“You looking to pick up your car?”
“Um...no, I was looking for Asher Bennett IV.” The guy cocked an eyebrow and she said, “Ash?”
“He’s not here.”
“Okay...can you tell me where I can find him? It’s really important.”
“Nope. I can tell him you came by.”
“It’s really important.”
The guy looked her over. She’d worn a tan linen pantsuit and matching pumps. It was an outfit that she thought of as casual but suddenly she wished that she’d worn jeans instead. She would have at least fit in slightly better. “Okay, I’ll tell him,” he said. He started to go back inside the guardhouse.
“Wait! You didn’t even take down my name.”
He turned back around and with an annoyed look, pulled out his phone, and said, “Okay, give it to me.”
“My name is...”
“Mack?” The sound of the man’s voice came from behind her. She turned toward it and was surprised and happy to see her old friend Steve. At least until he said, “What the fuck are you doing here? Got a little peek at what you threw in the garbage five years ago and now you want to fish it out? What’s wrong...not enough corporate dicks for you to suck in Manhattan?” She felt her face go hot and a flicker of anger light in her belly. She had to remind herself that Steve hadn’t just been her friend...he’d been Asher’s as well. When it was time to take sides, he’d taken Asher’s side and as much as she wanted to blame him for that, she couldn’t. She let the partial smile she’d had on her face when she first saw him drop, and as calmly as she could she said:
“Steve, I’m here because Charlie is missing.”
He narrowed his eyes at her and said, “It’s Sledge.”
8
Sledge had Mack get the rental car as he pushed the gates open wide enough for her to drive it through. Once she was inside, he and the guy from the guard-shack rolled it closed and it was locked again. Mack was stopped, waiting for Steve...or Sledge...as he told her to, when she overheard him telling the guy at the gate:
“Ogre and Sid came out, but you could feel the eyes and the guns all over the place—man, it was thick. Anyway, Ogre heatedly denied that they had anything to do with Tex getting beaten. Wolf made a call to have us back off...for the time being. It woulda just been like being targets in a shooting gallery at that point if we hadn’t.”
“Was Ogre able to explain why the hell they were wearing Impaler kuttes if it wasn’t them?” the gate guy asked.
“Not that I heard. Wolf and the others are combing Oakland, trying to find out what they can, checking in with some of the Nortenos that Wolf has a relationship with up there.”
“Why aren’t you there?”
“Wolf wanted me to come back and see that things were going smoothly here because my fucking bike took a dump. I think it’s that damned transmission again. Pisses me off. I had it towed to Matthews Harley and caught a ride back in the van with the prospects. I had them drop me off because they were on their way to get groceries and shit for the lockdown and I’m not spending three hours in Wal-Mart. The rest of the guys will be back later this afternoon unless something else goes down.”
Gate-guy nodded and looked at Mack then. She turned her head quickly, trying to pretend like she hadn’t been listening in on their conversation. “You know that one?”
“Yeah,” Sledge said, with disgust in his tone. “I know her. We can trust her on the property...just don’t ever trust her in a relationship.” Mack felt a pain in her chest and wondered if Sledge would change his opinion of her if he knew the truth. But it didn’t matter anyway because she didn’t plan on sharing it with him. She had one mission only...and that was to find Charlie.
Sledge came over then, opened the passenger door of the car, and got inside. The small Honda suddenly seemed a lot smaller. She’d almost forgotten how huge he was. “Keep driving straight and follow the road around to the right.” She silently put the car in drive and followed the gravel road past the big shop. When it curved to the right another building came into view. This one had the Skulls emblem painted on the side. She assumed it was the clubhouse. Beyond that was a cute little brown cottage and a bunch of single and double-wide trailers and a few travel trailers, a small playground surrounded by trees, a garden area, and more cyclone fence. “Park in front of the clubhouse on the pavement there.” She brought the car to rest on the pavement between two older Harleys. Sledge got out of the car, so she followed suit. When they walked around to the front of the car he said, “We’re on lockdown right now so pretty much all of the families are here. It’ll be crowded in there. I have to brief the guys on what’s happening and then you and I can talk.” Mack just nodded and followed him up to the door. She took a deep breath before he pushed it open and then she followed him inside. The chatter that was going on when the door opened completely stopped once the two of them appeared in the large room. It was full of adults, mostly women, and one or two babies. Two men sat up near the bar and one old man was playing pool in the corner. The television was on and tuned to a golf game that no one seemed to be watching.
