Passing the Torch (Devil's Knights 2nd Generation Book 1)

by Winter Travers

  I ran down everything that had happened yesterday and today. It was quite a bit for only forty-eight hours.

  “Fucking hell,” King grumbled. “A fucking mess.”

  Yeah. That’s where I was when it came down to it. “We’re heading out to talk to the ex tomorrow and track down the girls who called in tonight. Hopefully, they might know something.”

  “We’ll be home in two days.”

  “What?” Meg shouted in the background. “We are not going home, Logan Birch!”

  Hell. Meg pulled out his full name. “Someone is fucking dead, Meg. We’re going home.”

  “No, we are not,” she insisted. “Hero is taking care of it. I heard everything he just told you. He’s making sure everyone is safe, and he’s trying to figure out what happened. He’s got the police involved. What are you going to do that he isn’t?”

  Meg was definitely my favorite now.

  “Did I ask for your opinion?” he growled.

  “No, but you still got it. We are not turning around so you can go back and lord over him.” Her voice got clearer. “Hero,” she called.

  “Uh, yeah?”

  “We’re not coming home, but you’re gonna need to check in with Lo more, honey. His alpha ass doesn’t like not knowing what’s going on.”

  I smiled and shook my head. “Uh, I can do that,” I replied.

  “Good. That’s settled, then.”

  “It is not settled,” King grunted. His voice boomed from the phone. “You will call me every fucking day, twice a day, and if you don’t, I will fly my ass back there to make sure shit is getting handled.”

  “I got it, King. I was gonna call you tomorrow and let you know what was going on. The past two days have been pretty crazy.” I knew if I didn’t call him at least twice a day, he would be back before I could say no.

  “Find out what the ex knows and call me right away.” The line disconnected, and I dropped my chin to my chest.

  Christ. That was not how I wanted it to go. It would have been much better if I would have been able to break shit down for King without him already knowing half of what was going on. Of course, he only knew the bad shit.

  I pulled up Frost’s number and put the phone to my ear.

  “I wondered how long it would be ‘til you called me. I’m really surprised that it was this quick. I only talked to my dad ten minutes ago.”

  “Yeah,” I growled. “Thankfully Meg was with King so he didn’t rip me a new asshole as much as he wanted to.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “You wanna tell me why the hell you thought it was your business to report to your dad about what is going on?”

  Frost laughed. “Uh, you might want to tone it down, Hero. I didn’t run to Daddy and rat you out. He knew about Bunny before he called me. He’s in some group on an app that reports all of the going-ons of the town. He saw someone post about it, and then, he called me to see if it was true.”

  Jesus. They were halfway across the country, and they still knew everything that was going on in Rockton. “You don’t think you could have given me a fucking heads up after you talked to him?”

  “Brother, I got off the phone with my dad and then a fight broke out. I had to take care of that and then I was gonna call you.”

  “Fight?” I asked.

  “Just two drunks thinking they could get handsy with one of the girls,” Frost explained.

  “Which girl?”

  Frost chuckled. “Luna.”

  Oh hell. “So the two guys are in the morgue now?” I joked. Luna’s straight to the point attitude normally was enough of a deterrent for guys to know to keep their hands off her. I guess these guys thought they could handle her.

  “Zig and Zag saw it happen and managed to break it up before Luna threw a punch.”

  “Lucky bastards.”

  “Yeah,” Frost sighed. “We kicked them out and shit settled.”

  That was good. “Well, King isn’t back to the clubhouse just yet. Meg talked him into giving me the chance to handle everything.”

  “Under what stipulations?” Frost asked.

  Even Frost knew King wasn’t going to just turn a deaf ear to what was going on. “Check in twice a day with updates.”

  “And I’m guessing if you miss even one, your ass is fried.”

  “Yup. Basically.”

  “Then I guess we better figure out what the hell is going on, brother.”

  That was the damn plan. Tomorrow, we were kicking shit into high gear. There was a killer on the loose, and either we or the cops were going to figure out who it was.

