Hard Proof (Notus Motorcycle Club Book 1)

by Debra Kayn

  Wayne gazed at Glen. The tension and feelings rolling through all of them had come to a head. "You're not alone, brother," he whispered.

  Chuck, Glen, and Thad all nodded their agreement with his statement. If they had the opportunity to kill a serial killer, they'd all want a chance to pull the trigger.

  "Give me five minutes, and I'll be ready to ride." He walked back into the bar.

  Clara, obviously paying attention to the door, approached him the moment he stepped back inside the bar. He placed his hand on her hip and guided her across the room where they could talk in private.

  "I'm going to ride out. I'll call you before I head to your house tonight, so you know to expect me." He kissed her lightly, holding her close. "Can you do me a favor?"

  "Sure," she said.

  "Pay attention to what everyone is talking about in here as you're working." He pulled back and looked her in the eyes. "If they've noticed or heard anything out of the ordinary."

  She leaned closer. "You mean about the missing girl?"

  "Yeah." He smoothed the worry out of her eyebrow.

  "Something is happening, isn't it?" she whispered.

  He nodded. His relationship with Gomez meant more than friendship. The exchange of private information came out of loyalty. He wouldn't compromise himself by sharing details the public wasn't aware of.

  "I'll call you." He patted Clara's ass and left the bar before she asked him any more questions he couldn't answer.

  Outside, the members of Notus rode off together. Wayne led the way, putting their destination out of his mind and asking the questions about who would go after a seventeen-year-old girl and kill a seven-year-old child. The typical motivations by the abductor were different. Children seven and under were usually stolen because the kidnapper had unrealistic fantasies about raising a child as their own. In those cases, mental problems played a role in the crime. A sense of living a fantasy and unable to distinguish between reality and what they'd created in their mind. The abductor made long-term plans ahead of the crime, never expecting to be caught.

  Teenage girls, if it wasn't a case of running away from home, were usually abducted for sexual reasons. The perpetrator usually went for someone young enough to manipulate, whether to keep and abuse or sell into sexual slavery. A sexual crime, possibly exported out of the country or even to other parts of the states, made it harder to rescue the victim, because the kidnappers often were paranoid and panicked, killing their victims before they thought out any long-term plans.

  The link tying the Morgan and Hillard cases together had no similarities, except location, timing, and they were both females. Wayne slowed down and took the exit ramp to Marine Drive. There were flashing lights off in the distance. He wondered if there was a connection between the two families. Fathers who had a working relationship with each other. Mothers who knew each other because of going to the same ballet class for their daughters. Those were questions that would need to be asked.

  While the Morgan's were more open to Notus helping in the search, the Hillard family relied more on law enforcement and preferred to answer only to the detective in charge.

  Wayne signaled the others to slow down before they approached the crime scene. He pulled off the road into the gravel and shut off the engine of his bike, well away from the cordoned area police had blocked off from traffic.

  Already, he could tell the officers were treating the area as a crime scene, and it wasn't a simple DOA. There were six local police cars, four Oregon State cruisers, and no ambulance on the scene yet.

  "What make of vehicle?" Thad lifted his hand and shielded his eyes.

  Wayne squinted. "Looks like an older Kia."

  At least two hundred feet away from the police blocking the road, all he could make out was the activity around the car. More sirens rent the air. Wayne looked behind him and spotted the ambulance coming. Nearing the scene, the emergency vehicle shut off their lights and sirens. The responders continued to stand around in no hurry.

  The female was dead.

  "It's not looking good," muttered Wayne stepping over to his motorcycle and sat down.

  Death happened. There was a slim window to stop a senseless act. The times they'd been a part of a rescue would never match the times they were too late.

  All they could do was wait. Each of the members of Notus dealt with the myriad of emotions that came from a crime scene. Wayne still couldn't shake the feeling he was missing an important clue. He put himself into the role of the abductor and came up with three reasons that tied the cases.

  One— Both were under the age of eighteen.

  Two—Both females were blonde and come from upper-middle-class families for the area.

