Page 19 of Edge

“Carl Sinclair,” I repeated. The name sounded familiar to me, but I couldn’t place it. And then I did. “Wait. Carl Sinclair, as in the vice president of the Mad Dogs MC?”

“Yep. And her brother Ken is the enforcer,” Byte said.

“Oh, this doesn’t sound good.” The Mad Dogs weren’t good people. They were one of the clubs that gave the rest of us a bad name. Honestly, their club's name was fitting as they weren’t much better than rabid animals.

“There’s more,” Byte said. “Not long before Evie arrived in Cedar Valley, her dad and brother were arrested for murder. It looks like the charges against them have been dropped, but the original reports say the guy owed them money.”

“Does it say who the guy was or why he owed them money?”

“His name was Randall Myers. It doesn’t say, but the Mad Dogs make their money selling drugs, so I would assume that’s why.”

“Can you find an address for Randall?” I asked.

“Yeah, one sec,” he said and started typing. “Here it is.”

I looked at his screen in disbelief. “That’s the same address that’s on Evie’s registration.”

“What are you thinking?”

“The same thing you are. That Evie’s boyfriend was doing drugs and racked up a tab with the MC. When he couldn’t pay, her dad and brother killed him. Evie got caught in the crossfire and took off when they were arrested.”

“I bet they were expecting her to pay off what he owed,” Byte said. “Probably still are.”

“Son of a bitch.” No wonder she looked like she was scared to death whenever she was around me or any of the Blackwings. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”

“Talk to Phoenix,” he said simply. “He needs to know and so does Irene.”

“If Evie finds out, she’s going to run.”

“That’d be a stupid move on her part. She’s in a safe place, and it’d be hard for anyone to locate her. The only giveaway is her car, and they don’t know where to look for it.”

“Maybe I can talk to her and convince her to let us help her.”

“Let’s talk to Phoenix first,” he said. “I believe he’s in his office.”

I followed him down the hall to Phoenix’s office in a slight daze. Of all the things Evie could have been running from, I never once thought it would be another motorcycle club.

“Damn it,” Phoenix said when he saw us. “It’s never good news when one of you shows up with Byte holding his laptop.”

“Sorry, Prez,” I said and closed the door behind us.

“Let’s hear it.”

I started at the beginning and told him everything I knew about Evie. Then Byte showed him the proof on his laptop.

“Evie’s the one who came to Gabby’s party with Irene, right?” he asked.

“That’s the one,” I confirmed.

“Aw, hell. She seemed like a sweet girl. It’s hard to believe she’s related to those jackasses.”

“What can we do to help her?” I asked eagerly.

Phoenix sat back in his chair and gave me a pointed look. “Does she want our help?”

“I don’t know.”

“This is probably not what you want to hear, but you need to talk to her first. Make sure the assumptions you’ve made about her life are correct. If it turns out they are, and she is running from them, we can talk about our options if she wants our help,” he said.