Breaker tosses the newspaper down on the conference table in front of us, glaring around at each and every one of us so sharply that it could almost make the cut on my brow start bleeding again. My face might not be swollen anymore, but the signs of the fight are still showing as plain as day, and it’s what has everyone in the meeting room in a foul mood.
As for me, I’m barely able to think straight, I’m so angry, and this meeting Breaker called is the only thing keeping me from grabbing a shotgun and combing over the whole goddamn state looking for the fuckers who pulled that stunt.
All four of us are down here in the meeting: me, Breaker, Big Daddy, and Ironsides, none of us looking cheerful to be there. We hear the sharp sound of Breaker’s finger hitting the picture on the newspaper’s front page.
“Tell me what you see here, Big Daddy,” Breaker says, tapping the picture. “Describe it for me.”
Big Daddy isn’t normally one who likes to play these kinds of games, and Breaker knows that damn well, so I can’t imagine that wasn’t intentional. And sure enough, Big Daddy looks pissed off for a second before he knits his brow at Breaker.
“Prez, one of our own got hit hard last night,” he says. “What’s some news story about the fight at the bar got to do with any of that?”
“Because we have to figure this shit out and treat it like a goddamn investigation, apparently,” Breaker barks, sliding the paper toward Big Daddy. “And it just so happens that this paper is the best lead we have, so look at it and tell us what it says.”
Big Daddy grumbles and looms over the newspaper, eyes flitting over it as he digests it all.
“The picture on the front is Bones and his girl Lauren at the fight,” Big Daddy says, which is true enough.
I looks like a picture taken on someone’s phone of the fight at the bar upstairs the first night I met Lauren. And by the looks of things, it isn’t long after I threw the first punch and stopped him from drugging her. The angle, though, is less than ideal. The photographer took a pic right when Brandon was on his ass and I was barking at him to get up and fight me. I had to admit, from this angle, it looked a hell of a lot like there was a clear aggressor, and it wasn’t Brandon.
Lauren’s in the picture too, though, and I stare at her face and where it’s looking. I hadn’t seen her yet when this picture was taken, I don’t think. At least, we hadn’t made eye contact. But Lauren had definitely see me. The way her face looks in this picture, she’s devouring me with her eyes, piece by piece, and obviously she doesn’t look sympathetic with the jarhead on the ground next to her.
The article, on the other hand, has totally different sympathies.
“Wyoming Woman Who Accused Father of Kidnapping Enjoying Criminals, War Heroes Fight Over Her,” Big Daddy reads out with squinting eyes and a disgusted face. “What the fuck is this bullshit?”
“This bullshit is what’s all over Pine Haven right now,” Breaker says. “And yeah, anything your imagination is filling in about what it says is probably right. I’ll give you the short version: it spins a hell of an exciting little story about a spoiled brat who made a false accusation against her dad over a decade ago and is spending her time nowadays leaving a trail of broken hearts across Wyoming.”
“What the fuck?!” I shout, slamming my fist down on the table and snatching the paper from Big Daddy.
I glare at the words on the paper that all seem to meld together, and I can barely string two sentences together in my head, but what little I do catch sounds like Breaker’s summary is legit. The author, some dead man named Kevin Cranston, talks about Lauren as if she’s some homewrecker just out to have an idle good time. I have no idea what this journalist has against Lauren, but he seems to know her. Is this some other fucker from her past that she hasn’t mentioned?
“None of this bullshit about Lauren is true!” I snap, whacking the paper with my fingers. “I’ve seen the hurt in that sweet girl’s eyes, I don’t need a grand jury to convince me she’s telling the truth about her past!”
“Nobody’s doubting her here, Bones, calm down,” Breaker says quickly, holding out a hand to me as if warning me not to lose my cool. I have to admit, that’s easier said than done when some pencil-necked shitstain is slandering your girl. “Everyone here is on her side, right?”
“Right,” the other two say without missing a beat, and that makes me relax a little and give the guys each a curt nod.
“Good,” I say, rubbing my face. “But what the hell kind of business does this fucking newspaper think it has, trying to drag a decade-old case through the mud like that?”
