by A. M. Myers
“It’s Henn. Can I come in?”
His heavy sigh greets me through the door. “Yeah, come on in.”
“Thanks,” I answer as I open the door. He pulls a shirt over his head and plops back down on the edge of the bed with the fly of his jeans still unbuttoned as his gaze rakes over me.
“You look like shit.”
I smirk. “Thanks, boss. Nice to see you, too.”
“Oh, don’t give me that shit. You come in here at the ass crack of dawn and this is the best you’re gonna get.”
“Noted,” I answer, sitting in the chair in the corner of the room. “And I’m sorry but I couldn’t wait any longer.”
“I should have known,” he admits with a sigh as he rubs his hand over his face. “I would ask what this is about but you haven’t been exactly subtle about your intentions since you got released yesterday.”
I nod. “She is my one and only priority right now.”
“Figured. Let me ask you something, though. Are you sure she just didn’t bail on you? It wouldn’t be unheard of, Henn,” he says and my fist clenches as I nod.
“Absolutely. She wouldn’t do that - not to me.”
He meets my eyes and the look of pity staring back at me pisses me off. Why the fuck is everyone so quick to assume that my girl just up and abandoned me at the first hint of trouble?
“Seven years is a long damn time, Noah,” he says, softer this time and I nod, pushing myself up from the chair.
“Sure as shit is, which is why we should get started.”
Blaze sighs in resignation. “Better go wake up Streak then but be warned, the boy is not a morning person. His room is at the end of the hall.”
I nod and leave Blaze to get dressed as I march down to the end of the hallway and pound on Streak’s door.
Silence.
I pound on the door again and a low groan greets me.
“Who in the fuck?” he roars and a second later, the door is ripped open. Dressed in only a pair of blue plaid lounge pants, he glares at me. “What?”
“Time to get to work,” I tell him and he takes a step back, his eyes widening.
“Oh, is it, your Highness? I think fucking not. Get the hell out of here before I put my fist through your pretty face.”
“Travis,” Blaze calls from behind me and Streak’s gaze snaps to him before he lets out a sigh and turns back into the room.
“Who in their right fucking mind,” he grumbles before I can’t hear him anymore and Blaze slaps me on the shoulder as he comes up behind me.
“Don’t take it personally. In an hour or so, he’ll apologize for being such an ass.”
I nod. “I suppose you did warn me.”
“That I did.” He laughs, shaking his head. “But until you deal with him firsthand, you can’t understand.”
“Ain’t that the damn truth,” I murmur as Blaze walks over to Streak’s desk and sinks into one of the chairs and Streak looks up at me.
“Well, we’re all waitin’ on you, Princess.”
I shake my head as I walk across the room. “Streak, you do realize I was just released from prison, right? Like yesterday.”
“And?”
“I could literally make a shiv out of ninety percent of the things in your room.”
He shrugs, turning to his computer without responding and Blaze chuckles. “All right, wow us, boy genius.”
“This about Kady?” Streak asks, meeting my eyes and I nod. He sighs. “I wish I fucking could, but it’s like she vanished into thin air.”
He makes a poofing motion with his hand and I grit my teeth, worry eating away at me. How could she just vanish?
“What have you found?” Blaze asks and he grabs a folder off his desk before slapping it down in front of us.
“Kady Jane Sinclair, born on September first, nineteen-ninety-one, grew up in the foster care system until she aged out in two-thousand-nine and worked at Sunrise Diner until she was fired in May two-thousand-eleven for missing a week of shifts. After that, absolutely nothing.”
My gaze drifts over the same information on the paper in front of me. “What date did she start missing work?”
“Looks like,” he murmurs, turning back to his computer and typing briefly before turning back to me. “May tenth.”
Fuck.
“That’s the day after I got arrested.”
Blaze shakes his head, staring out of the window. “What are the fucking odds?”
“You want an actual answer to that? ‘Cause it’ll take me a second,” Streak adds and Blaze shakes his head.
“There’s absolutely nothing after this?” I ask, pointing to the paper. “No bank transactions, no rent payments, no employment history, nothing?”
Streak’s eyes fill with sympathy. “I’m sorry. I’ll keep looking but if I had to guess, I’d say she either doesn’t want to be found or… there’s nothing left to find.”
It would have been kinder if he punched a hole right through my chest. I stare down at the floor, trying to suck air into my lungs as my mind works over the possibility and pain trickles through my bloodstream.
She can’t be gone.
Her face pops into my mind from that last morning. We were laying in bed, my ring was on her finger, and my whole fucking world was perfect. So utterly perfect that it should have be criminal. We had such grand plans for our future but hours later, I was being handcuffed and shoved into the back of a police car and she was vanishing into thin air.
I jerk to my feet and turn away from them. Their gazes bore into my back, I can feel it, but my focus is on getting some air and putting as much distance as I can between me and the unsettling truth that Streak just laid at my feet. Neither one of them say a thing as I practically run from the room and storm down the hallway. When I get outside, I grit my teeth, clench my fists, and take a deep breath.
