Chapter Five Wildcard

CHAPTER FIVE: WILDCARD

"Hunter said she was at the gate when Preacher shot me," I tell Spark. "Can you track her?"

Child's play," Spark says, turning back to his keyboard.

"This is Preacher's daughter, right?" Spark asks without missing a keystroke. "Damn, she's hot. Must take after her mom."

I growl at Spark, who just laughs. "What? I love redheads. They have all that fire and sass. But don't feel threatened. I already have my hands full with my redhead. Doesn't mean I can't admire a different model."

I snort. "Think Juliet will see it that way?"

"Nope, which is why I won't tell her, and you won't either, asshole."

"Okay, she was in a cab. I'm tracking it through the city, but tracking cabs is harder. There are just too damn many of them and they all look alike. But I'll get the cab's ID and the company. Juliet can access their records if I can't follow her through the cams."

"Where is Juliet? She was here earlier."

"She had to go back to her apartment. Said she was meeting a client this afternoon."

"She meets face-to-face with clients? I thought she had a condition that kept her indoors and away from people."

"She does, but she's working on overcoming it. Hanging out here in the clubhouse has helped her. She's attempting to put herself out there more and face her fears."

"What fears?"

"She's a former FBI profiler. Although, I think she does freelance jobs for them still. She was profiling a serial killer who targeted female college students. The top performers. The ones who made the Dean's List or were star athletes, for example. He'd grab them and torture them for weeks before he let them starve to death. Real nasty piece of work. She profiled him. While she worked the case, the guy figured out who she was and sent her videos of him torturing his victims. Told her he was coming for her. They wanted to take her off the case, but she refused. Her profile, combined with the evidence they pulled from the tapes, led to his capture and conviction. However, it took them close to a year before they found him. She was in isolation for all that time and it did something to her. She found it difficult to return to the world."

"Fuck."

"Yeah. I think being here with us helps her feel safe without having to be isolated."

"Is she okay with you telling me this? Seems personal."

"She's okay with it. I was with her when she told Puma the story. Dice, Chill, and Viper know, too."

"So, I'm basically the last to know?"

Spark chuckles. "Probably."

Leaning against the wall, I impatiently wait for Spark to find something. I need to be moving. Pushing off to pace, I feel the twinge of pain in my shoulder. Fucking Preacher. I guess I should consider myself lucky that he wasn't a better shot. "You have any pain relievers in here?"

Spark reaches over and pulls out the drawer next to him. He reaches inside and pulls out a bottle, tossing it over to me. I dry swallow three pills and think of Brigit. Why did she choose today to come back to Vegas? After Squiggy's death, I considered reaching out to her to see if she'd want to come home. I don't know what stopped me, except maybe the possibility of a refusal. Leaving her in Boston was the hardest thing I'd ever done. Not checking on her or knowing if she was alright, was difficult. I lost count of the number of times I'd pick up the phone to call her or contact Havoc and ask him to check on her. When I left her, I told her not to contact me or come back here. Until today, she'd followed that edict completely. So what changed?

Taking out my phone, I search for answers. Since I don't know what I'm looking for, I start with the news sites in Boston. I'm not expecting to find anything right away, so when I see Brigit's name listed as a person of interest in a murder case, I clutch my phone so hard it cracks.

What the fuck?

"Find her," I tell Spark, rushing out of the room in search of Puma.

"Yeah," Puma answers as I open the door. "Did you find her?"

"No, but I think I know why she's here." I hand Puma my phone and watch as he reads the article.

"Do you think she killed the guy?" Puma asks.

"No! Well, fuck. I don't know. I don't think she would. But I haven't seen her in six years. Maybe she did. If she did, she had a reason."

"Have you found her?"

"Spark's tracking her through traffic cams. He'll find her. Then I'll have him dig up more about this murder. And Michael Perry."

Puma picks up his phone and makes a call.

