“Do you recognize it?” she asks me as she points at her phone.
I look at her and then the phone in confusion. I don’t recognize anything. Nothing makes sense. It’s just a yellow—
“Fuck.” I stand up so fast that my chair falls back as I race to my room and grab my laptop. I’m back into the main room a second later but remain standing and set my laptop on the bar.
“What’s up, man? What you got?” Bass is by me in an instant, and I feel a few other brothers circling in.
“I’ve seen that car.” I take a moment to look through my files, then pull up the screenshots of Bailey’s annulment. And there it is, in black-and-white.
Bass looks at the phone that I notice he took from the table. I threw it on there as soon as I ran for my laptop. “The Firebird?”
“The yellow 1979 Firebird that belongs to none other than Troy Palamino, also known as Bailey’s ex-husband, also known as Principal Troy.”
“Holy shit,” Bass says, and I nod in agreement.
“It might not be him,” Fairy hedges as she looks over at us, still sitting in her chair. “The Store Owner sent me several files. But seeing a Firebird, especially a yellow one, can’t be that common in all of these places. I remembered seeing something on your computer about it the other night and figured it was a shot. A long shot, maybe, but worth a five-mile run.”
I turn to her and drag her into my arms. “Thank you. Fucking thank you.” I kiss her forehead, then step back quickly when I get pushed away and she’s pulled into Mad Max’s arms. She just grins widely as he holds her close.
“Hands off. Go get your own woman.”
“Damn straight, big guy.” I head for the door, not looking at who’s following me, but I know a few are. I call over my shoulder, “Have Flint text me the address.”
“Already on it,” I hear Law say a second before I’m out of the building and heading to my bike.
I’m coming, Troublemaker. Just hang on a little more.
“How you want to play this?” Bass asks as we pull up to the address Flint sent us. It’s a posh two-story house with an attached garage. It’s on a big lot, and I think I saw a shed out back when we drove up but can’t be sure. But we all see what isn’t out front: a yellow Firebird.
I don’t give a damn. I’m pissed off, and this whole fucking family has done nothing but cause my Troublemaker harm since they met her. It’s about time they get a taste of their own medicine, even if it doesn’t get me any closer to my girl.
“Guess we’re just going to knock,” Bass says to the brothers who followed me here as I get off my bike and walk straight to the front door.
I don’t knock, just use my foot to ram the door open and then walk right in. I look around but don’t take out my Glock yet. Rather not be tempted to shoot any fuckers here before I get what I’m after.
“Lucy, I’m home.” Bass yells a second before calmly shutting the door for us.
I take note that Casper, Kooper, and Bulldog are with me. I pause for a second at the last one. With all the shit going on between my dad and his mom, he’s the last one I expected to have at my back right now. But he gives me a chin lift, and I see it for what it is. No matter what shit we’ve got going outside the club, club is club, and you don’t turn your back on it.
A startled scream from the top of the stairs has us all looking up. Carolyn is standing there with her phone in her hand. “What are you doing here? Get out of my house. I’m calling the police.”
Casper is quick to climb the stairs three at a time, grabbing her arm in one hand and tossing her cell to the floor below with the other. It doesn’t shatter, but it does smash when Kooper steps on it and twists with his heel.
“We just want to talk. Have a little chat,” Casper says as politely as a viper as he pulls her down the steps. Once they reach the ground floor, I pull her from his grasp and push her against the wall.
“Where is she?” I say closer to her face. I don’t want to be this close, would rather not be anywhere near this woman, but I need to be in her space so she sees I’m not messing around.
“Where is who? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The attitude I’ve seen on this entitled bitch before is coming out to play as she puts her hands on her hips.
“Bailey! Where did you take her?” I scream in her face.
She flinches at the volume of my voice but then recovers and squinches her nose as if she smells something bad.
“What the fuck would I do with that fat cow? If she left, she knows she isn’t welcome here. No idea why anyone would want her.” She says the last part as she looks away, as if I’m beneath her. When in fact she’s about ten seconds away from being underneath my boot as I step on her face.
“Your husband did,” Bass says as he leans one shoulder against the wall she’s pushed up against. Her eyes go comically wide at that. “They even got hitched for a bit.”
“You lie,” she hisses, making the boys around me chuckle.
