Chapter Thirty-One
Samantha
“Has anyone heard from Mimic?” Jack asked.
I looked over at King as he shook his head and asked, “Where is he?”
“He followed Carrie,” I said absentmindedly. Then I realized, not everyone knew what had happened.
“Followed her where?” King demanded.
“How would I know?” I moved to stand, and Zero was there, offering a hand. Blade helped Jack up off the floor, and together we moved to the couch.
“Mimic and I left here to go to The Bookstore. Rachel, Grace, and Beck were there with Ryder, and we were all talking when Ryder saw Carrie out on the sidewalk.”
“Why the fuck isn’t Ryder here telling me this shit?” King hissed.
“He refused to come,” Jack told him.
“Why?” King asked.
We all turned to look at Blade.
He closed his eyes, and his shoulders slumped.
“You need to fix your fucking shit, brother,” King said, pointing at him.
“I know. He won’t fucking talk to me,” Blade explained, throwing his arms in the air.
King shook his head and looked at me. “Continue.”
“Ryder left the bookstore after spotting Carrie. That was when I noticed she was talking to Derek, so I followed him outside.”
Jack growled next to me, and I refused to look at him.
“Mimic tried to stop me, but I went anyway. He was right behind me the whole time,” I said, patting Jack on the leg, trying to calm him down.
“Once Carrie saw me, she took off, so I told Mimic to go after her. He didn’t want to go. Ryder promised he would stay with me and sent him after her,” I explained.
King turned and looked at Blade again.
“I want him in this fucking club, so you need to fix this shit,” he said.
“I’m fucking trying.” Blade sighed, exasperated. We all knew the story behind why Ryder hadn’t forgiven Blade, and why Ryder was refusing to join the club. Ryder was stubborn. He wasn’t going to make it easy for Blade.
“Try fucking harder,” King snarled, then turned back to me. “Go on, Samantha.”
“Are you done interrupting?” I clipped, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning into Jack.
King angled his face toward the ceiling, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
“God save us from snarky fucking women,” he muttered.
“Then don’t be an asshole,” Grace challenged.
King snapped his head in her direction and glared. She glared right back at him.
“You don’t scare me,” Grace said defiantly.
“You’ll be scared when I put you over my fucking knee,” King threatened.
“Promises, promises.” Grace smirked, then walked away.
“Fuck,” King whispered, hanging his head.
I wasn’t sure what was going on with those two, but every time they were in a room together, it was like watching a tennis match. They volleyed insults back and forth in rapid fire.
“I asked Derek about Carrie, and he confirmed he knew her. But he knew her as Marsha,” I explained. “When the sheriff showed up and Beck said she called him about Carrie, Derek had a weird look on his face. He asked if she had hurt Charlie. He told me he knew she had been in prison, so he knew she had a child. It was like the pieces finally fitted together, and suddenly everything made sense.”
Jack put his arm around me, holding me close.
“So, Marsha Wade, AKA Carrie St. James, was in a relationship with Derek Reynolds. They have a child together in 2013, but Derek isn’t involved in their lives. In 2015, Marsha loses her child to CPS. Derek marries you, Sam, in 2016. The same year Marsha goes to prison. In 2018, Marsha gets released, changes her identity and becomes Carrie. Finds out Derek’s married and stalks Sam, becomes her friend, and when Derek beats the shit out of Sam, she whisks her away into hiding. Then, four years later, Sam and Jack reconnect. In her delusion, Carrie sees Jack as a threat, someone who will take away another child from her. Jack and Sam fall in love. Sam sends Derek divorce papers, therefore bringing him here, and everything gets revealed. Have I got everything?” Stocks asked.
“In a nutshell,” I replied.
“God, it’s like a fucking soap opera,” he stated, shaking his head. “Had I known when I joined this club that you all were fucking head cases, I might have had second thoughts.”
Beck walked over to Stocks and threw her arm around his shoulder.
“Who are you kidding, George? You are the biggest head case here. Just wait until you find a woman. The club was exactly what you needed.” She smiled sweetly at Stocks.
“Fuck off, Beck,” Stocks clipped with a scowl, causing Beck to throw her head back and laugh.
“You love me, and you know it.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You always have.”
The front door of the clubhouse opened, and Mimic walked in. I jumped to my feet and rushed over to him, pulling him into my arms.
“Are you ok?” I asked when I leaned back to look at him.
“I lost her,” he confessed. “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, no. You don’t have to apologize. You did what you could,” I assured him.
“Like fuck he doesn’t. How the hell did you lose her?” Jack shouted, walking toward us.
I turned to face Jack.
Standing in front of Mimic, I refused to let Jack berate him.
“Hey. Mimic is the only one who has even gotten close to finding her. You all have been sitting on your asses,” I yelled back.
“Sammy—”
“No, Jack. Mimic hesitated because he promised you he would protect me,” I said, pushing my finger into his chest. “If he wasn’t loyal and trustworthy, he would have just taken off immediately. You will not condemn him for being exactly what you all look for in a brother.”
I grabbed Mimic by the arm and tugged him over to a table to sit down. King slapped Jack on the back and just grinned. He came over and sat across from Mimic and me.
“Do you want a drink, honey? Or something to eat?” I asked him.
“No, Momma, I don’t need anything,” he told me with a smile.
“Tell us what happened, Mimic,” King said, and I turned to glare at him. He held his hands up in surrender.
