“I found this wrapped in the blanket with her.”Miles reached behind him and pulled something from the guardhouse.Race stood and accepted the Sons of Redemption cut with the patch declaring it belonged to Tinker.
“Goddamnit!”he shouted.“I’m so fucking over this shit!I don’t care what we have to do, I want that motherfucker found!I don’t care if we have to buy the whole Redemption PD new patrol cars.I don’t care if we call in every favor owed to us.I don’t care if we spend every last dime paying people to rat him out.I don’t care if we have to call in Preacher and his men.I want Chance to send some Horsemen.We’re going to need people in the shadows around our old place.I want men staking out any place EZ Lay is being sold.I want security at Bottoms Up to call us the second they lay eyes on him if he’s stupid enough to show up.I want 24/7 surveillance on Sadie because he’s going to make another play for her, and she will not end up like this.”He stabbed a finger toward Tori’s still form.He scrubbed both hands down his face.“Someone call 9-1-1.”
He never should have allowed Tinker three strikes.Who cared that he was an original?He knew the fucker’s history.As soon as he laid hands on Sadie the first time, he should have taken it to the table.He would have gotten the votes to get rid of him.Now, because he was trying to do the right thing, whatever the fuck that was, a young woman was dead, and Sadie was in fear for her life.“This is on me.”
“What the fuck?”Dagger frowned.“This is not on you.This is all on Tinker.You know what he’s like.”
“Exactly.Iknewwhat he was like with women, and I shouldneverhave allowed him to come back.At the very least, I should have kicked him out after he laid hands on Sadie at Bottoms Up.Because of my mistake, Tori is dead, and I’ve gotta tell her parents.”
“9-1-1 is on the way,” Maverick let him know.
“Race?”Trick pulled the blanket back farther, exposing her upper body.
Race leaned over his shoulder to find the words “Sadie’s next” written in red lipstick on her chest.He looked around the group to find Jed.He hadn’t seen Tinker’s message yet.“What’s the situation with you and Sadie?”He heard from Bellamy that she’d told him he was an idiot for letting her go, and he needed to get her back.
“We’re together,” Jed replied.
“For good this time, or are you going to suddenly realize months down the road that she’s having Darren’s kid?You gonna run again?Because she deserves better, and I need to know you can keep her safe until we deal with Tinker.”Race didn’t sugarcoat it.He didn’t have time for Jed’s hurt feelings and doubts.
“We’re together for good.I’m claiming them, and I’m not going anywhere.I don’t care if she’s having Darren’s kid or yours.She’s mine, and that’s just the way it’s going to be.”
“About fucking time,” he grumbled.
“Why are you asking?”
“Because Tinker left a message.”He tipped his head toward Tori.
Jed moved around Tuck to take a look.“The fucker is dead,” he growled through clenched teeth.
“That’s a given.We just need to find him first,” Dagger stated the obvious.
While he still had everyone in a group, he asked, “When is the last time any of you saw her here?Or anywhere?”Everyone stopped what they were doing and seemed to think about it.
“The last time I remember seeing her was at the club Christmas party four days ago,” Lance replied.“She came in after all the kids went home.”
Four days.Had Tinker had her that long?Torturing her until he finally killed her and dropped her at their gate?Where did he keep her all that time?He rubbed his eyes, imagining what she must have been thinking and feeling in those last moments.She had to be scared out of her mind.Was she wondering where the Sons were or why they weren’t rescuing her?Fuck.They’d let her down.
“Yeah.That’s right.I remember her saying she was going to go to her brother’s for Christmas,” Chris spoke up.
“I thought she didn’t get along with her family,” Maverick said.
“Her parents disowned her when she started hanging with us, but her brother still spent time with her,” Jed volunteered.
“You probably want to reach out to her brother then, instead of her parents.”Dagger stroked his beard thoughtfully.“I’ll go with you.”
“Thanks.Appreciate it.”
They didn’t have long to wait before a couple of cars from the sheriff's department, and an ambulance showed up.Race filled the deputies in on what they knew while the paramedics loaded Tori onto a gurney and into the back of the ambulance.He gave them Tinker’s name, a description of what he looked like, and that he was recently released from prison.He explained how they discovered Tinker’s cut wrapped up with Tori, and after they found the message written on her chest, they explained his obsession with Sadie ever since she shot him down.They questioned Cutter to get a description of the van and the other man with Tinker, then announced they were going to inform the family and check out her house.They offered to protect Sadie, but Race assured them that they had her covered.
They all watched the ambulance drive away before anyone turned to go back to where they had left the women at the rec center.He didn’t know about the other men, but he had a desperate need to hold his woman.
* * *
Jed
Sitting at the bar, he tossed back shots of tequila, telling himself it was in an effort to warm up from the cold after being outside for so long, but the reality was he was doing it to dampen the images of Tori’s beaten body and the words “Sadie’s next” out of his mind.His imagination had transformed Tori’s lifeless body into Sadie’s, and he was finding it difficult to purge the fear that he could still lose her if he didn’t end this.Now.
It wasn’t like they all hadn’t been busting their asses to track Tinker down, but for someone who’d just gotten out of prison and supposedly had no connections on the outside, he was proving to be a cunning, slippery bastard.
