Spawn Chapter 9

My anger over finding out Kimera had left town was throbbing inside of me. How dare she do this? Why would she up and leave without a word to anyone, especially Troian? It had been only minutes ago I found out she was gone.

Walking into the clubhouse to see Troian and get a report on whether she’d talked to Kimera or not today since no one was at Lash’s house, I noticed it was eerily quiet. Glancing at my watch, I realized it was early. Most people would still be at work. It wasn’t the weekend. I saw Rhaines behind the bar stocking it. He gave me a chin lift along with an odd look. Scanning the room, I saw Lash, Troian, and Reaper sitting at one of the tables. They were staring at me. Both men frowned, and Troi appeared upset. Immediately, I knew something was wrong. I hurried over to them.

“What happened? Tell me,” I ordered.

“Have a seat,” Reaper said, pointing to an empty chair across from him.

I shook my head no. “I don’t want to sit, just tell me. You talked to her, didn’t you?” I directed the last bit to Troian. She exchanged a worried look with Lash as she nibbled on her bottom lip.

“Spawn, sit, and then we’ll tell you,” Reaper said firmly. I knew from his tone that he wasn’t about to bend on this, so I jerked the chair out and dropped into it. I leaned forward over the table. “Go,” I ordered.

She hesitated for a moment, then softly, she began to talk. “I went to the house to see Kimera today. She wasn’t answering my calls, and I was concerned something might’ve happened or she was deeper into her depression and was cutting me off completely. She’s never not answered when I called her before. Although she won’t talk about what happened, she’ll at least talk to me about other stuff.”

I wanted to tell her to hurry the fuck up and get to the point, but I knew Lash would hit me, and Reaper might do the same. Besides, I didn’t want to be ugly to Troian. She didn’t deserve it, so I held onto my temper and silently prayed she’d hurry up.

“When I got there, her car wasn’t where she usually parks it. I knocked on the door anyway, but there was no answer, and I didn’t hear Toro barking. I thought she might be in town running errands, so I stayed for a while. An hour later, I gave up and decided to go to town and see if I could spot her. I didn’t, which led me to call the hospital to check if she was working. It’s her day off, but she gets called in all the time, you know.”

“Babe, Spawn’s about to explode. Just tell him,” Lash urged her gently.

“She wasn’t at work. They said she had a family emergency, and they didn’t know when she was coming back,” she said in a rush.

“Okay, so where does her family live? It could be she’s caught up with whatever took her out of town,” I said, trying not to think the worst.

She shook her head. “She doesn’t have a family. She was raised in foster care after her granny died. Remember, she told us about her. The reason she raised her was there was no one else, I think. She told me that when I asked what her name meant and if she’d asked her family, she said she didn’t know. If there was anyone, she wouldn’t be close to them. No one took her in when she lost her parents. She’s gone, and I have no clue where she went. What if she never comes back?”

A shaft of pain went through me. She was gone. Where? Why? What if she was gone for good? All those questions went through my mind until I shut them down. I could find her. I reached across the table and grabbed her hand. I gave it a gentle squeeze. “Don’t worry, I’ll find her. You stay here. How long ago did you find out she was gone?”

“About an hour ago,” she told me. I didn’t yell and ask why no one had called me to tell me; instead, I stood up.

Before I could walk out, Reaper sternly demanded, “You find out where she is, and we’ll help you go get her. It was time we made her see we’re here for her, and no matter what, we always will be. Go find your woman, then we’ll go after her.”

“Thanks, pres. I’ll let you know as soon as I find something. I need to do some searching for her to find out if she has anyone to go to.”

He nodded. Lash gave me a sympathetic look. The closer I got to home, the more my facade of calm slipped until I walked into the house, slamming the door behind me. I stomped into my office. I needed peace and quiet to track her down. And when I did, I was going after her and spanking her ass before bringing her back. Sitting down and bringing my computer to life, I did what I swore I wouldn’t. I began to dig into her life. First, I tried the easy thing, and I sent her a text message.