Sledge led Mack over to where the women were, and a pretty, petite, but muscular brunette stood up and gave her a friendly smile. A young blonde woman was sitting next to her and she also smiled at Mack. At least the women didn’t look like they wanted to bite her head off...at least not yet. Give Sledge and Ash time to tell them who she was and what she had done...they’d probably hate her then too. “Blair, Sabrina, this is Mackenzie. She’s an...she’s someone Ash and I know from back east.” Mack felt another pang in her chest. She used to be the person that Sledge told everything to. She was one of his biggest advocates when he was getting tormented in school. She was one of his best friends. Now, she was just someone he used to know. “Can she hang with you for a few while I brief the guys?”
“Of course,” the dark-headed woman said, “I’m Blair,” she told Mack. “And this is Sabrina. Have a seat.” Mack smiled and sat, and Blair went on, introducing her to the rest of the women. They all seemed friendly enough although a few of them looked at her with curiosity or suspicion in their eyes. “So, you’re from New York?” Blair asked her.
Mack smiled. “Yes, Manhattan.”
“How do you know Sledge and Ash?”
“We kind of grew up together. We went to the same school and we were...good friends, once.” She could hear the sadness in her own voice. She swallowed the lump in her throat and again reminded herself that she wasn’t there about Ash, or Sledge. This was about Charlie. “You don’t happen to know if Ash has heard from his sister lately, do you?”
Blair looked at Sabrina, who shook her head. “No,” Blair said. “I’m not sure I even knew Ash had a sister. He doesn’t talk a lot about his personal life. Is his sister okay?”
“I’m not sure,” Mack said. “She was mad at her mother and she took off. You know their father passed away recently?”
“Yeah,” Sabrina said. “Ash and Sledge went back to New York for the funeral a couple of months ago.”
Mack nodded. “His sister had just been having a hard time dealing with his death and it all kind of came to a head this week for her, I guess.”
“Mack!” Sledge hollered at her from across the room. She smiled at the ladies again and headed over to the office where he was standing. The two men he’d been speaking with came out and were now sitting at the bar, watching her. She walked into the room and Sledge closed the door behind her. “Have a seat,” he said. The table took up most of the room. It was oval and had skulls carved into it along with renditions of Harley Davidsons and hundreds of names. She sat in one of the chairs close to where Sledge had sat and said:
“Charlie got in a fight with Allison last night and took off. Allison called the police, but because she hasn’t been missing for 48 hours, they’re looking, but not listing her as a missing person. We’ve called all her friends, at least the ones we know of. No one has seen her. Allison thinks Ash has some
thing to do with Charlie leaving and she told the police that. She wants them to have the local police come here. I tried to tell her that if Charlie was here, Ash would have let her know, but she’s been even more unreasonable than usual lately. I was kind of hoping Charlie had somehow made it out here, although I’m not sure how she’d do that. She has money, but she’s not old enough to drive or even get on a plane without her parents. I suppose she could have taken the bus or train...I don’t know. My biggest reason for coming out here was to let Ash know what was going on, and warn him...about Allison sending the police.” Sledge’s hard stare was making her nervous and pissing her off at the same time. The kids at school used to call him “Lurch” because he was so tall, and his voice deepened at a young age, likening him to the butler on The Addams Family. He’d been extremely thin back in those days, thanks to a nervous disorder that he’d even taken meds for at one point. He had a hard life, and no one was surprised when he left New York. They would be surprised if they saw him now, though. His body had filled out to match his height and the odd, sallow look his face used to carry was gone and replaced now by a sense of confidence that Mack was oddly proud of, even though he was still looking at her like she was garbage.
