Chapter 2

(Night)

There’s something not quite right about this place

“Alright guys, fan out in three-man crews. Search every building top to bottom. Make sure you don’t miss so much as a Goddammed closet,” Mark decreed as he headed for the first building to the left.

It said a lot, that he didn’t even glance over his shoulder to make certain they were moving to do as they’d been told, he was that secure in both his authority and position as leader of the Rollin’ Jokers and that confident in the men he’d chosen to wear the patch.

Though Night hadn’t been privy to many of the details surrounding their recent clash with rogue former members of the MC, he’d discerned enough from the whispered conversations that typically stopped when he entered a room, to know that it had been a personal issue involving Cody that had been at the root of the conflict. He got it. Patched members weren’t going to reveal much until he’d earned their trust, especially not so soon after being betrayed by longtime members. Growing up the way he had, Night knew better than to ask questions. Mouth shut, eyes and ears open were words that had been drilled into his head since he was small. It was a bit of knowledge that had served him well during the three years he’d spent upstate trapped behind walls and barbed wire fencing.

It was a place he never wanted to go back to. Not even to visit family members still stuck in that abysmal place.

Night followed Creature and a member of Bellamy’s crew into what used to be a porcelain toilet and sink factory. Creature wielded a heavy-duty flashlight that would serve as a wicked skull-breaking weapon if the need arose, while he and the guy whose name he kept forgetting, used the flashlights on their phone.

Inside, Night went right, Creature went left, while Bellamy’s guy moved deeper into the dark center of the room.

“Call out if you spot anything,” Creature instructed.

“Someone’s been in here lately, that’s for damn sure,” Night replied as he swept his phone in a wide arc.

Creature was suddenly at his side, illuminating the area around him to a greater degree.

Where there should have been dust, debris and even broken glass from the busted-out windows, there was only a clear, well swept floor and scuff marks from what looked like small wheels, resembling those that could be found on a dolly.

“I thought this place was still on the abandoned list,” Creature grumbled as he pulled out his phone and scrolled through the screens.

“Could be a recent purchase and not fully in the system yet,” Night offered. “Which might explain that padlock we cut off to get in here.”

“Owned or unowned doesn’t change our instructions,” Creature said. “Let’s get to it before we get hit with a trespassing charge.”

Nodding, Night continued on his path while Creature headed back in the direction he’d initially chosen to explore. Tape marred the floor in several areas, small, L shaped groupings of blue adhesive precisely placed in various increments apart. A wide staircase dominated the far side of the room, but like the rest of the place, it was clear of debris. Halfway up Night shone is light over the side and took note of the way those tape formations looked like someone had marked off the spots where furnishings were intended to go.

An office maybe?

Or machines?

It was hard to tell, based on the shapes, and it really wasn’t any of his concern unless they turned up some definitive signs that Sinn had been here.

Unlike the first floor, the second floor was divided up into rooms that may have once housed offices, which was why it shocked him to his core to see the first room furnished like some strange, archaic laboratory, complete with glass bottles filled with a thick red liquid. Weird as that was, the second room was even more bizarre and resembled a dungeon, complete with metal shackles attached to heavy rings that protruded from brick that looked like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it to give it a weathered look. The back of the door didn’t match the front either, and when he closed it and shone the light on it, it was arched on the top, like one might see in a castle. The third room was decked out like a gothic bedroom, complete with a canopy bed and heavy iron chandelier and it dawned on Night that this could be the setup for some kind of film studio, as each room seemed set for a different theme, all giving off a sort of Frankenstein-esque vibe. A horror film maybe. Maybe there’d be a local showing once it was through. He was a sucker for an indie horror film.

A brief image flittered through his mind, one in which he lay sprawled on a blanket on the park lawn with Sinn sitting in Saint’s arms, carding his fingers through Night’s hair while Saint described what was taking place on the screen. It shocked him how clearly he could envision it, especially when domestic tranquility wasn’t a thing he was intimately familiar with. He’d envied it though, especially as a kid watching other families together doing all the normal shit his family could never be bothered with. The only thing his family would have been doing at a movie in the park event was figuring out a way to make off with the contents of the cash box.

