27. Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Five
Medusa
Derby and I are the last to walk into Church. It’s just my officers. I hate keeping my members out of this, but I need to plan, and these women have been with me since my Dad died or somehow have been affected by the DeMarcos. They know what’s on the line and why we are known as the Valkyries.
“Sorry for the late notice on this early morning meeting.” I walk to my chair and collapse on it. “Things are moving fast after last night and we need to plan quickly and execute it even faster than that.”
“What’s going on?” Rosemary “Shrink” Howard asks. She’s our Chaplain, not a priest or anything like that, but she’s often the one we go to for advice. She has this Zen quality about herself. We often joke that instead of being named Rosemary, her parents should’ve named her Mary Jane with how chill she is.
“We have identified the bomber thanks to Tripline and her love of all things going boom.” The room laughs, even Tripline can’t help but smile. “With her brains and Joker’s fingers on the keyboard, we found out that Richie Jr. is our bomber. His father was the original enforcer for Tommy when they killed my dad.” The room goes quiet as they all look around at each other. “DaVinci, were you able to get anything?”
“The DNA test is still running. Fingers crossed it will be done by tonight.” DaVinci frowns and knowing her like I do, she’s more upset with herself not having the results we need.
“Luca Rossi paid me a visit at Temptation Tease last night. He drank some beer. I took his mug.” I shrugged. “He is wanting to buy the land TJ’s body shop is on. Joker’s running land deeds on the address to see if we missed anything. Bubbles was able to get some of our members to sit on three residences we know of for Richie Sr. and his son. Even though Senior is dead, he still had property in his name.”
“When we get confirmation of Richie Jr., we will be kidnapping him then having some fun.” Bubbles rubs her hands together. One thing I can say about my girls is, we love to bring down those who have wronged us.
“Luca is also Lucas, Michelle’s boyfriend. We don’t know if he’s using her or if he really cares about her. I’m going to reach out to her to see if she’ll talk to me.” Joker speaks up. “I know I didn’t talk to you about this, Medusa, but I figured since we’ve been cool, I can get a grasp on things.”
“I’d appreciate that a lot.” I nod at her. “Now was that everything? DNA, Luca, Richie Jr., land deeds. Am I forgetting anything?”
Shrink raises her hand and I nod at her to talk, “Are you going to allow Noah to take a turn on Richie Jr.?”
“I honestly don’t know. He’s still recovering from his injuries. He started physical therapy today. I haven’t seen him in a couple of days. His parents are in town right now. With TJ being bored out of his mind, he’s been there when his parents can’t.”
“In my opinion, I think he needs to deal the fatal blow.” Shrink sits back in her chair.
“Would anyone object to this?” The question is in the air. Seven heads shaking no. “Okay. When we get Richie Jr., he will be a part of it.”
“Good. I think he needs this to make sure he gets the closer too.” Shrink smiles at me. “It will do him good, plus he’s our club lawyer right?”
“He is. Bubbles paid his one dollar retainer.” I laugh. “He turned in all of the information to change to the state, so he can practice here. I know TJ is making Noah a 20 percent owner in the body shop.” Derby bites her bottom lip. “Something wrong?”
“Does Noah know how after hours, we strip cars and sell parts to other states?” I shrugged. “TJ needs to tell him.”
“I agree. Are we bringing TJ and Noah into the fold? They are not officers or even members, but TJ’s been here since the beginning and Noah is our lawyer, so he will know things anyway.”
“Let’s get the mess of the DeMarcos handled first then we will revisit this topic. Because if we let those two in are we letting in the guys who become our old men into the know?” Joker makes a good point. “I know TJ is a business owner to one of our illegal businesses, but he is your brother and Noah is our lawyer, but he is also your boyfriend. It’s a tricky situation. I have mad love for TJ, he’s all of our honorary brother, so it’s not a disrespect thing.”
“I didn’t think it was a disrespect thing, but I like your input. I hate making major decisions without you. Sometimes it’s on the fly and I might regret it later on, but we will get there.”
“Any other business?” Joker asks. Derby raises her hands. “Derby go ahead.”
“I’m taking some shifts at the businesses, since I’m not working at the body shop. I’m working for Medusa tonight and tomorrow. She’s needed here and at the hospital. She needs sleep.” I give her a death glare, but she sticks her tongue out at me. We all laugh. There’s a knock on the door.
“Pres?” The Duchess’s voice rings out. Tripline opens the door. “Sorry to bother you, but you have a visitor.” Tripline curses and hands me the phone with the security gate feed. Great the fucking cops are here.
“Did this place get cleaned up from last night?” The Duchess nodded. “Then send him in.” We all stand and Joker hits a code on the wall next to the door. The cabinets with the guns, money and important papers turn into shelving units of paper towels, plates, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies. I nod at her. “Get into your room and record everything, then do what you need to do to go dark.” She runs to her office because she needs a head start to turn on the microphone. Pops serves us lunch as we wait for the cops. There were only two cop cars that I could see, so it might not be a raid like I think.
“We are looking for Amelia Baxter.” They look solemn and the hair on the back of my neck stands up.
“I’m Amelia. What can I do for you officers?”
“Is there somewhere we can talk privately? Also, we were looking for a Tanner Baxter, is that your husband?” The cop who isn’t wearing a uniform looks at a notepad.
“Tanner is my brother. I also have a sister named Michelle who is in college.” I swallow hard. “He’s at the hospital visiting my boyfriend and working on rebuilding plans for their auto body shop. Anything you need to say, you can say in front of everyone. There are no secrets here.”
“When was the last time you heard from your sister, Michelle?”
“I’m not sure. She moved out of my house and into her own house near the college with some friends. Michelle doesn’t really check in with me. I can call her now.” I pull out of my phone and dial her number. It just rings.
“Hey, you’ve reached Michelle Baxter. I’m probably pretending to be studying but actually out dancing. Leave me a message and I’ll call you back. Love ya!” Beep.
“Chelle, it’s me, Melly. Call me when you get this.” I hang up and look at the faces of the police. “You knew she wouldn’t answer didn’t you?” The detective motions to the table I was just sitting at. He sits across from me.
“We got a call from Carolina Smyth. She got home last night and someone trashed the house. Michelle wasn’t there, but her purse, phone, keys, and wallet were still there.” I hear some gasps as my girls come to stand behind me. “There was a doorbell cam from across the street, but it was too dark. There were three people going in and four coming out. We don’t know if your sister left willingly or if they were threatening her life.”
“So what you’re telling me is my sister has been missing since last night and I’m just now hearing about it?”
“Carolina didn’t have your number or the pin to your sister’s phone to call you. We had to do some digging to find you.”
“Where have you all looked for her? She has a boyfriend named Lucas, but I don’t know much about him. I haven’t met him yet. What are you doing to find my sister?” My hands tremble in my lap and I feel the tears drop onto them. I hate showing emotions, but my sister is gone.
Did the DeMarcos take her?
Is this my fault?