Chapter 23: Edge

23

EDGE

W e'd been home from the hospital for a few days when I jolted awake and quickly surveyed the room. Evie was sound asleep next to me, and nothing seemed out of place. After glancing at the time, I groaned. Six-thirty was earlier than I usually got up, but I knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. Something seemed off. After a few minutes of internal grumbling, I started the slow process of getting out of bed and trekking to the bathroom. Then I went out to the kitchen to make some coffee.

Ranger was sitting at the kitchen table sipping his own coffee. "What are you doing up so early?" he asked.

"I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep."

"Something wrong?"

"I've got a weird feeling, but I don't know why," I admitted.

"Fucking hell. I hate weird feelings."

A few minutes later, Carbon walked into the kitchen, followed by Shaker and Byte.

"Well," Ranger said expectantly. "What in the hell's going on?"

"We don't know yet. Phoenix called and told me to get the guys up. He said he'd be here soon," Carbon said.

"This can't be good," I mused.

Thankfully, it didn't take Phoenix long to arrive at our temporary home. "Where are the girls?" he asked when he joined us in the kitchen.

"They're still asleep," Carbon answered.

"I got a call from Walter about twenty minutes ago. He and Buck were driving past the diner and saw smoke. When they pulled into the parking lot behind the diner to see what was going on and call nine-one-one, they saw a man coming out of the diner carrying a gas can. He saw them and started to run, but they were able to stop him. Turns out, it was the guy they got into it with and saw talking to the Mad Dogs. Walter asked if he should hold the guy for the cops or bring him here. I told him to bring the piece of shit to us. They'll be here in fifteen minutes or so."

"What about the diner?" I asked.

"I don't know how much damage was done. They called it in but couldn't hang around. I'm sure Irene will get a phone call soon."

"I should give her a heads-up," Byte said.

Phoenix gave him a sympathetic look. "You can't. Technically, none of us should know anything about the fire."

Byte sighed and reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"We're going to meet them at the gate and go to one of the storage sheds at the back of the property. I'll let you know what we find out."

"I'm going with you," I said.

"Me, too," Byte added.

Phoenix rubbed his chin and studied us. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"We can sit there just as easily as we can sit here," I pointed out.

"Fine, but that's all you're going to do." He turned to Ranger. "What about you?"

Ranger nodded to his rifle propped against the wall beside him. "I'll stay here with the girls."

"Sounds good. Dice, Ink, and Patch should be here any minute. Let's roll."

I slowly made my way out to Phoenix's truck without going back to my room to kiss Evie goodbye. I didn't want to chance waking her and having to tell her I was leaving without being able to tell her why.

"If y'all hadn't been through hell, I'd give you shit for how slow you're moving," Phoenix teased.

"I'm pretty sure that counts as giving us shit, Prez," I retorted.

"Well, I sure am glad both of you are here to give shit to."

When we arrived at the storage shed, everyone was already there, including Walter and Buck with their special delivery.

Phoenix got out and shook their hands. "I really appreciate you doing this for us."

"We were happy to help," Walter said.

Buck grinned and held up one finger. "Since we're already accomplices in this kidnapping, can we stay and watch?"

"Are you going to be able to lie to the cops if necessary?"

"I don't think we'll have a problem with that. We've already lied to them once today," Buck said.

"All right. Follow me."

Once inside, Walter and Buck sat with me and Byte while the rest of the guys set up a makeshift interrogation area and secured the guy to a chair.

Phoenix didn't waste any time getting started. "Your responses and willingness to cooperate will determine how this goes. I didn't have disposing of a dead body on my agenda today, but I'm a flexible man. I'm also reasonable. Keep that in mind and choose your answers wisely." He stepped forward and ripped off the tape covering the man's mouth. "What's your name?"

The man looked around the room before returning his attention to Phoenix. He shook his head defiantly.

Phoenix sighed in exasperation and gestured to Carbon. "You're up."

Carbon stepped forward almost gleefully as he rubbed his hands together. "Hot damn! I've been waiting forever for an opportunity to try this." He pushed a small table in front of the man and started placing things on top of it.

"What's he doing?" Walter whispered.

I leaned closer to him to answer. "I don't know, but judging by the smile on his face, it's nothing pleasant."

When Carbon was set up, he sat in a chair beside the man and freed one of his hands. Then he held up a fishing hook for everyone to see. "Let's try this again. What's your name?"

"What are you going to do with that?"

Carbon made a sound similar to the one game shows used to indicate an incorrect answer. "Wrong answer." Then he quickly pushed the fishing hook through the tip of the man's finger. The guy tried to pull his hand away, but Carbon didn't relent until the hook popped through his fingernail.

The guy screamed and stared at his finger in horror. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Try not to move next time," Carbon said calmly. "If it doesn't go through the fingernail, it'll probably rip through the skin when we hang you from the ceiling."

"Are you fucking serious?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding? Now, what's your fucking name?"

The guy was breathing heavily and sweating. His eyes darted around in panic, but he didn't answer the question.

