Chapter Twenty-Three
Dakota
“Dakota, focus,” Jimmy pushed. “Keep your eyes open and use your chin to guide your head, like we talked about. You’re getting in your head and overthinking it.”
I nodded, keeping the target in focus. “Got it.”
After several more missed shots, it was clear I didn’t have it, and I released the magazine from my gun with a groan. We were running out of time, and my aim wasn’t improving.
Lauren got up from the porch swing and moved inside, leaving me alone with Jimmy and the overwhelming stench of failure. She was going to lay down. It seemed if she wasn’t sitting on the porch, staring down the driveway, then she was sleeping.
We should’ve been coming up with a plan to avenge Mike’s death. Instead, we’d all gotten lost in our own heads.
“Hey.” Jimmy patted the top of my head as if I was a small child. “You don’t give up, and that’s commendable.”
I pressed my lips together, briefly debating the pros and cons of fighting an ex-CIA agent. “Jimmy,” I said, with as much sweetness as I could muster. “Did Zane ever tell you how he got that shoulder injury of his?”
Zane looked up with an arched eyebrow at the mention of his name before going back to his laptop with a shake of his head.
Jimmy leaned down to inspect my gun. “His shoulder?” he asked distractedly. “No, I don’t think it’s ever come up.”
“Pat me on the head again, and you’ll have one just like it.”
“Did you just threaten me?” He asked, fighting a smile before looking to Zane. “You heard her, right? She just threatened me. Come here.”
I staggered backward, suddenly wishing I’d kept my mouth shut. “I didn’t mean it,” I blurted out.
Jimmy pulled me into a hug and let out a rough laugh, causing my face to bounce up and down from the vibrations. “Fuck, that’s what I like to see. You’ve got spark, Dakota, and that’s not something that can be taught. Now, reload and let’s go again.”
I frowned, following him into the barn. “You’re not going to make me sleep with the fishes?”
“No, there’s not enough water around here. You’d be found too quickly.” Jimmy unlocked the gun safe and began taking stock of what few weapons we did have.
I perched on the edge of an old sawhorse, suddenly curious. “How would you do it?”
“What—kill you?” He turned to look at me. “Well, first, I’d ensure that I’d gotten all the intel I needed from you.”
“Intel? Oh, like force me to crack kinda thing?”
“Yeah.” He inspected one of Mike’s special guns, a cobbled-together fully automatic. “Waterboarding… auditory overload… sleep deprivation… stress positioning—the possibilities are almost endless when it comes to breaking someone down.”
I swallowed. “So, you do all that and then you kill them?”
Jimmy nodded. “By the time you put them down, it’s more of a mercy than anything else.” He picked up a box of ammo and gestured for me to follow. “But, that shoulder thing you mentioned sounds intense too. I might have to add that to my repertoire.”
I slugged him in the arm playfully. “Jerk.”
Our heads shot up at the sound of a car coming down the driveway. Zane closed his laptop and hopped out of the bed of his truck, already reaching for his weapon. It wasn’t until Jimmy’s hand went to his holster that I realized he’d positioned himself in front of me.
“Wait a minute,” I said when the red BMW came into view. “It’s Little Ricky and Molly!”
When he stepped out of the sports car with a wide grin, I didn’t even think before running and throwing myself into his arms. I made a noise that might’ve been a laugh were tears not streaming down my face. “Does this mean you’ve forgiven me? Because I’m so so so sorry—”
“Hey, Caparina…” Little Ricky pulled back to look at me. “Why you cryin’, girl?”
“Because I just missed you so much,” I blubbered, no longer a confident gunslinger, but a hero who’d needed her sidekick.
He laughed easily. “Missed you too, Cap. Had to get my head right, ya know?”
“I’m sorry. I know what I did was wrong. And the thought of you and I never speaking again just—” My voice broke off in another loud and decidedly unladylike sob.
“Nah, Cap, it’s all good in the hood. You and me are like this.” He crossed his fingers. “Tight. How’s my boy doin’?”
