30. Garret
GARRET
Everything clicked into place while Sara's mouth was still moving. I knew I overheard Lightning talking on the phone to Mandy that day in the garage, and what about the grass in his spokes—how I had to fix the bends and repair his suspension. And then Sara bolted from town overnight.
Now she had fear on her face every time a bike engine rumbled close by, and Lightning kept the feud burning hot every time it simmered and kept Fox looking at them, not running his own club.
All of it made sense now, and it was sickening.
My hand stayed locked on Sara's arm as I pulled her through the crowd toward Fox.
She trembled and whimpered but she didn't protest. I was furious, but in the same breath, if all of this was true, I understood her reasoning.
It didn't make it any easier to process the "why" of things, but it meant it was possible that I might.
And Fox needed to hear this before anyone rode anywhere.
"Tell him," I said, pushing Sara forward until she stood three feet from the president. "Tell him what you told me."
Fox looked at her with glazed, empty eyes, not completely drunk today, and Lightning stomped closer to us, his chest was puffed out like he had something to say.
"What the hell is this, Crank?" Lightning's voice was sharp. "Get that girl out of here."
"Shut your mouth, Tony," I snarled, purposefully using his name instead of his handle. He looked ready to punch me as I turned to Fox. "Sara, tell him everything."
She was shaking from head to toe, but she opened her mouth and the words came out.
She told Fox about the night behind her father's shop, hearing the argument and going to the doorway and seeing Lightning drag Mandy into the dark.
About watching him choke her and Tony chasing her down with threats.
The whole time, she was sobbing. She looked like a young girl being cornered and she had no idea I'd never let a single one of them touch her.
"She's lying!" Lightning lunged forward, and Butch caught him by the collar and drove him to the ground. Rusty grabbed his arms and pinned them behind his back while Lightning thrashed and cursed beneath them.
"Keep talking," Fox said, standing up. He looked sharper than he had in years, sobered by anger and the truth.
Sara told him about running from Grove Hill pregnant and terrified.
About hiding for four years because Lightning had threatened everyone she loved.
About coming back for her father and Lightning finding her again, cornering her on her parents' lawn, putting his hands on her in front of her brother.
"Where exactly behind the shop?" Fox asked, glancing toward the dumpsters and the woods beyond.
"Near the tree line. Past the equipment shed. Please, he'll hurt me."
"I was with Tony that night." One of the older members stepped forward from the crowd.
"He told me he was going to grab Mandy from the shop because she was looking for you, Fox.
He said he never found her…" That was the official story everyone heard, and not a soul had doubted him because he was patched in—a brother.
Fox's head turned slowly toward Lightning, who was face down on the asphalt with Butch's knee in his back.
"Tony." Fox's voice was quiet. "Tell me she's lying."
"She's a crazy bitch, Fox! She's Crank's little whore and she'll say anything to?—"
"Tell me she's lying!" Fox roared, and the group took a step back, giving him space. For four years he'd sought his wife's killer. No force on Earth could stop him right now.
"I didn't touch Mandy! I would never hurt your wife, Brother. You know me. You've known me for twenty years and you're going to take the word of some outsider over mine?"
The crowd had gone dead silent. Every man in the lot was watching and nobody moved.
"Get her out of my sight, Crank." Fox turned away. "Drag your whore somewhere else. I've heard enough."
"There's proof." Sara's whimper made every head snap back to her.
My hand found her shoulder and I stepped up beside her because whatever was left of my anger at her could wait.
She was standing in front of fifty bikers accusing their VP of murder and she was doing it alone.
That was a risky thing. They could disappear her in a split second and no one would ever question it.
"They were arguing over messages on Mandy's phone," Sara said. "She was trying to end it and he was furious. If you still have her phone with her personal things, the messages might still be on it."
Lightning went ballistic. He bucked against Butch and Rusty and screamed obscenities that would've made his own mother roll over in her grave. "Don't you dare touch her phone! Don't you dare go through my—through her things!"
"My wife's phone?" Fox's eyes were locked on Lightning now. "My wife's phone is none of your business. So why are you panicking?"
Lightning continued to thrash and it took both Rusty and Butch to hold him down. I planted my boot on a leg too, while I let one hand settle on the small of Sara's back. I always knew she had guts, but I never pictured her being stupid enough to defy a brother.
Fox pointed at one of the men near the back. "Go into the office trailer. Bottom drawer of my desk. Mandy's phone is in a plastic bag with her jewelry. Bring it here."
He jogged across the lot toward the small trailer that was serving as Fox's office since the bar burned. The rest of the men had grown silent. The only sound was from Butch and Rusty as they held Lightning down.
When he came back, he had a clear plastic bag. Inside it was a phone with a cracked screen and a pink case that had faded to a dull rose. Fox took the bag and I watched emotion wash over him before he pulled the phone out.
"It's dead," he said, looking up at Sara. She leaned into me closer and I let her. The situation trumped any anger I had. Right now, I wasn't Crank the mechanic. I was Garret Strunk, the man who promised Peter Ducette I'd watch out for his kids, and she needed me.
"Here." One of the younger guys pulled a portable charging block from his saddlebag and handed it over with a cable.
Fox plugged the phone in and the screen flickered and lit up with a low battery icon.
The brothers pressed closer. Thirty seconds passed before the lock screen appeared, and Fox's thumb typed in the passcode without hesitation.
He opened the phone and scrolled along the screen, but the anger on his face didn't fade. He flicked around into a few different apps and then narrowed his eyes on Sara. "There ain't nothin' here, woman. You're lying."
"I'm telling the truth. Check her Facebook, or check her Snapchat… I swear I know what I heard." Sara cowered again, now tucked fully into my side like she trusted me.
Fox scowled at her and looked down at Lightning, who now had a gag in his mouth thanks to one of the guys trying to shut him up.
Then he pored over the phone again, and this time, he got madder than a hornet.
His face screwed up into so much rage, I didn't know why he didn't pull his gun we all knew he carried and just shoot Lightning on the spot.
"You lying son of a bitch," Fox muttered, lifting his eyes to look down at Lightning. "This goes back six months… She sent you messages saying it was over. And you—" He said, arm now dangling at his side as an eerie calm fell over him. "You told her to meet you at the shop."
Lightning said nothing. His face was pressed against the asphalt and his body had gone limp.
Fox put the phone in his pocket and crouched beside him and spoke in a voice so low only the men closest could hear it. I didn’t catch a hint of what he said, but when Fox rose, I knew Lightning's days of running this club were over.
"Tie him up," Fox ordered, then he glanced up at me and Sara and looked away, like he was ashamed.
Butch and Rusty hauled Lightning to his feet, and someone produced a length of chain from one of the bikes.
They bound his wrists over his head then looped the chain through the binding and connected the other end to the hitch on Fox's bike.
Lightning didn't fight it. His face was gray and his eyes were vacant.
He knew what was coming as the whole club watched the president walk away.
Fox mounted his bike and kicked it to life.
The engine roared and he pulled forward until the chain went taut, and then he whipped out of the lot and onto the road with Lightning stumbling behind him, fighting to keep his feet.
One by one, the other bikes fired up and followed, a procession of headlights and thunder pouring out of the parking lot until the sound of them faded south.
I stayed there with Sara, who stood staring at the road and the fading noise, shaking as she sobbed. Then she turned and buried her face in my chest.
All I could do was stand there.