Page 2 of Truths

She opens the saddlebags and rummages around until she finds what she's looking for. “Bingo!” Pulling out the burner phone, she dials the number she got from Sutton.

“Who is this?” Kara answers, her voice clipped.

“Lex,” she says. “I'm going to give you an address, okay?”

“Why?”

“Five-eighty-seven Timbercreek Circle.”

Sniffling, Kara sounds bored. “Nope.”

“Are you alone?”

“For now.”

“Can you get to that house?”

This seems to pique her interest. “Why?”

“Because I'm pretty sure I know why you left the Drifters for the Kingsmen. And if I'm right, that reason is in the basement of that house.”

She gasps and whispers, “You saw Dani?”

“Yes, and I need you to see if you can find out how many people are inside. And if Dani's locked up or not.”

“When I saw her at the last house, she was shackled up. By the time I got in with the club, they'd moved her.”

“Okay, metal shackles?”

A small sob escapes Kara. “Yes.”

“Kara, I need you to go there now. Like right now. I need to know how many people are there. There's a small window to have the resources we need before they inevitably move her. I don't think they caught on that I was with the Drifters, but there's always a chance they'll get suspicious. If that's the case, I don't know how we'll find her again.”

“I'm going now,” Kara says. “Call back on this number?”

“Yes.”

Hanging up, Lex walks back into the clubhouse, her entire body shaking with anxious energy. As much as she wants to interrupt Church, she knows she can't. Not until Kara calls her back.

Marnie Banks sits in the clubhouse, and she keeps a wide berth when she sees Lex. The curly blonde made it clear to Marnie the last time they spoke that she has an issue with her. Part of her wishes the younger woman would say something. Pick a fight. Give Lex a reason to hit her and get some of this nervous energy out before she jumps out of her skin.

None of this still makes any sense to Lex. If Dani's still alive, there’s no logical reason someone wouldn’t have reached out to Dax. Ransom, revenge, something. It proves the fire was staged, and the neighbors were part of it. The body in the house wasn'tDani's, and whoever it was was more than likely dead at the time of the fire, which makes sense why it was still in the bed. But why?

If a rival takes their enemy's woman, it's known. They gloat and show how much better they are than the club they took the woman from. When Lex was kidnapped by the Savage Slashers, they left a witness because it's not fun if no one knows they were taken. There’s no dig at a club if they’re not aware someone is with their enemy. But the Kingsmen took the Hellraisers-now-Drifter's President's wife almost three years ago and said nothing?

“It almost feels like the Havoc Outlaws,” she mutters to herself.

Psycho, who happens to not only be one of her best friends but also the President of the Black Valley charter, was born and raised in the Havoc Outlaws clubhouse. That family was full of sociopathic freaks. They'd killed someone and let another club take the credit for over a decade. They didn't care whether the Drifters knew they were the ones to commit the murder. If Psycho hadn't killed his family and his club in front of her, she would think this is who they're dealing with.

The Kingsmen didn't want anyone to know Dani was still alive. But what do they get out of having a hostage no one knows about? And why fake her death? More than that, who the hell did they burn in the house?

Chapter Two

Summerville

Dax

Background checks. That’s why the entire Griffin's Beach charter sits in the Summerville Chapel. Dax finds the whole process of looking over his own club members tedious and a waste of time, but thankfully, Jennings Molloy suggested the Black Valley crew call in for the meeting. It’s already crowded and stuffy enough in this one little room full of men in leather and sweat.

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