15. Silas
FIFTEEN
SILAS
PRESENT
I hadn’t had a chance to change out of my sullied jeans or dirt caked t-shirt before getting an urgent text from my vice president regarding Natty. So I drove into the city, meeting Lance a block away from Natty’s little coffee shop job. I was told she’d returned to it as if she’d never been taken in the first place. Garrison was keeping me updated on her as much as he could, but apparently there was an issue that they had decided to take up with my vice president instead of me. Which was why he’d called this meeting.
My best friend sat on his bike, his feet planted in the gravel, while staring at his cell. I wouldn’t allow anyone else in the club to be so relaxed when I pulled up, but Lance got a pass because he could still kill me with alarming accuracy while watching cooking videos on his phone.
“What the fuck was so important that they could only tell you instead of me?” I snapped, letting my bike roll to a stop before lowering the kickstand.
Lance kept his face down, but lazily drawled, “Try again, and check that frosty as fuck tone, please.”
I’d smirk if I wasn’t so upset over having to walk away from Natty again. Leaving her wasn’t something I enjoyed doing, at any fucking point in my life, but my whole life revolved around keeping her safe. This was the right thing to do, and even if it meant she hated me for it, I’d still leave if it meant the threat against her life was being hunted.
“Can you please tell me what the team is concerned about regarding my wife?” I gave him a fake smile, all teeth, then flipped him off once his face lifted.
Concern was there now, and it gutted me.
“Natty keeps leaving. Also why do you smell like lemons, and why the fuck do you have dirt all over your clothes?”
I already knew Natty had started leaving, so I lifted my arms to indicate where we were…and that I was more than aware that she’d gotten back to her routine. As far as the lemons and the dirt…not a chance in hell was I touching that.
Lance shook his head. “She leaves on a bike, Silas…and she’s been visiting rival clubs.”
What.
No…that wasn’t right. She rode around on a little yellow moped.
Lance glared at me as if he was reading the thoughts in my head. “It’s a Yamaha Xabre…fast as fuck too. She lost her detail twice while entering Chaos King territory up in Richland.”
What the actual fuck was she doing going up to Richland?
“It gets worse.”
My eyes narrowed on my friend, all while my breathing became more difficult.
“She slipped her detail during her shift at The Drip…we didn’t notice until that night, we thought we could find her, but she didn’t come back last night. The reason the guys were too afraid to tell you is because they’re fairly positive you’re going to kill them.”
My head was pounding as time seemed to stop, and the air felt like it had thinned so much that I couldn’t breathe in anymore of it.
“You mean to tell me that my wife has been driving into Chaos Kings territory and as of this last little trip, hasn’t returned, and is in fact there, right fucking now?”
Lance dipped his chin.
“It’s not Garrison’s fault…none of us knew she’d have that bike ready to go, or that she seemed to have an agenda, or a person in The Drip that was blonde and would have traded aprons with her. So metimes they keep their faces down while they work, so it’s hard to tell the difference. We’ve helped watch over her for two years. We knew her routine, her habits…we knew what to look for. She took us by surprise, Silas.”
I noticed he was saying “we,” which would take the heat off Garrison and his men.
My legs were already moving toward my bike, my hands shaking. I heard Lance trying to warn me, but I didn’t fucking care. Natty wasn’t doing this. She was not going to get taken again by my father simply because she was pissed at me.
Lance hopped off his bike and advanced toward me until he was standing in front of me.
“Take a second and explain to me what the fuck is going on. You came out of the Stone Riders property a week ago, pissed as hell. You ordered me to stick around the property and watch over Natty…and you’ve been putting yourself at risk every day since. Just tell me what happened.”
He was right, and deep down I knew I had to allow other people in so that I wasn’t carrying all this shit by myself…I just wasn’t sure how to do that without everything falling around me.
Digging into the pocket of my jacket, I pulled out the scrap of paper that had sent me hunting and handed him the note Fable had pinned to Natty’s window, letting him fill in the blanks.
“How the actual fuck did Fable get through all the security the Riders have set up? That place is secured better than most prisons.”
I was still trying to piece that one together as well.
“A mole is the only thing I can think of, but it’s not my club and the president is currently out looking for his fucking mother, so I can’t bring it up.”
Lance sharpened his focus; I knew he was trying to work something out.
“So you moved in your own security without Killian’s consent?” His dark brow flicked up in silent question.
I nodded.
“Was Natty on board?” Lance tucked his phone into his jacket pocket .
A shaky breath left me as I shook my head. “She’s pissed at me. Didn’t want me to leave.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have. You forgetting the last time you left her and she got traded without your approval or consent?”
My back molars pinched together as I worked to keep my sanity in check.
“You know better than to bring that up to me, don’t be fucking cruel. He got into her room somehow, Lance. I have to find him.”
He shook his head, returning the note to me.
“He likely knew this is how you’d react. You are the only person who knows what sort of bullshit he’d use on Natty. If he knows where she’s sleeping, then she needs to be moved and quickly. You can’t leave her here, even with a team of Raiders to protect her.”
My stomach clenched.
“Doesn’t seem to matter now anyway, she left and all the protection I promised her wasn’t even able to stick with her.”
My best friend winced, and I felt slightly shitty about that. It wasn’t his fault or the team’s…they were right. Two years, Natty had the same routine. The fact that none of us knew she’d even purchased a bike was humbling, even to me.
Lance finally let out a sigh and leveled me with a glare… “You can’t leave her, Silas. If something happens to her, you will cease to exist, my friend, and I can’t stand by and allow that.”
“I can’t hunt him and drag her with me. He’ll be watching me.”
Besides, I couldn’t take her from this place. She had friends here. A job she loved, and people who cared about her. She’d already left though…on her own.
“I need to go find her,” I muttered quietly, still trying to piece together why she went to Richland. The Chaos Kings were an ally of Killian’s, so I knew she’d be safe, but what did this have to do with Fable…or anything else for that matter? I couldn’t work it out, but I needed to get to her.
Lance nodded, watching me keenly.
“My advice…you need to give Natty a bit more credit. She’s more capable than anyone else I can even think of regarding Fable, and Alec. St op worrying so much and just accept that she might be able to help you.”
“Good thing I didn’t ask for your advice.”
Lance chuckled, and with a quick buckle of his helmet, he let out a sigh. “You forget that I was the one watching as you two exchanged those vows that night. I was the one who knew no matter what you said would ever compare to the strange connection you formed as kids. She slept on your floor, right under your nose for most of your life, like that was a normal thing or something. You both were so fucking careless, regardless that the rest of us knew how dangerous it was to fall that hard, so young. Still, I watched in awe as she kept loving you. I remember her lighting up like the sun when you’d arrive. Nothing but a dark thunder cloud, and she never gave a single shit.”
He laughed, which had me letting out a small chuckle as well, along with an unbidden tear. My memories were the worst form of torture.
Lance sobered and met my gaze. “You’ve punished yourself for letting her down…you’ve suffered, Silas. Keep her, love her. Start fresh with her.”
Without another word, he dipped his head and shot off on his bike toward Pyle.
Starting my bike up, I headed in the opposite direction toward Richland, letting my best friend’s words soak into my heart. Maybe he was right.
Perhaps it was time to just stay…
My mind threw up images of a time I felt the same and had ignored it, knowing something deeper was going on.
Knowing, she was slipping through my fingers but going regardless.