Focus, dammit.

The only chance for anything remotely close to that was if they found Sinn whole and healthy, or at least, mostly whole and fixable. Finding a corpse was a possibility they were all aware of but refrained from discussing out of respect for Saint and his infamous temper.

Light from the other end of the hall clued him in that either Creature or Bellamy’s guy had made their way to the second floor too, so Night opened the next door and shook his head when he saw a wall of Gargoyles, some perched high on wooden planks, others molded right into the side of the wall. Eyes leered at him when the light struck them but the oddest thing of all was the large, eight-foot gargoyle statue at the center of the room with a leash in its wicked looking claws.

“Hey, check this shit out!” Bellamy’s guy bellowed, so Night hurried to the far end of the hall, mentally counting the doors he passed so he could return to search them later.

“The fuck?” Night muttered when he reached the massive biker’s side. In this room, a charcoal gray carpet covered the floor on which a black bed sat on a raised platform, pristinely made with black and red bedding. This room threw off porno vibes, especially when Night spotted the cage beneath the platform and the array of impact implements and restraints along the walls. He snapped several photos of this room, the same as he’d done with the others, and sent them all to Mark.

“Either they are planning on shooting an indie movie in here, or opening a porn studio,” Night remarked. “You should see the other rooms.”

“Yeah, we’d better, just in case they’ve got Sinn in one of them, though I doubt we’d get that lucky,” Creature grumbled as he stepped into the room behind them. “My bet is on porn or a brothel.”

“No offense if that’s your thing, but this would make for one creepy ass brothel,” Night remarked.

“Amen to that,” Bellamy’s guy said. “There could be a fourth option though.”

“Yeah, and what’s that?” Creature asked.

“One of those tricked out photo studios that specializes in shit like bordello shoots, but on a far more disturbing level,” Bellamy’s guy grumbled with a shake of his head as he stepped past Night, who followed him back out into the hall.

They’d searched three more rooms before Saint and Mark joined them, making short work of the remaining spaces.

“I got ahold of Holden and had him do a bit of digging. Place was purchased two weeks ago by LMX production, an independent film company. Holden said they were given several tax breaks and a handful of permits to get renovations going. Judging from what little I saw of the downstairs, I’m willing to bet that they’ll bring that floor up to code first, then gut up here once they’ve got enough film to work with.”

“Which is my brother’s long-winded way of saying they’re legit,” Saint snapped, annoyance mixed with a healthy dose of fury, like a brittle mask that forced Night to look away. “Let’s get the fuck out of here. The whole areas been a waste of time.”

“We don’t know that yet.”

“Done told you leaving Rabbit back to watch that old candle factory was a waste of time.”

“True, but I’m doing it anyway. Maybe there is nothing going on in there that’s related to Sinn, but I know you caught a whiff of that chemical smell the same as I did. Something to the left of legit is going on over there. I know you don’t give a shit at the moment, but this patch on my shoulder means I’m responsible for more than just one lost boy. If someone is manufacturing drugs out here, you and I both know the PD’s first assumption will be that it’s us and we’ll rocket back to the top of their watch list.”

“How’s that differ from any other day?”

“It’s an election year, remember,” Mark pointed out.

“Shit.”

“Yeah, and if it’s anything like last time, they’ll raid us at least once before they move on to the degenerates running that slaphouse over on Forrester Street.”

“You only call them degenerates because you didn’t think of the idea first,” Creature pointed out.

For the first time since Sinn had gone missing, Night heard something remotely like amusement rumble out of Saint in the form of a rough chuckle.

“He’s got you there, bro.”

“Fuck you both,” Mark growled as they headed back down the wide staircase to the first floor.