Page 11 of Everlasting

“It’s not normally so off,” I finally admitted to him. “I received correspondence this morning. Deck is alive, but he clearly isn’t being treated well.” I swallowed hard while praying that I was right about everything and that he wasn’t in the bed willingly. In my heart, I knew the truth. My eyes told me what they saw too. Still, there was that little smidgen of doubt that always lurked in the far corner of my mind. What if he was tired of us, of me? What if he had staged this? This wasn’t the type of run he would normally go on.

I had to worry about what I knew too. Beyond my own self-doubts, there were facts that didn’t add up to good things for Deck. The men from Aces High had been unable to get The Trinity Group’s leader locked down for negotiations. Word on the street was that it was because the leader no longer lived, and worse, that three heads grew back when the one was cut off.

Having three different people who could possibly attempt to use Deck as leverage, or forget him altogether, was not something that worked in his favor. According to my sister-in-law, Christina, who had been kind enough to continue to update me when the men of my husband’s club refused to.

Still, I couldn’t get over the one picture where that bitch’s hands were on my husband’s body. I would see to it that those offending appendages would be removed from her body first. I wasn’t normally a violent person, but I definitely had violent designs for her very creative, extremely drawn out death. She would not go quietly once I got her in my grasp.

“You have ten weeks to go,” Doc told me as I tuned back in to listen to his directives. He turned to me, making sure our eyes connected before he spoke again. “I’m praying for your family, Ever.”

“Thanks,” I whispered the one-word response. It was all I had in me. Doc Middleton stood and gave me directions on what to do next before bidding me a good day and hurrying from the room to his next appointment. The nurse came in after I was finished dressing again and she walked with me up to the front desk to set up the appointments I needed, since I hadn’t been listening to the doctor about them.

“He thought you might need someone to go back over everything,” the nurse told me as she offered a sweet smile. “If you need anything, forget, or want clarification on what he needs you to do, just give us a call.” She placed a business card in my palm then. “I’m sure you already have Dr. Middleton’s number, but this is mine as well. Just in case he is unreachable. I’m a registered nurse midwife, so I can help too.”

“Thank you,” I told her as I scooped up my appointment cards and set out to head to the club, only when I left the office, Christina was waiting for me by my car. “What are you doing here?”

“Jay and I are staying in town for a bit, again. The images you sent me earlier, I forwarded them to Keys. I came by to tell you that she got a hit on the woman. Her face was seen on a random camera. It’s the first good lead we’ve had in a while. It also means that she came all the way here to deliver this package herself. Keys wants to know if you still have the envelope and everything. Maybe there’s a chance we can nab a usable fingerprint off of it this time.”

I nodded my head and then turned toward the sound of a motorcycle coming at us. J-Bird rolled up beside the curb and kicked the stand to his bike down before hopping off and coming to join us.

“Lucy and Tiger Lily have the twins and Pike,” he told Christina and me.

“Why? Amber and Ashton should be in school.” Panic set in as I thought about why they wouldn’t be there.

“The girls were in a fight,” he informed me.

“What? Why?”

“One of their little asshole classmates told them that their dad left because he didn’t want them anymore.”

“Jesus, what next?” I groaned the question, not really wanting to taunt fate to drop another bomb in my lap, but seriously, could the cruel bitch just back off of my family for a fucking minute and let us breathe?

“What do you mean by, ‘What next’?” Jay asked, not missing a beat as I lamented having a big ass mouth.

I hadn’t even mentioned the pictures to anyone from Aces High yet. I knew the moment I handed anything over to them, they would shut me out again. Instead, I had entrusted it to the women of S.H.E. So far, it sounded like I’d made the right decision.

“She got another picture and gave it to us,” Christina told her man.

“What?” Jay exploded. “He’s our President!”

“No, he’s not. He’s your brother, but you left the club behind years ago. The men aren’t capable of handling this one,” I told him. “He’s been gone for two months and nothing. You all have nothing.”

“What are you talking about? They’re doing everything they can to find him and bring him home to you,” Jay argued.

“Is he home yet?” Silence was my answer. “I gave them two precious months to bring him home. They brought me nothing. I gave the women of S.H.E…” I glanced down at the clock on my cell phone, “Five hours. They already have a strong lead about where he might be. A woman is part of his abduction. The Aces High MC doesn’t have a great track record dealing with women involved in their problems. They’re too prideful to know they need a woman’s help.

“Tell me, would you rather bring him home, or keep waiting on intel that will lead them to the ‘man’ they’re trying to negotiate with for his release? A woman is setting up these photos that I keep getting. When was the club going to stop chasing the ghost of a man who they think they need to deal with, and start chasing the woman who is obviously in charge and using Deck for her own personal reasons?”

Instead of answering, J-Bird turned to his old lady. “You should have told me.”

“I would have. Later,” she insisted. “No secrets!”

“No secrets,” he whispered back to her. “I get it, Ever.” Jay finally acknowledged. “How about we all head to the clubhouse, conference Keys in, and get everyone on the same page?”

I climbed into my car and followed Christina back to the clubhouse. It was kind of awe-inspiring to see her take the point position on her Harley while Jay brought up the rear. It’s how I had always imagined Toby and Jay would have ridden, reluctantly, when I was able to drive. Unfortunately, that wasn’t exactly how things had gone down. Still, I smiled and wondered where my brother was and if he was somewhere that he could see everything that happened to us. Maybe I should stop praying to gods who don’t listen and start hoping my brother might be out there somewhere and able to intervene for me.

Once we were in the parking lot of the Aces High MC clubhouse and everyone was off their bikes and out of the car, I heard Christina chirping into her phone. “How soon could we get someone on her tail?” She stopped and listened for a moment. “Fuck! We have no one in close proximity?” She saw my questioning gaze and clicked her cell over to speakerphone.

“I wish. We don’t have anyone up there. I have a couple guys from Redemption Inc. in New York right now, but they’re neck deep in shit with the girls from Dusty Rose. That situation blew up in a nasty way,” Keys informed her.

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