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Kelsey shouldn’t assume that. Carrie was the reason he took off. She’d been so stupid. Why did she think she was ready for whatever would happen after the two of them were practically naked in bed?

She should’ve let herself recover from the incident at the Knucklehead and approached Kid another day. Things would’ve gone better had she waited. Her impatience had gotten the best of her and, yet again, got her in trouble.

“Carrie,” Kelsey warned, yanking Carrie from her thoughts.

“I have no idea where he is,” Carrie said on a heavier exhale than before, hoping her exhaustion would come through and Kelsey would take pity on her.

Carrie was a fragile little bird after all. She wasn’t tough like Kelsey. Perseverance wasn’t her strong suit. Nothing proved that more than the evening she’d had.

“Maybe I can text Kev,” her friend suggested. “Maybe he knows.”

As Kelsey leaned away from Carrie, she pulled her phone from her back pocket.

Carrie shook her head. “Please don’t.”

Kelsey peered at her with furrowed brows. “I won’t say anything.”

Offering her friend a pleading expression, she dipped her chin. “I’m sure he’s fine. There’s not any reason to get Kevlar involved. Really. I’m okay. Kid is probably with Remi,” she suggested.

Kid and Kevlar had two sisters in town. Remi owned a body shop nearby, and Harper was a lawyer who lived with her boyfriend. Carrie didn’t quite understand the relationship between the siblings. They weren’t particularly close, but they supported each other in their own ways.

So, while unlikely that Kid would go to Remi for anything, it wasn’t outside the realm of possibilities. Kelsey’s skepticism was all over her face. The suggestion was a long shot, but it was all Carrie had.

She truly had no idea where Kid would go. As far as she knew, he didn’t have any friends. Well, none outside his club. He spent all his time setting up his tattoo studio, at the bar, or in Carrie’s apartment. He didn’t go out and do things.

“Maybe he’s with Torch or Lionel?” Carrie offered weakly.

Kelsey snorted and shook her head.

With a tight-lipped frown, Kelsey wrapped her arm around Carrie again and hugged her tight. “Come on,” she said, rubbing her shoulders. “Let’s get you into bed.”

17

Kid

The worst part of spending the night at Vanessa’s place was the fact that her kids were loud as hell in the morning. Her son blasted the stereo while he was in the shower. Her daughter barged into the bedroom Kid slept in to rummage through Vanessa’s closet as though he wasn’t even there.

To be fair, she might not have been aware that he was there, but still. She was lucky his gun was across the room. He’d been known to shoot first and ask questions later when anyone woke him up too early. That poor prospect lost a toe last year, but everyone understood the risk.

He hated mornings. He thought teenagers did too but not Vanessa’s kids. For some fucking reason they were up at the ass crack of dawn. Vanessa said something about practices, but on Saturday? What the fuck?

In hindsight, he should’ve gotten a motel room or called one of his brothers. He hadn’t been thinking. Everything had been chaotic. He fell into an old pattern that no longer fit him.

Needless to say, Kid was a zombie and required several large coffees and two energy drinks to get through his twelve-hour shift at the tattoo studio. He needed to come up with somewhere better to crash tonight. He couldn’t do that again. Maybe the studio wouldn’t be too bad. They had massage tables for tattooing. They were essentially beds.

His entire body ached, and his hands were stiff by the time he got to the Knucklehead. Keeping his head down, he made his way through the crowd without catching Vanessa’s eye. Hopefully, she was busy doing managerial stuff tonight. He didn’t have the energy to deal with her.

Noting their reserved table sat empty, he headed to the storage room and their makeshift clubhouse meeting spot. Once he shut the door to the storage area, the loud riffs of the band playing onstage were dulled.

“Nice of you to show up,” Kevlar said from the folding table.

Kid scratched the back of his head. “Sorry. Had a client run long.”

“That’s fantastic.” Torch practically cheered.

Lionel stood off to the side of the table. As a prospect, he didn’t have voting rights yet, but they respected him enough to allow him to attend some meetings. He couldn’t sit at the table, but he could hear the conversation. That was more than any non-patch got.

Torch was beside Kevlar. Opposite them, Frog took a sip from a pint glass. Kid dropped himself in the empty seat to the left of Frog.