Page 42 of Sheltering Hollis

“I’m glad I took a chance and came with you,” Hollis said.

“Me too, malysh.”

Sleep was never something that I’d needed, so after a few solid hours, I slipped out of bed and made my way around the house, checking that Olive was still sleeping soundly. She was tucked into her yellow bed, her hair a halo, hands beneath her rosy cheeks. Her bunny had fallen to the floor, so I pushed it beneath the covers with her. I drew the blanket around her shoulders before padding out of the room.

I called Maddox once I got down to the kitchen. The Open Road was shutting down now, so this was when MC conducted business.

“Fucker,” he answered. “How’s things.”

“Good, everyone is settled. Thanks for getting everything ready. ‘Preciate it.”

“No problem. Ready to meet, talk business?”

“Yeah, you’ll need to come here. Park at the end of the street. We can talk on the porch, but be fucking quiet asshole.” Last thing I needed was for my girls to wake up.

Hanging up, I went to the porch to one of the rockers and kicked up my feet with a cup of coffee. It was one of my favorite spots; the desert was beautiful. It was hot, but even in the summer, I loved it. Better than fucking Colombia. That sucked. My ears picked up the rumble of the bike, and down the street, I could see the headlight of Maddox’s Dyna Glide. After a few minutes, he lumbered onto the porch and collapsed into the other rocker.

If I were being honest, he looked exhausted. We had a great group of guys, but he had double the workload with me gone. He’d mentioned something going on with the Cobras, too.

We discussed business: loads, transactions, and the legal and not-so-legal aspects. Things were going mostly to plan for the MC. Finally, Maddox rubbed a hand over his beard and got to what was on his mind.

“There’s been some bad shit going on over in Morinrock lately,” he cleared his throat. Morinrock was one town over and Cobra territory, an MC that had been a rival in the past but we had allied with recently.

“Okay.” I was careful to be noncommittal. It was no secret that I hadn’t been a massive fan of the alliance with the Cobras. It wasn’t bad business, but I hadn’t been convinced that Pike was a hundred percent on the up and up. However, when we needed him, he showed up. That was something.

Maddox rubbed his beard again. Okay, this wasn’t good. He did that when he was nervous. “Spit it the fuck out,” I said.

“The police have found a body,” he finally said. I cocked my head, studying him.

“So?” Bodies weren’t necessarily new in our game. Maddox and I had dropped our fair share in our time together. “One of ours? Is that what you’re saying?” I was pretty confident this wasn’t the case. There was no way. We were careful. I was careful.

“No. No, it isn’t that kind of body.”

I was confused.

“A man left naked, an ‘X’ marked on his forehead, throat slit, eyes carved out.” Maddox looked over at me, reading everything he needed to in my eyes. I’d just brought Hollis here and told her that it was safe and bodies were being dropped naked in the next town over. Fuck. “Police like Pike for it.” I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“For real?” Now, this surprised me. There were many things that I could figure Pike for, but he wasn’t sloppy or showy.

“Yeah, they’ve hauled him in a couple of times already. Got a search warrant for his house, their clubhouse. Didn’t find anything. They were clean, thank god.” We were allied with the Cobras for a reason. We split drug and gun runs through each other’s territories. If shit hit the Cobras fan, then it hit ours too.

The potential fallout of this situation began to crystallize in my mind. The Cobras getting heat from the cops was one thing, but this sounded like some twisted serial killer accusation. That was a whole other level of attention, and none of it was good. We couldn't afford to have the spotlight shining on us. Not to mention we needed this shit solved. I told Hollis this was a safe place for her and Olive, and I intended to keep my promise.

I took a slow sip of my coffee, staring into the desert. "We need to get in front of this," I said finally. "Can't let the Cobras go down for this shit, not if it drags us down too. We need to find out who's framing Pike or if Pike's lost his damn mind. I guess we have to figure this out. Kill a killer or something. We can’t have someone out there dropping bodies in our towns. I just brought my family home.”

Maddox nodded, his eyes heavy with concern. “I agree. I don’t want this shit to touch any of us. Got any ideas?"

"We start by finding out more about the victim.” I shrugged. I wasn’t a goddamn detective. “Who this person is. Any connections to us or the Cobras? Someone's trying to send a message, and we need to decode it fast. Also, we need eyes on Pike 24/7. If he so much as farts, I want to know about it. We need to call a meeting with Pike, too. Talk this shit out.”

"Already on it," Maddox said, pulling out his phone. "I've got Javi and Tony tailing Pike. I'll find out when we can meet.”

"Good. I’ll find out about the victim. We also need to tighten security here. Make sure Helena, Hollis, and Olive are safe. They go nowhere without one of us or a bodyguard. Keep guys at the club. We have people there that can’t protect themselves.” I was thinking specifically of Amber and Jillian, but we had some other staff there who weren’t up to fending off some whacko.

"Done."

I glanced at Maddox, sensing there was more he wasn’t saying. "What else?"

"There's some talk on the street," he said, lowering his voice even though it was just us. "Some people think we had something to do with it, that it was strategic on my part to take out Pike. That we're trying to clean house or make a move on the Cobras' territory."

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