Chapter 35
Hush
It was early the next morning when I left Seek in my bed and climbed on my motorcycle. I had something I needed to do and it was something I needed to do alone.
The sun was barely cresting over the city as I made my way to the cemetery. As soon as I shut off my bike and started walking toward Daphne’s grave, I felt it. I wasn’t religious and I didn’t believe in ghosts, but I knew what I’d seen.
I dropped down to my knees as I reached her grave. I placed my hand on the stone, traced my fingers on the engraving of her name. “Thank you. I know it was you. I know you kept her from givin’ up, kept me from givin’ up. Thanks for bailin’ us out.”
I sat silently tracing the letters, wishing it were her hair, her skin, just one last time. A small breeze swept up around me. I knew then, I knew that she had accepted Seek, and had given us her blessing.
Shoving my hands into my pockets, I listened as the birds began waking up and started singing their hearts out. It felt good to sit here and talk to her. It felt right. “I’ll never stop lovin’ you, Daph,” I assured her. “I’ll miss you every day of my life.”
Sitting in the dew soaked grass, I watched the morning sun climb higher into the sky. Silence filled the air around me, split only by the chatter of squirrels in the trees and the squawking of the birds. There wasn’t much else to say. I knew, deep down, that Daphne had gotten my message.
The time passed slowly as I sat by her grave. Eventually, I shoved to my feet and told her goodbye as I left. I’d needed to thank her and now that I had it felt like the last piece of the puzzle had clicked into place.
Climbing back onto my bike, I made my way back across the city toward home. Toward Seek.
* * *
I didn’t get the chance to crawl back into bed with my old lady. Riptide grabbed me in the hall and announced that Lockout had called church. Most of the men were already walking that way, some grumbling under their breath about the time.
Settling in my seat, I nodded good morning to my president and waited for the meeting to start.
The guys had gotten Sherry Holden’s body over to Marty and we were all grateful we wouldn’t need to worry about hiding a dead body.
Especially one that we weren't responsible for. He was a trustworthy ally of our MC. We’d been bringing him bodies to cremate for years.
He wouldn’t tell a soul about the deal we had with him.
Marty had come to us six years ago, needing help, and we’d stepped up and taken care of his problem.
We’d been friends ever since. We had a lot of people that considered us friends and would help us out in a pinch, just as we would them.
There wasn’t much we couldn’t do in Tucson and that was how we helped keep it safe.
Staying off the police’s radar was the only downside.
They didn’t take kindly to vigilantes. For now, we had them convinced we were a friendly local MC who kept their noses clean. We wanted to keep it that way.
“Have you gotten anything from Caitlyn?” Lockout asked, starting the meeting. He arched a brow at Priest.
“Nothing yet. I gave her a room to sleep in. She’s settling in, but still hasn’t said a word.”
We frowned at Priest’s admission. If she wasn’t going to talk to us it was going to make it a lot harder to find her family. Not to mention figure out what happened to her and her mother out in the desert.
Lockout speared his hand through his hair in frustration. “Anyone know of someone who could help find her aunt?”
“Actually,” I spoke up. “I do.” I kept my gaze averted from Priest. I could call Rat—he and Ari had gone back home to Texas after meeting Seek—but there was someone else I could ask as well and she had more of a direct connection to this situation.
Not to mention, calling her was going to give me a chance to stick it to Priest. He’d butted into my business with Seek, it was time to return the favor.
Lockout frowned at my malicious grin. “You going to tell us who it is?”
“Let me contact them first. See if they can help.” I could feel Priest’s suspicious gaze searing the side of my face. “What are we goin’ to do about The Silverbells?” I asked, changing the subject.
That got everyone speaking at once, voicing their opinions and ideas on how we should go about solving that mystery. Lockout held up his hand, quieting everyone down.
“We’ll wait a few days to see if Caitlyn starts communicating with us. If she doesn’t, then we’ll need to figure out a way to investigate on our own.” His eyes found me. “Do you think Seek might be willing to help?”
He read the angry look on my face and shook his head. “I don’t expect her to go back out there. In fact, I’m fucking forbidding it at this point. I just meant, do you think she could get any information from the cops?”
My muscles relaxed as he explained. I liked that the guys were already so protective of Seek.
They’d all started using her nickname after she’d told them to and announced my proposal the night before.
Lockout, Riptide, and Priest looked like cats who’d caught the canary.
They’d never admit to meddling in order to get us together, but they hadn’t been subtle about it in the least.
“Probably. I’ll talk to her and see if that’s somethin’ she’s willin’ to do.”
“I know she works with them, and that’s fine,” he said.
His tone was slightly disgusted as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.
We may have all come from serving our country, but were all firmly planted in the MC lifestyle now.
Cops weren’t our friends here. We’d use them if we had to—like when Dex was missing—but otherwise we stayed as far away as we could.
“We just need to catch some kind of break to figure out what’s going on out there.
This is going to be outside our normal wheelhouse.
This is too convoluted to be gang or smuggler activity.
The fact that they made the bodies of those creeps disappear…
this is something else. We need more intel on the other missing hikers, info on the area, anything and everything we can find.
We’ll start with the cops, but…we’ll have to take this further. ”
“They may not know,” I told him, “but if they do, I’m sure Seek will tell us anythin’ she can. Meanwhile, I’ll talk to Cade. Maybe he’d be willin’ to let Rat and Ari do a little diggin’. They’re both bored out of their minds and need to do a little hackin’ just to keep them sane.”
I grinned at that. Even though the club had gone legit, everyone there was itching for some action.
Cade and Murphey had started up bounty hunting.
Rat still had his Tech business, which would make him a great resource for us and there was no way the police would catch him.
No one could keep up with him and his wife when it came to hacking.
The thought of the Texas club made me miss all of them. I was going to need to bring Seek out to visit and meet my second family. Not until all this was over and Caitlyn was safe, though.
I glanced over and met Priest’s dark look. My smile crept over my face, showing him all my teeth. The satisfaction was thick when his face hardened. He wasn’t positive yet, but he had a feeling about who I was going to call.
It’s your turn to grovel a bit, Brother.
I didn’t say the words out loud, but I couldn’t wait to see his face when my friend came around to help with Caitlyn. Priest was going to deserve all the hell she was going to unleash on his life and I couldn’t wait to be the thorn in his side while she did.
* * *
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