I patted my belly with a sniff. “Getting bigger.”
He squatted down and placed his hands on either side of my tummy with a wide grin. “Yo, Thor. It’s your Uncle Little Ricky. Yeah, I know, my dude. I missed you too! Okay, keep, uh, bakin’ and shit.”
“I can’t believe you’re here,” I choked out. “So much has happened…”
He stood up, no longer smiling. “I heard about Mikey. That’s actually why I came; club’s been lookin’ into it—”
“Molly?” My mother stepped out onto the porch. “What are you doing here?”
“Haven’t been the best friend to you, Celia,” she said matter-of-factly. “I told you to let the club handle shit. And then this one went and meddled.”
I looked around for the culprit before realizing she was talking about me. “About that,” I began. “I can explain… maybe.”
Molly threw her head back with a laugh. “I can’t wait to hear you explain how you smuggled Bear’s DNA out of our house—”
“Simple.” Little Ricky flashed his teeth. “Cap’s a ninja.”
“Well, ninja or not, it led to some uncomfortable conversations in our house.”
“It’s true, then?” My mother asked. “But, you said—”
“Little Ricky, would you mind running inside to get me some water?” Molly interrupted.
“You got it, Ma.”
Once he was gone, she turned back to both of us, lowering her voice. “One night, I went to Leather & Lace by myself—”
Mama’s eyes widened. “You didn’t. By yourself?”
I didn’t know anything about Leather & Lace, other than it was a biker bar. Judging by my mother’s reaction, it obviously wasn’t the sort of place a woman went alone.
“Kate was still a baby, and I don’t know, I wanted what you had,” Molly argued. “I thought if it worked out for you, then there was a chance I might find love there too. I drank way too much, but Bear was there to drive me home.”
I tried imagining the biker twenty-five years younger but kept seeing Little Ricky’s face, which ultimately killed any chance of me getting a lady boner.
“He was thirty at the time and compared to most of the men I’d known, seemed to know what he wanted out of life. I thought that included me, but when I woke up the next morning, he was gone. I chalked it up to a one-night stand and met Carlos not long after.”
I thought back to what Bear had said the night I revealed that Little Ricky was his son. “When you found out you were pregnant, you didn’t think it was Bear’s because he used a condom, right?”
Molly scratched at her temple. “Yes, but how did you—”
“Bear might’ve mentioned it—when we told him. Look, woman to woman, I get it. When I found out I was pregnant, I—”
“Knew immediately who the father was,” Zane said from behind his laptop. “We didn’t use protection, remember?”
Molly and my mother both averted their gaze, suddenly finding the dirt beneath their feet fascinating. “Celia, maybe we should continue this conversation—”
“Elsewhere?” My mother asked.
“No,” I pleaded. “I won’t interrupt again, I swear.”
“Anyway.” Molly glanced at Zane again before clearing her throat. “When Bear found out I was pregnant, he showed up on my doorstep, demanding to know if it was his. By that time, the doctor had given me my due date and, based on the likely conception date, there was no way it was Bear’s.”
“You never considered that maybe the doctors were wrong?” I asked, slig
htly skeptical, but still completely invested in the story of how my best friend came to be.
“Dakota, at the time, I’d just survived one man who didn’t want to be a father,” Molly said, exchanging another strange look with my mother. “I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t take pleasure in telling Bear that the baby wasn’t his, either. I wanted to hurt him like he’d hurt me.”
“Wait, so that means that Little Ricky wasn’t born prematurely,” Mama said suddenly. “Was he?”
Molly shook her head. “My periods were a goddamn nightmare back then, making it almost impossible to predict an accurate conception date. When he was born, I swore he looked like Bear, but I felt like I was seeing things that weren’t there, stupidly hoping we could be a family.”
“But you are a family,” I said, patting her arm. “He loves you.”
Molly’s laugh caught in her throat. “Yeah, he’s just over the moon for me right now.”
“How is he taking the news?” I asked tentatively, secretly wondering if the biker still wanted to murder me.
