by A. M. Myers
“We should probably go inside,” she whispers and I nod. She’s right. If they haven’t noticed that we’re out here yet, someone will soon and the last thing I want to do today is get into it with Kodiak.
I nod. “Yeah… dunno how I’m going to get up to my room without people seeing the wet spot on my fucking jeans, though.”
“Tell ‘em I spilled a soda on you.” She laughs and I scoff as I dig my fingers into her hips. She squeals and wiggles in my arms, trying to bat my fingers away from her.
“Stop. I hate being tickled!”
Smiling, I smack her ass. “Come on. Let’s go but you better come up with another story besides you spilled a soda on my goddamn pants.”
Laughing, she opens my door and slips outside, straightening her clothes while I put the seat back up and climb out next to her. The parking lot is still empty and I breathe a sigh of relief as I give her a little nudge toward the clubhouse.
“You go first and I’ll follow behind you in a few minutes.”
She nods, pressing a quick kiss to my lips before she walks over to the door. I lean back against my car and pull out my phone to waste time. Once I get inside, I need to investigate the name Tawny gave me and I might even take Rowan’s advice and get the entire case set up on the giant white board we have in the war room but I can’t do any of that until I get up to my room. As I waste time, I run through scenarios in my head of what I’m going to walk into and blow out a breath. Overthinking and running through every single possibility has always been something I’ve done and I honestly hate it but I can’t stop. My brain just won’t ever shut the hell up and I’m always fucking thinking about something. It’s annoying as hell and one of the reasons I like being around Rowan so much because when I’m with her, it’s easier to just be in the moment instead of a million miles away.
I wait a few more minutes before tucking my phone in my pocket and walking across the lot. As I step inside, I hold my breath but it’s surprisingly quiet. In fact, the bar area is completely empty and I run up to my room before anyone can stop me or ask me why the hell my crotch is wet. Upstairs, I slip into the bathroom attached to my room and take a quick shower before throwing on some clean clothes. Once I’m presentable again, I sit down in front of the computer and start looking through bar receipts for anyone named Warren around the time Tawny made her accusations. Only one name pops up - Warren Ehlye.
“What in the fuck kind of name is that?” I whisper to myself as I quickly look it up. My search doesn’t give me any answers but as I study the name, I realize it could be pronounced “Eli” so I run a quick search on that and begin reading to myself. “In the Old Testament, Eli was the high priest and last judge of Israel…”
Does that mean something?
Is it supposed to be a message to us?
Shaking my head, I file the thought away for later and search the full name. I can’t help but smile when a property record pops up for one Warren Ehlye. It’s a little cabin way out in the woods and I resist the urge to jump up and let out a whoop.
This is our fucking guy.
I print off the property records before digging a little more into Warren but it doesn’t take very long for me to run into a problem.
Fuck.
I should have known it was too good to be true.
Sighing, I scrub my hand over my face and grab the files off of the desk as I stand up. First, I need to get these all laid out in order on the white board and then I’ll tell everyone what I found, not that it’s much. With the folders under my arm, I head back downstairs, ignoring Moose, Blaze, and Chance as they sit at one of the tables talking. I can feel their eyes on me as I slip into the war room, shut the door, and lock it behind me. Working quickly, I lay all of the files out on the table and put them in order, double-checking the dates, before taping them to the white board and putting a date by them. When I’m finished with the main cases, I put up other things that have happened like the break-in at the clubhouse and when Tawny accused Moose before stepping back and looking at it all in front of me. Nothing jumps out at me right away but I hope something will stand out to the rest of the guys or at the very least, it helps us keep the story straight in our heads.
“Streak,” Storm calls from the other side of the door and I walk over, yanking it open. He arches a brow and glances into the room. “You all right?”
I nod. “Yeah. You want to round everyone up though? I have things to show you.”
“Sure,” he answers, eyeing me skeptically as he turns and walks out of the room to get the rest of the guys. Blaze, Chance, and Moose get up from their table and nod to me as they walk into the room and when I glance up, I meet Rowan’s eyes. She peeks at the white board behind me before her gaze flicks back to me and she smiles.
Shit.
I really can’t wait to get more time alone with her later.
“Did you find something?” Kodiak asks as he walks up to the war room and when I glance back over at Rowan, she has turned away from me. Sighing, I nod.
“Yeah, I’ll explain in a minute.”
Everyone else files into the room and takes their usual seats before all turning to look at me. Blaze arches a brow as he crosses his arms over his chest and leans back in his chair.
“All right, Streak. You have the floor.”
I nod. “Right. So, I’ve been going over the interview with Veronica for the past week and something stood out to me.”
“What?” Chance asks, leaning forward and bracing his elbows on the table.
“Veronica said that the man who took her talked about a woman who he met in a bar…”
Blaze nods, scowling at me from across the room. “Right. And?”
“And I had a suspicion that it was Tawny. We knew that she met some guy in a bar and he convinced her to try and frame Moose so it just made sense. I went to talk to her this morning to see if she had any other information to give me.”
“Okay,” Fuzz says, studying the board. “And did she?”
I nod and point to the name written at the top of the white board. “She gave me a name.”
