Page 57 of Hawk's Cry

Wraith and Sophie have gone on what both he and I know will be a wasted trip to the hospital to check if she’s there. I know deep down in my gut they won’t find her there. Throttle had swung around and come back to the house to pick Eli and Hound up and are currently driving ahead of Sam and me. We’re following on our bikes, riding in perfect unison, knowing every move the other will make after all these years.

I’d lost Sam once, before I’d admitted what I’d felt for her. She’d been taken by a sex trafficking ring. I can still taste the fear that had consumed me when she’d disappeared. That means I know exactly what my son will be going through once he loses hope there’s an innocent explanation for this. Would it be kinder to allow him to think she could have walked out of his life under her own volition than have been taken by someone who may want to hurt her?

She knew the man. I remember Throttle’s words. The waitress had said she’d been in with him a time or two before.

I didn’t get where I was in the MC without examining every angle. Although I immediately dismissed it, I do need to consider whether Eli was right. Could I be wrong? Could she have been so starved of affection, and having caught someone’s eye, decided to leave her husband? No, that wouldn’t be the girl I’ve known all her life. Especially not now when Eli is at his lowest. Anyway, Olivia would more likely confront Eli before doing something underhanded.

If I rule out that she’s gone to the hospital, or that she’s left Eli for another man, it means she’s been abducted, and not by a stranger, by a man who obviously targeted and deliberately befriended her.

If so, this was pre-planned. It’s not like she was snatched off the street. I don’t know when or how they’d first hooked up together. Christ. My hand slams on the handlebars, as I realise all the gaps in my knowledge.

Who would take the time to gain her trust and get to know her? Perhaps more importantly why? She’s attractive and, when not carrying an almost due baby inside her, is slender with a fine figure. Now she’s matronly, and not someone you’d immediately think ripe for trafficking. Unless it’s to fulfil a twisted fetish. In that case, why wait weeks to take her?

When Eli and Olivia had left the compound, to the club they were Satan’s Devils no longer. But what if we were the only ones to think that? Could we have an enemy who took the chance Olivia being who she was, the daughter of the old VP, a girl born and bred in the club, remained important to us? They’d be right. She’s still ours, ours by blood and by being part of the MC family. We’d just made it easy for someone to use her against the club.

But who? Who would take her?

Right now, I don’t have an answer.

She’d looked faint, Throttle had told us. Could she have been drugged? If she didn’t leave with him voluntarily, it sounds likely. But what would that mean for her, and for the baby?

Sam and I both indicate at exactly the same time, then turn down the track that leads to the compound. As soon as my bike’s parked in its spot, I nod at Sam and fly into the clubhouse, going to the office of the man who should be the most help.

Throttle follows me inside. He passes me Olivia’s phone, which I in turn pass to Mouse.

“You found it just lying by her car?” he queries, making me realise Throttle’s already warned him what we need done. When the enforcer nods, he adds, “Like it was going to be easily found?”

Throttle’s head bobs up and down again.

I switch my attention toward the man with my daughter-in-law’s phone in his hand. His mouth is pursed as he links it up to something, then does some magic to obviously break the code that lets him get to the data. Fuck knows how he works that shit, but it takes him no time at all until his mouth curves in the right direction.

At that moment the door bangs open behind me. “What the fuck, Drummer?” Wizard comes in and rushes around the desk, but he asks for no further explanation. “Whatcha got, Mouse?” Then he meets my eyes over the desk and shakes his head. “Wraith’s called. No sign of her at the hospital. She certainly hasn’t gone to the maternity ward.”

“Can you check the emergency rooms? If she passed out, he might not know where to take her.” I’m clutching at straws. Everything points to her having been kidnapped. But Wizard nods and pulls Mouse’s spare laptop toward him.

“Right,” Mouse starts, “she was texted this morning.” As he examines the screen, he tilts his head to one side and his eyes narrow. His face screws up as if he’s thinking, then his tanned complexion pales. “Jesus Christ,” he breathes out.

Wizard, now looking over his shoulder, stills. “What are you looking at?”

“The phone was found where we could find it.” Mouse repeats what he’d been told. “It could have been dropped…”

“But you think it’s a message?” Wizard’s eyes sharpen as he reads the texts. His brow furrows. “A code?”

I’m trying to hold back my frustration. “What do the messages say?”

“I’m not bothered about the actual words,” Mouse says.

“What the fuck is it?” I growl out impatiently. “You found anything? I want to know now.”

Mouse takes back the phone and scrolls up and down a message chain, then his eyes rise, meeting mine. “Looks like Olivia’s met this man a few times.”

Yes, that’s what the waitress had implied. I don’t much like it, but Eli’s been being an ass to her. Doesn’t excuse her for betraying him, but finding her is the most important thing now. She’s a daughter of the club and we’re not going to abandon her.

“It’s fairly innocent shit,” Mouse says. “Looks like they only met for coffee a few times, nothing to suggest they were in a liaison but…” As his voice trails off, he rests his gaze on me, then continues, “It’s not what she was meeting him for, it’s the name of the man she was meeting.”

“Oh, fuck,” Prez breathes out.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I lay my fist on the table. “Who the fuck was she seeing?”

---