“It’s okay. You keep them safe. I know you Callahans have beef with those crows. Seems like helping them will help you, too. Killing two birds with a stone,” Leroy says.
“You know too much. That, and many other reasons, is why you are so respected. Tell Calvin I’ll give back his car better than I left it with. Beside Rosalie, who else drives?”
Genevieve extends her hand, palm up. Cooper drops the key on her palm and grabs my wrist. “You are riding with me.”
“Why? I should be with my members.”
“No. They want you, the most. They are safer away from you. I need to keep you safe. Listen to me Rosalie.” Cooper holds my shoulders and leans down to face me. “You have to be within eyesight. If you want to stay alive. If you don’t want to even think of what the Silver Crows are capable of, you will not leave my side.”
“It cannot be that bad.” I roll my eyes and roll my shoulders, trying to get his hands off me.
“Promise me, Rosalie.”
I pause at his tone and how serious his expression is. Dread fills my stomach. I blink twice, wanting to go back to the moment I was making out with Cooper.
“I promise.”
He hands me my helmet and helps me up onto his bike. In less than two hours, we were checked out and on our way out of Saddleback, Tennessee.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Did you see what I send you?” I ask over the phone.
We are currently at a rest stop for bathroom and food break. I relay everything that happened last night and today. Caleb is on speaker, so Colin and Curtis, who just got back from wherever Caleb sent him, hear me.
“I saw it. Colin is looking into it. Where are you heading?”
“Heartstone, Missouri. Is big enough they can blend in but not too big. If need be, I can find them and help.”
“Why would you do that, Cooper?” Caleb asks.
“The crows are looking for them, for Rosalie specifically. Shouldn’t we take this chance to gain the upper hand?”
“What upper hand? We are not sure why they want them.”
“But we can find out.”
“I don’t know Cooper,” Caleb sighs.
“I have some initial information but would like to check in they know about this. Depending on how much or how little they know, we can decide. I’m waiting for confirmation, but it seems like their entertainment company has ties with Silver Crows. Curtis can also search for you if you need to check my sources.”
“Oh, I’m already searching. I’ll get something before you get your confirmation,” Curtis says.
I hum as my tablet lights up with a notification. I open it and skim through it. The link is not what I thought it would be. I see them walking towards me as they try to scan around for anyone following them.
“I gotta go. I got my confirmation. Caleb, I do really think they are our way into destroying the leash the crows have on our club. We live on the illegal side of society, but we are not human trafficker. We can’t let them use our name, our territories, our paths for that.”
“I know Cooper. I’ll read over what Curtis finds for me and whenever you can share what you just got. I’ll text you if we go to you.” Caleb ends the call just when the girls were within earshot.
“Ready to hit the road again?” I ask.
“I guess. Driving just above the speed limit is not the idea we had for a road trip,” Rosalie says.
“Y’all just gotta put a pin on the road trip plan and try later. When you don’t have dangerous people following you.” I offer Rosalie the helmet she’s been using since we hit the road and the other three got in the car and followed me.
After almost three more hours on the road and an hour before closing, we pull into Kathy’s Dine. A staple in Heartstone, Missouri, the diner is like you step out of the twenty-first century and into 1950s Americana. Checkered floors and pink uniformed waitresses greet you. To my ears it’s old sound and image feels comforting, but by some of their faces I can tell to them it looks outdated and out of place.
“Whoever drops me into a set of one of my favorite movies needs a gift or a raise or a vacation,” Vivian, the blond of the quartet, says. The other three laugh as I smile to Kathy, who is speed walking to me.
