Page 139 of Unhinged
And we still haven’t found Marcus either. No one’s seen him since the party.
Brydgett’s scent is still faint in the air—sweet jasmine and citrus heat. It’s stale now, almost ghostlike. Wrong.
The women and kids left thirty minutes ago. Nitro, Peter, and Mayhem rode out with them. Nitro was bitching about his sister getting sent to the same safe house as the other women—mostly because Peter was going, too. That guy’s been sniffing around her for weeks, and now she’s pissed at him on top of everything else. Nitro didn’t trust the setup anymore, said it was a powderkeg waiting to blow. He found somewhere else to send her last minute. Good. We can’t afford distractions—or mistakes. Not now.
Arrow’s tapping fast on his laptop, eyes scanning across search engines, deep web stuff, anywhere he might find something about Brydgett’s past. But there’s nothing. No adoption record. No birth certificate trail. No damn school transcripts. Like she just appeared one day—pregnant, wild-eyed, and dangerous.
“What about Earl?” I ask, stepping closer. “Can you find anything on him? He had a whole life before he fostered Gidge—there’s gotta be a record of that, right?”
“Nothing on him either. Earl must’ve wiped everything,” he mutters.
I sigh. I already know what we have to do. And I hate it.
“We need to call Ike.”
Arrow nods, fingers still flying.
Acid exhales slow through his nose. “He’s not gonna like this.”
“Yeah, well, neither do I.” I wake up the screen on my phone, thumb searching the contacts until I hitIke. My gut knots as I hit dial and put it on speaker.
It rings twice before his voice comes through.
“Gears.”
“Ike.” My voice is too flat. He picks up on it instantly.
“What happened?”
“Brydgett’s gone.”
He sighs. A long, tired breath. “I thought this might happen. She’ll be back. If she comes here, I’ll talk to her. You boys seem like decent guys. A little ignorant, but?—”
“No,” I cut him off. My voice cracks a little. “Earl took her.”
Ike goes silent. Then he growls. “Tell me fucking everything. Right now.”
I clench my jaw and start from the top. “We were having a club party. Everything was smooth. Franko showed up. So did Marcus. Gidge…she was enjoying getting under our skin. She was smirking, pushing buttons. Then she went outside, and apparently Earl and his guys were there. They had my sister and Judge. She traded herself to protect them.”
“Fucking hell,” Ike whispers like a prayer. “She’d do anything for that boy. Is he safe? Do I need to come get him until you straighten this out?”
“He’s safe. He went with our mom, sister, and the rest of the women and kids. We got them headed to our safe houses. We’re combing every damn street for Earl or a sign of her. But if you knowanythingabout where he’d take her... we need that.”
Ike hesitates, then clears his throat. “She didn’t talk much about her past. I know she took a bus out of Michigan while pregnant. She was living in a tent when I found her. Let her crash at the gym. Then she moved in with me. Tina, who’s Earl’s wife, worked for this cleaning company—Brydgett mentioned it once...it was called...damn it...Dainty Dusters. Maybe look up a tax filing or something?”
“Arrow’s on it.” I glance up at him. He’s already typing faster.
My phone beeps.
Incoming call.
Nikola.
“Ike—I’ll call you back. Got a call coming in.” I don’t wait for him to respond before switching over. “Nikola.”
“One of my guys might’ve found something. A car registered to an Earl Osbourne was seen driving away from the old meat factory. Far north side of town.”
My pulse spikes. “Did they see who was in it?”
