Chapter Forty-Five
Gunner
Haizley had appointments all day today. She’d considered putting them off for a week, given that her eyes were black and blue, but she said she would tell her patients the same story we had given to Blackwater.
I had Archie watching over her, knowing he wouldn’t fuck up again. My morning had been full of appointments as well. Now, I sat in church while we went over a few things that had come up. Haizley had agreed to meet here this evening for dinner with the club. Then we would drive back to her place where I would spend the rest of the night buried in her tight little pussy.
I squirmed in my seat, trying to adjust myself into a more comfortable position. But having a hard dick stuffed into denim made that impossible.
“Hey, Pervy Perverson! Get your hand off your dick and pay attention,” Jingles teased.
“Fuck off. I was thinking about Haizley. Not my fault you ain’t got a woman to make you hard,” I shot back.
“Knock it off. We have a lot of shit to cover.” King slammed the gavel on the table.
“Any news from Zeus?”
“He sent a picture from her wedding five years ago. It’s the most recent one they had.” Nav put the picture on the screen, and I stared at it.
“He say why they waited so long to contact us?” Colt asked.
“Apparently they didn’t know she was missing,” King explained. “After she got married, she moved to Flagstaff with her husband’s club. Said his mom kept in touch with her until about eleven months ago. Every time she called, Pepper said she wasn’t available. Then one day he said Irene no longer wanted to talk to them. Gave some line about toxic families and wanting to make a clean break. Zeus sent someone out to Arizona and that’s when they figured out she was missing.”
“So maybe the Death Dogs are running from Zeus and the Gods of Mayhem. They’ve got some crazy motherfuckers in that club,” Ghost stated.
“I swear I know her.”
King looked at me, then at the picture on the screen. “Any idea where from?”
“No. It’s bugging the shit out of me too.”
“Maybe a woman who came through town? A lot of new people came through the day of Ellie’s book signing a few months ago. Could have seen her then,” Blade offered.
“Maybe.” I pulled the tie from my hair and shook my head out before pulling it back again. There was something familiar about this woman. “Can you send that picture to my phone? It’ll come to me, eventually.”
My phone pinged, and the picture came up on my screen. I saved it to my camera roll so I could look it over later. Maybe Haizley would recognize her.
“You tell Banshee yet?” Cash asked King.
“No. We still haven’t found his sister. I don’t need him feeling guilty that another woman disappeared.”
“This isn’t his fault,” I pointed out.
“No, but neither was his sister. Doesn’t stop him from blaming himself. If he finds out the woman he was offered and turned down was given to someone else who beat the shit out of her, he will blame himself.”
King was right. It was best not to bring it up to him just yet.
“Anyone know what happened between him and Aspen?”
Everyone turned to look at me.
“What the hell are you talking about?” King growled.
“Last night, when we were leaving the bar. He pulled her away from my truck to take her home, only they argued, and she ended up coming home with me anyway and he peeled off,” I told him.
“I haven’t seen him all day. Anyone else talk to him?”
Everyone shook their heads. Had he even come home last night?
“I’ll call him when we’re done,” Jingles offered.
“What about Williams? Anything on him? Anyone gonna come looking for him?” King asked.
“Gregory Williams, born February 10 th , 1990. Mom died when he was a kid. Dad is unknown. Raised by his grandparents, who are both deceased now. He does have a brother. Benjamin Williams, born June 15 th , 1988. This was the only picture I could find.”
Nav swapped the picture of Zeus’ sister Irene with a picture of a kid that looked about twelve years old.
“Are you fucking kidding me? What is this shit?” Cash barked.
“Look, the mother died in 2000. Benjamin was twelve years old, and this was his last school picture. The grandparents were, let’s say, eccentric, and homeschooled the boys. Raised them off grid, no online presence until after they died in 2009. Greg jumped on social media and made himself known, but Benjamin kept to himself, I guess. I can’t find anything on him.”
“Becca wants to homeschool,” Blade said.
“What?” King looked over at him, his brows furrowed in confusion.
“She doesn’t want to send our kid to school. Wants to teach him at home.”
“What the fuck for?” Ghost asked.
“I don’t fucking know. Something about wasted time during the day and test scores.”
“Don’t you listen when she fucking talks to you?” Colt asked.
“I listen,” Blade said, then lowered his voice to a whisper. “She talks all fucking day long. The only time she stops talking is when I stuff my dick down her throat.”
“Hey, asshole, that’s my fucking niece.” King threw the gavel at Blade, and we all laughed. He looked up at King with a grin.
“He dead?” Ghost asked.
“Who?”
“Benjamin fucking Williams.”
Nav shook his head. Blade had a knack for derailing conversations.
“Haven’t found a death certificate. I’ve been running facial recognition through every database I’ve been able to hack into and nothing yet. It’s still searching, though.”
“I’m losing my goddamn mind. He looks fucking familiar, too,” I moaned as I stared at the new picture on the screen.
“No, I’m with you, Gunner. He looks fucking familiar,” Jack said.
“Can you reach out to Sypher?” Blade asked.
“No,” King barked.
His tone prevented us from asking for more information.
“What about O’Malley’s guy?” I suggested. “What’s his name?
“Cian. Nav, reach out to him to see if he can help.”
“Alright, what’s next?”
“I found one of the girls.”
We all looked at Nav.
“What girls?” King asked.
“The three women who disappeared after getting engaged to St. Matthews.”
I had forgotten about the three women Nav had vowed to find. I imagined, with everything that had happened since, everyone else had too.
Except Nav.
“No surprise she’s dead. But what I did find interesting is that she died before she was engaged.”
“What? How the fuck do you get engaged after you’re dead?”
