21. Chapter 21
Myth
I checked my phone but there wasn’t a message or a missed call. Nothing. Church had taken longer than I expected, and I’d even run late for it given I’d slept through alarms and my woman getting up apparently.
The days since we’d punished Belle in the shed had been weird with us. I’d barely seen her, and maybe there was a reason for that. Maybe she was scared of who she’d become in that shed. Maybe she was questioning if she wanted to be with me again, now that the excitement had worn off.
Fuck, no way would I let that happen. I’d hunt her down if I had to.
Moving into the main part of the clubhouse, I saw Missy behind the bar, cleaning the bar and doing inventory for the upcoming party on the weekend.
“Why’s it so quiet?” I asked Fang when he walked up beside me.
“Your missus isn’t here scaring the girls into doing shit.” He laughed and I had to admit, since she’d taken on the mantle of my ol’ lady again, she had been whipping them into shape. I scanned the room, and that’s when my eyes landed on the now empty spot where her boxes from London had been.
It was like a punch to the gut.
Something caught Fang’s attention and he moved off to talk to them. I found myself walking down the hall toward our bedroom, praying the boxes were in there.
Once I walked in, even though I already knew they wouldn’t be in here, I felt my gut drop when I noticed nothing new in the room.
Fuck.
Had she taken them and fled?
Had what happened with Belle been too much?
I knew I should have handed that run off to Fang to deal with so I could be there for her. This wasn’t her world anymore, even if I could see glimpses of her again.
Sitting down on the edge of my bed, I put my hands on my knees, forcing the nausea in my gut to settle. Had she gone back to London?
Pulling my phone back out of my pocket, I dialled Bully, and left a message for him to check on Beck. If she was back there, that was it. That was her decision. I had to respect it.
Right?
Or I could have Bully send her back here and I’d tie her to my bed until she knew she was the only damn thing that mattered to me.
Throwing my phone on the bed, I laid back on it, waiting for Beck to return my call. It was early morning over there now.
How the fuck hadn’t I left someone on her?
Because I wanted her to trust me. I wanted her to want to be here.
Pain I’d thought was long gone was resurfacing and it made me sick. How could I be so stupid?
BULLY
She ain’t here. Doesn’t look like anyone arrived matching her description on any flight in the last few days either.
I read the message over and over again. Why hadn’t I just asked Frenzy to track her movements? Fuck, she had me all torn up and in knots, I wasn’t thinking clearly. Grabbing my phone, I headed back out to the clubhouse. Missy was looking down at her phone, and the boys were all lounging around.
“Frenzy?”
He stood up, tossing the girl that had been on his lap onto the couch. “Yeah?”
“Pull up your computer. I need you to tell me the last time you saw Rox on the compound.”
Everyone was quiet.
Fang looked at me, a frown on his face. “Prez, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know where she is,” I admitted. “I thought she took off, her boxes are gone, but Bully told me she didn’t go back to London.”
“The Scorpions…”
“I know,” I barked at Menace. “Just…Frenzy find her.”
“Uh, Prez?” I heard Missy call out to me. “Prez.”
I turned to her, not sure if I could hold back if she said the wrong thing to me right now. “She tell you something? I know you’re friends.”
“Her boxes aren’t here because she took them…but it’s not what you think.”
“What is it?”
“She was moving them to your house…the house you two had before. She asked about it, why you stayed here all the time. I told her that you still had the house but you didn’t use it.
She wanted to prove to you that she was for real about being here, about her responsibility but she wanted a place to go if the club got too much. She wanted a place for just you two.”
My chest seized at how fucking thoughtful she was. She’d always been that way. It was why I loved her so damn much. “She didn’t leave?”
“No, Prez. She loves you, but, well she hasn’t returned my calls or messages all day. She was going over there today to finish unpacking before you figured it out.”
“When did she go?” Frenzy asked, opening his laptop and tapping away.
“About nine,” she said. “She’d been doing it for a few days, with you guys on runs and with the long nights on recon, she’d been getting away with it. The last few days I’d gone with her, but today she wanted to do it on her own.”
I nodded. “Thank you, Missy.”
“Prez…I’m sorry. She wanted it to be a surprise, otherwise I would have told you.”
I nodded, unable to form the words to help her right now, even though I saw the pain in her eyes. Turning my back to her, I heard her walk off, but I couldn’t focus on that. I’d make it right when my wife was back in my arms.
“She left in Missy’s car, and had done the same thing for days. She always came back by 3 p.m. though.”
“Destroyer, Menace, Fang, you’re with me.”
The boys jumped up and we headed down to our bikes. Roaring out of the compound, we headed toward my old house. My heart was in my throat with each passing minute. If something happened to her because of me…I’d burn this entire city to the ground.
There was no life without her.
Not again.
The entire ride to the house had me in knots. Missy’s car was in the driveway, but the house looked undisturbed.
We dismounted and each of us pulled our weapons and removed the safeties. Destroyer and Menace headed around the side, while Fang was with me. Slowly, we moved up to the front door, and I turned the doorhandle.
It opened with ease.
Blood rushed through my veins, blocking out noise around me as I moved into the house. In the foyer area, some boxes remained untouched, while others were scattered around the living area. The sheets that had been covering the furniture were pulled free.
She’d been doing this to prove to me that she was mine.
That she always had been.
Fuck.
I should have told her about the dangers coming for her. I should have told her about the danger with the Scorpions on our territory. I’d done this. I’d tried to keep her locked away, but that was no way to live or to run my clubhouse.
“No struggle.”
“They caught her unaware.”
I looked down at the keys on the floor. They looked like they had been tossed down, or shoved off the bureau.
“No sign of distress,” Destroyer said, once they had joined us in the house. “Are we sure she isn’t just getting groceries or something?”
“Frenzy tracked her phone,” Fang said, putting his phone back in his pocket. “It’s here somewhere.”
“Upstairs?”
Menace and Destroyer headed up there, two steps at a time, while Fang and I searched through the lower floor.
“She’s not here. They took her.”
Fang nodded. “We need to find out about these fuckers. I told Frenzy to track down any information on Notch.”
I nodded. “Good.”
Destroyer and Menace joined us a few minutes later. “Nothing.”
“What about the car?” Fang asked.
I nodded, and we headed outside to find the phone sitting in the center console.
Fuck. There was no way we could track her without that.
“They bought properties, right? Can we attack each one?” Menace asked. “We coordinate a team for each and attack it at the same time. They’ll have nowhere to go.”
“Yeah, work with Doom, Gears and call in Cowboy. He can help with it.”
Menace nodded. He and Destroyer left the house, while I stood in the yard, unsure of what to do next.
“What do I do if they hurt her?” I asked my oldest friend. “What if they actually hurt her, Levi?”
“Then we burn them to the ground. All of them.”
I nodded, and headed inside to grab the keys and lock the house up again, before we headed back to the clubhouse.
Frenzy was in the Chapel when we got back. Destroyer and Menace looked wired for a fight. The clubhouse was buzzing with the news that the Scorpions took my ol’ lady. They kept a good distance from me and I was glad for it.
“I found intel on Notch.”
“Tell me.”
Frenzy turned the computer to the side to show me a close up of a mug shot of Notch.
“Name’s Johnny Field. Recently spent a good ten years in prison, got out and worked his way up to president of the Scorpions.”
“Did you just say Johnny Field?” Fang asked, stepping forward to look at the motherfucker. Why did that name sound so familiar? “Remember him, Prez?”
“No. Who is it?”
“He’s the guy Rox was dating in school before she met you in detention. You stole his girl off him, and now he’s the president of our rivals.”
“And now, he has my wife.”