  For the sake of Bunny’s killer, they better pray the cops would be the one to find them because if I did, they were going to need a body bag.

  *

  Chapter Twelve

  Reva

  The hum of the buzzers grated on my nerves.

  “We are never drinking on a weeknight again, Tucker.”

  Tucker looked up at me with his big brown eyes. His tail wagged, and he licked his lips. The pretty little sheltie was such a good boy, and he was putting up with me complaining to him. Not like he could tell me to shut up or anything, but he really seemed to be listening.

  Hero had woken me up at eight thirty with a steaming cup of coffee and a bacon sandwich. The smell of the bacon made my stomach roll, but I knew I needed to eat something. I had managed to choke down half of the sandwich and the coffee as I dragged my butt out of bed and got ready for work.

  Thankfully, Hero kept the talking to a minimum and didn’t bust my balls about being so hungover. Though his eyes sparkled with laughter, and I knew he thought it was pretty damn funny when I had tried to put lip gloss on and instead grabbed my mascara. I had wiped off the smear of mascara from my lips and decided I wasn’t capable of putting on any makeup. I managed to get dressed without putting my underwear on my head and my shoes on my feet.

  He had driven me to work and promised to be back at five to pick me up to take me out to dinner.

  Tucker was my last dog for the day, and I was waiting for my second wind to hit me.

  The bell dinged above the door, and I assumed it was Hero.

  “Hey!” I called.

  “Well, hey there,” a female voice called.

  I glanced over my shoulder, surprised that it wasn’t Hero. “Greta?”

  She slid her sunglasses on top of her head and smiled. “You mean you remember me?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t that drunk last night.” At least at the bar I hadn’t been. When I had gotten off the motorcycle, that was when the booze had really hit me. Thankfully, Hero had been the only one to see that.

  “Honey, you were drinking those amaretto’s like they were water.” She leaned against the front counter. “Cute pup.”

  I petted Tucker’s head. He was pretty adorable. “He says thank you.”

  “Oh,” Greta laughed. “You’re one of those people.”

  “Uh, excuse me?” What did she mean? I simply conveyed what Tucker thought.

  “You speak for them. I bet you talk to them, too.” She raised her hands. “Nothing wrong with it. I do it when I’m examining them.”

  “Look at this face,” I cooed. “You can just see that he says thank you for saying he’s cute.”

  Greta laughed. “I don’t think anyone could say you didn’t like your job.”

  I finished grooming Tucker’s hind end and grabbed a brush. “I enjoy what I do,” I replied simply.

  “You about done?” she asked.

  I glanced at the clock. “Uh, maybe ten minutes more. His owner should be here soon. Why?”

  “I’m your ride, sweet cheeks. I have orders to take you out to dinner, make sure you don’t drink too much, and then deposit you at your house.”

  “Uh, what?” Hero had said he was going to do all of that. Well, at least picking me up and taking me out to dinner. I could make sure that I didn’t drink too much. Two nights in a row was not my style.

  “Something came up, and he had to take of
f. He thought he would be home in time but he called me and asked me to pick you up.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Greta’s taxi service at your disposal.”

  But what hadn’t Hero told me?

  The phone rang, and I grabbed it off the counter. “Hair of the Dog,” I answered.

  “Sunshine.”

  Speak of the devil. “Well, hey there.” I rolled my eyes at Greta and sighed.

  “Hero?” she mouthed.

  I nodded and turned back to Tucker.

  “I’m not gonna be able to pick you up tonight.”

  “I know.”

  “You know?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Greta walked in two minutes ago.”

  “Damn,” he laughed. “I didn’t think she would be that quick to get over there.”

  “You didn’t need to call her. I could have just walked home. It’s not that far.” I pulled the brush through Tucker’s long hair, and he leaned into me.

  “You live on the other side of town, Sunshine. No way you were going to walk home.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re acting like Rockton is some huge town.”

  “Just go with Greta, Sunshine. That will be one less thing I have to worry about right now,” he sighed.

