“When?”he asked.
“I don’t know.She was gone when I got here.”The shame scraped both sides of my throat.I should have known she would run.“She thinks disappearing protects us.”
Engines sounded from down the street before he answered.Spade and General pulled in first, Kane right behind them.One look at my face and the jacket told them everything they needed.
We didn’t waste time.We rode straight to the clubhouse.
Movement kept me upright.Brothers filed in while I paced like a caged dog.Maui and Casey stepped inside next, then Ravager and Rebel.Wildcard.Knuckles.The air thickened with intent until the room felt too small for the amount of determination inside it.
“She thinks if she’s not here then Mercer will stop coming after us,” I said.My voice carried across the room without effort.“She thinks the fight belongs to her.”
General leaned near the jukebox, arms folded tight.“Mercer will take her, and there’s a good chance he’ll leave once he has what he wants.”
Maui cleared his throat.“Or he could still see Ace as a threat.In the past, maybe he’d have left with her.But this time it’s different.Marci has someone important in her life.”
Nobody argued.Maui was right.I didn’t think Mercer would leave me alone.
Spade set up his laptop on the table.His fingers stalled at nothing, moving across keys faster than anyone else in the room could think.“Pulling motel cameras, street feeds, security footage.Anything within forty miles.”
Kane didn’t wait.“I’ll hit cheap motels.She needed a place to disappear.”
Maui pointed toward the door.“Truck stops and the bus depot.Somebody always sees something.”
I stayed where I was, useless, watching other men move because my brain couldn’t do anything but replay that note.This fight belongs to me, not you.She believed that bullshit.She believed he’d leave us alone if she was no longer here.She still didn’t understand what her life meant to this club.
Time slowed hard.Phone calls rolled in, none helpful.Kane reported nothing at Sunrise or Travel Lodge.Maui struck out at the depot.I called her cell over and over, voicemail every time, battery off or tossed somewhere she couldn’t hear it.Either option felt like a knife.
“Ace.”
Spade said my name like a command.My boots carried me across the room before I realized I moved.The laptop screen showed grainy black-and-white footage from a motel parking lot.Timestamp 6:47 a.m.A small figure in a hoodie crossed the frame.Slumped posture.Defeat in every line of her body.
Marci.
“Eastside Motor Inn,” Spade said.“Twenty miles east.”
Brothers crowded behind me.We watched her stop near the edge of the frame and wrap her arms around herself like bracing for impact.She didn’t look around for us.She already made her peace with her decision.
Then a black sedan slid into view.
My stomach flipped.I knew that car.He’d parked it across from the bar when he strutted in and threatened the club.Same windows.Same arrogance.
Mercer stepped out.
He slowly walked toward her, savoring every inch of his advantage.She looked up.I saw the flinch when he touched her arm.He leaned in, said something designed to break her spine from the inside.Her head dipped.Shoulders tightened.She didn’t fold, but she didn’t fight either.
He motioned to the sedan.She hesitated.Looked right at the surveillance camera.Her eyes told the whole message -- regret, apology, love, goodbye.She got in the car.It pulled away.Screen returned to an empty lot.
“Again,” I said.
Spade replayed it.Rage swelled until breathing tasted metallic.She’d run because she thought she could protect us by dying alone if the bastard caught her.
“We go now,” General said.“Follow the car.Track the trail.”
“He expects that,” Spade answered.“He wants us charging in blind.”
My fist slammed the table.“So we let him keep her?”
“No,” Atilla said, voice quiet enough to take the whole room down a level.“We move smart.”
