James jolted in my arms. Not wanting the situation to escalate, I relented and called Carbon. “We found them and she’s demanding to see you. Won’t let anyone else get near her.” I told him where we were and that was it. He never said a word, just disconnected the call. I knew he would be here soon though. If anything, he would always come when Reese called.
Not two minutes later, Carbon and Phoenix came barreling down the pathway. By this time, Ember and Dash had joined us. Reese refused to say anything to anyone other than when she asked for Carbon. He dropped to his knees beside her. “Are you okay, Reesie Piecie?”
“No, no I am not. Can you carry me back to my room? The wheelchair battery died. You can leave it here for all I care, but I would like to get out of this hellhole.”
He hoisted her up, careful not to jostle her leg or her arm and started walking toward the exit. I heard him ask if she needed Patch and I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard her say no. Otherwise, neither one of them said a word to the rest of us.
“What the fuck was that?” I uttered to no one in particular.
Ember shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen her like that. I’ve seen a lot of her moods, but nothing like that. I don’t know what happened between me falling through the wall and now.” She looked up at me and gasped. “What happened to your face?”
“Another time,” Dash murmured. She nodded and didn’t say anything else about it.
“I’m going to head back to my room. You guys coming?” I asked.
“No, not yet. Ember fell into a hidden room, one we had yet to find. There are some things in there that we need to look through. You go ahead, but call if you need us,” Phoenix said. “Dash and I will bring the wheelchair over to Reese when we’re done here.”
With that, I left.
***
The following few weeks were hell, to say the least. Reese would hardly speak to me. I tried several times to talk to her, but each time she told me to leave and threatened to call her brother if I didn’t. I wasn’t scared of Carbon. Yeah, he was bigger than me and would likely whoop my ass, again, but I wasn’t afraid of him. I did, however, respect him, so when she asked me to leave, I did. Even though she didn’t want to have anything to do with me, she did let me see my son whenever I wanted.
I felt like I was stuck, like my life was on hold and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. We hadn’t been able to track down the person or the car that ran Reese off the road. We had nothing on the Manglers, no suspicious activity, no rumors circulating about them. Boar and Omen kept to their clubhouse most of the time. As if that wasn’t enough, my fucking wife had dropped off the face of the planet. Byte couldn’t find that bitch anywhere. That in itself was disturbing. Byte could find anything. So, until we got a lead on one of our issues or Reese decided to acknowledge my existence, everything was on hold, at least for me.
I was sitting at the bar at the clubhouse trying to drink my problems away when Phoenix dropped onto the stool beside me. “You doin’ all right, brother?”
“Just fine,” I uttered.
“Don’t sound like it. Don’t look like it either,” he observed.
“No disrespect, but I don’t want to discuss it.” I really didn’t. I didn’t want everyone at the bar to hear my business. The brothers gossiped worse than the Old Ladies and club whores.
Phoenix nodded. “Ah, I see.” He stood ad gestured toward the hall. “Follow me to my office.”
He didn’t ask so I figured I didn’t have much of a choice. I got my ass up and shuffled toward his office.
I unceremoniously flopped into a chair, my glass of whiskey almost empty. Phoenix reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of the high dollar stuff he kept hidden from the rest of us. He gestured toward my glass. I swallowed what was left and placed my it on his desk. He filled it half way and slid it back to me. “Sip on that while you listen.”
I picked up my glass and took a sip. Phoenix started talking. “I know what you’re going through right now, probably more than you think. You feel like you’re at a standstill, right?” I nodded. “That’s how it is for me with Annabelle, not knowing what happened to her, if she’s dead or alive. There’s no telling how much shit we’ve yet to discover hidden away out there on that land. Every time we find something new, I think it’s going to be the time that I find something that will bring her back to me. Then, it turns out to be nothing to do with her and I’m right back where I started. I can’t move on until I’ve gotten her back or let her go and I can’t do that until I know what happened to her.”
He paused and brought his own glass to his lips. “Ember would understand, too. I know she and Reese are tight, but you could trust her to keep things to herself if you asked her to.”
He paused for a moment and studied me. “You know why her and Dash haven’t gotten married yet?” I shook my head. I had no idea why they hadn’t had the wedding yet. “Because she’s waiting to find out what happened to Annabelle and that just tears me up inside. It’s one thing for my life to be on hold, but her life just started, literally, and now it’s on hold because I can’t find her mother. But this ain’t about me nor her right now, it’s about you. I just wanted you to know there are people around this place that are in that same boat with you.”
I swallowed, my throat feeling clogged with emotions. “Thanks, Prez.” I looked down at my glass and twirled it with my fingers. “Reese won’t talk to me,” I uttered before I could stop myself.
Phoenix’s eyebrows rose. “Why not?”
I shook my head, keeping my eyes on the floor. “I’m not sure. She’s been angry, really angry, since we found the girls in the secret passageway. I don’t know what happened in there, but I’ve been on her shit list ever since that night.”
“Did you talk to Carbon about it?” Phoenix asked.
“No, we haven’t seen much of each other since you told us to stay away from each other.”
“Shit, Duke. I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant for a week or so, until you both calmed down some. Go talk to him. He knows her better than anybody.”
“I'll think about it.”
