Keys: A Crossover (Via Daemonia MC #22)

Prologue

Twelve Days to Present

Pandemonium was the only word to describe the scene in the motel room. Pointing an accusatory finger at the club’s treasurer, Ivy “Poison” Benson shouted at Tabs, who was on the bed with her laptop. Tabs, clearly frustrated, had her eyes transfixed to the computer screen, and not at Poison.

Which was only further pissing Poison off.

Mercer was trying to hold back Phoenix, who was trying her damnedest to get to Viper.

Though Phoenix’s Knightmare went by the road name of “Ghost”, Poison refused to call him that.

She already knew one Ghost, and having to explain which Ghost she was talking about got annoying and Poison did not have time for that bullshit.

So “Ghost” was her friend and the Via Daemonia’s new president, while “Mercer” was Phoenix’s lover. And no one would ever change that.

Viper, the Non Cras’ road captain, was the only one in the room who appeared calm, though that might have more to do with the absence of emotion on the Cajun woman’s face than a tranquil one.

Gypsy, Scissors, and Sissy were in the corner by the bathroom.

Tears streamed down Sissy’s cheeks as she hugged her wife, while Scissors rubbed her arms up and down her Knightmare’s back.

Gypsy looked pissed as she talked to Scissors, but Poison wasn’t paying much attention to them.

All she cared about was getting some fucking answers.

A shrill whistle rang through the room, making everyone, including Poison, stop what they were doing and stare at the doorway where Wendigo stood with one of her men, Benjamin.

“What the fuck is going on?” she demanded to know.

Anger heated Poison’s veins as she stared across the room at her SAA.

She was barely holding it together, but Kitty was outside on the phone with Jack from the Mountain Mutineers to figure out what he knew.

And Poison wasn’t some fucking girly-girl who needed her man to keep her calm and centered anyway.

For fuck’s sake. But…even she had to admit, it was nice to have him at her back. He was soothing, if nothing else.

Poison’s jaw ticked in frustration. “If you would answer your fucking phone, you’d already know what is going on!”

Benjamin opened his mouth as if he was going to snap back at Poison, but Wendigo wisely held her man back.

She stepped forward. “We were sleeping in, something you,” she pointed at Poison, “told us to do. Now you can stand here and blame me for still being asleep in the fucking morning, or you can tell me what’s going on so I can help. ”

Poison stepped out from the other side of the bed.

She no doubt looked murderous, but Wendigo didn’t back down.

A hand on her arm stopped Poison from charging her SAA, though, and Poison rounded on Scissors.

The two shared a stern look that Poison knew well.

Scissors had been a prospect with the VDMC when Poison had showed up on the Pennsylvanian club’s doorstep with a pedophile hogtied as a special gift to the club.

There was a reason Poison chose Scissors to be her VP.

All the Non Cras could be hotheaded, and even unhinged at times.

They were all brash, unafraid of challenging authority.

Poison didn’t mind club members who spoke out or made their opinions known, but she refused to allow disorder or challenges to her leadership.

Scissors had a way of making Poison see the difference between a member being disobedient and being vocal.

But this morning was not the morning to test her, as Wendigo had done.

Poison was nowhere even close to her normal amount of patience, which Kitty would have laughed and called it her normal amount of impatience if he had access to her inner thoughts.

Scissors’ stern expression silently reminded Poison that everyone was short tempered right then, and Wendigo had no idea why.

Poison, begrudgingly, nodded to her VP, and slowly, Scissors dropped her grip on Poison’s arm.

Squaring her shoulders, Poison faced Wendigo and Benjamin again. She was still pissed, but at least she didn’t feel like going for Wendigo’s head anymore.

“MV’s missing,” she informed the couple.

Wendigo’s eyebrows shot up as her jaw dropped. “Why? What? How?”

Pulling out her phone, Poison walked over to them. She pulled up her text message app before turning her screen around to face them.

Unknown: If you’re reading this, they found me. Don’t look for me. I’ll be in touch when I can.

Wendigo stared at the message, likely reading it numerous times. From the way Benjamin’s body curled around hers, Poison knew he was reading it, too. The door behind them opened, and Waya, Benjamin and Wendigo’s partner, slipped into the already crammed motel room.

Wendigo finally looked up from the phone at Poison. “I don’t understand. How do you know it’s from her?”

It was a valid inquiry, even if being questioned irritated Poison.

