Chapter 6
Anchor – Present Day
I gently run my thumb over the tattoo on my neck —the five letters I had permanently inked into my skin, large enough to see —centering me as I eye the lanky fucker who I want nothing more than to kill.
He is in the club's diner, Rebel’s Grub, gently tracing his finger over some blonde woman’s hand who grins wide at him like she’s something special to him and my jaw ticks as confusion fills me.
She left me for him, she went back to him, so why in the fuck is he sitting in our fucking diner with some other chick?
Nothing is making sense right now, absolutely fucking nothing.
For just over a year and a half I have not laid one eye on Summer, not seen her around town, in the diner, not even on the street and I stupidly thought it was the fates keeping us apart knowing the fucking heartbreak she put me through.
Dodgin her because she got back with that slimy fucker but now, I find out it is because she apparently left town a week after we broke up, after she chose him then had the fucking gall to act hurt when I got my petty revenge.
Something doesn’t feel right, and I can’t get that feeling out of my head. I mean, fuck, she had a full life, a house, a car. She was in fucking college yet she left all that behind?
I nibble on my bottom lip, watching as the fucker leans over the table, cups the back of the blonde's head, and kisses her as Amber's words from a few days ago, after I confronted her outside Summer’s home, hit me, and the gut feeling telling me something isn’t right strengthens.
“She ran away like a little bitch, leaving poor Gabriel heartbroken,” Amber snaps just as I finish asking where Summer is, my mouth not even closing before she snaps at me, full of frustration and anger.
I had literally pulled up to have some words with Summer, wanting, no, needing to know if she was involved with the Pillars, the sick group who kidnaps men, women, even kids before selling them.
When her mother stormed down the drive with a red face while a cop car drove away, telling Miss Farlow to stay away from the property otherwise next time she will be arrested.
I’m guessing she’s tried to access it, and by the sounds of things, this isn’t the first time.
Her light hazel eyes that look nothing like Summer’s, burn with rage as she points at the large house behind her and growls, “I can’t even access my own home, the house her dad left me!”
I try to keep my face stoic despite the snort wanting to come out.
Funny, I’m pretty sure Summer's lawyers' paperwork Dirty managed to find states otherwise and I’m pretty sure Summer mentioned hating the woman for leaving her when she was just a fucking baby. She only showed up because she wanted access to said house, but Summer’s dad was smart enough to take extra precaution so this viper couldn’t touch it or the fortune he left his daughter.
“She is selfish, so goddamn selfish and after everything I have done for her.” she growls when she doesn’t get a reaction out of me.
Guess the woman has taken one look at my patch and is hoping I’ll do something about it.
Fat fucking chance.
“The inheritance she was supposed to transfer to me, she never did,” she continues to rant, lying through her teeth like I don’t know the actual truth, “She runs away after hurting that poor boy without a word to anyone, one week after begging him to take her back.”
She scoffs and I tilt my head seeing the lies instantly, her eyes shifting from side to side, never making contact with mine.
I don’t for one moment believe a word coming out of her mouth, don’t get me wrong, I’m aware Summer is gone.
That much is true otherwise she wouldn’t be here ranting and raving, she wouldn’t have been threatened by the cops meaning she set off the alarms, more than once by the looks of things, but the rest, yeah, no, it’s bullshit but the question is, where did Summer go?
And more importantly, why in the fuck do I care?
I sigh as I run my hand over my mouth still eyeing the fucker.
I care because I still love her, even knowing what I know now, knowing she got back involved with that fucker. I can’t shut off my feelings, I can’t shut off my emotions, which is why I have her name tattooed on my neck, why I haven’t touched another woman.
She was my one and even though I wasn’t hers, I don’t see myself being with anyone else. I don’t want to be with anyone else, even though I’ll never have her again. I’m going to be alone, and I’ve made peace with that.
She stole my fucking heart and I feel sick to my stomach about it knowing the poor guy her mama kept moaning about, sat on Trigger’s old lady’s back while another guy that Virginia, his ex-mistress, orchestrated to rape Ashley, a woman we all fucking love, a woman who always put Trigger and the club first, is the guy Summer was with then left me for to go back to.
And now I’m having to follow this slimy fucker around, hoping he leads us to where the Pillars are taking the missing women which had stopped after Doc killed the senator.
He was one of the men helping the sickos group along with a traitor within the Cannibal group that Cannon still hasn’t managed to find because women began going missing again, three of them seen with this fucker my girl left me for.
I’m so fucking confused as to where she would have gone, as to why she would choose to go back to him only to leave?
Something deep down inside me is telling me something is wrong —I just don’t know what.
I sigh with frustration as the fucker leans back in his seat and grins widely while the blonde bats her eyelashes at him, both clearly not ready to leave yet.
