Chapter 15
Mica
I turn around to check on Nova and she’s not on the sidewalk where I left her. I look up and down the sidewalk in both directions, then search the crowd of onlookers. There are maybe a hundred people still hanging around the front of the building. I don’t see Nova anywhere.
Becoming alarmed, I pull out my phone and call her. It rings four times and goes to voicemail. I leave her a message asking where she is and asking her to call me.
In utter desperation, I cup my hands in front of my mouth and call her name. When she doesn’t answer, I begin to panic on the inside. Where could she be?
Mac’s still there, with phone in hand. When he hears me call her name, he starts looking around for her too. He begins walking towards me with a worried expression on his face.
“Mac, have you seen Nova? She was on the sidewalk a bit ago,” I say, gesturing to the spot.
“She was exactly where you pointed the last time I saw her. Maybe she went to get coffee or something?”
“I feel like she would have told me if she was stepping away. She’s not answering her phone,” I explain.
Mac frowns. “That’s not like our Nova. She always picks up when we call.”
We walk over to Jasper and Rock. “Nova’s gone missing. She was standing on the sidewalk making a call. She’s not here anymore and she’s not answering her phone.”
“She might have just stepped away to get a breath of fresh air,” Jasper responds calmly.
My old man adds, “It’s been one hell of a long night for her.”
“Maybe you’re right,” I tell them. “But with everything going on, we need to be eyes on with her. Let’s split up and look for her on foot. Check the side streets, the shops, the alleys. She can’t have gone far.”
We break apart, all going in different directions. I cover the alley between the shop and the hardware store, checking doorways and side entrances. When I don’t find so much as a trace of her, I call her phone a couple more times while I’m walking. It just keeps rolling to voicemail.
The search takes about twenty minutes. We come back together in the alley behind Greer’s Hardware, out of view of the public. Nobody’s seen her. My old lady is just gone.
“She didn’t just wander off,” I say. “Nova doesn’t disappear without telling someone. With all the shit going on, I’m worried something’s happened.”
“You think it’s her ex?” Onyx asks.
I shrug. He seems the most likely suspect.
But then I remember something I noticed earlier not long after we arrived here.
“Hang on a moment. Earlier on when we were talking, Nova kept looking over my shoulder at something. I turned to see what had captured her notice. It was Bran talking to a cop near the alley. At the time I didn’t think anything of it, but now… ”
Jasper asks, “Why the fuck would Bran of all people be cozying up to cops?”
“Exactly. I don’t know what they were talking about but they looked cozy as fuck.”
“Bran’s supposed to be confined to the clubhouse,” Rock points out. “What the hell was he doing out here?”
“He said Ma gave him the evening off,” I tell him.
“That’s bullshit,” Jasper responds hotly.
“It’s weird. I didn’t see Bran anywhere when I was looking for Nova. Did any of you?”
They all shake their heads, murmuring to one another about how strange that was.
Mac speaks up, holding his phone out. “I’ve been filming the scene all night. The building, the crowd, faces, everything. I figured if whoever did this was stupid enough to hang around and watch their own handiwork, I’d have them on camera.”
Jasper tells him, “That’s damn smart, Mac.”
“Pull up the footage you took,” I say. “Let’s try to find out where Nova, Bran, and this cop went.”
Mac starts scrolling through his footage. We all huddle around the small screen, scanning faces. Townspeople, firefighters, and a couple of other cops.
“What did this cop look like?” he asks.
“I didn’t pay much attention. But he looked young. Like a rookie,” I answer.
Mac pauses the footage and backs it up.
“This is the only younger cop I saw.”
“That’s him,” I say excitedly. “That’s the cop with Bran earlier.”
The image is a little blurry, but you can still make out his face.
He’s standing near the alley with his hands in his pockets, separate from the rest of the law enforcement on scene.
Mac leaps forward in the feed. We find him again a few minutes later, closer to the sidewalk, closer to where Nova was standing the last time I saw her.
Rock leans in closer to the screen. His expression changes to one of concentration. “Shit. I know that fuckin’ cop,” Rock says abruptly. “His name’s Weaver. He’s Darkness’s man inside. We all have someone inside the local PD. Weaver works for Darkness.”
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“Of fuckin’ course I’m sure,” my old man grumbles.
It doesn’t take a damn genius to work out and make the very obvious connection. Bran was shaking hands with Darkness’s inside man. Afterwards, Bran and the cop all disappear.
