Page 37 of Break Away (Riot MC Next Generation #2)

Chapter twenty-two

Last Thing I Want to Do

Rafferty

“Where the fuck is she?” I hissed to myself.

This had to be what paranoia felt like. I hadn’t taken a college class before, maybe the first session ran late.

Deep down, I knew that was bullshit.

I glanced at my phone again. It was three-thirty. I’d texted her forty-five minutes ago.

No response.

Even if she were running late, normally she’d respond.

Something was wrong. I grabbed my phone and hit Beast’s number.

“Yo, Raff.”

“Hey, Lex should have come home by now. It’s been two hours since her class let out.”

“Are you sure she didn’t have somewhere else to be? A shift with that dentist she mentioned?”

I clenched a fist to stay calm. “She didn’t mention it and she hasn’t responded to my texts.”

“I’m guessing you don’t know where Porter lives.”

My brows drew together. That was a possibility I hadn’t considered. Didn’t want to consider. “No. My gut says the Twenty-sixers have her.”

“Raff…” Beast drawled, and lapsed into silence. Then he said, “That’s a stretch.”

“Is it? We got drugs, money, and a roommate who’s dead.”

“You can’t assume it’s them. Besides, how would they know where to find her? There’s a shitload of buildings on that campus with classrooms and labs in almost every building.”

That argument held merit, but it worked both ways. “How would Porter know where to find her?”

Beast’s chuckle held no humor. “He knows where she lives. Could have followed her to campus and waited. Hell, you don’t know she made it to class. Call the cops.”

My stomach lurched at those words.

“That’s the last thing I want to do.”

“Hang on, I’m at the clubhouse and Cal just walked in. Let me tell him what’s going down.”

Scratchy sounds came over the line as though the phone had shifted hands.

“Let me call you back,” Cal said. “Natasha mentioned sharing Alexandra’s problems with her son Nate. He’s supposedly working at the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office.”

“All right, but what is he going to be able to do for us?”

Cal made a strange humming sound. “I’m not sure, but it’s a start.”

While I waited for Cal to call me back, I went to Alexandra’s bedroom. She had a spare set of keys to her car in one of her dresser drawers. I only knew about the keys because it had taken us so long to straighten her room after the police left on Friday.

Beast’s suspicion of Porter nagged at me.

Not knowing his address irritated me, too.

The most fucked-up idea struck me, and I needed to see if she had a GPS system in her car.

If she did, maybe she’d programmed Porter’s address into the system.

It was one helluva long shot, but at this point, I’d do anything to figure out where she was.

I grabbed her keys and went downstairs. Her older-model Honda was parked near the stairwell.

I hit the key fob and the lights flashed.

A gust of heat wafted out when I opened the door, and I crammed my frame into the car.

At a glance, there wasn’t a GPS system and the car was old enough there wasn’t a navigation screen on the console either.

“Dammit,” I whispered.

No sooner had I unfolded from the car, than my phone rang. I hit the locks for the car and closed the door, putting the phone to my ear.

“Yeah, Cal.”

“Natasha talked to Nate last Tuesday. He asked when her classes started again, and said he’d check in with Lex on Monday. Which is today.”

I stopped short. “How was he planning to do that? Call her? I’m guessing he didn’t have some way of locating her on campus.”

Cal blew out a sigh. “That’s the thing. I called Mallory, and Nate spoke to her on Friday afternoon, and asked her what Alexandra’s schedule was for the summer.”

I blinked and pulled in a deep breath. “Let me guess. She gave him her schedule and exactly where her classes were.”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t sound as concerned as I am,” I clipped out.

“Don’t put words in my mouth. Nate wouldn’t hurt her, but it doesn’t make sense that she hasn’t gotten in touch.”

“Do you have any way of contacting him?” I asked, climbing the stairs to Alexandra’s apartment.

A dark chuckle came over the line. “Asked Mallory to get me his number. I should have it very soon.”

I’d only met Nate once when Alexandra and I were still on speaking terms. At the time he’d been on the verge of getting his criminal justice degree.

It struck me that if Alexandra was in danger, I didn’t want to be on the right side of the law. I wanted her back, and I didn’t care what I had to do to get her back.

“Is Beast still there? I’d like to talk to him, if he is.”

Cal hesitated. “He’s here, but what do you want to talk to him about?”

I went inside her apartment, closed the door, and locked it. “I wanted to ask him a question.”

“About the Twenty-sixers?” Cal asked.

I sighed. “I’d like to know where they are, and I got the impression that Beast knew that… at least from things he said to Brantley and Tobias.”

“I’ll put him on, but you can’t put that together on your own?” Cal asked.

I rolled my eyes. “They could be anywhere along State Road 26.”

Cal chuckled. “Yeah, but that road has another name besides Twenty-six.”

