Just silence thick enough to choke on.
And memories I damn well don’t want.
Sixteen.Her bedroom window open to the warm Kentucky night.Her hair brushing my cheek.Her lips stained with trouble.Her voice whispering my name like a prayer no church would ever bless.
I shake it off and keep moving.I have no business remembering Becki Crowley.
Pearly Gates rises like a crown made of lies when I pull up on my Harley.The Reverend lives in a mansion built by tithes and dirty money.Hell is full of folks who think they’re saved just because they write checks to men like him.The security lights flare.The place looks pristine.Polished stone.White columns.Fake stained-glass windows showing saints that never lived in hearts so unholy.
Crowley opens the door before my boots hit the first step.
“Hudson,” he greets, and it’s not a name anymore.It’s a hook he’s trying to set.
“Don’t call me that.”
He smiles with no warmth.“My house is the Lord’s house.You’re always welcome.”
“I ain’t here for fellowship.”
His foyer reeks of expensive candles and rot dressed up as righteousness.Crowley stands there in pressed slacks and a black button-down like he’s meeting a governor, not a biker who wants to cave his skull in.
“A girl went missing again,” I say.“Your choir.Your flock.Again.”
He sips his coffee.Black.No sugar.No soul.
“Tragic,” he murmurs.“The world is dangerous.”
“Yeah,” I growl.“Especially for girls tied to you.”
His eyes flicker, just for a second.Not fear.That man doesn’t know fear.Arrogance, yes.Disdain, always.
“If you think I’m responsible for these disappearances,” he says.“You’re mistaken.”
“You always hide behind scripture.But scripture won’t save you from me.”
His smile sharpens.“Careful.You and I both know who holds the keys to salvation in this town.”
Salvation.
The man wouldn’t know salvation if it dragged him into the river.
I lean in.“You mess with my people again.I’ll make sure your flock finds out exactly what kind of man you really are.”
“Your people?”
“Yeah, you know damn well, that girl came to the club or to a match.And that’s why… I’ll bury you so deep no one’ll find the bones.”
He doesn’t blink.He doesn’t sweat.He doesn’t tremble.
But he knows.
He knows I’m close.
He knows we’re all circling like wolves just outside his holy gates.
“My daughter’s the only reason I called my people home.Best make sure she’s protected.”
I turn and leave before I do something stupid.My blood’s boiling.My head’s pounding.I don’t trust that man any further than I could throw his bloated self-righteous corpse.And now there’s Becki.Locked in Royal’s room.Still breathing, still dangerous, still tangled in all of this.
