Page 75 of Gather the Storm

“Might not get a clear view on the drivers,” Aloha said. “Traffic cams are still so low-res. But I can definitely get you plates.”

“Plates are great,” Jace said. “How long will it take?”

It made sense to let Jace do the talking with Aloha. They were MC brothers. Aloha had known Jace since he was a kid, way back when Jace’s dad had been president of the club.

“Coupla days,” Aloha said. “We’ve been in the traffic cams before but we don’t stay in.”

I didn’t know exactly what he meant but I could guess the longer you were in somebody’s shit unauthorized the greater the chance you would be discovered.

“Sounds good.” Jace hesitated.

Aloha lifted an eyebrow. “Something else?”

“Can you give us background on the girl from the community college?” I asked, trying to pick up the slack while Jace got his head around asking for information on a missing girl. Once we asked, it would be all over town, or all over the MC anyway, and a target would be painted on our backs for anyone who might want us to mind our own business. “The one who went missing?”

Aloha rubbed his beard. “What kind of background?”

“Just the usual,” I said. “Relatives, known acquaintances, employers…”

If we wanted to figure out who’d taken her — and if it was connected to the girls who’d gone missing before —we needed to know more about her. We needed to know if she had anything in common with the other girls, and not just the girls who’d gone missing from Bellepoint.

Because the truth was, girls had gone missing in and around Blackwell Falls for a long time.

And we’d thought we’d cleaned up our side of the road with Blake.

Chapter 38

Otis

Isat across from the brick building and stared at it through the open window of the Corvette. There was no sign on the place — it was one of those buildings where more than one company had an office — but I knew it was where Daisy worked at Cantwell Holdings.

And I knew that because I’d been inside, after hours, when the place had been dark and empty.

She was in there now, doing whatever work people did in offices, probably drinking bad coffee and counting the minutes until she could leave and get back to work on the house.

My chest felt warm thinking about her. I fuckinglikedher. Not the way I had when she was a kid and Blake had thought she was a little weird — I knew all about people thinking you were weird — but in a new way, a way that came from getting to know who she’d become, who she really was.

And the truth was, she was cool. Weird in all the good ways. I liked everything about her: the way she studied wallpaper samples and fabric swatches like she was reviewing some kind of fucking peace accord and the way her forehead wrinkled a littlebit when she was confused and the way her eyes looked even more purple when she was tired.

I was pretty sure Wolf felt the same way because sometimes I’d catch him looking at her and even though I wasn’t an expert at reading facial expressions even I could see how much he wanted her.

It annoyed the fuck out of Jace — no reading of facial expressions required because Jace made it known when he was annoyed — but I didn’t see the point in wasting time talking about how we’d agreed to keep our distance when the situation had obviously changed and the last thing I wanted to do was keep my fucking distance from Daisy Hammond.

I could still feel the way her lips had given way under mine. They’d been so fucking soft.

She had been so fucking soft.

Her skin had felt like satin under my fingers, the weight of her tit a perfect fit for my hand as I’d sucked her pretty pink nipple. I’d felt the heat of her pussy even through my jeans, had wanted nothing more than to fuck her right there on the Mustang.

Then Jace had stumbled on us outside and I’d had to go back to working on the car with my dick hard as a rock.

Fucking cock-blocker.

I sighed and shifted in my seat. Just thinking about Daisy got me hard and that was the last thing I needed when I was stuffed into the driver’s seat of the Corvette.

I turned my thought to my meeting with Danny O’Connell, a kid I’d sold pot to in high school who was now on the Blackwell Falls police force.

Life was fucking weird.

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