He huffs and answers, “It’s complicated. We aren’t really in a serious relationship, more just having a little fun, but the woman is fucking with my head. Makes me want to keep her around, then she does shit to piss me off and I’m ready to walk the hell away and be done, but I keep going back.”
“Welcome to having a woman, brother.” Viper laughs, turning his head to look back at him. “You want to love them and hate them at the same time.”
“Maybe with her away, this will make things easier.” Bowie sighs. “I’ll get over whatever I’m feeling. I don’t want an Old Lady. I’m happy with the way things are.”
I glance at Viper again, and the look on his face tells me he’s thinking the same thing. Bowie might be saying that, but the tone in his voice is doubtful. The man is falling for Sadie, and he’s fighting it. It’s between the two of them, but it seems he’s going to have some decisions to make shortly once we get this whole shit figured out.
Poor bastard.
My phone rings. “On our way back to the clubhouse,” I tell Bullet.
“Hulk and Cobra are missing,” Bullet says grimly, putting me instantly on alert.
Of all things he could have said, I didn’t expect that. My fist clenches as I try to comprehend what he’s just said. “Send us the coordinates,” I tell Bullet. “We’ll go and take a look.”
“Good.” He rambles off the location, and I see Viper already putting it into his phone. “And Shadow, make sure your eyes are open. I don’t have a good feeling about this.” There’s a tone to his voice that comes through loud and clear. He’s got a feeling about something that he doesn’t want to say aloud.
“We’ll let you know what we find,” I tell him before hanging up and hitting the gas to head toward the location.
“Fuck, I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Viper says tightly. “Do you think that the location was wrong?”
“No,” I say with a shake of my head. “Thea knows what she’s doing, and she’s not going to make a mistake on this. She knows how important it is not to make a mistake, especially on this kind of thing.”
“You think Vlad got to them?” Bowie asks.
“It’s the only thing I can think of.”
“Wouldn’t Cryos notice if they were offline?” Viper asks, already pulling out his phone. He dials and Cryos answers on the other end almost immediately. “Where is Hulk’s location showing?”
“It’s showing as still at the location he went to,” Cryos answers. “I already tried calling it and Cobra, but neither are answering.”
“And Cobra’s also showing there?”
“Yes, but it’s a bit further away from Hulk’s. Could mean they’re being held in different places, or maybe they split up and were caught.”
“We’ll find out when we get there,” Viper assures him. “Any cameras or anything on the way that we need to know about? Or any side roads that we can hide the SUV on?”
“Shit, right, forgot you’re not on your bikes. Let me see what I can find. You’re ten minutes out, and I’ll have something for you in five minutes,” Cryos promises and the line goes dead. The next five minutes are silent and full of tension until he calls back. “There’s a side road about half a mile down the road that has thick tree cover. Viper, I just sent those exact coordinates to you. Head there, and keep your phones with you so I can track you. Run into trouble, shoot an SOS to me, and I’ll have Bullet and those around get there as fast as they can.”
When we finally reach the side road, I turn off the lights before pulling down and parking. We get out of the SUV andViper signals for us to look forward. It’s dark, but I can just make out the reflection of chrome in the underbrush. We walk forward, and I instantly see Hulk’s bike. Clearly, they came here to walk in. “I don’t see Cobra’s,” Bowie murmurs, looking around. I glance at Viper, who frowns at that, but we don’t have time to scout around for the other bike. It’s here somewhere, but right now we need to find Hulk and Cobra themselves.
“Let’s head that way,” I murmur. “Viper, you good to go north? Bowie, you head east and I’ll go west.” Both of them nod and we set out.
We move through the brush, careful not to step on any sticks or rustle too many leaves. We don’t want to alert anyone that we’re around. Not yet.
I reach the edge of the clearing and stop to listen. There’s nothing. Not a sound. Not a single rustle of a leaf or someone moving or talking around the area. Either they are all very good at hiding, or no one is here, and that doesn’t bode well for finding Hulk. I pull my gun from the small of my back and creep forward, constantly looking around for danger as I take in the door on the side of the mountain, looking for any cameras. I don’t see any, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. I look across and see Bowie and Viper both coming in from their directions, but Viper’s face is grim. “What did you find?” I ask him quietly.
“Found tracks that show something heavy was dragged from there and to another hidden path,” he replies. “And I found blood on the leaves.”
Shit. “Let’s go take a look. Bowie, you good to scout around here for anything else?”
He nods. “No sign of Cobra,” he adds. “I found tracks too, but they look like they circle back here. I’ll follow them and see what I can find.”
We split up, and I follow Viper back to where the trail of blood, drag marks, and some tire marks end. I look around, peering for anything, until I kick something, making me stop. I bend and curse when I realize what it is. I pick it up and show it to Viper. “Hulk’s phone.”
“Fuck,” Viper hisses.
I open it, remembering the password that Hulk told me about once in case I ever needed to access it, and then I search through his messages and pictures. I stop when I see the picture of the door, and then the video immediately after. “Shit, look at this.” I quickly tap it, careful to keep the volume low just in case, and it doesn’t take long until the camera closes, but Hulk must have hit the record button, because we hear a blow strike him, a grunt, and then him fall, but it’s the words at the end of the video that have us going still.