These past, fuck, I guess nearly two years have been hell, and not just because I’ve felt lost without Sum and I ended things. But the club has been through a lot, the brothers trying to move forward.
From the shit Stone and Doc had to go through with their women, Trigger, well, fuck, he tried to kill himself, shocking all of us.
After spending nearly two years adamant that his wife was cheating on him and deciding to have his own mistress for that first year, Ashley finally explained that she pulled back because she had been raped.
She felt dirty, which is why she barely touched him, and to add more heartache to a shocked and speechless Trigger, she lost their baby that night, a baby she was going to tell him about, and Trigger couldn’t handle the truth.
The fucker tried to kill himself, shoving his gun in his mouth, and Doc only just managed to get to him in time.
We all encouraged him to take a ride, which he did, for a lot longer than we all thought he would after he tried to kill himself yet again.
When he returned he’d found out Ashley was pregnant and after a tense ten minutes believing the child was someone else’s she put him out of his misery and explained the baby boy was his child who was born ten weeks early and is currently in the neonatal care unit until he is strong enough to come home.
Ashley was attacked yet a-fucking-gain while thirty weeks pregnant.
A man she was only seeing to move on from Trigger and had dumped, had attacked her, kicking her stomach a few times that induced her labor, causing her placenta to erupt.
Turns out the fucker was actually her rapist and was getting ready to drug and drag Ash away before she dumped him and her so-called friend, Nat, the manager at Clark’s that we burned down, gave the fucker her location and she is now dead for her involvement in Ashleys trauma.
Trigger killed her without remorse, and rightfully so, as well as the fucker who attacked Ashley and sent her into early labor.
Turns out the bitch was the one who gave Ashley’s name to the fucker in the first place after he wanted to take her, and even knowing Ashley was pregnant, she still chose her friend over herself like a selfish bitch.
My jaw ticks watching the slimy fucker lean forward again, running his finger over the blonde’s exposed tits, making his move.
He’ll be the next one to die, by my fucking hands if it is the last thing I do, well, once we find out where he’s taking the people he’s snatching off the street and whether or not Summer was involved in this.
He was her boyfriend, she went back to him, so surely she would have known, right?
Fuck, I swear, a sharp pain just speared through my chest at that thought.
My phone rings, drawing my attention, and I grab it from inside my cut and check the ID.
“Pres?” I answer while eyeing the fucker in front of me, who looks about ready to move, “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
He snorts, “Nah, not with Bailey wanting my attention, but it’s fine, I’m off for a few days now. How is the trail going?”
I smile slightly at that. Bailey Bell is fucking amazing and a little sweetie, and at nearly a year old, a spitting image of her mama, she holds every fucking brother's heart.
“He looks like he’s ready to make a move with some blonde who is clearly unaware of the danger,” I mutter as Gabriel stands, holding his hand out to the unsuspecting woman.
“Follow him,” he demands, “Dirty is still trying to hack the number he’s been using, but with it being prepaid, he’s fucking struggling.”
I open my mouth to confirm I’ll follow, but soon clamp it shut when Gabriel’s eyes widen and he shoves the blonde away, shocking her, before he rushes to the door, meeting...
Holy fucking shit.
“Uh, Pres,” I mutter as I watch Cannon, the big fucker that is the leader of the Cannibals, shake his tattooed hand with Gabriel’s.
“What?!” Doc snaps when I don’t say anything else, too busy watching Cannon have a laugh with that fucker.
“Does Cannon know that Gabriel is on our radar?” I ask.
“No, why?” he asks with caution.
“Because he’s currently bumping shoulders and laughing with the fucker,” I growl as I watch them walk back into the diner while the blonde sulks.
She just had a lucky escape and has no idea.
I hear a bang before Doc roars, “Fuck, he’s his fucking traitor…”
Yep, that’s what I thought.
“What the fuck do I do now?” I ask, the need to go in there and kill the fucker consuming me, and Doc takes a deep breath.
“Leave, I’ll call Cannon but ensure he gets the information on where the missing people are being taken before he makes his move first,” he says, and I swallow hard. “Brother,” he says, already knowing where my mind has gone, “I know you want the kill, but he is their traitor. Step down, brother.”
My jaw ticks, but I don’t say anything. I hang up before I snap at my own fucking president, my best fucking friend because if this had anything to do with Brit, he’d have a fucking field day and he knows it.
Breathing heavy, my now ringing phone clutched in my hand, I eye the fucker now sitting and laughing with his unbeknown leader and I shove my phone in my pocket before starting my bike and revving it, not once taking my eyes off the soon to be dead fucker.
Frustration builds before spinning out of my spot before I go against Doc’s orders and beat the shit outta the fucker to get the information I fucking need about Summer then killing him.
A ride —I need a fucking ride before I do something stupid.