Page 30

“He’s not here, so I’m asking you.” Charlie wanted to cry thinking about a small, scared Hemlock living in an abandoned building. Struggling to find food or any semblance of comfort.

“The kid had it rough. And that’s all I’m saying.” Stopping, he turned to face Charlie. “Please don’t ask me anything else about it.”

She could see by the look on the guy’s face he didn’t want to talk about Hemlock’s past. Knowing when to listen she responded, “Okay.”

After searching the abandoned building, Truck and Charlie headed for the clubhouse. When they arrived, they found Hemlock’s bike wasn’t in the parking lot. “Charlie, I need you to please stay in the vehicle this time.”

“I’ll stay in the truck,” she said and instantly crossed her fingers at her side.

“Thank you.” Truck got out giving her a tight smile before closing the door. Halfway across the lot he waved down Tank, one of the prospects. “Keep an eye on the truck and the girl inside.”

“Got it.”

Heading inside he found Vicious, and Razor, along with some of the other brothers sitting around the bar drinking. “Hey, have any of you seen Hemlock?”

“You haven’t seen or spoken to him yet?” asked Razor.

“No and I’m worried.”

Vicious looked from Truck to Razor like he was watching a ping-pong game until he halted the conversation. “Truck, what’s going on?”

Once Truck told the story, he watched Vicious fold his arms across his chest. “You don’t get it, do you?” The Veep said, sounding annoyed.

Truck didn’t consider himself stupid but as the seconds ticked by, he thought maybe he was by the way Vicious stared at him. “Get what?”

Vicious leaned back in his chair. “You said you had just come in from working out in the garage?”

Trucked shrugged, still not getting what his VP was getting at. “Yeah, I was all nasty and sweaty.”

“Where was Charlie?” Vicious asked.

“She’d just come in from swimming and was in the kitchen?”

Vicious almost laughed at how slow Truck was at figuring out what had happened. “In a swimsuit?” he asked Truck.

His mood was going from concern to pissed off as Vicious continued the interrogation. “Yeah, with a towel wrapped around her.”

Dropping his chair back down Vicious did smirk then. “Could you tell she was wearing a swimsuit?”

“I guess so. I don’t know. I don’t see the problem.” Truck was done with the questioning. He needed to find Hemlock.

“If you would have walked in, not knowing she’d been swimming, what would it have looked like?” Vicious asked Truck, hoping the brother would put two and two together.

“I don’t fucking know. Maybe that she just had a shower.” And it hit him in the face. Using his thumbs he massaged his temples. “He thought we had been together.”

“Bingo. And that betrayal cuts to the fucking bone.” Vicious should know since he’d been on the shitty end of that scenario many years before.

“But why would he come into the house expecting us to have been together?” Truck looked at Vicious who looked at Razor. “What did you do, asshole?” Truck asked Razor, his voice laced with anger.

Razor felt bad for fucking with Hemlock. He had no idea the kid would go off half-cocked. “I was screwing with him at work that day. I had no idea it was getting to him.”

Vicious wanted to throat punch Razor for being stupid. “The kid has abandonment issues.”

“He also has a terrible track record with women,” Truck added.

“Fuck!” Razor could kick his own damn ass. It was time to come clean with his own shit.

“He’s been razzing me about Lottie and not pulling the trigger.” He heard the comments and the grumbling from his brothers and knew one hundred percent they were right. “I turned the tables on him and didn’t let up. Every time he called or texted and got no response, I told him shit about the two of you probably getting it on while he was mooning over her.”