“Why?” Korrie sobbed over and over.
But I had no answers.
“They may not be wearing their shitty cuts, but those are the Bloody Scorpions,” Venom ground out as we watched the surveillance videos for the third time.
“How can you tell?” Raptor asked.
“That guy right there,” he said as he pointed at Facet’s screen. We all looked at the image that Facet had frozen. The guy Venom had indicated had a bandana over his lower face but there was a tattoo partially visible over it. The prospect that survived hadn’t seen anything. One minute he was restocking, the next he was waking up with us.
“The tattoo?” Chains asked.
“Yeah. It might be a coincidence, but I doubt it. If Voodoo was here, he’d be able to verify that it sure as hell looks like Skid,” Venom said as he clenched his fist.
“The guy that shot him?” Phoenix questioned.
Venom nodded.
“When will they be home?” Kicker asked Venom. He hadn’t ridden with us to the hospital earlier because he’d had a cold and didn’t want to risk giving it to the baby. He’d left the clubhouse to pick up his prescriptions and came back to chaos.
“Kira was discharged this afternoon, but they wanted to keep the baby overnight to make sure there weren’t any complications from his near-abduction. Her and Voodoo are rooming with the baby.” I ran a hand roughly over my mouth after I explained it to Kicker.
“I’m sorry, Prez, but I need a few minutes,” Goob said as he stood from the table. His eyes were red, but he’d remained stoic until that point. It was then that I saw the tremble in his gray beard and the uneven breaths as he fought for composure.
“Yeah, brother, no problem. Take as much time as you need. We’re gonna get this worked out,” Venom reassured him. The older man nodded before taking his leave and closing the door with a soft click. I felt his pain deep as fuck, but I needed to hold my shit together.
“What about your ol’ lady? How’s she handling this?” Raptor shot a glance my way. I’d yet to formally claim her due to everything that had been going on, but the words weren’t needed. Everyone knew we were two halves of a whole. She was the only one who needed convincing, but after this, I didn’t know what the future held.
“Not good.” I’d given Korrie something to help her relax and sleep, because she’d been a shattered basket case. She’d sobbed until she puked. Everything that had come out of her mouth was unintelligible. It had gutted me seeing her like that.
“How about you? Do you need to go check on her?” Venom was giving me an out to privately break down, if I needed it.
“I’m good,” I muttered, though it was far from true. Honestly, I was barely holding my shit together. My son and my sister were missing. Two of the three most important people in my life. It was like being trapped in a nightmare and unable to wake up. Like I’d been sliced open and had my guts strewn to kingdom come.
All eyes on me, I cleared my throat. “So what do we do?” I needed a plan, because I was about to tear out of this place and start decimating everything in my path until I found my son and my sister.
“I think we should ask Madame Laveaux.” Jameson had been quiet until that point—silently listening and observing. All eyes turned to him.
“I think he’s right,” rumbled Hawk, and he stroked his beard thoughtfully.
“Hawk? You want to go talk to her? It’s your mother-in-law. Or I can. It’s up to you,” Venom said, giving Hawk the option since she was his family.
“I’ll go,” Hawk offered as he stood. He quietly left the room.
“Why wouldn’t they have called us with whatever demands they have?” I asked, not really wanting the answer.
“Maybe this isn’t about bartering,” Kicker said as he tapped his fingertips on the table.
“You think this is retaliation for their members we killed when Voodoo’s biological father fucked with us?” Ghost piped in.
“Possibly,” replied Kicker.
“But Trace is just a kid, and the women are family members. What the fuck is wrong with them?” Phoenix asked. Regardless of our ruthless nature, women and children were off the table. Then again, the Bloody Scorpions never really played by any rules.
“We’re talking about the Bloody Scorpions. Nothing about those twisted fucks has ever made sense,” said Ghost, practically reading my mind. He had a personal grudge against them from years ago that he never talked about. I also knew what he wasn’t saying, and it almost had me crawling out of my skin.
The Bloody Scorpions were rumored to have dealings with human trafficking.
“After this? We take them out. Every last one of those pieces of shit,” Phoenix said as he slammed the side of his fist on the table.