Page 42 of Hell & Back

“I was with a couple of girlfriends at the Phantom Furies’ clubhouse. We met them at a shady looking bar. They invited us to come party with them. One of my friends wanted to try it. You know, the whole ‘I partied with bikers’ thing.” Shestared off in space like she was remembering the incident. Her eyes must have connected with Joe and his partner because she immediately jerked her head back toward him. “I don’t really remember exactly how I ended up here. I think I got separated from my friends. I went to use the bathroom and when I came out, I ran into one of the Phantom Furies. I felt someone cover my mouth from behind and then,” she shook her head. “And then I was here with you.”

They probably chloroformed her and kidnapped her. If they took her from the clubhouse he doubted they had far to take her. Were they still on Phantom property? He thought so, but were they in the basement of the clubhouse or some other building?

He knew exactly what she was saying about bragging about partying with bikers. They got a lot of hang arounds at their club parties, too. The difference was the Sons never drugged or forced any of them to have sex.

9

JED

“Hey, Jackson. What’s up?” Jed took the towel he’d been using to dry his hair with and wiped the condensation off the mirror. Switching his phone to speaker, it freed his hands to run them through his hair until he was satisfied with the result. Happy with his hair, he exited the hotel bathroom naked and in a fog of steam.

“We got a hit at one of the rental properties last night.”

“Oh, yeah?” He set the phone on the table next to his duffel bag and pulled out clean clothes. “About damn time.” Going commando, he slipped one leg then the other through his jeans. The last time he’d worn underwear was when he was still living at home and his mom still bought it for him. Grabbing his socks and boots, he took a seat on the end of the bed.

“You know that stripper, Avery, from Bottom’s Up?”

“Yeah.” Jed knew her well. Not as well as he would like to know her, but well enough to know she’d be a fantastic lay. “What about her?” If she was at the Phantom rental property,he had a bad feeling he wasn’t going to like what his friend was going to say next.

“She came out of the house this morning and drove south through town. She stopped at one of the rest stops along the way, grabbed an overnight bag out of the back and headed inside.”

“Okay?” He finished pulling on his boots.

“When she came out she didn’t have black hair anymore, she was blonde.”

“She color her hair while she was in there?” Jed picked up the relatively clean t-shirt he placed next to him on the bed, smelled it, shrugged a shoulder and tugged it on. It wasn’t too bad. All it needed was a good airing out and he’d get plenty of that moving around.

“No. She wasn’t in there long enough to color her hair. When she was walking back to her car she got a call. She answered it and whoever was on the other end of the line was pissing her off.”

“Okay. So you’re saying we need to watch for Avery showing up in Taos as a blonde?” Jed swiped on his deodorant under one arm, then paused before he could swipe the other because Jackson’s next news shocked the shit out of him.

“No. She’s Sadie, Jed. Sadie Swallow. The one who has her name on the Redemption properties.”

Jed dropped his ass to the edge of the bed again, his deodorant forgotten. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah. We followed her to the state line. She should be there in about an hour and a half if she keeps driving at the speed she was doing earlier.” At Jed’s long silence, Jackson asked, “You still there?”

“Yeah. Sorry. Just trying to wrap my head around Sadie posing as a stripper.” Who gave hot as hell lap dances.

“What’re you gonna do?”

“Gonna confront her ass.” There really was no other option. She’d been playing him, knowing exactly who he was the whole time he’d been trying to charm her.

“Want me to call Tulsa and Lance? Fill them in?”

“No. I’ll do it. We’re meeting for breakfast in,” he glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “Five minutes.”

“Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

Jed ended the call and stared out the window. What the hell was Sadie playing at? How connected to the PFMC was she? And why did he not want her to be involved with those fuckers?

He grabbed his keys, his phone and his wallet before heading out the door to meet Tulsa and Lance at the cafe across the street. He had so many questions and she damn well was going to answer them. First question would be whether or not she was the old lady to one of the Phantoms? If so, why would he allow his woman to pretend to be a stripper and why was the guy okay with her doing lap dances?

The bell above the door announced his arrival as he entered the cafe. Scanning the small crowd, he spotted his brothers at a back corner booth.

“Hey,” Tulsa greeted as he stopped at the table.

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