Me: Hey, Hotcake, it’s Spawn. Where are you? You’ve got us worried to death. Troian is freaking out. Text or call me.

I waited five whole minutes, and when I still had no reply, I tried to track her phone. My program came up with zilch. She must have it turned off, or it was dead. Next, I got online and started to investigate her. I started with her name and driver’s license, which I knew. From there, I got into the employee files at the hospital, only this time I went into the personnel files. I found she had no emergency contact or anyone listed as her next of kin. I did find a former employer, but it was someone not in Bristol.

Working from there, I slowly pieced enough together to get me to the state she was born in. Most people didn’t know their social security number indicated where they were issued the number. The first three numbers were the area, and based on hers, which was four-three-four, that was Louisiana. Working through prior addresses and the child services there, I was able to piece together more about her. I found out she’d been raised by her maternal grandmother until she died when she was ten years old. That was the one she told us about who taught her to cook.

When her granny died, Kimera went into the foster care system. She was never adopted, although she did live in a few foster homes. The first was from the time she was orphaned to eleven. It had been only temporary. The home she was in from eleven until thirteen ended when the mom unexpectedly died. The social worker’s notes indicated if she hadn’t died, the family planned to keep Kimera. The last one was from fourteen to sixteen. The file only said it ended when the family said they could no longer keep her. She spent the last two years living in a group home.

As soon as she turned eighteen, Kimera left town and moved to the other side of the state. She worked and put herself through school. It was after she graduated that she moved to Virginia. Once I had this information, which didn’t tell me much, I left it be and went to search her social media to see if there might be clues there on where she might be.

I was disappointed to see she had very little she ever posted about. Nothing which would lead me to where she was or someone who might know. It was basically an empty profile. She didn’t post pictures and stuff like a lot of people did. Dropping this search, I brought up her credit cards and bank account. I had an alert set to tell me if she used her phone or turned it on. It would automatically trace the cell tower closest to it.

It was when I was researching the latter two things that I found a charge on a credit card she never used. It was in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which was where she was originally from. It was at a hotel there. Excitement filled me as I worked to see if I could find and gain access to cameras at or around the hotel. I decided to do that to confirm she was there rather than just ride off to find her. However, it would be too much of a coincidence for a charge to register there and her not being there.

My luck held, and in short order, I had found and gotten into the hotel’s CCTV. It was really disheartening to see how easy it was to break into security and closed-circuit systems. You’d think they’d make them much more hacker-proof, but it was lucky for me they weren’t. I checked the time of the charge and saw it had been posted early this morning. We didn’t know exactly when she left, and it would’ve taken over twelve hours to drive there, assuming she’d taken two days to do it, so I searched for her vehicle and went back into the recordings.

It wasn’t a quick process. I was about to say forget it when I noted her car on the tape. It was time-stamped at eight o’clock Central last night. I saw her go check in and then come out to her car to grab her suitcase and go inside again. I left it running as I searched for flights and was about to shut it down and go get my stuff together to go after her when my heart dropped, and acid filled my belly. There was a shot not long after she checked in. It showed her leaving the hotel, except she wasn’t alone. Walking out with her was a man.

They had their arms wrapped around each other and were smiling. I watched as he opened the passenger door to another car and helped her inside. When he got in on the driver’s side, she leaned over to him. It was obvious from the way he was facing her and how he bent his head that they were kissing. Absolute fury careened through me. I let out a roar. It took everything in me not to sweep everything off my desk, including my computer.

She’d left to go be with another man! A man who no one here knew anything about. Why? If she had a man, why keep him a secret? Furiously typing because I had to know who he was, I tapped into the Louisiana DMV and ran his license plate. It wasn’t long before I knew his name, date of birth, and address. From there, I traced him further and what I found made me more furious. He was married and the father of two kids. The reason for her secrecy and running off without a word was that she was having an affair with a married man. A man who must travel for his work. This was the only answer for how they saw each other when they lived so far apart. She was his out-of-state mistress. No wonder she didn’t talk about him or want anything to do with me. Disgust filled me, along with extreme anger.