“Bran’s been working for Darkness this whole fuckin’ time. And they just used this dirty cop to take my wife.”
The minute the words come out of my mouth, everyone tries to talk at once.
Jasper wants to load up, attack Darkness’s clubhouse and burn it to the ground.
Cray’s crew start talking about setting up roadblocks.
Mac is cursing and pacing. Onyx is pulling something up on his phone.
Rock is yelling at Slate about reaching out to their police contact, while Slate thinks a cop ain’t gonna turn on another cop.
Amidst all the chaos, my phone rings. Cray’s name on the screen. I hold up one hand and the alley goes quiet.
“Mica,” Cray says. “We got a problem. I was on my way to meet Nova at the fire scene when she told me a cop was taking her to the station for a statement. So, I went to the station instead to wait for her there.”
“She’s not there,” I guess.
“You’re a goddamn certified genius, boy.
And you’re damn right she wasn’t there. Nobody at that station knew a damn thing about her being picked up.
The desk sergeant looked at me like I was fuckin’ crazy when I asked about it.
” His voice drops and almost sounds gleeful.
“My story gets better though. As I was leaving the precinct, I met a young cop in the back parking lot. When he said hello, I recognized his squeaky little voice. It was the same asshole I heard in the background when I talked to Nova on the phone.”
“Oh shit,” I say. “He might know where Nova is. We need to track that asshole down and have a little chat with him.”
“I grabbed his ass right there in the parking lot.”
“You snatched a cop off their own fuckin’ property?” Jasper’s voice is something between awe and shock.
My old man mutters, “They don’t call him Cray for nothin’.”
“I take it that’s you, Rock. Bring your boys along and we’ll have us a little party beating fucking information out of him about my niece. That fucker is gonna tell me what I want to know one way or another.”
“Don’t let him out of your sight, we’ll be on our way.”
“He ain’t going nowhere,” Cray growls. “I have him tied up at the Red Barn. You know the place, Rock?”
“Yes, I know it. It should take us about ten minutes to get there from here.”
“You got eight minutes or I’ll start the party without you,” Cray says before ending the call.
The minute the call ends, everyone erupts into chaos again.
“Listen up,” I say. My voice comes out in a tone I haven’t used since my last deployment.
“My wife is in grave danger. So, we do this my way. Every man here falls in line or walks away. I don’t have time for opinions or egos.
If the next words out of your mouth aren’t helping me find Nova, keep your fucking mouth shut. ”
My old man says, “We’re with you, son. This is your call.”
“Here’s where I am with this, that fuckin’ dirty cop knows where they took my wife. He’s gonna tell me or I’m gonna keep beating on him until he does.”
Turning to my brother, I say, “Jasper, I need you to hightail it back to the clubhouse and raise as many men as you can. Once we get that information, I’ll need every man I can get to break into whichever shithole Darkness is keeping her, ‘cause he sure as shit won’t be holding her at his clubhouse. ”
“Got it,” Jasper responds tightly. “I’ll head out now. Keep me in the loop.”
Onyx and Slate, “I want you to be eyes on with Darkness’ clubhouse. We might get lucky and one of his men will take us right to him, that’ll save us a lot of time searching. Text me what you find when you get there.”
“Roger that,” Slate murmurs before they make a flat out run for their bikes.
Everyone else, you’re with me. We interrogate the cop, beat down Darkness’ door and recover my wife. Now, let’s ride.”
***
The Red Barn is literally an old barn painted red.
It was a place the old timers used for meetups and interrogations.
It looks like it’s about a hundred damn years old, but somehow, it’s not only still standing but structurally sound.
It also has the advantage of being completely invisible from the road.
When we arrive, Cray is already inside. Weaver is sitting on a hay bale with his hands zip-tied together. His nose is bleeding and his uniform shirt is torn at the collar.
Cray is pacing back and forth in front of him. His head snaps around to look at us and he states irritably, “You’re late. I started without you.”
“I can see that,” I say wryly. “Did you manage to get any meaningful information?”
“No.”
I crouch down in front of Weaver. He’s trembling but is doing his best to hold it together. Up close he looks even younger than he did on Mac’s video. His face is smooth and he looks barely young enough to grow a beard. Someone you would never expect to be involved with one percent clubs.
“Do you know who I am?” I ask.
“You’re her husband,” he whispers. “The accountant.”
“That’s right. And you took my wife off the street, didn’t you?”
“He made me do it,” Weaver stammers. “Threatened to kill my mother. I had to.”