by Bella Jewel
He’s angry.
They’re all angry.
I don’t care.
I really don’t.
Because I’m angry too.
God, am I angry.
IT’S DARK WHEN WE ARRIVE at the location they found Magnolia’s car. Armed with flashlights, Cohen, Mykel and I get out and I rush over to the car immediately. I’m no detective, not by a long shot, but I’m certain that I can do a better job at looking for some sort of clue then they can. Considering they’re not in it to find her, they’re in it to make sure their asses are covered if something goes wrong.
Mykel unlocks the car door and the interior light comes on, allowing me to see a little better. The first thing I notice is that Magnolia’s purse is sitting in the center console, seemingly opened with her identification showing. Like she’s opened it to show someone. That right away seems odd to me. I mean, if she was driving down this road, alone, why would she need to open her purse to that particular point. Her phone is gone, Mykel told me they took it when they found the car.
The second thing that immediately stands out to me is the fact that the keys were still in the car, along with the phone. If someone wanted to make Magnolia disappear, why wouldn’t you take the whole car? All her identification? No, I’m starting to think that whoever left this stuff here, wanted someone to find it, possibly the club. Maybe they’re hoping to leave a trail of clues for some reason. It just seems odd they’d leave all of that.
It also tells me it didn’t happen too long before the guys found the car, because nobody had raided it. A car on the side of the road, abandoned with keys and phone and a purse would quickly get raided by people stopping to check on it if it had been there for a few days or more. They could have likely been not far behind it, to be honest.
I shine the flashlight around, and check for some other clues. Look, I’ve watched a lot of crime shows and one thing I’ve learned, is some of the most obvious things hold the biggest clues. I see the blood they’re talking about, on the driver’s seat, but the location of the blood is strange. It’s on the side of the chair, like someone had leaned in bleeding and grabbed the chair. There is also some on the steering wheel, again closest to the window, like someone has grabbed that also.
I’m not sure it’s Magnolia’s blood.
I step outside of the car and shine the light on the outside of the door and sure enough, on the handle there is blood. Whoever took her was bleeding and has managed to get their own blood on the inside and outside of the car. Other than that, there seems to be no sign of a struggle. There is nothing flicked off the dash, or things disheveled in the car, the dirt around the car isn’t smoothed out or roughed up to indicate someone has been scuffling around in it.
I keep moving through the car, searching the back seat where I find a bag of clothes. I open it to see it’s Magnolia’s. Freshly packed, if I were to guess. Everything is neatly placed in, and not all over the place like she’s been returning from a trip and has stuffed it all in there. A keyring dangles off the side of the bag, and on that keyring I notice a room key. One of those little tabs they use now to unlock a door to a hotel or motel room.
I take it off and shove it in my pocket before moving to the trunk. Mykel, who is quiet, pops it for me and I quickly get to work checking things out in there. Obviously, the drugs in the back are now gone, and it seems rather tidy. Nothing more than a spare tire and a few old picnic blankets. I close it and then go around to the passenger side of the car, opening the glove compartment and searching for anything in there that might indicate where Magnolia is, or has been.
There are a few letters addressed to her, and I notice they have a few different addresses, so I take them out, noting that I’m going to have a look at where those addresses are. There isn’t a great deal else, except a piece of paper with the name Dax on it and a phone number. I take that, too. Then I tell Mykel I’m done and get back into the truck.
On the drive home, I go over everything I just saw, and randomly start blurting out my theories to whoever is listening. I’m not entirely sure they are listening at first, but I talk anyway, mostly to get my thoughts out loud so they’re not running through my head. “It wasn’t her blood,” I begin. “That blood was on the outside of the car, on the handle. Whoever stopped her must have had a bleeding hand for whatever reason. It’s a fair amount of blood which makes me think they were hurt. Why, I don’t know. The blood was on the side of the seat and the steering wheel. So when whoever it was leaned in, they’ve transferred it over.”
I take a breath and go over the other thoughts in my head.
“Her purse was open to her license and registration. Whoever pulled her over, she possibly thought she was getting pulled over by a cop because she had that ready to show. There were no signs of a struggle getting her out of the car, so she’s gotten out willingly, again, maybe the person was acting like a cop. I’m guessing it was dark and she didn’t see the blood, which makes sense. She wouldn’t unless it was right in front of her.”
I purse my lips, my mind going a million miles an hour. “It makes sense, because she would have gotten out, and all they would have had to do was hit her over the head or knock her unconscious in some way and carry her off, which explains why there are no signs of a struggle outside the car. Is it possible the person she’s dealing with is someone she knows, someone acting like a cop, or even a dirty cop? I think anything is possible here, but one thing is for sure, she wasn’t scared when she got pulled up. That tells me a whole lot more than if there had been a struggle.”
“Jesus,” Cohen mumbles, “you should have been a fuckin’ detective.”
I snort. “I’m just very observant. I also like crime shows. Real life ones, you know? They tell you a lot, and they give you a lot of things to look for that you probably wouldn’t look for any other time. I’m just trying to piece together what might have happened to Mags, because if I don’t, it could be too late by the time we work this out.”
