Page 54 of Havoc

I gestured to the scrape. “Eh. Just scratches. But you should’ve seen what I did to him. I broke one of his ribs clean in half. Pretty sure I’ll be a legend by dinner.”

That earned a wet laugh—barely. But it was something. I’d take it.

Mace and Nine approached, both looking at her with concern. Nine pressed his big body against her legs and let out a small whine.

That did it.

Riley slipped from my arms and hugged Nine like he was her best friend in the world. “Who’s the best boy? You are, that’s who. Theverybest boy ever.”

I grinned. “Treats are under the sink.”

She looked towards the cabin, hesitating. I draped my arm around her shoulders. “Come on. Let’s feed the hero of the hour.”

Inside, we took turns rewarding Nine until Mace threatened to beat us with the empty treat bag. Eventually, we settled at the table, adrenaline fading.

Then Riley asked the only question that mattered right now.

“How the hell did Slater find us out here?”

My whole body tensed. It was the question I’d been asking myself since the moment I saw that cruiser rolling in.

“I don’t know,” I told her, “but we’re gonna find out.”

I got up and started pacing, because I always thought better on my feet. Since I didn’t think we’d been followed, that left a short list of possible explanations. The first possibility that came to mind was someone nearby had tipped him off. Since I’d filled up before we left and we didn’t make any stops, it was highly unlikely he found out that way.

“Maybe he saw the two of you heading this way,” Mace suggested.

“I don’t know how he could’ve known where we were going.”

Mace shot back, “Maybe he followed you.”

“No. I made doubly sure no one was tailing us.”

Riley spoke up then, her voice hesitant. “I know this sounds very cloak and dagger, but maybe he bugged us somehow.”

I stopped pacing, because I thought she could be onto something. “That makes the most sense, given what we’ve already eliminated. Let’s start by going through everything we brought.”

Turning to Riley, I told her, “Pull out your purse and go over every square inch of it. Look for anything that seems different or might be housing a tracking device. Do the same with your clothing, jewelry, and shoes. Mace and I are going to give my bike a once-over.”

She gave a shaky nod. “Alright. That makes sense, I guess.”

Mace and I headed down to the basement and dug through the equipment our club kept down there. We were looking for one thing in particular, an RF detector. A radio frequency detector works by picking up the presence of radio frequency signals, it’s a good way to find hidden cameras or transmitting devices. We’d used our cabin for meetings in the past and scanning the place for listening devices made everyone happy. Mace found it almost immediately, and we headed out to inspect my bike. He began at the top and worked his way down—he was more familiar with the device. Meanwhile, I stood lookout in case that asshat decided to circle back around and have another go at us. I scanned the surroundings, keeping a close eye on the single road leading to the property.

Mace crouched beside me and started going painstakingly over my motorcycle, inch by inch.

“Do you see anything suspicious?” I asked.

He shook his head and shined the beam under the seat. “No, I haven’t found anything yet. The frame’s clean. No pings on the scanner.”

He continued sweeping the handheld RF detector slowly over every part of the bike. Unfortunately, the small device gave no indication it had found anything.

Impatient, I asked, “Did you check the saddlebags?”

He nodded without looking up. “Yeah, I went over each side twice.”

Images circled around in my brain of what would’ve happened to Riley if she hadn’t had a strong protector like me. He would’ve taken her and done God only knows what. I could tell he wanted Riley almost as much as he wanted that phone.

“You look freaked out right now,” Mace said.

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