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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

HENDRIX

B lade, Colt, and Iceman were waiting outside the hotel when we sped into the parking lot. The instant the GMC screeched to a halt, I swung my door open, jumped out, and stalked toward them.

Colt had confirmed Anna had gone somewhere with Tweety around forty minutes before, but that was all we knew. I’d tried calling her, but all I got was her voicemail, which in itself rang alarm bells. My woman was in the late stages of pregnancy and always made sure her phone was charged and ready for action. I called her to check in hourly whenever we weren’t together or if I was on a job. She knew better than to turn her cell off.

“Status report,” I barked.

“We found Anna’s cell phone on the floor of the garage,” Blade relayed. “Anna told Carrie she was going for a walk to clear her head, and Tweety offered to go with her. Carina raised the alarm after she tried calling her when Addie and Rockabye rolled up, but the call kept goin’ to voicemail. Colt looked back at the CCTV footage, and she definitely went somewhere with the prospect. They headed toward town, but the car disappeared somewhere along the way. The tracking device has been disabled, so we don’t know where the fuck they are. We’ve got Rockabye operating Hawk now, trying to pick up where he went.”

I felt my blood pressure spike.

What the fuck is happening?

“Is Tweety in on it?” I demanded.

“We dunno for sure yet,” Colt replied. “Anna seemed to go with him of her own free will, but the cameras didn’t pick up on their convo, so we dunno what was said. Carina didn’t get any bad vibes from him. In fact, she reckoned, if anything, he seemed eager to please. Anna’s body language looked a little off to me, but she’s pregnant and carries herself more carefully, so that doesn’t prove shit.”

“He must be part of it,” Diablo said from behind me. “If the tracker on the car’s disabled, he must’ve done it.”

“Agreed,” Blade muttered.

“The tracker could’ve broken,” Colt suggested.

“Weird how they’ve never fucked up before, and the one time it does, it’s when my ol’ lady disappears,” I offered. “Ace lured us out for a reason. It was never about Addie; it was about me and Anna. Tweety’s gotta be in on it.”

The men all looked at each other, their mouths hardening.

“I can’t fuckin’ believe this is happening” I croaked. “My woman’s weeks away from having our baby. How the fuck did we get so complacent?”

“We weren’t complacent,” Ice argued. “We did everythin’ right. All we can do is play the cards we’re dealt. We’ve got a fucking drone in the air looking for Anna and Tweet. He can’t stay holed up forever. Sooner or later, he’ll have to come out, and when he does, we’ll pounce.”

I scraped a hand down my face. “Tweety must’ve been recruited by Ace. There’s no other explanation.”

“Do they even know each other?” Gambit interjected. “Tweet didn’t join until after the club split.”

Diablo let out a low growl. “Ace must’ve sent him in to infiltrate. He knew our systems and personnel checks, seeing as he dealt with our tech back then. The fucker could’ve easily played us.”

Muttered curses went up.

“Colt, I want everythin’ you can get on Tweet,” I ordered. “Background, military career, parents, relatives. Everything.”

“Got most of it when you were driving back,” he told me. “Nothing leads back to Ace or ASP. I’ve gone through all Tweety’s relatives, and even their in-laws. No names flag up.”

“There’s gotta be a connection somewhere,” I insisted. “Ace targeted Addie to lure me out on a wild-goose chase. He wanted to get to Anna ‘cause it’s the one thing that will get to me. He needed inside help to do that, so it stands to reason it’s Tweety if he’s the one who snatched her.”

Colt turned for the hotel. “I’ll go through it again.”

I fell into step beside him, the others bringing up the rear. “Go back as far as you can. Check high school friends, too. Cross-reference Tweety with Ace’s nieces and nephews. Find the connection. It’s there, brother, it’s just hidden. But if anyone can get to the bottom of it, you can.”

We burst into the hotel and headed straight for Church.

“I’ll go get my laptop,” Colt muttered, veering off and jogging down the steps toward the basement.

Diablo walked ahead, stopping at the door of the room where we held Church. After staring at the eye scanner, he punched in the sequence to release the locks and held the door open, ushering us inside.

“Where’s Pyro and Dad?” I asked.