“Ryder told me to go. Said he would protect Sam. I made a judgment call. I knew Blade trusted Ryder, so I figured I could too.”
“It was the right call, Mimic,” Beck assured, patting his shoulder as she sat down on the other side of him.
“Sweetheart,” King started.
“Stuff it, Uncle King,” Beck said with a grin.
“Fucking women,” King hissed.
King waved his hand in a circular motion, silently telling Mimic to continue.
“I jumped on my bike and took off after her. She has a car. I have the license plate.”
He grabbed his phone out of his pocket, opened it, and handed it to Nav.
“I followed her out of town, but she drove into a development, and she must know it well because she went up and down the roads until she just disappeared.”
He looked over at me with so much sadness, my heart broke for him.
“I’m sorry, Momma.”
“Oh, Mimic. You did great. You got us more information than anyone else has.”
I pulled him into my arms and held him. This young man was so lost. After everything he shared with me, I decided I would do whatever I could to build him up.
“What do you mean, she just disappeared?” Winchester asked.
“Just like I said, she was a little ahead of me. There were people throughout the development, little kids. I didn’t want to go too fast or draw any attention. She turned a corner, and by the time I got there, she was gone,” he said, pulling away from me.
“Could she have pulled into a garage?” Zero asked.
“I thought about that. But garage doors aren’t fast. I wasn’t far enough back to give the door time to open and close behind her,” Mimic reasoned.
“Alright, Ghost, you and Jingles take Zero, Win, Banshee, and Romeo to that development. Search every house, garage, shed. Anything big enough to hide a car, or even a person. Nav, dig into that development. Find where this bitch is hiding,” King ordered.
The men all moved to obey King’s demands.
“I’ll help,” Mimic offered, standing from the table.
“No, you won’t. You just got back. You need a break,” I told him.
“But I need to show them where it is,” he said.
“No, you can tell them where it is. You aren’t going back out right now. You haven’t eaten since this morning.”
“Samantha’s right, Mimic. You stay. Tell Nav everything you can remember,” King said.
“The car was reported stolen a few days ago. I can backtrack to where it’s registered to and see if anything pops out,” Nav informed us, tapping away on his keyboard .
“Someone has to be helping her,” Ace said. “Do you think it’s Derek?”
“I don’t think so. It didn’t look like he was happy to see her. And when he asked if she’d ever hurt Charlie, he seemed concerned. Like he was worried,” I said.
“I need to talk to him,” Jack muttered.
“Talk to who?” I asked.
“Derek.”
“No, Jack. That is not a good idea right now.”
“I have to, Sammy. I need to find out if he knows we’re brothers. Did he know about me? I have questions that maybe he can answer.”
“Jack, I don’t like this. After the way you reacted, who knows how he’ll react?” I wasn’t afraid to show him how worried I was.
“I’ll take Blade with me. I won’t go alone,” he replied softly.
Jack was trying to appease me. Only, it wasn’t working. Blade was as much of a hothead as Jack had been lately. I understood why.
Stocks was right.
My life was a soap opera.
I was married to my boyfriend’s brother, who I had a child with. And being stalked by my husband’s baby momma.
“Jack,” I gasped.
“What?” Jack’s gaze roamed over my face, concern etched into his brow.
“You have a family,” I whispered.
“Yea, a woman-beating brother.” He scoffed. “Yay for me.”
“You have a niece, Jack. Charlie has a cousin.”
Jack took a step back.
I watched as the realization washed over him.
“I have a niece.” His voice in awe. “NAV!”
Jack walked over to where Nav sat with his computer. He turned his computer around and there was a picture of a little girl. She looked to be about five years old, and she looked so much like Charlie.
They had the same crystal blue eyes .
“I figured, once everything sunk in, you would ask. Her name is Francesca, and she is eleven years old. She was adopted by Richard and Katrina Lewis,” Nav informed us.
I watched him as he gave us the information. Something slipped across his eyes as he said her parents’ names.
“What aren’t you telling us?” I asked.
Jack tore his gaze from the image of the little girl and looked at me. Then his eyes swung over to Nav. When he looked up at Jack, I saw it.
“I’m sorry, Jack,” Nav said solemnly.
“Sorry about what?”
“She’s missing,” Nav said, and I gasped.
No. We just learned about her. Jack couldn’t lose her already.
“What the fuck do you mean, she’s missing?” Jack growled.
I placed my hand on Jack’s shoulder, trying to ease the anger and fear I could see rising inside of him again.
“Six years ago, Richard Lewis was arrested for domestic assault. Immediately after he was sentenced to three years, Katrina Lewis filed for divorce. Once the divorce was final, her and her daughter Francesca, disappeared.”
“Where the fuck did they go?”
“I don’t know, Jack. They vanished. Either they assumed new identities, or they went off the grid. That was the last known photograph, and I haven’t been able to find anything else on them,” Nav said regretfully.
“What about the husband?”
“Richard Lewis was released four years ago on parole. He stayed in Pennsylvania. He remarried last year.”
“So, why is she still hiding?” I wondered out loud.
“I can’t answer that,” Nav said.
“Maybe she doesn’t know he remarried. If she left right after he was sentenced, she might assume he was looking for her, so chose to stay hidden,” I offered.
“Can you keep looking?” Jack asked desperately.
“You know I will. I can set up alerts for their names and descriptions. We’ll find them, Jack,” Nav assured him.