Page 14 of Panther’s Magpie (Mountain River MC #1)

CHAPTER

THIRTEEN

MAGGIE

“ N o way. You didn’t get Mrs. Kinney fired. I don’t believe you,” I say through my laughter.

I came outside to soak up some sunshine and improve my mood.

Panther found me and decided to join me.

When he came out, he apologized for snapping at me the day before, and I accepted it.

Hell, I get it. We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Now he’s sitting in the chair across from me, lightly massaging my feet in his lap.

Little does he know, he’s turning me on. My whole body is flushed from the pleasure. Thank God for the sun. I’m sure he thinks I’m only getting burned.

“Swear to God. Mrs. Kinney pissed me off so much that day. Then she kept saying Aspen was the cause of all the problems. So I convinced Eagle to seduce her and sent pictures to the school board. That’s why she got fired, and they kept it quiet.

Couldn’t have the parents finding out she was messing around with an underage teen boy,” Panther tells me.

I shake my head. “Seriously? Aspen was so excited when she got fired. She really did have it out for her. To be fair, though, Aspen did cause a lot of trouble. She ran her mouth a little bit too much for a girl who didn’t like to get scrappy.”

He snorts. “That’s because she knew she had a brother who would back her up. More than once I found myself staring down kids seven years younger than me, telling them to leave my sister alone. Do you know how awkward that was as a senior?”

“Oh, I’m sure. You gave her the confidence to be who she wanted to be, though, so it’s not all a bad thing,” I tell him.

Before he can respond, Meek peeks his head out the front door.

“Need you inside. It’s about Aspen.”

I sit up. “I want to come. Please, I can’t keep sitting here doing nothing.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Meek looks at Panther.

Panther seems to consider his words.

“Whatever it is, I can handle it. I need to know. Even if it’s bad, I need to know. She’s my best friend. I’ve been here for two months now without a word. It’s killing me. Please.” I lean forward, grabbing Panther’s hands in mine.

His eyes soften. “Okay.”

Meek purses his lips. “In church then. The others are waiting.”

Panther stands, holding his hand out to me. I’m a little shaky as I take it. Whatever Meek has to say, it’s not good. He didn’t want me there for a reason, and I know it’s not because he doesn’t like me.

We’ve sort of built a small friendship over the weeks.

Panther leads me into the room they call church. It’s just a meeting room with a big table and some chairs around it. All of them are taken but the one at the head of the table. Panther leads me to it, pulling it out and gesturing for me to sit down.

I want to ask where he will sit, but he stands behind me, his hands on my shoulders.

“What did you find?” he asks, his tone solemn.

No one speaks at first. Meek keeps gazing at me like he is not sure what to say.

“Speak freely. I know it’s not common to bring an outsider in here, but she is Aspen’s best friend, and she deserves to know. Does anyone disagree?”

They all shake their heads no.

Finally Meek speaks up. “We found a dead body down in the night walker district. She was wearing the same clothes as Aspen when she went missing.”

My heart clenches in my chest. I can feel the tears prick my eyes, but I attempt to hold strong. The only indication that Panther is also processing this information is his hands gripping me tighter. I’m likely to have a bruise later, but I’m grateful for the bite of pain to focus on.

“We have the coroner confirming the identity. We could not tell right away if it was her or not. The woman was thin and tall with blond hair, so it matches the description, but without dental records or fingerprints, we cannot confirm.”

I suck in a breath. I don’t want to see it, but I need to.

“Do you have pictures of the body?” I ask.

“No, Magpie. You don’t want to see that,” Panther says, dropping to his knees next to me as he grips my hand.

“You need to confirm if it is her or not. I know her better than any of you. I can tell based on marks on her body if it is her,” I tell him.

He turns the chair toward him, fitting himself between my thighs. “Then tell me, and I will look. Or tell one of them. I don’t want that image in your pretty head.” He reaches out and caresses the side of my face.

“I appreciate you trying to protect me, but I don’t need it. You once said Aspen was resilient. That she was tough and could make it through this. Well, so am I. I can handle it. Please, show me the pictures.”

Everyone looks uncomfortable as I glance around the table. Not one wants to agree with me.

After several minutes of silence, Panther finally speaks. “Show her.”

His voice is thick with emotion as he looks at me. I can tell he is warring with himself, but he is trusting me.

Meek pulls up the pictures on a tablet and hands it over. I take a deep breath before I look at it.

The first picture is gruesome. It’s the body of a female in the clothes, like he said, laid out in an alley. There is no way to identify her by this picture.

I scroll to the next. This one is just as bad, but there are no features that I can confidently say this is her or not her.

I flip to the third then the fourth.

My stomach feels like it could empty itself at any time. My eyes burn from holding back the tears. Still, I push through.

For Aspen.

Finally, on the fifth picture, I perk up.

“It’s not her,” I tell them.

Panther’s eyes lock on mine.

“What do you mean it’s not her?” he asks.

He had been looking at the same photos I had been. I think he had convinced himself that it had to be her.

I point to the hip bone that is poking out.

“Aspen has a tattoo right there. It’s of a rabbit. She got it at some sleazy parlor when we were eighteen. The Asian guy convinced her it was for the year she was born, even though she was clearly born in the year of the rooster. Still, she got it. So there is no way this is her.”

I continue to flip through the photos now, slightly detached now that I know it’s not her. It’s terrible. I should feel bad for this dead girl, but all I can feel is relief.

“There. She has three small birthmarks on her left shoulder blade. They aren’t there. And see here? This is a dolphin on her lower back. Aspen would never get a tramp stamp. This is not Aspen,” I tell them.