“When is she sending the police?”
Mack shrugged. “She already gave them Asher’s information. I don’t know if they have to wait until she’s officially a missing person or what. I don’t know much about it at all...or about you guys and this club. I knew Ash was going to be sick over Charlie disappearing. I just didn’t want this to stir up even more problems for him if the police showed up.”
“What is it you think the police would find here, Mack? You think we’re doing illegal stuff out here?”
“No. That’s not what I mean, St—Sledge. I’m just worried about Charlie, and I guess Ash a little bit too. I still think of them as friends...” Sledge threw his head back and laughed at that. “What’s funny?” she asked.
“You. I still have the video of my best friend’s expression the day he stood at the altar for over an hour waiting for you and they finally told him you weren’t coming. I’ve never seen anything as heart-wrenching as the look on his face...and here you sit and tell me you still think of him as a friend.” The big man shook his head, like she had a lot of nerve. Maybe she did, but they didn’t know the whole story. She still sometimes wondered if so much hurt and heartache could have been avoided if she’d just told Asher what she knew. But then she’d remind herself of his temper...and the threats that had been made...and she knew that she’d done the right thing. She didn’t address Sledge’s statement. Instead she said:
“Do you know if he’s talked to Charlie lately?”
“No idea. I know he does talk to her now from time to time. Has she run off before?”
Mack nodded. “Once, but she came home on her own after twelve hours or so.”
“Did Allison know where she went? It would be a starting point.”
Mack snorted and said, “Allison rarely knows where she is. The truth is, if I hadn’t tried to call and message her and gotten no answer, I might not be so worried. Charlie is pretty much allowed to come and go as she pleases. The only reason anyone noticed her missing was because she was supposed to hang out with her friend and didn’t show. I saw the posts on Facebook; her friend started out asking where she was and why she wasn’t answering her phone...and the messages got more worrisome after a while with her best friend begging her to reach out and at one point asking her pointblank...‘Did you really do it? Did you take off?’”
“Did you talk to the friend?”
“I tried. You know how teenagers are.” She regretted that as soon as it came out. If anyone knew how teenagers were, it was this man in front of her. He’d suffered their cruelty and their judgment more than anyone Mack had ever personally known. Sledge didn’t flinch however, and he went on:
“So, what did she say?”
“Just that she had no idea where Charlie was. Claims that Charlie didn’t tell her a thing.”
“Shit,” Sledge said. “Okay, well, I’ll pass this on to Ash and...”
“No. I want to tell Ash myself. He’s going to be freaked out by this...”
“And you think hearing it from you will soften the blow?”
“I hope so,” she told him.
“Doubtful,” Sledge said...but at least he didn’t make her leave.
9
Ash was beat. They’d stood outside that clubhouse in Oakland for what seemed like hours, listening to Ogre deny they had anything to do with Tex’s beating, or that he had any ideas who might be behind it. Wolf didn’t seem to believe him. At the very least, the boss thought that Ogre knew who might be behind it. Ogre was trying to insist they were set up, but he couldn’t give them any ideas as to why or by whom.
After they left the Impalers club they’d spent hours on the streets talking to everyone from gang-bangers to prostitutes to homeless people, trying to get a lead on who might be out to get the club. No one seemed to like them and by the end of the day they had about a thousand suspects...but nothing very viable. Whoever had done this to Tex wasn’t just looking to get at Ogre and his club, it was also a personal attack on the Westside Skulls...and they had to find the common denominator.
The men had gotten back to Fresno at almost midnight and while some of them went belly up to the bar in the great room, Ash was headed upstairs to his own room to pass out. He’d just hit the bottom step when Sledge came out of the office and stopped him. “Hey, man, Mack’s here.”
