Page 36 of Property of Raider
I come back to myself, the telltale signs of a seizure still thrumming through my aching body.As my senses come back online, I realize I’m in the back of a moving vehicle.The voices around me are familiar but not safe.Panic grips me, and my stomach twists hard.I’m sweating and freezing all at once, and the black haze that has been clinging to me since the night Jose punched me surges again, trying to drag me under once a-fucking-gain.
The last thing I hear before sweet oblivion swallows me is enough to make a single tear slip from the corner of my eye, trailing into my hair.
“Boss says she’s too much of a liability.We’ve got to get her gone,” the smaller man snarls.
“Well, Anastasia, it looks like you’ve finally lost,” I mumble to myself as my eyes slide closed and I lose the fight.
Chapter Twelve
Raider
Hermes, Remedy, and Pope are waiting by the door when we make it down the hall.I unlock the door, leaving it wide open behind me as I make my way to my desk, throwing myself into my office chair.Pope passes around beers not saying anything.Hermes takes a seat on the coach at the back of the room with his laptop open, ready for whatever we might need him to do.I drink half my beer before I’m ready to unpack what is banging around in my head.
“Prez, what’s going on?Silent and brooding isn’t your typical way of operating,” Pope speaks first.
“Shit, Remedy and Pope, do you remember the first time we came to a party here at the club?We were what, nineteen or twenty?Trying to decide if we wanted to be a part of the club.”
Remedy kicks his boots up on my desk, grinning.“Oh, I remember.That was the only time I’ve ever seen you truly let loose.It was crazy.”
Pope chuckles, shaking his head.“That is putting it lightly.You were always so serious growing up, but that night you had two drinks and you were off.Relic was so fucking pissed because the brothers gravitated toward you.”
“That’s just it.I have no memory of anything after that second fucking drink,” I whisper, a sick feeling settling in my gut.
“What do you mean you don’t remember?”Terro asks, head tilted.“I’ve seen you drink, brother, and two drinks are child’s play.”
“Shit, man, even back then that man could outdrink most people.I’m talking ten shots and still walking a straight line and shooting straighter than anyone I’ve ever met,” Pope states, a look of confusion on his face.
“Exactly, so why after two fucking drinks is there nothing?”I ask.“Do you remember Tasia’s sister Shea being there that night?”
Remedy and Pope look thoughtful, as if running through their memories from that night.Hermes types away on his laptop.Taking a long pull of my beer, I once again try to find my own memories of that night.Frustration builds with every fucking second that all I have is blackness.
“Now that you ask, when we got there, she was sitting on Relic’s lap laughing, and when we came around the corner, she bounced over, handing you a drink.Holy shit, she gave you both of your drinks.”Remedy’s dawning horror tells me everything I need to know.
“That’s what I thought because the next morning I woke up in bed with her completely naked,” I tell them.
Terro’s eyes go wide.“What the fuck?If she was willing to drug you and was snuggled up to Relic …”
I point at him.“There it is.You’re starting to see it too.”
“Now the question is what came first?The whore or the asshole,” Remedy jokes.
“Is that why Anastasia refused to talk to you after that fucking party?”Pope asks, falling onto the seat next to Hermes.
“I don’t fucking know,” I grind out.“What I do know is I went to a party here and everything went black.Two days later, my best friend and future refused to fucking talk to me.Then ten weeks later, she and Shea are fucking gone, and Auntie Lynn says she does not know where they are.Now fifteen years later, Relic is dead.Shea is shacked up with Jose and the Cartel.Tasia is back with a fucking kid, and now Auntie Lynn is dead.”
“Do you really believe it’s Jose and the Cartel doing the sex ring?”Terro wonders.
“It would make sense.They aren’t technically operating in our territory.Add in the fact we’re close enough for, say, a high-powered senator to order a woman from out of town and have her brought in.”Remedy drops his feet to the floor, his brain running.
“Raider, I know there is no love lost between you and Shea, but do you really think she could be fucking involved?I mean, we’re talking about a woman abusing other women,” Pope throws out.
“Did you see the look in her eyes the other day?I wouldn’t put it past her.”I tell them.“Hermes, I want …”
“Already on it.We’ll have everything on Shea Austin before the meeting ends.”His tone sounding bored.
“I also want you to go through all the footage from around the time Jenny went missing.You’re looking for Shea,” I tell him.
Remedy and Pope both look up at me wide-eyed.