Carbon grabbed his hand and pierced another finger with a fishing hook. The guy looked like he was going to puke, and I couldn't blame him. Between the pain medicine, lack of breakfast, and the morbid manicure I was watching, I felt like I was going to be sick as well.

"What's your name?" Carbon repeated.

The guy hesitated but blurted his name when Carbon picked up another hook. "Gary Doyle."

Carbon dramatically stuck out his lower lip and dropped the hook to the table. "You're no fun."

"There's still time," Phoenix assured him. "We need to know a lot more than his name."

"What do you want to know?" Gary asked.

"Why did you start a fire at the diner?"

"I can't tell you that."

Carbon picked up a hook. "Can't or won't?"

"I was hired to do it," he rushed out.

"You know what we want to know. Keep talking or I will literally pull it out of you," Carbon said and yanked on one of the hooks in his finger.

"They'll kill me if I tell you," he squealed.

"Do you think we're going to just let you walk out of here if you don't tell us what we want to know?"

"Fuck, man," he whined. "This isn't fair."

"Life isn't fair," Carbon grumbled and slammed his hands on the table. "Start fucking talking."

"All right. All right," Gary blabbered. "The Mad Dogs paid me to burn down the diner."

Carbon rubbed his hands over his face. He was losing his patience by the second. "This is your last chance. Start from the beginning and tell us everything." To emphasize his point, he tugged on the hooks in Gary's fingers.

"Okay! Okay! Please stop!" Gary begged. Carbon gave him a moment to catch his breath. "I'm a private investigator. Well, I was. I lost my license a while back, so I take what jobs I can get, which are usually the ones licensed PIs won't take. A while back, Carl Sinclair hired me to find his daughter, Evie Sinclair. There wasn't much to go on, and it seemed like she disappeared into thin air. I used traffic cameras to track her to Tennessee, but I lost her shortly after she crossed the state line. I tried tracking her phone and her debit card, but didn't have any luck. Finally, I got a hit on her license plate. Her car was on the back of a tow truck. I traced the tow truck to the Blackwings garage."

"Son of a bitch," I blurted. He didn't have to say it. I knew I was the one who led him to Evie.

"I went back through the traffic cameras and tracked the tow truck to Cedar Valley. I didn't know exactly where it went to pick up Evie's car, but I had it narrowed down enough to make a trip to Cedar Valley. It didn't take me long to find her at the diner."

"Keep going," Carbon ordered.

"I watched her from a distance the first day. The next day, I planned on having breakfast at the diner to get more information, but the two old guys fucked that up."

"You fucked that up yourself, buddy," Buck said. "I would've thought not drawing attention to yourself would've been lesson number one in PI school."

"I didn't fucking see you!"

"All you had to do was apologize or say, ‘Excuse me' but you wanted to fuck around and find out."

"Fuck you, old man!"

Carbon slapped Gary across the face. "We respect our elders around here."

"We're not that old," Walter said under his breath, causing Byte and me to laugh.

"Apologize so we can continue," Carbon said.

Gary huffed, but did what he was told. "Sorry."

Buck covered his heart with his hand. "Your sincerity touches me."

"Let's get back on track," Phoenix said. "What happened after you left the diner that morning?"

"I told Carl where he could find Evie," he said simply. "He paid me and that was that."

"If that was that, we wouldn't be here. What happened next?"

"The president of the Mad Dogs contacted me and told me Carl was missing. He wanted me to find out what happened to him. I traced Carl's car to two areas in Cedar Valley. One area was an apartment complex, and the other was somewhere in the vicinity of the diner."

"What apartment complex?" Carbon asked.

"The one where the missing waitress lived."

I tried not to gasp when he mentioned Marcy. Obviously, we knew Muzzle killed Marcy, but I don't think any of us realized anyone else knew there was a connection between Muzzle and Marcy.

"I gave Hound the information I had, and he said they would be in Cedar Valley the next day. I met up with them at an abandoned warehouse. They paid me and said they didn't need anything else from me. I asked why, and Hound told me they'd seen the Blackwings at the diner and he didn't think Evie was worth the trouble." Gary paused and swallowed. "Can I have some water or something?"

Carbon produced a bottle of water and opened it before handing it to him. I found Carbon's hospitality to be quite comical, considering the situation.

"They came to Cedar Valley to get Evie?" Phoenix asked.

"That's what Hound said. It wasn't my job to question what he did."

"Then what?"

"They went on their way, and I went on mine. A few days later, I got a call from Carl's son, Ken. He wanted all the information I'd collected for his dad. For a small fee, I gave it to him. I thought that was the end of it until Hound called and told me about the shooting. He wanted me to keep an eye on things and let him know where y'all went when you left the hospital. You guys must have snuck out of there in the middle of the night or something because y'all were there one day and gone the next. Hound was pissed when I told him, and he told me to find you. So, I started looking, but y'all were nowhere to be found. I checked Irene's house, the diner, the clubhouse, and anywhere else I could think of. Yesterday, Hound said he wanted to draw you out and told me to burn down the diner. And that's it. I swear. There's nothing else to tell."