“What the fuck? Here as in California?”
“No, man, here as in at the club. Blair had the girls make a room up for her. She’s asleep...I guess...in the green room.”
Ash came back down off the stairs. “What the hell is she doing here? Who let her in?”
“I did,” he said. “Ash, Charlie ran away, and she’s been missing since last night.”
Ash felt the color drain out of his face. “Mack thinks she came out here?”
“She doesn’t know. But she does know that Allison told the police you were probably harboring her, and the Fresno PD will undoubtedly be knocking on our door as soon as she becomes an official missing person. I have to tell Wolf, but I wanted you to know what was going on first.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah, that’s how I feel about it too. I’ll go talk to Wolf now. You might want to talk to Mack.” Ash already had his phone out. He was going to try Charlie first. Maybe she’d answer for him. He thanked Sledge and headed upstairs as he pressed in Charlie’s number. He was almost to the top step when it rang once and went straight to voicemail. The robotic voice told him the mailbox was full and suddenly he had a very sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew how teenagers felt about their phones, he’d witnessed his little sister with it glued to her hand. When it rained, it fucking poured. He stood there for a second, looking toward the green door at the end of the hall. He didn’t want to deal with Mack tonight...but he didn’t really have a choice.
Ash didn’t knock softly. He lifted his fist and banged it against the wooden door. He heard the sound of Mack’s feet hitting the floor and then a few seconds later, the door was pulled open. His body felt like it was instantly dehydrated. His mouth was drier than the Sahara Desert and nothing seemed to be moving through his veins. Mack was dressed in a long t-shirt that covered everything except for the bottoms of her thighs, and her knees and calves. But it hugged her curves nicely and even in the dim light, he could tell she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath it. Her light brown hair was disheveled, like she’d been asleep, or—in his perverted mind—she’d just had sex. Her pretty eyes were bloodshot and there were dark rings underneath them...but even in spite of that she looked sexy as hell. He had to work up enough moisture in his mouth to be able to speak. When he did he said:
“What the hell is going on, Mack?” She took a step back and opened the door wider, so he could step inside. The first thing he noticed about the room he�
�d been in hundreds of times was that it now smelled like Mack. She’d always had a smell all her own. While the other girls at school smelled like whatever designer perfume was in that week, Mack smelled like something that floated in softly on the wind and caught you off guard. Every time Ash got a whiff of freshly bloomed flowers when he was out riding his bike...he thought of her.
She closed the door and said, “Charlie ran away.”
“I heard. What’s being done to find her?”
Mack sat on the bed and folded her legs under her. Ash wondered if she knew how sexy she looked. He wondered if she was trying to entice him. He almost laughed at his own ridiculous thoughts. Women fixed themselves up when they were trying to seduce a man. Mack looked like she’d been to hell and back recently...and he couldn’t figure out why she was still completely turning him on. “She and Allison got in a fight. Allison wouldn’t tell me what about except to say it had to do with money. She says Charlie stole whatever cash was in your dad’s safe in the study.”
“Stole? She put it like that? Dad left everything to Charlie. That’s her money.”
Mack nodded. “I know, but yes, that’s how Allison put it. She only called me because she wanted me to call you and see if she was here. I told her that I knew you wouldn’t just take Charlie in without letting anyone know, but that just pissed her off more. She called the cops and they did a report and put the word out that she was a runaway and ‘at risk,’ but when Allison insisted they reach out to the police here, the detective told her they’d have to wait a couple of days to see if she came home first. If not, then he’d get her info into the missing persons database and contact the Fresno PD.”
“And you came all the way out here to tell me this? Why?”
“I got your number from the lawyer and I was going to call you...but telling you your sister was missing was bad enough; I also had to tell you Allison was accusing you of things, and she was going to send the police out...I just felt like I owed it to you to tell you to your face.”
ASH: Westside Skulls Motorcycle Club: (Westside Skulls MC Romance Book 4) Page 6