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Chapter Twenty-Six

Griffin’s Beach Undertaker

P ounding on the apartment door barely registers with Undertaker as he lies on top of the covers of his bed. He’s done nothing but stare at the ceiling since last night as he runs through everything that’s happened. Everything Lex and Jamie said to him.

They were both right, and he can’t come up with a single idea to fix things with Jamie. To make her see he does love her, even though he failed on every level.

“Undertaker, come on!” Brock shouts. “We’re heading out.”

He looks at the clock and realizes it’s been over twelve hours since he laid down. The last time this happened to him, he’d just returned home to find out Aaron was dead.

Depression.

Walking out to join everyone, he sees Jamie sitting on the stairs next to Lex. He stops in front of her, and she looks to have gotten as much sleep as he did last night.

“When this is finished, can we talk? Please?” Undertaker asks.

“I have to go to the house and grab the rest of my things, so I’ll wait there,” Jamie says. “It seems like it might be a better place to talk considering this place has cameras and ears everywhere.”

Lex looks at him and nods. She’ll keep an eye on his girl. Former girl. Whatever it is Jamie is now.

“Where are we going?” Undertaker asks Colt.

“There’s a warehouse Brock found in the abandoned industrial area of town. There aren’t many working cameras around the place, but we’re pretty sure he’s still there. And he might have his next victim in there, too,” Colt says. “We’re in agreement, right? No killing him?”

Gunner was right last night. Colt is Undertaker’s superior, and he needs to carry out orders whether he agrees or not. “Agreed.”

They head out, following Brock, with Grayson pulling up the rear with his bullet-riddled SUV on new tires. When he joins them, gun in hand, Undertaker’s surprised to see him with them. He’s not a member, and he’s a former cop. By all accounts, he shouldn’t be here alongside them.

As he looks up at the warehouse, Undertaker pauses. Guilt washes over him, and he momentarily can’t breathe.

This could be where Nina was last alive.

The place she was when she took her final breath.

The report said her cause of death was inconclusive.

There was so much damage done that the medical examiner couldn’t determine whether she died from blood loss, asphyxiation, or blunt force trauma.

She was so close to me, and I didn’t know. I didn’t save her.

A blood-curdling scream from inside pulls him from his thoughts. “Definitely has another victim.”

“Perfect place for it,” Grayson says, his voice low. “No one around to hear it. And if they did, they’re not likely to call it in. This isn’t known to be an area for upstanding citizens.”

“Do not kill him,” Colt reiterates. “Beat him, but he stays alive. Got it?”

They nod, and Undertaker takes the lead.

He wants this motherfucker to see him first, and he gasps when he bursts through the door to see a blonde woman suspended from a fixture above.

She faces the ground, horizontally, her body held by ropes and chains.

A large gash on her stomach has her intestines hanging from the open wound as blood pools on the ground beneath her.

He’s seen a lot in his career, and it takes a good amount of gore to really affect him. The sight in front of him makes him sick. He can’t fathom how someone can do this to another human being. An innocent human being.

“Jesus,” Venom mutters right behind him.

A sound echoes in the building, and Undertaker thinks the guy got away. Turning to run after him, he feels something slice into his side, and he lets out an involuntary cry. A familiar man yanks the knife out and slips back into the shadows.

“Motherfucker,” he growls and lunges, tackling the guy who got away at Marnie’s apartment.

It takes next to no effort to disarm him, and Undertaker holds him on the ground as Grayson runs over to zip tie his hands and feet quickly. The urge to just snap his neck is overwhelming, and he moves away before he disobeys orders.

Or, better yet, I could take his knife and gut him like he did this poor girl.

“Lower that lever!” Colt shouts as he fumbles to put her organs back inside her body. “Someone, cut these ropes!”

“I’m calling this in,” Grayson says.

The scene becomes a chaotic flurry of men in leather rushing to aid the woman about to become the next victim of the De-Identifier. They work with the chains and put her onto the ground where they can better assist her.

“You’ll never get a conviction, you know,” the guy says from the ground. “None of those women have been identified.”

He holds a hand to his wound as he looks around the room, and a reflection catches his eye. Walking over to it, he stares, paralyzed.

“Hey, Taker, you good, man?” Venom calls. “You’re bleeding!”

“Asshole stabbed me,” he says and stares at the dog tags hanging from a nail. “These are Aaron’s dog tags. He was a reservist, and Nina never took them off after he died. Now he has them on a nail as his fucking souvenir.”

“Don’t touch them,” Grayson says as Undertaker reaches out to take them. “It’s evidence. These other items he’s kept from his victims may help us identify who they were if he doesn’t talk.”

Counting them, he shakes his head. “There are fourteen souvenirs.”

“They’ll never find the first bodies. it gets boring when no one starts searching,” the man says from the ground. “Trust me, this will never stick. You’ll never be able to pin any of this on me.”