"Puma, fuck man, what did I do to earn a call from the great Maklin Brooks?" I hear Havoc, the President of the Boston Chapter, ask.

"Need some information about a murder in your town. Michael Perry."

"The hotel guy? Yeah, what about him?"

"Know anything about it or why someone would want to murder him?"

"The cops think some bitch did it. She worked at the hotel. That's all I know. However, I know Perry, or at least, I know of him. He's a bastard with ties to the Bratva."

"Do you think they might have killed Perry?" I ask.

"Maybe. But Perry was one of theirs. Why? What's your interest in all this?"

"The woman the cops are looking at for the murder is under our protection."

I frown at Puma, not liking that he told Havoc about Brigit. But then, Brigit is here in Vegas and once I find her, I'm not letting her go.

"Then what the fuck was she doing living in Boston?"

I share a glance with Puma before confessing. "I stashed her there six years ago."

"And you didn't think to do me the courtesy of telling me? What the fuck? Didn't know you and your men were so disrespectful, Puma."

"Not his doing," I defend my President. "Puma wasn't President back then. I made the call."

"Fuck, that's right, Squiggy was the President. That motherfucker."

"He was. He was also the reason I hid her in Boston. I knew he'd never look for her there. Maybe I should have told you, but her dad didn't want anyone from the club involved."

"Who's her dad?"

"Preacher."

"Why the fuck would Preacher not want us to know about his daughter? He was just here with the rest of the Nomads. He never mentioned having a daughter in town."

"Not the same Preacher. This guy rode with Squiggy. Went to jail six years ago. He asked me to protect his daughter because Squiggy showed an interest. He asked me to find her a safe place, and I chose Boston."

"Doesn't explain the disrespect. Should have told me."

"Couldn't take the chance. Figured she'd be safer if no other bikers knew where she was. Meant no disrespect, but she was my responsibility. Squiggy wanted her. You know what things were like back then. We didn't know who to trust."

"Yeah. Guys like Dale and Squiggy really screwed us up," Havoc admits with a sigh. "Almost lost the brotherhood because of those bastards."

"Need you to keep your ear to the ground," Puma says. "See if you can find out who killed Perry. Might be our girl ran here because she saw something she shouldn't have."

"That would make sense," Havoc agrees. "I'll let you know what I find out."

"Fuck, I screwed up," I tell Puma. "Should have told him. I'd be pissed if the roles were reversed."

"I'll invite him out to stay at the hotel on the club. Don't sweat it. Havoc isn't stupid, and he knows what Squiggy and Dale were like. Those assholes had spies in all the clubhouses. Another reason Dante asked Preacher, Stone, and Eagle to go nomad and help clean up the mess Dale made. You had to protect Brigit. That's what you did."

Puma's phone rings, so I stand up to leave.

"Hold on, it's Trouble."

Since Trouble and his club are covering the casino this week, I sit back down. The conversation is mostly one-sided, with Trouble doing most of the talking.

"You think so? Damn. No, I'll let it play out. Should be interesting. What room? Okay, thanks, man. Later."

Puma hangs up the phone and gives me a huge grin. "Trouble found your girl. She's at 1%, staying in Suite 1202 as a guest of Alisa's."

"Is she hurt?" I ask, stunned that the hotel staff would place her under club protection. Puma established a way for the hotel staff to hide abused women seeking refuge from abusive men. He gave it the code word ‘Guest of Alisa's.' He named it after his Old Lady, Alisa, who came to us for protection from a stalker who murdered her husband. Or, more accurately, had him murdered. The son of a cartel head rarely does his own dirty work.

"He said nothing about her being hurt, but the cab driver brought her in. He told Trouble that she seemed like she was on the run and scared. The cabbie told Trouble that he brought her here first."

"Okay, I'll head over there and talk to her. I'm going to convince her to come back here with me. I'll cover any expenses for the room."

Puma shrugs and gives me another grin. "Take the SUV. You don't want to be riding with that shoulder. Besides, you don't know what she's brought with her."