Page 9 of Outlaws’ Runaway

“I’m dead,”Faith whispers, falling back into her heels and looking at the empty locker with a thousand yard stare. Either she's an Oscar-winning actress, or she’s legitimately freaked the fuck out, and I'm pretty sure I've never seen her on the big screen. “It—it’s all gone.”

Fuck. This ain’t our first rodeo. Legal or off the books like this one, our job is to track the target down and bring them back for justice. We don’t flirt. We don’t make friends. We sure as hell don’t drive them all over town.

Me, Savage and Poe glance at each other. Pretty sure we’re all thinking the same thing. This bounty has gone to shit, fast.

In the Outlaw Sons, they call us the Pickup Artists because we’re good at two things: women, and our job. Usually those streams don’t cross. I can count on one hand the number of cases I’ve taken that involved a female target.

Not that women can’t be shitty, but usually their reasons are good. Bringing a deadbeat dad back to court to pay child support? No problem. Bringing in a mom because she skippedtown with her kid when our city’s flawless fucking justice system decided some abusive asshole should get unsupervised access? Not gonna be me.

“Look up.” Poe points at the ceiling and he's got that look on his face. Any opportunity to mess with something technical, and he's ready.

Spread out down the hall at regular intervals, are small black domes. Security cameras.

“They're not gonna just let us in to look,” I say, but I’m game to try if they are.

Savage scrubs his beard with one hand and sighs. He points his hard eyes at Paige. “You’re sticking to your story? Because this is the time to come clean if you’re leading us on a fucking wild goose chase.”

She looks up, her wide chestnut eyes bloodshot. She nods. “I swear to God. I stashed my money here when I got to this town. I’ve only used—” she looks around, nervous. “About two hundred dollars of it.”

“Fuck. I better not regret this.”

She springs to her feet. “You won’t. Please help me. If we get the money back, you’ll believe me and we can work out a deal, right?”

He grunts.

Shit. I don’t wanna kill the hope in her eyes, but the cold hard reality is that if someone found a stash of drugs or cash in her locker, then they’re long gone. Even if we find security footage, she’s telling the truth about everything,andwe get the cash back… there’s not gonna be a deal.

Even a fraction of a million dollars is really damn tempting, but we’re no lone wolves with only our own reputations on the line. We’re full, blooded members of the Outlaw Sons MC. Hellfire would have our asses if he thought we were pulling shit like that. No, there’s no way Savage would take a cut of stolen money and let her go.

But I’d put money on his plan being to find out if Paige’s uncle is playing fast and loose with the facts to avoid paying what the job’s really worth. No, we’re not gonna take a cut of a client’s stolen money, but we’ll definitely fucking bargain to get paid what we’re owed.

Leading her on like this makes me feel like an asshole, but she’s no open book either. All cute and innocent, but we found her on the run with someone else’s money and all she’ll say is that it’s fucking complicated. We’re dancing around each other, nobody being quite honest.

“Let’s see if we can check the footage, and take it from there.” I smile to reassure her. Not sure it works.

She eyes the empty locker again. “Okay.”

The lady at the help desk looks sturdy and no-nonsense, her attention focused on a romance novel with her feet up on another chair. Quiet job. Getting paid for doing nothing is a nice deal if you can get it. Her black hair is twisted into a tight bun, and the tip of her tongue is poking out of the corner of her mouth as she reads.

We stand back and let Poe do his thing. He rolls his eyes, but by the time he’s at the window, he’s ready to turn on the charm. It takes her a long minute to put down her book and look up, but when she does, the vaguely annoyed expression she had at beinginterrupted melts into something different. Her name tag says Georgia.

“Can I help you?” she whispers.

He smiles. “I’m sure you can, Georgia. My friend had something stolen out of her locker. We noticed you have security cameras, so we were hoping you could help us find out what happened. I’d be real grateful.”

Her eyes narrow a little in suspicion. “The company isn’t responsible for any lost or stolen items. It’s all made very clear in the contract. Was the lock broken?”

Paige shakes her head. “No.”

I glance down at the book she’s reading. Three Brothers For Bethany. There’s a pretty woman on the front, caught between three shirtless cowboys. Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way. I nudge Poe aside and lean closer, putting my arm on the ledge where she’ll be sure to see my tattoos. “Can I be honest with you, honey?”

Her eyes are fixed on the part of my arm where a redhead is getting kissed by one guy while another drives into her from behind. “Um, sure?”

“Here's the deal. We do need to check the security footage, but the truth is a little delicate.”

She looks up, obviously curious. “Delicate?”

Got her. Poe might be the prettiest, but I think our new friend Georgia likes a little more spice in her life. “Alright, it's like this.” I nod my head over at Paige. “We were having a bit too much fun downstairs and didn’t notice the cameras. If Sarah’s husbandfinds out about her little… adventure, it wouldn’t be good. You get me?”

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