Page 32 of Haze's Jewel

“That would be a good guess,” Siege agrees. “What else did you see? Do they have security cameras of any sort? Maybe a ring camera on the door?”

“Nada, and I looked everywhere. The house looks like it was built back in the sixties but is in the process of being renovated. They have lumber stacked on the front porch, along with some other building supplies. The house is quiet, but I could hear the television in the front room.”

Rider speaks up, “I recommend we breach the door quietly and have a look inside. They’re clearly at home because their vehicles are there.”

Siege nods. “I agree. Rigs, you take a couple of brothers and set about gaining access to the back door. The rest of us will do the same to the front door. We’ll clear the house room by room until we find both parties. The last thing we need is to focus on our target and have his brother sneak up on us with a shotgun.”

Rigs curses under his breath. “Don’t worry, my team will find the brother, if the rest of you find Scott. We’ll squeeze information out of him about his whereabouts for the last hour or so.”

We break apart, each seeing to the task we’ve been assigned to perform. It’s decided that I’ll stay at Siege’s side. I think my club president doesn’t quite trust me not to strangle the crazy fucker. Once we force the door, it doesn’t take a hot minute to find him. Scott is passed out in the living room with a multitude of beer cans littering the floor around him. One thing is for certain, this man is deep in sleep, snoring like a freight train.

I stalk forward and pounce on him. His eyes fly open, and I can tell the second he recognizes me because he starts freaking the fuck out. I clamp my hand over his mouth and hold him down until Rigs comes downstairs with his brother in tow.

Corey is sleepy-eyed but grows alarmed at the sight of six burly bikers taking up space in his living room. When he catches sight of me, he rushes forward. I presume he wants to separate me from his brother. I step back before he can intervene. When he’s within arm’s reach, I grab him and fling him onto the sofa beside his asshole brother.

“What’s this about?” Corey asks. “We talked it out earlier. I thought we were good after what went down this morning.”

Siege steps forward. “You’re not asking the questions here. We are.”

Corey looks from Siege to me and back again before responding. “Yeah, sure thing. What do you want to know.”

Scott tries to lunge off the sofa, but his brother elbows him right in the chest hard, sending him crashing back into place. It seems that he’s about as tired of his asshole brother as we are.

Siege asks, “Where were you an hour and a half ago, maybe two hours?”

Corey brings one hand to his chest and replies grimly. “Me? I’d just watched my brother puking his guts up in a bucket I provided. I put him in the recovery position, hosed the bucket out on the back patio and then crashed out.” Shooting me a quick glance, he added, “In case you’re not aware, trying to keep a chronic alcoholic alive when all he wants to do is drink himself to death is a fucking full-time job.” Looking away, he adds, “It’s mentally and physically exhausting.”

“I’m not buying that for a fucking second.” I growl.

Corey looks totally bewildered. “I don’t get why you care so much about our fucked-up family dynamics.”

“I don’t,” I fling back. “Someone torched my boat earlier this evening. Since I don’t have many enemies, and none are quite stupid enough to attack a member of the Savage Legion and expect to live to tell the tale—plus something spraypainted on the side related to my woman—I immediately thought of your brother. He’s only ignoramus that I’ve had conflict with recently.”

Scott laughs, too long and too hard for it to be genuine. Then he stops mid-laugh and states smugly. “You’re a gigantic asshole. It’s funny that you think I’m the only one who could possibly want to mess your shit up.”

Rigs stalks forward, squats down in front of Scott and stares him in the eyes. Before anyone can object, his hand shoots out and wraps around the intoxicated man’s throat. He jerks him forward until he is about six inches from his face and states calmly, “Whoever it was, left a disparaging comment in the form of graffiti, insulting the same woman you were harassing this morning.”

Scott’s eyes get big, and his expression turns a little confused. “You mean that frigid redhead? She’s innocent as the day is long. Why the hell would anyone talk trash about her?”

Rigs glances up at me before returning to his conversation with Scott. “Why indeed. That’s the million-dollar question. Care to speculate, before I send you to meet your maker?”

By this point, Scott has both hands wrapped around Rigs wrist, trying in vain to pull his hand away. Corey is frozen in place, literally gaping at Rigs. I guess the older brother could be perceived as terrifying because he wears all black and looks like your worst nightmare come to life. Rigs comes off as a psychotic religious nut. Of course he wasn’t, but perception is reality until you get to know him.

Still struggling to get Rigs off him, Scott stammers, “Get the fuck off me, preacher dude. I ain’t done nothin’ to offend you or God.”

Finally, Corey found his voice. “My brother is right. I had to call an ambulance earlier because he was puking up blood along with whatever in the fuck he ate today. My brother flat out refused to go to the emergency room though.” Giving Scott a withering look, he continues, “I can only assume that’s because he’s literally trying to drink himself to death.”

Rigs lets go of Scott’s neck and moves back. “So you can verify where your brother was two hours ago?”

“It was more like three hours ago when I called EMS, but they can verify that he was falling down drunk and in no condition to go anywhere on his own, much less capable of running around burning people’s boats down and leaving shitty messages behind.”

Rigs comes to his feet and turns to Siege. “I’ll check with EMS, but it looks like Scott wasn’t capable of walking a straight line, much less vandalizing a yacht down by the pier. Plus it’s an hour and a half’s ride to where Haze’s boat is docked, if we can place him here three hours ago, then he’d not have time to make it to the docks and back.”

Siege reluctantly agrees. “Yeah, it sounds like we might be barking up the wrong tree on this one.”

Corey perks up. “Do you think it might be a case of mistaken identity? If your boat was docked at the pier with a bunch of others, it could be that someone torched the wrong boat.”

I run my hand through my hair as I think it over. “That seems like a more plausible explanation, than someone calling my sweet natured woman what was scrawled on the side of my boat.” Yeah, this was starting to make some semblance of sense.

---