Chapter 4
Jigsaw
I woke up before sunrise and looked down to see I’d fallen asleep last night in my clothes.
Pushing off the bed, I scrubbed my hands down my face, trying to shake off the dreams that bombarded me all night long.
After using my connected bathroom, I changed shirts, pulled my cut on, and walked out of my room.
The sound of snores coming through a few of the doors as I walked down the hallway to the staircase was confirming that I was the first one awake.
As I walked down the stairs and into the bar, I looked around to see how much needed to be taken care of before the club met up for our ride over to Sturgis today.
Our friend, Nick, had a singing gig today, and we tried to support our friends at every turn, so I had to make sure we were moving out by eleven.
Seeing the clock behind the bar read five-thirty, I tried to be quiet as I started a pot of coffee.
While it perked, I grabbed one of the large trashcans on wheels and began to push it around, tossing empty bottles, overflowing ashtrays, and various bits of trash away.
It wasn’t my job, but I needed something to keep my mind occupied.
I was finishing up on the far side of the bar when I heard the faint beep from the coffee maker, letting me know my caffeine was ready.
Another few minutes, I was pushing the full trashcan toward the back door for a prospect to take outside when they started showing up in a few hours. Being in the Sin Den alone was creepy, but I shook off the ominous feeling and returned behind the bar to pour myself a cup of coffee.
The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs echoed through the bar as I took a swallow of the hot coffee, feeling its magical powers spread through my addled brain. Glancing to the side as I propped up against the back of the bar, I saw Raven joining me as he rubbed his eyes and yawned.
“I knew I smelled coffee,” he remarked as I grabbed a cup and poured some for him. Pushing the cup across the bar, I watched as he took a seat and held the cup with both hands. “What has you up so early?”
I didn’t want to talk about it, but I still had the feeling I was losing my mind. There was no way Willow had been here last night, and I was worried I was going crazy. Raven was a good friend and a solid brother, so I decided to ask him a question.
“Did you see a blonde walking around last night with a shirt that said ‘Property of Willow’?” I inquired before taking a sip of coffee.
“I’m not sure. Why? Did some chick give you the slip last night?” He chuckled as he spoke.
“Forget it,” I remarked, and he released his cup and sat up, giving me his full attention.
“What’s going on, Dean?” Raven asked.
I sighed, needing to ask if I was crazy but not wanting anyone to think I actually was. “Do you remember what I told you about Minneapolis?”
“Yeah,” he answered, leaning closer as I stepped to the edge of the bar and leaned against it so I could speak quietly.
“Last night, I swear she was here, standing in front of me, proclaiming her to be property of herself. When I looked away for a second, she was gone, and now, I’m questioning if she was even here to begin with.”
“Have you checked the security recordings?” he asked, and I wanted to punch myself for not thinking about the cameras that cover the entire property.
“If she was here, they must’ve captured her.
” He took a swallow of his coffee and asked, “But if she was here, then why? After all these years, and you keeping your word to stay out of Minneapolis, why would she show up here now?”
“I honestly have no idea, and the last thing I want is problems with her father’s club. They’re a good group of guys, or at least they used to be, but I’ve put all that behind me and don’t need her starting a war between our clubs,” I reasoned.
“Then forget you saw her and move on. Find another woman to take her place,” he suggested with a shrug.
Raven was our Road Captain, making sure the bikes were taken care of and all our rides were mapped, planned, and executed with precision.
He and I worked in tandem when the club was riding, and his opinion was one I valued.
And he was one of the only single brothers left around.
I didn’t need advice from someone deep inside the loving feelings.
I needed someone to remind me that she had fucked me over.
“What are you talking about?” I heard a voice ask, and Raven and I turned to see Cheyenne walking down the stairs in a hoodie.
Raven gave me a look and a subtle lift of one shoulder, so as I poured Cheyenne a cup of coffee, I tried to explain without going into too much detail. “I thought I saw an old acquaintance last night and was asking Raven if he saw them.”
“Who? I greeted people for an hour or two last night, so I might know who you’re talking about,” Cheyenne offered, and I thought there wasn’t any harm in asking her.
She may be able to make me feel less crazy, so I said, “She was wearing a shirt the said ‘Property of Willow’.”
Cheyenne sat up straight and smiled. “I met her last night. She was really nice and very beautiful. She didn’t say you were friends or I would’ve found you.”
Raven lifted his coffee cup in a mock toast and said, “There’s your answer.”
I ran my hands through my hair and shook my head as Cheyenne asked, “Did I do something wrong?”
“No, you’re in the clear. It was my fuck-up that caused this,” I stated and walked out from behind the bar and over to Roughstock’s office.
I could hear Cheyenne speaking quietly to Raven as I used my key to unlock the office door then walked inside. The hard drive for the security system was locked up in here, and I needed to see if Cheyenne got it right.
Because if Willow was here looking for me and decided to run before I could speak with her, then I was going to find her and see what the hell she was thinking coming into a strange clubhouse without any kind of backup. The Sinners were an honorable group of men, but she didn’t know that.
Then the questions started rolling through my head as I unlocked the hard dive storage closet and opened the laptop inside.
How did she find me?