“For one, we can’t get a hold of her,” Poison answered shortly, repocketing her phone. “For another, my phone’s secure. She set it up that way. The only people who have my number are in this room and some of the VDMC.”

Wendigo nodded once, accepting that explanation. “All right. So what do we know? Who found her? She said ‘they’, which means we’re looking at a group.”

Poison’s nostrils flared as she felt the helplessness of the situation stab at her.

She was not good at waiting around with her thumb up her ass while others looked for answers.

But unless she had someone to pummel, she had no fucking clue where to start looking herself.

“Unfortunately, you now know everything we do. Kitty is outside on the phone with Jack from the Mountain Mutineers. I tried getting a hold of Keys, but he’s busy with stuff going on there.

” She rounded on the bed. “And so far Tabs has been absolutely useless!”

“Hey!” Tabs snapped. She slammed her laptop closed and stood up from the bed, tossing the computer onto the soft mattress.

“You think this is easy? I’m an accountant—or as close to one without a degree,” she clarified.

“I’m not some hacker who knows code or some shit.

I follow money trails! I have no idea how to trace a phone number! ”

“If you know how to follow money, how hard can it be to track a number?” Poison demanded, even though she knew it was unreasonable.

“I don’t know,” Tabs sneered, her hands on her hips. “You’re the former cop. You know how to shoot a gun. Does that mean you know how to use a military tank?”

Wendigo stepped forward, putting herself between Tabs and Poison.

“Enough!” she shouted. To Poison, she said sternly, “It is not fair to demand her to do something out of her skillset and you know it! I know you care about MV. We all do, but putting the blame on Tabs helps no one.” To Tabs, she asked, “Is there anything you do know?”

Her expression forlorn, Tabs scuffed her bare foot on the old carpeting.

“Not really. I even thought about tracing our paychecks that she gives us, but it just leads back to a Swiss bank account in Poison’s legal name.

Hell, everything is in Poison’s name. If we didn’t trust MV so much, I would accuse her of stealing Poison’s identity. ”

“Does anyone know where she lives?” Wendigo asked the room as a whole, though her eyes flicked mostly to Phoenix. Other than Poison, she was the only one who might.

Unfortunately, Phoenix shook her head. “She’s only ever been a voice on the phone to me. I never even put a gender to the voice before I met Poison and Kitty in Detroit.”

Poison was disappointed, but not surprised, by this answer. If Phoenix had any information about MV, she would have shared it already instead of waiting for a prompt.

Wendigo also didn’t appear surprised by the answer. She turned back to Poison. “Nothing from Keys?”

Anger rose to a boil at the other tech’s name. “No,” she growled, knowing Tabs was right. They were going to need a hacker to find someone like MV. “The kid’s busy with their own club’s shit.”

“What’s more important than this?” Wendigo demanded, clearly astonished Keys wasn’t available to help them with their current problem.

Sorrow hit Poison hard, hating the news she was about to deliver.

Like Poison, Scissors, and Sissy, Wendigo had ties to their brother club, though she tended to stay more in touch with Carlos, the town’s sheriff, and his wife, Zoey, after rescuing their son, Kyle.

Poison had ridden with Scar, one of the club’s members for several months after he’d gone rogue, but she was particularly close to Ghost and Ranger, the club’s President and Enforcer, respectively.

“I don’t know all the details,” Poison said in a dry voice, “but there was an explosion of some sort in town last night. Obviously, his priority is there. I didn’t even get around to telling him our problem.”

Wendigo wasn’t the only one who stiffened and paled at the dire news. Sissy and Scissors were already aware of what had happened, but Benjamin, Waya, Viper, Tabs, Phoenix, Gypsy, and Mercer were not.

“Explosion?” Mercer inquired. “What happened? Is everyone all right?”

Poison had to force her jaw to open as she said shortly, “No.”

At the single word, Sissy turned her face into Scissors’ chest again. Her shoulders shook with her renewed tears.

“We need to head to Pennsylvania,” Viper announced. This was not the first time she’d expressed this sentiment.

Phoenix rounded on her, and Mercer quickly jumped between the women. Again. “They can handle their own club business! We need to handle ours. None of us might have met MV before, but she’s still one of us, and we take care of our own!”

“Except we have no idea how to do that,” Tabs argued, her frustration evident. “Benjamin and I are the only ones who are even remotely tech savvy around here, but even so, there’s no fucking way we can find her.”