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Chapter Fifteen

Griffin’s Beach Undertaker

S taring at the clock, Undertaker’s leg bounces. Church starts at eight, so why the hell is it eight-oh-seven, and Colt isn’t here yet?

His girl waits for him. She’s in the main room, and she promised him a surprise. When Jamie says this, he knows he’s in for one hell of a good time. Great, even.

It’s been months since they first got together, and he honestly hadn’t expected her to last this long. Something about her drives him absolutely wild, and it doesn’t hurt that she has not only become accustomed to his rules but also goes out of her way to follow them.

The few times she’s broken a rule has resulted in some of the best sex he’s ever had.

Nothing has quite topped fucking her outside of the bar in Riverview after a miscommunication that almost ended everything.

Watching her cry when he walked away told him he’ll never be able to be the one to walk away should this end.

The need to have her was painful, and it was the first night he truly fucked her. Taking her virginity had him showing her how great sex can be before he got anywhere near what could be categorized as rough. But that night, she was just as excited as he was to fuck rather than make love.

“Itching to get to your girl?” Venom asks with a smirk.

“You have no idea,” Undertaker says as he watches Colt and Diesel talking outside the room.

Venom’s love life seems to be nothing short of a mess.

He’s in love with Marnie Banks, a daughter from Summerville who moved to Griffin’s Beach in an attempt to win him back.

Undertaker isn’t quite sure what happened between them, but Venom’s hell-bent on sticking to his convictions of not letting her back in.

Then, he goes and finds the craziest woman anyone has ever seen. Which says quite a lot considering their current company. Cinder Hicks was taken out of the clubhouse bloody and unconscious, and dropped off at her father’s junkyard in Riverview.

“She promised me a surprise, and I’m about ready to walk out of here, toss her over my shoulder, and run home.”

“You know you still have an apartment here, right?” Venom asks. “You don’t have to go far to have your way with her.”

Apartments are something unique to the Griffin’s Beach charter from what he’s seen at the other clubhouses. Every member has his own apartment consisting of a room and attached bathroom. A perk of renovating an old hotel as a clubhouse.

The meaning behind it isn’t lost on Undertaker, and it makes him proud of his decision to join the club. It stands for brotherhood and family. Every member, whether he has a home outside of this place, has an apartment. A place to come home to, if needed.

“Yeah, I can’t do that. We’ve all heard Melanie and Jace going at it, and I cannot let anyone else hear Jamie,” Undertaker says. She’s become vocal as they’ve experimented and made her feel more comfortable. “Clubhouse is for sleeping only.”

“You got it bad, huh?” Shep asks and elbows him.

Shep and Venom are two of the strays taken in by the President’s wife, and Undertaker likes to think of himself as being one as well. She’s the only person besides Jamie who knows about his rules. While she may not agree, she doesn’t run around telling everyone he’s an obsessive freak.

“She’s so fucking gorgeous. And I hate how she sees herself,” Undertaker says.

“How’s that?” Venom asks.

“Fat.”

Shaking his head, Shep gives him a smirk.

“Nah, she’s not fat. She’s thick, and so many men underestimate just how amazing that is.

I mean, Heidi’s no stick figure. She’s upset she’s gained a few pounds now that she’s not on stage every night, but she doesn’t understand just how much I love the extra stuff to hold onto. She’s so damn sexy.”

“She’s let you back into bed?” Ky asks with a chuckle as Colt and Diesel finally join the rest of them and shut the door.

Venom wasn’t the only Drifter Cinder’s been with.

She and Shep once had a thing, and he never shared this with Heidi.

To say his wife was angry upon learning about it would be a vast understatement.

He ended up sleeping in the clubhouse for a couple of weeks before she finally let him back into the house.

“Oh, I still have to work for it, but I don’t mind. Burying my face between her legs isn’t half the punishment she thinks it is.”

Everyone chuckles as Colt hits the gavel on the table.

A new one after he broke the last one while listening to his father-in-law talk out of his ass.

“Okay, we all love sex, but I have something to bring to the table before we can all find our way between our women’s legs.

” He pauses and looks at a few of the single men. “Or club bunnies’ legs.”

There’s a collective chuckle, but Undertaker can only say a silent prayer this goes quickly. He’s damn near ready to burst.

“Travis Hall stopped by a week ago and gave me a case file. The asshole out there murdering and disfiguring women can’t be found, and he wants us to help,” Diesel says, setting the folder on the table. “He gave me the most recent victim’s file.”

“Okay, I need a little help here. Who’s Travis Hall?” Undertaker asks, suddenly intrigued at the potential to kill a murderous bastard.

Unless there’s a good reason not to help this guy, Undertaker would be more than a little happy to take out a man who tortures women. This guy needs to be stopped, and he’s willing to be part of the gang of men who puts an end to him.