  “You have other things to worry about?” I asked. “Are you okay? Greta said something came up and you had to leave town.”

  “Just something I planned on doing today but shit went sideways.” He sounded annoyed and a little pissed. “Just go grab a bite with Greta, have fun, and I’ll call you later.”

  “Oh, okay.” I really didn’t want to add to his worries. I had no idea what he was dealing with, but I could tell it wasn’t going good. “Do you want me to pick something up for you to eat when you get back?”

  “No, Sunshine. Just worry about yourself. I’ll grab something.”

  That didn’t sound like he was going to be back in town soon. “Are you sure there isn’t something I can do?”

  “No, Reva.” His tone was firm and slightly annoyed. “Just eat and head home. Get me?”

  “Yeah, sorry. I’ll let you go.”

  “No, dammit.” He sighed, and I pictured him running his fingers through his hair. “I’m not mad at you, Sunshine. Just there isn’t anything you can do to help, okay? Just…I’ll call you when I’m on the way home, okay?”

  “Okay,” I replied softly.

  “Stay safe, Sunshine.”

  He ended the call, and I felt slightly annoyed he had been too curt with me.

  “What did his royal dickhead have to say?” Greta asked.

  I set the phone down and sighed. “Just what you told me.”

  “Uh, oh,” Greta groaned. “Was he a dick to you?”

  “No.” Well. “Maybe.” I turned around and tipped my head to the side. “I really don’t know.”

  Greta twirled her finger in the air. “Wrap up that pup and let’s get out of here, sugar. You need to have a little dinner with Aunt Greta. It’s time to learn the ways of an ol’ lady.”

  I laughed and fought back the tears that were threatening to fall. “I’m pretty sure I’m older than you, Greta.” And I didn’t think she was an ol’ lady.

  She rolled her eyes. “Then just call me Sister Greta.”

  A laugh escaped my lips. “I don’t think nuns are tattooed and have blue hair.”

  “Yeah.” She looked at the sleeve of tattoos covering her arm. “I’m a little too colorful for that nun life.”

  Maybe Greta was exactly who I needed to talk to, though.

  She hitched her thumb over her shoulder toward the door. “I just gotta make a couple of calls while you finish beautifying that pup.”

  I nodded and smiled. “Fifteen minutes and I’ll be out.”

  She gave me a thumbs up and headed back outside.

  Hero hadn’t been mean to me; he had just been a little too curt. There had been an edge to his voice that I had never heard before.

  I sighed and got back to finishing up Tucker. I was probably being too sensitive and just needed to suck it up. I had no idea what Hero was up to, so it didn’t really make sense for me to offer to help. I had decided that I was going to ride the wave with Hero for however long it lasted and just enjoy it. I didn’t know it was going to be a little bumpy so soon.

  *

  Chapter Thirteen

  Hero

  “You know this is getting a little suspicious, right?”

  I rolled my eyes, but the guy had a point. “We just came to have a little chat with Charlie,” I insisted.

  “Then why did he call 9-1-1?”

  Because he was a fucking chicken? Coward? Lame as fuck? Any of those applied to Bunny’s ex. “I don’t know. We just knocked on the door.”

  “Did he know you were coming?”

  No. If he had, he probably wouldn’t have been home. “I lost his number. We used to be buddies back in the day.”

  Two hours ago, we had knocked on Charlie Winslow’s front door, and then fifteen minutes later, all hell broke loose. Good ol’ Charlie called the cops on us, and now, Frost and I were sitting in an interrogation room at the police station.

  We had been told we weren’t under arrest, but they wanted to have a talk with us. Since Frost and I weren’t looking for trouble, we hopped on our bikes and headed down to the station with two police cars following us.

  Now Detective Ransom sat opposite us. He didn’t seem too convinced that Frost and I had popped over to Charlie’s house unannounced with the story Charlie was an old friend. “Charlie said he has never met either of you in his life before.”