  Three— If the victim in the car was Megan, both missing persons' cases ended with murder.

  A patrol car backed up and turned around, heading toward the group of Notus members. Wayne stood, catching sight of Gomez in the vehicle, and walked to the edge of the road.

  Gomez slowed down and stopped beside him. Wayne remained quiet letting Gomez figure out what he was going to say.

  "I'm going to Megan Hillard's residence to bring them to the hospital so they can make a positive I.D." Gomez's hand twisted the top of the steering wheel. "The chief called for a briefing afterward. There will be a news conference with media later. Probably around five."

  Wayne nodded. "Will the St. John's P.D admit to the public that we're dealing with a serial killer?"

  Gomez's bottom lip covered his upper lip, and he gave a quick shake of his head. "State Police took control of the case minutes ago."

  Damn. With Gomez not leading, there would be no more information supplied to Notus. Wayne peered back at the crime scene. There was no way he could walk away knowing another child, another teenager, another woman could be the killer's next mark.

  He tapped the top of the patrol car. "I'll be around."

  Gomez cleared his throat. "Hey."

  Wayne looked up. The anger and disappointment he was feeling shone back in Gomez's gaze. "Keep your ears and eyes open."

  "Right." Wayne stepped away and walked back to his MC brothers.

  He filled them in with the information he'd received. Chuck remained standing in front of him. Glen picked at the seam of his vest, whistling. Thad shook his head, remaining silent. Nobody made a move to leave. Normally, they rested up and returned to a normal schedule after receiving any finalization on a case. But, the victims were children. Nobody could settle without bringing someone to justice for the killings.

  "I'm heading back to the house." Wayne grabbed his helmet off the motorcycle. "There's beer in the fridge."

  "I'll come." Thad stepped away.

  Chuck nodded. "I'm in."

  Glen inhaled deeply, his chest expanding. "Fucked up situation, man."

  Wayne hesitated because Glen remained beside him. "Yep."

  "Rich never could get over what happened to Thalia..." Glen raised his arms and palmed the back of his neck.

  Wayne's chest tightened. There wasn't a fucking day that went by that he didn't think of Rich. His friend, his brother, was one of them. He should be home, riding and bullshitting, with Notus. They hadn't stopped Rich's sister from being kidnapped, and they couldn't rescue the two latest missing girls. But, they had to remain strong. One day, Rich would come back to Notus. They'd find more missing persons alive. They all had to keep believing.

  Chapter 18

  Gracie stood outside the front door of Wayne's house nudging Clara. Elbowing her sister back to stop Gracie from pressuring her, Clara lifted her hand and hesitated. She'd promised Wayne she'd listen to any talk going on at the bar surrounding the missing girl, and she'd heard a lot.

  A male customer had tried to fill the hollow spot in his chest by drinking himself into a stupor. While he'd drank, he filled Clara in on the gossip.

  Megan Hillard was found dead. Her naked body in the trunk of a stolen car. The killer still out there.

  She lowered her arm. "
Maybe this isn't such a great idea."

  The second she'd heard the heartbreaking news, she wanted to rush to Wayne's side. Because she had to stay at the bar until it closed, she'd ended up checking her phone constantly waiting for Wayne to call her. When she and Gracie finally locked the doors to the bar at closing time, she drove to Wayne's house to check on him.

  "Why are you waiting? Wayne's motorcycle is here, along with everyone else's." Gracie nudged Clara with her elbow again. "Go ahead and knock. If he doesn't want the company, then we'll go home. Simple as that. It's not like he doesn't come to our house after midnight."

  There was nothing simple about her relationship with Wayne. If it were all about date night and hot sex on Saturdays, she wouldn't be standing outside his house at two-thirty in the morning wondering if he was okay and if she had a right to come to his house without calling him on the phone first.

  "I can't press him for answers yet." Clara lowered his voice. "Not with the news about the Hillard girl."

  "Okay, then I will." Gracie raised and knocked on the door before Clara could stop her.

  "What are you doing?" said Clara on a hiss. "You can't come straight out and ask him. He'd call the police, and we'd be the ones put in prison."