“Very good question,” Breaker says, sighing. “Alright, everyone, here are the facts. That’s a respectable newspaper in the great state of Wyoming, and it decided to run what looks like a tabloid article about Bones’s girl. It makes her sound like some man-eating homewrecker sleeping around from bar to bar across Wyoming. And it makes the incident with this Brandon fucker look like she’s just getting a couple of semi-respectable men into playing games for her.”
“Bones, no offense, but how’d you manage to find the girl half the state has it out for?” Big Daddy chuckles, and I punch him in the arm.
“Worse,” I add, pointing down at the paper, “it gives away where she is and mentions the Murray Smyth case by name.”
“Exactly, good catch,” Breaker says, frowning and nodding grimly. “Which means…”
“...that if Lauren’s dad gets out of prison, there’s a damn good chance he’ll know exactly where Lauren is if he’s even half-trying to track her down,” I explain, finishing for Breaker and leaving the table to pace the room, mind racing. “I told her it was crazy to think her dad was coming after her now that he might have a taste of freedom, but this is too much. Something doesn’t add up, and it’s pissing me off that we keep missing it. It feels like the whole goddamn world’s coming down around our ears!”
“If it feels like we’re missing something, then we probably are,” Breaker says. “Alright, and on that note, what the fuck happened at the party last night, and how is this related?” he demands, tapping the article. “Too close together to be a coincidence. It wasn’t run this morning, but it was recent.”
“So what you’re saying is,” I say, crossing my arms and turning to face the guys, “the fuckers who took Lauren might have seen this article, used that to track her down, and grabbed her.”
“Exactly,” Breaker says, nodding firmly. “That doesn’t tell us exactly why they hit us at a party, but Pine Haven is small and everyone knows everyone. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just asked around town once they honed in that much.”
“That doesn’t give them a motive, though,” I say, scratching my stubble. “We don’t know who those fuckers were, except that they weren’t local.”
“And that tells us something,” Breaker says. “My bet is those were some of Brandon’s military buddies out for revenge for Brandon getting humiliated like that when Bones put him in his place.”
“I don’t buy that,” I say immediately, and everyone in the room looks up at me at once.
They’re surprised by how quick I am to second-guess Breaker’s judgment, and so is Breaker, but I have a personal stake in this, and I’m taking charge. Nobody knows Lauren like I know Lauren—not here in Pine Haven, at least.
“Then who else have we got?” Breaker says.
“Let’s think about who’s a problem for everyone in that picture right now,” I say, spreading the news article out in the middle of the table so everyone can see it clearly. “First, we got Brandon. Local war hero people like because his daddy covers up his messes for him. Next, we got the mayor. Think we can rule him out, he was too civil to try some shit like this, and it’s not personal for him, so fighting dirty doesn’t make sense. Then there’s Murray Smyth, who’s still behind bars, and this Kevin Cranston guy clearly doesn’t believe that Murray is guilty. This is a fuckin’ tabloid, this shit must have some kind of personal vendetta against her.”
“Jesus,” Big Daddy groans as Ironsides chuckles at the list.
“But I got one more, because we’re assuming that Lauren is the prime target here,” I say, frowning.”
“Diesel,” Breaker finishes for me.
“You agree?” I ask, arching an eyebrow at our prez.
“I’m not convinced,” he says, shaking his head but stroking his chin at the paper. “It doesn’t fit Diesel’s M.O.”
“Lauren saw a rider outside her house who looked like Chainlink,” I say.
“Did you get a good look at him?” he retorts, and I open and close my mouth, but it’s too late, Breaker is already shaking his head.
“We can’t rule it out though, Prez,” I counter, “you know he wouldn’t be above taking one of our girls from us.”
“And look at your face,” Breaker counters, narrowing his eyes. “If that had been Diesel and Chainlink at that party, not only would you have seen one of them, but they would have done much worse to you, if you had been the target.”
“Could’ve killed you right there and saved themselves the trouble with Lauren,” Ironsides agrees.
