Chapter 25
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
Cam looked at his phone again. He’d texted Sabrina to tell her he’d be late coming home as Wolf had an important update for the club.
She should have left the spa by now, and he was surprised she hadn’t responded yet.
Normally, she checked in when she left to go home to see if he needed anything she could pick up on the way.
So far, nothing, but he didn’t want to put any alarms out quite yet.
Maybe her phone died or she had bad reception.
There were a few dead spots between the spa and the house.
The house. Home. Their home. Sabrina was sticking with him. He felt like he’d won the lottery. He wished Vera and Cecil were still alive to see this.
“Anyone know where Specs is?” Wolf asked. His face was long, grim, and full of menace. Something had enraged the club president, and whatever or whoever started it might die tonight.
Only Quillon dared to speak. “Specs? He said he had some family business to take care of tonight. Why?”
“Look at this.” Wolf opened a laptop and spun it around so everyone could see the screen. “Jazz worked her magic on these videos. See for yourselves.”
The rest of the Knights stayed silent as they stared at the moving figures. They’d already seen the first video once: two men vandalizing the coffee shop. The part they didn’t see the first time was the reflection of the front window. Jazz had enhanced the picture, and a clear face showed up.
It looked a lot like Specs.
“What the fuck is this?” Melter asked as rumblings started around the table.
“Keep watching,” Wolf ordered.
The next video took place outside Clauson’s.
The shot angle came from above the front of the store.
It showed Edna locking up and walking away just as two men came around from the other side of the corner store.
One man broke the glass while another lit a Molotov and threw it into the opening.
The frame froze and zoomed in on one of them.
The man’s face was obscured behind a mask, but the open neck of his hoodie revealed a chain with a silver skull dangling from it.
The same one Specs usually wore.
“Son of a bitch,” someone muttered.
The next video started, this time outside Hob’s place.
The group watching collectively inhaled as they saw Garfield enter his shop.
Two men went in a few minutes later. The next cut came from another reflection that looked like a dashcam from someone’s car.
A wave of anger rolled off the Knights as they watched the brutal beating.
White-hot rage filled Cam as scene after scene came up. Each one showed a piece of something that led back to Specs. Yet it wasn’t the Specs they knew. This guy moved with confidence and calculation, not the nerdy shuffling of someone trying to please everyone.
If Specs wasn’t Specs, who the hell was this man?
Wolf’s condemnation rang colder than ice. “Specs betrayed this club. He’s been behind all these attacks throughout the area this whole time. We don’t know who his partner is, but I want some fucking answers, and I want them now. Who vetted him for membership?”
The Knights glanced at one another in confusion.
“Do you mean to tell me no one checked this guy out before admitting him?”
Ratchet answered for the club. “We thought you did.”
Wolf raised his eyes to the ceiling and cursed. “Does anyone know where he lives?”
Again, the Knights had no answers.
“How the fuck are we supposed to find him, then?”
Melter, of all people, spoke up. “The partner got shot, right? At the rally?”
“Yeah.”
Melter cleared his throat. “I’m guessing he wouldn’t go to any hospitals ’cause they have to report any GSWs and everyone is on high alert from the shooting, right? Well, my… friend… told me he’s had an uptick in… pharma sales lately. Some guy asking for fennies or oxys or morph.”
“So?”
“Same guy also wanted antibiotics. The ones you can’t get without a prescription.”
Wolf lost any patience he had left. “Melter, make your fucking point.”
“He said it was a Knight who wanted ’em. He said the guy bought a bunch of stuff from him and then scrammed like his ass was on fire. I wondered who might have a drug problem and why they needed antibiotics too.”
“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”
Melter shrugged. “It’s not my business if someone wants to get high now and then. Now I’m thinking that might be our guy, ya know?”
Frustrated moans sounded around the table, and Wolf clenched his fists as he raised them. Explosion appeared imminent, but he visibly pulled back from the brink. “What does that have to do with Specs and the shooting?”
Again, Melter shrugged. “Denny checked for gunshot wounds at the hospitals n’at, right? Maybe they’re treating it themselves. Painkillers and antibiotics.”
Quillon spoke up before Wolf could go off. “It’s a possibility. If that’s what’s happening, then it makes sense to get that shit close to where you’re hiding. Where does your dealer operate?”
Melter hesitated before confessing, “He’s around the strip district.”
The strip district had begun as an industrial area of foundries and mills.
As time moved on, so did those businesses.
A recent revival brought the area back into favor as a big shopping place with a bunch of different specialty shops and a variety of restaurants.
It was a big tourist attraction, so why a drug dealer chose that spot for his trade made little sense, but these days, very little did.
“What are the chances someone can identify a rogue Knight? We’re not very popular over there,” Crossman said.
Wolf stood up. “Let’s go see. Colors on. We ride in formation as a show of force. People will try to avoid us, but the shopkeepers will talk to get us to leave. Someone has to know something. Melter, you find your connection and see if he has any more information.”
Melter shook his head. “He’s not gonna like me throwing him under the bus.”
“I don’t give a shit. We need to find this motherfucker now.”
Quillon nodded in agreement and tapped his fingers in a rolling rhythm on the tabletop. “So, do we tell Denny about this?”
Wolf’s face grew hard. Currently, a lot of friction existed between the leader of the Knights and the police officer.
“Not yet. The law is the law, and justice is justice. Sometimes they don’t agree.
” His phone buzzed. The man snorted when he saw the caller.
“Speak of the devil.” He flicked the screen with his thumb and put the device to his ear. “Yeah?”
Darkness clouded his face, putting everyone on high alert. “Where are they now?” He listened for a moment, then hung up without saying goodbye. His eyes went straight to Cam. “You need to stay cool.”
Worse words had never been spoken.
As Wolf informed the group about the latest shooting, everyone’s attention shifted to Cam. Gunshots reported at Sunstone Healing. Two victims on the way to the hospital. A witness stated they’d seen a Knight loading an unconscious woman into a car and driving away. Blonde.
A fury like nothing he’d ever experienced erupted in Cam’s gut. Stay cool? Yeah, right. He’d stay as cool as an ice cube in the Sahara. “I’m going to kill him.”
Wolf nodded once. “We gotta find him first. Let’s ride.”