Chapter Twenty-One

Talon

It's been almost a week and finally discovering who killed my wife was bittersweet. I felt terrible for Whitmore after hearing how Sandra's selfish, self-indulgent behavior had cost him the woman he loved and their unborn child. It was a heart wrenching story. As much as I've grown to dislike her and everything she put me thought, I still can't accept that she was intentionally murdered in such a horrific way. Asking for no plea bargaining is the least I can do as her husband. However, a little voice in the back of my mind is telling me that because Whitmore's wife was heavily pregnant and Sandra ran off and left her to die, the prosecutor might consider that extenuating circumstances. But Smoke feels that waiting two years to seek revenge—not to mention creating a fake dating profile with the sole intention of luring her to her death—would probably rule it out as a crime of passion, as it clearly showed premeditation. Either way, I've promised myself to accept whatever decision they make.

I'm sitting at the table, drinking a cup of coffee when Kelly comes downstairs and starts making herself a cup. "Where are the prospects this morning?"

"I fired them all," I tease.

"I can't imagine that," she responds lightly as she slides into a seat across from me.

"Since I'm putting my house up for sale and I'm going to be living here and you're joining me, I asked them to relocate to the clubhouse."

"Darn," she teases. "No more appetizers morning, noon, and night."

"Don't start grieving quite yet. Harvey is going to stay."

"Good call, babe."

I roll my eyes, "I gave him the pool house because he's too useful to send away."

"I agree about him being useful. You should pay him a salary." Then she frowns at me, as though she just realized something. "You have a pool? How did I not know about this?"

I smother back a smile. "You've been spending too much time in my bed to properly explore the place. Though, for your information, it's not really a pool house, it's a smaller cabin by the lake."

She takes a sip of her coffee. "I also never said I was living with you. You tried to sneak that one right past me."

I throw her a heated look. "You can't ride my glorious cock if you're not here when I undress."

"I don't think that's how sex works. So far we've had sex at the clubhouse, here, at our favorite lookout point and in your tent by the river. You take your pants off faster than any man I've ever met."

I raise my eyebrows, and try and sound jealous, "Meet many men then?" I know her past, and to be honest if she'd had hundreds of past lovers, it wouldn't have bothered me one bit. But it's nice to know that I'm the first who was more than a teenage fumble.

She gives me a teasing swat on the arm.

I chuckle, "You make me sound easy, sweetheart. I'm not sure how I should feel about that."

She gives me a sneaky grin. "I think we should live at my tiny apartment. If we put a bed diagonally across my bedroom, then I reckon I could fit a king-size in, for my king-sized biker."

I can tell by the look on her face, she's just pulling my leg. "If that's what you want, sweetheart, I'm there for it."

She makes a happy noise. "I was kidding about that. I like being out where we can be as loud as we want to be, without worrying about disturbing Mrs. Rodriguez below, or the Albertsons above."

Before I can respond, my cell phone jingles. When I read the text, the smile falls right off my face.

Setting her cup aside, Kelly leans over to look at my phone. "What's wrong? Is it bad news?"

I show her the message as I explain. "Zen thinks he might have a lead on Anabel. He wants to meet up with us at the clubhouse."

"Let's go. I don't want to waste any time. If it's at all humanly possible we need to get to her before her ex finds her—that's if she's not already back with him."

Or the Carver Killer, though as we haven't heard any more about him, I'm more inclined to believe it was just her ex being a creeper and wanting to keep her under control by scaring her silly. "Agreed. Let's roll."

We take my motorcycle which is getting to be our habit unless it's pouring with rain. It's a great source of pride for me that the woman I'm falling for enjoys riding at my back. I've never known her not to be up for a ride.

When we roll into the clubhouse Zen, Siege, and Rigs are waiting for us. We sit down in Siege's office. As soon as our asses hit the seats around the small conference table at the back, Zen launches into what he's found. "I discovered Anabel has a cousin. The woman is actually old enough to be her mother, but we all know that her parents and grandparents were murdered by the Carver Killer."

"How did you find the cousin? Is there any chance Anabel's ex might pick up the trail the same way?" I ask while Kelly squeezes my hand under the table.

