Ray is eating a takeout pizza at a small dinette and scrolling on his phone. He drops it and tries to slide out of the booth, but he’s trapped.
Cole follows us in and puts the barrel of his 9mm to Ray’s forehead. “Hey, buddy. Funny finding you here of all places.”
“That fucking bitch. She told you, didn’t she?”
“I wouldn’t worry about who told us what.”
“Look, it was just a few hundred dollars to make my rent. Just a twenty here or there. I swear, that’s all.”
Reckless finds the ski mask and holds it up. “Lookie what we have here.”
“Just some twenties, huh? Bullshit,” I snap. “You broke into the apartment above Lucky’s and put your hands on my woman, motherfucker.”
His eyes are cold, like he has no feelings for anything but himself. I’ve seen his kind before. He’s beyond redemption.
Cole looks at me. “He’s all yours, Cody.”
I drag him outside and beat him senseless, then Cole comes out and tosses me what looks like a length of electrical cord. “End it.”
He’s unconscious when I wrap it around his neck and strangle the life out of him.
“What are we doing with the body?” Shine asks.
There’s a small pond at the back of the property glittering in the moonlight. Cole lifts his chin to it. “Cody, check how deep that is.”
I pull off my boots and vest and gun, then wade in until I’m over my head.
Cole nods and motions me back, then turns to TJ and Billy.
“Put him in his car and push it into that pond.”
My brothers all help. Once it’s done, we stand and watch. Soon, the bubbles from the car stop rising.
By the time we make it back to the highway, two squad cars fly past us heading south, then make a U-turn and race up on us, lights flashing.
Cole signals us over to the shoulder, and we all roll to a stop.
The officers climb from their cars, guns drawn and ordering us face-down in the gravel.
An hour later, it’s three in the morning, and we’re all being held in lockup. Apparently, someone called in suspicious activity and saw a ‘bunch of bikers’ on the road late at night.
It’s almost noon before the club’s lawyer gets us released. They don’t even press charges, because they’ve got nothing to charge us with… that they know of.
I’m exhausted and stiff from sitting on a hard bench all night.
By the time we get our bikes out of impound its midafternoon. I try calling Heather, but it goes to voicemail.
We stretch and prepare to climb on our bikes for the two-hour ride back to San Jose, happy to kiss this pissant town’s police department goodbye, when Crash’s phone goes off, and he answers. “Yeah?” He listens a minute, then looks at Cole. “Daytona and Trick caught up with the trackers last night. Been tryin’ to get ahold of us. They were both stuck on the side of a UPS semi.”
“Son of a bitch,” Cole hisses. “Get everyone to the clubhouse. We’re going back under lockdown.
Crash snaps the order to Wolf, who says he’s on it.
“Let’s roll. Now!”
I stand there, my clothes barely dry from last night’s dip, with cold fear building inside me. Snake wants Heather, andshe’s two hours away from me, and we don’t know where the fuck he is anymore.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