My grip on my patience slipped. “Cal, no disrespect, but I don’t want to play your games right now. Not when Lex might be in danger.”

“Yeah. Twenty-six is also University Boulevard in Gainesville. I’ll put Beast on, but you don’t go in there half-cocked. It could get you both killed.”

I heard the sound of the phone switching hands again.

“Raff. It’d be better you waited for someone else to have your back,” Beast said.

“Agreed, but she’s almost two hours late. Hell, you pointed out she might not have even made it to class, so time is in short supply.”

“Yeah, which is why I’m gonna tell you how to get to the Sixers, but tread lightly with them,” Beast said.

I listened to his directions and nodded. “If I pass where the road forks, I’ve gone too far.”

“Yeah, and it’ll be a bitch to turn around because it’s a two-lane road, but don’t turn around at the work camp. You’ll get the wrong kind of attention being on your bike, so don’t miss it.”

I had Alexandra’s car keys in my pocket. “Thinking I’ll take her car. It hasn’t been driven in a while, and it’ll be quieter.”

“You got keys to her car?” Beast asked.

“I do.”

“Go find Alexandra. If you get a bad vibe, do not hesitate to call the cops.”

“Will do. Later.”

I turned right a block before the street Beast mentioned.

The surrounding area had four side streets off State Road 26, and I wanted to check for any cross roads connecting the neighborhood.

Two avenues ran perpendicular to the side streets, and allowed me to approach the house without being noticed.

I parked her Honda Accord three houses down and walked toward the house.

Voices carried from the driveway of the house.

I hunched behind some bushes and saw two men push Brantley into the backseat of a black BMW sedan.

All four windows were rolled down, and I could see Brantley was the only person in the back.

Shit .

I found it strange that he’d been shoved into a car.

No, it wasn’t strange, it forced me to realize something about Brantley.

He was a follower, not a leader. Ines handled the drug money, not him.

Porter planned to ride along to the concert, Brantley just let him hang at his apartment.

Tobias hadn’t said outright, but my guess was that Tobias did most of the sales or found people willing to buy.

The BMW peeled out of the drive and sped toward State Road 26. After a rolling stop, it took a left, heading back toward campus.

One man went back into the house while two others milled about in the drive.

My odds were better one-on-one, but I could probably handle two-on-one.

I crept out from behind the bushes, walked toward the house, and up the drive. One of the two men was shorter and wore an Atlanta Hawks t-shirt. The other was leaner and stood at six feet tall. He wore baggy pants, and a loose FAMU t-shirt.

The Hawks fan noticed me first. “Who the fuck are you?”

“I’m here to pick up Alexandra.”

“We don’t know who you’re talking about,” the man wearing the FAMU shirt said.

I locked eyes with him. It might have been five years since I’d seen him, but I knew it was Nate, and I knew not to give away that I’d recognized him.

“You heard him. Now, get out of here,” the Hawks fan said.

“I’m just here to get my woman,” I said.

Nate stared at me, completely dead-eyed.

The Hawks fan swaggered up to me. “Ain’t any woman here, asshole.”

I debated my next move.

The garage door went up, and another black man came out. He was stocky up top, but not through his legs. A shiny black doo-rag sat on his head with dreads sticking out. He glared at me, but I ignored it. My gaze slid past him into the garage. I saw Porter laying on the floor.

“Eightball, who’s this?” the stocky man asked.

“Nobody. We told him to leave, KC,” Nate said.

“Then why’s he still here?” KC asked.

Movement behind KC caught my attention.

Nate’s head twisted in that direction, too. “You didn’t tie him up?”

KC turned, but it was too late. Porter had closed in on him.

Nate ran to them, but stopped half-way there. “Put that down. You don’t know what you’re doin’ with that piece.”

KC faced Porter fully, and I saw Porter holding a gun. The way KC reached to his back, Porter must have snagged it from KC’s waistband.

My gun was at my hip. I reached for the butt and stopped.

“Don’t move or I’ll shoot,” Porter yelled. He had the gun trained on me.

From the crazed gleam in his eyes, he was going to shoot no matter what I did.

“Drop the piece,” Nate ordered.

“Not so tough now, are you, Rafferty?” Porter sneered.

“He’s leaving. Put the gun down,” Nate said.

“I’m not leaving without Alexandra,” I said.

“She ain’t here,” Nate said.

Porter’s attention shifted to Nate, though the gun was still aimed at me. “Where is she?”

“She left with Brantley,” Nate said.

Earlier, I had a clear view of the inside of the Beamer. Lex wasn’t there. Nate lied to Porter, and I could imagine why.

Porter glared at me for a beat, then a slow, maniacal smile spread on his face. “Good. She won’t hear him yell in pain.”

“Don’t,” Nate yelled.

The gun went off.

I intended to drop to the ground and roll away.

All I felt was my body violently jerking backward, then warmth mingled with pain blooming in my chest.