Page 10 of Scar

The significance of the date made Scar pause in typing in José’s phone number. So long as their plans hadn’t changed with what had happened on the bridge, over half of the VDMC was headed to the airport in a few hours to fly to Orlando, Florida.

Scar knew their safety was not worth keeping silent about the Primis threat. They needed to know so they could protect themselves.

Buthe knew José. Taking the club kids and ol’ ladies anywhere would involve a certain measure of security. Going to somewhere likeDisney Worldwould involve even more. Additionally, the parks themselves were one of the safest places to be.

Things might get hairy in the coming weeks. If Scar could find something on Alpha to make him back off, then the VDMC could live on in peace.

Fuck, his head hurt. He was so fucking tired. Was he truly considering not telling José about the threat so he could go to fuckingDisney World? Scar had paid for a good chunk of the trip as a Christmas gift to the club kids, but that was not his priority. He didn’t care about the money because he could always get more. Cash was easily taken and digital funds could be faked.

As soon as he logged into the secure chat, messages started to appear.

[WiseWave620: I’m not giving up. I’m going to keep looking for you.]

[WiseWave620: You can’t be dead, Scar. Goddammit, you can’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.]

[WiseWave620: …]

[WiseWave620: MGPD stopped looking for you today. They say your body washed downriver and is gone. But I don’t believe it. I can’t.]

[WiseWave620: Steel made us stop looking. He says it’s time. I think he did it more for Bulldog than anything else. He doesn’t want to admit you’re gone either, but Bulldog’s been going nuts looking for you.]

[WiseWave620: Abby went down to the river today. She told Bulldog that if he wanted to keep looking for you then she would come help. You should have seen her. Covered in mud, sloshing around in these pink boots. As soon as Abby said she was joining him at the river, though, Bulldog stopped looking.]

[WiseWave620: Please don’t be dead.]

[WiseWave620: I learned your name was Julian today. I kinda feel like I cheated, finally finding you, but we never did agree to any rules on the bet. Julian Ragna.]

[WiseWave620: It’s kinda fitting for you, you know. Ragna. It’s Italian, derived from Norse mythology. Did you know the origin meaning is ‘warrior’ or ‘warrior goddess’?]

[WiseWave620: Not that I’m saying you’re a girl. Just, you know, the ‘warrior’ bit fits with your personality. That’s all.]

[WiseWave620: We had your funeral today. Steel said it was time. Bulldog fought it, saying that it wasn’t fair to bury you without a body. I think he just didn’t want it to be real. None of us did. Harper’s been a mess and Sissy comes to the clubhouse almost every day asking if there’s news.]

[WiseWave620: Please don’t be dead, Julian.]

[WiseWave620: Jumper and Jasmine are leaving on their honeymoon. Well, I guess it’s not their honeymoon anymore. I forgot to tell you they decided not to get married. I mean, they’re still getting married, just not right away. It’s been a long few weeks and no one was in any mood to party or celebrate without you. Anyway, they still kept their cross country idea, just moved it a few weeks. They’re leaving in the morning and everyone’s planning on gathering to wish them a safe trip.]

[WiseWave620: Oh shit! I realized that I forgot to tell you about Pumpkin. Hell, I don’t even know what you know or don’t know. The night of the bridge, Pumpkin was hit by a cage. It was driven by Fletcher’s buddies. They’re the ones who were shooting at Pirate too. Fuck, do you even know who Fletcher is? We didn’t even know you were in town, you ass! How am I supposed to know what you know or don’t know?]

[WiseWave620: Sorry for calling you an ass.]

[WiseWave620: Fletcher Montague is Sophia’s ex-boyfriend. Sophia and Pirate are officially together now, which is good because I’d been keeping a secret about them since FEBRUARY and it was killing me! Anyway, Fletcher was causing problems for Sophia and he had these 2 henchmen/buddies helping him out. That night, on the bridge, Fletcher is the one who shot you. He was trying to kill Sophia, but also claims he WASN’T trying to kill her.]

[WiseWave620: Bulldog’s had him you-know-where since the night you went into the river. He doesn’t want anything from him. I think it’s just an outlet to… Yeah.]

[WiseWave620: Now that I know your name, I’ve been looking into you. Fuck, man. I know I don’t curse a lot, but it seemed appropriate after decrypting your MSR. I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.]

[WiseWave620: The others are headed to Disney the day after tomorrow. I know it was you who bought all those tickets at Christmas. What I don’t understand is how? Julian Ragna doesn’t seem to exist anymore. You aren’t paying taxes, collecting your pension, or anything. It’s like you didn’t exist. So where did you get that money from? I don’t like mysteries, Scar!]

[WiseWave620: Ivy came by the clubhouse today. She didn’t know about the bridge. Can you believe she’s a redhead now? I swear, every time I see her, her hair’s a different color. Anyway, she was understandably upset. Were you two ever a thing? She says ‘no’ but you didn’t see her when Steel told her you were gone and that she’d missed the funeral. I don’t think she’s going to go off the grid like that again for a while.]

[WiseWave620: The more I read about your time overseas, the more I seem to understand you. How the hell could you just go and die on us!? If you’d just opened up more, if you’d let us in… Christ, man, we could have been your family.]

Scar stared at the dark screen and green lettering for a long moment. Keys was the VDMC’s techeverything. The twenty-three year old was a fucking genius. Former Navy Intelligence, he was recruited as a teenager after hacking into the Pentagon on a dare. The only reason Keys had been caught was because the friend who’d done the daring had posted a video on social media outing his “best friend Myles” as the hacker. Rather than arrest him, they decided to use him.

But at nineteen, the Navy had asked him to do something he wasn’t comfortable doing. Scar only knew that, if he had, civilian lives would have been lost too. Keys had refused and received an OTH discharge, or Other Than Honorable.

Ghost, the VDMC’s Enforcer, had vouched for Keys and brought him on as a prospect, even though the bylaws stated that prospects needed to have an honorable discharge.

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