Page 99 of Diary of a Biker Queen

I’d need to get some warmer clothes if I wanted to keep doing this through the winter. Which I did. I hadn’t been much of a bike guy before I’d come here, but they’d grown on me day by day, and I now preferred the ease and freedom you felt on the back of a bike, rather than being stuck in the stuffy club van that, more often than not, had car seats in the back and Barbie dolls on the floor because most of the guys who used it regularly had kids.

The roads were pretty quiet until I got into town, but the main strip of Saint View was always busy in the evenings, when all the deviants came out. The light was on in Dax’s shop, but when I peered through the window as I cruised by, I could only see King and Roarke working inside.

I parked and stuck my head in anyway.

Roarke recognized me and shook his head. “He’s not back. Got a text from him yesterday though that said he’s fine and sorting through things.” He shook his head, irritation with his older brother written all over his face. “Meanwhile, we’re here trying to cover months’ worth of bookings, trying to get Reaper through his training so he can help, not to mention all the fucking admin and paperwork Dax left piled up on his desk.”

I grimaced at him. “If you want some help with that, I could come round next week. See what I can make of it?”

I expected him to say no, but he nodded. “Honestly, man, if you have time, I won’t say no. That’s how fucking desperate I am for the help right now. I kinda didn’t realize exactly how much Dax did around here until he was gone.”

I sighed. “He said he was okay in his message?”

Roarke shrugged. “Didn’t say much. I had been calling and messaging him nonstop for a week, so I guess he felt like he had to say something. But he did say he’s got no plans to return.”

My stomach churned with anger. How could he? Just leave Nyah the way he had? This wasn’t the behavior of the man I’d thought he was.

“I’ll come round next week and see what I can help with.”

Roarke offered me his hand. “I’d appreciate that.

I shook it and walked out, the bell tinkling over my head. Back on the street, I tried Luca’s phone for the dozenth time and shoved it back in my pocket as I pushed my way into the Greasy Spoon Diner.

I went to the counter and waited my turn, then said to the woman behind the register, “Hi. Weird question, but do you know who Luca Guerra is?”

Her eyes widened. “The Mafia guy who’s always in the papers? Yeah, I know him. Everyone around here does.”

I’d figured as much. In a town like Saint View, where most people knew a drug dealer or someone who’d done a stint in prison, gossip about the gangs and Mafia wars ran riot between neighbors.

“Have you seen him tonight? Might have come in to order burgers?”

She shook her head. “I think I would have noticed a man in an expensive suit. That would stick out like a sore thumb in here.”

I flashed her a photo of Luca I had on my phone. It was one I’d snapped of him working out in the gym. He was sweaty but casually dressed in a T-shirt and shorts. “What if he was dressed like this? Or in sweats?” I couldn’t remember exactly what Luca had been wearing when he’d left the clubhouse, but I knew it hadn’t been a suit. “Would you have still recognized him?”

She glanced at the screen and nodded. “I would have noticed how hot he is. He definitely didn’t come in here tonight.”

I put my phone back in my pocket and thanked her for her time.

I went back outside and drove around some more, checking each McDonald’s between here and Providence, and all the other fast-food outlets that sold burgers, hoping to see Luca’s car parked in one of them. I paid attention to the sides of the roads to get to each one, thinking maybe he’d broken down and had no cell reception.

But there was no sign of him anywhere.

My phone rang, and I pounced on it, without even paying attention to the screen. “Luca?”

“No,” Nyah said. “It’s me. I just woke up and you were gone. What’s going on?”

I didn’t want to worry her, but there was a ball of dread in the pit of my stomach. “I’ll tell you when I get back. I’m on my way.”

I grabbed a few burgers at the McDonald’s I was parked in and stowed them in one of the saddlebags on my bike. Nyah still needed to be fed, even if Luca had disappeared into the night.

I wound my bike around the curves of the cliff road that led up to the bluffs and out to the Slayers’ compound. The farther I got out of town, the more worried I became.

I mentally tried to tell myself he’d probably just run into a friend and had gotten sidetracked.

Except, Luca really didn’t have any friends.

Other than me.