8. Silas
EIGHT
SILAS
PRESENT
The Stone Riders had three guards posted at their front gate. I assumed I’d have to put up a fight to get in, but when they saw it was me, they let me through without issue. Either they remembered me helping them when they were attacked last, or Killian had put an order out to let me pass if I showed up. I didn’t really care which, I just needed to get inside that club and talk to them.
I rode down the gravel path and parked directly in front. This time, I kept my cut and colors on because I just didn’t fucking care anymore about politics, or offending anyone.
I walked in through the front doors and saw as several members looked away, or gave me a wide berth.
Killian, Wes and Jameson were at the bar, all watching as I approached. Sipping from mugs, and at least they had the decency not to look chummy or happy. They looked about as exhausted as me.
I didn’t even know what time of day it was. They were drinking coffee, so maybe it was morning, but I’d just left my club, and Geo was high…
“Silas.” Killian nodded at me.
“What time is it?” was the only response I could give .
Jameson gave me that familiar expression that told me he thought I was a waste of air, and he likely wanted to punch me.
“Two in the afternoon.”
“How come you’re all drinking coffee?”
They all looked at each other like they weren’t sure what was wrong with me.
“We’ve been looking for Natty. Round the clock shifts.”
I must have waited too long to respond because Killian set his mug down and then placed his hand on my shoulder. “Come on, let’s head over to my house.”
I followed, feeling numb, and humbled. Not even my own club was looking for Natty, and here this club was doing it just because…
Because this had become her family.
Watching my boots as we exited the club and walked down the freshly done walkway, I didn’t even realize we’d entered Killian’s house until I heard female voices.
“Silas.” It was a gasp and then suddenly Penelope, Natty’s best friend was in front of me, her baby up on her shoulder as worry creased the spaces next to her eyes and turned her lips into a thin line.
Laura, Killian’s ol lady came up next to her, arms crossed but offering me a small half-smile. The fact that she didn’t want to stab me was progress, considering I’d once held a gun to her face.
I had nothing to give them. Not a single fucking answer and the reality of it sank in my chest like a boulder hitting water.
I shook my head because words wouldn’t come, but then Callie, Simon’s daughter and Wes Ryan’s wife, burst into the room holding something in her hand. She slapped whatever it was onto the coffee table, which is when I realized that half of Killian’s house was missing.
“The fuck happened?” His garage had been removed, along with part of his dining room area. There was a wood frame up with tarps in place; otherwise, half his house was gone entirely.
“The explosion.” Killian waved me off, sounding exhausted.
Callie gestured me over, and I realized the thing she’d tossed down was a map.
“Okay, we’ve been working on this for a few days, and this is what we think.” Callie bit off the top of a permanent marker, spitting it to the floor. “Natty was last seen here, but she received a phone call right before the blast from you, Silas.”
Her eyes bounced up, landing on me. I took a seat on the edge of the couch and watched as she marked an x over the Stone Riders clubhouse.
“I think she got a text, something that would have pulled her away. Where would she have met you if she thought you were asking her to?”
I leaned forward and pointed to the edge of the property where Natty and I passed notes.
Callie marked it with an x.
“It was Fable, we know that much, but how did he know about your meeting place?” Penelope asked, still burping her baby, Connor.
Jameson pulled on her hips until his wife was standing between his legs. Jealousy scorched my throat and burned all the way down into the dark pit of my soulless stomach.
“Same way he knew where I lived, I suppose.”
I had a home on the outskirts of Rose Ridge that no one knew about, not even my mother knew about it and while I didn’t go there often, one night I did and found a picture of Natty pinned to the door. It was my father’s sick way of telling me he could get to her, or me any time he wanted.
Fucker was keeping tabs, that much was clear, I had just severely underestimated how close he had been watching.
“So have we checked cameras on the roads leading out of that area? What about trail cams, didn’t we have some set up?” Wes asked, looking between Killian and me. “After the warning about the Chaos King that had been found out there, the one that you took care of, Silas, we set up trail cams.”
Killian pulled out his phone, but Laura hopped up and ran over to a small desk in a spare bedroom and came out with a silver laptop.
She slid it in front of Killian, who handed her his phone, and the two started clicking and swiping away until they were turning the screen around to us, showing us the footage from the day we were attacked by Tuck Holloway and Jefferson Quinn.
I was given better access to view it than anyone else as I leaned in and examined the screen.
It was grainy but I could make out the tree where Natty had sunk behind, staring off at what was probably the clubhouse that was being blown up. My heart lurched forward in my chest as I watched her looking so frail and afraid. She kept checking her phone and I knew she was looking to see if I had contacted her.
