14. Making Progress
Fourteen
Making Progress
Bullet
I want to let Amelia sleep in this morning, but I know she’ll be thoroughly ticked off if she’s late for work. She’s dedicated to her staff and students and isn’t going to let a late night at the police station stop her from taking care of her school.
She looks so peaceful lying in her bed. I got up to shower, and when I came back, she was snuggling with my pillow. Every time I think she can’t get more adorable, she proves me wrong. I run my hand over her back. She mumbles something incoherent.
“Babe, it’s time to get up,” I tell her, brushing my lips over her shoulder.
“Not yet.” The words are hardly audibly with her face buried in the pillow, making me chuckle. It must have been my laugh that has her eyes open into slits, taking in the sunshine. “What time is it?” she murmurs, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“It’s seven. You have half an hour to shower and dress. I’ll make coffee. But not before I get my good-morning kiss,” I tease. With her eyes still half closed, she lifts her head and puckers her lips, waiting for my mouth to reach hers.
I kiss her hard and fast. But not fast enough, because her arms wind around my neck to hold me to her. I kiss her again, this time soft and slow. I take my time, enjoying her mouth and feeling the soft curves of her body.
“Baby, I’d be fine with you being late for work, but I bet you won’t be,” I say, breaking the kiss.
She grumbles and lets me go. Still in a sleepy haze, she stumbles into the bathroom to do her thing while I head out to find Crush at the coffeemaker, hitting the brew button.
Crush is better in the kitchen than I am.
When he has time, he likes to cook. I’m lucky, because most of the time, I’m around to sample what he makes.
“Do you think Amelia would mind if I made breakfast?” he asks, furrowing his brow.
“She’d love it. She’s always in a rush, though,” I warn, not wanting him to be hurt if she doesn’t take the time to sit.
“I’ll make breakfast burritos. She can take them to go.” He begins to crack some eggs and make breakfast sausages. “Check your phone. Guard wants to meet this morning.”
“Bad news?”
“Not that I know of. Demon said Guard has already spoken to Sofia. It’s probably about the next move we’re going to make. Guard wants the Pride cleared completely. He doesn’t like this hanging over our heads.”
I already know this, and although Guard is as patient as they come, he doesn’t take kindly to police trying to haul one of our women in for questioning. The main thing all the Pride men have in common is our need to look after our women and each other.
“I’d like to find Sal’s killer too. This is weighing on Amelia. I’d like to have some time with it just being her and me, without drama,” I confess.
“Preach, brother. It would be nice to have some downtime. By the way, we’ve got a couple more jobs lined up. I know you have your hands full, so I’ll go give them the quote.”
This is something Crush hates doing alone. Quite frankly, with all that’s going on, I don’t want him meeting anyone on his own. “Guard says two men at all times, even when it comes to work. We’ll pick a time when Amelia is safe at the school.” I jolt my shoulder into his. “Partners. Remember?”
He smiles, and I sigh in relief. Yeah, he hates that part of the job, but he was willing to do it for me and Amelia.
I pour coffee into travel mugs while Crush rolls the burritos and wraps them up, just as Amelia comes into the room. “Oh my God, that smells heavenly. Mmm, I wish I could sit with you both.”
“No worries, babe. Crush made our food to go,” I tell her. Crush hands her a brown paper bag as I grab our coffees. “I’ll drop you off at work. Your car never made it home last night,” I remind her. “And I’ll text you later for our plans tonight.”
“Our plan includes me making dinner for you and Crush.” She turns to Crush before he can utter a word, “I insist.”
He gives her a sheepish grin. “Only if I bring dessert. I’ll drop by Hanna’s Bakery.”
Amelia’s eyes light up. “I’m addicted to everything in her shop. I hear her snickerdoodles are to die for.”
“There’s nothing I tried that wasn’t fantastic. She has a flair for baking. Risk complains that his one-hour workouts have turned into two hours since he met her,” I say.
Crush laughs. “He complains but hoards everything that comes to the club, and he lives with her. He’s got a sugar addiction.”
Amelia giggles, then walks out to the car with us. Crush gets on his bike and follows us to the school. As soon as I see Amelia is safe inside, we leave for the club.
“The missing woman, Violet, she’s on the run because she witnessed the murder,” Guard announces.
