Chapter 17
Haze
T ank and I are banging out cool tattoos like there’s no tomorrow. Finally, around one in the afternoon, we’re down to our last few customers. Tank finishes first, he was gonna meet his old lady for lunch, so I tell him to leave locking up to me. My last customer for the day is someone by the name of Rick with no last name. Anna is normally very meticulous about taking down full names and contact details, this man has neither. I frown at her neat handwriting. I guess it doesn’t matter, because in the end he turns out to be a no-show. I wait fifteen minutes and then begin cleaning up. I can’t say I’m particularly disappointed because this just frees up extra time to spend with my Anna. She should be finished with her shopping and visit with Mel and the baby.
I’m supposed to meet her at the clubhouse, so I take a minute to call her and let her know I’m on my way, but the call doesn’t go through. My text doesn’t either, so I figure she might still be out shopping or at the hospital and out of range. There’s a bunch of missed calls from my brother, but he should know I don’t pick up when I’m working. I think about calling him back, but I’m headed to the clubhouse anyway.
I close up the shop and jump on my bike. I take the long way to get in ten more minutes of road time, because there is just something about riding the open road that lifts my spirits and feeds my very soul.
Unfortunately, when I get to the clubhouse, she’s nowhere to be seen. Before I can call her again, there is a commotion in the back, and I rush through to find about a dozen of my club brothers all converging on our meeting room. It looks like church, although much more panicked. I look around, noticing my brother is missing in action.
I stop one of my club brothers, Venom, and ask, “Hey, Ven. Have you seen my brother today?”
His eyes get big. “Holy fuck, you don’t know?”
I freeze in place as panic rises in my chest. “Know what? What’s happened?”
He drags me over to where Siege, Rigs, and the other club officers are huddled. The second Siege’s eyes land on me, he reaches out and drags me closer.
“Bad news, Haze. Trix had an asthma attack while shopping at the mall. Your brother hightailed it over there to make sure she’s okay. As it turned out, she was fine. Someone shared their inhaler with her. He’s on his way back now.”
“Okay,” I say gesturing at the throng of brothers gearing up. “That doesn’t sound like a rally the troops type of emergency.”
“Vapor said that when he got there, Trix was beside herself. She said Anna went out to get her emergency inhaler from the car and never came back.”
Anger surges in my chest. “If you’re insinuating Anna would take off and leave Trix during a medical emergency, I can tell you right now that she would never do such a thing.”
Siege reaches out, grabs me by the back of the neck and jerks me forward. “I need you to shut up, brother. And pay attention to the words coming out of my mouth.”
I give him a small nod and seal my lips. I can see why he’s aggravated with me. Everything related to Anna makes me jumpy, and the thought of someone thinking she would leave my brother’s wife and run off makes me want to beat the everlovin’ shit out of someone, even if that someone, is my club president.
Siege speaks slowly, articulating every word clearly. “Anna is missing. Vanished. We know this because Trix’s car was still parked where she left it, and her keys were found on the pavement a few feet away from the vehicle.”
I jerk back out of Siege’s grasp and open my mouth to speak. When he glares at me, I clamp my jaw shut. I need to listen not talk right now, in order to know how to best help her.
“There’s more. We think that Anna has been living in Las Salinas under an alias. Zen has spent the last hour trying to dig up information up on her, and literally couldn’t find anything at all. No Anna Bryan exists, not in an age range that corresponds to your Anna’s presumed age.”
I grind out, “What the fuck, are you saying that she’s been lying through her teeth to me all this time?”
Zen speaks up from behind me. “Unfortunately, yes. Before you lose your fucking mind, you should know that there could be a very good reason for all the cloak and dagger shit.”
I rub my chin, remembering all the things she said about her stepbrother and ex-fiancé. Looking from one to the other of them, I explain, “She did mention that her stepbrother and ex-fiancé are besties who did some pretty messed up shit to her in the past. She told me that they were forced to play nice with her while her father was alive but once he passed, they both turned on her. She told me the ex was pissed when he found out she wasn’t getting much of an inheritance.”
“Did you say inheritance?” Zen asks, his voice excited.
When I nod, he opens his laptop, balances it on the inside of one arm, and types with the other hand. “One name kept coming up that almost matched Anna’s, but since I didn’t realize she was operating under an alias until much later in my search, I didn’t investigate it further. Let me see if I can find it.”
