“I want to see the car,” Rifle said from his place against the wall behind me.
“What?” I heard Target ask but ignored him, turning to look at my Brother over my shoulder.
Rifle’s eyes were glued to Target as he repeated, “I want to see the car.”
Target scoffed. “You can’t come in here and demand shit.”
“Caleb!” Optimus yelled. The Church doors pushed open and the prospect who shot my girl poked his head in. “Bring Target’s car around to the front and let Kit’s boy go through it.”
Caleb nodded and disappeared quickly. Target glared at his president but kept his mouth shut.
“Everybody is to stay close for now. Keep your phones on you if you need to head out, as soon as we know something we’re on it. We’re gonna get our girl back.”
I nodded for Rifle to stay put and sat and waited as all the men except us and Optimus filed out of the small room. Rifle took a seat at the table.
“The car?” I questioned.
“He didn’t have any defensive wounds on him. Someone attacks you, you’re going to fight back or at least hold your hands up to protect yourself. He ain’t got bruised knuckles, or bruises on his arms from trying to shield the blows. Seems off to me.”
Optimus and I both nodded in agreement.
“Be quick about it, I’m running out of time and options.” He didn’t need to be told twice. My fists pounded on the table. “You think he could have been in on this?” I asked Optimus.
He leaned back in his chair. “None of us wants to believe a Brother could betray us.” He sighed and hung his head slightly. “But the more I think about it, the more I think that could be exactly what’s happened. Target isn’t exactly the most well-liked with our girls – club girls, old ladies, strippers, all included. Now I’m wondering why I hadn’t taken the complaints seriously before.”
“I gotta get her back, man,” I said quietly. I’d never felt so hopeless, so vulnerable. I needed Harmony. She’d worked her way into my life, into my fucking bones.
“We’ll get her back.”
It didn’t take Rifle long to return, finding Optimus and me at the bar and asking to talk privately. I knew it was bad. We sat in Optimus’ office, Rifle leaning against the door.
“The seatbelt was cut.”
“Say what?” I stared at him, confused.
“When a car stops in a hurry, the seatbelt has a mechanism that engages and grips onto it preventing you from flying out the front window or whatever. The passenger’s side had been cut so when the car stopped, it simply ripped and Harmony went head first into the dash.”
I was ready to go and lay my frustrations out on that pathetic excuse for a Brother, but Rifle held up a hand, letting me know he wasn’t finished. “What the hell kind of biker owns a brand new BMW?”
“Guess it is a strange choice. But the boy’s always been flashy, likes his high-class shit. He had wealthy parents, just figured sometimes you can take the kid from the rich, but you can’t take the rich outta the kid.”
“I’m about to take something out of the kid. But right now, I’m thinking more like a spleen or a kneecap because he has some fucking explaining to do,” I roared as I moved toward the door.
Optimus held me back and I almost turned to take a swing at him.
“We gotta do this smart, Kit. Use our brains, not our fists,” Optimus growled, pulling me back. “We don’t know what kind of power he has in this if any. You rush out there guns blazing, we don’t know what he’s going to do.”
My breathing was erratic, my chest heaving as I thought about ripping the little bastard limb from limb. “He has anything to do with this, Brother or no Brother, he’s a dead man,” I managed to force out between breaths.
“And I’ll be right there beside you with my shovel, but we think first, act later,” Optimus confirmed quietly.
There was a hard knock on the door and Rifle stepped aside to open it. Wrench barreled in.
“I’ve got him. Huge house over in Mobile.” Mobile was a neighboring town, about a thirty-minute ride.
“Call Church, this guy has guards galore following him around. We need to strategize,” I told them, my mind finally starting to work again, pushing the pain in my heart to the side for now.
Optimus clapped me on the back. “Let’s go get your girl.”