He gazes over at Orion and Wildcard. Wildcard looks tired as hell, probably because he just got back from picking up a skip and went directly to Orion to help out any way he could.
“The cops said there were no surveillance tapes. Truth is, the tapes were scrubbed. But as Orion’s told me millions of times, there’s always a footprint if you know where to look. ” He nods to Orion to continue.
“The images are dark, and most of them blurry. Sal didn’t believe in spending money on security.
I think he thought he was invincible.” Orion turns to Wildcard, who splashes a shot on the blank wall in the room.
The picture is blurry, but you can make out Sal’s office, and Sal standing behind his desk, his arm stretched out like he’s speaking with someone.
His expression isn’t clear, but he looks pissed.
“That’s Sal. Where’s Violet?” I ask.
“Look closely.” Orion moves his hand over the bottom of the photo, where a cabinet sits with a door next to it. “You need to really look for it. This is a hand on the edge of the door. It’s small. Looks like a woman’s hand to me.”
“She was hiding in the closet. I doubt Sal knew she was there,” Guard says.
The hand is barely visible, nothing but a few fingers, like she’s trying to shut the door without being noticed.
“We don’t know for sure it was Violet,” War says.
“True. But what other female do you think would hide in that office, late at night, if she didn’t have to be there?” Guard asks.
“We need to get into that office. There could be clues the cops have missed. It’s not like they’re looking hard at other possibilities,” Demon states.
“Vance will lose his shit if any of us turn up at the shop,” I tell them.
“I’ll talk to him.” Thunder shrugs. “The worst he can do is say no.”
“Or he can put a hole in your head,” Ghost puts in. “You can’t go it alone.”
“If there’s too many of us, he’ll clam up,” Thunder answers.
“It should be me,” I say.
“No!” Crush jumps in. “Vance has it in his mind that none of this would have happened if it weren’t for you and Amelia. He’ll lose his mind. It’s not smart.”
“I’m already involved. It isn’t cool that any of the other brothers are doing their part and I’m not,” I tell him. “You know it’s the right thing to do.”
“I’m coming with you, then,” Crush insists, then he looks at Guard. “I’m going.”
It takes balls to tell Guard anything. Guard focuses only on Crush. “We’ve got Bullet’s back. And yours. When are you going to believe that?”
“I do!” Crush affirms loud enough for the whole room to hear.
The room goes dead quiet. The only thing we hear is Guard’s boots on the floor as he walks over to stand in front of Crush. Fuck! Guard taps his index finger on Crush’s temple. “In here, yes.” He then taps Crush’s chest, over his heart. “Here, no. You want to believe, but you’re scared.”
“I’m not—” Crush erupts, but Guard gives him a look that shuts him up immediately.
“I’ll accept that you’re not fully ready to trust, but I’ll never listen to a lie. Understood?” Guard says.
Crush swallows deep and nods.
“Compromise,” Guard continues. “Ghost and Crush wait outside. Thunder and Bullet take a shot at getting Vance to see it our way.”
“I should be close. If there’s evidence of anything, I’m good at finding it,” Demon cuts in.
“All right. That works.” Guard is done with the meeting and shows this by sauntering to the door and leaving. We all remain behind.
Soon, the men file out of the room, except for Ghost and Thunder.
“Kid, that was your one pass. Do that again, and I’ll take your cut myself,” Thunder grumbles at Crush. “We’ve shown you time and time again that this is where you belong, but if you want out, get out.”
“I don’t want out,” Crush replies, hanging his head.
“That rage inside you is eating you up inside. No one is taking from you. Bullet is safe with his brothers. And so are you,” Ghost adds.
“There’s this thing in the pit of my stomach. I can’t shake it. Most of the time I can contain it, but then it spirals and takes over,” Crush admits.
It’s the first time he’s shared that with anyone but me and Guard.
I’m glad he did, because Thunder’s expression changes to compassion.
“Shit! I get where you’re coming from. The next problem is always around the corner waiting for you, and you’re trying to control every outcome. It’s fucking exhausting.”
“Yeah,” Crush groans.
“In the meantime, you’re missing out on the good stuff that comes your way,” Ghost tells him. “Vance needs to let us in that room. Thunder is going to take the lead. Bullet, stay quiet and follow Thunder’s play. You know the signal for help. Crush, Demon, and I will be close.”