She was out there because of me. She trusted me, and whoever had duplicated my contact, convincing her to come…they had done their job in tricking her.
We watched for three minutes until there was suddenly someone walking up behind her. They had dark hair, similar to mine. A gaiter mask covered their face, but I knew that walk. I knew the tattoos along his arms.
He pulled a white rag out of his pocket and then brought his arm around the tree and covered Natty’s mouth.
“Fuck,” Killian rasped, shaking his head. Laura had tears in her eyes, Penelope was sobbing with little hiccups and Callie looked worried.
My rage was untethered and wild. Like a whip of lightning crashing and clinging to every single place inside me.
“Who was that…do you recognize him?” Jameson asked.
“Alec Veda,” Penelope answered and my eyes flew up.
Everyone turned to look at her.
Callie asked, “As in the president of Sons of Speed?”
“How the fuck do you know Alec?” I glared at Natty’s friend, not that I was angry, but I was surprised, and I didn’t like surprises.
Everyone’s gaze coasted over to me, then ping ponged back to Penelope.
She hesitated. “My mom dated a member in the Chaos Kings, Miles…well, he wasn’t always faithful to her, so one summer when he’d left without leaving us a dime, she tested the waters with Sons of Speed. She found a guy there who she started seeing a few times…I went with her, and I remember when we stepped into that club and saw their president. Alec Veda is hard to forget.”
Jameson’s grip tightened on her hips as his eyes narrowed. “Hard how?”
“He’s just intense…and then there’s that tattoo, you can see it in the video, it’s of Artemis, Goddess of the hunt. She’s got this golden hair and green eyes. Her bow has all these swirls of darkness and sunlight bu rsting from it, it’s beautiful. I remember staring at it when he crossed his arms over his chest, realizing the arrow in her bow points directly at his heart. I remember it being such an odd thing to have inked for the president of a motorcycle club. Especially when he has all this simmering anger and rage around him like...” She looked up at me. “You actually. He reminds me of you.”
Yeah, that’s what happened when we shared a fucking gene pool. That tattoo would be the first thing I took from his flesh when I found him.
Penelope’s stricken face turned toward me as she asked, “Why would Alec Veda go after Natty? She’s never once mentioned him, or Sons of Speed for that matter. There’s no way there’s a connection there.”
Fucking Alec. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. As angry as I still was with him, after all these years, I had a soft spot for him because of our past. Because he was my blood. And for one solitary night, while Natty had needed me, he’d been the one to step up and comfort her. Natty assumed I hated him for it.
It broke me, but I was more grateful than I was angry. With a curt tone, I declared to the room. “There is a connection.”
The room waited for me to continue, and fuck…I guess I was about to open this can of bullshit with these people, not because I liked them or needed them but because they’d had a map ready to go with places marked so they could narrow down where Natty was last seen. They cared about her. For that reason and only that reason, did I explain.
“He’s my brother.”
Killian stood, shaking his head, then loudly cursed. “Fuck. Me… Of course he is.”
“That’s some important information…you made it seem like you’d barely met Fable…how true is that?” Wes asked, crossing his arms. Callie, his wife, was on the floor still, rubbing a hand over her pregnant belly, lost in thought.
“Fable is Alec’s father…and mine. We were raised together…in a way at least. We were both carted over to our father’s house once a year, forced to stay for months at a time, sometimes longer. While there, we were exposed to Fable’s special brand of parenting, if that’s what you want to call it. ”
Penelope took a seat in Jameson’s lap, shifting her baby on her shoulder.
“And Natty knows him?”
My jaw clenched painfully hard as I nodded. “Alec would occasionally be dropped off in Death Raider territory with me.”
“You made it seem like a surprise when Fable turned up,” Killian said accusingly.
I thought back to our conversation that night, I had confessed to the group that Fable was in town. I had made it sound very vague and as if I barely knew my father.
“Didn’t trust you.”
He scoffed, shaking his head. “Do you now?”
“Not even a little bit.”
Wes laughed; Jameson muttered something about me being an asshole.
“So, Alec took her then, not Fable?” Laura glanced around at the group.
I shook my head. “Alec and Fable are working together.”
That news silenced everyone.
“Fable would likely not have any houses set up over here, right?” Penelope seemed to be thinking out loud while stroking her son’s back.
I stood, needing to move around. I hated this feeling of being so fucking useless.
“It’s hard to tell…he could have had houses set up the whole time he was in hiding, or nothing at all. Just depends on how long he’s been planning this.”