  "Give me some credit." Gracie grabbed Clara's hand. "I'll find out without him even guessing what I'm doing."

  "This is wrong," she whispered.

  "It was wrong that our mother was murdered," whispered Gracie.

  Clara stared at her sister and shook her head. Sometimes, Gracie's straight forward approach got her in trouble. Like the time Gracie thought telling Derrick Jones to fuck off because he asked her to clean the bathroom at the restaurant they both worked at when they were fresh out of high school. Along with Gracie, she'd lost her job afterward because of her insubordination. The boss couldn't see one of them without seeing the other. They were twins. But there were two of them. Needless to say, they both ended up jobless.

  "One more time." Gracie knocked louder. "If he doesn't answer the door, we're going home. I'm beat."

  "I know you are." Clara looked in the driveway at the motorcycles. "I am, too. I just really wanted to see Wayne, if only to give him a hug."

  "He doesn't seem like the type of person who likes to be hugged." Gracie stepped back from the door.

  "He'll hug me." Clara clamped her lips shut, knowing with certainty that Wayne would allow her to hug him if he felt she was the one who needed the contact. And, she did. She needed to make sure he was okay after dealing with the outcome of the missing teenager. She exhaled in disappointment when their knock went unanswered. "Okay, maybe they're busy and..."

  The door swung open. Clara's gaze snapped up and found Thad standing in the doorway. The excitement of having someone answer their knock and the disappointment that it wasn't Wayne filled her with nervousness.

  Thad frowned. "Everything okay?"

  "Y-yeah." Clara looked at her sister for support.

  Gracie stepped forward. "She wanted to see Wayne."

  "If that's okay," added Clara. "I know it's late. I had to wait until we closed the bar."

  Thad lifted his chin and motioned for them to come inside. "He's in the garage."

  "Thanks." Clara reached back for Gracie's hand and pulled her through the living room.

  "Uh, Clara?" said Thad.

  She stopped and turned around. Thad's gaze went from one sister to the other as he tried to figure out who was who. Clara lifted her finger, solving his dilemma.

  Thad approached her. "Before you go in there, you should know that Wayne's letting loose tonight."

  "Letting loose?" She squeezed Gracie's hand, unsure of what Thad meant.

  Thad opened his mouth and closed it without saying anymore. For the first time, with the light in the room letting her see his eyes, she realized Thad was more than half looped.

  "Wayne's drunk?" she asked.

  Thad rubbed the back of his head and looked at the floor. "Yeah, that's what you'd call him."

  She'd never seen Wayne drunk. Even at the bar, he never had more than a couple drinks when the other members of Notus drowned their sorrows at Vavoom's.

  "It'll be okay. I've been around a drunk a time or two." She smiled at her attempt to lighten Thad's worry with a joke, and when he continued to frown, she decided to go ahead and go out to the garage and see Wayne for herself.

  "Come on," she whispered to Gracie.

  At the open doorway to the garage, she stopped. What she'd expected to find were Notus members tipping back whiskey, being loud, and bullshitting. The scene in front of her never entered her mind and for a good reason.

  If she'd known. She wouldn't have come over.

  "Let's go home, sis." Gracie tugged on her arm.

  Clara refused to move. There was no need to whisper. The men couldn't hear over the music playing. They wouldn't look at her standing in the doorway because there were naked women dancing in front of them. They couldn't sense their private party had been invaded because all the blood in their brain had rushed to their dicks with the sluts putting on a show for them.

  Wayne sat on the chair with his boots planted on the edge of his desk. He nursed a bottle without taking his gaze off the three women dancing. On the couch, Chuck held a half-dressed woman on his lap, and he pecked his mouth on her neck like a bird drinking out of a fountain. Glen leaned against the filing cabinet with his arm around a woman talking to him. His eyes were on the three drunken dancers wiggling their asses and not on the woman who had her hands on his body.

  Clara looked back at Wayne. Her vision blurred and she had to blink several times to make sure she was seeing him clearly. He wasn't staring at the women. His gaze was unfocused. He wasn't seeing anything or anyone. She lowered her gaze to the bottle in his hand. Only an inch of amber liquid settled at the bottom.