This feels too easy. Aside from stabbing Undertaker, he didn’t even fight to get away. He should have at least tried to run.

“I want them,” Undertaker tells Grayson. “The dog tags.”

He nods. “I’ll make sure you get them.”

“This isn’t right.”

“What do you mean?”

“All of this… It feels staged. He had time to run, and I’m pretty sure someone did.”

Sighing, Grayson shakes his head. “I know it probably feels that way, but he’s not quite as smart as we all thought he was. He just knew how to pick people who could fly under the radar.”

No, that’s not it. But if he’s not the one who did this, or the only one, then who got away?

“Do you think this stuff is enough to identify his other victims?” Venom asks Grayson, joining them as Colt and TK try to help the woman who has since stopped screaming.

“I hope so. If not, the DA will probably make him a deal. No needle in return for giving up their identities,” Grayson says.

“Please, I don’t want to die,” the woman cries. “Don’t let me die.”

Did Nina know she was going to die? Is that why she asked for me when she talked to Marnie?

Thinking Nina knew she was about to lose her life unsettles Undertaker. If she knew, why didn’t she tell Marnie to call the cops instead? She didn’t need Undertaker to save herself. She didn’t have to end up a victim.

Flashing lights appear through the gaps in the boarded-up window, and Undertaker almost laughs. Who would think a bunch of bikers would call the authorities rather than run as fast as they could from them?

“Fucking media’s outside, too,” Brock says.

“I got it,” Colt says after the EMTs rush inside to tend to the woman. “Undertaker, you good? Do you need to go get stitched up?”

He shakes his head and follows him outside. “I’ll take care of it back at the clubhouse.”

Cameras and reporters stand on the edge of the scene as the cops try to push them back, and Colt smirks at the two men who show up in plain clothes.

“What happened here?” a reporter asks as one of the uniformed cops approaches the men.

“Has the De-Identifier been caught?” asks another.

“No comment,” the older of the two men says as he stares at Colt.

Instead of walking away, Colt shoots them a look of defiance. “I have a comment.”

“This is an on-going case, and we can’t discuss—”

“I don’t fucking work for you, Julian. Even if Travis tried to lure us in to do your job for you.

Again.” Colt turns towards the cameras, not seeming to care he’s covered in blood.

“Julian Black will try to spin this and say trash attracts trash, but the truth is, the Deranged Drifters were able to identify and apprehend the man we believe is the killer terrorizing our town while the cops sat with their thumbs up their asses.”

All cameras and lights turn towards Colt, and Undertaker wonders if pissing off the big wigs in the department is the best idea he’s ever had. Not that he’s going to question him now.

“The GBPD is full of incompetent figureheads who needed someone else to step in to pick up their slack. Julian Black had his best officer fired, and because of that and his ineptitude, there are fourteen murders that didn’t need to happen.”

“Are you the ones to thank for apprehending him?”

Colt shakes his head and points to Grayson as he talks to Alex McKenzie.

“Grayson Tate became a private investigator as a result of Julian’s poor decisions.

We couldn’t have done this without him, and because of his help, the last victim was found alive and is being brought to the hospital where she hopefully will stay out of the morgue. ”

“Wait, did you say fourteen murders?” a woman asks, pushing her way to the front.

One of the men in the front tries to elbow her back from the front of the line, and Undertaker tilts his head. “Do you think that’s a smart move? To physically assault a woman in front of men who just took down a potential serial killer?”

“Yeah, I don’t want to talk to you. Can we get him removed?” Colt asks. “Or, if you’ll turn off your cameras, I’ll remove him myself.”

“Get back, Bradshaw. It’s probably best for your health,” someone says, and he disappears into the back of the group.

Smiling, Colt nods. “Good move.”

“Inside the warehouse, there are fourteen souvenirs for the cops to bag and tag,” Undertaker says. “The man we apprehended says we’ll never find the first bodies. He only started putting the bodies around town when he got bored and wanted a chase.”

“Shouldn’t you have just… killed him?” the female reporter asks. “I mean, the town would be safer, right?”

“Unlike the GBPD, we believe the victims should be identified. It may not happen if he’s dead, even with the evidence collected. We have the top-tier Keystone Cops running this department, after all,” Colt says.

More questions fly around them, but Colt holds his hands up. He’s apparently done answering questions, and Undertaker just laughs as he sees Julian standing next to the ambulance.

“My suggestion is to call Tate Investigations if anyone believes their loved one may be one of the victims. He’ll get you answers a lot quicker than the cops will,” Colt says.

Nodding at Travis and Julian, Colt smirks and walks to his bike, the rest of the club joining him. Grayson stays back with the cops, discussing with Alex what happened and how.

Something still feels unsettled, but Undertaker has nothing to go off of other than his gut. He has to accept the case is as solved as it’s going to be. Now, he needs to focus on winning Jamie back.