As I sat there trying to absorb his words, I was incredibly grateful for the extra precautions Phoenix insisted we take when leaving the hospital. Leaving at night kept him from knowing about our departure, and taking the back roads kept him from tapping into traffic cameras to find us.

When Phoenix's phone rang, he looked at the screen and uttered a curse under his breath before he stepped away to answer the call. He returned moments later, and his demeanor had completely changed. "That was Flint. They're on the move. They've been headed north on the highway for thirty minutes. I think it's safe to assume they're headed our way."

"What's the plan, Prez?" I asked. I knew he had one. Knowing Phoenix, he probably had at least three.

"You and Byte are going to sit this one out. I know you don't want to, and I get it. This involves your girl, but it also involves my brothers. We came close to losing the two of you once, and we're not doing it again so soon."

"There's no shame in staying behind and protecting the families," Byte added.

"I'm happy to do whatever you need me to do," I said honestly. Yes, I wanted to be a part of the action, but I also knew I wasn't at my best, which could inadvertently put others in danger.

"We'll move everyone to the bunker under the main office building. You, Byte, and Ranger will be on guard duty. I'll assign some others to help once we get the details figured out."

"We can help protect the families," Walter said.

"Are you sure? I don't know how long this will take. It could be anywhere from several hours to a few days."

Walter shrugged. "We don't have anywhere to be."

"Thank you. We appreciate the help. Stick with Byte and Edge. They'll show you where to go and what to do."

"What about me?" Gary asked.

Phoenix rubbed his chin. "Yeah, I don't know what the fuck to do with you."

"Come on, man. I told you everything you wanted to know."

"And there's nothing stopping you from going back and telling the Mad Dogs about everything that happened here today. I think you're going to have to hang out with us until this is over."

"No!" Gary shouted and started flailing in his seat. "You can't hang me from the ceiling for days!"

Phoenix crossed his arms over his stomach and doubled over with laughter. "For fuck's sake. I didn't mean it literally."

"What was I supposed to think? I've got fishing hooks in my fingers!" Gary held up his hand to show us, as if we'd all forgotten.

"Byte, can you arrange for Patch to take those hooks out?"

"I'll take care of it."

"All right. Let's get him set up in one of the holding rooms. Then I want the officers to meet me in the conference room on the first floor for church. I'll have the prospects start calling the families to let them know they need to head to the bunker. Byte and Edge, Walter and Buck can help you get Ranger, Irene, and Evie over to the bunker. Take Flint with you and send Dice and Ink to the conference room."

"What do you want us to tell them when they ask what's going on?" I asked.

"Tell them the truth. I want everyone to be aware so that no one is caught off guard. Let's get moving. I want to be ready and waiting long before they arrive."

Byte and I rode back to the house in Walter's truck. "I hope someone's called Irene by now. I don't want to be the one to break the news to her."

"I can do it," Buck volunteered. "She'll know something's wrong as soon as she sees us."

When we walked into the house, it was clear that they had already heard the news. Evie and Irene were sitting on the couch with their arms wrapped around each other, though I wasn't sure who was comforting who.

Irene looked up and her eyes immediately went to Walter and Buck. "What are you two doing here?"

"Do you know what happened?" Walter returned.

"Yes," Irene said slowly. "How do you know what happened?"

"We caught the son of a bitch who did it," Buck said proudly.

"You what?"

"We saw the smoke when we were driving by and pulled into the back parking lot to see what was going on and call nine-one-one. As Walter was parking, this jackass comes walking out the back door carrying a can of gas. Turns out, it was that bozo with the bad manners from a few weeks ago."

"They didn't say anything about a suspect when they called to tell me about the fire."

"That's because they don't know about him," Walter explained.

"What's going on?" Evie asked.

"It's a long story, which I will tell you, but I'm going to give you the short version right now for the sake of time. The Mad Dogs hired someone to set fire to the diner, hoping to draw us out. Walter and Buck were in the right place at the right time and caught the guy, which is how we know the Mad Dogs were behind the fire. It looks like they're headed in our direction, so we need to get everyone moved to a safer location," I explained.

"Where is this safer location?"

"There's an underground bunker on the farm property. Phoenix wants everyone to stay there while they intercept the Mad Dogs. Walter and Buck are here to help. What do you need to take with you?"

"How long are we going to be there?"

"I don't know. It could be anywhere from a few hours to a few days."

To my surprise, she didn't balk at my answer. "Okay. I'll need my medicine, my phone and charger, the two books on my nightstand, a change of clothes, and my toothbrush."

"Is that all?"

"I don't know. I've never done this before."

"You won't need anything else," Gabby assured her. "The bunker is well stocked with anything you might need, other than your medications and your phone. I'll put your stuff in a bag and meet you in the car."

"Thank you," Evie said.

"Yes, thank you," I added.

"No problem. I'll grab your medications and a change of clothes for you and Irene, too."

Within twenty minutes, we were loaded into the car and headed toward the bunker.