Chapter Eleven
Prime
Piney could cook. I’d give him that.
The clubhouse smelled like garlic, roasted tomatoes, and enough melted cheese to feed an army. He’d made three massive pans of baked ziti, which was exactly the kind of food we needed when half the club hadn’t slept properly in days.
Everyone filled the long table with folding chairs crammed in wherever we could fit them.
Anchor sat at the head with his elbows planted, looking equal parts exhausted and wired.
Pearl sat on his right, glued to his side, and Shay sat next to me on the opposite side, tucked close enough that her thigh brushed mine every time she shifted.
I didn’t hate that. I didn’t hate that at all.
Lost sat behind us against the wall with his plate on his knee and kept watch even while eating because that was what he had been ordered to do.
Vin, Piney, Wannabe, Skull, and Push crowded the rest of the table.
The only empty spots belonged to Cross, who was at the hospital with Bob, and Pull and Post, who were circling the island on patrol.
Shay poked at her food quietly. She wasn’t hungry. She’d just spent the entire day learning her entire family history was a lie, so I gave her a pass.
Every guy at the table knew tonight wasn’t a normal dinner.
We had shit to talk about.
Anchor finally set his fork down, wiped his mouth with a paper napkin, and cleared his throat. “We need to have church after dinner.”
Push didn’t even look up from his plate. “Why not just do it now?”
Anchor raised an eyebrow. “Because we’re eating.”
Push shrugged. “Yeah, but everyone who’s available is already here. Might as well.”
A few guys grunted in agreement, and then all at once their eyes slid toward Pearl and Shay.
Pearl thinned her lips. “Don’t look at us like that.”
Shay stiffened beside me, and her eyes flicked around the table.
Pearl continued, “You all know damn well whatever you say in church is going to come back to us anyway, so you might as well just do it now.” Then she batted her lashes at Anchor. “You know it’s the truth, honey.”
Anchor stared at her with that unimpressed president face. The one that normally made full-grown men sweat, but Pearl didn’t flinch.
Because Pearl was Pearl.
And Anchor… well, Anchor wasn’t nearly as scary to her as he was to everyone else.
He grunted, resigned. “Fine.”
I leaned toward Shay. “Just listen. If you have a question, ask me first.”
Her eyes lifted to mine, soft and trusting. “Okay.”
She didn’t know the rules of church yet, but for her, the rule she had was not to speak unless she was spoken to.
Anchor tapped his fingers against the table to get everyone’s attention. “Alright. Church is in session.”
Chairs shifted. Guys straightened.
“We’ll run this down quick,” Anchor said. “First, the window tapping.”
A ripple of anger went around the table. Vin muttered a curse, Skull ground his jaw, and Push shook his head.
Anchor continued, “Wannabe, Vin, and Skull did another perimeter check this afternoon. No new disturbances. Whoever came to Shay’s window knew exactly where they were going and exactly how not to leave tracks.”
Shay’s hand tightened around her fork.
I slid my leg against hers under the table in silent reassurance.
Anchor moved on. “Second thing, surveillance.”
Push nodded. “All cameras are up. I’ve synced everything to the main monitor and the backup. We’ve got overlapping sightlines around the cabins, the boathouse, and the haunted house exterior. We still need to reinforce the basement entrance on the far side of the island, but otherwise, we’re done.”
“Pull and Post are checking the blind spots,” Skull added. “Should have a full sweep by midnight.”
“Good,” Anchor said.
I could hear the strain in his voice. This past week had aged him. The whole club felt it.
“Third,” Anchor said, “the island opens Saturday.”
Piney groaned. “Shit.”
“That’s what I said,” Anchor muttered. “But we don’t have a choice. We need the money. Security ate up more than half the cushion fund.”
He wasn’t wrong.
He also wasn’t worried about grumbling. He knew every man at this table would be busting his ass for the island’s opening day, whether they liked it or not.
“Next,” Anchor said, tone deepening, “Shay.”
The entire room went quiet.
I felt Shay stiffen beside me. Her breath caught, her shoulders tensed, and her hands curled together in her lap.
