“Oh dang, I’ll bet that hurt,” Blaze says.
“You gotta be tough, kid,” Crash says. “Tell you what, it sounds like you’ve earned your road name: Speed Demon.”
I’ve never seen Josie’s eyes, or smile, wider than they are in this moment. She jumps out of her chair and hugs every single one of the bikers, so proud to be a symbolic member of their gang. She gets her hair ruffled by each of the men as she goes around squeezing them like they’ve never been squeezed before, because there’s no hug on this earth quite like that given out by a precocious and indomitable eight-year-old girl.
After the hugs, Crash clears his throat and looks over to Blaze. “Hey, brother, it might be a little early, but do you want to give Josie a ride to school?”
“Aunt Violet, do I have to?” Josie whines.
I catch Crash’s eye — he’s got something serious on his mind — and I nod. “Yes, Josie. Crash and I have some grown up stuff to talk about.”
“Ooooohhhh,” she says. “Is it about kissing?”
“No, but since you mentioned it…” I say, and then I stand up and cross the kitchen to give Crash a kiss.
Up close, I get a better look at his throat and those bruises he’s trying to hide. Definite strangulation marks.
What the hell happened?
He turns away and gets back to cooking breakfast.
“Go on, Speed Demon, show us how fast you can get ready for school.”
Those two words light a fire under Josie like I’ve never seen and, in just minutes, she’s fully ready and standing by the front door, stamping her feet impatiently for Blaze.
“I wish I had her energy,” Blaze says, grumbling as he finishes the last of his eggs and gulps his coffee down to catch up to the unstoppable Josie.
Once he’s gone, I pour myself another coffee and give Crash a serious look as he scoops another helping of delicious-smelling eggs onto a plate.
“What happened last night?” I say.
I expect him to talk about his throat.
Instead, he pulls in a deep sigh and he hesitates in a way that makes my stomach fall.
“Mack and Blaze both went out looking last night. And, in shifts, they covered most of this town and all the places someone might keep someone like Kendra locked up.”
“And?”
“They found nothing.”
It’s not an unexpected answer, but it doesn’t mean I don’t feel worried tears well in my eyes. My best friend is out there, somewhere unknown, and in the hands of an unspeakable monster. Crash senses my feelings and he has his arms around me in a second, pulling me close to his chest.
“We will widen the search, check nearby towns, and I promise you: we will find her. But we need your help.”
I sniffle and fight back tears. I’m sick with worry and suddenly even the smell of the mouthwatering eggs that he just cooked does nothing for me.
“What can I do?”
“You know this area a lot better than us. If you were going to hide out, where would you go?”
Even though I’m flooded with fear and worry, I force my anxious mind to think. Then I sit up so suddenly that Crash takes a step back.
“There is National Forest land all around us, here.”
“Yeah, and?”
I feel both Snake’s and Crash’s eyes on me, but only barely, I’m so caught up in the excitement that I might get to help find my best friend. My voice picks up speed, fast enough that it’s almost like Josie actually put crack in my coffee.
“The National Forest Service runs a cabin program. People can own cabins on National Forest land, as long as they get a permit and pay a yearly fee to the forest service. So, it’s like you own the cabin and you’re responsible for the upkeep, you just have to pay rent to the government for it and they’ll send rangers by every once in a while to make sure things are all right. And I know for a fact there are several cabins in the area, because Teddy’s friend owns one.”
“You think Switchblade might have one of these cabins? And under his own name? Violet, that seems like a stretch,” Crash says reluctantly.
I shake my head. “I know either he or someone in the club has to have one. And it’ll be under one of their names — the government doesn’t mess around when it comes to collecting people’s money. If any of those permits or paperwork were incorrect, they would be busting down their doors.”
“Damn, Crash, I think she might be on to something,” Snake says.
“OK, so how do we get ahold of this paperwork and find out which cabin is theirs?”
I grin. “They keep the records for the local area in an office at city hall.”
“And you think they’d just let us go in and start searching through them?” Crash says.
And just like that, I crash down to earth.
“No.”
Snake clears his throat. “So we’d need to break in, right? I could go do that tonight. And if anyone tries to stop me, I’ll just—”
“Snake, I will stop you right there and say ‘no’. You are not stabbing anyone. Violet, I will not lie and say that I like this idea. It’s too risky. If we get caught, we’ll have a whole hell of a lot more to worry about than burglary charges. And your friend Kendra will be up shit creek without a paddle. There’s got to be another way.”
My smile creeps back over my face, as thoughts of burglary and criminality spur memories of some of my customers.
“Crash, I think I might know someone who can help us out.”
* * * * *
“Who is this man?” Crash says as he brings his bike to a stop
