Page 20 of Where We Ended

“We’ve been looking for Natty. Round the clock shifts.”

I must have waited too long to respond because Killian set his mug down and then placed his hand on my shoulder. “Come on, let’s head over to my house.”

I followed, feeling numb, and humbled. Not even my own club was looking for Natty, and here this club was doing it just because…

Because this had become her family.

Watching my boots as we exited the club and walked down the freshly done walkway, I didn’t even realize we’d entered Killian’s house until I heard female voices.

“Silas.” It was a gasp and then suddenly Penelope, Natty’s best friend was in front of me, her baby up on her shoulder as worry creased the spaces next to her eyes and turned her lips into a thin line.

Laura, Killian’s ol lady came up next to her, arms crossed but offering me a small half-smile. The fact that she didn’t want to stab me was progress, considering I’d once held a gun to her face.

I had nothing to give them. Not a single fucking answer and the reality of it sank in my chest like a boulder hitting water.

I shook my head because words wouldn’t come, but then Callie, Simon’s daughter and Wes Ryan’s wife, burst into the room holding something in her hand. She slapped whatever it was onto the coffee table, which is when I realized that half of Killian’s house was missing.

“The fuck happened?” His garage had been removed, along with part of his dining room area. There was a wood frame up with tarps in place; otherwise, half his house was gone entirely.

“The explosion.” Killian waved me off, sounding exhausted.

Callie gestured me over, and I realized the thing she’d tossed down was a map.

“Okay, we’ve been working on this for a few days, and this is what we think.” Callie bit off the top of a permanent marker, spitting it to the floor. “Natty was last seen here, but she received a phone call right before the blast from you, Silas.”

Her eyes bounced up, landing on me. I took a seat on the edge of the couch and watched as she marked an x over the Stone Riders clubhouse.

“I think she got a text, something that would have pulled her away. Where would she have met you if she thought you were asking her to?”

I leaned forward and pointed to the edge of the property where Natty and I passed notes.

Callie marked it with an x.

“It was Fable, we know that much, but how did he know about your meeting place?” Penelope asked, still burping her baby, Connor.

Jameson pulled on her hips until his wife was standing between his legs. Jealousy scorched my throat and burned all the way down into the dark pit of my soulless stomach.

“Same way he knew where I lived, I suppose.”

I had a home on the outskirts of Rose Ridge that no one knew about, not even my mother knew about it and while I didn’t go there often, one night I did and found a picture of Natty pinned to the door. It was my father’s sick way of telling me he could get to her, or me any time he wanted.

Fucker was keeping tabs, that much was clear, I had just severely underestimated how close he had been watching.

“So have we checked cameras on the roads leading out of that area? What about trail cams, didn’t we have some set up?” Wes asked, looking between Killian and me. “After the warning about the Chaos King that had been found out there, the one that you took care of, Silas, we set up trail cams.”

Killian pulled out his phone, but Laura hopped up and ran over to a small desk in a spare bedroom and came out with a silver laptop.

She slid it in front of Killian, who handed her his phone, and the two started clicking and swiping away until they were turning the screen around to us, showing us the footage from the day we were attacked by Tuck Holloway and Jefferson Quinn.

I was given better access to view it than anyone else as I leaned in and examined the screen.

It was grainy but I could make out the tree where Natty had sunk behind, staring off at what was probably the clubhouse that was being blown up. My heart lurched forward in my chest as I watched her looking so frail and afraid. She kept checking her phone and I knew she was looking to see if I had contacted her.

She was out there because of me. She trusted me, and whoever had duplicated my contact, convincing her to come…they had done their job in tricking her.

We watched for three minutes until there was suddenly someone walking up behind her. They had dark hair, similar to mine. A gaiter mask covered their face, but I knew that walk. I knew the tattoos along his arms.

He pulled a white rag out of his pocket and then brought his arm around the tree and covered Natty’s mouth.

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