“I thought he was going to take my patch,” Crush says.
“You’re lucky he didn’t,” I mutter.
“I know,” he replies, resigned to the fact that he screwed up huge.
Thunder calls Vance, and after much persuasion, Vance agrees to let us come to the shop to speak with him.
He tells us that he isn’t going to be alone and that he’s not going to suffer the same fate as his father.
Thunder assures him that we have no intention of harming anyone and just want to discuss the information surrounding his father’s death.
As we enter the shop, I’m beginning to think we made a mistake. A least ten of Vance’s friends are waiting inside along with Vance. Thunder remains cool as a cucumber.
“Well, I can see that there are more people with trust issues,” he murmurs under his breath to me.
If the situation weren’t so serious, I’d laugh.
He directs his gaze to Vance. “Option one, your guys try to beat the shit out of us, and I do mean try because even ten to two, we’ll beat your asses.
Or, option two, you hear us out, and we find out who really killed your father and why.
Just so you’re aware, the Pride is just an added bonus.
We’re an easy bunch to blame. Whoever did murder your father figured they’d blame it on the local MC, and we’re it. ”
“Or you killed my father and want me to think otherwise,” Vance blurts out.
“If that were true, I wouldn’t be here right now. If the Pride had a beef with your family, you would have known about it way before now,” Thunder answers.
“All right, then. Where do we start?”
“We need to see your father’s office. We think there’s evidence in there the police didn’t get and that’s going to lead to a whole hell of a lot of answers for both of us,” Thunder tells him, completely ignoring the rest of his crew.
“Cops had an entire team out here and found nothing. What the hell do you hope to find?” Vance retorts.
“They weren’t looking in the right place,” Thunder replies. Vance is confused, and so he should be. He doesn’t have the information we have. “Show him the picture,” Thunder tells me.
I raise my hand to my jacket pocket, and his men leap forward. “Whoa! Just taking out the photo. See?” I use two fingers to grab the edge of the paper to take it out. I unfold the photo and hand it to Vance.
“What the hell am I looking at?” Vance asks.
“Someone scrubbed the video. Our tech guy was able to piece together a few images. This is one of them. The time stamp is the same night, just before your father’s death.
Look at that closet, next to him. Door is slightly open, and there’s a hand.
Someone saw the killer. We think that’s why Violet’s on the run,” I explain to Vance.
Vance squints, zeroing in on the area I circled for him. “Why would she be in the closet? This doesn’t make sense.” I can see his mind is whirling, trying to put it all together.
“Look, man, I want to prove once and for all that Satan’s Pride is not responsible for your father’s death.
Our man Demon is the guy we want to take a look in that closet.
If there’s a clue, he’ll find it. As a show of good faith, we’ll share everything we have.
The only thing we ask is that the Pride’s name is cleared,” Thunder says. “What do you say?”
Vance looks around at his crew. The man next to him leans into him and whispers something. Then a little louder, he says, “Tell them. We’re working blind, Vance.”
Vance lowers his head, looking down and contemplating his options.
He turns from Thunder to me, then mutters, “We’re getting weird calls.
They hang up, but it’s like they’re waiting for someone else to pick up.
First at the shop, then it started at my house.
It was weird. I didn’t think too much of it.
Then yesterday, a woman called the shop and said she was Violet’s aunt, and she was worried because she hadn’t heard from her in over a week.
” He pauses. “Violet never spoke about her past, but there’s one thing I know for sure, the only living relative she had was her aunt, and she hated that woman.
She’s the reason Violet took off right after graduating from high school.
Violet would never be calling her regularly. ”
“Did you get a name?” I ask.
“Nah.” He shakes his head. “I told her that she found another job and took off. She hung up immediately after. Thing is, it feels like we’re being watched. Not just me, but some of the guys.”
“Let us help. When this is over, you go your way, we’ll go ours,” I tell him.
“Yeah.” He runs a hand through his hair.
“I’m calling Demon. He’s waiting at the edge of the drive. Let him go in alone. The fewer people around, the easier it is for him to work,” Thunder says.
I mutter quietly for Thunder’s ears only, “We’re making progress.” He allows a grin to show on his face and turns to see Demon’s ride coming up to meet us.