Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Cole
I sat at the long table between Slayer and Ender, our forearms resting on the scarred wood like I could will answers to rise up through it. Wrecker stood at the head, shoulders squared, with my dad on one side of him and Pipe on the other.
“How does no one know where these guys are?” I asked, breaking the silence.
Mason lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know, man. That first day Thorn and I asked around, we got a couple people saying they thought they knew who we were talking about. Now it’s like everyone’s got amnesia.”
It didn’t make sense. People always talked. Especially when they thought it might earn them favor.
“Maybe someone got to them,” Slayer suggested.
“But who?” Wrecker shot back.
“Maybe these guys threatened everyone to shut them up,” Kingston said.
“But who?” Wrecker repeated, his voice flat now. “There ain’t no way we’re hitting a wall because these dumbasses scared everybody. There’s something else going on.”
That was the question hanging over all of us. What else?
Pipe glanced toward Basil. “Anything more on that plate?”
Basil shook his head. “Could only get the first two letters.”
“My guy’s still working on pinning down the vehicles,” Wrecker said. “Apparently, there’s a shit ton of black Dodge Rams with plates starting with BM.”
“So now what?” I asked.
“We keep digging,” Wrecker said without hesitation.
“We don’t even know if these guys are gonna do anything else,” Ender pointed out. “They could’ve heard we were coming for them and scattered. Booked it the hell out of the state.”
Nickel grunted. “We’re still gonna find them.”
“No matter how long it takes,” Wrecker added.
A low murmur of agreement rolled around the table. And that was why I loved this damn club. No one messed with us. And when they did, we didn’t forget. We didn’t quit. We turned over every stone until there was nowhere left to hide.
The meeting wrapped up with plans to keep asking, keep watching, and keep pulling threads. Once Wrecker had a narrowed list of trucks from the video and plate fragment, we’d be closer. Not close enough yet. But closer.
Chairs scraped back. Guys filtered out in clusters, voices low and intent. Ender hung back, falling into step beside me.
“You good?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m good.”
He gave me a look that said he knew better. “You wanna get your hands on the guys who hurt her.”
I exhaled through my nose. “Yeah. I do.”
“How’s… all that going?” he asked, meaning Star without saying her name. “Serious? Or just that she’s there?”
I shook my head. “Nah. She was on my radar before the attack. That just made me step up sooner.”
Ender smiled, small and genuine. “Good for you.” He clapped my shoulder. “Don’t fuck it up.”
“Noted,” I said.
We headed out of church and into the common room, and the volume hit like a wall. People everywhere. It was insane how full the clubhouse felt when everyone was here.
I scanned automatically, and my eyes found her without effort.
Star sat at the bar with Junior behind it, Clove, Adley, and Alice lined up beside her. Four shots waited in front of them like trouble with a countdown.
This was going to end in chaos.
I moved in behind her and slid an arm around her shoulders. She turned, a smile breaking across her face the second she saw me.
“Hey,” she said, warm and easy.
I leaned in to kiss her, but she reared back a fraction, and her eyes flicked up toward the ceiling.
“The cameras,” she whispered.
I scoffed and hooked my hand behind her neck. “I don’t care,” I said quietly. “Do you?”
She thought about it for half a second, really thought about it, then shook her head.
I pulled her in and kissed her.
Hot. Quick. Confident.
The room reacted instantly. Whoops and hollers and someone clapped.
“I love love,” Nikki sighed loudly. “You used to kiss me like that,” she said to Pipe.
Pipe grunted. “Pretty sure I kissed you like that this morning after you su—”
“Sung you a song,” Nikki blurted and glared at Pipe.
I smirked against Star’s mouth and pulled back just enough to breathe.
I didn’t know if it was love yet.
But it was sure as hell headed that way.
“Drinking already?” I asked, eyeing the shots.
Star blushed but shrugged. “When in Rome.”
“Don’t pee on your umbrella,” Alice called.
Clove wrinkled her nose. “Who pees on umbrellas?”
Adley laughed. “I think she mashed two sayings together.” She tilted her head. “Though I don’t know where the pee came from.”
Alice tossed back her shot and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “No one ever sees the pee coming.”
Star leaned into me, laughing. “This is absolute chaos. I can see how, with this being your normal growing up, you can sleep through anything.”
I chuckled and pressed a kiss to her lips. “You have no idea, babe.”
She lifted her shot and downed it, coughing just a little. Junior was already pouring another.
“You want one?” he asked me.
I shook my head. “Nah.”
I tightened my arm around Star and watched her grin, watched the color in her cheeks and the spark in her eyes.
I was happy to sit back and let her have the fun.
She’d earned it.