Colt gives him a quick rundown of Travis and Julian even though he’s more than a little familiar with Julian. His comments on the news has him walking around like he’s a movie star even though they’re tearing him a new one. Can’t fix stupid.

“What does he think we can do that they can’t?” Ky asks. “Does he think we know who this asshole is and choose to just sit back, letting him carry on with his crimes? That trash knows trash, as Julian would say?”

“He thinks we can figure out who he is,” his father says. “He threw out Brock’s name, so I think he believes there’s something to be found that they’re too backed up or lacking in competency to do themselves. Went as far as offering Grayson his job back to try to entice us to get involved.”

Colt’s eyebrows lift. “Did he accept?”

“You know Tate better than most of us. He’s always been on the straight and narrow, but he luckily came to talk to me first. Travis left out a few details, and he went and told them to go fuck themselves to their faces.”

“Wish I could’ve been there to see that,” Brock says with a smirk.

“Lex says he’s having a difficult time living in the gray. Everything was always black and white with him, especially when he wore the uniform. When we had that issue with Donald Ramsey a few months ago, he actually suggested killing the man. That had to have been difficult,” Colt says.

“His whole world perspective has shifted,” Tyson Reeves says. “When he helped me save Tara from her ex a couple years ago, he realized why we kill. I don’t think he liked that, but he can’t deny it anymore.”

Undertaker heard a little bit about how Tara’s abusive ex kidnapped her after getting out of prison for almost killing her. When they found her, she was naked and beaten, but she seems to be doing well now. And the bastard died in prison, thanks to the Drifters calling in a favor.

Venom nods to the folder in front of Diesel. “What’s in the file?”

“Everything on the last victim that they can’t identify. No hair, fingertips, or teeth. And her DNA isn’t on file.”

The photos are passed around, and Beckett, a man Undertaker’s worked with in the service, stops and stares. “Uh, Undertaker?”

“Yeah?”

“Isn’t this the same tattoo you have?”

He slides the picture across the table, and all excitement for what’s to come once he leaves this room washes away. His world comes to a screeching halt, and the picture shakes in his hand as he stares at it.

“What is it?” Colt asks.

“Flames with a cross. There’s a name on there, but it’s cut and not easily readable,” Beckett says.

“Aaron,” Undertaker says. “The name on the banner is Aaron.”

His heart races, and he sets it down on the table as he tries to regain his composure. The last thing he ever expected to see was someone he knew in Griffin’s Beach, let alone in a file from the De-Identifier’s victims.

“Undertaker?” Colt asks. “What’s going on?”

“I know her.”

“You do?”

Pulling up his shirt, he stands and holds the picture next to his own tattoo. The A and N are the only letters that can be made out, but he knows it’s the same as his.

“Who is she?” Ky asks.

“Nina Person. We got this tattoo together after her brother died while I was in Iraq. He was a firefighter, and Aaron was my best friend. A brother.”

He can’t look at anyone as he sits down and instead looks at the image of a beat-up face he now recognizes as the woman he once knew. Someone did this to her, and he can’t sort out his feelings. Sadness. Rage. Guilt. Love. Longing. Hatred. Betrayal. All of them swirl around inside of him.

“And who was she to you?”

“I loved her. We were together for a while after Aaron died because we understood the other’s pain. It didn’t work out, and it’s been years since we last saw each other. I had no idea she was anywhere near Griffin’s Beach.”

“Does this change our stance?” Ky asks. “Are we stepping in and getting involved to find this asshole?”

“I think we have to,” Venom says. “One of our own knows a victim. We can’t just walk away from that.”

Looking up at the Sergeant at Arms, Undertaker feels a small inkling of relief. If he could find his voice, he’d thank him, but he hopes the look of gratitude tells him what he can’t find the words to say.

“I won’t work the GBPD, but I’ll work with Grayson,” Brock says. “If there’s something to find, the two of us have a better chance than the idiots on the force. Maybe we can try and retrace her steps and find footage of her with the De-Identifier. Put a face to the name.”

“What do we do when we find him?” Diesel asks.

“We’ll decide when we get there,” Colt says. “But I’ll be damned if Julian gets the credit for it. He needs a rude awakening.”

Undertaker looks at the President, and he sees a look of determination on his face. This really is a brotherhood, and he feels grateful to be here with these men.

“One thing,” Colt says and points the gavel around to everyone. “No one goes rogue. Everything comes to this table, and we make decisions together. Got it?”

Brock and Beckett look at the table while everyone glares at them. The last time one of their own was in trouble, they went rogue and landed themselves in prison after pissing off one of the most powerful men in the state. Maybe even the country.

While the warning may be because of those two, Undertaker knows it’s also directed at him. Unlike them, he knows better. He won’t do anything without bringing it to the table. He’s a soldier through and through, and he follows the chain of command.

The gavel bangs, and he stands on autopilot. How does he explain this to Jamie?