phone to his ear and said:

“Who is this?”

“Ash...?”

Fuck. It was Charlie, and as much as he’d been trying to convince himself and everyone else that she was probably just fine, he hadn’t really believed it. The sound of her voice caused all kinds of emotion to rip through him. He was relieved that she was alive, but she didn’t sound good. “Charlie? Where are you?”

“I’m not sure...some park. I think I’m in Fresno...”

“You think? Damn it, Charlie, how did you get here? Who are you with?”

“Don’t yell at me!”

Ash took a deep breath. He didn’t want to scare her away. “I’m sorry...I’m really sorry. Look around you, Charlie, what do you see?”

“Trees, a playground, some bathrooms...a lot of homeless people.”

“Do you see a sign, a street sign, anything?”

“What’s the name of this park?”

“Charlie, who are you talking to?”

Ash heard a man’s voice and then Charlie saying, “Thanks. It’s called Roeding Park.”

“Who is that, Charlie? Who’s with you?”

“Nobody. I borrowed his phone, that’s all. Are you going to come and get me?” She sounded like she was crying, and Ash’s chest hurt.

“Yeah, honey, I’m coming. I’m not far from there. There’s a zoo there. Go wait by the front entrance, it will be safer than wandering around the park.” Ash had about a million questions, but now was not the time. As hard as it was to convince himself of that, he knew he needed to keep his mouth shut, and he resolved to do that, for now.

“Okay.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen or twenty minutes. Wait at the main entrance of the zoo, okay?”

“I said okay. I’m not deaf.” God, she made it hard. He ended the call and on his way to his bike he called Mack.

“Charlie just called me. She’s here in Fresno.”

“Oh, thank God! Is she okay?”

“I’m on my way to get her. She sounds shaken up, and as usual, everything I say pisses her off.”

“Just remember she’s just a kid, Ash.”

“Thanks, Mack, I do know how old she is.”

“I’m sorry. I was just trying to help.”

Ash sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. She just frustrates me.”

“Should I call Allison?”

“No! Not yet. Let me talk to her first, please.”

“Okay. Keep me posted?”

“Yeah, gotta go.” He ended the call before she could say anything else. On the one hand he never wanted to see her again and on the other, she was the first person he wanted to reach out to. It was like being two different people sometimes lately and he hated it.

He got on his bike and sent a text to Sledge, asking him to tell Wolf what was going on. He put on his helmet then and within fifteen minutes he was turning off Belmont Avenue into the entrance of the park. His stomach was in knots as he made his way toward the zoo. He kept telling himself that she was alive, and that was all that mattered. He scanned the front entrance of the zoo as he approached it. There were several families standing near the front gates and what looked like a homeless woman sitting wrapped up in a blanket underneath a tree just to the right of them. As he got closer, the knot in his stomach moved up into his throat and threatened to choke him. The “homeless woman” was his little sister.