Page 11 of Dizzy

Maybe the Feds got to him.

Maybe the Rebel Raiders did. The Raiders have been feuding with Steel Bones since the clubs split back in the 90s.

Maybe he came up with his own scheme to blackmail the Wade Group. The family owns half of the state.

Heavy’s working it out. Thewhywouldn’t have changed anything, though. At church, the vote was unanimous. He betrayed us, risked our livelihoods, our freedom.

Chaos is gone. His bike is at the bottom of the Luckahannock. No loose ends.

Except my ghost girl. I slump, my heart sinking. Goddamn. If it ain’t one thing, it’s another. Nothing can ever be easy.

“Who is she?” Jed asks, glaring at the screen. Jed’s an enforcer. Takes his job very seriously. Kind of a bitch, in my opinion. Weak chin. Wears a lot of camo, but he never served, and he don’t hunt.

My muscles tense. She’s a tiny slip of thing. He don’t need to be staring at her like he’s gonna shank her.

“Deb says her name’s Fay-Lee,” Pig Iron says. Deb’s his wife. She does the books, fusses over the sweetbutts. Her and Sharon never got along. “From Kentucky.”

Heavy taps the computer, zooms in on her face. You can see the scar on the corner of her lip. “We’ve got video of her in the yard. By the garage. All hours.”

Heavy’s sister Harper, the club lawyer, don’t allow CCTV in the clubhouse. She says if we want to document our crimes, we should get social media like normal Americans. There’s surveillance all over outside, though.

“Fuck.” I close my eyes, bend my head.

“You see her?” Heavy asks.

“Shit. This the bitch you were lookin’ for this morning?” Grinder snorts.

Now everyone’s lookin’ at me.

“I woke up. She was comin’ out of the bathroom.”

“Where?” Heavy swings the door open, snapping for a prospect.

“My old bunk. This was hours ago. She’s long gone.”

Heavy barks at Mikey to get some boys and go clear the rooms upstairs.

“Who is she to Chaos?” My blood courses faster through my veins. Chaos was not a good dude. Even before the spying. He had a dog, Spiro. German Shepard. When he tried to start over in Florida, he left the dog, didn’t tell no one. Hobs ended up takin’ him in.

Pig Iron shrugs. “Not clear. But she’s got to be wondering where he got to.”

Chaos is buried under a sapling at the top of Half Stack Mountain. Heavy, Nickel, Bullet, and I planted him three days ago. Saw a twelve-point buck on our way down, and we brought our bows for a cover story, but none of us got our license yet this year, so we had to let him go.

“Was she in on it?” A bitter taste fills my mouth.

“That’s not clear, either. It’d be strange for her to hang around if she was. Unless the price placed on those blueprints make the risk worth it.” Heavy readjusts the laptop, sizing her up. My shoulders tense. “We’ll find out when we catch her.”

That really sets my hackles off. “Where’s she hidin’ out?”

“Don’t know. She’s been slippin’ in with other folks. On occasion, she walks right in.” Heavy taps the space bar and flips to a picture of her waltzing in the back door. “Deb thought she was friends with Angel. Angel thought she was with Creech. I spent an hour of my life havin’Who’s on first?conversations with sweetbutts this morning.”

“How do you know she’s squatting here? She could be couch surfing with a hang around. Did you talk to all the sweetbutts?” Eighty asks. He’s not gonna miss an opportunity to play devil’s advocate. He can’t stand that a brother his kid’s age wears thePresidentpatch.

“Matter of fact, Ernestine brought it to my attention,” Heavy says.

Grinder’s ears perk up.

“She’s complained to me three times this week that someone’s been in her kitchen.”

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