“Necromancy?” Jack asked.
We all looked at him.
“You know, when you have sex with dead people…”
“That’s necrophilia, Jackass.” Blade punched Jack in the shoulder, laughing at him.
“I don’t think that’s it. I’m thinking these girls didn’t have an identity.”
“Spell it out for us, brother.”
“Ever heard of the Trick Pony?” Nav asked.
“The BDSM club in Miami?”
Nav pointed at Ghost. “Exactly.”
Nav started clicking the keys on his computer and brought up a picture of a striking older man.
“Why the fuck does he look familiar?”
“This was Devlin Scott. Owner of the Trick Pony and father of Gideon Scott, aka. Malice.”
“Holy shit, they could be twins.”
“Devlin Scott was one twisted son of a bitch,” Nav started.
“Was?”
“He’s dead,” Nav confirmed. “Killed last year in California. He ran the Trick Pony for decades. He was known for buying, selling, and torturing men, women, and children. Including his own children. Thousands of babies have been born there over the years. From what I can find, it’s possible the three women that disappeared could have all come from the Trick Pony and been given identities of women who had previously passed away.”
“So what have you found?”
“Unfortunately, I hit another dead end. Back in November, the Trick Pony was raided, and all the files disappeared. The servers were wiped clean. I may never be able to find who these women are or even who they really were.”
“Walk away, Nav.”
“What?” Nav looked over at King. “I can’t just walk away.”
“The Trick Pony is done. The files are wiped, and the business was shut down. If these women were products of the Trick Pony and born there with no identification, what chance do you have aside from running DNA you don’t have? Walk away.”
“I can’t.”
“That’s an order.”
The knock on the door cut the tension that had risen over the last few minutes. Colt stood and walked to the door, pulling it open.
“Sorry to interrupt, Prez. Sheriff’s here.”
Dec and Blackwater walked in and looked around the room.
“What’s goin’ on?” Cash asked.
The sheriff looked at Blackwater, then focused on King. “We found another body this morning.”
“Jesus Christ.” King rubbed his hands over his face.
“This one’s different. We don’t think she’s connected to the first two girls,” Blackwater clarified.
“Why not?”
“Well, first, she’s blonde. That doesn’t necessarily mean he hasn’t decided to switch things up. Until we know for sure if he’s a serial killer, then we can’t put together a profile for the victims.”
“Second?” Colt asked.
“She was stabbed. This was a clear case of homicide. The other two had succumbed to the elements, preventing us from connecting their deaths,” Declan explained.
Blackwater continued, “This victim had been beaten and then stabbed thirty-two times. It was messy and erratic. Not controlled. She also wasn’t naked.”
Watching the two men stand stiffly in the room. I asked, “What else?”
“She was local. Twenty-eight years old. Not a college student.”
“So why are you here? All our women are accounted for,” King told him.
“Gunner, do you know a Penelope Ridgefield?” Declan asked. Blackwater stood beside him, his face a blank mask.
“Yea. Had an altercation with her last night. Why?”
“That’s the name of our victim.” Blackwater narrowed his eyes at me and asked, “What really happened to Haizley’s face?”
I jumped from my chair and moved to confront the motherfucker who had just accused me of beating my woman. I didn’t give a damn about the insinuation that I murdered Penny, but I would be damned if I let anyone think I’d hurt Haizley.
Blade and Jack both grabbed an arm, while Ghost and Jingles moved in front of us.
“Settle down, Gun.”
“Fuck off with that shit. I have never laid a hand on a woman. I ain’t about to start now.” My breathing was heavy as I pushed against the strength of four of my brothers. “You look at my jacket? I did three months in Little Rock for beating the shit out of a man who attacked a woman. I don’t fucking hurt women!”
“Gunner! Calm the fuck down!” King shouted. “Dec, what the fuck?”
“I need to ask Gunner about the incident in the bar last night. Blackwater was out of line.” Declan glared at his deputy, and Blackwater stepped back with his hands raised.
“Let go of me,” I snarled.
“You gonna behave? If not, I’ll let Declan fucking shoot you. And then I’ll be pissed about the blood on the floor. Amber will be pissed when she has to clean it up. And Haizley will be pissed you made more work for Amber.”
King’s little diatribe did the trick, and my shoulders relaxed. Haizley would be pissed if I purposefully made more work for Amber.
Before anyone could say anything more, my phone buzzed in my pocket, Declan’s rang on his belt, and Nav’s computer pinged all at the same time.
Seeing Archie’s name, I answered first.
“What the fuck happened?”
“Haizley’s been arrested.” He sounded out of breath, like he was running. I looked over at the sheriff, who was on his phone, and our eyes locked.
“Where the fuck are you?”
“Running down the road. We left the house to go to the club and Reed pulled her over. I stopped with her, but he pulled his gun. He said he was arresting her for murder. Then he shot the tire of my fucking bike.”
“Son of a bitch!”
“I called Matlock first, so he could get to the station.”
“Good job, Prospect. I’ll send someone to get you.”
Disconnecting the phone, I looked at Nav when I heard him say, “No fucking way.”
“What the fuck is going on?” King yelled.
“That was Archie. Deputy Reed just arrested Haizley.”
“Arrested her for what?”
“Murder,” I said.
“Nav?”
“Got a facial recognition for Benjamin Williams.” He looked at me and I knew I wasn’t gonna like what he said next.
Nav hit a few buttons on his computer and a picture of Deputy Beckett Reed appeared.
“Who the fuck is Benjamin Williams and why is that a picture of Deputy Reed?” Declan asked.
I shoved past him, running for my bike.
There was no fucking time to explain.
I had to get to Haizley.