  "He's drunk," said Clara.

  "No, shit." Gracie leaned against her and said, "Let's go."

  "No." Clara walked into the garage and stood in front of Wayne.

  He lifted the bottle to his lips, but his gaze never changed or focused. Her chest squeezed wondering how much more he could drink before he killed himself. Whether he'd been with the women in the garage earlier or not—and she couldn't think about that at the moment, he was now in no condition to walk, much less have sex.

  "Gracie. Clara," shouted Chuck.

  Clara turned her head. Chuck unwound himself from the woman with him and walked—no swayed—toward her. "Gracie? Clara?"

  She ignored his need to know which sister he talked to. He wouldn't remember anyway. She pointed to Wayne. "Is he okay?"

  "Wayne?" Chuck rocked on his feet. "Hell, yeah. He's fine."

  "Good to know," she mumbled, turning around and going to Gracie.

  Without stopping, she pulled her sister through the house and out the front door. It was no longer her responsibility to make sure Wayne would be okay. He had his life. She had hers. The situation was perfectly clear that her life was her own. Her and Gracie moved to St. John's for a reason, and it was time to focus and move forward with their plan.

  She unlocked the car door, and Gracie took the keys out of her hand. "I'll drive, sis," said Gracie.

  Not arguing, she got into the passenger seat and buckled up. She should've gone straight home after closing the bar. It was a stupid idea to come to Wayne's house.

  Gracie drove away and pulled out onto Lombard Street and headed home. Clara rubbed her aching thighs from being on her feet all day and night. The ache in her chest hurt worse than her tired body. Afraid her heart would break, she concentrated on breathing and holding herself together.

  On their street, Gracie reached down and pushed the garage opener. Clara took off her seatbelt as her sister pulled inside and shut the garage door. She jumped out of the car the moment the tires rolled to a stop.

  In the house, she threw her purse on the floor by the door and walked into the kitchen, slipping her arms into her shirt and removing her bra. She hooked the
strap with her finger, pulled it out of her shirt, and flung the bra toward the hallway. Her shoes came off next. Then, her jeans.

  Gracie stepped over to the refrigerator and removed a water bottle. "Do you want to talk about what was going on back there at Wayne's house?"

  "Nope." She walked out of the room and up the stairs.

  In her bedroom, she stripped out of her panties and shirt and fell into bed without taking her nightly shower. She pulled the comforter up under her armpits. Her head pounded. The beat echoed in her hollow chest where Wayne had ripped her heart out.

  She couldn't even muster up anger toward Wayne, only extreme disappointment in him. While she'd tried not to fall in love with him, she had. She'd convinced herself he was sincere in wanting to be with her. Though they'd fallen into a schedule of getting together at night where sex played a part in spending time together, she believed it was his busy schedule that kept them from doing normal couple things like hanging out, sharing a beer, enjoying each other's company. She swallowed. If he'd wanted her to dance for him, she would've danced.

  Gracie knocked on her open door. "Night. Love you."

  "Love you, too."

  Gracie stayed framed in front of the bedroom by the light in the hallway. "Sis...?"

  "I know." God, she was tired. "We still have to go through with using Notus Motorcycle Club."

  "I'm sorry," whispered Gracie. "We're so close. Once it's over, we'll sell the bar, and move. You'll never have to see Wayne again, and we can finally put the past behind us. Okay?"

  Clara rolled over to her back and stared up at the ceiling. "Okay."

  A shadow passed over her ceiling at Gracie leaving her alone to go to sleep. She blinked, sending the tears she'd held back free and letting them slide down her temples and into her hair. Tonight had been a royal mistake, and yet she had to face reality. Wayne had been...she closed her eyes against the hurt. He'd been perfect for her until he wasn't.

  Maybe it was better that she'd found out that he participated in activities she wouldn't want someone she was having sex with doing. Maybe it gave her permission to use him like she and Gracie had planned without all the guilt. Maybe, tonight happened for reasons that would make sense later.