???

I was over this celebration. All I wanted to do was get drunk and forget. Forget I ever met a woman named Kimera. I knew no one would miss me if I slunk off to my house. In fact, they’d be glad to see me go. Even though I knew it wasn’t any of their fault, I was taking my “pissed off at her” attitude out on them. I had to stop that. They didn’t deserve it.

Tonight was supposed to be all about celebrating Colt getting his patch. I was glad for him. I really was. I just couldn’t seem to express it. All I could do for the past week was think about how she’d been hiding shit and was involved in adultery. I would’ve never thought she’d be involved with a married man, let alone one with kids.

I’d kept myself from searching further into him and her, but it had been hard. I wanted to know what he had that she found so damn attractive. I would’ve given her anything she wanted and treated her like a queen. He couldn’t do that. He had to hide her existence. Unless he divorced his wife, he couldn’t marry her. Would they be happy to keep their relationship a secret and at most have a second family together? The thought ate at me.

A hand coming down hard on my right shoulder got my attention. I looked up through blurry eyes to find Reaper, Lash, Mayhem, Maniac, and Crusher standing there, frowning at me. Shit, I guess they were here to get to the bottom of my attitude and tell me to get over it. Believe me, if I could, I would.

“Get up and come with us,” Reaper growled.

“I know what you’re gonna say, Pres. I swear, I’ll stop being a bastard to everyone,” I promised, hoping I could do it. The last thing I wanted was to ostracize my brothers.

“Damn right you will, and we know how you can do it. Let’s go,” Maniac added.

Knowing it was useless to argue with three of the officers and Lash, I sighed and wearily got to my feet. I hung on to my beer, though. I had a feeling I’d need it and a lot more after this talk was over. As I followed them away from the party and to Reaper’s office, I wondered if I was about to get an ass beating to adjust my attitude. Maybe it would do some good. Fuck if anything else seemed to help.

Lash closed the door, and I was pushed down into one of the chairs. The others stood around the room, with Reaper taking his seat behind his desk. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Talk. Tell us what the hell happened with you and Kimera.”

“Nothing happened. She left. You know that,” was my immediate snappy reply.

“Brother, it was more than her just leaving. When our women left, we went after them. We thought you were doing the same, and then bam, you backed off and became a total fucking bear. What’s stopping you from going after her and making her see her place is here with you? Hell, you went with me when I fetched Troian back when she was pissed with me,” Lash reminded me.

“You and Troi and the other old ladies were different. Kimera isn’t interested in me or in being here.”

“How do you know that? Did you ask her? She’s hurting after what happened to her,” Maniac added.

I snorted. “Yeah, believe me, she’s not hurting. She’s just fine.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Crusher snapped.

“It means she’s where and with whom she wants. Let’s drop it. I’ll stop being a bear.” I went to stand up, but Mayhem pushed me back down.

“You sit your ass right there. See, we wondered what the hell was going on with you, so I asked a favor. You’re gonna listen and keep your mouth shut,” Reaper barked. As I stared at him, he picked up the phone and dialed. I wondered who the hell he was calling and what this was about. It wasn’t long before a voice answered. I recognized it immediately. It was Smoke.

“I take it you got his ass with you,” Smoke said as a way of greeting.

“Yep, he’s across the desk, glaring at us right now. You said you found something and wanted to talk to us. Tell us,” Reaper ordered.

Uneasiness began to worm its way inside me. What had Reaper done, and what did Smoke have to tell us?

“Got it. So I did what you asked since it seems Spawn wasn’t doing it or sharing what he knew. I can tell you that he found her. I came across his digital footprints.” My heart jumped. Shit, he’d gone searching for Kimera. How the hell did he know what I did? I swear I covered my tracks, but then again, he was the best.

