I sigh and nod my head and then take my seat on his right. All eyes remain fixed on me and I don’t know where to look.
“I’m sorry ok? I fucked up. I saw here standing in the clubhouse and I just couldn’t handle it.” I dip my head I don’t want to look at them right now, I’ve spent the last few days drinking because I’m ashamed of my reaction.
Nitro lights up a cigarette and then blows the smoke in my direction. “We get it, you’re scared of falling for her. But it’s not us who you should apologise to.”
I lift my head and look at him. He’s right I need to talk to her, I need to say I’m sorry, I should explain why I lost it, she deserves that at the very least. But there’s something in Nitro’s eyes that has me pausing. “Brother?” I question.
He sighs and I feel my brothers shift in their seats. “What the fuck is going on, someone tell me?”
“Did you pull Prospect off her tail?” Nitro asks and I turn back to look at him.
“No. I’m a fucking arsehole, but I’m not an idiot. Why?”
“When he finally fished his keys out of the drain, she dropped them in, he headed straight to her flat. One of her neighbours confirmed she was home, and then he saw her turning on the light and closing the curtains. He sat outside her flat until one in the morning…”
Nitro stops talking and a knock on the door has us all turning. One of the new prospects enters with a two coffee pots, followed by Lou one of the club girls who carries a tray of empty cups and a bottle of milk. We sit in silence until they pour everyone coffees and then leave. I down my first cup and the pour myself another needing the caffeine hit.
“Prospect received a text message around one telling him that he was no longer required to watch Marissa and to head back to the clubhouse.”
I sit up straighter. “Wait, who the fuck text him that?”
“You,” Nitro tells me, and I shake my head at him.
“We know it wasn’t you,” Ice tells me. “You were fucking out of it by that point. Someone took your phone and messaged him.”
I look from Ice to Nitro and back again. I don’t know what the fuck is going on, I don’t understand.
“Wrath. Have you seen your phone since the day you kicked Marissa out of here?” Nitro asks, and I blink at him a couple of times before responding.
“Erm, no. I’ve been too drunk to notice.”
Data taps away on his laptop and the screen behind Nitro comes to life, showing screen shots of a text conversation. “These are a string of texts from your phone to that number at the top, these were sent after the text to the Prospect.”
My eyes flick back and forth over the screen reading the messages that were sent. I feel sick. The content is clear, it doesn’t say who they are talking about, but it’s clear. It can only be about one woman.
“Do we know who the number belongs to?” I ask my body beginning to sweat, I have no idea if it’s the aftereffects of the alcohol or because of fear.
“No. It’s a burner that has been turned off since that last text message. I managed to track your phone’s movements until itwent off about fifteen hours ago, when the battery died,” Data tells us like it’s no big deal.
I push my chair back to stand, and begin pacing, my head is pounding. “I don’t fucking understand what’s going on. Someone please fucking explain this to me,” I grind out. I stop and stare at Nitro, he watches me and then turns to Data giving him a nod.
The screen flicks to life and I’m stunned when I see a video paused at Marissa’s front door. I look to Nitro and then to Data.
“We knew it wasn’t you who pulled the Prospect. Ice was right when he said you were out of it. After drinking yourself into a breakdown, you declared you loved her, something every one of us already knew. Everyone but you. Less than an hour later you passed out on the sofa in the main room, which was two hours before the text to Prospect.
We didn’t realise until nearly twenty hours later something wasn’t right. Data has been trying to figure out who’s doing this.”
I drop down into my chair and stare at my half-drunk cup of coffee.
Nitro sighs, “Data only managed to access your phone’s data today after we found it.” He stands, walking over to the unit on the side, he throws my phone on the table on front of me and takes his seat. “The phone was found stuck down the side of one of the sofas. Wrath, we think it was one of our men that did this, we think we have a traitor in our camp.”
“For fucks sake Nitro. Just fucking spit it out,” I yell, my patience wearing thin.
Data presses play and Nitro indicates to the screen. As Nitro talks, my eyes focus on the video playing in front of me, my mouth goes dry as I take in the signs of damage that someone has attempted to clear up. “Once we were able to access your phone it didn’t take us long to realise those messages were about Marissa. Ice took this footage a little over an hour ago when hewent to check on your girl.” He leans forward placing a hand on my arm, and I pull my gaze from the screen to him.
“Your girl’s been taken brother. She’s gone.”
Chapter
