19. The New Big Fish

CHAPTER 19

THE NEW BIG FISH

TRINITY

“Looks like someone is still on a new boyfriend high.” Carla giggled as Hannah grinned at me. I couldn’t help it. Trouble and I had been damn near inseparable since we first had the crazy office hookup two weeks before. He took me out on dates on the nights when I didn’t have to go into work and on the nights I did work, I’d find him waiting for me when I got home. Some nights we showered together, a couple we took a long relaxing bath, and then we would tear up the sheets before exhaustion stole us both into dreamland. It was hard to want to head to dreamland every night when I already lived my real life fantasy come true by day.

“What can I say?” I asked. “The man spoils me.”

“One day, I’m going to find that too.” I glanced over to see Brian, one of our security guys eyeing Hannah up. When he noticed me, noticing him, he grinned and gave me a chin tip.

“Come on, I’ll walk you ladies out.”

“Thanks, Brian.”

Everyone else was safe and secure in their vehicles by the time I got my Jeep started. Brain and Carla were the first to peel out of the lot and then it was just Hannah and me, only I didn’t hear Hannah’s car start. I pulled my Jeep closer to her. What’s going on, Han?”

“My car won’t even turn over,” she cried then proceeded to beat the steering wheel up like that would help.

“Come on, hop in and I’ll send a text to JoJo to get your car towed into the shop and checked out.”

“I don’t know if I can afford any work right now. Things are tight with the new house I bought.” Hannah had been saving for two years to have enough money down to get a loan on a house. The banks were assholes about what she did for a living, since the majority of her income came in the form of sweaty dollar bill tips. The fucking jerks. Still, they couldn’t argue with her credit score or the big downpayment she dropped. It was fifty percent of the whole cost of her house.

“You know we’ll work with you,” I reminded her. “If we need to do an employment contract and take a little out each paycheck, or have a contract that we get a specific percentage until the work is paid off, we can work something out.”

“You girls are too good to us.”

“No, we do exactly what anyone should do for their employees. Hop in, and I’ll take you home.”

“I’m all the way over in Murphy and you’re in Sierra High.”

“Do you see another way for you to get home tonight?” I asked her.

“No. I feel bad putting you out, though.”

I sighed. “Hannah, we women have to stick together.” It would have been nice if Brian had waited until all the women left the parking lot before he took off, but I was thankful that it was my policy to make sure everyone made it out safely before I left. “It’s no bother.” As she got in and settled into the passenger seat, I texted JoJo about the car and then sent a quick text to my man that I would be late. He wasn’t going to be waiting for me when I got in anyway, since he was on a run for the club and out of town for two more days.

“I really appreciate you going out of your way, and helping with my car too.”

“Like I said, it’s no problem.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” I offered.

“Do you think the club would get involved if there was a problem with missing girls where I live?”

“That depends, I guess. What do you mean there’s a problem with missing girls?”

“Two girls I went to school with have gone missing in the past month. Everyone said they probably just got tired of living in the middle of nowhere, but I don’t think so. Leslie was one of them and she had the biggest crush on my neighbor. He’s some new Italian guy in town and…”

“Italian guy?”

“Yeah, reminds me of all those Godfather movies or something. You know the type? Bad boys in suits and whatnot.”

I made a noncommittal noise as I drove. “I’ll talk to Trouble about it when he gets back and let you know. When you talk to JoJo about your car, mention it to her too, okay?”

“I don’t know. That seems like asking for too many favors all at once.”

“Trust me, it’s not. Both clubs will want to know if girls start to go missing. The first people anyone points their fingers at will be the motorcycle clubs.”

“None of them are like that though,” Hannah defended without a single thought.

“We know that, but everyone else judges based on shit they see in the news and in movies, not on what the two clubs close to them really do.”

“I guess so. I’ll tell her.” Hannah pointed to the street sign that barely caught the reflection from my headlights. “That’s my road. Second house on the left.”

