“Will it ever end?” Tits says under her breath.
I chuckle.
“Fuck no. Chaos surrounds us daily,” I answer, even though she wasn’t talking to anyone.
I’m sitting at the bar in our Chicago chapter clubhouse. Tits, the bartender, looks up, surprised I heard her, and smiles when she sees it’s me.
Grabbing a couple of shot glasses, she pours each of us a shot.
“Cheers,” Tits says, clinking glasses.
“Cheers to chaos,” I reply, tapping the bar with my shot before slamming it back.
Tits leans against the bar. “You doing okay, baby?”
I give her a big smile. “Always.”
She grins, hitting the bar with her hand before moving to another brother down the bar.
I’m exhausted, mentally and physically. It’s been close to two months since I saw Raydene. It’s been a month of complete chaos and her evading us. I’ve been in Chicago for weeks and can’t find her.
After she texted me that fucked up picture of her with a black eye, she ended up talking to the girls saying she was okay. She and Dexter got into a big fight. She had to go DJ somewhere, and he wasn’t going, so she’d be fine. That was the last we spoke to her on the phone. The only other communication has been text. I know we have so much going on, but I feel it in my bones, and in my fucking dreams, that something is wrong.
Since the day she woke me from my nightmare, I’ve had dreams of my dead sister every night.
Marcus, Vi’s cousin, is the only one who has helped me search. But, with all our other issues, I barely have time to get away.
Finally, we gunned down the president of the Chingas, eliminating the threat and finding out who our rat was—Sarge, the VP here. We have him locked up and are trying to determine if he was working alone.
Today was Bricks’ celebration of life. Of course, we couldn’t celebrate without some mayhem. Vi had just returned from San Francisco, where she was DJing with the Spin It girls, when she was shot by her cousin Marcus’s ex-girlfriend, Veronica. Vi’s okay and being worked on by Stitch and Doc while I sit here.
“You good, brother?” Blink asks, sitting down next to me and finishing his beer.
Irritation swarms me. Gripping my beer bottle, I start to peel the label, hoping to keep my rage inside.
I say through gritted teeth, “Why the fuck does everyone keep asking me that? Are you okay?”
“Fuck no, I’m not okay. We just lost a brother,” Blink snaps back, and when I don’t say anything, he adds, “I’m worried about you. You never stay down for long. You’ve been locked up since Ray left.”
He hasn’t been around these past few weeks since he and his twin brother Chiv took Vi to San Francisco while we dealt with the Chingas.
I let out a deep sigh. “I’m not okay. Something’s wrong.” I turn to my brother. “I need to find her.”
Blink looks over. “Are you sure she wants to be found?”
I look back at my now empty beer and think about his words.
“I need to see with my own eyes that she’s okay. I need her to tell me to go home and that she’s okay,” I explain.
Blink turns his attention to his beer, letting what I said sink in before answering me. “Okay, I’ll look into it. I’ll find her.”
Knowing he’s one of the best bounty hunters in the United States, a weight is somewhat lifted off my shoulders. Finally, someone listens to me.
“Thank you,” I say, feeling a bit of relief.
“Don’t thank me yet.” Blink chuckles. “If she’s evaded Brick, the girls, you, Marcus, and Dallas, it may take me some time.”
Cash whistles. “Chapel now.”