“How in the hell do you even say that?” Smith asks.
“It’s pronounced Eli.”
Blaze tilts his head to the side as he studies the board. “Did you find anything on this Warren Ehlye?”
“One thing,” I answer with a smile. It’s not the resounding victory I’d hoped it would be but it’s still something. “Warren Ehlye owns a little cabin deep in the woods.”
“Are you saying you found him, Streak?” Moose asks and I shake my head.
“No. Warren didn’t even exist before two years ago but then that leads me to the rest of this.” I motion to the white board. “I’ve laid out the entire case, in order, starting with Dina’s. She was killed in early two thousand seventeen and there was nothing else until Laney was killed in early two thousand eighteen.”
“And then nothing again until Veronica went missing in early two thousand nineteen?” Blaze asks and I nod.
“At least, nothing that we know about yet. Veronica did mention that Warren might have had a role to play or influenced shit with Ali back then,” I say, pointing to the date in two thousand seventeen. “But until it’s confirmed, I don’t want to put it up on the board.”
Fuzz sighs. “Everything picked up this year.”
“Yeah, I realized that, too,” I tell him, turning back to the board. For the first two years, there was only one death a year but this year, we’ve had a girl go missing, another die, Tawny trying to frame Moose for assault, the break-in at the clubhouse, and Veronica showing up on our doorstep. Sighing, I turn back to him. “It makes me think we’re nearing the end of his little game.”
“I don’t like the fucking sound of that,” Storm growls, raking a hand through his hair and a ripple of unease works its way through the room. Blaze sighs and sits forward.
“Okay, we need to look into the cabin… Fuzz and Storm, I want you to do that but be discreet. We can’t a
fford to piss this guy off anymore and I want to remind you all that we may be dealing with a lot but Fuzz and Piper’s vow renewal is coming up soon and we’re not going to let this asshole steal even a moment of their happiness. Is that clear?”
I look at each of my brothers as they all nod in agreement and all the changes that have happened in the last two years. I’ve built a real family with all of the people in this room and I have to wonder if we’ll all be standing here when this thing is finally over or if we’ll be burying more people that we love. Or if we’ll even have a club to come home to.
Chapter Nine
Warren
Big, fat rain droplets splatter against my windshield as I climb out of the car and I cast an annoyed glance at the dark gray sky hanging over me before grabbing the box of supplies I brought along out of the passenger seat and slam the door. I’ve got a long walk ahead of me since I like to park so far away to avoid detection from anyone who may be passing by and I would prefer to do it in dry conditions. Not to mention that this weather will only make it harder to do what I came here to do. I will have to be extra careful and it will take time, time I don’t have. Shoving my free hand in the pocket of my jeans, I start walking toward the cabin, eager to get there as soon as possible so I can finally put this place behind me and move on to the next stage of my plan. It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since this all started, since I managed to find this little cabin out in the woods and finally put all of this into motion. Especially since there were times when I wasn’t sure it would work, that I would actually make it here, but now that we’re nearing the end, I cannot wait to watch the destruction. After everything I’ve lost… everything they took from me… this is justice.
The forest is quiet as I walk along with the box tucked securely under my arm and I spot a few landmarks that are familiar to me. Seeing them gives me this weird sense of peace and it’s hard to believe that this is the last time I’m going to be out here. Over the last year, I’ve spent so much time at this cabin that it started to feel a little like home. I scoff at the word. I don’t have a home, not really, and it would be monumentally stupid of me to forget that fact. This place is nothing to me and once it’s all over, I doubt I’ll ever think of it again. It was a tool and it’s been incredibly useful, in more ways than one, but it’s served its purpose and when I finally end this, I’ll be walking away from everything here in Baton Rouge. Not that there is much left for me here anyway. Memories of my life before it collided with the Devils floods my mind and I grit my teeth as the pain in my chest swells. I can’t ever forget what they took from me or why I’ve put in the insane amount of work it’s taken to make all of this come together.
The cabin comes into view and I stop, moving behind a tree as I scan the area until I’m certain that no one else has been here since I left the last time. As I move closer to the little log structure, I smile. I know Streak went to go see Tawny this morning and hopefully the dumb bitch remembered just enough information to lead him here but first, I need to get the place ready. We can’t have company coming over before each room is looking its best. As I step up onto the back porch, I set the box down next to the stairs and shake off my boots as I grab the white crime scene booties from the box and slip them on. The hair net comes next and after I snap it over my head, I grab the latex gloves and pull them on. Once I’m all decked out in my gear, I grab the bottle of cleaner and sponge I brought along and step inside. The place is still pretty clean since I scrubbed it down right after I released Veronica but I need to go through it with a fine tooth comb and make sure there isn’t a single shred of evidence left for them to find.
Except for the things I want them to find, that is.