“Will’s in charge of one of the teams out looking for Tweety,” Blade replied. “And Pyro’s with Fender. Told him to stick with Addie like glue. He’s sleeping on a pull-out in her room tonight. It’s a bullshit excuse to keep an eye on Fender on the off chance he wants to exact a little revenge. Couldn’t fault the brother if he went in half-cocked and tried to take Ace out. I just don’t want him doin’ it alone when he’s vulnerable. Those three kids need him around. If we’re gonna take Ace out, we do it together.”

“Good thinking,” I muttered, taking my chair.

“Ace does need putting down, Prez,” Blade hissed, sitting beside me. “Always knew he was a dog, but I never realized he was a loose cannon, too. Taking one of our kids? Is he fuckin’ sick?” He gave a little shudder. “Could’ve been Gigi. She was yards away from them. I’d have fucking flipped out if they’d grabbed her. Dunno how the fuck Fender held his shit together.”

“This is why I know Ace is somehow involved in Anna’s disappearance,” I stated. “He went to a lotta trouble to get my attention. He was at my side back when I left Anna, and the asshole knows how deeply it affected me. If he wants to get to me, there are three ways to do it. Through my woman, my dad, and my club. Today, he fucked with all of ‘em.”

“He’s gotta die,” Diablo pointed out.

“Looks that way,” I replied. “Loved him like the brother I never had. He screwed me over, but it was never bad enough to take him out. The second he took Addie and Anna, the rules changed. Now, I’ll take him out, and I won’t lose sleep over it.”

The buzzer sounded as the door locks disengaged, and Colt walked into the meet, carrying his laptop and an iPad under his arm. Dropping into his seat, he opened the computer, and his fingers began flying over the keyboard.

The screens surrounding us on the walls all lit up, giving us a panoramic view of his screen. Lines of data appeared, then morphed into code and back again.

My mind immediately went to Anna, and my throat filled with emotion.

It had taken the entire journey home to lock my shit down. I had to keep a calm head if I was gonna be instrumental in finding her. If Ace was involved, he’d have put roadblocks in place, and I needed to be clear-minded if I wanted to either jump over them or smash through them.

Still, the tightness in my gut was as acute as the pain in my heart. If anything happened to Anna, I wasn’t sure I’d have a place left in the world.

I’d already had to live the last few years without her, and it almost destroyed me. The only thing that kept me going was the sliver of a chance that one day, we’d find our way back to each other; so I knew if anything happened to my woman or my boy, I’d wither away.

That was if I didn’t take myself out first.

There was no life for me without Anna. She was my reason for existing. I was empty without her. Everything that passed my lips tasted like ash, and everything that I touched felt wrong. All my interactions were tinged with loneliness because the one person I needed by my side wasn’t there.

The first time I sat in her salon chair, and she sifted her fingers through my hair, my world came alive. I fought it because I was scared and yeah, I drove her away, though I was glad of it now because it made me appreciate what I let go. God knew the idiot I was back then never deserved her.

But I was trying to deserve her now.

I was trying to be a better man.

It wasn’t a secret that I was rough around the edges and usually said the wrong thing, but I was also trying to soften and relax into becoming the ol’ man she needed, as well as a good role model for Junior.

If Anna and my boy were taken from me, there’d be nothing left inside.

The code on the screens began to morph into images of a young Tweety with a shaved head, wearing an army uniform. Pictures of him on nights out, dressed in civilian clothing, laughing among a crowd of men, flicked across the walls.

“I’m on his socials,” Colt murmured. “Nothin’ there that ties him to Ace. Lemme go back further.” He tapped furiously on his keyboard, and more images flashed up, this time of young, smiling teens. “Going through his yearbook. Gonna check if anyone he went to school with has a connection.”

My stare caught on a particular image, and something pinged at the back of my mind. “Wait!”

The images froze.

“Go back,” I ordered.

The last page flicked back on the screen and my gut clenched as I stared at the girl. “That girl, bottom row, third from the left.”

“Is that...?” Diablo began, his words trailing off.

“Jesus,” Gambit muttered.

“Fuck me,” Iceman said drolly. “Ain’t that a turn-up for the books?”

“Well, lookee here, boys.” I sat back in my chair and scrubbed my hand over my beard, trying to calm my hammering heart. “Think we just found our connection.”