Page 13 of Truths

“What's going on?” Venom asks as they walk up to join them. “Chance is on the ground. I see we're still pissed at him.”

“I need backup for a little visit,” Dax says. “Colt, what did you guys do when Lex was missing?”

“Uh, we found every Slasher property and ransacked them, killed or maimed any Slashers inside while we searched, then blew the shit out of their houses. Why?”

“That's the guy I need right now. Can you be him?”

Nodding, Colt chuckles. “I can be just about anything you need. Except a woman. My shoulders are a little too broad for that.”

“Same,” Undertaker agrees.

Venom looks at them. “Oh, fuck you all.”

Against his will, Dax cracks a smile. “I need to visit my old neighbors.”

“How's she doing?” Venom asks.

“It's bad,” he says. “She can't talk about what happened to her, but when I wanted to hold her, she said she can't stand to be touched.”

Cracking his neck, he rolls his shoulders. “This mission involve us rolling heads? Killing your old neighbors?”

Again, Dax decides he likes Venom. Always there when they need him for whatever. “Possibly. Dani says they saw her being taken out and shoved in a trunk.”

“Motherfuckers are gonna wish they said something when we show up,” Undertaker says. “I hate woman-beaters.”

He leads the three men back to their bikes and drives to the house he hasn't been to since the night he came home and was told his wife was gone. The lot has been cleared, and grass has already started to grow where the house once stood.

Parking in the driveway, Dax walks to the house on the left and pounds on Hanson's door. He's the first one Dax wants to talk to because he used to consider the man a friend. He'd donatedto the cost of the funeral for Dani, and now Dax can't help but wonder if it was from guilt.

“It's after ten at night, Dax. What's going on?” Hanson asks as the door swings open.

“I need to talk to you about the night my house burned down.”

“Now? It's been over two years-”

Dax reaches out and grabs him by his throat, pushing him into the entryway of his house and slamming him against the wall. “Closer to three, motherfucker.”

Colt, Venom, and Undertaker follow him inside, and Hanson looks scared as he struggles against Dax's hand.

“Dan's alive,” he growls, looking into the man's eyes. “She's alive, and she says she remembers you seeing her being taken out by Kingsmen and thrown into the trunk of a car. You, Travis, and Omar. Now, if she saw you, you sure as shit saw her. Why the fuck have you never said a goddamn word?”

Loosening his grip to allow Hanson to speak while still stuck against the wall, he waits for the response. “If I said anything, I'd be next.”

“You thought the Hellraisers couldn't take on the Kingsmen?” Venom asks. “We were into fucking drugs with the cartel and got out of it. We'd have blown those pussy assholes away before they'd ever be able to touch you.”

“Not when they have half the cops in this town in their pocket, too,” he says. “I wasn't threatened by the club. I was threatened by the cops.”

Dax releases him. “Other two, too?”

“We all were. Honestly, man, we all thought they killed her. At least, this way, you got some closure. We had no idea they were gonna keep her alive.”

Colt moves past Dax and gets in Hanson's face. “You got a wife?”

“Yeah,” he says, his hand rubbing his neck.

“Tell me something,” he says, his face close to the scared man's. “If she disappeared into the night, and someone saw, how would you feel knowing three fucking years later some asshole you talked to probably daily knew but allowed her to go through years of hell because he was a pussy bitch? That he didn't have the balls to do anything to help her?”

Swallowing, Hanson blinks. “I'd be pissed.”

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