Laughing to myself, I get to work, starting in the tiny bathroom at the back of the cabin and scrubbing every surface once before I go back and do it again for good measure. When I’m finished, I go out to the main room and look around. It was supposed to be a living room slash bedroom when I bought the place but the only things I needed in here were the twin bed in the corner and the shackles in the middle of the floor where I kept Veronica secure for so many months. She is the one thing in all of this that I actually felt a little bit bad about. I mean, she didn’t really have anything to do with the club until I brought her into this whole mess and after talking to her, I realized that she was exactly the kind of girl I would have gone for before the Devils stole my life from me. But it doesn’t matter. I can never go back and now, neither can she. Shaking my head, I push away the memories of all our talks in this room and get back to work, scrubbing the shackles and the hook embedded in the floor before moving on to the windowsills and the walls. The mattress was replaced after Veronica was released so I don’t have to worry about them finding anything there either. Once I’m done in the main room, I duck into the small kitchen and scrub everything there before going back to my box on the back porch and grabbing the photos I brought along.
It’s been so goddamn easy to mess with these guys and this is just going to be another level on top of all of that. They have no fucking idea how deep this goes and how many situations I’ve had my fingers in, influencing others when I needed to and keeping the Devils distracted with dumb bullshit when I was making big moves. It’s actually comical how clueless they are.
Or maybe I’m just that good.
Back in the main room, I tape the photos to the wall and hang the white mask I always wore around Veronica on a nail before taking a step back and looking at it with a smile. The best part of all this is that while they may have suspicions about my involvement in things, they’ll never find any concrete proof and that will drive them crazy - Streak especially. My mind drifts to the night I snuck up to the clubhouse and my smile grows when I think about Rowan. I’ve learned quite a lot about her since that night and the more I learn, the more intrigued I am. I’ve honestly been toying with the idea of adding her to the plan but things have been working so well that I don’t want to mess anything up.
God, I want her, though.
The sound of gravel crunching grabs my attention and I walk over to the window, pulling the curtain back just enough to peek outside. A smile stretches across my face as Storm’s truck rolls up the narrow driveway to the front door. “Perfect.”
I watch them park and climb out of the cab before I slip out onto the back porch and quietly close the door behind me with my heart hammering in my chest and adrenaline pumping through my veins. Fuck, this is everything. One of my favorite things about this whole chase has been that they have no clue who they are looking for and it’s been so easy for me to blend into a crowd and watch them. But this, this fear and excitement about the small possibility that I could get caught is even sweeter than I imagined.
“Let’s check out inside,” Storm says and I nod eagerly. A part of me can’t wait for them to find the present I left inside but there is another part of me that wishes I could take them out, here and now. Storm is one of the names on my list and I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve laid awake, imagining wrapping my hands around his throat and watching the life drain from his eyes but deep down, I know it’s not enough. He needs to bleed, metaphorically and physically, before I take his life. But how convenient would it be if they were to find me out here and I had no other choice but to kill them? Then again, it wouldn’t be too hard to attach another set of shackles to the hook in the floor and take my time exacting my revenge on them.
“We should do a perimeter check.”
“No,” I hiss, shaking my head at Fuzz’s suggestion as I turn to look at the forest around me. There really is nowhere for me to hide right now and this can’t end yet. It’s too fucking soon and they haven’t hurt enough yet.
“Dude, look around,” Storm shoots back with a sigh. “No one is here and we haven’t even seen another car for the last twenty minutes. This place is fucking remote.”
“And what if he’s here?”
He is, I think to myself, smiling.
God, they d
on’t have a fucking clue.
“This place is abandoned. He’s gotten all he can from it so let’s stop wasting our time and just see if there is anything inside.”
“Fine, whatever,” Fuzz growls and I turn, peeking in the window as they open the front door and step inside. Their gazes are immediately drawn to the artwork on the wall and I feel damn near giddy as I watch their matching scowls.
“What the fuck is this?” Storm murmurs, walking up to the photo of Clay, Smith’s brother… or should I say, late brother. He rips it off the wall and stares at the image, a range of emotions flicking across his face, before he passes it to Fuzz. “What the fuck is this supposed to mean?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Fuzz answers, his eyes snapping up to the other photos on the wall. There is a photo from each of their relationships on the wall, something that they each went through with their old ladies like the charity ball Carly attended with Chance where her mother sold her to Damian Griggs or the day Biche shot up Henn and Kady’s wedding. The fun part will be watching them try to figure out which events I had a part in and which ones I didn’t. Or maybe they’ll just assume I was involved in all of them and go crazy trying to protect the ones they love from the big bad wolf. Either way works for me. I glance down at the photo in my hand, the only one I saved from the wall and smile at the sight of Rowan propped up on Streak’s desk with her head thrown back and her eyes closed.
This one is just for me.
“It’s the mask Veronica talked about,” Storm says, drawing my attention back to them as he flicks the mask with his fingers in irritation. I can’t stop smiling as I move away from the window and quietly slip off of the porch. They don’t have much more to look through and I want to be well hidden by the time they come back out so I grab my box and jog into the trees. There is a particularly thick section of brush far enough away from the back door to avoid detection and I slip behind it. It’s quiet for a few moments and I grit my teeth, wondering what the hell they’re doing in there and wishing I had stayed on the back porch when Storm yanks open the back door. My breath catches in my throat as I watch him scan the forest around me and my heart hammers in my chest. Finally, he shakes his head.