No.
My girl is not gone.
Everyone else will call me crazy based on the evidence but I know she’s out there somewhere and I won’t stop until I find her.
* * * *
The air carries a chill and I force myself to focus on that as I wrap my lips around the end of the cigarette and inhale, staring off into the darkness. All damn day, I’ve been running from the truth Streak dropped at my feet this morning and no matter how confident I feel that I will find her, I still can’t help but worry. Either way I look at this situation, it’s not good news. If something happened to her, who knows what state I will find her in and as much as the thought kills me, it’s not as bad as imagining that she willingly walked away from me.
My thoughts drift back to the first time I saw her. We were eleven and my family had just moved to Baton Rouge for my dad’s new job, something I hated him for. I didn’t want to leave all my friends in Montana. Of course, I didn’t realize just how amazing it was since I was too young to understand things like fate and destiny but the moment I stepped into that classroom and watched her go toe-to-toe with the biggest kid in the class, my heart belonged to her.
Not that she ever made it easy.
“Henn?” a voice calls from behind me and I glance over my shoulder as Blaze steps out of the clubhouse, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Shit. It’s cold out tonight.”
I nod, taking another drag of my cigarette and turn back to stare into the darkness.
“How are you holding up?”
“Fantastic,” I shoot back, letting out a sardonic laugh. “Either the love of my life is hiding from me and doing a spectacular job at it or she’s dead. That’s the general consensus, right?”
“Nobody said that,” he interjects and I scoff, shaking my head. Smoke billows out of my mouth and I watch it as it rises and disperses above me.
“No. But y’all might as well have.”
He claps a hand on my shoulder and I resist the urge to shake him off. “Hell, what do we really know? It’s not like any of us ever tried to get to know Kady before you got locked up.”
I nod in agreement.
Back then, the club was never about family like they are now - as evidenced by the dinner all the old ladies insisted on putting together tonight. I appreciate the effort and I’m sure as hell looking forward to eating some real damn food but mostly, I just want Kady.
“Things were good between y’all when you got locked up, right?” he asks and I nod, remembering the night I took her back to the middle school where we first met and dropped down on my knee as I held a diamond ring out in front of me. Her smile was so damn bright that night it’s burned into my memory forever. That was only a week before I got arrested.
“Yeah, we were engaged… and trying to have a baby.”
“Shit,” he hisses and I nod again as I toss the remnants of my cigarette on the ground before stepping on it with the toe of my boot. “I had no idea.”
“It wasn’t really something you were concerned with back then.”
He hangs his head for a moment before glancing up. “You’re right.”
“I didn’t mean for that to be an insult,” I tell him, guilt nagging me from his sorrowful expression. He nods.
“I know but I was a damn fool back then and I hate thinking about all the shit I fucked up. Y’all put your trust in me and I lost sight of what was really important.”
I turn away. “We don’t have to have this conversation.”
“No, there’s something I need to say to you. When you first joined this club, I know you were looking for a family after your parents abandoned you but despite all my grand claims, that’s not what you got. After you were arrested and I was shot, I saw how much I’d lost sight of the true reason I built this club. I’m just so damn sorry that you lost so much of your life because of me.”
I nod, glancing back at him. It sounds like a line of shit but there is sincerity in every damn word and I can see the regret on his face. “I appreciate that but I don’t blame you. It was my fuck up and I knew what I was doing was going to end badly. It’s why I was planning to get out. It just didn’t happen soon enough.”
“That motherfucker, Biche.”
The hair on the back of my neck stands on end and I growl. “Don’t mention that name to me.”
“Just know, after we find your girl, whatever you want to do about that situation, this entire club is behind you.”
I nod, clamping my mouth shut so I don’t start cursing out my president. Ever since the moment I realized that low life son of a bitch set me up and got me arrested, even just hearing his name has sent me into a rage. Sucking in a breath, I clench my fists and slowly release them in an attempt to calm myself. Biche is tomorrow’s problem and I’ll deal with him after I find my girl and only then.
“Listen,” Blaze says and I turn back to him. “I gave Streak another person to look into. Hell, I’m not even sure if anything will come of it but Kady was always real close to Bobby before he passed so I told Streak to investigate him.”
“Shit, I forgot he died. How long ago was that?” Bobby was one of the original members of the club and the man who sponsored me when I wanted to join. We became pretty close and after growing up in the foster system, Kady was always looking for a sense of family and I think she found a piece of that with Bobby. I know he thought of her like the daughter he never had.
He shakes his head. “Five years or so, I think. I don’t know. He wasn’t involved with the club as much when I started making changes and we lost touch for a while.”
“You really think he knew anything?” I ask and Blaze shrugs.
“Who the hell knows with Bobby but we are turning over every damn stone in this town until we find your girl, Henn. I promise you that.”
I nod. “I appreciate that, Prez. Thank you.”
“That’s what this club was meant for and as long as you let us, we’re going to be the family you were looking for all those years ago.”