Penelope seemed lost in thought then pursed her lips. “There was a place…a safe house of theirs. The man my mom started seeing from Sons of Speed…he took us there a few times because he could have it to himself, or not get in trouble for messing around with Chaos Kings property. I left them alone while I ventured to the lake nearby. This was a long time ago, so my information is likely wrong and dated, but I will never forget this because on our way to that house, we passed by a chain of businesses that made me laugh. Wendy’s, Loves, Dicks, Hooters. They were all lined up one after another, and I would just laugh because it seemed ridiculous. ”
Did Natty enjoy this complete and utter mundane gibberish from her friends?
Penelope waved her hand. “Anyway, there’s a dirt road half a mile or so after Hooters and it goes back quite a ways, there’s a house at the end of the road…It could be something.”
“What town was this in?” I asked, uneasy about how far they could have taken Natty.
Penelope looked hopeful as she said, “Rockland.”
Rockland was hours from Rose Ridge. If I got on my bike now and started, then I could make some decent time. I’d have to do recon, but I could manage. It would be night by the time I really got set up, but it wouldn’t matter. I just had to get to her.
I stood, not listening to what everyone else was saying or discussing. I had enough to go on to follow up on the lead, so I didn’t need to hear anything more, but suddenly Penelope was in front of me again with her baby.
Her blue eyes searched mine as if I owed her something.
“You can’t go right now; you need to make a plan and have back up.”
I tried to move past her when she held her son out. “Open your arms.”
“Excuse me.”
She held her swaddled baby out as if she were about to place him in my arms.
“Palms out, come on.”
I peeked at her husband, and he only sipped from a bottle of water with a smirk on his face.
“I’m not going to leave you alone until you open your hands.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know how to?—”
But my palms were open like she’d suggested and suddenly her gaze fixated on a tattoo I had on the inside of my palm, near my ring finger. Her eyes narrowed enough that I began dropping my hands once more, but she cleared her throat and stepped closer.
“Like this.” Penelope pushed her son into my arms until he was being cradled against my chest. “Support his head at all times.”
My mouth gaped like a fucking fish. Did she really expect me to stand here and hold her? —
Penelope dropped her voice, gesturing at my left hand. “Natty has a tattoo just like that, in that same exact spot.”
I stared at her son and ignored her curious tone. She remained there, arms crossed and staring as if I were about to open up to her about my ink.
She finally let out a sigh and moved away from me, which allowed me the chance to really inspect this tiny human in my arms. Soft dark hair crowned the top of the baby’s head, his soft blue eyes were gentle and his button nose was adorable as fuck.
How did people do this? How did they hold something so precious and perfect and then let it out of their sight to grow up?
I could never do it, never love something so much only to watch it leave me. If I were there when Natty left, there would have been a war. I’d likely have lost my life because there was no world in which I could watch her walk out of mine.
“Who knew that Death itself would actually be good with babies?” Killian joked, passing by while I stood like a statue with Connor in my arms. I knew Jameson was watching me like a hawk from across the room, but for all my faults and as evil as everyone seemed to know I was, hurting children was where I drew the line.
“Pen is right, we need a plan. We can’t go half-cocked, Silas. We need intel, and to get the layout, we want her back safely, not shot in the crossfire, or hurt because we snuck up and didn’t know his security measures. Why don’t you go back into the clubhouse, stay in Natty’s room.”
A quick shot of panic shot through me at the notion of waiting. I had to play this right because this club had already been searching for her. They had a map. They were her friends…her family. It wasn’t like I could just go and not have them chase me. They could endanger our entire rescue if they showed up without a plan in place.
It was like swallowing nails to agree to stay put, but I knew it was the right thing to do. For Natty.
I didn’t trust myself to walk with Connor in my arms, so I gave a pleading look to Jameson who seemed to understand and left his perch to come grab his son.
Once he was safely in his father’s arms, I took a step back .
“I will give you one day to organize what you need to…just one, and then I’m going in with or without you.”
The eyes around the room remained on me while I turned on my heel and walked out of the house. Within seconds, my phone was up to my ear, my vice president on the line.
“We have a club to visit tonight.”
The only man I ever called a friend hummed in reply, “We leaving a message?”
Gravel crunched under my feet as I made my way over to my bike. I gave the club one last glance, wishing I could bury my face in some of Natty’s clothes, or sheets, just so I could have her scent wrapped around me.
“We’re sending an eviction notice.”
There was a pause, which didn’t happen often with my second. He was level-headed, unlike me, but he was fair and calculated.
“Which club?”
Going to war with a club wasn’t something to take lightly, especially for one as dangerous as ours. Just the same, it had to be done.
I straddled my bike and ignored the blood roaring in my ears as I pictured my brother, and what he might be doing to Natty.
With ice in my tone, I simply replied, “Sons of Speed.”