Chapter 24
Say No
Ivy
Friday morning I decided to pair my vintage CBGB t-shirt with my khaki shorts when someone knocked on the door.
“Ivy! It’s me, Mickayla.”
I opened the door and saw Mickayla and Alexandra standing in the hall.
Alexandra gave me a little wave. “Hey, I’m here too. Not to derail her plan, but you should say no.”
Mickayla pushed inside the room and shot a dirty look over her shoulder at Alexandra. “It’s not a bad idea.”
Alexandra followed her inside and shut the door. “It isn’t a good idea either, so where does that leave us?”
Mickayla focused on me. “You still aren’t going to work today, right?”
“That’s right.”
“I thought the three of us could go check out the house where you and Ryan were taken.”
I turned my head a bit and shot her some side eye. “Why would we do that?”
“A few reasons,” she said, then held up a finger. “One, we could see if they’re using that house for anything else.” She held up another finger. “Two, we could check on the other asshole, see if they moved the body.”
“Bleh,” Alexandra said.
Mickayla shook her head at Alexandra. “And three, we can find out if the other vehicle is still there or not.”
Alexandra shook her head. “That doesn’t even count as a reason. Like I said, you should say no.”
I cocked a brow at Alexandra. “But it sounds like you’re going along with it even if you don’t like it.”
She dipped her chin to concede the point. “I’m not going to let her run off on her own. It’s bad enough they took you and Nickel.”
“Speaking of him, I should tell him where I’m going.”
“And he’ll put the kibosh on this. The brothers are in church, it’s not even ten o’clock, there’s no better time to do this,” Mickayla said.
“Our time would be better spent…” Alexandra trailed off at the expectant look on Mickayla’s face.
“Doing what? Twiddling our thumbs? This is basically recon,” Mickayla said.
“That could go bad,” Alexandra muttered.
“Always so negative,” Mickayla said.
“Nope. Just being real,” Alexandra said.
Mickayla sighed. “We don’t even have to get out of my car.”
“I haven’t had breakfast yet. We can leave in an hour,” I suggested to buy some time.
Mickayla gave me a shrewd look. “I see what you’re doing. If we run this by Ryan all the brothers are gonna lose their minds. Put on your shoes and we’ll hit Wawa – you can get breakfast while I fill up my car.”
Alexandra glanced at me. “I told you to just say no. There’s still time to change your mind.”
I pressed my lips together and thought about it.
A big part of me was curious about the property.
Ryan had convinced me not to go to the cops, but I hated waiting on these people to make the next move.
Like Mickayla said, we wouldn’t even get out of the car, so any danger was minimal – assuming we found the place.
I shrugged. “There’s a really good chance we won’t find the property. The sun was setting when we left, and the truck had navigation to guide us. Between the relief of leaving there and the concussion, I’m not sure I’ll know where the turn off is.”
“Which makes this an even bigger waste of time,” Alexandra muttered.
Mickayla turned to her. “Consider it going for a ride… Just not with your old man.”
Alexandra rolled her eyes. “I should have signed up for Friday classes.”
My cell rang while Mickayla hung a left-hand turn onto US90. Ryan’s name lit the display.
“If that’s my brother, don’t answer it,” Mickayla advised.
I was sitting in the backseat behind Mickayla and I locked eyes with her in the rear view mirror. “That’ll really piss him off.”
In the passenger seat, Alexandra turned to Mickayla. “Yeah, did you think about that? You’re going to make them have their first fight.”
Mickayla shook her head. “I am not. He’s smitten with her.”
I choked on my laughter. The notion of Ryan being smitten was ludicrous, then I hit the green icon and put the phone to my ear. “Hi, honey.”
“Where are you?” he asked in a measured tone.
Too measured.
“I’m with your sister.”
He blew out a breath. “That tells me who you’re with, but not where, Ives.”
“Please don’t call me that.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but I’m worried.”
The ‘sweetheart’ endearment threw me, and I blurted. “We just got off I-10 at Devoe and we’re headed west on US90.”
Alexandra turned in her seat. “Put it on speaker,” she whispered.
I did as she asked.
“Tell Mick to go to the restaurant,” Ryan said.
“I’m not doing that,” Mickayla said.
“Mickayla, you don’t have the first fuckin’ clue about what you’re getting into with this shit,” Ryan said.
“I have some idea since the cops questioned me yesterday, just the same as you.”
“The goal is to keep Ivy out of this, Mick. Corrupt Chrome MC doesn’t need to know who she is,” he said.
I didn’t want the two of them to bicker. “To be fair, I don’t think we’re going to find the right turn off, Ryan. I was unconscious when we got there, and the sun was setting when we left. This is more like a Sunday drive on a Friday morning.”
“Which is why she should go to the restaurant,” Ryan said.