I crane my neck to see what he’s looking at. He begins rapidly tapping his screen. “Here, I found it. The name is Annalese Ryan, not Anna Bryan.” Flicking to another page, his expression turns grim. “I turned loose a set of bots on the public records databases in five surrounding counties and Annalese Ryan turned up as one of two surviving relatives for an Andrew F. Ryan. The other is this stepbrother you mentioned, Gregory Strickland Ryan, I’m guessing he took the adoptive father’s surname. The father’s obituary stated he and his current wife, Andrea Strickland Ryan, were killed in an unfortunate accident.”
Siege ponders out loud, “It could be that Anna was supposed to get an equal share of the inheritance and that’s why her stepbrother scared her off. He’s trying to fuck her over and take all the money for himself.”
Smoke and his old lady step forward. “It’s likely that he’s doing something shady and needed her to disappear. Whatever shit he was up to, was discovered by the executer of the will. In lieu of discovering the stepbrother’s attempt at manipulation, the executer is pressuring him to find her before he’ll release any of the inheritance money.”
Being our club attorney, Smoke would know about shit like that. Siege’s sister, Serena, is clinging to his arm. Being an attorney herself, she sometimes has a different perspective than Smoke. When she speaks up, I like her theory better. “My best guess is the son got the lion’s share of the inheritance, but his father left a life insurance policy which was earmarked for his daughter. If he knew his son was the type to screw his sister out of her inheritance, naming her the sole beneficiary of his life insurance policy was the easiest way to ensure she got a fair share of his estate. The stepbrother needs to verify her death in order to collect the insurance policy as next of kin. If what we’re thinking is true, the stepbrother wants both the inheritance and the insurance money.”
Smoke’s expression turns even more grim. “It would make sense that Anna needs to turn up dead through no fault of his own, for the stepbrother to collect the insurance payout as well. If the father was smart, he would have bought a large enough policy to ensure they inherit equal amounts so there are no hard feelings between the two. That kind of money entices people to do stupid things, particularly when they’re lost in grief or just plain greedy.”
Rigs nods his agreement. “Yeah, that kind of money makes people stupid.”
I clear my throat and all heads turn to me. I tell it to them straight, “We need to find her before these fools end up doing something I’ll make them fucking regret.”
Siege says soothingly, “Yeah, we’re gonna hunt this fucking bastard and his best friend down. Then you and Anna get to choose between a dirt nap or getting the police involved.”
I’m vaguely aware this is standard operating procedure for how our club treats people who come after our women and families. I’m reassured that these fuckers will get the kind of justice that our club is experienced at meting out.
Siege reaches out to give my shoulder a squeeze. “I know you’re fucking dying on the inside and want nothing more than to run those bastards down and save Anna’s life, but we need to quickly come up with a plan.
I whip out my cell phone and give it to Zen. “Something is wrong with her phone. I can’t get a call through and her location app isn’t working.”
Zen takes the phone with a grim expression, and thumbs through it as the rest of us talk.
“The plan starts with tracking her down,” Rigs states. “If we can’t locate her using her phone, maybe we can track her using the stepbrother’s phone? That’s assuming whoever took her will take her to him. Though even if he doesn’t, we can track down the stepbrother and question him.”
Zen tosses the phone back to me. “I think her phone has been turned off or the battery’s run down, or maybe she’s somewhere that’s blocking the signal.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
My club brother’s expression turns concerned and he looks like he doesn’t want to tell me what he’s thinking.
“What?” I repeat.
“Well, if someone was held in a place where electromagnetic signals can’t get through, like a faraday cage, that can block phone activity.” Seeing my confused expression he elaborates, “You know how when you’re in an elevator and you can’t get a signal? Or she could be held underground. Anyway, I’ll head back to my office see if I can get a location, and I’ll also get onto finding the stepbrother’s cell phone.”
He quickly adds, “Do not try to call Anna. Her phone might become operational, but if we call and her abductor hears he’ll make damn good and sure to destroy it.”
I open my mouth to tell him I’m not fucking stupid but decide against anything that will slow us down in our search for Anna.
Siege cuts in. “Find the stepbrother’s phone and zero in on his location, Zen.” Turning to Rigs who is our club’s road captain, he says, “Chart us the quickest route to where he’s headed by extrapolating his probable destination based on his trajectory. Send a text alert to all the brothers, instructing them to converge on the location but stay at least one klick back. I don’t want them to see or hear our motorcycles.”
“Understood,” Rigs answers before stepping away with Zen.
We fall back and I plonk my ass down into a chair. Suddenly, Vapor and Tracker claim seats on either side of me. I’m shocked that they’re here with me, when their women are in need of them. A hand lands on my back, and it’s Hark. He gives my shoulder a squeeze and I realize that since Vapor married Trix, my family has tripled in size.
I whisper to Vapor, “Are you sure about being here?”
