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Switch shrugged. “Possible. But I’ll tell you, the harder I push on the name, the less there is behind it.” He hesitated, which was unusual for him. “That PI the club girl coughed up? Skinner. I’m still trying to find him.”

Hatchet coughed, drawing our attention to him. “Keep lookin’, sounds like that asshole spooked Rex. There’s a reason for that.”

Switch nodded. “Gimme a couple days, if he exists then I’ll track him down.”

“Yeah,” I agreed with a sharp nod before I straightened. “And I’m headin’ to Nevada. Send me the flight details. I know you already mapped it.”

“Ride,” Hatchet said before he took a sip of the bottle of water that seemed to be more present these days. The heart medication had put gray in his color, but it was doing its job and he looked better than he had last week.

“Ride?” I asked, incredulous. “That’s a long fucking ride.”

He just gave me a look. “Back when I was younger, we’d ride to Cali for the Redwood Run, there’s nothin’ like the open road to remind you why you chose this life.” He set down the bottle and folded his hands over his stomach. “Don’t want Rex to know what we’re doin’. We need to be doin’ this on the down low. And no callin’ her, she can hang up on a call or lie. In person you’ll get everything you need.”

I understood all the shit he wasn’t saying underneath it. Get the answers out of Carla Price, however that had to happen. By any means necessary. Hatchet had never once put a thing like that into words for me, or for any of us. He didn’t have to.

That was the job. The vow. Protect the club. Help the club.

By any means necessary.

“I’ll be gone a few days,” I said, already calculating the ride time with food and piss stops, probably even one night for sleep. “Three at least.”

It didn’t sit right in my gut, leaving Ivy behind with Rex out there. But this was the one thing that might hand her a future where she wasn’t always looking over her shoulder and waiting for him to strike.

I looked at Rook, who finally met my gaze with his arms crossed, as if he knew this was when I’d call on him. “Look after Ivy for me?”

“I got your back, brother,” he said.

“Not necessary.” My father’s voice boomed, echoing off the walls. “You’re taking her with you.” He grinned, so fucking smug at such an early hour. “Think of it as a honeymoon and a fact-finding mission. Maybe more.”

I turned to face him. “Hatchet.”

He shook his head. “You two have some shit to sort through and maybe some space from Rex and all this,” he motioned around the room, “will let you do that.” There was something else swimming behind his eyes but whatever it was, he kept it to himself.

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Riding on the open highway with Ivy while her father started spiraling seemed like a bad idea. “We’ll be vulnerable with just me for firepower.”

Hatchet sighed. “It pains me to say it, but maybe take a fucking cage? Also give Ivy a piece and show her how to use it,” he insisted. “I need you focused, Knox. We need you focused and having her at your side will keep your head on straight.”

I wanted to deny it, but there was no fucking use, so I just nodded. “Yeah.”

“She wants answers more than any of us, and she might know questions to ask that you don’t.” I didn’t argue. Partly because he wasn’t wrong. Partly because his words soothed the burn twisting in my gut. I wouldn’t be leaving her behind a fence and hoping. She’d be at my side the whole way, where I could see her.

Touch her.

Rex was still texting her. Still trying to fuck with her head. Little twists of the knife in just a few words. Threats, explicit and thinly veiled. Warnings. Reminders.

She finally just stopped reading them out loud, but I saw what they did to her face every time the phone lit up. A man who’d sent two of his own to run her off a road wasn’t going to stop at words for long. No chance in hell I was leaving her behind while he worked up to the next thing. Even if it meant driving there like a fucking idiot.

Like he’d read my mind, Rook burst out laughing. “Colorado to Nevada on four wheels with a roof over your head like a goddamn tourist. Only thing missing is khaki shorts and binoculars.”

“Fuck you,” I growled.

He laughed again, louder and harder.

“One more thing.” Hatchet pushed up out of the chair, slower than he used to, and the room turned serious with him. “Switch drained that trust account. Left Rex one dollar to remember us by.” A thin smile spread slowly across his face. “He’s gonna find out soon, and when he does, he’ll come at us with whatever he’s got left.”

“I know. I’m counting on it.” Men who react emotionally make mistakes, and that’s where we pressed our advantage.

“We need to consider lockdown,” Rook offered, his voice steady and quiet.