“But they knew Lauren is my girl,” I insist, looking around at each of them. “They know that would hurt a hell of a lot worse than anything they could do to me.”
“Do they, though?” Ironsides says to my surprise, getting my attention. “If they followed the newspaper to town to find either of you, how would they have proof that you two were anything more than a one night stand? How would they give a shit that you just happened to be there together?”
“Because if it’s Diesel, he’s watching us, and I think he had one of his men watching me at Lauren’s house!” I nearly shout.
“Calm down, you two!” Breaker intercedes like a referee, jabbing an arm between us and glaring at us both. “There’s a lot flying around, but if we can’t keep our cool, we may as well pack up and leave state now, because this is not how a club acts.”
I glare at Ironsides, then back at Breaker, who’s face softens a little.
“Alright Bones,” Breaker says, “your devotion to this girl is real, I’ll give you that. But don’t let it cloud your judgment. We need to bring in all expertise we can here. That’s how we’re going to find Lauren, not with bravado. Got it?”
“Yeah, I got it,” I growl, seeing the reason in his words despite my impatience.
“Ironsides, give us your insight on Brandon,” Breaker says. “How does a soldier act when he wants to cause trouble?”
“Brandon’s a spoiled kid who probably got his first taste of hardship in basic,” Ironsides scoffs. “He probably has a chip on his shoulder while he’s on leave, and he probably has a fragile ego. It makes sense that he’s pushing to sue the bar, when Bones ruined his fun.”
“That was the only way I could have saved her,” I say, not willing to back down on this.
“Regardless, it pissed him off,” Ironsides says. “And if his plan was to kidnap her after that anyway, don’t you think it makes sense that he and his friends might try to make that happen when doing things his daddy’s way wasn’t enough?”
“Fuck this,” I finally snap, turning and storming away from the conference table. “I’m the only one who knows this girl, and if you don’t want to listen to me, then you can all go fuck yourselves, I’m going for a ride.”
“Bones!” Breaker calls after me, and I know I’m in brazen defiance when I throw the door open and storm past the bar on my way up to the stairs outside, my mind buzzing as if someone rolled a hive of angry wasps into it.
Where the fuck did they get off trying to talk over me when I’m the one who has firsthand experience in all this? The guys might have their own thoughts, but I’m the only one who has spent any time with Lauren. I’m the one who’d know if someone was after her, and getting pulled in seven different damn directions isn’t going to get us anywhere.
I get on my bike and roar away from the clubhouse, jaw tight. It isn’t the first time I’ve stormed out of a meeting, and just like it won’t be the last, it won’t be the last time I get chewed out by Breaker when I get back, either.
The wind whips around me on the dusty road as I tear down it. I drive toward Lauren’s house while I try to clear my head. I don’t care that there might be a trap there, I feel like I want to punch something, and Diesel’s crew haunting Lauren’s house might be the perfect excuse.
Of course, by the time I ride past it, there’s nobody there. Still, I bring my bike to a stop outside it, and I stare at it for a few moments before tearing away. Maybe I shouldn’t have stormed out of the meeting like that. Hell, I know I shouldn’t have, but I’m a man who has always followed his instincts.
That doesn’t work out for the best, sometimes.
Still, I think the guys are feeling as overwhelmed as I am by having enemies on all sides, seemingly, and I need Lauren’s guidance more than ever—direct or not. So far, on top of everything I said at the meeting, I remember that Lauren mentioned her family siding with her dad during the trial. In fact, to hear her tell it, she didn’t have many allies to speak of at all.
Then it hits me.
Murray couldn’t do anything from prison on his own, but Lauren said that he might have made friends in prison that are working with him now. I still don’t think prison would be friendly enough to a guy like Murray for that to happen, but if Murray happens to be an especially charismatic guy, it isn’t unbelievable.
What if someone’s helping him?
What if Diesel is helping him?
The dots are coming in from all sides, but these dots might be connected after all. There’s only one way to find out. I have exactly one lead that I have a chance of actually following through on, and if the Heartbreakers want to get caught up worrying about the jarheads, they can do that.
I’m going to pay Kevin Cranston a visit.