We could all feel the disturbance. It was in the air. It was thick and suffocating. The whole club felt different lately. Shifted in some way. Like the calm before the storm, we all waited on bated breath for the last shoe to drop.
The tension within the club hit an all-time high when we all woke to find Savage gone, along with Jessica and Hailey. No one knew where they went, but for a small few of us, we knew he wouldn’t be back. Whatever was going on in the club had become too much for Savage to handle. So, he packed up his woman and niece and left without even saying goodbye.
I didn’t blame him. I couldn’t. With everything that had happened to him, his decision to leave was understandable. Still didn’t stop me from missing the big goof.
Though I wasn’t asked, I did a quick search for him. I knew I should have left it alone and given him the privacy he wanted, but I needed to know if he was okay. He was. Living on a fifty-acre spread deep in the Smokey Mountains, Savage was finally a family man. While Jess worked at a local hospital, he opened a small motorcycle garage. I hoped he finally found the peace he was looking for.
As for the rest of us, life moved on in the Golden Skulls.
With the past coming for all of us, the club geared up for war while Remi planned the wedding of her dreams. Why Reaper agreed to let his woman plan a big wedding was beyond me, considering what the club was dealing with. The president of the Golden Skulls was dead set on marrying his woman and claiming her for all time. When he wasn’t in church being secretive, it was all he would talk about. The man was seriously gone on Remi. I wasn’t even going to mention how he was with his son.
As for me, I still hadn’t told Reaper that I finally cracked the thumb drive. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I wasn’t going to. Kitty was right. The message wasn’t for Reaper.
The message was specifically for me.
I still didn’t know what to make of it. Only when I was alone did I think about it. With everything going on in the club, it wasn’t like I had much time to sit and think about the message that was left for me. More importantly, it didn’t make sense.
It did on some level, like the part that explicitly said… ‘leave the club now.’ I got that part, but no rhyme or reason as to why. Then there was the other part. The part I refused to even think about. The part where she asked a favor of me. It was a favor I couldn’t give.
Nope.
No way in hell.
Not happening.
Instead, I concentrated on why she was so damn insistent that I leave. This started a slew of questions I would have to figure out on my own because it wasn’t like I could take it to my club brothers or ask her. She was dead, for crying out loud.
I got it. I really did. Kitty was like some kind of all-knowing-all-seeing oracle, but she was stingy and cryptic with the information. So, I’ve been spending my nights wracking my brain trying to figure out what she knew, what she meant.
It was exhausting.
I’d been at it for four months now and wasn’t any closer to figuring out what she knew. I did however go back to the beginning. I started from scratch. It was the only way. Kitty knew something big. Something so massive that she died from it and so did her mother. Her brother Savage left the club and her husband was out there killing indiscriminately, eliminating people left and right.
I should know.
I’ve been keeping tabs on his kill count.
After killing Toxic in Florida, Bullseye headed to Mexico, where he slaughtered several men from the Costa Cartel. He was now making his way back up the coast.
Why I had no clue.
Though I knew I should be worried about what Bullseye was up to, I wasn’t. What he did wasn’t any of my business.
Instead, I concentrated on figuring out what his wife said. That part of the message drove me nuts. Do not trust Reaper. Leave the club now. Take Gadget and disappear.
Heading back to my office, I found my brother Gadget sitting in front of my computer, staring at my personal computer screen. Shutting the door behind me, I locked it, leaning against it for strength. Seemed only fitting since everyone was locking doors nowadays.
“What the hell is this?” my brother asked, pointing to the message I left open on my personal computer. Sitting beside him, I pulled my computer closer and shut the lid. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing Lena. What the hell is going on?”
Sighing, I simply answered. “It’s the message Kitty left me on the thumb drive.”
“Don’t trust Reaper?”
“I know.”
“Do I need to pack our shit?”