“Okay. Which one does the new Italian guy live in?” I asked her. She pointed to the blue house to the right of hers. Third house on the left. I made sure to type the address into a text to myself, so I wouldn’t forget it before I talked to Trouble.

After Hannah got out of the Jeep, I glanced down at my gas gauge and sighed. It was a forty-five minute drive back to my house and I only had a quarter of a tank, thanks to driving this far out. There was one gas station open between her house and where I had to turn left to get back on Highway 64 headed east. I sighed and thanked my lucky stars that the place was well lit as I pulled in. Unfortunately, the credit card machine at the pump wasn’t working, so I had to go in to pay for my gas before I pumped.

When I went inside, I was immediately uncomfortable. There were several men dressed in suits with slicked back hair standing around the drink machines. I made my way to the cashier as quickly as possible, in the hopes that I would go unnoticed.

“We need to get more girls. They’re not happy with the little trickle they have coming in.”

“Did they miss the memo that this isn’t exactly a metropolitan area? We recruit too many and someone will start to ask questions about where they are,” one of the men stated.

“He’s not wrong. You need to spread out the recruitment, and if you’re smart, you’ll do it outside of this town. You don’t shit where you eat.” The man who offered up that advice was from the area, judging by his accent. He had his back to me as he spoke, so I couldn’t tell if I recognized him or not.

“If you don’t shit where you eat sometimes, it paints a pretty picture that this is where we do business. Voids speak just as loudly as culling too many from one area. We’ll spread out a bit, but we can’t avoid pulling them from this town.” That man was not from around here. His northern accent had midwest, most likely Chicago, written all over it. The hair on my arms stood on end as the cashier finally got the machine to work and took my money. I walked as quickly as possible out of the gas station and to my Jeep. The whole way, I wished that I didn’t need gas to make it home because I would have tried to coast in on fumes if I thought I could make it, rather than taking the time to fill up with those men still there.

I wasn’t stupid. They might have been talking about recruitment, but the sheer fact that they had to talk about voids and pulling too many spoke volumes about the nature of that recruitment. As soon as I got the pump working, I pulled my cell out and sent a text off to Trouble and Hollywood, just in case.

Trinity: Bad men at Fatbacks in Murphy. Gassing up and going home, but nervous. Wanted you to know in case…

I didn’t know what else to put. In case I disappeared would start a panic the minute they read the text. Neither of them texted back, so I assumed they were on the road or in a meeting. Considering they were on a run, either was possible, even given the time.

“Hey!” I ignored the man, the one who sounded local, and willed the pump to push gas into my Jeep faster. “Hey!” He called again. I glanced up to see that he had rounded the pump and cocked his head to the side as he took me in. The man was about my father’s age, and he looked a little familiar, though I couldn’t place him. It was possible I’d seen him at the club before. That was one of the hazards of working at a strip club. “You look familiar.”

“I get that a lot,” I mentioned as I stared daggers at the stupidly slow pump.

The man chuckled. “I bet you do, sweetheart. Is your mom by any chance Evelyn Markham?”

I was thrown when he mentioned my mother and looked back up to see the smile spread across his face. “Yes, she was my mother.”

“Was?” He questioned.

“She passed away a few years ago,” I informed him.

“Ah. I was away for a few years and hadn’t heard. You look just like she did when we were young.”

Apparently, they had known one another a long while back, and while curiosity built in the back of my mind, awareness sent a shiver down my spine. The other men he had been talking to started to file out of the gas station just as the pump clicked off. Thank fuck for small favors. I put the pump back, put my gas cap back in place, and then rounded my Jeep to get in. The man walked around the front of the Jeep, but stood there by the bumper. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”

I got into my Jeep and started it. The bad thing about driving one is that they didn’t offer a lot of protection from people who wanted to do bad things to other people. “It’s late,” I called out as an excuse for being rude.