"I doubt it," Zen replies, "While she was in a long-term care unit as a teen, someone was sending her money for snacks. The person's name was Kearney Ash. I believe she's a distant cousin."

"Any leads on where she might live?" Kelly asks excitedly.

Zen shakes his head, seeming none too pleased with that question. Our IT guru hates to come up blank. "I'm still looking for that information. I'm trying to be extra careful because if I go blundering about without covering my trail, anyone looking for her might realize what kind of information I'm digging through. Clearly, we don't want to do anything to draw her ex or the killer to her before we can get to her."

Siege murmurs, "No. We certainly don't want to make that kind of blunder."

"Do we still think she's in danger from the Carver Killer, or was that something the ex said to scare her into submission?" I ask.

"I'm not finding anything to suggest she's on anyone's radar, let alone the Carver Killer," Zen says, though he looks thoughtful. "As there have been no more murders linked to him and it's been over ten years, it may be that he's dead."

"Or he's incarcerated for some other crime, and is biding his time until he gets out," Siege says darkly.

We all look at each other, hoping that's not the case.

Zen interrupts the silence, "I'm getting close though and have set up web crawlers to pull anything relating to the cousin, Anabel, or her crazy ex, so hopefully it's only a matter of time before I get something."

"Is there anything I can do to help you find leads?" I only ask because now that we've figured out who killed Sandra, I want to make sure the man responsible for abducting Kelly is caught as well.

"Yeah, you can stay close. I have a gut feeling that my bots are going to strike gold today."

"What, is this like a secret IT spidey sense?" I joke, even though I know it's no laughing matter.

"Something like that," Zen says. "I'd explain, but I know how you all zone out when I talk tech."

"Fair enough," Siege shoots back.

Zen heads back to his office and we sit and chat for another half an hour about what we were going to do. I was just about to suggest we head off for something to eat when Zen bursts through the door saying he's turned up a possible location, so if we hold fire then he should have answers soon.

Kelly seems too excited to even think about eating, so instead we go out to the bar. I'm half thinking about what she did to me this morning that rocked my world, and half thinking about the beatdown I'm gonna give that fucker who tried to abduct her, when I see who's slipped onto the barstool beside her, and she's whispering something in her ear.

Fucking Lori.

I'm about to march over and do some serious damage limitation, but from the sly smile Lori gives me as she shimmies back to whatever hole she crawled out of, and the furious look on Kelly's face, I realize I'm too late.

Kelly glares at me, "So you trade out women, quicker than women trade out purses? When were you going to tell me I'm just warming your bed?"

Damn it! It makes me mad because it sounds like she's already made up her mind to believe whatever Lori said, rather than trusting me.

"Don't listen to that whore!" I exclaim. I can't believe that I woke up this morning happier than I've been in years, and now it feels like everything's falling apart.

"That's a pretty disrespectful way to talk about your girlfriend," Kelly counters.

"Girlfriend? You're my girlfriend? Why do you think she is?" I look around the bar to see if any of my club brothers are gonna come to my defense, but it's just Kelly and me.

"Why is she wearing your t-shirt. I recognize it, you had it on the other day."

"Yeah, and I left it in my room here. The room in which the prospects have been staying in." It's all starting to make sense now, but I don't think Kelly's gonna believe me.

She's still glaring at me, so I add, "Look, we've been together pretty much twenty-four-seven for the past few days. Even if I was fucking around, which I am absolutely not, when would I have had fucking time?"

I detect a softening in her expression. Maybe I'm getting through to her. At that moment, Mel comes out from the storeroom and looks at both of us in turn.

"Trouble in paradise? I leave for a minute, while Kelly here is telling me what a great guy you are. The next you're at each other's throats. What happened?"

"A woman came up and said ‘thanks' to me—thanks for keeping her side of the bed warm," Kelly spits out.

"Lori," I clarify.

Mel instantly puts her hand on Kelly's, "Honey, don't listen to anything she says. That bitch is trouble."

"But she was wearing Talon's shirt, she—"

"She's been partying with the prospects in Rigs' old suite for the past three days. She likes to cause trouble," Mel interrupts.