Why did she come here without speaking to me?
Was this some kind of test from the Phantom Renegades?
And why did she claim herself when I knew brothers had been lining up to be her ol’ man?
I didn’t have the answer to any of those questions, but if I saw her on the camera, I was going to find a way to locate her, even if I had to call Devlin to find her for me. There were over three hundred thousand bikers in the area for the Rally, so finding one sexy blonde would be impossible.
I checked the live feed of the cameras and saw a few campers were starting to wake up and join the land of the living.
Some were lined up for the portable toilets while others were taking advantage of the coffee truck we’d hired to be here every morning.
We didn’t have enough time or manpower to play hostess to anyone, so we let a local vendor make some money and serve coffee and pastries to the sleepy bikers.
Seeing everything was okay, I entered the system menu and dialed the recordings back to seven last night, focusing on the one we had pointed at the sign out front.
It captured the edge of the road, the parking lot, and most of the field where the bonfire took place.
I was watching the camera at double speed, seeing everyone getting the party set up.
A knock sounded on the door, and I said, “Enter,” without turning to see who it was.
“I brought you another cup of coffee,” Raven said as he walked into the office and closed the door behind him. He handed it to me and stood beside me as I watched Cheyenne speak with different people as they entered the party. “Any luck?”
“Not yet,” I returned, keeping my eyes on the monitor as I took a swallow of coffee.
Suddenly, I saw a woman walk up to Cheyenne and I clicked the speed, slowing it to normal as Raven stood beside me watching the two women have a brief conversation.
“Is that her?” he asked, and I nodded, unable to speak.
It took some maneuvering to keep shifting to the right camera angel as she moved around the party, speaking to very few people. After a few minutes, it became obvious she was looking for someone, and when I appeared with Comet, she shifted behind someone as she continued to watch me.
“She’s following you,” he explained and pointed to the monitor. “See? You move, she moves.”
He was right. When I walked out to the bonfire and stood on the far side, looking out at the Sinners party, she stood behind the flames with her eyes locked on me the entire time.
When I began to move back around, she countered, and when she stepped in front of me, I saw the smile on her face.
And when I reached over to scoop up that furry little fucker, Jack, she used my distraction to slip away.
“Fuck,” I said as she quickly walked through the large group of people and up toward the road.
“She definitely had a purpose to being here, but why did she leave so suddenly?” Raven asked, and I shrugged.
None of this made any sense, but there was a part of my brain screaming to find her.
It wasn’t rational and it could bite me in the ass, but if she wasn’t anyone’s property, she was fair game.
And I always felt like she and I had unfinished business that Popeye refused to let us complete.
I just hope I didn’t end up with a bullet in the head for even speaking with her.
“How are you going to find her?” he asked as I closed the laptop and secured the door to the security system.
“No fucking clue, but if she ran like that, maybe I don’t want to know why she was here,” I returned as I finished the cup of coffee.
Raven scoffed, and I turned to give him my attention.
He shook his head and said, “I’ve known you since we were in high school, and the only time I’ve ever heard you talk about a woman was when you got drunk one night and told me about her and how she stuck with you all these years.
If she’s here at the Rally, don’t you deserve to know what she wanted with you?
Or at the very least, you can finally tell her to fuck off and move past her. ”
“I was never stuck on her,” I tried to defend.
“Keep telling yourself that, but I know what you said that night, even if you don’t remember.”
I remembered, and deep down, I knew he was right. Willow had crawled into my soul that night, and as much as I wished she was just a memory, seeing her made the feelings all too real again.
The noise in the bar was starting to filter through the door, and I looked at Raven and nodded toward the bar.
He and I left Roughstock’s office and secured the door behind us.
Some brothers were awake, but the prospects were here, cleaning the Sin Den before they started on our bikes.
During the Rally, it was their job to keep our clubhouse and bikes pristine.
A mistake could mean the difference between getting a patch or not, and they all knew what was expected of them.
As Raven and I walked back to the bar, he suggested, “You should see if any of them saw how she got out of here. That may give you a lead.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want a lead. She’s trouble with a capital T and it’s better if she doesn’t come around again.”
Raven gave me a look that said he didn’t believe what I was saying, but he didn’t push the issue any further.
The prospects were cleaning the last of the glasses from last night when I heard one of them speaking about some super-fast crotch rocket that was here last night.
Something about the conversation drew my attention, so I pushed away from the bar and walked up to them.
“What was the bike?” I asked one of the prospects, and his eyes grew wide as he glanced at another nameless prospect.
“Black and red Kawasaki Ninja H2 that left early. Cute blonde with sick sleeves tore out of here like the devil was chasing her,” the prospect answered.
“Did you catch the plates?” I asked.
“No, sir, but I’m sure the camera Roughstock had installed at the stop sign for the Rally must have,” he returned, and it was then I remembered the long-range cameras we’d installed to make sure no one got the drop on us.
I clapped him on the shoulder. “Good work,” I said, and he smiled.
I walked away, deciding at that moment that I was going to find out what the hell Willow was thinking when she came looking for me.
And when I found her, I was either going to ring her neck or fuck her senseless. I just hadn’t made up my mind yet.