Page 130 of All Our Ghosts

“You happy about it?” Cole asks after a moment. “You ready for it?”

I glance over to my friend and shake my head. “Ready, fuck no.” I pause. “Happy? More than I have been in a long time.” It’s the most honest we’ve been with each other in a minute.The tension between us has still been heavy but now is the time to put that shit aside. We could figure out what was left of our relationship after Kadence was back and after both her and the baby were safe.

“Good,” Cole says.

I nod, unsure of how to move forward now. In other circumstances Cole may have been happy for me. We’d share a couple of beers and laugh about how I would be getting the kid I deserved. A troublemaker just like me. But this…dancing around the cracks in our friendship, it tarnished what should have been a good thing.

I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket and grab it. I glance down to see Scottie’s name on the screen. Answering it, “Tell me you found him.”

“Fucker’s at home.” Scottie’s voice comes over the line. “Curled up in bed with one of Marlowe’s girls.”

That anger wraps around my core once more. “Send her back to Moon so Ma can deal with her. Give her the heads up.”

“Alright,” he responds. “What should we do with Stokes?”

I glance over at Cole. “Bring him here, string him up in the garage.”

“You sure about that? Watson gets any hint that–”

“Just fucking do it, Scottie.” I bark before hanging up. Without another word I leave the room, Cole hot on my heels as we make our way out to the lot.

I take a long drag off of my cigarette. A taste I’ve missed and a vice I didn’t rely on once I pulled Kadence from that water. A lotof my vices haven’t seen the light of day since Kadence has been around and it doesn’t take an idiot to realize that she’s at the core of it all.

The sound of Stokes’s grunts echo against the garage door. Dex has been working him over for the past twenty minutes, trying to get whatever information out of him that he could. But my hands itch to get Stokes’ blood on them. I’m tired of waiting. A full day of not knowing where Kadence is or even if she is still in the state.

Cole pushes the side door open and nods. “Better get in here before Wolfe gets the best of him.”

With a nod I toss my cigarette to the ground, stomping out the ember before following Cole back inside.

Just as I had asked, Stokes is hanging by his wrists from the middle bay car lift. Wolfe’s already done his work. Stokes looks almost unrecognizable with two swollen eyes, blood dripping from the smirk painted on his face. “Can he still talk?” I ask glancing over at where Dex is wiping his hands on a shop rag.

“Let’s hope,” Dex grumbles.

“You are all a bunch of idiots,” Stokes mutters, spitting blood onto the ground.

I raise a brow. There’s no chance in hell that Stokes doesn’t have an idea of what’s going on. “Where’s your lap dog, Stokes?”

“What the hell are you talking about, Nash?”

“Watson, the tall blonde who has a knack for kidnapping women,” I snap, kicking the back of Stokes’s knee and forcing his feet out from under him. “Where is he?”

He starts to laugh, shaking his head. “You think I know what the hell he’s up to?”

I glance up at Cole and Dex. “You came into our club, you put my woman on the ground and threatened to sick him on her. So yeah, I do think you know what he’s up to.” I lean down to meet Stokes eye to eye. “Where the fuck is Kadence?”

“I don’t know,” Stokes hisses.

“And I don’t believe you.” I stand and take a step back from Stokes. “Higher,” I bark. In seconds Stokes is hoisted further into the air. His toes barely scrape the ground. “Where is she Stokes?”

He grunts as he tries to gain traction with his feet. My patience is wearing thin now. My fists clench at my side before I toss one into Stokes’s gut. “Where is she!”

A rush of air leaves Stokes followed by a series of ragged coughs. I stare at him waiting for an answer. I can feel both Cole and Dex watching me. It’s been a long time since we’ve had to do anything like this and the air is thick with a tension that makes it hard to control my breathing. All of the pent-up anger, the rage that I’ve shoved down, starts to rise in my chest. “I’m tired of waiting.”

“Your fathers would be disgusted with you both,” Stokes finally hisses through a rasp. “Turning to gun running and whore trading.” A sinister laugh leaves him. “Do you know how many girls I pulled off the street for you? For Moon?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Cole barks.

“All those broken girls I found.” He grins with a bloody smile. “They had families, parents who loved them, and you turned them into dancers. Promising a better life.”

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