They all look at Panther, and he looks up at me with relief in his eyes.

“If she says it’s not her, then it’s not her.

Do whatever confirmation you need, Meek, but we continue on as if it’s not her.

She is still out there. This is another decoy to throw us off of them.

They are mad that we burned down their bar and hit their strip club.

We expected this. Good. We got a reaction out of them. Let’s use it and find my sister.”

Panther stands, his hand going back to my hair as if caressing it is some stress relief for him.

“Before we go rushing out of here, I do have one more thing,” Meek says, looking over at Panther.

“What is it?”

“We got a hit on Asher.”

PANTHER

“Come on. If that is his sister in the picture, I am the perfect person to go,” Maggie argues.

After the stress of wondering if I was looking at my dead sister, I really needed a break.

Of course life doesn’t work that way. Instead, Meek found a now-deleted post of a picture of the man we believe to be Asher.

The photograph pinged on one of his image searches, but by the time he clicked on it, it was gone.

Thankfully, his program takes screenshots, so we were able to see it.

It was on an older lady’s profile. The caption said, “Little Asher and Ashley playing in the pool when they were teens. Miss you two.” The woman tagged an Ashley Zimmerman in the post. Within minutes the post was gone, but Meek managed to dig into the past of Ashley Zimmerman.

He was able to pull up everything about this woman from where she was born to her shoe size. I think he can tell me what kind of toilet paper she uses in her bathroom. Then he switched to the brother.

Asher Zimmerman.

The only thing he could find on him is the birth certificate that matches Ashley’s.

They are twins.

That’s all he can find, though. Nothing else. Not his Social Security number. He has no social media. It’s as if the guy doesn’t exist.

That’s suspicious as hell.

It means either he is one hell of a tech wiz and erased himself or he is part of something bigger than all of this. The only people I know who can erase a whole person is the government.

“Magpie.” I cup her cheek. “I need you to be here safe. We don’t know this girl or what we are about to walk into. If I could guarantee you wouldn’t get hurt, you’d be on the back of my bike, but I won’t risk you.”

She softens at my words. “You’ll call me as soon as you know something?”

I nod. “The very second.”

She gives me a quick hug, surprising me. Then she drops a kiss on my cheek.

“Hurry home then and be safe,” she tells me, backing away.

I love that she is willing to fight for what she wants but that she also knows when to back off. She’s the perfect woman. More and more I’m wondering what it would be like if she were my woman. It’s messing with my head a bit, but I can’t say I hate it.

Mounting my bike, I indicate to the guys it’s time to ride off. It’s only a three-hour drive to the current address on Ashley’s identification. With any luck, we will get there before dark. I don’t want to scare the poor woman to death.

The ride is a quiet one. I use the time to clear my head. The images from those photographs still play behind my eyes every time I close them. They weren’t Aspen, but they sure as fuck could have been. They found someone who looked eerily similar to her so that we would be convinced it was her.

Why, though?

My only hypothesis is that they wanted to distract us while they made another hit. I have my men back home watching out for it. I only brought Meek and Hawk with me on this trip. Eagle is ruling in my absence. It’s why he’s my vice president, after all.

I can trust him to keep both my club and Maggie safe.

All too soon we arrive at the address provided by Meek.

The neighborhood looks nice. Middle-class residential place with cookie-cutter houses.

I’m sure they even have an HOA. Not like what I would expect from the sister of a man who is part of one of the worst MCs in the area.

Then again, I would have thought Maggie had the good life, but she doesn’t. Life isn’t always as it seems.

So what would make a man like Asher join a club like Ragged Anarchy?

As we dismount, I look to the other guys. “Follow my lead.”

They nod.

As soon as I’m at the door, I knock on it.

A beautiful young woman comes to the door, answering it with a smile. She freezes when she realizes what is on the other side.

Yeah. You should probably check the peephole before you open the door.

She doesn’t let it deter her, though.

“How can I help you?”

“Yes, ma’am. We are looking for someone I believe you know.” I nod to Meek, who holds up his phone. “Do you know who this man is?”

I can see a nerve in her cheek tic as she clears her throat. “I do. He was a friend of mine in high school.”

She looks up and to the left. A clear sign of her lie.

“Just a friend? Seems you might be closer in this picture,” I push.

She shakes her head. “Only a friend. Haven’t seen him in years, though. He moved out of town after high school.”

Direct eye contact. Good to know that he really did move after high school. What did he get up to, though?

“What was it he left for?”

“College. Always wanted to be a teacher. I wonder if he ever made it.” She pretends to muse.

Another lie. Her eyes give her away.

I don’t want to force her to give up her brother, though. As much as I know I need to, I can’t do that to her because I wouldn’t want someone to do it to Aspen.

“Well, if you happen to see him. Tell him Panther with the Mountain River MC would like to speak to him. Here’s my number.” I hand over a card with my burner number written on the back.

“I won’t see him, but sure.” She closes the door without saying goodbye.

I hear the lock click in place. Good. She knows this is serious.

As we walk to the bikes, I turn to Meek. “Trace any calls to my burner. She will find a way to contact him to let him know of our visit. He will call me. I want to be ready.”

“Yeah, no problem. Why do you think she’s lying for him?” he asks.

“Either he told her how dangerous the club he is joining is, or he’s working for the law. Either way, he’s a wild card. One we can’t trust, but we need insider information, and he’s our only shot.”

“So we wait for his call.” Hawk sighs.

“We wait for his call,” I echo.

Fuck, I don’t like waiting.