“There’s no need for that,” I told him gruffly.

“Shut it. Keep going, Smoke,” Reaper said.

“Well, I found her in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where she grew up. It seems she went there. She has been staying at a hotel in town. I don’t know if she shared much with you, but she was orphaned at ten and was raised until she was eighteen in foster care.”

I worked to tune him out. I didn’t need to hear what he found. I had no doubt he was about to tell my brothers about her secret man and how I’d made a fool of myself over the bitch. Disgust not only with her but also with myself increased. A loud slapping sound jarred me back to attention. It was Lash.

“Are you listening to Smoke?”

“I already know what he found. Let me save him some time. She’s there with a man. She has a boyfriend, a married one with two kids. Apparently, she couldn’t wait for him to travel this way for his work, so she went to him,” I snarled. Stunned disbelief appeared on all of their faces.

“That can’t be,” Crusher said gruffly.

“It is,” I said.

At the same time, Smoke said, “It’s not.”

“What the fuck do you mean it’s not? I saw them on the security camera at her hotel the night she got there. They were kissing in his car after he picked her up. He’s married.”

“I don’t know what you think you saw, but she’s not his mistress or girlfriend or whatever you want to call it. Did you bother to dig deeper once you saw whatever it was and found out his name and that he was married?” Smoke asked.

“There was no need,” I told him.

“Yes, there was. You need to get your ass to Lake Charles if you can’t get her to come back, and you need to talk to that woman. There’s shit happening you have no clue about, and if what I suspect is true, it’s ugly. Worse than what happened with the Gusevs. Fuck, she should’ve asked for help,” he muttered.

“What do you mean? What have you found out?” I snarled as I sat forward in my chair. I wanted to come through the phone and shake it out of him.

“Enough to know she’s not involved with that man the way you think, and there are too many unanswered questions. She’s been spending time with him, his kids, and his wife. If you don’t wanna help her, then I’ll talk to Terror, and we will,” Smoke snapped. He was truly pissed at me. I sat there feeling poleaxed. What had I missed? Right on the heels of that thought came dread.

“We’ll take care of it, although we appreciate you doing this, Smoke. Depending on what we find out, I’ll let Terror, or you know if I think we need reinforcements. Would you send me what you have? By the looks of Spawn, he might be broken,” Reaper said.

“Sure, I’ll send it over. And Spawn, if she’s the one, you’d better beg to get her back, and when you do, tell her what you thought. You don’t want this coming out down the road, and believe me, it will. Later,” Smoke said before hanging up.

I put my head in my hands. Jesus Christ, what did I do? It was eerily quiet for a minute or so, and then I raised my head to meet their gazes. I saw pity, sympathy, and disappointment. I met Reaper’s eyes. “I need to see what he sent. And I need to go to Lake Charles.”

“Before you go running off, we need to talk. You said you saw them kissing in his car. Are you sure? Hell, the sparks the two of you gave off were enough for us to know there was interest on both sides, even if she was subdued after the attack. Why didn’t you tell anyone what you found out?” Pres asked.

“Because it gutted me, and I felt like a fool for thinking she was the one! It was like…” I paused, not wanting to say it.

“It was like history repeating itself,” Mayhem said quietly. All of them had been part of the club when I joined, but Mayhem was the one to whom I told my story the night we met. I hadn’t talked about my old girlfriend to anyone else, that I recalled.

“Yeah, it reminded me of the girlfriend who picked another man over me all those years ago. It’s why I left Montana and was wandering the country when I met Mayhem. I guess seeing Kimera with him made me feel like it was happening again, only I feel more for her than I ever did the first one by far. There’s no comparison.”

“Can you show us what you saw?” Maniac asked.