“Well,” Cohen says, his voice rather impressed, “you’ve got me thinkin’ that’s for sure. What I’m thinkin’ about is that there have been rumors of a dirty cop. The people we deal to have been sayin’ to watch out for it, that there is supposed to be one in the mix who is dealin’ with some pretty bad folks. I might just have to look further into that.”
I smile. “See, you wouldn’t have if I didn’t bring out my incredibly smart brain.”
Mykel chuckles. “Gotta admit, I’m pretty impressed.”
“Well, you should be,” I grin. “I’m pretty impressive. Oh, I also found a hotel/motel key on her bag in the back. You know the little tabs you open the doors with. Let me see if it’s got the hotel name on it.”
I reach into my pocket and pull the tab out and then use the flashlight to shine it over the little plastic square. I see a room number on the back but no hotel name. I purse my lips and hand it to Mykel and say, “Have you seen a key like this?”
He takes it from me and studies it for a moment, then murmurs, “Fuck yep. It’s for The Inn. New rooms out back. Stayed there a few times with women, pretty sure that’s the key.”
“Any chance you guys feel like going to The Inn tonight?”
Cohen shrugs. “Why the fuck not, you’ve got me curious now.”
I slap my hands on my thighs and say, “We’re the great detectives! Fuck the biker clubs. We should make our own club!”
Mykel snorts. “Loser.”
I giggle. “You love me.”
“One thing’s for sure,” he chuckles. “Life wouldn’t be the same without you, kid.”
I grin.
Bring it on.
9
THEN – BRIELLA
18 YEARS OLD
I laugh, throwing my head back as my best friend, Aviana, wiggles her booty to a song we’re playing as we get ready for a party at the clubhouse tonight.
It’s not often they hold parties where we are allowed to attend, but tonight it’s my eighteenth birthday and they�
��re making an exception for me. I’m totally grateful because I wouldn’t want to have it anywhere else. God no. Those guys are so much fun. Alarick is stepping up now to run the club for King, who is wanting to take a bit more time away from it to travel with my mom. That’s nice, I think, that he can hand it down. Not entirely, of course, he still wants most control, but he wants to be able to have that bit of freedom too.
Now Alarick is twenty-five he’s definitely fitting in a great deal more and all the other guys are now patched in as members.
“I’m so freakin’ excited,” Aviana tells me. “I hope Cohen is there, he’s so super-hot.”
I shake my head. “He’s got a girlfriend.”
“So?” she says, staring at me with wide brown eyes. “Like I care. One look at this booty and he’s going to forget her name.”
That’s what I love about Aviana. Her personality is addictive. She’s so fucking strong minded and hilarious. She knows what she wants, and she’s not afraid to say it. If she’s displeased, she’ll make sure you know about it. If she’s happy, she’ll laugh until you swell with joy. She’s the best person I know, and I’m glad I met her a year ago when she moved into town and started at the same school.
We’ve been close ever since.
“You’re terrible,” I giggle, running a hair straightener through my hair. “Do you think my dress works?”
“Girl, your dress is so hot even I’m thinking about turning lesbian for you. Seriously, you rock white and it’s so tight on that bootay that I’m thinking maybe Alarick is going to reconsider his options, too.”
“Don’t even,” I roll my eyes at her. “Alarick is my friend.”
“Honey, Alarick wants to bend you over and take that virginity more than he wants to breathe his next breath.”
I shake my head. “He is seeing someone, I’m fairly certain there is nothing there between us.”
Aviana rolls her eyes. “You’re dreamin’ lady. We’ll just see what tonight brings, shall we?”
I snort and finish doing my hair and makeup. I’m not going to lie, at eighteen, I’m definitely looking my best. My body is curvy and filled out in all the right places, my hair is long and thick, my eyes are bright, and lips are full. I am excited to see what tonight brings, I’m excited to be sharing it with the club.
I’m just damned excited.
“You girls ready to roll?”
I look over to see King standing in the door, dressed in his usual club attire with his leather jacket sitting on his broad shoulders, where it always is. His eyes scan over me and his brows go up. “Your momma know you’re wearin’ that?”
I roll my eyes and laugh. “Yes, she picked it with me.”
He mumbles something under his breath and then nods at Aviana. “How are you, Avi?”
“Good, King, how are you?”
“Good. How’s your father?”
King always asks her about her father. I have no idea why. My guess is he does some sort of business with him. I don’t get involved in anything to do with the club, but I’m also not blind to what actually goes on there. We all know that they deal with illegal and dangerous business. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.
Aviana’s dad runs some big company, and if I’m perfectly honest, he creeps me out. I’m not sure what it is about him, but he has this evil edge to him that I think behind the scenes is pretty bad. Avi is a happy girl, but I’ve also seen the sadness in her eyes when she talks about her family. Beneath the surface, I know she holds a lot of pain and doesn’t share half the things that have happened to her.
Her motto is “You still get to choose who you are, no matter what has happened to you. Your past does not define you and the only person that can sculpt your future is you.”
I love her for that.