  Frost chuckled. “That Charlie. He sure is a kidder.”

  Ransom sat back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. “Look. How about I don’t think you guys are idiots and you do the same? Deal?”

  “Never once thought you were an idiot.” I laid my hand on the table. “We just wanted to have a conversation with Charlie. We don’t know why he freaked out the way he did.”

  “What did you want to talk to him about?” Ransom asked.

  He knew. He knew exactly why we were there and what we wanted to talk about. “I thought we agreed we were going to go with the non-idiot route of each other?”

  Ransom growled under his breath. He didn’t want to have to deal with us. Tough luck. We weren’t going anywhere as long as Bunny’s killer was out there. “He doesn’t have a clue who killed Bunny. We talked to him this morning.”

  “Then why did he call you guys when we knocked on his door?” I countered.

  Ransom leaned in and rested his arms on the table. “Because four hours earlier, we had talked to him about his dead girlfriend, and then, you two thugs show up on his doorstep unannounced. He thought you were there to kill him.”

  Frost scoffed. “I think you might have offended me, officer. Hero and I are upstanding citizens of Rockton. I can’t tell you the last time I had a run-in with the law.”

  Ransom locked eyes with Frost. “May first, twenty seventeen. You were drunk and disorderly. You rode a pink Power Wheels Jeep from the clubhouse to the gas station for a case of beer and whiskey. You should have gotten a DUI but you managed to talk your way out of that.”

  “He’s good,” Frost mumbled under his breath.

  We weren’t getting anywhere going back and forth. The Devil’s Knights didn’t want any problems with the police.

  I shifted forward and held up my hands. “Look, we didn’t kill Bunny. She worked for the club. We want to know what happened to her and why.”

  “And as soon as we find that out, we’ll let you know. Let us do our job. We don’t want you popping up everywhere you are. You keep doing it, and we’ll bring you in for obstructing an investigation.”

  That was some fucking bullshit right there. We weren’t doing anything to mess with the investigation.

  The door to the interrogation room swung open.

  A guy who looked younger than Frost and me stood in the doorway. He was dressed the same as Ransom in dress slacks, b
utton down shirt, and butt ass ugly shoes. Was there a dress code around here that they all needed to look like shit? “We got another one,” the kid panted.

  “What?” Ransom barked.

  “Over off Highland road.”

  Ransom pointed his finger at me. “You stay here,” he ordered.

  Frost and I exchanged a look. I stood and straightened my cut. “Well, I think we’re done here, Ransom. You did, after all, tell us we were free to go whenever we wanted.”

  Ransom shot up and rounded the table. He stood toe-to-toe with me and got in my face. “You need to go back to your little motorcycle club and leave the investigating to the professionals. You catch my drift?”

  I smiled. “I hear you loud and clear, Detective.” I slid my sunglasses over my eyes and turned to Frost. “I think I feel like taking the long way back to the clubhouse. How about you?”

  Frost chuckled. “Sounds good to me. Maybe we could pick up some dinner at Bruno’s on the way.”

  Ransom slammed his fist on the table and stormed out.

  “Guess he doesn’t like Bruno’s,” I laughed.

  “What’s not to like about the best restaurant on Highland road?” Frost asked.

  *

  Reva

  “Excellent call getting to-go.” Greta grabbed a mozzarella stick and popped it into her mouth.

  “I have good ideas every now and then.” I took a sip of my water and tucked my feet under my butt.

  Greta and I were camped out in front of the living room TV with a huge spread from the local Italian place. I hadn’t thought we ordered a lot, but there was no way we were going to be able to eat everything. Even if Hero didn’t come over until tomorrow, there would be plenty of food for him.

  “So, spill the beans on how you met Hero. I didn’t even know you existed until last night.”

  I laughed and dunked my mozzarella stick in the marinara. “Huh, one of the dogs I was grooming escaped and decided to go check out the backyard of the clubhouse. Turns out Barbara the poodle really liked Hero. He helped me bring her back to the shop.”