Page 79 of Gunner
Kade
“Are you sure this iswhat you want to do?” I asked him and tilted my head in his direction.
Skid, my brother-in-law, took a swallow of his beer and placed the empty bottle on the table. We were sitting on the back deck of his cabin, and he leaned back in his chair, turning his gaze to the wood line behind the house. The sound of a small creek running through the trees could be heard, and I watched as the sun began to set behind the tops of the tall trees. He moved in over ten years ago when Uncle Mick passed away, and since then, he’d done significant upgrades and additions, turning the small, secluded cabin into a luxury log cabin.
Running his hand through his black hair, Skid sighed deeply and turned his blue eyes to mine. The eager prospect I met almost a dozen years ago was gone, and in his place was a hardened man who I struggled to recognize some days. The years between when we met and now had been filled with ups and downs, and through it all, I watched him slip further into a darkness that hid behind his eyes.
Sadie saw it too and she asked me to talk to him, not as his President, but as his friend. I knew a small amount of what he had done with Devlin Callahan, and I feared it was his association with him that was pushing him farther away from his family.
“I don’t want to. I have to,” he replied vaguely, and I decided to push the issue.
Normally, I would let the brothers under me work through their issues, but I worried about Skid. He was always good for a laugh, was the first brother to show up when someone needed help, and found new ways to protect the club that has shielded us from reprisal and retribution from other clubs. But lately, something shifted in him, and I needed to know what it was.
“You’re going to have to give me more than that. I know there’s something bothering you and I need you to trust me enough to talk about it.”
I pulled a joint out of my cut and handed it to him. I didn’t partake often, but most of the brothers did, and as long as that was their hardestdrug, I didn’t give a damn. Cocaine, meth, and pills made you slow, dependent, and a weakness to the club. We still had a grow house on the property, and we made a hefty profit from it, so it would be hypocritical for me to object. Besides, we were outlaw bikers, and I wasn’t their fucking keeper. He sparked the end and inhaled deeply before blowing the smoke into the air.
“Do you remember when I told you I needed to go back to work for Devlin for a while?” I nodded and clenched my teeth, pissed I was right about Callahan. “Well, it turns out James has a long-lost sister.”
I snapped my head to him in shock, and he nodded. Skid took another draw off the acrid smoke, and I let the realization set in that the madman and his brother had a sister. The two men had come from the Flats and turned themselves from monsters into millionaires, sharing the wealth with Skid when their payday arrived.
“What does a long-lost sister have to do with you needing to leave?” I asked, and he snubbed the joint out before turning to me.
“Listen, what I’m about to tell you isn’t something I want discussed with anyone. Especially Sadie.” His tone was firm, and his eyes were hard, showing the sincerity of his request.
“You have my word. This stays between us.”
He took a deep breath and exhaled before he spoke. “Ten years ago, around the same time Devlin saved Jacob, he saved her too, only no one knew she was James’s sister until a few months ago. What he saved her from . . . fuck, man . . . it was horrible. The problem was no one had any idea how horrible it truly was. Until she gave us this.” He pulled out an old thumb drive from his pocket and held it between his fingers like it was scalding him. “This was the witness to what she endured at such a young age. Her abuser walked away without having to face justice, and Devlin offered to watch it. I couldn’t let him have that image in his head. Not with Elise and their son at home.”
I swallowed thickly, already knowing the answer. “What’s on there?”
He tucked it back into his pocket and collapsed against the back of the chair, running his hand down his growing beard. His eyes cut to me. “It’s a video of a twelve-year-old girl being forced to do something so twisted and depraved, I’m stunned by her strength and reliance.”
“Do you know who did that to her?” I asked, and he nodded once. “Can you get to him?”
“Fucker died four years ago,” he muttered.
“I don’t mean to be insensitive, but if he’s dead, what’s the problem?”
He stood from his chair and walked to the railing of the porch, resting his tattooed forearms across the wood. He hung his head and explained. “When I ran his face through the software and found out he was dead, I thought that was the end of it. But something was bothering me, so I kept digging. If someone does something like that once, they must have done it before. Right?” His head turned to meet my gaze, and I nodded. “I mean, no one would be stupid enough to rape someone that age without a . . . predisposition.”
“And what did your digging uncover?” I really didn’t want to know the answer, but he needed to say it.
“The upstanding pillar of the community fostered kids for years. He and his wife couldn’t have their own, so they helped kids in the system until they could be reunited with their families. I even found a few articles with him and his wife about how they were doing ‘the Lord’s work’ by taking in needy children. I used Devlin’s connections and got ahold of his file from the state foster agency.”
“Did you uncover anything with that information?”
“There were three girls who were placed with them that fit the approximate age range. From there, I started looking for them, and two were easy to find. I hacked into their life and realized they were spared from him, as far as I can tell.”
“And the third?”
He shrugged and turned to me, resting his back against the wooden railing. “She was with them from the time she entered the system at four, until shortly after her sixteenth birthday. He reported her as a runaway and did little to look for her as they took on other kids. Her social media was filled with pictures of a happy life then suddenly, it went dark. I had to dig to find out anything and used old photos for facial recognition.” Running his hands this his hair, he sighed. “It took me fucking months to get a hit and it was only after bending a few laws that I got any kind of lead on her.”
“What are you going to do? Find her and ask her if that pervert raped her? Why would you drag all that up to her, forcing her to possibly relive it?” I was angry at him for not thinking of the ramifications of his need to find her. She may not want to be found.
“I’m not looking for verification. I just need to know if she’s alright.” His response was worrisome but not out of character.
“Where did you get a hit on her?”
