Page 91 of Lost Soul

I try to distract myself by reading while I wait for him to come home. I don’t think this cabin had ever seen a book before I came here, but as soon as I told Jessie that reading was something I enjoyed it’s seemed like I have an endless supply of them.

When it passes midnight and he still doesn’t come home. I give in to my heavy eyes and pull a blanket over myself. Hoping that when he does come back, he’ll wake me and we can sort this mess out.

It isn’t Jessie that disturbs me, it’s the rays of sun that creeps through the curtains and warms the skin on my face. Standing up from the sofa and taking a glance around the room there’s no sign of him. Nothing to even suggest he’s been home.

Trying not to think about the reasons why, I busy myself by tidying up the cabin, then I take a shower. I’m making myself a coffee when the door opens, and Jessie stumbles through it.

His feet move faster than his body can keep up with, knocking over the kitchen chair as he stumbles towards me. The closer he gets to me, the heavier the stench of alcohol becomes.

“You want some coffee?” I ask. Instead of an answer, he walks straight past me, slamming the door to his room after him. A loud thud follows which I assume is him landing in a heap on the bed.

My mind goes into overdrive inventing all the possible reasons he didn’t come home, what he could have done while he was in such a mess, and the more I think, the sicker I feel.

I picture him letting the blonde bitch from down at the bar touch him, imagine him touching her back, and it’s all too much.

What I need is a distraction. Jessie will be out of it for a good few hours, and instead of feeling sorry for myself I could make good use of the time and use some of the information I’d gotten yesterday to chase up some leads on Chop.

I start up my laptop then delve through my purse, my head is still thumping so I’ll need my glasses, and while I’m searching for them my fingers stumble across something I wasn’t expecting, and I pull it out for a closer look.

Staring at the USB stick in the palm of my hand triggers a memory, one that makes my chest heavy as it plays out in my head.

Carly smiling, asking if she could use my laptop to see what was on the drive. Her handing over the USB. The USB that she’d had found in Chop’s trunk.

Shit.

This could be what Chop had come back for, and I could have had it all along.

Wasting no more time, I connect it to the USB port in my laptop and open the file. It’s an audio, and despite being petrified of what I might hear. I turn up the volume and hit play regardless.

At first, all that can be heard is background noise, clinking glasses, and muffled voices. But then a voice comes in over the sound.

“Whatcha here for, Chop?” a man asks in a rough, unwelcoming tone.

“I needed to know everything’s cool between us,” the voice that I assume belongs to Chop replies, which picks up my full attention.

“It will be as soon as you’ve told Jimmer you been fucking his old lady,” the first voice threatens. Shocked, I sit back in my chair and wait to hear more.

“You know it ain't that easy. I got a kid to think about. You know how it is, if anything happened to me, he has no one.”

“Your brother seems a good kid, he’d step up if he needed to,” the cold voice responds.

“Yeah, well let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Hearing the snigger in Chop’s voice makes me hate him even more, if that’s even possible. The guy is pure evil.

“Every day you don’t tell him puts me in danger too. Just knowing this shit could get me buried right alongside you… You know club rules, Chop. What the fuck were you thinking?”

“Yeah well, I wasn’t thinkin’ with my head, was I?” is Chop’s cocky response.

“I’m giving you a week, one week to tell him yourself or I’m gonna have to. I’m heading up to your Charter on business next Friday, I ain’t gonna lie to his face. Jimmer’s the closest thing I got to a real brother, and it’s only ‘coz I know how much you mean to him that I’m giving you a chance to tell him this shit yourself.”

“It ain't that easy, brother.”

“I never said it would be, but then that ain’t my problem. I ain’t the one who’s put my dick over the club.”

“I guess that’s all there is to say,” Chop’s tone softens and what sounds like the scraping of a chair signals the end of the conversation. The audio ends a few minutes later.

Whoever the other voice belongs to must have been a member of this club. No one mentioned to me yesterday that Chop had slept with Prez’s wife. Seems it wasn’t just Skid who Chop has betrayed. And I’m beginning to wonder how many more secrets the man is hiding.

Unable to just sit on what I’ve heard I decide to go speak to Prez myself. This could be the missing link to help us find Chop. So, armed with the USB and my laptop I head down to the club.

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