"But she said Talon was hers," Kelly sounds so upset. I want to go up to her and hold her but until she sees sense, I'm the last person she wants right now.

I turn to head outside to clear my head, just as I hear Mel say, "I'm head girl here, nothing happens in this clubhouse that doesn't escape my attention. I can categorically say that Talon has not been sleeping around with the club vixens. He put up with a lot of shit from his wife, he's one of the good ones."

"Talon," Kelly's voice calls after me.

I'm not angry, but I'm pissed that she was so fucking quick to believe Lori, over me. I think we both need a timeout. The rest of what she says is lost as the door closes behind me.

***

I'm standing in the parking lot, wondering whether I should go back in, when Siege strolls over, "You need to walk it off, brother. The last thing you want is to lose it, over some pointless argument that you don't even understand."

"Fucking Lori," I spit out, glaring at my club president. While I don't hold him personally responsible, he knows she's trouble, and yet he keeps letting her back in.

"I'll have words with her," he says.

And pigs will fly, I think uncharitably, but stay silent as he heads back inside the clubhouse.

Cursing under my breath, I turn around and run right into Rigs. "Sorry, brother," I grumble as I try to make my way past him to head for my motorcycle. A ride always clears my head.

His hand comes out to press against my chest, blocking me. "You look out of sorts, Talon. Want to talk about what's bothering you?"

"Yeah, Lori was stirring trouble as usual, and Kelly believed her. She essentially said bikers trade their women out on the regular and it pissed me off that she would believe that about me."

"Well, you're right. That's pretty insulting. Maybe you should call it quits with her if she's so quick to make judgments."

"Wait, what? No, I don't want to break up with her. I just want her to see that I'm not some kind of fucking cheater or man who uses women and tosses them aside like yesterday's garbage."

"I don't think you care about her as much as you think you do."

I glare at the guy I've always thought of as our spiritual leader. "Are you fucking trying to pick a fight with me? Cos if you are, I'm there for it."

He gives me that look that tells me I'm being all kinds of stupid. "You know better than that, son. When have I ever been intentionally insulting or tried to pick a fight with you?"

"Never," I acknowledge grudgingly.

"You like her, don't you?" He reaches out and gives my cut a shake. "Maybe you deserve a little wake up call."

I shove his hand off my cut and ask, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I noticed you haven't exactly laid claim to her publicly. Maybe that's the problem?"

I glare at him, not sure what he's getting at. "Say again, brother."

"Look, I'm not trying to be insulting but have you noticed how all the other brothers cover their women with property cuts and throw a ring on their finger when things get serious."

"We've only known each other for a couple of weeks," I say. Okay, I know we've technically known each other longer. But in terms of having any sort of relationship, we're talking days.

"When you know, you know," he smiles and gets that look on his face he has whenever Mattie is near. "I knew my Mattie was the woman for me the first time I laid eyes on her. Granted it took us a while to get there. Don't risk losing something special just because it doesn't fit into whatever timescale you think it should."

I know he's telling the truth, and I agree, but there's still something bothering me. "It's only been a few weeks since Sandra died. It's too quick, what are the brothers gonna think of me? What's her sister gonna think of me?"

"Fuck the lot of them!" Rigs exclaims, "Your club brothers know you two were separated in all but name. No one here is going to judge you, and if they do? Well, fuck them."

Once more, I get the benefit of spiritual counseling Rigs style, "It's still early days. She's gonna run a mile if I ask her to be my old lady."

Rigs looks up and appears to be counting to ten before looks at me again. "You don't need to drag her to the fucking altar. Just tell her how you feel, tell her it's exclusive. The way you do that is by putting her in a property cut, once you do that you don't have to worry about club whores like Lori causing trouble, or any of the prospects making a move on her."

"Thanks, brother," I say. Rigs might not be a conventional preacher, but his words of wisdom are golden.

"Come on," he says as he walks me to our motorcycles. "Let's go for a ride, then you get back and sort out a cut for her. Mel's putting her straight about Lori, so everything's good."

"Okay, "I say, as I quickly shoot off a text to one of the prospects. I want to get onto the property cut issue ASAP.