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Kyle stepped forward. “He has no online presence. Dude must be one hundred percent old school on how he works. He only uses burners, he has no credit cards, no banking information, nothing is in his name. And when I say nothing, I mean nothing. He doesn’t leave a breadcrumb anywhere, and trust me, I’ve been all over searching for one.”
“Why was he discharged?” Hawk asked.
Nick shook his head. “We don’t know. Rumor is that he was dishonorably discharged, but his military record is sealed. Kyle can’t even get to it. That tells me he was special ops, maybe a SEAL.”
“Those guys are usually protected, aren’t they?” Bear asked.
“Usually.” Nick looked among us. “But there are certain things even the government can’t overlook, no matter how valuable you are to them.”
My eyes flicked between Nick and Kyle. “Do we know where he is?”
Nick frowned. “He’s in the wind. DEA can’t find him, and no one’s talking. They’ve talked to everyone who has had any contact with him, and they don’t know shit. He’s gone.”
“He’s done this before,” Luke added. “When Snap got busted for dealin’ drugs, Manny disappeared. Hadn’t heard from him since then.”
“Until he took Jane,” I pointed out. “But why?”
“He needs money.” Hawk spoke for the first time in a while, and heads shifted toward him. “Only logical reason he’d come back to New Hope.”
Luke jerked up his chin. “I agree, and I think he assumed the heat was off him, considering we arrested Snap.”
“He’s never really been gone, though. He was just hiding out in that cabin where he took Jane,” I reminded them, “which tells me this is where he’s most comfortable.” I could see Luke considering that, so I continued. “You think he’s got family here?”
“No family that I can find,” Kyle replied first.
“And our undercover agent reports the same,” Nick verified what Kyle said.
“Then why the hell does he keep coming back here?” Bear wondered aloud.
“That’s what we need to find out.” Luke gestured toward Hawk. “Any chance you can ask around now that we have a name?”
“Yep,” Hawk agreed immediately. “I can do that.”
I fixed my stare on Luke. “Is Jane safe?”
Luke met my stare with one of recognition. He knew how much this shit was weighing on me because he went through similar stuff when he first met his now wife. “We think so. We’ve never seen him revisit a past fail. He just moves on to the next.” Luke acknowledged. “Targeting Jane was just another ploy to get money after his last effort failed. He doesn’t seem to have a personal vendetta against her.”
“What last effort?” Hawk asked.
Bear glanced at me, but eventually met Hawk’s eyes. “He was targeting us.”
“The Sinners?”
“Both clubs,” Bear clarified.
Hawk’s forehead wrinkled. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Bear sighed heavily. “Last spring, after my sister had her baby, the baby’s father came back into her life. She didn’t know why. He was a jackass with no plans to be in the kid’s life until he finally showed his cards.” Bear gestured toward Kyle. “Kyle did some digging, found out he owns the building Manny ran his business out of and was in the process of buying a piece of property that butted up against our property line. After a while, we figured out his intentions were to sell it to one of our clubs.”
“He wanted to create a bidding war.” Hawk shook his head.
“And it was all under the direction of Manny.” Bear shrugged. “With Snap at the helm, it would’ve worked, but I don’t think Manny knew we’d come to a new understanding and both clubs were standing down. He assumed we’d fight over property like the clubs have done in the past.”
“And what better fuck you than for us to buy the property literally right next to yours,” Hawk concluded.
“Exactly. Plus the Widows have deep pockets. A few years ago, his plan would’ve not only worked but would’ve meant a huge payout for Manny.”
“We didn’t know Manny was involved until Becs’s baby daddy mentioned him.” Kyle leaned his back against the tall pub table. “That’s when we discovered he owns the building Manny uses, and it’s the only building he owns in Cranberry. All of his other properties are in Riverton, where he lives. Seemed a little too coincidental, but it was all still assumptions.”
