Bikes But No Breakfast
Havoc
“Dad, are you sure I shouldn’t just pop in and check to make sure Greer is all right?”
No, I’m not. “She messaged me last night that she had a long day in Urbium and couldn’t make dinner. She’s fine, just tired. We can’t suffocate her.”
“Caring about a friend isn’t suffocating them.” Creed climbs onto his bike.
It’s not that I want to tread lightly. “We’ll see if she’s free for dinner.” That is, if Everett has left already. I pull on my helmet and wait for Creed to do the same.
“This kid better not be a total nerd. I have a reputation to uphold.”
Yeah, right. Like Creed actually cares about that. He’s just grumpy that we didn’t get to have breakfast with Greer. To be fair, so am I.
What is a weekend for without a leisurely breakfast with your family?
Not to mention, I have so many questions to ask her. Why was she at Creed’s school? Why was she in the city? Has her ex tried to contact her again?
When can I kiss her next?
Where would she like to go for our first date?
It really should be a long bike ride through the mountains where we stop for a picnic, but the weather is way too cold for that. Maybe next year, or when she’s a little more acclimated to riding. I need to get her leathers soon. And a helmet.
Will she want a pink one or something red?
Her whole house is fairyland themed. Maybe I should have one custom-painted for her.
***
“Are you sure teaching him to ride is a good idea?” Rage watches as Everett runs his bicycle off the track for the fifth time.
“He just needs to find his balance. Learning this part on a bicycle is much easier than on a motorcycle.” Though I’m pretty sure Creed had more balance than this when he was learning to walk.
Rage raises an eyebrow at me. “I need to bring him home with no broken bones. Also, how would I go about getting him a custom bike?”
That was what I was going to use to bribe the kid over to our side. “We can make just about anything. I can bump the kid’s bike up on our waiting list.”
“How long is it normally?”
“Between one and five years, depending on how much we like you or how cool the bike you want is. Interesting bikes always move up the list.”
“The kid will want his sooner.”
“I had Creed build his own to earn it.”
Rage stares at the wobbly boy. “Great idea. And he might even love that more. Learning hands-on about how engines work would be a great skill to add to his repertoire. Just be careful, the kid might try to redesign them.”
“I’m used to it. Creed does it all the time. He’s working on an electric motorcycle right now.”
“Aren’t motorcycles really energy-efficient already?”
“Yeah, the only problem he’s hit so far is that the engine is completely silent.”
“And rainy days. Or night rides. Not to mention the battery size. Those are the sticking points for all engineers.”
Don’t brag.
Don’t brag. “Not for Creed.”
Rage turns away from Everett. “How far has he gotten?”
“Far enough.”
“If he needs an investor—”
“The club can cover what he needs.”
“You’re not seeing the big picture. That engine could do more than power a bike.”
Has Creed thought about that? Probably. “I’ll let you know.”
Rage nods.
“I WAS RIGHT!” Rogue dashes over to us. “Volt found it.”
“Found what?” I didn’t know we had lost anything.
Rogue stops short in front of us, holding out a phone. “Dylan’s stalker.” He takes a deep breath. “I was right. He’s part of a group. A fan club. They call themselves the Number One Fan Club.”
“There’s a group?”
“I think so. We can’t get into the page. It’s password-protected, and Volt hasn’t been able to crack it.”
“Fans of what?” Rage walks up next to me.
“Huh?” Rogue steps back. He must not have even noticed him.
“Rogue’s old lady is an author. Rogue thinks her stalker was part of a fan club acting out snuff scenes from their favorite authors’ books.”
“Give me that phone now.” Rage holds out a hand.
“This is club business.”
“Fiona’s sister is an author. This is now my business. Hand me the phone.”
Things got tense quickly.
Rogue hands over the phone.
Rage looks at it for all of ten seconds, then hands it back to Rogue.
“Aren’t you going to hack the password?”
Rage shakes his head. “Nope. That’s on the dark web.
If they know the member you took this phone from could be compromised, they’ll disappear if I log on as him.
We need to hack the site and stay invisible.
” He looks over where Creed is showing Everett how to balance.
“It shouldn’t take long.” Rage wanders away, thoroughly engrossed.
“Max Rage is intense.” Rogue whispers.
Oh yeah, he is.
“How did it go with Greer last night?”
“It didn’t. She got back from town late and cancelled.”
“Strange, but then women do strange things. Dylan wants to order flowers and decorations for the clubhouse to make our reception special. She doesn’t get that it’s going to be a blowout. Not a tea party.”
“Give the woman her flowers.”
“Yeah, but then she’s going to want to invite all her friends…and it’ll just grow from there. What happened to a simple elopement?”
“It’s never simple with a woman. Plus, how many friends can an author have?”
“No idea.”
Rage rejoins us. “There are already half a dozen videos uploaded to that site. I confirmed that all the authors associated with those videos were marked as missing persons. Except for one, her video just went live a week ago.”
That means they’ve got someone. “Have you gotten any information on the culprits?”
“Nope. Well, that’s not true. One of them is currently in Asia, walking around in a literal sea of humanity.
To get enough data to identify him, I need to go home and run an algorithm to isolate him.
But I’m more concerned about the others right now.
And who they are going to try to take next. It isn’t going to be Daria.”
We need a plan…We need a place to start to form a plan while Rage tries to find us information. “He started hunting Dylan at that conference, right?”
“Yeah,” Rogue nods.
“A big gathering of authors might be a temptation too hard for one of them to pass up.”
“Brilliant.” Sometimes Rogue seems like he can read my mind.
“Clue me in on the plan.” Rage never lifts his eyes from his phone.
“Rogue’s wedding.”
Everett crashes again.
“Why don’t we talk it over while we eat some of the best cake in the world?” Which is another part of my plan to tempt Everett into joining Chaos.
“Cake sounds good.” Rage smiles.
Oh, I might be able to see Bram with his new woman. They usually have lunch around now.