I angled my body slightly toward her. “I’ve got you,” I whispered.
“She discovered today,” Anchor said slowly, “that she’s Bernice’s granddaughter.”
Vin was the first to break the silence. “How do we know that for a fact?”
I blinked at him.
Vin wasn’t an asshole. He was a skeptic. Sharp-eyed. The kind of man who needed proof written in steel before he’d claim it as truth.
“It could all just be coincidence,” Vin continued. “Small town, old photos, families knew each other. Doesn’t mean she’s her granddaughter.”
Pearl’s reaction was instant. She sat straighter and lifted her chin. “We looked at the photos. Shay looks just like Bernice when she was her age. You can’t deny it.”
Vin opened his mouth, closed it, then rubbed his jaw. “I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m saying we don’t know for sure.”
Anchor nodded. He wasn’t disagreeing, but he wasn’t brushing it aside either. He turned his eyes to Shay. “Shay,” he said gently, “do you have any family you can talk to? Anyone who can confirm this?”
She looked at me instantly, asking permission with her eyes.
I nodded once. “Go ahead.”
She swallowed, cleared her throat, and said softly, “Uh… not really. My dad died when I was four. My mom didn’t have any other kids. It was just us.”
“And Bernice?” Anchor asked. “Did your mom ever mention her?”
Shay shook her head. “No. Not once. I… I don’t remember Bernice at all. So I have to assume they had a falling out after those pictures were taken.”
“Yeah,” Pearl said and tapped a finger against her mug, “from what I could tell, the most recent picture of Shay and Bernice together was when Shay was about three.”
I looked at Shay. “Isn’t that about when you said you had a memory of being here?”
Shay’s brows pinched. “Yeah. I don’t remember much of the island… but I know I was here. I feel it. It’s the only memory from before my mom moved us.”
No one spoke.
The silence was thick, almost too heavy for the air around us.
Everyone was processing. Trying to piece together a puzzle none of us had known existed until today.
Push finally exhaled hard. “So what does this all mean?”
“T-t-t-technically…” Piney stuttered, “it could be nothing. Just something that happened back then. Doesn’t mean it has anything to do with what’s going on now.” He wasn’t trying to undermine Shay. Piney was a practical thinker. A man who believed most things in life had simple explanations.
Anchor rubbed his temples. “Maybe. Or maybe it means everything.”
Skull leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table. “It explains why he came to her window.”
“She’s what he’s after,” Push said.
My jaw clenched.
Because that was exactly what I was thinking. Had been thinking ever since she told me about her memories of water.
Pearl turned to me. “Prime? You’re quiet.”
They all looked at me then.
Men who trusted me.
Men who counted on me.
Men who knew I didn’t speak unless I had something worth saying.
I cleared my throat. “Her mom and Bernice were close. The pictures prove that. And Shay’s memory lines up with the age in the photos. Something happened here twenty-some years ago.”
Pearl nodded slowly. “Something that must’ve driven Shay’s mom off the island.”
“These are all just guesses,” Vin muttered. “We don’t know anything for fact when it comes to this guy. It’s all just a jumble.”
Anchor exhaled sharply. “Alright. Here’s what we do know.
One: We’ve got four dead bodies of people we don’t know buried on the island.
Two: Shay and Bernice were in the file he left for us.
Three: he killed Bernice but hasn’t really made a move on Shay.
Four: He tapped on her window, but that was it.
Five: Shay’s got a connection to Bernice that none of us saw.
Not even Shay. We need to connect all of those things to find out who this is and why he’s coming after us.
” He looked around the table. “Everything else? We figure it out as we go.”
No one argued.
Anchor ran a hand over his face. “Church, dismissed.”
But no one moved.
Everyone just sat there, staring at Shay like she’d suddenly become the missing piece to a puzzle we didn’t know existed.
Because maybe she was.
Shay swallowed hard and whispered, “I don’t know what any of it means.”
I squeezed her knee. “We’ll figure it out.”
She was mine to protect.
And whatever the hell her past held, whatever darkness had followed her here… it would have to get through me first.