Her expression forlorn, Tabs scuffed her bare foot on the old carpeting. “Not really. I even thought about tracing our paychecks that she gives us, but it just leads back to a Swiss bank account in Poison’s legal name. Hell,everythingis in Poison’s name. If we didn’t trust MV so much, I would accuse her of stealing Poison’s identity.”
“Doesanyoneknow where she lives?” Wendigo asked the room as a whole, though her eyes flicked mostly to Phoenix. Other than Poison, she was the only one who might.
Unfortunately, Phoenix shook her head. “She’s only ever been a voice on the phone to me. I never even put a gender to the voice before I met Poison and Kitty in Detroit.”
Poison was disappointed, but not surprised, by this answer. If Phoenix had any information about MV, she would have shared it already instead of waiting for a prompt.
Wendigo also didn’t appear surprised by the answer. She turned back to Poison. “Nothing from Keys?”
Anger rose to a boil at the other tech’s name. “No,” she growled, knowing Tabs was right. They were going to need a hacker to find someone like MV. “The kid’s busy with their own club’s shit.”
“What’s more important than this?” Wendigo demanded, clearly astonished Keys wasn’t available to help them with their current problem.
Sorrow hit Poison hard, hating the news she was about to deliver. Like Poison, Scissors, and Sissy, Wendigo had ties to their brother club, though she tended to stay more in touch with Carlos, the town’s sheriff, and his wife, Zoey, after rescuing their son, Kyle. Poison had ridden with Scar, one of the club’s members for several months after he’d gone rogue, but she wasparticularly close to Ghost and Ranger, the club’s President and Enforcer, respectively.
“I don’t know all the details,” Poison said in a dry voice, “but there was an explosion of some sort in town last night. Obviously, his priority is there. I didn’t even get around to telling him our problem.”
Wendigo wasn’t the only one who stiffened and paled at the dire news. Sissy and Scissors were already aware of what had happened, but Benjamin, Waya, Viper, Tabs, Phoenix, Gypsy, and Mercer were not.
“Explosion?” Mercer inquired. “What happened? Is everyone all right?”
Poison had to force her jaw to open as she said shortly, “No.”
At the single word, Sissy turned her face into Scissors’ chest again. Her shoulders shook with her renewed tears.
“We need to head to Pennsylvania,” Viper announced. This was not the first time she’d expressed this sentiment.
Phoenix rounded on her, and Mercer quickly jumped between the women. Again. “They can handle their own club business! We need to handle ours. None of us might have met MV before, but she’s still one of us, and we take care of our own!”
“Except we have no idea how to do that,” Tabs argued, her frustration evident. “Benjamin and I are the only ones who are even remotely tech savvy around here, but even so, there’s no fucking way we can find her.”
Poison had not thought of Benjamin as potentially being useful in this, but Tabs was right that he was computer savvy. She turned as Wendigo did, looking at the motel room entrance where Waya was leaning against the wall with his arms wrapped diagonally around Benjamin’s chest. While he didn’t look at Poison, he did look at Wendigo as he shook his head, agreeing with Tabs’ assessment that he has no idea how to search for someone on the computer like what the club currently needed.
It had been a long shot, but Poison still found she wasdisappointed by the answer. “That’s why Kitty is on the phone with the Mountain Mutineers,” Poison reminded them. “Phoenix is right. MV’s one of us. As soon as Kitty has information from Jack, we’re going on the hunt.”
“Um,” Gypsy raised her hand like she was in fucking high school. “Not to argue, because I agree with you, but just asking… What about the mayor here? MV sent us down here for a reason.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck about this town’s thieving mayor,” Poison answered with gritted teeth. “I’ll shoot him on our way out of town if needed. Our priority is MV. Is that understood?”
Everyone in the room nodded, including the Knightmares. Unfortunately, though, there was still nothing for any of them to do but sit and wait until Kitty came inside with news.
Poison hated fucking waiting.
* * *
It wasanother twenty minutes before Kitty came back inside the motel room. Sissy was slowly starting to calm down, though she was still waiting on a final casualty report from Pennsylvania. All her father was able to tell her that morning was that her immediate family was safe and well. Tabs filled the time by getting back on her computer, though Poison had no idea what it was she was looking for. Viper hadn’t spoken or moved much since Poison shot down her suggestion to go to Pennsylvania to help their brother club. Gypsy, Phoenix, and Mercer left to go get dressed, and arrived back inside the motel room minutes before Kitty came in.
His expression was…ominous at best. Something was off about his demeanor, Poison realized. He was toohunched. Since the second they’d bumped into each other in a mansion they were both breaking into, Kitty had always stood tall and sure of himself.
But not now. Andthat… That scared Poison, and Poison didn’t scare easily.
Poison hardened herself for bad news as she stepped forward, but did not touch him. “Kitty Cat? What is it? What did you find out?”
Kitty took a deep breath and lifted his head. “Jack was able to trace the call,” he told Poison, keeping his entire focus on her. “He used a lot of technical terms I don’t understand, but basically said that she spoofs numbers and uses them through a VoIP… I think.” His expression turned confused for a moment before he waved it off. “Anyway,” he hurried to continue, “he was able to trace the text to Beaverton, Oregon.”
Finally an answer! Poison nodded once, “Good. Let’s go?—”
But Kitty put his hands up to stop her. “Wait just a minute, baby. I need you to listen to me. The signal came from Oregon. That doesn’t mean she’s there. We’re on the other side of the country. Even if we drive straight, it will still take days.”
