Brage scratched his jaw through his beard. Hell, he'd had sex for the first time at fourteen years old. It was possible.
"All leads on Dinah ended there, so I followed the trail on Brad." Elling paused. "Brad was in a detention hall from age thirteen to seventeen for armed burglary. It seems he tried to hit up a gas station and the gun went off. Two months before his eighteenth birthday, he was placed back at home. Tony has a similar juvenile path and went to prison at eighteen years old for two years. When he got out, he joined Moroad like his older brother."
"Brad isn't her father." He stared at the table following the timeline. "What about this Jane Doe?"
"Dead end. Far as I can see, she doesn't exist. I believe somehow, Brad Reed was able to get someone within records to accept the phony name."
"Who is Dinah Reed?" he asked. "What aren't you saying?"
"Brage..." Elling shook his head. "Everything is pointing toward her birth certificate, and social security number is a fake. The only one who is going to know the real facts is Dinah."
"That's not what I wanted to hear," he muttered.
"We all wanted answers." Roar sat on the edge of the table. "One thing we do know is the names of the men she's involved with in Moroad. We make her pay and send her back as a message not to fuck with us."
"Hell..." He stood up.
He wasn't into hurting females. None of them were. In all the years, he couldn't remember one girl that'd been hurt as payback.
"You have a better idea?" asked Roar.
"I'll kill the Reed brothers." He looked around the room. "A direct hit."
"I'm not through." Elling shifted on the chair. "While all fingers point to Dinah as just a woman Moroad set up with a fake background to try and get inside Slag, earlier tonight I looked through the cell phone you took off her when you held her in the clubhouse. There are a few texts that came the last several days from someone named T. I'm assuming that's Tony. Going off your description of the man she met at the waterfront, he fits the bill. The man listed as father, Brad Reed is currently in state prison."
"What did the text say?" he asked.
"He calls her sis, for one." Elling looked up. "Lots of verbal threats of violence. The last one came in yesterday, telling her to get her ass out of there—I'm assuming that meant away from Slag."
He reached for his smokes and put a cigarette in his mouth without lighting it. The idea of someone hurting Dinah sickened him. No matter what she'd done to Slag, she was obviously doing it to protect herself or the guy named Tony.
Roar had no complaints about her work ethics. She proved an easy prisoner. Then, there was the side of her that he'd known intimately.
"I'm going after Tony Reed." He needed to get out of the room and work through what he'd learned. "Someone will have to watch over Dinah. Lock her in the room. I should be able to get to Federal in seven-eight hours, plus the time to find Reed, and be back—"
"You're not going into Moroad territory alone." Roar stood.
"I'm not going to let harm come down on the club or let anyone touch her." He walked to the door, needing to see Dinah with his own eyes and make sure she was okay. "You guys have until tomorrow morning to vote."
He strode down the hallway. At the entrance of the main room, loud popping filled the air. He took off running toward the door, joining the mass of Slag members rushing outside to see what had happened.
Outside, met with confusion, he shoved past the others, and yelled, "What the fuck is going on?"
The gate opened. That's when he noticed the loud rumble. There was an invasion.
"Stand up," he yelled, removing his pistol from the back of his belt.
Slag members surrounded him. He had no time to look for Dinah. Riders, wearing different colors, flooded in from the east side of the alley.
"Sons of bitches." Roar stepped up beside him. "Who was on the gate?"
"Dag Rasmussen, the newest prospect." He turned and shouted, "All weapons up."
As quickly as the bikers rode in, they turned their motorcycles off. The silence amplified in the alley. None of the Slag members moved, guarding the clubhouse. He only hoped the women had taken Dinah inside when the shots were fired.
One rider rolled his black motorcycle closer. "Akram?"
"You can see me, Aldridge. I should kill you and your men for breaching the line and coming on Slag property." Roar stayed in formation.
Brage beaded his sight into the middle of Moroad's president, Jeremy Aldridge's forehead. "Got him," he whispered to Roar.
"You have someone who belongs to Moroad." Aldridge's gaze never left Roar's. "We didn't kill your prospect as a show of wanting to do an exchange. He's sitting out on the curb. Tomorrow, he'll probably have a hell of a headache. We could've killed him and taken out half your club, but we're showing good faith in the exchange of getting one of our women back."
"Unless you want some bloodshed, you'll ride on out." Roar stepped forward. "We don't have any—"
"Dinah," yelled a Moroad member somewhere behind Aldridge. "Get out here."
Brage's finger tightened on the trigger. These men were not getting Dinah.
"Tony?" said Dinah.
Movement from the side of the alley, near the back door of the bar, caught Brage's attention. He took his gaze off Aldridge, and his heart pounded. Dinah, Monica, Heather, Coco, and Lizzy were caught in the alley when the shooting happened.
Roar must've noticed at the same time because both of them walked forward, hoping to draw the attention off the women.
"Put your guns down." Roar kept his knife in his hand at his side and stopped within fifteen feet of