“Ryan, it’s fine,” Mickayla said. “We’re taking a drive, and I’ll bring her back to On a Lark when we’re done.”
“Do you have your gun with you Ivy?” Ryan asked.
My lips twisted with my grimace. “Um…”
“Goddamn it,” he bit out.
“I have mine,” Mickayla said.
“And I have a knife,” Alexandra muttered.
“Fuck, you got Bluff’s woman in on this too,” Ryan muttered.
“Yes, we need to go. Talk soon, baby brother,” Mickayla said and made a cutting motion at her throat for me to hang up.
“Bye, Ryan,” I said because hanging up on him was also certain to make him mad.
We rode in silence for a bit.
After we passed a distribution center not far from the bar, Mickayla said, “Once we pass On a Lark, start a timer on your phone. I heard Ryan say they took you somewhere twenty-five minutes west of the restaurant. That will help us find the turn off.”
West-bound traffic was minimal at ten-thirty in the morning, and we passed the bar and grill after another five minutes.
I set the timer on my phone. “T-minus twenty-five-ish minutes.”
“Cool. We can pull a U-ie in twenty-four minutes,” Alexandra muttered.
“Have a more positive attitude, Lex,” Mickayla said and turned the music down.
“I’m positive this should be over after twenty-five minutes. And how old are you? Eighty-six? Lowering the music volume isn’t going to help us see better,” Alexandra chided.
“Says the woman who wants my whole car to rattle with the bass notes,” Mickayla said.
I laughed. “You two are worse than me and Chad.”
Alexandra looked over her shoulder at me. “Keep it up, you’re gonna be roped into this soon enough… Trouble.”
I felt my eyes get wide as my jaw dropped. “How do you know—”
Mickayla’s eyes met mine in the rear view mirror. “The brothers talk. More than you’d ever imagine.”
After a few minutes, Alexandra sighed. “This is even more boring than driving west on I-10.”
“Keep your eyes peeled. I’m looking for a dirt road, and that’s about all I know,” Mickayla said.
“It’s only been ten minutes. We have at least another ten minutes of driving before we start getting close,” I said.
We rolled through the intersection of US90 with a county road in Sanderson.
“My breakfast is fading fast, we should stop at that truck stop when we’re done,” Alexandra said.
“You should have gotten a Sizzli,” Mickayla said.
A vague memory of Ryan driving us in the opposite direction hit me and my stomach lurched. I really hadn’t expected us to be able to find the place where Ryan and I had been taken. The thought of going there wasn’t sitting too well with me.
“You’re remembering stuff, aren’t you?” Mickayla asked and I saw she was watching me in the rear view mirror.
“Watch the road, please,” I murmured.
As the counter neared the twenty-five minute mark, only dense woods lined the road.
“I’d ask if you see anything, but there’s nothing to see,” Alexandra said, staring out the passenger window.
I spied the outline of a mailbox in the distance and I bit my lip. “This might be it, but… maybe we should just pull that U-turn.”
Mickayla turned on her blinker, slowed down, and turned onto the lane. The farther her small sedan bounced along the dirt path, the more I knew we were in the right place.
One hundred yards later the path veered to the left and I saw the ramshackle farm house. Unlike Alexandra, my breakfast hadn’t faded; it threatened to make a comeback.
“We really shouldn’t do this,” I muttered.
My spine stiffened when I heard the roar of a motorcycle approaching from behind.
“If Ryan has come to get you, I’m going lose it,” Mickayla said.
Alexandra turned in her seat. Her hazel eyes widened with a mixture of alarm and curiosity. “That isn’t your brother. I can’t imagine why they sent Tundra to come after us.”
“Tundra?” Mickayla said, her eyes darting to her side mirror. “Shit,” she whispered.
“Isn’t that better than your brothers showing up?” I asked.
“No…and yes,” she said.
“You’re being clear as mud,” Alexandra said.
“Aren’t you going to stop?” I asked.
“Hell, no. We made it this far, we’re going to check on that dead body that you and my brother hid.”
Alexandra pointed a finger at Mickayla. “None of the brothers are talking about the specifics of what happened out here, so how did you hear about that?”
“There are instances when Lark and my brothers act like I’m invisible. Most of the time that doesn’t bother me, and then there are the times I use it to my advantage. Like now,” Mickayla said.
The roar of Tundra’s bike got louder, then I saw him pass us and pull to a stop about twenty yards in front of the car.
“That stubborn man,” Mickayla muttered as she stopped the car and put it in park.
She immediately unbuckled and exited the car. The way she stormed over to Tundra I could practically see her anger rolling off her in waves.
“That’s quite the reaction,” I said without thinking.
Alexandra gave a dry chuckle. “You catch on fast, Ivy.”