Page 1 of A Wrench in the Plan
Prologue
Wrench
I couldn’t stop staring at what was left of the club bar. The fire was out, but smoke still choked the air. There was nothing left.
Evan could have been in there.
He could be dead right now.
That thought kept causing a strange pinch in my chest, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. If he’d been in that bar thirty minutes longer…
“Stop thinking about it,” Sidekick said as his hand landed hard on my shoulder. I hadn’t even heard him walk up. I blinked my eyes, seeing the morning light spilling into the sky for the first time. How long had I been out here? “Get those thoughts out of your head.”
But there was no gettin’ rid of them. I was fucking scared. Even knowing Evan was safe, I was filled with this fear from all the what-ifs. I’d barely gotten to see him before LT had taken him away. He’d looked at me and said two words, “I’m okay.”
I’m okay.
Like he could so easily see how desperate I was to hear those words. To know the truth in them. He spoke them so softly and calmly that I had no choice but to believe them. His stunning hazel eyes had been shining like he was trying to send a wave of calm over to me.
Then he was gone, taken away by LT like he was accused of a damn crime, and I was forced to put my focus on the fire. Not that there was much I could have done to help.
It was looking like someone had intentionally started that fire, though it was too early to have proof of that. I didn’t understand how, though. Even after Twigs had gone over some ideas he had of how someone might have rigged something a few hours ago, I still felt confused about it. Who would want to burn down the bar? It just didn’t make any sense. On top of it, Evan was the last one in there, so that made him the most likely suspect. I didn’t want to believe it.
Right now, Prez had Evan locked away in the apartment above the clubhouse. He’d said it was just for now while they sorted everything out, but it didn’t feel right to me.
He couldn’t have done this. There was no fucking way. Evan might not have been around the club long, but it was clear as day that his place was here. He was meant to wear the patch. And I still believed one day he’d get it.
But I couldn’t stop the doubt from kicking up the dust in my head.
Evanwasthe last one in there.
He had access to the bar and things that could accelerate a fire. Hell, the bar was basically one giant Molotov cocktail if you thought about it. And though I couldn’t see a reason that Evan would have to burn down the bar, I also knew that sometimes there didn’t have to be a reason to do insane shit like that. Maybe he was secretly a pyro fuck and got off on that shit.
Maybe I didn’t really know him at all.
“Chry,” Sidekick said, using my name as a way to make sure I understood that he wanted me to listen. Both of his hands were on my shoulders now, and he was literally trying to shake me out of my spiraling thoughts. “Don’t.”
“They think he did it,” I said just barely above a whisper.
“No, they don’t. But it’s gotta get sorted out either way.”
“What if—”
“There ain’t no ‘what if’ about it. LT isn’t going to do anything until he knows for sure. Gotta trust in the Prez, Wrench. Gotta know that he’s not jumping in with a hot head.”
“Yeah,” I said weakly with an equally weak nod.
“I’ve got to get the shop open. Why don’t you go get some sleep?”
“Nah,” I said, tilting my head to the side and receiving a satisfying crack in the middle of my neck. “I need to work.”
He eyed me skeptically, but I knew he wasn’t going to say shit. He’d let it go, even if he knew I was running on fumes. Much like he probably was.
He said nothing else, even though I didn’t make a move to head toward the garage.
I stared at the charred remains of the bar one more time, my gut churning. Guilt. Anger. Frustration. Sadness. Confusion. They were all there swimming around.
Hearing tires slowly creeping over the worn pavement, I tore my gaze away from the latest disaster in our lives.
