Luke shook his head. “Can’t. He was killed in the line of duty a few years ago.” Luke’s brows furrowed and then his head shot up. “It can’t be the same girl. You told me Annabelle disappeared in 1998. We helped this girl six years later.”
“It could be if she was kidnapped and held against her will for six years,” I pointed out.
“Fuck!” Luke swore. “Did you show that picture to Patch?”
Fuck me. I needed to take a deep breath and focus. Shaking my head, I reached for my phone. “Patch, brother, I need you back in my office.”
When he arrived, I didn’t even give him a chance to sit down. I was on my feet and in front of him holding up the picture of Annabelle. “Is this her? The girl you helped?”
His eyes widened and then he paled as recognition washed over his face. Slowly nodding his head, he carefully said, “Yes, Prez, that’s her.”
Jane Doe was Annabelle.
My heart started to pound in my chest again. I closed my eyes in relief for a brief moment before opening them and pinning Luke with my gaze. “What happened to her? Where did you send her? Where is she now?” I began firing off questions faster than he could answer.
He held his hands up. “Hang on, Phoenix. I can’t give you that information. It’s federally classified. You know this.”
“I’m guessing that means you also can’t tell me anything about the boy.”
He grimaced and shook his head. “Patch, you probably don’t want to be present for the rest of this conversation.”
Patch nodded in understanding and quickly left my office.
I slammed both hands down on the desk making Luke flinch back. “I don’t give a fuck if it’s classified information or not, you need to start talking! That is the love of my life and she has two children here that are alive and well. My children. They at least deserve a chance to meet their own freaking mother!” I roared.
“Phoenix, calm down. I’m not saying I won’t help you, I’m just saying I can’t straight out tell you exactly where she is,” he hedged.
“Start helping,” I ordered through gritted teeth. I had no patience left. He knew where my girl was and he was going to tell me how to find her in the next few seconds or I was going to beat the living shit out of him, federal agent or not.
“You remember Wave?” he asked. I nodded. Of course I remembered Wave. We all crossed paths at some point when we were active Marines. The last I heard, Wave was the president of his own motorcycle club, the Knights of Neptune out on the west coast. “Maybe you should go visit Wave. Take some time to catch up with him and hang around the city. See what life in his little slice of Heaven is like.”
“Thanks, man. You have no idea…” I trailed off, unable to formulate the right words. He basically told me where to find my Annabelle. Words couldn’t convey how much that meant to me.
“I do,” he said. “When are you heading out?”
“As soon as fucking possible. Been looking for that girl for 19 years. I’m not wasting another second,” I declared.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Phoenix
I left to go find my girl the very next morning. I told the officers in Church what I was doing, but they were given strict instructions to keep their mouths shut. I didn’t want Ember or Coal getting wind of it and following me out to California. We told everyone else, including Ember and Coal, that I would be gone on a run for two to three weeks to discuss a new business opportunity with an old friend.
I rode from sunup to sundown as fast as I could, only stopping for a quick bite to eat and to refuel. At night, I found the closest motel and crashed until morning. It only took me three days to make it to the small coastal town of Rocky Point in northern California. I found a cheap motel and booked a room for the next week.
After washing the road off and getting something to eat, I had to force myself to go to bed. I was tired, but knowing that I was likely in the same town as my Annabelle was making it difficult, to say the least, to fall asleep. I finally managed to get a handle on my excitement and got a few hours of rest.
The next morning, I wasn’t sure where to start. I didn’t want to go straight to Wave and ask for his help. For some reason, I wanted to find her myself. I couldn’t explain it, but it was just something I felt I had to do.
The town really wasn’t that big. It took me less than an hour to circle the whole town and ride up and down every major road. Once I had a feel for the lay of the land, it was time to start searching.
I sat down at a booth in the back of a little cafe on the main street of Rocky Point, aptly named Rocky Point Cafe. With a fresh cup of coffee in front of me and a hearty breakfast on its way, I tried to think of places where I could find her. She had to have a job, but I had no idea what it could be. She could be anything at this point. She’d had plenty of time to go to school and get a college education.
Staring into the cup of coffee held between both of my hands, I wracked my brain trying to come up with job possibilities for Annabelle. My head jerked up when the waitress brought my breakfast plate over and my eyes landed on a very distinct piece of artwork hanging on the wall. “Excuse me, ma’am, do you happen to know where that came from?” I asked, pointing to the picture on the wall.
She smiled and batted her lashes at me. “Yes, I do. That was created by a local artist by the name of Taylor Davis.”
“If I wanted to purchase something by that artist, where could I find more of their work?” I asked. I wasn’t sure what, but something about the art was calling to me. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.