Nodding, I drop my gaze to the ground, feeling choked up. It’s everything Kady and I wanted back then but without her here, it just feels empty. What the hell kind of life could I live without her in it?
“You ready to head inside?” Blaze asks and I glance up. “I think Quinn is about done with the ribs.”
I nod to the door. “You go ahead. I’ll be right behind you.”
Blaze studies me for a moment before nodding and heading back inside the clubhouse. When I’m alone again, I lean back against one of the parking blocks and drop my head back to look up at the stars, my mind going right back to my girl and where she is right now. I wonder if she can see the same stars I can. The thought is quickly followed by the image of her being held somewhere against her will - somewhere dark where she can’t see the stars and my stomach churns. As much as I don’t want to sit down to dinner right now, I know I need to make an effort. I can see the change that everyone has been telling me about and I’m trying not to get my hopes up but maybe this is a sign that things are coming together. I scrub my hand over my face and blow out a breath, watching as a billow of steam rises in front of me. I shiver.
Shit.
It’s getting colder and that means my time is up.
Sighing, I shove my hands in my pockets and walk back into the clubhouse. Everyone is chatting and laughing with each other and when I walk in, they all turn to me as silence descends over the room. I freeze in my tracks, watching each one of them.
“Jesus, way to make it weird, guys,” Smith says and it seems to break the spell as they go back to their conversations. I don’t know if they are wary of me or just feel bad about my situation but I can’t fucking wait for the day when everyone can just go back to being normal.
“Hi,” a blonde woman says, walking up to me. “I didn’t get to meet you last night. I’m Quinn, Lucas’s fiancée.”
I force a smile to my face. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Smith joins us and wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her close as he turns to me. “You okay?”
“I’d be a whole lot fucking better if people would stop asking me that.”
“Got it,” he replies and I breathe a sigh of relief.
“Hey, how’s your brother, by the way?” I ask. The last time Smith and I got a real chance to talk about six months back, he was really worried about his little brother, Clay. His face falls.
“How about we save that conversation for another time?”
Quinn’s face crumples in concern and I nod, watching them as they seem to have an entire conversation without saying a single word. Finally, Quinn looks up and meets my eyes.
“Excuse us.”
I nod and watch them disappear into the hallway before releasing a breath and grabbing a beer from the bar. Slipping onto one of the barstools, I open my beer and scan the room. Storm and his wife, Ali, are at the table talking to each other. Ali has a big smile on her face and even Storm cracks a little grin at something she says before glancing down at the baby in his arms. Jealousy burns through me. Chance is seated at the head of the table with a gorgeous blonde I haven’t been introduced to yet in his lap. Even from across the room, I can tell that he just cracked a joke and she rolls her eyes at him before turning away to hide her smile. Pain pulses like a heartbeat through me. I turn to the other side of the room where Kodiak is practically making out with Tate, oblivious to the rest of us and my thoughts drift back to Kady before I can stop them.
Jesus Christ.
I’m in hell.
Chapter Three
Noah
“You ready, baby?” she calls from the bathroom, her voice sultry. I grin as I lean back in the chair she instructed me to sit in when I got home a couple of minutes ago. Heat simmers through my veins as I gaze around the room, taking in the candles casting a soft glow up on the walls. Damn, my girl has got plans for tonight and I can’t fucking wait.
“Yeah, Darlin’. I’m ready.”
Buttons by The Pussycat Dolls begins playing. My brow arches and my grin grows as Kady steps into the doorway of the bathroom and my jaw drops. The only things on her curvy little body are a lace bra and p
anty set that show off everything underneath and black, strappy, fuck me heels.
“Jesus,” I whisper and she grins as she grips the door frame and swivels her hips.
“Like what you see?” She steps forward and runs her hands over the bare skin of her thighs before dragging them up to her stomach. I groan, nodding, as my cock presses against my zipper. Fuck. No one can disarm me like this girl. She points to my denim clad erection. “Why don’t you get a little more comfortable?”
She doesn’t have to tell me twice.
I jump up and unbutton my jeans before shoving them down my legs as my cock springs free. Thank fuck, I went commando today. Less shit in the way between me and my girl. She smiles as I strip my shirt over my head but when I take a step toward her, she takes a step back.
“That’s not how this works. Sit down.”
I shake my head, grinning as I reach out for her again. “I don’t want to.”
“Too bad,” she whispers, moving closer to me and swaying her hips from side to side along with the beat as she presses up against me. I lick my lips, unable to take my eyes off her as she spins around and rubs her ass against my cock.
“Fuck, Kady,” I groan, dropping my head back.
Damn.
She feels incredible.
She gives me a little shove and I fall back in the chair and before I realize what’s happening, she has the toe of her shoe pressed gently against my balls. I jerk back and meet her eyes as she flashes me a malicious smile.
“Before we continue, I have a really important question to ask you.”
“Well, can you ask it without crushing my balls?” I ask, trying to pull away from her but she presses down a little harder. It doesn’t hurt but she is applying enough force to make my heart jump into my throat. I hold my hands up in surrender. “What’s your question?”
“What were you doing today?”
