Page 65 of Tusk's Fury

Clara and Tex come running up to me. Tex has a toddler in each arm. Clara asks, “Have you seen Brittany leave? She went to the restroom.”

“I’ve not seen her,” I say.

Clara grabs the carrier from me, a silent request for me to look for her. “Thanks,” I mumble before taking off back into the building at breakneck speed. I bump into Crow, who tells me, “The building is clear, brother. Also, no sign of fire.”

I hurry past him, hearing him call an all-clear in the background. I race back to the women’s restroom and bolt through the door, pushing every stall door open. All four of them are empty. I check the men’s restroom just to be sure. Then I rush upstairs to the room we were sharing, it’s totally empty, including the en-suite. I head back down to the bar, which is already filling back up with brothers. Zen and Siege walk past. Zen has his tablet in one hand, showing the screen to Siege. “Someone pulled the fire alarm in our meeting room,” Zen explains.

I don’t waste any time. I run full speed back to the room we use for church. It’s a large room. It has to be big enough to accommodate all the brothers at once. I stop dead center. There are several chairs turned over, probably because people were rushing to get out of the building. Just as Siege and Zen come through the door, I see something that sickens me. It’s a splatter of blood on the white wall, right between the door leading to the armory and the one leading to Zen’s office.

I stomp over to it and take a picture with my cell phone.

Suddenly, Siege is at my side. “What did you find, Tusk?”

“Looks like fresh blood.” Three feet away is a pulled fire alarm lever. “Brittany never left the building. Crow’s team cleared it, and I double-checked upstairs.”

Siege turns his back on me as he pulls his cell phone out of his pocket and begins texting. Unnerved by what happened to my old lady, I glance at the back door. It’s not far from the fire alarm. I fast walk out the door and begin looking for clues. It’s unbelievable to me that she just up and disappeared, there’s no way Britt would do that. Especially not leaving our daughter. On the pavement beside the back patio, I see tire tracks where it looks like someone burned rubber when they pulled out. There is what looks like a drop of blood right behind the tire tracks.

Rigs and several other club officers walk up. He squats beside me. “I heard about Brittany.”

Swallowing thickly, I ask, “Do you think this is her blood?”

Rigs stares off into the distance for a brief moment, like he’s putting the pieces of the puzzle together. “It’s possible that she was abducted coming out of the restroom. I don’t know why she would have been in the meeting room unless she was going out the back door to the patio.”

“You think someone who was already in the clubhouse did this? One of the brothers slammed her face-first into the wall and dragged her out of here?” I look him straight in the eye when I ask that question, and he doesn’t blink.

His gaze is steady. “It looks like someone did, but not a brother. Someone bigger and stronger than her. Maybe a prospect.”

Tank voices his opinion from nearby. “I think they slammed the back of her head against the wall, leaving an almost perfect circular indentation.”

Rigs tells him, “Gather the prospects. Clear them of weapons and bring them to the meeting room. Nobody says anything until we interrogate them.”

“Don’t we have a security feed in the meeting room or out here on the back of the building?” I ask.

Zen answers, “No cameras are permitted in church. We have them in the hallways and in the rear of the building, but the vehicle appears to have been partially on the patio, so I don’t know if the cameras were positioned correctly to capture it. Mostly, the back cameras were installed to cover our blind spots and let us know if anyone is coming at us from the field back there.”

“Fuck. I need to find her.”

“Don’t worry,” Rigs says. “We will.”

We all head back into the building. The meeting room is filling up with freaked-out prospects. They all grab seats. Rigs and Siege begin interrogating them immediately.

Siege starts by announcing, “It looks like Tusk’s old lady might have been overpowered and taken during the chaos when the fire alarm was pulled.” Glancing at Rigs, he adds, “They might have even pulled the fire alarm to cover their escape.”

Rigs asks, “Were any of you alone when the fire alarm sounded?”

Tex’s son, Levi, raises his hand. Rigs frowns, “Where were you, Levi?”

The teen looks embarrassed. “I was making out with Tonya in one of the pool alcoves.”

Tank chimes in. “They weren’t exactly going unnoticed. Dutch and I saw them.”

Rigs shoots Levi a stern look. “You’re too young to be messing around with club whores. I’m sure Tex is gonna want to talk to you about that.”

Levi flushes crimson but answers, “Yes, sir.”

Zen has fetched his laptop and is typing away on it. I’m almost certain he’s searching the security feeds.

Siege’s voice rings out loud and clear. “We all know how tough Brittany is. If someone managed to get her out of the clubhouse then it must have been someone strong enough to overpower her. I know my Cleo would fight tooth and nail if someone tried to take her away from our kids.”

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