Page 57 of Raze

“Where is Aaron?” I shake my head.

“None of us know,” Davey admits. “He patched in and then he went nomad. Somethin’ happened, Raze, somethin’ real bad.” Davey looks deflated.

“What?” I’ve only been gone six months and I can’t keep up with all that’s happened.

“I don’t know, but it changed him. He has a darkness in his eyes now, the kind you don’t come back from. He’s better off gone and so are you.”

I look the old man in the eyes and can see how tired he is. I have no idea why he sticks around. Davey’s a good guy, one of the best of ‘em and this place is going to the gutter.

“Come with me,” I tell him. “Bring ya boy. Leave Cliff and this place to rot.”

“I can’t, the Burlusconi deal is the biggest one the club has, we need this charter to keep it running. I got work to do here, it may seem hopeless, but I’m a foundin’ member, just like your dad. I got a duty.”

“And what about him, do you want this for your son?” I look to his boy, who’s wearing the prospect cut.

“He knows the risks, and we need some kinda hope for the future.” He points out, before dropping my keys into my palm and closing it up

“Leave this place behind you, Raze, take your skills and put ‘em to good use.” I nod my head at him when I realize he’s right. I have to leave. If I don’t, I’ll live up to my name and destroy everything in sight. I start to walk backward, through the arch, and into the parking lot. My bike is in the corner, and I tear off the cover Davey must have put over it and take the saddle.

Ruckus is still standing by the gate looking guilty and now I know why. Though he has no cause to be. None of this is his fault, he’s just a prospect.

I start my engine and, as he opens them for me to exit, I stop before I pass through.

“You need to follow in your best friend's footsteps and get the hell outta here,” I warn him, pulling back my throttle and taking off before I go back in that clubhouse and make Cliff Adams dead.

“Raze, I know you hate me.” Stacey reminds me that she’s still here when she speaks up again.

“I don’t hate ya, I don’t care enough to hate ya.” I laugh at her.

“I came here to help you.” She gets short with me.

“And how the hell do you suppose you're gonna do that? Where's your kid Stacey, the one ya let Cliff put in ya while I was away?” I often wondered if the poor thing survived.

“He’s at home with his stepfather and he’s safe.”

“For now, but a day might come when Cliff decides he?—”

“Cliff thinks he’s dead, just like you think your sister is. And that's why I’m here because she’s not, Raze, and I can’t keep that from you anymore. I know where you can find Eden and it’s closer than you think.” Her words slice through me and leave me numb, and all this time I’ve spent convincing myself I don’t want to know feels like a waste because now it seems like all that matters.

“How do you know this?” I suddenly give her my full attention.

“Because Jimmer Carson helped her, the same way he helped me.” She rests back in her chair and lets her shoulders sag. “He’d come here for a visit not long after you got released and I asked him for help. I knew from what you’d told me, when we were together, that he was a fair man and I knew if I carried on doing what I was doing, that it would kill my baby. I asked him to take me back to Colorado so I could get clean, and on the ride back I found out why he was really out here.”

“And why was he?”

“He’d come for her. He knew she was in trouble and he’d come to take her away from this place. We stopped off in Utah and dropped her off with some family he knew who were gonna take care of her.”

“And was she okay?”

“No, she was a wreck.” Stacey shakes her head and starts to cry. “We both were and I heard Jimmer talking to her when she got out the van. He promised her he’d make sure she was never found and that she was getting a whole new life.”

“She cried and asked for you, but he told her it was for the best.”

“What?” I yell at her. There’s no way Jimmer would ever have done that.

“He said that you and Aaron had to think she was dead. That it was the only way for her to be kept safe, and I didn’t know why at the time but now?—”

“So she’s in Utah?” I should breathe a sigh of relief because that’s far away from here but I’m sure Stacey said something about her being close.

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