Chapter Two
Hades
It was early as fuck and I was already awake and at the clubhouse, which was mostly quiet.
Some of the club girls were in the kitchen preparing a big breakfast for whoever wandered into the clubhouse before lunch.
The patches on my vest were fresh—seven months fresh to be exact—and I was determined to make myself indispensable to the Steel Demons MC.
I spent the past eighteen months as a prospect doing all the grunt work from hiding bodies, whooping ass, and any other scut work they tossed my way.
I hated that shit, but I proved myself then and I wanted to be more than just one of the guys.
I wanted to be someone they knew they could rely on. Someone the club valued as more than a warm body. That’s why I came in early, helped any way that I could and did my absolute best every fucking minute of every damn day.
Walking through the main room, which held a fully equipped bar, tons of tables and chairs, plus pool tables, dart boards, and a new foosball table, I headed through the back door to check the perimeter of the Steel Demons compound.
Behind the clubhouse was a half-mile stretch of undeveloped land with tall grass and wildflowers, before it hit the highway.
I walked through the grass, checking the fences, the cameras and all the buildings on the compound, until I was satisfied everything was exactly how it should be.
By the time I circled back, the clubhouse buzzed with activity.
Breakfast was laid out on the back table, some of the brothers, along with women and children, piled plates with eggs, bacon and toast. My stomach growled like a motherfucker, but I walked past the crowd and headed into the office where I found Slate because that dude lived in the office, and Dagger.
Slate smiled up at me, eating with one hand and typing with the other. “What’s up?”
“Just came to see if you needed anything.”
“I’m good right now,” he said before taking a big bite of bacon.
“Hey man,” Dagger began, gripping my shoulder. “Thanks for your help cleaning up Steel City Ink. That shit would’ve taken all night.”
I grinned. “Too many KP assignments finally come in handy,” I joked. “Happy to help.”
“Appreciate it. I gotta get out of here. Sinclair has a doctor’s appointment and we’re finding out what we’re having today.” Dagger rushed from the office without another word.
“Sit,” Slate ordered around a mouthful of eggs. He nodded to the screens on the wall above the screens on his desk. “You wanna make yourself useful, let’s go over surveillance.”
“Okay. What am I looking at?”
He grinned. “You tell me.”
I stared at the screens, taking in all the details I could despite the shitty resolution. “It looks like that silver Jeep is going somewhere in a hurry.”
“Exactly.” Slate showed me all the places he managed to get footage of the car. “Even small businesses have cameras these days, not all of ‘em, but enough.” He pointed out all the city and private cameras throughout town. “Knowing where they are is helpful in our line of work. Remember that.”
I nodded, still staring at the screens until I figured out where each camera was and stored it for later. “You just hack into this shit?”
He shrugged. “We put up a lot of the cameras belonging to the businesses in town, so I have backdoor access. It doesn’t hurt them in any way, and it helps us even more.”
“You gonna teach me to be you?” I asked only half-joking.
He nodded. “Yeah. It’d be nice to sleep through the night. I have kids and a wife who actually likes me. Having a backup means she’ll be pissed off less often.”
We shared a laugh, but it was cut off when Macy rushed into the office with wide eyes that bounced all over the room. “You guys seen Falcon?” Her petite frame vibrated with worry and fear.
“He’s with Rocky and Hawk taking care of a delivery.” Slate’s voice was cool and even. “What’s up?”
“Raven called,” she whispered. “She needs us now.” She shook away the urge to cry, gathered herself and met my gaze head on. “She found a body at the community center, a girl she knew and she called me.”
Raven never asked anybody for help, not even her brother, Falcon. She stayed at the clubhouse, but the safety of these walls was as much as she ever asked, and I admired the hell out of her for that. “I’ll go with you.”
“If you need more hands, call me,” Slate called at my retreating back.
“Got it.” Unlike Raven, I had no problem asking for help and I would if it was necessary, for now, that Raven needed us.
On the ride over, I allowed my thoughts to shift to Raven, the tough girl with full pink lips, a smartass mouth, and a shit ton of tattoos.
She laughed and smiled, and gave everybody shit but she kept herself apart like she was afraid to get close to anyone.
Except Macy. Maybe it was because they were more similar beneath the surface than most people realized.
I liked Raven, probably more than I should considering her brother was my best friend.
He’d kick my ass if he knew how often I jacked off to thoughts of his hot-as-fuck sister.
When we arrived at Steel City Community Center, I shoved those thoughts aside and focused on the police cars, the detectives in suits, the forensic team and an ambulance filling the parking lot. Other people milled about looking scared and worried. “Where is she,” I grumbled.
“Probably upstairs,” Macy answered when she joined me. “She stays here sometimes when people need a place to stay for the night.”
That was news to me. “She does?”
Macy nodded but she was on the move, forcing me to follow her around back and up a narrow staircase. “Yeah. Sometimes it’s to stay away from temptation and other times it’s to stay safe, but she always stays even though she hates it.”
That was interesting but I tucked it away to think about later when we stepped through the second door and found Raven on the sofa with a blanket draped over her shoulders. She looked so fucking small and so scared she barely looked like the feisty woman I knew.
“Raven!” Macy rushed to her, dropping to her knees and wrapping her arms around Raven. “Shit, girl. Are you okay?”
She shook her head. “No, but I’m doing better than Katya.”
I stayed back and watched the women interact. There was a closeness there that didn’t exist with anybody else. I watched her face as she told Macy about the victim, Katya, and her slit throat. Her fear was genuine, but she was hiding something.
“Ms. Marconi,” a forty-something detective sighed. “What do you know about this woman?”
“Nothing,” she answered quickly. “She came here for one of the support groups offered. All I know is her first name and that she wasn’t from Steel City. That’s it.” That was another lie, but I wouldn’t call her out in public and definitely not in front of the fucking cops.
“Look lady,” the younger detective began in a tone I didn’t like.
I stepped forward, getting between the law men and the women. “She’s obviously shaken up so why don’t you back the fuck off.”
“And who are you?” he asked.
I ignored the young asshole and turned to the older detective. “Look at her, man, she’s shaken the fuck up. You’re not getting anything out of her until she’s calm. I’ll get her to the clubhouse, and you can come by in an hour to get her statement.”
“She’s a witness, she’s not going anywhere,” the younger detective started but the older one cut him off with a glare.
“Yeah, that’s fine. If you hear anything that can help, let me know.” He handed me a business card. “This was personal.”
Fuck. “I will. Thank you, Detective.”
“Rogers,” he supplied and shook my hand.
I turned to Raven and helped her to her feet. “Come on, let’s get you back to the clubhouse.”
She looked up at me with those big brown eyes that appeared to be on the verge of tears and nodded. “Yeah. Okay. The clubhouse sounds good.”
Macy stood, her gaze bouncing between me and Raven. “Go with Hades.”
I hated that she trembled so fucking violently under my hand. “Yeah, you can finally get on the back of my bike like you always wanted.”
Some of her life returned when she glared up at me. “You wish, Hell Boy.”
I laughed. “Hold on as tight as you want. I won’t tell,” I whispered in her ear when we reached the bottom steps. I blocked the crime scene and walked her around the tape and the body covered by a small tent. “Cop all the feels you want.”
“Dick,” she grumbled before I covered her head with my helmet.
My smile faded as I started the engine and got on the road. She was hiding something and I had to find out sooner rather than later. Whatever it was, it was more than that young girl that had Raven on edge.