She’s strong and she’s brave. She’s the kind of girl that would get knocked down and even bloodied and bruised she would pull herself back up again, put a smile on her face, and keep fighting. She doesn’t believe life is here to be wasted and she doesn’t let anyone come between her and what she believes in.
People could learn a lot from Aviana.
“He’s okay,” Avi answers King, and I’m snapped back into reality.
“How’s business going?”
Avi shrugs. “I have no idea, he’s never home. You know how it is.”
King nods, and then his eyes flicker to me for a moment before he asks her, “You ever need anything, anything at all, you come to me, yeah? The club will always have your back.”
It’s so random that, for a moment, even I frown and stare at him, brush mid-way through my hair. What a weird thing to say. I mean, it wouldn’t be weird if he was saying it to me, someone who has dealt with the club my whole life, but for her, who he barely knows, it seems ... off.
“Oh, thanks,” Aviana says, her eyes quickly going back to the mirror.
King tells us we’ve got five minutes and then disappears. I turn to Avi, still brushing my hair. “What was that about?”
Avi looks away from me, and for a split second, I see something in her eyes I’m thinking I might have missed before. Is it longing? Pain? Fear? There’s something there, something that is most certainly affecting her. Does she know why King said that? Is there something happening in her world that I don’t know about? Is she in danger?
“Avi?” I ask, prompting her for an answer.
One moment passes by, she takes a deep breath, and then she’s looking at me and smiling. Her face happy and light. Gone is any trace of whatever she was just feeling. “Everything’s totally cool. I have no idea what that was about. I don’t get into the business he does with my father.”
There goes that crown again, right back up on her head where it belongs. She has an uncanny ability to hide all her emotions. She could murder someone and get away with it, no doubt, because you couldn’t break her. You wouldn’t see a lie in her face, or guilt in her eyes.
Oh, Avi.
I have a feeling I’m missing a lot.
“Yeah, it’s weird,” I agree and say nothing more.
If she doesn’t want to talk to me about it, I’m not going to push her to. Everyone has a right to their own secrets, and if that’s hers, then so be it.
“How’re your brothers, anyway?” I ask her, getting back to my hair. “I haven’t seen them around in ages.”
Aviana shrugs. “I have no idea, seriously. I don’t see them now they’re working with Dad. Whatever they’re doing, it has nothing to do with me. They’re still living in that massive house we try to call a home, but I never see them.”
Aviana lost her mom at a young age, like three or four. After that, they moved around a lot with her dad and his work, but they never really settled anywhere. Avi told me this is going to be the place she moves out and makes her own life, without them, without all of it. She has an aunt here, who she adores, and she knows this is where she wants to stay for a good long time.
I hope she does, because I love the shit out of her.
“Well,” I say, changing the subject because it’s clear she’s had enough of talking about it, “I’m ready.”
I turn to face her with my arms out either side of me, and her face lights up. “You look freaking amazing, oh my god!”
I squeal happily and hug her. She looks incredible too with her long black hair flowing around her shoulders, her stark blue eyes and lily-white skin, she’s like a walking doll. She’s only a tiny little thing, with petite features and a small but very voluptuous body. She’s gorgeous, and she certainly doesn’t lack any male attention.
“You look gorgeous, too,” I tell her, admiring her baby blue skintight dress that makes her boobs look epic. “Them boobies are going to catch a few eyes.”
She giggles. “Hopefully only one.”
I laugh and we link arms and head out to the truck where King and my mom are waiting to take us to the clubhouse. As soon as we climb in, Mom looks back and her eyes widen, “Someone tell me when
my baby stopped being a little girl and became this beautiful woman?”
“Mom,” I laugh, shaking my head. “Stop it.”
“You look beautiful, darling. You too, Aviana. I’m so proud of you girls.”
Avi smiles and King winks at us in the rearview mirror before pulling out and hitting the road.
“Where’s Mags?” I ask mom, squirming around in my seat as nerves build in my belly.
“She’s already there, honey. Keep an eye on her, she’s going to send me grey, that girl.”
King snorts. “Already sent me grey, baby.”
Mom smiles over at him, reaching across and taking his hand. I watch them, and as always my heart swells. Mom and King, they have this epic kind of love. I know, I know, that’s what they all say, but it’s true for them. They just look at each other and you can see the way they feel radiating all over their faces. They’re completely opposite, and King is certainly not someone I ever would have picked Mom going for, yet he’s everything I could ever want for her.
I love their love.
I love the way his eyes follow her when she walks into a room, and they go all soft and warm.
I love the way she reaches over and takes his hand often, always by his side no matter what.
I love the way he helps her, the way he helps all of us.
I love the way they dance in the living room when they think no one is watching.
I love the way he always takes his jacket off and puts it on her shoulders if she’s cold.
I love the way she brushes his hair from his eyes and then kisses him softly.
I love everything about them.
I wear a smile the entire way to the club, and when we arrive, I jump out of the truck with a squeal of delight as I see all the people standing around, waiting for me. Decorations line the very masculine space, purple and gold, my favorite colors. A big eighteen balloon is hanging by the front door, floating in the air. It’s nearly as big as I am.
“This is amazing!” I hug my mom so tight she laughs and then wheezes. “Thank you.”