“Heads up,” Jimmy said suddenly. “Anyone know this vehicle?”
The truck came tearing down the long driveway, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. As everyone drew their weapons, I realized mine was still back in the barn and grabbed the closest thing I could find.
A gardening fork.
The truck hadn’t even come to a complete stop before Nate threw open the door and stumbled toward us, completely unsteady on his feet.
“Nate?” Mama asked. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s gone.” His voice shook. “I was too late. They took her—”
“Kate?” My bravado was gone, leaving my voice sounding small… fragile. The gardening fork fell to the dirt, completely forgotten, as I approached Nate.
A man dressed as a cowboy came around from the other side of the truck and laid a steadying hand on Nate’s shoulder, his gaze darting from one person to the next before he asked, “Kate’s not here?”
I shook my head, mashing my lips together to keep it together.
The cowboy led Nate over to the tailgate of Zane’s truck before introducing himself with a reluctant wave. “Garrett, Nate’s brother. He called me when he realized she was…” He bit down on his lip. “When he got—fuck, this is really hard.”
“Nate,” I said. “Tell us what happened.”
“I got a page from the hospital, but when I got there, no one seemed to know who sent it. They said it must’ve been a glitch. I just—” He shook his head, his voice choked with emotion. “I knew something was wrong. I started calling, but she didn’t answer. When I got there, the house was empty—”
“Does she have her cell phone?” Jimmy asked.
“She left everything—phone, purse, keys—fuck, even the damn car was still sitting in the garage! We have to find her, she’s—” Nate mashed his fist to his mouth, suddenly looking a little green. “She’s pregnant.”
Kate was going to have a baby.
I lurched forward just as a pair of strong arms locked around mine. “It’s okay, babe,” Zane said, directing me up to the house. “Let’s sit for a minute.”
“But Kate,” I protested weakly as he led me over to the porch swing. “Who would take her?”
His boots came down against the wood, putting the swing into motion. “We’re gonna figure that out, but I need you to sit here and stay calm—”
“I’m not sitting here doing nothing when we don’t know where she is, Zane.”
“Dakota.” He sighed. “Just let me and Jimmy handle this—”
“No!” The vice around my chest seemed to be tightening, leaving me lightheaded. I forced myself to take several deep breaths before continuing. “You and I work as a team, Big Guy.”
Zane rocked forward suddenly, tilting the swing as he rested his forearms against his thighs. He ran a hand through his long hair and worked his jaw back and forth. “No.”
It was just above a whisper, in a tone that left no room for arguing. We sat in silence while I processed the pronouncement, and he worked to get his emotions under control.
“We haven’t talked about it, but the night of the fire put things in perspective for me, Cap,” he said quietly. “As your husband, my job is to keep you safe. It’s a job I take seriously. When I was trying to get you in the truck that night, you fought back. You would’ve willingly put yourself in the line of fire without a fucking weapon.”
“Zane,” I placed my hand across his massive thigh, remembering our first conversation after I stole the quadriceps machine right out from under him. “I didn’t think. I just saw Mike, and I knew I had to try to stop them.”
“You didn’t think. In my line of work, if you don’t think, you end up dead.” He dropped his hand down to cover mine. “I had to go thirty-one years without you. Don’t make me go a lifetime.”
The swing rocked back abruptly as he stood up, and I was forced to grip the chain to keep from falling off. “Hey, Big Guy,” I called as he reached the edge of the porch.
Zane’s shoulders stiffened, but he turned until I could see his profile. “Yeah?”
“I love you too.” He exhaled a soft laugh, and I added, “But I’m not sitting this one out. She needs me.”
He jerked his chin and moved down the steps, each stomp sending vibrations all along the porch.
The screen door flew open, slamming against the siding like a bullet leaving a gun, and I scrambled again to keep myself on the swing.
“What happened?” Lauren asked.
I watched Zane retreat toward the barn before giving her the rundown.
She curled her arms overhead and blew out a breath. “Why? Why take Kate? It makes no sense.”
