But that wasn’t the whole truth.
I didn’t like the feeling that someone had been only feet away from her.
I didn’t like that Shay remembered something tied to this place, and now this symbol.
I didn’t like that the psycho was escalating.
I didn’t like any of it.
We headed back up the path, flashlights sweeping the dark underbrush.Push kept glancing behind us every ten seconds.Vin scanned the treeline with sharper, more frantic movements than usual.Even Skull seemed quieter than normal.His jaw tight, and his eyes flicked at every rustle.
We finished the walk back without another word.
When the clubhouse lights came into view through the trees, a wave of relief hit me harder than I expected.Because behind those walls were the only things on this island that mattered: my club, my family, and Shay.
Push reached for the door first.
We stepped inside.
Piney and Lost were at the door.Pearl sat on the couch with a blanket over her legs, scrolling her phone nervously.Shay was curled up beside her, her eyes heavy but awake.
Her gaze lifted the second I walked in.
And fuck, every fear I had tripled.
She’d been waiting for me.
Worrying about me.
I didn’t deserve that trust, but I’d die before I failed her.
Pearl sat up.“Everything okay?”
I swallowed, forcing my voice steady.“We found something.”
Shay’s face paled.“What did you find?”
Anchor stepped out of the hallway, arms crossed.“What happened?”
I handed him my phone with the picture on the screen.
His jaw clenched immediately.
“Fuck,” he muttered.“This was carved tonight?”
“Yeah,” I said.“And it’s fresh.Real fresh.”
Pearl leaned closer.“What is that?”
“A symbol,” Vin answered quietly.“The one your dad described.”
Pearl shivered.“Jesus.This guy pretty much left a calling card.”
“It was,” I said.“He wanted us to see it, but I don’t think he knows that we already know about what this is.My thought is he figured he would make us spiral trying to figure out what it even is, but we know it’s his club.”
“Now we just gotta figure out what club it is.I’m going to give Razor a call tomorrow and see if he knows what it is.He was around when the Caleb thing happened, which seems to be the root of all of this,” Anchor said.
I agreed.
