Page 88 of B-ry
“Okay, we’ve figured out about half of everything Laurel told us. This guy, Steve Hughes was the son of Dennis Hughes, also known as Mercer, who used to belong to the Moon Hill chapter. The guy was booted when he started roughing up some of the club girls. Then the club found out he killed his own daughter. Needless to say, Diesel took care of him. My guess is that the son is looking for revenge. He used to belong to The Devil’s Kings.”
Why did everything have to go back to that?
“He was the one that ran Ethel off the road before shit went down. I’m only guessing here, but I think Steve joined The Devil’s Kings because he knew Savage was coming after us. And since that didn’t work out so well, he’s found another way.”
“So he took Laurel to hurt us for killing his pops?” I asked just to make sure we were all on the same page.
“Yep,” Iron said with a nod. “That’s my guess anyway. And his plan was for you to come running in to save her. He probably had the house rigged all this time. We should have been more cautious.”
“So is he working for someone else now or on his own?” Fitz asked.
“Laurel said she heard someone else. She mentioned that he had an accent but couldn’t say what kind. By their conversations, Laurel thinks this guy was a boss type. Cable?”
“Yeah,” he said standing. “Steve and his mom moved around a lot after Mercer… went missing. She died four years ago. Looks like she stumbled down the stairs and broke her neck. Toxicology report says she had both drugs and alcohol in her system. After that, he shuffled around until he landed down here.”
“What happened after The Devil’s went down?” Brand asked.
“He moved to Charlotte. He moved from job to job. The last one he had was working as a janitor for a building that holds a lot of different offices. Mostly, investment firms. I couldn’t find anything there but didn’t really think I would. Then it’s like he just vanished. Nothing. Until he rented that house about four months ago. But that’s all I was able to find.”
“What are we missing here?” Iron asked the question I knew we all were thinking.
“Let’s track him down and find out,” I said a little too eagerly.
“Any clue where he is now?” Mason asked.
“None. He could have taken off.” Cable shook his head. “But, thanks to the cell phone, I was able to see where he went the last couple of months. He did circulate Royally Brewed a lot. He could have even been there when Laurel and Gwen were working. But if Laurel didn’t mention that she recognized him, then maybe not. Maybe see if Gwen or anyone else that works there has noticed him hanging around. Then again, he could have just been waiting outside or something. I just know he was in that area.”
I didn’t like that. Sure, I got the feeling that he’d been watching for a while now, but hearing it like this, only made it worse.
“There is a diner across town and what appears to be a vacant building a few blocks away from the diner.”
“That all?” Iron asked.
“I was able to pinpoint a few other areas but nothing that really showed a pattern. A few fast food joints near that house. A gas station here and there.”
“Alright. We’ll start with the diner and building,” Iron said.
Then we began to formulate a cautious and well thought out plan. We weren’t going to enter the building, we’d decided. There was no way we were going to be stupid twice. But we were going to plant a few prospects to watch the place. It was a small chance that he’d return, but it was a chance I wasn’t going to pass up.
Honestly, the guy seemed pretty dumb. So it might not have surprised me if he did show up there. And I sure as fuck hoped he did.
“What about these clues? We got any idea about that?” Iron asked.
“No,” Cable said shaking his head again. “I searched all the feeds outside the buildings and didn’t notice anything. I combed through our text and emails, but nothing that stuck out.”
“What about his email?”
“Couldn’t find one for him. Nothing on the phone and nothing when I searched. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have one, I just can’t find it.”
“Okay. I’ve filled Axe in on everything that happened. He was the one that filled in the blanks for me. I want—”
“Wait,” Cable said abruptly, cutting off the Prez. “Shit.”
“Cable?” Iron asked with a brow raised.
That was when Cable looked up from his laptop and it seemed like all the color had drained from his face.
“I found it. Well one of them,” he said and hesitantly spun the computer around so we all could see. “For some reason, it got filtered through to my trash. I’m not sure how or even why he did that.”