That was what I’d been trying to piece together. I felt like the answer was staring me right in the face. I slipped off the swing and paced the length of the porch, turning Nate’s words over in my head. “The page—Jimmy!” I called across the yard. “Can we trace the page?”
He looked up. “Not if it’s a one-way pager. It’s a passive receiver only. No GPS, no location. It’s okay, Dakota. We’re going to find your sister.”
If Mike were here, he would’ve at least pretended to listen to what I had to say. He probably would’ve even jotted it down in his little notebook, just in case.
That was it.
I had to take what I knew and make a timeline. “Lauren, do you have some paper and a pen?”
While she got me what I needed, I focused on clearing my mind. So, maybe I couldn’t shoot a gun or join a biker gang.
Maybe my purpose was to lead the entire operation.
“Here you go.” Lauren handed me a pen and paper. “Making a grocery list? If so, can you put coffee on there?”
I sat down and actually wrote the letter c before shaking my head. “No. Lauren, I’m not going to the store. I’m trying to make a timeline.”
She sat down beside me. “A timeline of what?”
“Nate says he got a page from the hospital saying he had a case. Obviously, we can’t trace that, but maybe there’s something else… like a text or phone call from a blocked number maybe?”
She tucked her hair behind her ear with a nod. “The night my mom was killed, Mike got a text from a blocked number. Not long after, I received something similar. Jeremy cracked the code on those already, though. Guy was a detective. Mike went after them, but the Sons got there first.”
I scratched both out. “Okay… maybe the surveillance footage that got emailed to Kate. We could run a trace on it—”
“Yeah, that’s been done, Dakota,” Lauren said patiently. “It led nowhere. I like where your head’s at, but this isn’t going to help us find Kate. Come on, let’s see what Jimmy’s come up with.”
Ooh, Jimmy was in the CIA. Better listen to him. Never mind that Dakota spent years studying the Marvel universe for insight into villains and their tendencies.
I trudged down the porch steps with a black cloud hanging over my h
ead. I just wanted to be taken seriously for once, was that too much to ask?
Guy was a detective…
Jimmy was talking about setting up a perimeter with Little Ricky and Garrett when it hit me.
Someone who would know how to manipulate technology.
“Jimmy?”
“Just a sec, Dakota. Now, if we start—”
“Jimmy, it’s important,” I insisted.
His jaw clenched for a brief second before he gave me his attention. “Yep, go ahead.”
“I’m just curious, the surveillance footage that was emailed to Kate, did we ever find out who sent that?” Lauren’s eyes narrowed, and I jabbed a finger in her direction, willing her to be quiet.
“Uh, last I heard Jeremy didn’t have any luck on that. Something with a firewall… why?”
Bingo.
“Well, I just find it interesting that Lauren and Mike received texts from blocked numbers, only to track the guy down and find that he’d just been murdered by the Sons. We get video surveillance of the sergeant threatening Nate but arrive too late again. Then, we have the glitch with the pager—”
“What’s your point?”
Nate’s head lifted, and he looked up at me in shock. “Holy shit, Dakota.”
“It’s Jeremy,” I whispered. “He’s the only one who would have the means to do it. He’s been feeding us information this entire time, but only when it won’t do us any good.”
Nate’s jaw tightened, and the cords in his neck stretched taut as he ground out, “He’s the motherfucking traitor.”
Jimmy brought his hand up to rest under his chin. “It was staring us right in the fucking face, and we missed it. Everything he’s given us has been at their discretion.”
One of us didn’t miss it.
One of us was looking into everything; no stone unturned.
“Oh my god,” I breathed. “Jimmy, I know why they took Kate. It’s what you said—back in the barn. My father’s still alive—”
“Fuck, they’re going to use her to break him.”
“We’re not ready,” Lauren mumbled to herself before disappearing back inside the house.
Nate jumped off the tailgate. “We have to find her… you don’t know the things he’ll do! Somebody get me a goddamn gun!”
Savior: Silent Phoenix MC Series: Book Five Page 28