Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Cole
The clubhouse smelled like burnt coffee and old wood.
I stepped inside and let the noise wash over me. Low voices.
Maniac glanced up from the table. “You look like hell.”
“Feel fine,” I said, and dropped my helmet on the bar.
Pipe snorted into his coffee. “That’s what guilt looks like.”
I ignored him and poured myself a cup. The coffee was too strong and already cold. I drank it anyway.
Dad stood near the back, with his arms crossed and eyes sharp. He’d been waiting for me.
“She awake?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “More alert than yesterday.” Yesterday, Star had been awake more, and I knew today was going to be more of the same. She was getting better slowly but surely.
That earned a couple nods around the room. No one asked follow-ups. They knew better.
“Back room,” Dad said. “Footage is ready.”
The mood shifted immediately.
We moved down the hall into the office. Too small for the number of men crammed inside it. Wrecker leaned against the wall, arms crossed tight over his chest. Mason stood near the screen with a laptop open, jaw set.
“This is from the Dairy Bar,” Dad said, lifting the remote. “Rear camera. Arlo pulled it.”
“Across town,” Wrecker muttered. “That tracks.”
Dad hit play.
Grainy footage filled the screen. A quiet stretch of road. Dumpster. Flickering streetlight. Nothing special.
“Just wait,” Dad said.
A car passed. Then another.
Wrecker scoffed. “Is their truck in the fucking room with us?”
Dad fast-forwarded ahead. “Hold up.”
The headlights appeared first, wide, bright, and cut across the edge of the frame. Then the truck rolled into view.
My spine locked.
“That’s it,” I said.
The pickup moved slow. Big. Lifted. The kind of truck men drove when they wanted to feel untouchable.
Dad paused it too late. The image blurred, the plate smeared beyond recognition.
“Fuck,” Mason muttered.
Dad backed it up, frame by frame this time. The truck crept across the screen, tires rolling past the dumpster, suspension dipping slightly before the turn.
“Pause,” I said.
The image froze. Rear quarter panel. Tail light. Plate angled just enough to taunt us.
I leaned in and squinted at the screen.
The numbers were useless, but the color of the plate wasn’t.
Blue. White.
“That’s not Wisconsin,” I said.
Dad nodded. “Minnesota.”
“So they’re not local,” Mason said. “Or they are and don’t want to be.”
“Out-of-state plates buy them time,” Wrecker growled. “They probably think we won’t be able to find them.”
“They’re wrong,” Pipe said from behind us.
Dad ran through the footage again, slower.
“Try to get it so we can see the plate,” Mason grunted.
“I’m goddamn trying to,” Dad growled. “This isn’t exactly high-quality footage.”
“Maybe we should have someone whose birth year doesn’t start with a one,” I suggested.
Dad lowered the remote and flipped me off.
“Pipe, reach out to your Minnesota contacts. See if they have any info about four assholes in a black truck” Wrecker ordered.
Pipe nodded. “I’ll start with Duluth and St. Paul. See if anything shakes loose, but Minnesota is a big fucking state.”
“Basil,” Wrecker said, “get him this footage. See if he can clean it up.”
Dad nodded. “I’ll see if he can make it clearer or whatever else.”
Wrecker’s gaze cut to me. “You.”
I met his eyes. “Yeah.”
“You stay close to Star.”
That wasn’t a question.
“I will,” I said.
“We don’t want anything else to happen to her. These guys would have to be real fucking stupid to try to hit her again, but they hit a woman in the first place, so we know they’re not geniuses.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. “I’ve got her.”
Mason stepped in. “What about the pipeline guys? Those guys have been rolling in and out for weeks. A lot of them seem to be wandering into the bar. Adley said this wasn’t the first time she had seen those guys.”
“No one in town had seen them before, so it makes sense that they are part of the pipeline,” Pipe agreed.
“Take Thorn,” Wrecker said. “Ask around and see what you can find out.”
Mason nodded. “We’ll head out this afternoon.”
Wrecker and Dad stayed in the backroom while Mason, Pipe, and I headed back to the common room.
“I’m gonna go find Thorn. Probably going to have to drag him out of bed.” Mason headed down the hallway toward Thorn’s room.
I finished my coffee by the bar.
Pipe called to me. “You good?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t have any other choice but to be. “I’m just gonna try to sleep for a couple of hours,” I added, “then check on Star or head over to the hotel in town to see if they have anyone new checking in.”
He studied me for a second, eyes sharp. “Don’t do anything reckless.”
“Not my style.”
“Good,” he said. “Because we don’t need that.”
I nodded once and headed down the hallway to my room.
The door shut behind me with a quiet click.
I kicked off my boots and left them where they landed, then shrugged out of my cut and dropped it over the back of the chair like it weighed nothing. My shirt followed, tossed aside without thought.
I didn’t bother turning on a light.
The bed creaked when I collapsed onto it. Exhaustion hit all at once now that I wasn’t holding myself upright out of pure will. My muscles ached. My head buzzed. My body finally gave up the fight.
I stared at the ceiling for half a second.
Star’s face filled my mind without invitation.
I exhaled, slow and heavy, and my eyes slid shut before I could stop them.
Just a couple of hours.
That was the plan.
The last thing I thought before sleep dragged me under was that I’d be back at the hospital before the sun went down.