Chapter 10 – Stone
STONE
Ilaughed when my alarm went off at five.
I’d been awake since three. Well, I’d been awake most of the night.
Every time I fell asleep, Kim’s unwelcome face appeared in my dreams. After the last one, I gave up and got out of bed.
If I was going to be dead ass tired, I’d rather do it without the help of Kim’s ghost.
“How long you been up?” Juice asked, startling me while I was making a cup of coffee in the kitchen.
“A while.”
“Yeah, that’s how it usually goes.”
“Are you going with us?”
He laughed. “Nah, I’m too old for that shit.”
“No, he doesn’t want Mom to kick his ass,” Sin said.
“It’s not my ass she’ll be kicking if something happens to me,” Juice said.
The parking lot was empty when we arrived at the strip mall where Wood Pawn was located. Sin drove around behind the building and backed into a parking space.
“How are we doing this?” Danger asked.
“We'll grab them when they get out,” Sin said. “We'll get Tate. Stone and Tomb will get Nate.”
“Which one is which?” Tomb asked.
“Tate has the mole on his cheek, and Nate is the one with the earrings the same size as the mole,” I explained.
“Are they twins?” he asked.
“No, Nate's older,” Sin said.
“I don’t know how y’all can tell them apart.”
“I call him Tatermole in my head,” I said.
Tomb laughed and shook his head. “I’m not doing that.”
We'd been sitting there for an hour when Tomb asked, “Do they park out front?”
“They have reserved spaces right there,” I said, pointing to the signs.
Tomb shrugged. “Doesn't mean they use them.”
We waited another two hours for them to show up, which was an hour and a half after the store was supposed to open.
Sin sighed. “I'm done. Let's go back to the clubhouse and reconvene.”
“Sounds good,” Danger said. Tomb and I nodded in agreement.
Sin drove around to the front and through the parking lot before we left. All the other stores were open and had lights on except for the pawn shop.
* * *
“Are you sure your girl is trustworthy?” Sin asked.
“She's not my girl,” I corrected. “And no, I'm not sure, but I believed her enough to give her my ring.”
“It seems awfully coincidental that the Wood brothers don't show up for work the day after you spoke to Whitney.”
“It does, but it could be just that—a coincidence. Or they could have pissed off someone else. You saw the video. They tried to kill her and get rid of her body. Why would she be working with them?”
“I don’t know. You were able to find her. Maybe they found her too and threatened her,” Sin said.
My stomach sank at the thought of the brothers finding her, but she had at least two guns and seemed to know how to take care of herself. Hell, she handled me flawlessly when she only had one gun.
“Call her and ask,” Halo suggested.
“I can’t call her. Her phone is off, and I told her not to turn it back on for at least forty-eight hours.”
“This is fucking great.” Sin threw his hands in the air. “We have no way to get in touch with her?”
“She’s at the lake house. We can go talk to her in person.”
“You think she’ll still be there if Nate and Tate found her?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
“Fuck it,” Sin said. “Let’s go.”
Thank fuck. Because I wouldn’t have been able to ignore the urge to make sure she was okay.
Danger stayed behind in case he was needed while Tomb and I rode with Sin to Montgomery Ridge. He wanted to take his truck so we wouldn’t attract unnecessary attention. “Bikes are a lot louder in a small town.”
He wasn’t wrong. I hadn’t seen many cars on the roads of Montgomery Ridge. Three bikes definitely would have been noticed.
Sin stopped in the road in front of the lake house. “This is where she was staying?” he asked in disbelief.
“Yeah. Her friend is a direct descendant of the town’s founder. I didn’t have time to dig into it, but I assume her family has money.”
“I’d say so, which means she probably has connections,” Sin said. “Well, let’s go see if she’s home.”
Driving up to the gate, Sin pressed the button on the call box.
“May I help you?” a male voice asked through the speaker.
When Sin looked back at me, I rolled down my window and cleared my throat. “We’re here to see Ms. Montgomery and Ms. Carlson.”
“I’m sorry. Ms. Montgomery and her guests aren’t here. Would you like to leave a message for her?”
“No, thanks. We’ll come back later today to speak with them in person.”
“Ms. Montgomery isn’t scheduled to be at this estate for the remainder of the week.”
“Can you tell me where I can find her?”
“No, but I can give your information to her.”
“She already has it. Thank you for your time,” I said and rolled up the window.
“Can’t say I’m surprised,” Sin said as he pulled away from the gate.
I didn’t want to admit it, but it was beginning to look like he might have been right about Whitney giving the brothers a heads-up.
“Stop at the diner!” I blurted when the building came into view.
“Why?” Sin asked.
“I’ll go in and ask Kat if she knows where Hadley is.”
He reluctantly pulled into the parking lot.
“I’ll be right back,” I said and went inside to order.
“Just the drinks today?” Kat asked.
“Yeah, I’m supposed to be having dinner with Hadley, but I think I must have gone to the wrong house because she wasn’t home and she’s not answering her phone. I could’ve sworn she said the lake house.”
“Well, honey, I can’t say for sure, but she’s usually at the beach house or the apartment in the city when she’s not at her lake house, so I’d guess she said beach house. Sounds more like lake house than apartment does.”
“Thanks, Kat. I bet you’re right.”
“Glad to help. You sure you don’t want something besides drinks? It’s a long drive to Jolly Beach.”
“I’ll be fine. Thanks, Kat.”
“Enjoy your dinner and tell Hadley I said hello.”
“I will. Thanks again,” I said and carried the drinks to the truck.
“Well?” Sin asked.
“Kat said she’s usually at her beach house or apartment in the city when she’s not here.”
“Somebody needs to tell that old lady to shut the fuck up,” Tomb said.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“Let’s call Glitch and see if he can get those addresses for us,” Sin said.
Glitch quickly found an address for the beach house in Jolly Beach, but he said he would call us back when he found one for the apartment.
Halfway to the beach house, Danger called. “A package addressed to the Grave Prowlers was dropped off at the front gate,” he said. “Did any of you order anything?”
“No,” we said in unison. Even if we had, none of us placed orders in the club’s name. We used our own.
“Who dropped it off?” Sin asked.
“A courier in a white van.”
“We’re on our way. Don’t open it until we get there,” Sin said.
“What the fuck could this be?” Sin asked after the call ended.
I didn’t know, but I didn’t think it was going to be good.
Danger and the other officers were waiting for us in church with the package sitting on the table. Sin looked down at the box and studied it. “What is that?” he asked and pulled a piece of paper from the top of the box. He unfolded it and read it to us.
Please accept these items in exchange for forgiving any grievances your club might have with the woman in the casket.
“Stone, you got any idea what could be in here?” Sin asked.
No. No the fuck I didn’t, and I didn’t want to guess. I shook my head.
“Get your ass over here and open it. If we’re getting blown up, you’re going first.”
Well, fuck. What could I say to that? Nothing. So, I got up and opened the box. Inside, there was a slightly smaller Styrofoam cooler. I carefully took it out, set it on the table, and removed the lid.
“Holy shit,” I breathed and held up two clear plastic bags for the brothers to see.
“What the fuck are those?” Danger asked.
“The two most identifying features of Nate and Tate,” I said. One bag had a square patch of skin with Nate’s mole, and the other had Tate’s earring, still in his earlobe.