His expression is grim, but he gives me one distinct nod. “Yeah, Trix fucking threw me out of our condo. She wanted to come herself but the last thing I need is my anxiety-ridden pregnant wife getting involved in a search and rescue.”
Tracker speaks from my other side. “Same thing with Mel. She told to come back with Anna or not at all.”
I gasp, because that can’t be right. If it’s true, women are fucking fiercer than I ever imagined.
“That’s similar to an old warrior’s saying, Spartan maybe. They used to say come home victorious or on your shield,” Vapor adds. “I think she was trying to be funny.”
Hark clarifies from the chair behind me. “I know my sister, and if Anna ends up getting hitched to Haze, they’re gonna be sisters-in-law. It’s family first for Trix. Mel knows that too, bro.”
Siege’s voice cuts through our conversation. He recaps the situation for the entire assembled brotherhood. He cuts right to the heart of the matter. Then when he gets to the part about rescuing her, he defers to Rigs and Tank. Tank’s just joined us from his lunch date with Ivy, but he’s fully clued in to what’s happened. A our sergeant-at-arms, he speaks first.
“This ain’t our first search and rescue. We’ve done this dozens of times and we’re good at it. Therefore, we stick to the plan that’s always worked for us. We gear up. Follow the driving directions Rigs sends you. Use the encrypted app. No communicating outside the encryption program. You’ll all be given individual instructions. Follow the instructions. Don’t think you know better. If everyone does their part, we have a high probability of getting Haze’s woman back. Any questions?”
Of course, no one has questions because every question is time wasted, and we don’t have time to waste right now.
I ponder Tank’s words, my woman … If we all get out of this alive, then I’m gonna do everything in my power to wife her up. The fact that something like this can happen, just shows me how you can’t waste time, because we don’t know what’s around the corner.
Rigs speaks next, “Zen found the stepbrother’s phone. He’s leaving Salinas County and heading back home. Looks like this one is going to be an urban rescue. If their current trajectory holds true, they’re probably taking her to the stepbrother’s family home. It’s in a densely populated part of Oak Ridge. That means lose your cuts. We don’t need to advertise to the entire fucking town that we’re there on business.”
Siege stands up. “Rigs is right about the cuts, depending on what happens we might get the local cops involved, or we might have to clean out the trash ourselves, this can’t blow back on the Legion, we’ve got enough on our plate with the Grave Diggers without catching the attention of any other local MCs. I’m giving you ten minutes to gear up with whatever you can lay your hands on. Anna’s clock is counting down.”
I jump to my feet and run to the armory. I key in the code to the door lock and step into the small room. Vapor and Tracker are right behind me. We pull our individual equipment bags from one of the shelves and step out of the room to gear up so others can get inside to access their stuff.
Vapor asks, “How are you holding up, brother?” His voice is calm, but I can detect the tinge of worry as well.
I grab my lightweight bulletproof vest and lock it into place around my torso before pulling my shirt back down to cover it. “I’m determined. That’s the best way to explain it. That fucking stepbrother of hers is dead meat though.”
“Yeah, I thought you were going to say that. Talk to Anna first, bro. You don’t want to do something that will make her hate you forever, right?”
“That goes without saying,” I respond as I tuck a gun into my boot holster and another into my SOB holster. I add a knife to my other boot and then cram some extra clips into my pockets before tossing my bag aside. I already have more clips in the storage compartment on my bike, but I don’t want to be caught short.
Evan grabs our bags as we empty them with a rueful grin on his face. “Good luck out there,” The wistful tone of his voice communicates very clearly to me that he’s never been in real firefight.
I jerk my chin at him and Hark, the two teens have apparently been tasked with helping us gear up and protecting the clubhouse after we leave. Hark isn’t prospecting for us yet, but he will, and he’s gonna make a fucking awesome brother. I know for a fact he has a genius level IQ and has spent his entire life learning everything there is to know about war and running an MC from his grandfather. Unlike Evan, he’s seen real trouble, which is probably why he’s looking concerned rather than envious, about what lies ahead.
Vapor, Tracker, and I march out to our bikes and pull out our phones to get our assignments and familiarize ourselves with the route. I’m jittery and worried about Anna. Only one thing keeps me from riding off right now and doing the job myself. And that’s the fact that we’re stronger together, than separate. Anna stands a better chance of survival when I show up with a multitude of club brothers at my back. I’ll do anything to get her back alive, even quell my own overpowering need to execute a solo mission to kick the shit out of those two assholes. Anna’s needs will always come first with me. Sucks for me right now, but I’m forcing myself to be the man she needs.