Page 52 of Twisted Road

“I want your honest opinion, Lyric,” Absinthe persisted. “If someone is using Sid’s routes for human trafficking, who would it be? You have to have some idea.”

“Since I didn’t know anything about human trafficking—”

“Babe,” Keys cut her off. “He’s asking your opinion. You’re not leveling an accusation against anyone.”

“There’s a huge militia group living up in the mountains. They keep to themselves for the most part,” she said. “Recently, meaning a few months back, quite a few joined their community. You must have met them. They have no problem shooting anyone who comes near their homes or any operation they’re involved in.”

“Is it possible Sid is partnering with them?” Absinthe asked.

“Anything is possible, but from what I observed of Sid, he wouldn’t want anything to do with it. But I don’t know.”

“Consider you might be right, Lyric.” Absinthe leaned toward her. “Why would he allow it? If he took their money, he’d be considered an accomplice.”

“This isn’t something I’m comfortable giving my opinion on, Absinthe. I don’t know any of you that well, other than Keys. I don’t want to carelessly say something that might get someone in trouble.”

Absinthe smiled at her, but Keys noted there was no humor in his eyes. “I wanted your opinion. Unbiased. Nothing to lose or gain. I may be wrong, but it’s my opinion that many people treat their hairdresser the way they do a priest.”

“That is kind of true,” Lyric admitted.

“In the beginning,” Absinthe said, “we all thought Sid was a good man trying to do the best for his club, but something is very wrong in those mountains. We couldn’t imagine why Sid would agree to allow something that would draw the kind of attention human trafficking would, especially since all the information we collected on him and the club was that he was trying to keep a low profile.”

“The militiamen and women are intense. Some of them would come in for haircuts, the women mainly. They’d talk to me carefully. Choosing their words. They always came in pairs. After their group suddenly grew in size, the women stopped talking.”

“Would those women assist their men in human trafficking?” Absinthe asked.

Keys wanted to call a halt to what amounted to an interrogation. Lyric was decidedly uncomfortable giving opinions rather than facts.

“Do you really believe someone is using those mountains to traffic human beings?” she countered.

For the first time she looked Absinthe straight in the eye. If he found her direct stare disconcerting, it didn’t show on his face. His nod was slow, decisive, and he didn’t look away.

“Well then, take this for what it’s worth. I don’t have any facts at all, but if something like that is going on, it isn’t Headed for Hell. Sid might know, but he isn’t cooperating for money. It’s possible he dumped Sarina because she was threatened. He did it fast and ugly and hurt her, which was out of character for him. He went after women, but he had been exclusive with Sarina, and I thought she meant something to him. Ever since he dumped her, things have been tense. So, my opinion—and again, I don’t think opinions are anything to go on—if there is trafficking going on, the militia is involved, and Sid’s being threatened to cooperate.”

Twelve

“Are we done?” Keys asked before Absinthe or Czar could ask Lyric another question. His tone suggested they’d better be done. Tightening his fingers around Lyric’s, he pulled their joined hands to his chest and pressed her palm over his heart. “You keep pressing her, Absinthe, and she’s stated very plainly she doesn’t have any other facts for you.”

It was Czar who answered. “We appreciate your discussing what clearly is an uncomfortable subject, Lyric. Our club all but declared war on Headed for Hell in order to find Keys. That isn’t done between clubs. We went into their territory. We had to admit that Keys and Destroyer had been there for three months without wearing their colors or paying Sid his due respect. Headed for Hell has the right to go to the council and lodge a complaint against us.”

Lyric instantly tilted her face up toward Keys. “Those men were after me, Keys, not you. I got your entire club into a terrible mess.”

“That isn’t what I said,” Czar objected before Keys could respond. “As president of Torpedo Ink, I made the decision to put all of us in jeopardy to go after one of our members. At the same time, Keys made the decision to ignore the main rules we’ve had since we were children—having a partner and telling us where he was.”

“He wouldn’t have gotten hit over the head in the first place if he hadn’t been coming to see me that night,” Lyric pointed out.

Keys heard the pain in her voice and knew the others heard it too. He wrapped both arms around her head, hiding her from the eyes of his brethren. “Wildfire,” he breathed his nickname for her into her ear. “You aren’t responsible for any of this. Declan is. His people are. You didn’t set any of this in motion.”

“Keys is right,” Savage suddenly spoke up. “You’re being hunted, and we’d like to put a stop to it. We’re capable if you let us.”

Keys raised his head, his eyes meeting Savage’s. “You have information?”

Czar nodded toward Lyric. “She does. She mentioned a Russian helping Declan. That Russian went to one of Sorbacov’s schools. That ties him back to the Ghosts and the outfit involved with trafficking children that we’ve been pursuing for years. The fact that we had information about a pipeline being used in Headed for Hell territory, then the local militia, the one she suspects has something to do with trafficking, attacked Lyric and you, Keys, and it’s all too much to be a coincidence.”

Keys had to admit that was true. He didn’t believe in that big of a coincidence. Put together, the facts began to paint a very ugly picture of the people living on the mountain above Headed for Hell territory. The fact that Sid’s club was small and he didn’t have allies made them a prime candidate for the Ghosts to use. They went after clubs knowing law enforcement would never be involved.

The Ghosts tortured men, women, and children. They kidnapped wives or girlfriends of club members and held them hostage in order to get the club to comply with whatever their demands were. Once kidnapped, the women were subjected to gang rape and torture, even if their club agreed to aid the Ghosts.

“I don’t understand,” Lyric said. “If the militia are the ones using Sid’s caves to hold prisoners, what are they doing there? I don’t have enough imagination to understand why they would bring children and women to those caves.”