The man nodded and smiled again as he stepped out of the way. “Be seeing you soon.” He called to me as I passed him.

My hands shook the whole way home. My cell phone remained forgotten in my pocket until I pulled into my driveway because my eyes remained glued to the road, my mirrors, and everywhere else I could possibly check. I hadn’t been followed. That was the smallest of comforts I came away with. It seemed as though Hannah had tipped me off to something major going on and I wouldn’t wait to inform both clubs of that.

When I got in there were missed calls and texts from both Trouble and Hollywood. The last one was the most concerning.

Trouble: We’re coming back. Call me the minute you get this.

I dialed his number as I let myself into the house and locked the door behind me. Then I methodically went through the whole house to check all the locks on the doors and windows. I called back a second time and Trouble finally picked up.

“Sweetness?” He called out.

“I’m here. I’m home now.”

“You still sound spooked. Talk to me. What were you doing in Murphy?”

“I had to take one of the girls home. Her car wouldn’t start. On the way she said there were a couple girls she went to school with who had gone missing. No one thought much of it, but she said that one of the women had a thing for her new Italian neighbor.”

“Shit,” Trouble hissed down the line.

“When I left there, I went to get some gas so I could make it home. There were six men in suits inside the gas station and they were talking about recruiting women and where to do it to avoid notice. I think they’re taking women, Trouble. And one of them followed me out as I pumped gas. He was dressed like the others, but he was from this area judging by his accent. Plus, he asked me a bunch of questions and told me I looked a lot like my mom did when she was younger.”

“Did you tell him anything about you?”

“No. I only mentioned that mom died.”

“Shit, he’ll get your name from the obituary that was in the paper.”

“Did you forget we live in Small Town USA?” I asked. “He’ll get my name from someone in town. All he has to do is ask around. He’ll have my address in a hot minute too, if he wants it.”

“Listen to me carefully, sweetness. I need you to pack a bag and get your ass to the clubhouse.”

“Do you really think he’ll be bold enough to come after me tonight?”

“Don’t know, but I’m not in town to protect you and I’ll be damned if I’m going to take a chance on your life. Do what I asked and hurry it up. The only thing that might help in this situation is that it is half past two in the morning and no one is awake to ask.”

I didn’t hesitate to listen to him and packed my bag as he spoke. “Okay, my bag is packed and I’m ready to go.”

“Check the cameras before you go outside, just in case.”

I did as he asked and pulled up the app to check the cameras. I looked at the live view from the beginning of the driveway and then swapped over to the front porch view. I didn’t see anyone and knew that he had probably already logged in at some point and checked too.

“I was careful and made sure no one followed me home.”

“Were you close to any of them? Could they have put a tracker on you?”

I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me. “Not unless they had someone outside that I didn’t see when I went in to pay. I don’t remember seeing anyone near my Jeep. Then again, my attention was on the cashier and keeping the men inside in my peripheral.”

“It’s okay. You did the best you could on your own and you let us know there was a potential problem. Go to the Jeep, get to the clubhouse, and stay on the line with me if you can. I hate the fucking reception out there.”

“Me too,” I agreed. I did as he said and made it to the clubhouse with no problem. The prospect recognized me and opened up immediately, though he did tell me that Trouble and Hollywood weren’t there.

“Get inside first, then get someone to contact Quickshot, if he isn’t already there. I tried to call earlier and nothing went through. He needs to know everything that happened tonight, and start with your girl’s car not working. It could be nothing, but if she lives next door to one of those assholes, she might be on their list.”

“Oh God! Should I call her and warn her?”

“No. Quickshot or JoJo will send someone to get her, it’s the safest way to do this, especially since she doesn’t have her car.”

“Okay. Thank you for being there for me.”

“Don’t thank me when I’m not physically there. Fuck, this is the worst fucking timing. Call Bishop. If he finds out from someone else, he’ll be pissed.”

“Okay.” I hung up the phone and went inside to rally the troops.