I didn’t want to see it again, but if they wanted to verify it, I’d show them. “I can. It’s on my computer in my office. We’ll have to go there.” I didn’t say aloud that as painful as it was, I’d saved it. I think I did it so that if I ever got weak and wanted to go after her, I’d have it to remind me not to. Seeing their nods, I got up, and we all went to my office. It didn’t take me long to bring it up. I made myself watch it.

When she and the man drove off after kissing each other, it was Lash who broke the silence. “I can see how maybe it could’ve been seen as a kiss, but it’s not for sure. Add to it what Smoke said, and I think you owe it to both of you to call her. Ask what she’s doing there and when she’s coming back. If she doesn’t tell you, then you can decide if you want to go after her or not.”

“I agree. There are other explanations for what that was. It’s getting late. Do you want to call her tonight or tomorrow? Has Troian talked to her?” Reaper asked Lash.

“She has a couple of times. Kimera wouldn’t say where she was or why she left other than she needed time to get herself together. It’s causing stress for Troian, which I hate,” he said.

“What do you want to do?” Maniac asked me.

“I’ll call her tonight and see if I can get her to talk to me. If not, then I’m headed to Louisiana. I was a goddamn idiot, and I refuse to continue to be one. I may be gone for a while, convincing her to give me another chance if I’m wrong about him and her,” I warned them.

“You do what you have to do. We’ll survive. Let us know what you need. Now, I think we should get the hell out. No one needs to listen to this call,” Reaper added with a smirk.

The others mumbled their agreement, and before they filed out, they patted my arm. As the door shut behind them, I took a few moments to collect myself before dialing her number. It was ten at night our time, which meant it was nine in Louisiana. It wasn’t too late. Let this be a huge misunderstanding. God, don’t let me fuck this up, I pleaded. Hope was beginning to rear its head.

My hand actually shook a tiny bit as I pushed the call button. I was about to hang up after letting it ring several times when she answered. I heard the hesitancy in her voice as soon as she said hello. “Hello? Spawn? Is that you? Is everything alright?”

“Hello Kimera, yes, it’s me. Everything is good. I was calling to see how you’re doing. You’ve been gone for a couple of weeks. Everyone is wondering when you’ll be coming home. You missed Colt’s patch-in party tonight.”

“Oh, I’m glad he made it. Tell him I said congratulations. I bet he’s happy,” she said softly, but I could hear she was glad he’d gotten it.

“He is. He’s called Gravel now. The guys have been teasing him, saying it’s because he wrecked, but really it’s his voice.”

I heard a soft chuckle. “That’s so mean of you guys, but funny. How’ve you been? Busy?”

“I’ve been okay, not too busy. I’d be better if you came back. I miss you. You didn’t say how much longer you’ll be gone. Troian is missing the hell out of you, too. We all are. Where are you?”

She didn’t answer immediately, so I waited as patiently as I could. Finally, she did. “I needed time away to get myself straightened out. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be. I miss everyone, too. I’m visiting an old friend.”

“If you miss everyone, then that means you miss sparring with me, I see. I admit, no one here likes to go at it with me like you do. You can’t expect me to go from that to cold turkey, Hotcake. I’m in withdrawal,” I teased her. I didn’t want to cause her to worry or stress.

She laughed this time. “Okay, Studcake, I’ll let you know when I know I’m coming back. Try to resist going into a funk because you miss me. I hate to do this, but I’m at my friend’s house, and I can’t talk.”

“That’s alright. I’ll let you go. Just promise if I call or text, you’ll answer me. I’m worried about you.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, but thank you. Yes, I’ll answer your texts, and if I can, I’ll answer your calls. That’s not as easy to do as texts are. Take care, Spawn.”

“I will darlin’, and you take care, too. Talk soon,” I softly said before she hung up.

As soon as the line went dead, I got to work on purchasing an airline ticket. There was something going on. I could hear it in her voice. She’d be talking to and seeing me way sooner than she imagined.