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“Arkansas Gods who ordered the attack on your club are long gone, Kingpin. There’s no kill order on Eve, not anymore. It’s time to bury the hatchet.”
The suggestion hit me like a blow. Bury the hatchet? After everything that had happened between us, the blood that had been spilled, the lives that had been shattered? I shook my head. The idea was so foreign, so impossible. It was all I could do not to laugh in his face.
“That’s never going to happen,” I said, my voice cold, hard with resolve. “My club still hates the Gods, and that’s how it’s going to stay. You don’t just forget the past, Scar. Not something like that.”
Scar’s expression hardened, but there was a determination there, a grit that matched my own. “We can’t change what happened, but we can change what happens next. Let’s start by getting your girl back, then we can work something out.” His words, though unexpected, carried a sliver of hope.
“This has to do with the Road Monsters, Scar, not our clubs. I’m asking for their help, not the Gods.”
“And I’m asking for peace, Kingpin, real peace between our clubs in return for mobilizing them for you. That’s my price.”
The thought of Eve out there somewhere, possibly in danger, made the raging torrent of my thoughts pause. If there was a chance, any chance at all, that working with Scar could bring her back to me, then it was a chance I had to take.
“I’m not the guy to talk to about all the Royal Bastards,” I said. It was true enough. I wouldn’t tell him Jameson was still in town.
Scar agreed to the Road Monsters getting involved, regardless. “Just keep in touch. I’ll get it rollin’,” he said, givin’ in.
Ah, fucking lightweight.
“Fine,” I said finally, the word like a stone. “We find Eve. After that, we’ll see.”
Scar nodded, a mutual understanding passing between us. It wasn’t a reconciliation with the Gods, far from it, but it was another truce, however temporary.
Scar and I emerged from my office, a silent signal to our respective VPs. The Gods left Royal Road unharmed. My brothers couldn’t know who pulled the strings of the Road Monsters MC, and Scar would call them to Nashville. They would be at my disposal through him. I had to play all my cards to get Eve back.
Speaking of the Road Monsters, I had someone to deal with. Hallow hung out in the barn, waiting to be questioned. The man whose life I’d inadvertently tangled with my own, whose presence at the wedding had set off this chain of events.
I found him there, hanging in the shadowy light that filtered through the dusty windows, a picture of defeat. His eyes lifted as I approached, wary but resigned. He was sobering up. It wasn’t the first time we’d met like this, but I sure as hell hoped it would be the last.
“Hallow,” I started, my voice resolute. “What’s this shit with Sky? What happened to you two?” Last I heard, they were happily married.
He sighed, a sound that seemed to carry the weight of a thousand regrets. “Sky… she disappeared with her son, called Caden now, not Bo, by the way. Just vanished a week ago. Left everything behind.”
I remembered the whispers, the rumors that had circulated. “I heard she had another child,” I said, probing for the truth behind the gossip.
The pain that flashed across his face was raw, undeniable. “She lost our baby,” he admitted, his voice breaking. “I’m sure it has everything to do with what your whore put her through. It sent her into a downward spiral. She’s not been the same since.”
A surge of sorrow washed over me. Sky had suffered so much, and I was to blame for her pain. The gratitude for the safety of my own kids hit me too. It was a selfish feeling. But there was another question, one that gnawed at me with increasing urgency.
“Did you ever think that Sky was taken? That her disappearance wasn’t her choice?” I asked, the accusation clear.
Hallow shook his head, adamant despite his dejection. “No way. Sky wouldn’t have been taken. She left because she wanted to. Because we fought. We were in hiding, remember?”
His certainty did little to ease my fears. The parallels between Sky’s disappearance and Eve’s were too striking to ignore. The thought that both women might have met the same fate because of their connection to me was a sick thought. I decided against pointing out to Hallow that they were hiding from the mob that wanted Sky’s baby because that baby belonged to Ralph Getty.
I left Hallow there in the barn, his words resonating within me. The fear that Eve and Sky’s stories were intertwined, and that I was the common denominator, settled deep in my bones. It was a possibility I couldn’t ignore, a thread that I had to follow, even as it led me into the heart of my own darkness. The evidence pointed toward the mob.
Chapter 14
Kingpin
Sitting in my office, my phone was practically glued to my ear, a lifeline to the outside world where my brothers were out searching for Eve. Each call seemed to echo the same sentiment. No sign of her, no leads, nothing. It was as if she’d vanished into thin air, leaving behind a void that threatened to swallow me whole.
Pagan, my VP, was right there with me, insisting I stay put in case any lead came through. His advice was sound, but it did little to ease the restlessness that flowed through me. I needed to be on my Harley, searching, but also, Memphis had Little Prince and Angel with her over on the couch, keeping them occupied. With Sky’s child being gone as well, I couldn’t take the chance of someone getting to our kids.
Amidst the turmoil of calls and reports, a different kind of message arrived. Buzz knocked on the door, holding something by the tip of his fingers. It was a note, hand-delivered by a courier and ominous in its simplicity. That note cut through the madness with the precision of a well-aimed bullet.
On a bit of the newspaper from last week and stained with what looked unmistakably like blood, it was a chilling canvas for the words scrawled across it. The message confirmed my deepest fears.
